Silicon Valley or the Grand Valley in West Papua?

Silicon Valley or Grand Valley?

Who knows the name of the Grand Valley? Who knows where this valley is located, in which part of the world? The American scientist Archbold discovered the valley in 1938. It is called the Baliem valley in West Papua (Indonesia). From his plane, it looked like little Holland, a pattern of tiny fields and dykes, of irrigated crop lands.

Who doesn't know the Silicon Valley? It's the name of the famous IT valley in Northern California. Before the explosive growth of the computer industries, it was a friendly agricultural valley of orchards. Who knows the name of the valley in those days? This Santa Clara Valley was called The Valley of Heart's delight.

In 1932, a Dutch geographer and later professor at the University of Minnesota ,J.O.M. Broek wrote a thesis on the changes of the cultural landscapes of this valley.

I studied human geography at the same university in Holland as prof. Broek. In 2009, I wrote a poetical geography of the Grand valley, called Zeven dagen in de Baliemvallei.

I like those coincidences, those interconnections, those airy similarities.