I know, you're probably wondering why I haven't written for a while...
To be honest, it's because nothing worthwhile has happened since the last time I wrote!
Easter came and went in a stupor of heat with nothing to do...at least we had an Easter dinner, but with Indian, Philippine and Indonesian food as well as shisha smoking, I have to say it was the most interesting Easter dinner I've ever witnessed!
We're also starting to crave and plan for our vacations! We're entitled to rest and recuperation breaks every 12 weeks...by that count we were supposed to have taken them already but all leave was frozen until after the presidential elections so we only have permission to go on leave from April 28th onwards...Bali, here I come!
Oh and I witnessed a very interesting thing, I went to the bank the other day and there was a Timorese lady in front of me, since she couldn't write, the bank teller had her sign with her fingerprint in red ink! I don't know how they do in other countries with high illiteracy rates but I thought this to be very cool indeed, now I just wonder if they keep a fingerprint record of all their clients like the police do with all the criminals!
As for work, it came to a near standstill here after the first round of elections. No orders were coming from Dili or even from STAE...
I therefore learned to make my own clothes in the meantime just to pass the time...There is a great deal of batik fabric from Indonesia available here that make beautiful tops and skirts! Orders available, enquire here hihi
Voter education finally started up again last week, the polling staff had another training to try to avoid the same mistakes that happened in the first round and that was about it until this week...
With three days to go until the second round everyone is making sure that we are set and ready to go!
Ballot papers arrived on time and were thoroughly verified...that is, until a rumour came up that some of the ballot papers that went to Covalima were already perforated for one the candidates! Oh the scandal!! What did this mean for us? We actually had to recheck every single ballot paper to check for perforations or marks in favour of one of the candidates!! We started yesterday before lunch and finally finished this morning, all 65,000 ballot papers assigned to Bobonaro District, that's a LOT of ballot papers to check!
Now the sensistive ballot boxes are being filled up as we speak and will be ready for deployment on Sunday. The government has already granted Monday and Tuesday as holidays to allow people to travel to their assigned polling centers to vote. The only thing that could get in our way this time is, again, the weather...it has hardly rained in the last 2 weeks and yet both today, yesterday and the day before the skies decided to darken and come pouring down! So c'mon weather gods, please let it not rain again! The helicopters are actually set and ready this time and all the controversial arguments against using them - lack of police protection and what not - have been sorted, so fingers crossed it will be an easy one...
Only thing is, there are already signs of trouble among the voters, with news of opposing supporters attacking each other...time to get my evacuation bag ready and hope for the best!
Oh, and the president - incubent not future of course - has already set the date for the Parliamentary Elections...they will be held July 7th, meaning, in all likehood, I'll be staying put here until end of July!
In the meantime, here are some elections news for you:
José Luís Guterres: Timorese should determine UN mission
Timor Post (page 20)Acting Prime Minister José Luís Guterres said that it is important for the Timorese to determine the mission of the United Nations in Timor-Leste through its election by maintaining peace and stability during the election period.
"The Timorese should maintain peace and stability; this is not only to create calm or have a good situation for us but to show to the international people that the Timorese are also democratic people, respect each other and have political maturity. By this we can show the international community that we do not need people from other countries to come to maintain security and other countries should not come to help us organize the elections," said Guterres.
Guterres said that the run-off election campaign is running peacefully, demonstrating that the Timorese people can maintain peace and security.
“We hope that stability will hold well, not only during the elections but that it will be ongoing, because we want to govern ourselves,” said Guterres.
He said that some minor isolated cases continue to happen, but that the Timorese Defence Force (F-FDTL) and the National Police (PNTL) are ready to ensure security during the second round of the presidential election.
Supporters of two candidates attack each other, two injured
Independente (cover page) The recent incident occurred in Osso-Huna Village, Baucau District, in which the supporters of the two presidential candidates attacked each other resulting in two injured people who were hospitalized in Baucau.
One Ruak supporter was also injured when assaulted by supporters of Lu-Olo in Maluro, Quelicai Sub-District on 4April.
Fretilin Coordinator in Baucau, Talik Reis said that their followers were attacked by supporters of Ruak in Osso-Huna Village while the victims were on their way to Baguia.
"The victim sustained a number of injures on his body, his mouth is also swollen," said Reis.
He said that they will hand the case over to the Baucau District Police to resolve it, and that they will continue to contribute to maintenance of peace.
Timorese Police Deputy Commander Afonso de Jesus said that the general security situation is under control even though some minor cases continue to happen.
Bishop da Silva: Using Bishop's picture in campaigning is manipulation
Diário Nacional (cover page)
Bishop for Dili Diocese, Monsignor Alberto Ricardo said that the Catholic Church accuses the promotion team of Lu-Olo of manipulation during their political campaigns as they used the picture of three bishops of Timor-Leste in their political interest.
"Using the picture of a bishop in a political campaign is not good and is considered to be manipulation," said Ricardo.
Gusmão reads Alkatiri and Horta's SMS to the people of Suai
Diário Nacional (cover page)
President of the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) Xanana Gusmão shared the short message services (SMS) that he received from Mari Alkatiri and José Ramos-Horta.
"This morning I received a SMS from Alkatiri asking me to stop insulting other people. I said I do not insult other people," said Gusmão, while speaking to the people of Suai, in Covalima District.
“If you keep stoning people, destroying others’ objects and threatening others I will keep telling the population and your militants to become a militant of a good party,” said Gusmão in his message to Alkatiri.
According to Gusmão, if they (Lu-Olo and Alkatiri) mention his name in the campaign it does not mean that they insult him.
Gusmão said that he supports Taur Matan Ruak because he is an independent candidate and a candidate for all the people.
“When a candidate is independent he will gather all the people as Taur Matan Ruak is embracing all Timorese. That is the reason why Xanana is behind Taur Matan Ruak,” said Gusmão.
To be honest, it's because nothing worthwhile has happened since the last time I wrote!
Easter came and went in a stupor of heat with nothing to do...at least we had an Easter dinner, but with Indian, Philippine and Indonesian food as well as shisha smoking, I have to say it was the most interesting Easter dinner I've ever witnessed!
We're also starting to crave and plan for our vacations! We're entitled to rest and recuperation breaks every 12 weeks...by that count we were supposed to have taken them already but all leave was frozen until after the presidential elections so we only have permission to go on leave from April 28th onwards...Bali, here I come!
Oh and I witnessed a very interesting thing, I went to the bank the other day and there was a Timorese lady in front of me, since she couldn't write, the bank teller had her sign with her fingerprint in red ink! I don't know how they do in other countries with high illiteracy rates but I thought this to be very cool indeed, now I just wonder if they keep a fingerprint record of all their clients like the police do with all the criminals!
As for work, it came to a near standstill here after the first round of elections. No orders were coming from Dili or even from STAE...
I therefore learned to make my own clothes in the meantime just to pass the time...There is a great deal of batik fabric from Indonesia available here that make beautiful tops and skirts! Orders available, enquire here hihi
Voter education finally started up again last week, the polling staff had another training to try to avoid the same mistakes that happened in the first round and that was about it until this week...
With three days to go until the second round everyone is making sure that we are set and ready to go!
Ballot papers arrived on time and were thoroughly verified...that is, until a rumour came up that some of the ballot papers that went to Covalima were already perforated for one the candidates! Oh the scandal!! What did this mean for us? We actually had to recheck every single ballot paper to check for perforations or marks in favour of one of the candidates!! We started yesterday before lunch and finally finished this morning, all 65,000 ballot papers assigned to Bobonaro District, that's a LOT of ballot papers to check!
Now the sensistive ballot boxes are being filled up as we speak and will be ready for deployment on Sunday. The government has already granted Monday and Tuesday as holidays to allow people to travel to their assigned polling centers to vote. The only thing that could get in our way this time is, again, the weather...it has hardly rained in the last 2 weeks and yet both today, yesterday and the day before the skies decided to darken and come pouring down! So c'mon weather gods, please let it not rain again! The helicopters are actually set and ready this time and all the controversial arguments against using them - lack of police protection and what not - have been sorted, so fingers crossed it will be an easy one...
Only thing is, there are already signs of trouble among the voters, with news of opposing supporters attacking each other...time to get my evacuation bag ready and hope for the best!
Oh, and the president - incubent not future of course - has already set the date for the Parliamentary Elections...they will be held July 7th, meaning, in all likehood, I'll be staying put here until end of July!
In the meantime, here are some elections news for you:
José Luís Guterres: Timorese should determine UN mission
Timor Post (page 20)Acting Prime Minister José Luís Guterres said that it is important for the Timorese to determine the mission of the United Nations in Timor-Leste through its election by maintaining peace and stability during the election period.
"The Timorese should maintain peace and stability; this is not only to create calm or have a good situation for us but to show to the international people that the Timorese are also democratic people, respect each other and have political maturity. By this we can show the international community that we do not need people from other countries to come to maintain security and other countries should not come to help us organize the elections," said Guterres.
Guterres said that the run-off election campaign is running peacefully, demonstrating that the Timorese people can maintain peace and security.
“We hope that stability will hold well, not only during the elections but that it will be ongoing, because we want to govern ourselves,” said Guterres.
He said that some minor isolated cases continue to happen, but that the Timorese Defence Force (F-FDTL) and the National Police (PNTL) are ready to ensure security during the second round of the presidential election.
Supporters of two candidates attack each other, two injured
Independente (cover page) The recent incident occurred in Osso-Huna Village, Baucau District, in which the supporters of the two presidential candidates attacked each other resulting in two injured people who were hospitalized in Baucau.
One Ruak supporter was also injured when assaulted by supporters of Lu-Olo in Maluro, Quelicai Sub-District on 4April.
Fretilin Coordinator in Baucau, Talik Reis said that their followers were attacked by supporters of Ruak in Osso-Huna Village while the victims were on their way to Baguia.
"The victim sustained a number of injures on his body, his mouth is also swollen," said Reis.
He said that they will hand the case over to the Baucau District Police to resolve it, and that they will continue to contribute to maintenance of peace.
Timorese Police Deputy Commander Afonso de Jesus said that the general security situation is under control even though some minor cases continue to happen.
Bishop da Silva: Using Bishop's picture in campaigning is manipulation
Diário Nacional (cover page)
Bishop for Dili Diocese, Monsignor Alberto Ricardo said that the Catholic Church accuses the promotion team of Lu-Olo of manipulation during their political campaigns as they used the picture of three bishops of Timor-Leste in their political interest.
"Using the picture of a bishop in a political campaign is not good and is considered to be manipulation," said Ricardo.
Gusmão reads Alkatiri and Horta's SMS to the people of Suai
Diário Nacional (cover page)
President of the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) Xanana Gusmão shared the short message services (SMS) that he received from Mari Alkatiri and José Ramos-Horta.
"This morning I received a SMS from Alkatiri asking me to stop insulting other people. I said I do not insult other people," said Gusmão, while speaking to the people of Suai, in Covalima District.
“If you keep stoning people, destroying others’ objects and threatening others I will keep telling the population and your militants to become a militant of a good party,” said Gusmão in his message to Alkatiri.
According to Gusmão, if they (Lu-Olo and Alkatiri) mention his name in the campaign it does not mean that they insult him.
Gusmão said that he supports Taur Matan Ruak because he is an independent candidate and a candidate for all the people.
“When a candidate is independent he will gather all the people as Taur Matan Ruak is embracing all Timorese. That is the reason why Xanana is behind Taur Matan Ruak,” said Gusmão.
I was missing your news, Filipa, and wondering what might have happened to you and your ear drum... but good to know, it was just a "NO NEWS, GOOD NEWS"! And you learned how to make your own clothes now, that's great, ethnic patterns are pretty much in, maybe you can sell your work later on on Madison Avenue! Keep counting the ballots and no mistakes, please! Have a good weekend!
ReplyDeleteAna
P.S.- I saw your Mom briefly yesterday, she had a haircut and looked good.