The World Is Such A Small Place
The world is such a small place. You often hear people say that when they just knew that the person they were just talking to was a friend of their friend or even a cousin of their ex-lovers. There is a famous theory called “six degree of separation”, stating that everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on earth.
Well, I think that theory is relevant in small place but, globally speaking, I doubt its relevance since I do not think I am merely six steps away from Osama bin Laden or Zooey Deschanel (Why Zooey? No reason, I just like her
). However, when you accidentally meet someone in an unthinkable place, who actually know some people you know, that theory sounds really convincing. It happened to me couple of times, here is the most amazing one.
Remember, I participated in exchange student program for a year in Budapest, Hungary. There is hardly any Indonesian there, except those who work in Indonesian Embassy. It was 7 p.m. I was walking in Vaci Utca, one of the most famous street in Budapest and features fashion outlets and restaurants, when I saw two people who looked Indonesians. And Indonesians they were.
One of them, the older one, said he worked in Indonesian Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, around five or six hours drive from Budapest. He was ordered to hand some Indonesian movies to Indonesian Embassy in Budapest, which would later be shown in Hungarian cinema. The younger one was just came from Indonesia to visit his uncle in Belgrade and apparently accompanied the older guy to Budapest.
We chatted a while and it took me by surprise that he was the close cousin of one of my bestfriends back in Junior High School. To sum up the story, I met a guy, who was visiting his uncle in Belgrade, in Budapest and it turned out that he was a second-degree friend!!
What about you? Have you experienced something like that?
Today is Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday. Just in case you have no idea of who she is, she is the daughter of the founding fathers of independent Burma, Aung San, after whom she was named. She married a Briton and had lived in several countries outside Burma. She returned to her country in 1988, when Socialist Ne Win’s sudden resignation led to mass demonstrations.
The Annus Mirabilis of people in the Soviet Bloc must be 1989. They were liberated from oppressive communist regimes as they collapsed one by one. One needs to consider several internal and external factors which played roles in leading communism toward its end. Internal factors included the presence of anti-communist resistance, the desire to join Europe and the absence of obstacles to transition toward democracy and market economy.
Up until Friday, May 15th, there had only been found four cases of swine flu in Japan. Three students and one teacher, who just returned from school trip in Canada and the States, apparently suffered from fever and were diagnosed to have been infected by new strain of H1N1 virus. Since then, the number of cases has been increasing in tremendous speed.
It is official now. SBY and Budiono has just announced their nomination in Bandung. Unsurprisingly, representatives from PKS, PAN and PPP 