Recent Wallace events in Indonesia
The international conference on Wallace and Wallacea being held in Makassar, Sulawesi from the 10th to the 13th December kicks off today (see http://wallacefund.info/reminder-conference-wallace-wallacea) and there is a nice article about it in The Jakarta Post - http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/12/10/scientists-meet-push-wallace-darwindom.html
Dr Peggie Djunijanti, tells me that the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI) and the local government of the Indonesian island of Ternate held a pre-symposium event in Ternate on the 2nd and 3rd of December. Speakers included a local historian, a lecturer, the city mayor and Dr Djunijanti (who is a researcher at the LIPI). The event resulted in the Declaration of Ternate (which will be read at the Makassar conference), and in order to honor Wallace, the mayor changed the name of the street where Wallace lived from Jalan Nuri to Jalan Alfred Russel Wallace. The cornerstone for a monument was put in front of the house where Wallace lived. I would be very interested to know what evidence there is that this is the actual house that Wallace lived in whilst in Ternate since many people have tried to find it in the past and have failed.
TEMPO Interactive (http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2008/12/09/brk,20081209-150306,uk.html) reports that in addition to the above an area of 50 – 100 hectares in Jailolo is being developed into the Wallacea Conservation Centre. LIPI is also building a Wallacea nature "observatorium" in Sasa, South Ternate. This nature center will be an expansion of LIPI's marine research office in Ternate.
Launch of Wallace book in Singapore
The Earl of Cranbrook, who wrote the Preface to the recently published book I co-edited with Charles Smith, Natural Selection and Beyond: The Intellectual Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace, informs me that:-
"The Singapore launch of "Natural Selection and Beyond" was a great success. It was held at a very appropriate location, the Singapore Science Centre, and attended by a good crowd. I think Oxford told me that they had 40 copies, or maybe 70 -- at any rate, a long queue formed and I signed valiantly on behalf of the authors, until only 3 remained unsold. These, too, I signed for prospective buyers."
The Earl of Cranbrook kindly organised this book launch and gave the keynote speech (see http://wallacefund.info/natural-selection-and-beyond-book-launches). There is a nice article about the book launch on the following website: http://budak.blogs.com/the_annotated_budak/2008/11/a-signature-event.html
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