SUATU ketika aku bertemu seorang novelis Italia, Silvia Vignato . Selain penulis novel, dia merupakan seorang Professor Antropologi Budaya Universitas Degli di Milano, Itali. Adapun kunjungannya ke Aceh dalam rangka melakukan tugas penelitian tentang anak.

Dia menemuiku untuk menanyakan beberapa hal, dan juga kepentingannya mendapatkan novel Lampuki. Namun, novel itu sudah habis di pasaran dan aku tidak memilikinya lagi selain hanya sebuah sebagai dokumentasi pribadi. Buku-bukuku yang dipimjam orang banyak yang tidak dipulangkan. Maka, sekarang aku sulit sekali meminjamkan buku kepada orang lain.

Aku menanyakan pandangannya tentang orang Aceh dan Indonesia, bagaimana tingkat intelektual mereka menurut dia. Katanya orang-orang Indonesia dan orang Aceh tidak sama seperti orang Eropa dan Jepang. “Orang-orang di sini punya kebiasaan lebih suka mendengar musik daripada membaca,” ujarnya.

Beda dengan kebiasaan orang-orang di Eropa, bahkan dalam bus, trem, dan kereta api, dan pesawat terbang, mereka suka membaca buku. Maka, tingkat kecerdasan dan entelektual mereka lebih tinggi dibandingkan orang Aceh dan Indonesia. Sepeninggalan Silvia, aku mulai berkampanye di media sosial tentang pentingnya membaca, boleh membaca buku apa saja, novel, filsafat, teologi, puisi, kimia, ilmu sosial, dan terlebih lagi Alqur’an.

Pertemuan dengan Silvia itu memberikanku suatu pelajaran dan hikmah, bahwa ketertinggalan kita disebabkan kurangnya ilmu pengetahuan. Aku berpikir, orang Aceh dan Indonesia harus maju dan berkembang sebagai bangsa yang cerdas. Bangsa yang cerdas hanya bisa lahir dari penduduknya yang cerdas. Penduduk yang cerdas hanya bisa bila rajin membaca buku. Buku adalah gudang ilmu.()

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Together Novelis Italia

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IT WAS when I met an Italian novelist, Silvia Vignato. In addition to the novelist, he is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Degli in Milano, Italy. His visit to Aceh in order to carry out research tasks about children.

He came to me to ask some questions, and also his interest in getting a novel Lampuki. However, the novel is out in the market and I do not have it any more than just a documentation. My many prominent books are not removed. So now I find it difficult to lend a book to others.

I asked him about his views on the people of Aceh and Indonesia, how their intellectual level according to him. He said Indonesians and Acehnese are not the same as Europeans and Japanese. "People here have a habit of prefers to hear music rather than reading," he says.

Unlike the customs of people in Europe, even in buses, trams, and trains, they love to read books. Thus, their level of intelligence and entelektuality is higher than that of Aceh and Indonesia. Silvia left behind, I started campaigning in social media about the importance of reading, reading any book, novel, philosophy, theology, poetry, chemistry, social science, and moreover the Qur'an.

The encounter with Silvia gave me a lesson and wisdom, that our backwardness was due to a lack of knowledge. I was thinking, Acehnese and Indonesian people must go forward and develop as a smart nation. A smart nation can only be born from its intelligent inhabitants. Residents can only be smart when diligent reading books. Book is a repository of knowledge.()

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