Chapter 12 is titled “The Unflat World: No Guns or Cell Phones Allowed”. In a speech in New York on April 4, 2005, Thomas Friedman gave the following summary of the chapter. In his words:

“I do have a chapter that’s very important to me. It’s called The Unflat World, in which I make very clear: Don’t worry. I know the world is not flat. Don’t worry. And not only do I know that it’s not flat, I know that the vast, vast majority of people on the planet, are still yet to be able to ‘connect and collaborate.’ And I basically, in that chapter, go through what I think are the main communities, who are not able to “play” in this world. I still think it’s the job of the analyst to define when he sees a critical mass of new trends coming together, to define those trends. And that’s why I have used this term, The World is Flat. I use it obviously, with great literary license. I think it is going be the biggest and most important trend shaping economics and geopolitics coming forward. But don’t worry. I understand that the world is not flat. And that millions and billions of people, are not able yet to “connect and collaborate.” I

break that chapter up into four groups. The first I call the “Too Sick,” which obviously are all those communities around the world, in the grips of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other disease, who are simply “too sick” to take part. And I talk about basically, “collaboration” as it applies to them.

The second group I call the “Too Disempowered.” These are, in many cases, I like to think of rural India, rural China. These are people who are more “half flat,” in the sense that they have been to Bangalore, they have been to Beijing. They have actually seen some of the “upside” of this world. They want it, but they do not have the tools. They do not have the tools of governance or economics, the simple tools to basically enable them to take part. And I basically talk about, what that means, and how we can think about getting them these tools.

The third group I call the “Too Frustrated.” And that is the Arab Muslim world. One of the things that happens when the world goes “flat,” is you get your humiliation fiber-optically. You get it at 56K, right in the face. You see just where the caravan is, and just where you are. And you cannot understand 9/11, without understanding the role of humiliation, and the degree to which it was intensified, by the “flattening of the world.”

The fourth basic sort of “unflattener” the chapter is about, is simply called “Too Many Toyotas.” When three billion people walk onto the “flat world,” and the Indian dream and the Chinese dream is the same as the American dream, where it’s a house, a car, a toaster and a microwave, there will be a serious energy shortage. If we don’t find an alternative source of energy, we are either going to burn up this planet, or we are going to find ourselves in a war with China and India over natural resources.”