Another Blogger Ahoy.Hurrah. Apart from
Java Jive with Brandon's ever evocative photographs and the continuing
Bali Blog which is, of course, actually set in another world, life has been very lonely in the Indonesian expat blogosphere.
Three Jakarta-based expat blogs seem to have folded this year, and there weren't that many to start with ...
Indo Ian, a colleague of Brandon, is probably too busy being a new parent, so good luck to him.
Geoffrey M.G. wrote to me shortly before the Indonesia Reconstruction Conference but I've heard nothing from him since and he hasn't posted on
Beyond Wallacia recently, which is a shame.
And
Blacky's Blog got off to an interesting start but quickly petered out.
So ~ sound of a drum roll ~ it is with great pleasure that I welcome
Indcoup which is written by a good friend and an occasional contributor to both this blog and the Jakarta Post.
As he says,
"I've got a bit of time on my hands, so I've set up a blog. I'm trying to mix nastiness and ill taste with parody to produce something a bit different." With his flying start, and the
Corby case was an easy one to start with, it seems as if I'll have to look to my laurels whilst avoiding a duplication of links.
IndCoup may like to register with a new blogroll of
Expat Blogs and join Jakartass, the first blog registered from Indonesia.
Elsewhere, in China to be precise,
Asia Pundits has been set up by
Chris Myrick.
The concept behind this blog is to be an aggregator of the best English-language Asian blog content available (which) will offer short-posts with links to multi-partisan sites; and hopefully written by a multiple of partisan authors.This seems to fill the gap left by
Simon's World which no longer offers a bi-weekly round up of regional posts, and was/is, I opine, a valuable service.
Whilst on the subject of expat bloggers, I whole-heartedly recommend
Madame Chiang, a regular visitor. I'm not saying that just because she's given Jakartass a permanent link (which I've reciprocated). I like her style of writing, the perspective of an Essex girl working abroad. (Thanks for the link to
Waiter Rant and a hilarious post. This reminds me of the time ... )
Another blogger I'm going to mention because she's had a look here is Sandra Gidley's
RomseyRedhead. Sandra is M.P. for Romsey and
in the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet with responsibility for women and older people.
OK, she's not an expat, and I would have voted for the Greens but, hey, Jakartass is a believer in true democracy ~ that of the blogosphere.
I've saved the best to last. And I'm not referring to the
Paris Hilton Observer who's also visited.
Have a look at Katie Greenwood's tale of losing her job as a volunteer in rural Malawi,
Geography Fieldwork. Beautifully written, poetic at times, this is a truly personal account of life away from home comforts. Read through the archives and work your way up to now. I think she'll get over her angst, if only because of the self-knowledge accrued from her blogging.
I sent this link to a good friend of mine in the UK who was a VSO worker in Malawi some 20 years ago. E. has this to say:
Looks as if Katie is a peace corps volunteer - and quite a lot has obviously changed - Nkhata Bay now has electricity and internet access! Some great photos too. Yet so many are now dying of AIDS.20,000 hits under the belt.A reminder. It looks as if Wednesday or Thursday that magic number will appear on my hit counter. If you can send me a screenshot of it, although I'll accept the nearest number if it isn't spot on, I'll send you a CD of MP3 tracks so you can hear for yourself that my musical tastes reflect my supposed ADD.
Believe me, having just received a load of MP3s from my mate,
Del Boy, these sounds may be seriously weird.
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