When it gets too much

Yesterday I saw a puppy have its paw run over by a motorcycle.
Nobody cared.
I was just leaving the market with M when we hear this intense wailing, I turn and I see a motorcycle next to a puppy, the puppy clearly in pain with its paw raised up. I saw the motorcyclist drive off and everyone else return to what they were doing. I ran to the puppy, wailing in agony, it got scared and ran on three legs into the nearest store, I followed it inside trying to coax it out to see what the damage was. see if I could make it better. No one cared. The store owner was more worried about having a Malay near her things then having a wailing puppy in her store. I mean, who cares, it just a dog, besides if it dies, we'll have meat for supper!!! Dogs to them are hitting targets, pets that you don't really need to feed and once they die, by natural causes or otherwise, they turn into dinner. They just laughed at me, found it amusing because I am Malay and because I cared.
Yesterday, I had enough!
Yesterday, I was ready to go home.

I know sometimes I care too much, but to be honest, I would rather care too much than not at all. But in the 4 months that I have been in Timor Leste I have had to turn my eyes and close my heart too many times. And it's not just about animals, it's about everything. Naked children running around with bloated bellies from malnutrition. Too many with dirty little faces and runny noses, too many that, given the existing medical services here, might not make it to their teen years.
Too many times I've had to 'not care' about people throwing garbage onto the street or burning trash in their yard. They don't care. Either because they don't know that they should or because it would be too much work if they did.

If it's broken, why fix it? It will only break again. This seems to be a recurring mentality here. Our house for example, is falling to pieces, the mosquito nets are tearing away, the electricity is erratic if non-existent, we've had the refrigerator break twice because of the lack of enough current pulsing through the wires. The water tank is alive only due to the ingeniuty of the security guards that risk getting electrocuted everytime they turn the pump on by touching one cable to another and we are down to only one stove top. But the landlord would rather put us out on the street than bother with these little things, it's just too much trouble, so much so that he actually forbade the electrician from coming to the house the next time we called them. Thankfully for us the electricician has a conscience.

I don't know. I just don't feel like I'm helping in any way. Yes, I'm providing electoral support, and yes, election day is a wonderful occasion in this country but mostly I feel like I'm just providing my services as a glofied chauffer...

If the reason for this country to still be in the state that it's in was lack of money... but it's not!!! Timor is rolling in oil money. But Dili is such an elitist bubble that they just don't see any need to develop the districts. Take Bobonaro for instance, these past 4 months we have seen machinery on the roads to improve the sidewalks. Thing is the sidewalks already existed, they just changed them from cobblestone to concrete and people still don't use them! Was that necessary? More so than getting electricity 24/7 or better yet, getting Bobonaro wired with solar panels so that they wouldn't need to rely on polluting generators and petrol for their measly supply of electricity?? I mean, they have enough sun and they have the money, what are they waiting for? Just the other day I was told by a reliable source that the government had ordered cement blocks from Portugal...from Portugal???? Who was the smart guy behind that idea?! There are far too many people in Dili looking out for their own backs and how to squeeze a little more money from the gullible Timorese. Not enough caring for the people themselves. Too many worried about the status of the portuguese language in the education system rather than the efficiency of the education system. Will these children have a future? Can they afford one?

And what's going to happen to all this when UNMIT leaves? I'm not talking just about the jobs that it provides although just that alone will leave an enormous hole, but also the false economy bubble that is has created. No one will be able to afford Dili unless the prices drop drastically. J, when he came for a visit, said that he woulnd't mind coming to work in Dili, especially since when UNMIT leaves UNDP will probably expand and take over many of the projects. I don't know how I feel about that. I think Timor needs time. Time to grow and develop, time to understand and to help its people get out of the poverty of their everyday lives, time to provide the right education and opportunity for their children. The democracy part is there, now they just need to listen to their people. They need to care.

A bad omen?

Yesterday, as always, we arrived early at our STAE office in Maliana to check what our assignments would be for the day. Unfortunately, the work has been slow for these past few days since voter registration finished. Well, actually, voter registration, meaning the time for people to come and register for their electoral cards or change their existing ones due to change of address or because their cards may be damaged,  may be over but apparently there is a national shortage of cards so we have to patiently wait for more cards to be delivered all the way from Singapore in order to process all the registration requests, but anyways, on with the story...

So to resume, yesterday, we arrive at our office in STAE which is in the District Admnistrator's compound. We share a meeting hall with the DA and usually STAE staff is in charge of cleaning it everyday since we use it more often. Well, yesterday when the doors linking the office to the hall were opened we encountered a pretty disturbing sight. On the floor there lay a dead bird in a pool of blood with a string tied to its neck!!!! It was actually a very pretty bird, with blue wings and a white chest which made it all the more sad. The most distrubing part of this though is the string...if there had been no string one could presume that the bird came in through the window and then having failed in its attempt to leave the hall collapsed from exhaustion or simple heart attack but the mere fact that it had a string around its neck means that it either belonged to someone and it escaped but this still wouldn't explain its death in the hall of the DA...

Timorese people, although extremely catholic, still believe in some forms of animism. They believe that if there is a problem in a village, ie. someone is ill or a teenager is in trouble or something of the sort, you can understand whether the problem will go away by opening a dog and checking its entrails. If its entrails are good then the problem will go away, however, if their entrails happen to be rotten it means the problem will stay and a more drastic solution is needed...no wonder most dogs here are afraid to come near people!

For celebrations it is also tradition to sacrifice pigs or chickens. Luckily I have yet to be invited to such celebrations, I don't think my stomach or heart could take it to be honest but some of my colleagues have had the 'privilege' to see these sacrifices...Could you imagine if they had done something similar when the foreign dignitaries came for the celebration of the retoration of independence!?! Now that would have been a sight!

I brought up animism because, just maybe, in my wildest imagination, I'm thinking the bird can be a sign or a warning, perhaps, from one of the political parties to STAE, to watch their backs during the election, wouldn't that be something! Or maybe I've just been reading too many Agatha Christie books, but all the same, it makes you wonder...

A long weekend of celebrations

Just this past weekend Timor Leste celebrated not only the transition of power from the incubent president, Jose Ramos-Horta, to its new and 5th president, Taur Matan Ruak, but it also celebrated it's 10th anniversary since the Restoration of Independence!

It's the restoration because Timor declared its independence from Portuguese colonial rule back in 1975, on November 28th to be precise, and they still celebrate this particular day as Independence Day. However, shortly after this declaration, Timor-Leste was invaded by neighbouring Indonesia - with the full support of the US and Australia's complacency, I might add - and its independence was only restored again on May 20, 2002, with the help of the UN and after many years of bloody struggle and lost diplomacy.

This Sunday (and well, the whole weekend) was, therefore, a huge day for Timor and we were invited! As were the leaders of Australia, New Zealand, Tuvalu, Indonesia and Portugal (I might be forgetting someone, apologies!)

Before I say anything further though, one big gain from all these VIP visits was that Dili got a new makeover - the government's palace was whitewashed and the bullet holes were finally covered, the holes in the roads were also covered up (let's count how many days those last!), a new park was inaugurated and the city just looked cleaner...almost unrecognizable!

On Friday we were invited to the President's Palace - I finally got to see Timor's dinosaur - for the ceremony presenting the final honours bestowed by the president before he left office. Our director general from STAE, Mr. Tomas Cabral, was receiving one of these honours and he invited all the STAE UNVs to be present. The President gave out several honours to those that have helped in the development of Timor, among them, to FRETILIN, STAE and CNE. It was quite a sight and it felt very special to be attending the final moments of Ramos Horta's presidency. It was funnier though to hear him speak, I'd never seen this in a politician but it was quite amazing the way he used his speech to show his outward contempt and dislike for the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao! But he did it in a humourous way so you couldn't help but laugh with him which is quite appealing and comic at the same time.

Afterwards we were invited back to STAE to greet Tomas Cabral and congratulate him on this honour, oh and eat of course. Our STAE nationals put out quite a feast! TC even invited Ameera Haq (our SRSG by the way) to celebrate. We all ended up a bit tipsy and unfortunately the girls were 'forced' to dance...Timorese style...I kept telling them I had two left feet but they wouldnt listen, but it was all in good fun.

Later on that afternoon - yes, still Friday! -  we had a visit from President Ramos-Horta at the UN barracks in Dili to present Ameera Haq and Luis Carrilho (Head of UNPOL) with a medal and to thank the UN staff for their hard work and dedication to the development of Timor. He also presented the honourees with Timorese coffee, which he then went on to tell us, to the immense laughter of those present, that scientists found that it contained a high degree of viagra so we should drink up!!! Quite a comedian, really!

 Saturday, at precisely midnight, saw the beginning of the official festivities. We were told that the roads would be closed going out to the event's location but with the help of our UN cars we were able to sail through the crowds and after 'infiltrating' the VIP tent, we were able to witness Ramos-Horta handing over his position as president to Taur Matan Ruak, in the presence of thousands of Timorese as well as foreign dignitaries.

                                                            (photo by N. Lobato)


The crowd was vibrant and happy albeit calmer than I expected. This was great and emotional moment for them, a truly great step in their right to free determination, democracy and freedom and the whole world was watching.

(Photo by M. Perret)

With the handover of power and the official ceremony over, it was time to truly celebrate, with a massive show of fire works that could be seen from the entire city.

Saturday festivities were followed by a concert on Sunday given by the Prime Minister - he wanted Michel Telo but got Leandro and Leonardo instead (Portuguese and Brazilian readers will know who I'm talking about those, those that don't, you're better off for it!)

And on Monday, we, the Portuguese residents of Timor, were invited by our own President, Cavaco Silva, to dress up to the nine's to attend a reception at the Portuguese School in honour of his excellency's visit to Timor as well as Timor's 10th anniversary. After some controversy over the dress code - I mean, who wears a dark suit in tropical climates? - the evening took off quite pleasantly. Tuar Matan Ruak was also present and his speech, probably one of his first since assuming office, was impressive and actually surprising. And we finished the evening off with bacalhau - of course! - and lots of croquetes, pasteis de bacalhau and paes com chorico - oh yeah!

It was indeed a very long weekend of celebrations and I am happy that I was here to witness such a momentous occasion in the history of this nation. Thank you, Timor, yet again, for the honour!

Timor-Leste's marathon is more than just a race

And after two blissful weeks of holiday with J, who pampered and spoiled me so much that I found it quite hard to come back to Maliana, it's now back to work and back to the daily routine. However, over this past weekend, Timor Leste hosted its third annual marathon and although I didn't actually attend and I only saw one final runner making his way to the finish line (I know, I know, I should have been there as quite a lot of volunteers helped out during the event but, in my defense, J left that day and every minute that I could spend with him was precious!) here is what The Guardian had to say on the event...


The Guardian (UK), 11 May 2012

Dili marathon is a vibrant departure from decades of brutal and bloody foreign occupation that ended, officially, 10 years ago

They stand on street corners, clutching tiny versions of their nation's red, black and gold flag, all anxious for a sale before the big day. "Maratao, maratao!" they cry out – "marathon, marathon!" – their excitement palpable over Saturday's 26-mile run through the waterfront lanes of Dili, Timor-Leste's capital.

For these young hawkers, as well as many other islanders, the event marks not only the third-ever international marathon in this nation's young history, but a vibrant departure from decades of brutal and bloody foreign occupation that ended, officially, 10 years ago on 20 May.

This small island nation of 1.2 million people was taken over by Indonesia soon after it was granted independence from Portugal in 1975. The brutal annexation killed off nearly one-third of Timor-Leste's population by 1999, when it pursued a UN-sponsored act of self-determination. It finally gained independence in 2002.

Now, thanks to international and forward-focused events such as the Dili marathon, tourism has boomed. "Finally, there's a positive news story about Timor-Leste," says Sean Ferguson-Borrell, one of the organisers of the 2012 marathon. "It's proof that, in spite of how bad things can get, there are solutions for the future as well."

While thunderstorms are predicted, more than 8,000 people are expected to turn out for the day's sporting events, which include a full and half-marathon, as well as a 5km and 10km "Run for Peace". Participants are primarily Timor-Lestese, but many have travelled from other countries, among them Ireland, Estonia, Kenya, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong and Portugal.

"It's a great opportunity to see some parts of Dili that you don't normally see, plus it's a great physical challenge," says first-time participant Tom Coghlan, 27, a lawyer from Melbourne, as he collects his jersey and numbered bib from the registration office at the Presidential Palace, where a queue of Timor-Lestese men in business suits are registering for the 5km "fun run" during their lunchbreak.

This year is a hugely important one for Timor-Leste, which in April elected a new president – former guerrilla fighter Taur Matan Ruak – who will be sworn in on 20 May and replace Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, and whose election marked a significant transition in a country still scarred by violence from the 2006 vote. Next Sunday marks 10 years of independence, parliamentary elections are scheduled for July, and the UN peacekeeping force, which began in 2006 and can still be seen throughout Dili, is due to fully withdraw by December.

For many locals, the marathon represents a collective effort to build new bridges and move on from the past. "There is no more significant event in Timor-Leste," says Manuel da Costa Lake, the Timor-Leste national team's coach and mentor, who has been training 12 runners – six men and six women – every morning and afternoon for the past few months. "Everyone gets involved, through participating, cheering runners on, or coming out from the districts. It creates stability in our country and is a chance for people to have fun. It's hugely important to our national psyche."

For President Ramos-Horta, who created the "Dili – City of Peace" initiative in 2009, which comprises the marathon and sister events, such as the Tour de Timor, a mountain biking competition held in September, sport is a form of "group therapy" for the nation to help heal resentment and conflict.

"When you're confronted with a society suffering from conflict and violence, you devise strategies to deal with it. Every society needs role models," he says. "Now, look at us. For the first time in 10 years, we're fully eligible to attend the Olympics on our own merit, instead of 'being permitted' out of sympathy to participate. That creates pride in our people."

This weekend's winners will take home $5,000 for the full marathon and $2,500 for the half, huge sums in a country where nearly 40% of the population survives on less than 78p a day.

For Juventina Napoleao, 23, and Augusto Ramos Soares, 25, of the Timor-Leste national team, both of whom have qualified to participate in the upcoming London Olympics, winning the race would allow them to send money home to their families, who live as farmers and market sellers in impoverished outer districts.

"In my village, no one has any skills or knowledge," says Ramos Soares. "If I didn't have this opportunity, I'd be doing what my parents are doing: farming. Now I represent my country to the rest of the world and prove that we can do this. Timor-Leste can do this."