farmdoc's blog post number 359

Wikipedia says the phrase ‘out of left field’ is popular vernacular meaning ‘wildly unrelated to the subject being discussed’, and ‘out in left field’ means ‘a little crazy’. In the global context, and in daily life too, happenings that are ‘out in left field’ are enthralling, merely because of their left-fieldedness, i.e. their craziness. Here’s one. The Republic of Indonesia, with an estimated population of 237 million people, is the fourth most populous nation in the world, and the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. Though there’s no reference to Islam in the Indonesian constitution, you’d expect Indonesia to be hostile to Israel. And indeed Indonesia and Israel don’t have diplomatic relations. Yet last November a bilateral agreement for cooperation was signed, in Israel, between the Indonesian ambulance service foundation (Yayasan Ambulance Gawat Darurat 118) and Israel’s Magen David Adom (the red star of David). A witness to the signing was Dr Sudibyo Markus, a senior management board member of Indonesia’s Islamic movement, the Muhammadiyah, and the highest ranking Indonesian official to have visited Israel. As expected there’s been opposition in Indonesia to this agreement. But From Little Things Big Things Grow. Even, or especially, out there in left field.