I have occasionally wondered if the subtitle of this blog is just too pretentious. Then I am reminded of the accuracy of it by things like those that have happened to me in the last two weeks: we visited a Canadian of Vietnamese origin and his Scottish-Norwegian girlfriend in Norway, I missed an appointment for a couple of beers with a Kiwi friend visiting Finland and just had dinner with a Turkish friend (who was living in the US until very recently) and his wife. The books I read, the media I consume are not necessarily produced where I live or where I'm from. Furthermore, for me and many others, these situations and these backgrounds are completely normal.