Friday, August 15, 2008

Linus' Take on Our Nation-state

The op-ed starts with these lines (liberally translated):
Toward the 63th of (Indonesia) anniversary, many things needs to be contemplated about. Clearly, this nation-state is not making any progress and prosperity, but moving backward and defeated.
Really? What about this, or this?

This reminds me a dialogue between Linus and Charlie Brown from an old Peanuts comic-strip:
Linus (hanging on to his famous security blanket): "I think the world is much better today than it was, say, five years ago..."
Charlie Brown (angry and shouting at Linus) : "How can you say that? Don't you ever read the papers? Don't you ever listen to the radio?" and, "How can you stand there and tell me this is a better world?"
Linus (releasing his thumb from his mouth): "I'm in it now!"

4 comments:

  1. My birthday is on 17th of August. Every year, on that special day, my mom busy prepare nasi kuning and ayam goreng to give away for neighbors and relatives. I tell her, “Mom, I’m 20-something now. Don’t you think I’m too old for this?” And her response will always be, “I’m not preparing this for you. This nasi kuning is for Indonesia. I’m grateful to God that we’ve achieved so many things as bangsa Indonesia”. She’s a PNS, still rides on bus everyday to go to work. I almost never heard any complaints from her about Indonesia, Indonesian or GoI.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad to read this interesting post. I always think that for a pessimistic person,whatever progress or change would be regarded meaningless. There are endless reasons for them to resent the contemporary world and admire the past ages.

    Helen

    ReplyDelete
  3. MERDEKA!!!

    Bambang P.S.

    ReplyDelete
  4. hallo,
    salam kenal mas,
    nama saya Eric pengelola situs klikkarir[dot]com
    saya ingin menananyakan mengenai kemungkinan pemasangan link pada bagian blogroll anda (http://cafesalemba.blogspot.com/)?
    syaratnya apa yah? apakah berbayar? atau boleh link exchange?
    mohon balasannnya ke email saya yah: design_erictjung@yahoo.com
    Saya tunggu kabar baiknya..
    terima kasih

    ReplyDelete