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When Christopher Columbus set sail to the west, he was sure that the world is round, or at least pear-shaped as he took mistakenly the calculation of earth's longitude. However, his mistake led him to find the new world, America, instead of India. His belief was contradicted to some others' view who believed that the world was flat. Columbus was proven right, the world is indeed round. However, things have changed, 500 years after his first journey, the world appears to be flat, again.

Ketika Christopher Columbus berlayar ke Barat, dia yakin bahwa bumi bulat, atau setidaknya berbentuk pir karena dia salah menghitung garis bujur bumi. Namun, kesalahannya malah membuat dia menemukan dunia baru, Amerika, bukannya India. Keyakinannya bertentangan dengan pandangan orang lain yang yakin bahwa bumi datar. Columbus terbukti benar, bumi memang bulat. Tapi, segalanya telah berubah, 500 tahun setelah pelayaran pertamanya, tampaknya bumi menjadi datar lagi.

Let me put it on this way, when Columbus sailed to the new world, he was actually looking for a faster way to reach India to bring back invaluable spices to Europe. Now, people in United States are heading for India not for spices, but for the brainpower. Now the Americans do not need ships to get there, the only thing they need is fibre-optic cable laid down under the Pacific Ocean.

Maksudku begini, waktu Columbus berlayar ke dunia baru itu, sebetulnya dia sedang mencari jalur yang lebih cepat ke India untuk membawa balik rempah-rempah yang berharga ke Eropa. Kini, orang-orang Amerika melirik India bukan demi rempah-rempah, tapi demi kekuatan otak. Kini orang Amerika tak perlu kapal untuk ke sana, yang mereka perlukan hanyalah kabel fiber-optik yang terbentang di dasar Samudera Pasifik.

Actually it is not really for Americans. This trend happens here, in Australia. A friend of mine once told me that his friend, an Indian descent, called customer service regarding his mobile phone and suddenly a familiar accent greeted him. The only thing in his mind was something like, "Hey, I'm not calling to the other part of Australia, it is connected to India!" How flat the world is.

Sebetulnya bukan cuma orang Amerika yang begitu. Di sini, Australia, juga ada tren seperti itu. Temanku berkata, temannya yang keturunan India sedang menghubungi layanan pelanggan ponsel, tiba-tiba dia mendengar aksen yang tidak asing baginya. Pikirannya berkata, "Hah, aku tidak sedang menghubungi bagian lain Australia, ini tersambung langsung ke India!" Betapa datarnya bumi ini.

Nowadays, Indian call centre is not unusual, especially in the States and probably Australia (I don't call customer service that often, so it still has to be proven). It costs cheaper for companies to use call centre or customer service in India rather than having their own call centre in their head offices. Yet, it is reliable, Indians can speak English very well (they are even trained to speak with particular accent and slang) and they are available 24/7/365, it means 24 hours customer service without overtime payment.

Belakangan ini, call center India bukan hal langka, terutama di Amerika dan mungkin Australia (Aku tidak begitu sering menghubungi layanan pelanggan, jadi belum terbukti). Biaya yang ditanggung lebih kecil, jika perusahaan memakai layanan pelanggan atau call center di India daripada di kantor utama mereka. Lagipula orang India dapat diandalkan, sangat baik berbahasa Inggris (bahkan dilatih berbagai aksen dan bahasa gaul tertentu), dan mereka siap 24 jam sehari, 7 hari seminggu, berarti layanan pelanggan 24 jam tanpa upah lembur.

That is only one example on how flat the world is, there are lots more examples on how people are interconnected with each other without geographic boundaries.

Itu hanya satu contoh betapa datarnya bumi. Masih ada banyak contoh bagaimana orang saling terhubung satu dengan lainnya tanpa batasan geografis.

According to Genesis, God created the world and he made it round. But who have flattened it?

Menurut Kejadian, Tuhan membuat bumi dan bentuknya bulat. Tapi siapa yang membuatnya datar?

... to be continued

... bersambung

Written by: aswin

Wah... kirain ada program untuk membuat bumi menjadi datar... ternyata cerita filosofis... hehehe...

WahyuPY [sg], 25 Feb 2006, 8:23 reply
yah kirain datarnya gimana ternyata alat komunikasi aja :P

Derianto Kusuma [id], 5 Mar 2006, 14:03 reply
nice comment Wahyu :P

Yakumo [sg], 7 Mar 2006, 15:52 reply
May I conclude that the world become flat because there are not any geographic limitation.

Lesmanahadi [id], 11 Mar 2006, 14:03 reply
According to Genesis, God created the world and flattened it but human claim it round.


ical [id], 9 Jun 2006, 3:00 reply
Is this paragraph from book "The World Is Flat by Thomas L Friedman" ?

Zack [id], 3 Aug 2006, 7:57 reply
buku ini keren abis!! I occupied my time for 4 days juz to finish it. Geez, it's one interesting, amusing, yet frightening book, specially for me (and us), Indonesian who live in Indonesia, where our government seems like have no clue to be involved in this flattening world. Liputan kompas hari Rabu tanggal 6 Desember 2006 juga ngebahas soal ini: http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0612/06/UTAMA/3099920.htm btw, keep translating... :D

cupidjogja [id], 8 Dec 2006, 17:02 reply
ohhhh baru nyadar.. tentang offshoring/outsourcing toh?? pantesan dulu prof biz-IT saya sering banget suruh saya baca buku ini... (tapi ga dibaca2 juga)

sylv [sg], 27 Jan 2007, 9:32 reply
Who said that in genesis the earth was flat.Bible said that earth was round!!!

Iben [us], 2 Jul 2007, 11:55 reply
Hehe ga kbayang klo bumi datar.pas kiamat gtu x ya?

Sasha [no], 30 Jul 2008, 5:54 reply
setuju bgt klo bumi itu datar,,,klo bulat mah tinggal bikin alat pelontar aja keatas,tnggu mpe berapa menit/jam/detik,trus turun lagi...nyampe deh dtmpat laen...
yg bilang bumi bulat kan karna dia ngeliatnya dr jauh...cb klo dekat,,,? ndarat lg kbumi.....
(segala sesuatu yg diliat dr jauh akan berbentuk titik,titik itu itu kn bulat)


graha [id], 7 Aug 2008, 13:39 reply
these web is really damn boring

logeswary kisa [my], 11 Jun 2009, 10:11 reply
waw... cerita yang sru...,
ya.. memeng bumi itu sperti dtar ya...???
tpi sbenrnya itu blat, kita gug ngrasain bmi itu bulat spert halny bola...
ya kn...???


lala or laila [id], 30 May 2010, 13:52 reply
bumi bulat itu emang udah dicetuskan dari dulu. kekeke

delizz [--], 3 May 2011, 7:35 reply