political geography

Farewell to Nova Scotia, the sea-bound coast,
may your mountains dark and dreary be.
For when I am far away on the briny ocean tossed,
Will you ever heave a sigh or a wish for me?
The sun was setting in the west,
The birds were singing on every tree.
All nature seemed inclined to rest
But still there was no rest for me.

The words above is a popular folk song from Nova Scotia (NS), one of provinces in eastern Canada. The song told us about a harmony in their land. Author of the song is unknown.

The author is not getting flowery in wrote up the lyric. The author also has a knack for avoiding clichés, in the same term. I can guarantee it because I have been there and I enjoyed it directly. As an Indonesian who used to live in tropical climate, I could say the song is true.

So, How did I end up there?. How did I end up my understanding about something great there?.

I joined exchange programme from Canada World Youth in partnership with Indonesian Government. It made me living during three months in Truro, one hour from Halifax – capital city of NS. I did travelling also couple cities surrounding Truro.

My adventure began in October, 2013 and finished in December in same year, I sang that song together with my group and Truro community. Everyone seemed like dissolved in the energy of the song, so do I. I felt satisfied at that time, Thanks God I learned a lot.

The term - the sea bound coast – as first sentence in song above, is main lesson learned for me. That is about maritime concept which is more than theory like in my country. They could optimize their sea potential with fish industry and tourism. I read a lot of brochure about maritimes tourism when I was in information centre.

Empowering the coast with many harbours, I amazed it in Halifax. There is no boundary, it helps by strong infrastructure in transportation between island. Hill becoming mountain, eventhough the island doesnt have mountain, they claim their hill as mountain to be proud of their maritimes.

Gunter Pauli, an expert wrote the book “The Blue Economy : 10 years, 100 Innovations, 100 Million Jobs”. Blue economy is sustainable development with ecosystem (ocean) based. Canada uses the blue economy concept to develope their maritime. They give serious attention in empowering their potential. Eventhough, their maritime is small, but they have huge proud of their maritime.

It was great to understand Canada maritime, now I’m preparing to make my maritime country to be greater.