It has been a month

Today, I have been in this fellowship program for a month. Not much progress has been achieved, really. However, I have managed to complete the report outline so I know where to head and what to write. One more thing, at least I am fully settled now in Wollongong. A bike has also been provided (lend) by Clive. What a supervisor :) I remember when I was doing my master, Clive also gave me some kitchen utensils. Now he lend me a bike. I wonder what I can expect for my PhD ha ha ha.

Back to serious matter.
I have started writing my report today. At least, I finally wrote some sentences in the "Introduction" section. Not yet much, but I have begun. Everybody knows, starting is the most difficult part. Does it mean that I have done the most difficult part of my research?

I will keep you posted!

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Research starts

Well, Let's now start talking about something serious: My research. Serious? isn't everything in this blog serious? Aha.. you might be right. This blog, when it was created, was aimed at accommodating serious matters. You might want to read my first posting, almost three years ago :)

Anyway, the research we are talking about now is not the one I did three years ago for about two years. The current research is the one under the UN-Nippon fellowship. This takes me back to Australia and am now in The Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), which was formerly known as Centre for Maritime Policy (CMP). The centre belongs to University of Wollongong, Australia and I am working with (again) Clive as my Supervisor :)

My research is about The submission of Indonesian Extended Continental Shelf. I am looking at its status and problems. A report outline has been discussed with Clive and has also been commented by people from the UN. I am now currently revising the outline before starting to write the report.

Next postings here will be closely related to what I am currently researching. Hope you enjoy them.

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Indonesia-Singapore talks on maritime borders making progress

Klick here for English
Yang mengikuti perkembangan perundingan batas maritim antara Indonesia dan Singapura mungkin sudah tahu kalau Singapura menyatakan tidak akan menggunakan garis pantai hasil reklamasi untuk menentukan batasnya dengan Indonesia.

Jika ini benar maka Indonesia mungkin bisa sedikit berlega hati. Persoalan selanjutnya adalah bagaimana delimitasi dilakukan secara teknis dan terjamin bahwa garis pantai yang digunakan adalah yang "asli" sebelum reklamasi. Ini terkait aspek teknis termasuk penggunaan peta laut dll.

Aspek lain adalah perlunya penetapan datum geodesi untuk batas maritim selanjutnya agar tidak seperti batas maritim yang sekarang, tanpa datum geodesi.

Simak versi Bahasa Jawa di Jakarta Post

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Animate the Law

Being in a place where no surveyor other than me is, to an extent, very glorious. I could feel that I am useful and am the man with the most precious knowledge ha ha. Surrounded by lawyers who are keen to know more about technical aspects of the law of the sea gave me privileges to express my technical and spatial expertise.

Honestly, I did not realize what I know is significantly important and is precious to my lawyer colleagues. I am talking about the ability of technical people (read: surveyors) to explain legal problem using graphs, charts, and even animations. A very good example of this situation is when lawyers try to understand the meaning of Article 76 of the UNCLOS. It is not very easy to understand the very long article without sufficient knowledge of technical aspects.

I am quite lucky with my “weird” creativity to stay for hours (or even days) in front of computer “converting” those complicated legal expression in article 76 into a nice, simple and easy-to-understand animation. I found that even the lawyers find it a lot easier to understand the article by seeing my animation with minimum oral explanation. Want to see the amusement? :) Please contact me!

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UN-Nippon Fellowship

Saya menulis ini sambil sesekali memandang gemerlap lampu di kejauhan. Suasana malam ini sangat indah terlihat dari tempat tinggal saya di lantai 3 sebuah apartemen yang berada di Crown Street, Wollongong, NSW, Australia. Sudah beberapa hari ini saya berada di Wollongong Australia untuk melakukan sebuah penelitian. Hal inilah yang akan saya ceritakan kepada Anda saat ini. Mungkin tidak berguna bagi semua orang, tetapi bisa jadi memberi sedikit inspirasi bagi sebagian pembaca. Bagi Anda yang ingin mendapatkan kesempatan seperti ini, mungkin ada baiknya Anda simak.

Silahkan download pdf.

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