A confusing melting pot at UN meeting

A confusing melting pot at UN meeting

It is refreshing to see thousands of people from different parts of the world flocking to Bali to attend the UN ministerial meeting on sustainable development.

However, for some people, the variety of people of all colors can be confusing.

A waitress at a restaurant at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Jimbaran, Bali, posed a question to an Indonesian journalist, I. Christianto, in English.

"What would you like to drink, Sir?" said the waitress in English.

The journalist, a Chinese-Indonesian, was perplexed by the question, and eventually replied in Indonesian.

Soon after, another waiter approached U Kyauw Tin, a diplomat from Myanmar who was sitting next to Christianto, and posed a question in Indonesian.

The question surely confused the diplomat. The confusion was over when the journalist explained to the waiter that the diplomat was from Myanmar.

"Indeed, he looks like a Javanese," the journalist commented.