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Coming Home to Tabanan for Sharing

I have known a lot of people. I have a number of friends in the government at the national level and even international. However, I had no friends in the Government of Tabanan, a regency where I was born. I thought there must be something wrong. I did not feel right when I realised that I have been invited by a lot of people to share my ideas and expertise but have not received  any request from the Government of Tabanan. I had been invisible to them this far.

Until one day. Through a friend and relative, I was connected with a member of Tabanan Parliament (House of Representative). A good conversation led to an invitation for me to deliver a speech in Tabanan. After a long wait, I finally am intellectually connected with my home town, Tabanan. On 29 June I gave a presentation to one of the most diverse audience I have ever addressed. Challenging but fun. It turned out that my presentation was well-received. I thanks everybody!

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Student Community Services in Talaud

Conducting community services or engagement is compulsory for every single student of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) especially those in the undergraduate and Diploma 4 programs. Every year, UGM send around 7,000 students to remote areas all over Indonesia, covering 34 provinces and hundreds of regencies/cities.The students have to live with the community, literally living in their houses and live the life as how they live their everyday life. For most of the students, this can be a life-changing experience.

This year, I am assigned as a supervisor of a group of students conducting community services in Talaud, the northernmost regency of Indonesia’s. The island is close to Miangas, one of the most famous islands when it comes to sovereignty issue. From Jogjakarta, Talaud can be reached by three flights in around 15 hours. What a long journey.

I had an opportunity to visit the students on 23-37 June 2017. It was a very interesting experience since they were there during the Ramadhan. Yes, most of them were fasting and the village where they lived is a 100% christian village. No Moslem at all and that became a very rewarding experience for everybody. My notes in Bahasa Indonesia has been published at http://ugm.id/KKNTalaud

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Communities Play a Key Role in Saving the Oceans

I Made Andi Arsana
New York City

Headline | The Jakarta Post | 13 June 2017

I was lucky enough to attend the celebration of World Oceans Day (WOD) 2017 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. For the first time, WOD was celebrated as the main event of the UN General Assembly. The United Nations’ Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS) managed to bring the celebration of WOD to the next level. Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti was also at the event, accompanied by the Indonesian ambassador to the UN.

Continue reading “Communities Play a Key Role in Saving the Oceans”

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Whose Sea Cucumber Is It Anyway?

On 7 June 2017, I had a privilege to present ideas representing the UN-Nippon Alumni at the UN-Nippon Foundation Alumni High-Level Event held at the UN Building, New York. I participated in the UN-Nippon Foundation Fellowship program in 2007, a decade ago and I have been an alumnus for almost a decade now. It was a great honour to be selected as one of five out of 100 plus alumni. It is acceptable to be happy.

I presented a maritime boundary issue that Indonesia is now facing, something to do with the need to settle two kinds of maritime boundaries in one particular location. One boundary line is for the continental shelf (seabed) and the other one is EEZ (water column). I presented a famous situation between Indonesia and Australia where, due to different boundary lines, Animation was certainly something that I used to entertain around 90 people in the room.

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Oil Concession and Maritime Boundaries

I had an opportunity to present my ideas on oil concession and the definition of maritime claim at the London International Boundary Conference on 5 June 2017. It was my firs time participating in the conference and also my first time to visit London. It was very interesting.

I presented my idea on 5 June, together with speakers from China, the UK, United States and Luxembourg. All went well and I hope that the participants enjoyed my talk. I also managed to extend my network by making friends with a number of participants and also speakers.

Here is a picture of the event: Me in between delivering a presentation.

Download my abstract here