Sunday, August 30, 2009

From Samarinda to Armidale

I thought that I should record this one because it is actually a first.

On 25 August Tikno wrote a post Equalize bachelor's degree with diploma's degree ??. This dealt with the treatment of Australian degrees by Indonesia. I responded in comments and then on 27 August with Indonesian Government downgrades certain Australian degrees to diploma status.

This post reflected my first reactions.

Since then, I have continued thinking and doing a little digging, helped by the standard of comments on Tikno's post. Now I have made the issue the centre of my next column in the Armidale Express. I mentioned Tikno and Ramana.

Why is this significant?

Armidale is a university city in Northern NSW (New England). It has a population of around 22,000. Education is its biggest industry. The Express is one of the two local newspapers.

A story that began in Samarinda City in Indonesia has made its way through the blogging world to a local newspaper in Australia's New England.

I said that it was a first. By this I meant simply that this was the first time I have explicitly based writing for the conventional media solely on a blogging conversation.

My Express columns are not on-line. I will post the column once published.  

2 comments:

Tikno said...

I guess, the editor will consider the domino effect before it is published.

I really want to see it through your post. Hopefully your writing is objectively for both sides.

Jim Belshaw said...

I don't think that you need to worry, Tikno. It's written from a local perspective, but is certainly not anti-Indonesian in any way. Given what you feel, it may be too objective!