Indonesia Council Open Conference, 2005

[Adelaide, 26-27 September 2005]

Being the only surveyor presenting in a social science conference is an interesting experience. The Indonesia Council Open Conference, 2005 is an annual conference hosted by Flinders University in Adelaide with the support of The Flinders Asia Centre and the Inside Indonesia magazine, where my presentation is the only technical paper among many social papers presented. Being a social science conference, almost all presentations are about to social issue, especially, of the Indonesian society.

The topics presented were vast and diverse from the literacy issues to Indonesia's future. Most of the topics might not be interested for a surveyor/geodesist. Therefore it is not important to discuss each topic here.

I presented my paper, "Maritime Boundary Delimitation between Indonesia and Timor Leste: A Technical Perspective", on 26 September 2005 in the session of Boundaries, migration and foreign policy. Being the only technical paper, the presentation attracted intention form most audiences and also drew some interesting questions and comments. Different from the other presentation which were filled with words, my presentation was dominated with graphics and pictures [maps]. All the technical aspects I introduced coupled with legal consideration [law of the sea] in defining maritime boundaries were quite interesting to the audiences. This, I belive, was a good moment to remind them surveryor's contribution to such an international matter (i.e maritime boundaries).

A senior lecturer from Deakin University, Dr. Damien Kingsbury gave very good comments and suggestions regarding my research, as he significantly knew East Timorese views about the maritime boundaries in question. He also promised to introduce me to an East Timorese geographer who is currently dealing with the Boundary issue. This will be a very good information resource.

To sum up, apart from the fact that the conference is more about social science, it was still a very good event to share ideas, especially to enrich the resource of my research as a multi-disciplinary one.

For more information please visit the website. Please also contact me for a proceeding containing colection of abstracts.

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Giving a Lecture in Wollongong University

Surprise!!!

Yes it is for real. I've just given a lecture in Wollongong University at the Center for Maritime Policy. Guess what! The lecture was for master degree, not for undergraduate. How come? How can a master student give a lecture for master degree? Ask Clive for the answers :)

The students are all Indonesians from [nearly] all around Indonesia. Some of them are from Department of Fisheries and Marine Affairs, while some others are from Regional Governments.

They looked very entusiastic listening to my lecture about Indonesia's Internal Boundary Issues. It was understanable as it was the only lecture in Bahasa Indonesia. A student, jokingly, said that my lecture is the only lecture he can understand, making his colleagues laugh.

It was a very good experience!

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Indonesia Council Open Conference 2005, Monday 26-27 September 2005, Adelaide

It is finally confirmed that I will fly to Adelaide to present one of my papers in the Indonesian Council Open Conference in Fliders University. My paper, "Maritime Boundary Delimitaion between Indonesia and Timor Leste: A Technical Perspective" will be presented on 26 September 2005 at 1 pm.

Chris, my supervisor, generously provides economical return flight ticket for the conference. I Thank him very much for his generousity.

The news/add for the conference has been posted in the South East Asia times website at the left sidebar.

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