Today is the second “Diskusi Ramadhan” at the Freedom Institute. It entails a free dinner (yum) and a discussion of Francis Fukuyama’s views on state-building (blah). The kitty who hangs around the Freedom Institute seems to know that food is coming, and has been meowing accordingly. I (TP) just told him to tunggulah sampai buka Puasa, or “wait until the end of the fast.” He responded by meowing and licking his leg.

We ran into a friend from the United States today, a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin who studies decentralization and regional autonomy in Indonesia. He was looking at the library here while I was putting back a book. After a quick double take, I took him back to see Julie and chat. He’s going to stay around for the rest of the discussion tonight, and hopefully we’ll be able to hang out with him and his wife in the next couple of weeks. Small world.