In some western countries, pizza delivery companies give you a guarantee that if the pizza isn’t delivered within 30 minutes then you get the food for free. Given Dili's usual road conditions, potholes, chickens, dogs, goats, vendor carts and taxis crawling at 20kmph, this is a good achievement at the best of times.
We have had nearly a week of demonstrations where the whole place has been remnant of Notting Hill Festival. Thousands of trucks crammed with people, painted faces, Timor flags flying, music blaring, singing and chanting, horns honking, and banners everywhere. We even had 2 truck loads all wearing ‘I Love Xanana’ T-shirts, with Xanana’s face printed on the front; these are definitely not available in the shops. The slow convoy would crawl by with trucks of people as far as the eye could see and yet Flip still pulled up in the middle of all this with hot pizzas! That’s service for you.
East Timor – The land of surprises; this should be the country’s new strap line. They are not always good surprises, but you are always surprised. Finally we get the announcement we have all been waiting for, but it wasn’t Mari Alkatiri that resigned it was Ramos Horta the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, we were gobsmacked! Mari Alkatiri did resign his post as Prime Minister the day after but remains an MP to deal with the budget matters until the election of the next government.
All the protesters so far have been from the West. There is still a strong West/East thing going on in the city. One of our staff was punched in the face for being the only Easterner in his village and ended up sleeping in the classroom because he was too scared to return to his house. The next day he returned to his home town. This put a really bitter taste on all the celebrations, the Prime Minister resigning is not going to stop this racism, especially when the guys from the East return to Dili and find their houses burned down, there will be more revenge attacks
Ann and Wayne were at the Hotel Dili when it all kicked off again. Wayne called me to tell me to stay put as there was a repeat of stone throwing, fighting and 3 fires nearby the hotel. Gino was a bit concerned as he has his gas company next to the hotel and if the fires got too close this could be a major disaster. Again in the midst of all this, 12 year old boys throwing stones and lighting fires, Australian troops fully geared up, cameramen and press running around, up pulls Flip with his Pizza delivery!
Another morning we were woken at 6 a.m. by yet another noisy protest. This time though the trucks were waving Portuguese flags not Timorese which was confusing. Portugal had won their game in the World Cup! And of course with the time difference these guys had just seen the match live.
The Philippine restaurant next door has finally opened again, so we popped in for a drink to show them some local support. The girls that work there are from the hills and gave us good news about our housekeeper Maria who disappeared two months ago. She is safe and well but is stuck up in the hills with no money. Ann is now trying to work out a way to get a message to her that her job is still open and send up her wages so that she can return to Dili.
This whole place is ringing with acronyms; it takes you a while to work out what someone is talking about. East Timor has the AFP, the GNR, NGO’s, APV’s, IDP’s, the UN and the RedX. Then you have a completely different language with the journos; ABC, shoot, feed, wingman. It reminds me of working for SAP again!
I’ve added another song to the list, ‘Should I stay or should I go now? – The Clash’. Seriously though, we are starting to get a few divers walking through the door with the return of the essential UN staff. Plus after sitting it out this long watching history being made and never feeling personally in danger, it would be crazy to leave now, so I’m staying put.
Footnote
ABC - Australian Broadcasting Company
AFP - Australian Federal Police
APV - Armoured Patrol Vehicle
GNR - Portuguese Republican National Guard
IDP - Internally Displaced Person
NGO - Non Government Organisation
RedX - The Red Cross
UN - United Nations
Friday, June 30, 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006
And Pigs Might Fly – East Timor 25th June 2006
Terrible news! Ginger Da Pig is dead! Robbie the adoptive owner is launching a full scale investigation into the case because Ginger disappeared in mysterious circumstances. Robbie went to ‘One More Bar’ where Millie the goat and Ginger Da Pig were housed, to take them for their daily walk around town. When he found Ginger he was basking in the sun, trotters outstretched, so Robbie assumed he was asleep, it was only later it occurred to him that pigs normally roll in wet mud and lie in the shade to keep themselves cool, they don’t normally sunbathe. Thinking nothing of it at the time he duly took Millie for her walk and then returned the next day to repeat the ritual, only the next day Ginger had disappeared.
Obviously concerned as to Gingers whereabouts, Robbie started questioning the staff. The first answer he got was Ginger had been bitten by a snake, yeah right! Where Millie and Ginger are housed there are also ducks that would have created alarming if there was a snake around, so Robbie probed further. The same witness then said the pig had died of starvation! Now given that this is a 50lb pig with enough meat on him to feed a family for a week or two, it was very unlikely that Ginger had starved to death in 15 hours. Also there was no body to verify this claim. Apparently Ginger had been taken away and buried, yeah right again! In a country where rice is in short supply, a 50lb pig is not going to be given a dignified funeral without passing through the bodies of several Timorese first.
Getting increasingly incensed, Robbie started to question the kitchen staff, their explanation was that Ginger had been bitten by a crocodile! At this point of the story I retorted ‘Yeah, and Pigs might fly’, which had us both laughing as it was as feasible an explanation to Gingers demise as any other that Robbie had heard.
In East Timor, the Timorese are very superstitious about crocodiles; they have this ongoing folk tale about an albino crocodile that terrorises fishermen. We tried to imagine a crocodile walking up the beach, across a main road, over a park area, and then scaling a 6ft fence to bite Ginger. Needless to say the vision didn’t work. The Timorese language is very basic, not having many descriptive words, so a headache is ‘Big stone in head’ in Timorese. So maybe a small crocodile was actually an iguana, but hardly likely to kill a 50lb pig.
So Inspector Robbie is no further forward in his investigations as without a body there can be no autopsy to conclude the cause of death. Was Ginger murdered or died of natural causes, if he was murdered was it Colonel Mustard in the drawing room with the lead pipe or was it the Timorese chef? I don’t think we will ever know.
Over the last couple of days we have had massive protests in Dili, thousands of people in Dili town centre all shouting ‘Go Alkatiri’. They are not supporting him; they all want the Prime Minister Alkatiri to resign. He has been linked with supplying arms to civilians to take out anyone who opposes him, a claim he obviously vehemently denies. We were returning from a dive at Dili Rock, much to the amusement of the Malaysian troops as the dive site is between two of their road blocks. As we were driving back, more and more trucks of people joined us on the road, women and children included, all singing and honking their horns on the way to the government building. I’ve just watched them return from the protest, a motorcycle convoy waving the East Timor flag following by trucks and microlets with bodies hanging off everywhere. I thought I’d seen the most people possible on one microlet (minibus) in Cambodia. But this beats it, there must have been 30 people crammed on one. The announcement regarding Alkatiri was supposed to have been yesterday, but due to the protest they delayed it until today (still waiting). I hope it doesn’t drag on too long though, as when a crowd that big gets hot and bored, young lads get restless and that’s when the sale of matches skyrockets.
There are still thousands of families in refugee camps. As well as food and water, they have been given soap, shampoo and rather spacious, robust tents. Unfortunately now the camps have a look of permanence about them as the tents are often better than their normal living conditions. Many of the camps are empty during the day as the adults go off to work and the children to school. It seems it’s the night that the people have the most fear of returning to their own homes. There was a rumour of a curfew, but it was only rumour, the Timorese people just don’t want to be on the street at night at the moment.
Needless to say with this activity, the hotels are full of journalists again and Wayne is reemployed as press, so I’m covering the little diving we are doing. A couple of nights ago we returned to the old haunt The Esplanada to meet with some of Wayne’s journalist mates, when in walked two camouflage clad New Zealand soldiers with MP armbands. Ann and I decided that the MP definitely stood for ‘Major Perve’! I think I need to get out more!
Obviously concerned as to Gingers whereabouts, Robbie started questioning the staff. The first answer he got was Ginger had been bitten by a snake, yeah right! Where Millie and Ginger are housed there are also ducks that would have created alarming if there was a snake around, so Robbie probed further. The same witness then said the pig had died of starvation! Now given that this is a 50lb pig with enough meat on him to feed a family for a week or two, it was very unlikely that Ginger had starved to death in 15 hours. Also there was no body to verify this claim. Apparently Ginger had been taken away and buried, yeah right again! In a country where rice is in short supply, a 50lb pig is not going to be given a dignified funeral without passing through the bodies of several Timorese first.
Getting increasingly incensed, Robbie started to question the kitchen staff, their explanation was that Ginger had been bitten by a crocodile! At this point of the story I retorted ‘Yeah, and Pigs might fly’, which had us both laughing as it was as feasible an explanation to Gingers demise as any other that Robbie had heard.
In East Timor, the Timorese are very superstitious about crocodiles; they have this ongoing folk tale about an albino crocodile that terrorises fishermen. We tried to imagine a crocodile walking up the beach, across a main road, over a park area, and then scaling a 6ft fence to bite Ginger. Needless to say the vision didn’t work. The Timorese language is very basic, not having many descriptive words, so a headache is ‘Big stone in head’ in Timorese. So maybe a small crocodile was actually an iguana, but hardly likely to kill a 50lb pig.
So Inspector Robbie is no further forward in his investigations as without a body there can be no autopsy to conclude the cause of death. Was Ginger murdered or died of natural causes, if he was murdered was it Colonel Mustard in the drawing room with the lead pipe or was it the Timorese chef? I don’t think we will ever know.
Over the last couple of days we have had massive protests in Dili, thousands of people in Dili town centre all shouting ‘Go Alkatiri’. They are not supporting him; they all want the Prime Minister Alkatiri to resign. He has been linked with supplying arms to civilians to take out anyone who opposes him, a claim he obviously vehemently denies. We were returning from a dive at Dili Rock, much to the amusement of the Malaysian troops as the dive site is between two of their road blocks. As we were driving back, more and more trucks of people joined us on the road, women and children included, all singing and honking their horns on the way to the government building. I’ve just watched them return from the protest, a motorcycle convoy waving the East Timor flag following by trucks and microlets with bodies hanging off everywhere. I thought I’d seen the most people possible on one microlet (minibus) in Cambodia. But this beats it, there must have been 30 people crammed on one. The announcement regarding Alkatiri was supposed to have been yesterday, but due to the protest they delayed it until today (still waiting). I hope it doesn’t drag on too long though, as when a crowd that big gets hot and bored, young lads get restless and that’s when the sale of matches skyrockets.
There are still thousands of families in refugee camps. As well as food and water, they have been given soap, shampoo and rather spacious, robust tents. Unfortunately now the camps have a look of permanence about them as the tents are often better than their normal living conditions. Many of the camps are empty during the day as the adults go off to work and the children to school. It seems it’s the night that the people have the most fear of returning to their own homes. There was a rumour of a curfew, but it was only rumour, the Timorese people just don’t want to be on the street at night at the moment.
Needless to say with this activity, the hotels are full of journalists again and Wayne is reemployed as press, so I’m covering the little diving we are doing. A couple of nights ago we returned to the old haunt The Esplanada to meet with some of Wayne’s journalist mates, when in walked two camouflage clad New Zealand soldiers with MP armbands. Ann and I decided that the MP definitely stood for ‘Major Perve’! I think I need to get out more!
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Covert Pizza Operations – East Timor 16th June 2006
We managed to go diving beyond Metinaro today with one of our local staff Nelson, he felt comfortable so it was almost back to normal for our diving day. Wayne and I di
ved a site he had discovered on an exploratory dive a couple of weeks before, but we hadn’t managed to get back out to it until now. I told Wayne at the end of the dive that he had ruined diving for me as all I look for now is nudibranch and critters, small, rare and unusual stuff. For the unordained, nudibranch are tiny sea slugs that are the Dolce & Gabana of the underwater world, stylish, unusually patterned and often very brightly coloured. Finding a nudibranch is like finding a Tiffany Egg. I saw five varieties on the dive today, three I had never seen before.
To get to the dive site you need to pass through several road blocks. Ann and I decided that the tastiest troops in town were the Kiwis. Unfortunately Australia seem to have sent over every red headed army guy they can find, so the poor pale skinned possums are running around looking like lobsters at the moment. Ann nudged my elbow as we approached a road block the other day and said ‘I don’t fancy yours much!’ This had us giggling as we approached two bewildered looking gun clad Kiwis. When asked if we were carrying any weapons, I told them about my dive knife, but when Ann informed them it was bright pink, they didn’t take it seriously as an offensive weapon.
Today as Wayne and I passed through the roadblock at Hera, the Kiwi boys told us that they would only let us back through if we bought them back some seafood as their ration food was dire. According to one Australian Embassy staff, the troops are not allowed to eat anything but their rations. That’s why we are seeing them in every supermarket then! Apparently, the rule was made back in 2001, when half the Navy went down with food poisoning after eating the local food. That sounds like a bit of an urban legend though!
There are a few people in Dili that are making a killing in these times, the hotels, the car hire companies and Flips Pizza Delivery! Instead of the usual address of 123 The High Street in 20 minutes, it’s, rendezvous at 1800 hours behind the portaloos next to the big tree! Covert pizza delivery! Jim has also been asked to hold a lock-in, where the boys will enter through the back door after their shift without their boss seeing them. This is not for an illicit drinking session though; this is for 6 rounds of bacon and egg and mugs of tea.
More and more clients from the past are turning up. My next open water course could consist of GNR (Portuguese Police). Their boss learned to dive with us the last time he was in East Timor back in 2001 so of course recommended us. Apparently, Army and Police are easy to teach as they are used to taking orders.
Sometimes you hear a song and it takes you straight back to a place and time as if it was yesterday. Well, here’s a few that will always remind me of East Timor:
Talking about a revolution – Tracy Chapman
We’ve got to get out of this place – The Animals
The Boys are back in Town – Thin Lizzy
More and more people are on the streets of Dili now, the military presence is everywhere although there are still many refugee camps. Phone cards are now down to $11 for a $10 card instead of $15. Market stalls are springing up again with an abundance of vegetables and fish and the whole place has a better feel to it.
It’s reported that the majority want the Prime Minister Mari Alkitiri to step down, but he is sticking by his guns, literally! However, there will be the minority that want him in, and in most cases it’s the minority that cause the trouble and unrest. I don’t think it’s over just yet, there may be more to come once some political decisions are made. At the moment it’s a bit of calm before the storm.
ved a site he had discovered on an exploratory dive a couple of weeks before, but we hadn’t managed to get back out to it until now. I told Wayne at the end of the dive that he had ruined diving for me as all I look for now is nudibranch and critters, small, rare and unusual stuff. For the unordained, nudibranch are tiny sea slugs that are the Dolce & Gabana of the underwater world, stylish, unusually patterned and often very brightly coloured. Finding a nudibranch is like finding a Tiffany Egg. I saw five varieties on the dive today, three I had never seen before.To get to the dive site you need to pass through several road blocks. Ann and I decided that the tastiest troops in town were the Kiwis. Unfortunately Australia seem to have sent over every red headed army guy they can find, so the poor pale skinned possums are running around looking like lobsters at the moment. Ann nudged my elbow as we approached a road block the other day and said ‘I don’t fancy yours much!’ This had us giggling as we approached two bewildered looking gun clad Kiwis. When asked if we were carrying any weapons, I told them about my dive knife, but when Ann informed them it was bright pink, they didn’t take it seriously as an offensive weapon.
Today as Wayne and I passed through the roadblock at Hera, the Kiwi boys told us that they would only let us back through if we bought them back some seafood as their ration food was dire. According to one Australian Embassy staff, the troops are not allowed to eat anything but their rations. That’s why we are seeing them in every supermarket then! Apparently, the rule was made back in 2001, when half the Navy went down with food poisoning after eating the local food. That sounds like a bit of an urban legend though!
There are a few people in Dili that are making a killing in these times, the hotels, the car hire companies and Flips Pizza Delivery! Instead of the usual address of 123 The High Street in 20 minutes, it’s, rendezvous at 1800 hours behind the portaloos next to the big tree! Covert pizza delivery! Jim has also been asked to hold a lock-in, where the boys will enter through the back door after their shift without their boss seeing them. This is not for an illicit drinking session though; this is for 6 rounds of bacon and egg and mugs of tea.
More and more clients from the past are turning up. My next open water course could consist of GNR (Portuguese Police). Their boss learned to dive with us the last time he was in East Timor back in 2001 so of course recommended us. Apparently, Army and Police are easy to teach as they are used to taking orders.
Sometimes you hear a song and it takes you straight back to a place and time as if it was yesterday. Well, here’s a few that will always remind me of East Timor:
Talking about a revolution – Tracy Chapman
We’ve got to get out of this place – The Animals
The Boys are back in Town – Thin Lizzy
More and more people are on the streets of Dili now, the military presence is everywhere although there are still many refugee camps. Phone cards are now down to $11 for a $10 card instead of $15. Market stalls are springing up again with an abundance of vegetables and fish and the whole place has a better feel to it.
It’s reported that the majority want the Prime Minister Mari Alkitiri to step down, but he is sticking by his guns, literally! However, there will be the minority that want him in, and in most cases it’s the minority that cause the trouble and unrest. I don’t think it’s over just yet, there may be more to come once some political decisions are made. At the moment it’s a bit of calm before the storm.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Just taking the pig for a walk – East Timor11th June 2006
We get some eccentric characters turn up at the dive centre here in Dili, East Timor. I first came across Robbie walking his goat outside the supermarket on the beachfront. Robbie is a red haired Glaswegian hairdresser that sports a jaunty beret on this head. He's another veteran of East Timor as he’s a Malai that’s been here for more than five years. As families were evacuated, pets were left behind and Robbie came across a ginger pig wandering around. The owners had left the country so Robbie has adopted the pig and aptly named it Ginger Da Pig. Now he takes both Ginger and Millie the Goat for a walk round town every day.
On the subject of pigs, the Monkey Bar actually has a pig track at the back of the bar and sporadically runs pig races. Now these are serious affairs with piggy forms and odds, previous race wins etc. Even though the whole race lasts for a total of about 15 minutes. Wayne and Ann had a 50% share in a racing pig until they were informed that she had got eaten!
The big story by Channel 7 today was weddings! Because of all the troubles there were weddings scheduled that couldn’t take place, so yesterday they dealt with the backlog and saw 18 couples getting married at one church. It's quite a heartening story given the situation here.
The Austra
lian soldiers are doing a good job trying to restore peace but they came here to fight a war and what they got is vandalising, looting gangs that need policing, so more police are poring in by the day. Wayne was up in the hills at a school that has now been turned into a military base. There were loads of Ozzy soldiers with machine guns guarding the playground which is now a helicopter landing pad. As the Blackhawk took off, kids streamed on to the playground to play in the backwash the helicopter created. The soldiers just had to look on, what could they do, the kids weren’t afraid of their guns, they just wanted to play.
I had a good drive around a couple of days ago; there are a few areas where the torching is obvious because of the freshly burnt out cars. But there are so many burnt out buildings in Dili that it’s hard to tell the old ones from 1999 and the new ones. In 1999 70% of the buildings of East Timor were burnt down as a parting shot from the Indonesians as if to say ‘if we cant have them nor can you!’. I often wondered why people lived in wooden/tin shacks and didn’t rebuild the brick buildings. Apparently the burnt out buildings are left because that’s where atrocities were committed by the Indonesians, rapes, torture and brutal murders. The Timorese believe that these buildings are haunted by the spirits of the people killed in these buildings so will not rebuild them. The Timorese are highly superstitious people.
We stopped at a supermarket and outside were greeted by a truck load of Ozzy soldiers. Not a checkpoint, they were there to stock up on their Pringles. Most of them still wore their packs so were almost too wide to fit down the aisles. It’s a strange sight to see a fully clad soldier with a machine gun in one hand and a plastic shopping basket in the other.
We finally got out diving yesterday, on the boat because its safer for the Timorese staff. Poor Jose was horribly seasick all the way though. I got bitten on the lip by a clownfish, who said nemo is cute. Serves me right for sticking my head too near his anemone! We had a pod of dolphins both on the way out and back, around 60 in the second pod, jumping and doing back flips, fantastic to see. This afternoon Jose said he felt comfortable enough to do shore watch at Dili rock. The Malaysian army have set up a checkpoint nearby so we got half the curious squad asking question after question about diving as we were trying to kit up. Jose got on really well with them and was still chatting away when we emerged an hour later, so much for him being at risk, he had the Malaysian army to protect him.
On the subject of pigs, the Monkey Bar actually has a pig track at the back of the bar and sporadically runs pig races. Now these are serious affairs with piggy forms and odds, previous race wins etc. Even though the whole race lasts for a total of about 15 minutes. Wayne and Ann had a 50% share in a racing pig until they were informed that she had got eaten!
The big story by Channel 7 today was weddings! Because of all the troubles there were weddings scheduled that couldn’t take place, so yesterday they dealt with the backlog and saw 18 couples getting married at one church. It's quite a heartening story given the situation here.
The Austra
lian soldiers are doing a good job trying to restore peace but they came here to fight a war and what they got is vandalising, looting gangs that need policing, so more police are poring in by the day. Wayne was up in the hills at a school that has now been turned into a military base. There were loads of Ozzy soldiers with machine guns guarding the playground which is now a helicopter landing pad. As the Blackhawk took off, kids streamed on to the playground to play in the backwash the helicopter created. The soldiers just had to look on, what could they do, the kids weren’t afraid of their guns, they just wanted to play.I had a good drive around a couple of days ago; there are a few areas where the torching is obvious because of the freshly burnt out cars. But there are so many burnt out buildings in Dili that it’s hard to tell the old ones from 1999 and the new ones. In 1999 70% of the buildings of East Timor were burnt down as a parting shot from the Indonesians as if to say ‘if we cant have them nor can you!’. I often wondered why people lived in wooden/tin shacks and didn’t rebuild the brick buildings. Apparently the burnt out buildings are left because that’s where atrocities were committed by the Indonesians, rapes, torture and brutal murders. The Timorese believe that these buildings are haunted by the spirits of the people killed in these buildings so will not rebuild them. The Timorese are highly superstitious people.
We stopped at a supermarket and outside were greeted by a truck load of Ozzy soldiers. Not a checkpoint, they were there to stock up on their Pringles. Most of them still wore their packs so were almost too wide to fit down the aisles. It’s a strange sight to see a fully clad soldier with a machine gun in one hand and a plastic shopping basket in the other.
We finally got out diving yesterday, on the boat because its safer for the Timorese staff. Poor Jose was horribly seasick all the way though. I got bitten on the lip by a clownfish, who said nemo is cute. Serves me right for sticking my head too near his anemone! We had a pod of dolphins both on the way out and back, around 60 in the second pod, jumping and doing back flips, fantastic to see. This afternoon Jose said he felt comfortable enough to do shore watch at Dili rock. The Malaysian army have set up a checkpoint nearby so we got half the curious squad asking question after question about diving as we were trying to kit up. Jose got on really well with them and was still chatting away when we emerged an hour later, so much for him being at risk, he had the Malaysian army to protect him.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Plastic Refugees – East Timor 7th June 2006
The streets of Dili have quietened down, there are still trouble spots but they are mainly in specific areas, not widespread. Outside the Parliament building there are signs thanking the Australians for their intervention but this opinion is mixed. In some areas the gangs are chanting ‘Australians go home’, the Ozzies are disarming people but in some cases this is the only means the Timorese people have of protecting themselves. Wayne came across an Australian woman called Rocky who has run a rehabilitation centre in Dili for years. At the time the Ozzie troops had got all her staff on the floor and were disarming them. Rocky tried to explain to the troops, that her staff were not carrying weapons to loot and fight but to protect themselves and the centre. But the Australian’s job is to disarm and that’s what they did. Wayne met Rocky a couple of days later behind a barricade, when she enquired about her centre Wayne had the unenviable job of explaining that her years of hard work and dedication were burning down as they spoke. The staff could no longer protect the building.
One of the temporary staff in the Esplanada asked Wayne about his house and explained roughly where it was. Wayne checked the area out, now hasn’t got the heart to tell him the whole area is razed to the ground.
There seems to be an East/West divide going on in the city, people cannot return home for fear of being attacked by their neighbours because they were born in the wrong part of the country. We have divers for Saturday but I can’t take any staff out with me because it’s not safe for them. One of the ABC news trucks was attacked with stones on Monday because they stupidly took an East East Timorese interpreter with them to a West East Timorese area.
On the positive side, there was a peaceful march by the rebels yesterday. They delivered a petition to Xanana demanding the resignation of Alkatiri. It went off without incident which is encouraging.
Walking around town you see the refugee camps. These are set up in the squares and churches in the open air housing hundreds of families. What struck me was the use of plastic and nylon, plastic sheeting for sun protection, nylon rope for washing lines, plastic bottles for water, plastic baskets for possessions and plastic bags for food. I saw a young mother washing her baby in a plastic bowl, scooping water over him with a plastic cup. The only organic thing I saw in these camps was the wood on the fire. You see an abundance of plastic all over Asia, whereas china is more acceptable in 1st world countries and plastic scorned upon as the cheap throw away alternative only used for picnics.
It was heart warming to watch the little naked boys playing in the sea again. Of course as soon as they saw I had a camera it was ‘Hello Mister, photo’. That’s the nice thing about digital, as soon as you take the photo you can show it to them, which is responded to with infectious giggling and broad smiles. I once saw a girl in Cambodia taking photos with a Polaroid camera. The best shots she got were the looks on the kid’s faces as their image appeared on the paper by magic.
Aid workers are slowly trickling back into East Timor; many have been here before so we are seeing the return of some die hard divers at our door. We had one guy from the Red Cross enquiring about diving at the weekend that had been a regular customer 4 years before. So the plan is to go diving on Saturday, not sure where yet, that all depends on the situation, but I can’t wait to get working again.
One of the temporary staff in the Esplanada asked Wayne about his house and explained roughly where it was. Wayne checked the area out, now hasn’t got the heart to tell him the whole area is razed to the ground.
There seems to be an East/West divide going on in the city, people cannot return home for fear of being attacked by their neighbours because they were born in the wrong part of the country. We have divers for Saturday but I can’t take any staff out with me because it’s not safe for them. One of the ABC news trucks was attacked with stones on Monday because they stupidly took an East East Timorese interpreter with them to a West East Timorese area.
On the positive side, there was a peaceful march by the rebels yesterday. They delivered a petition to Xanana demanding the resignation of Alkatiri. It went off without incident which is encouraging.
Walking around town you see the refugee camps. These are set up in the squares and churches in the open air housing hundreds of families. What struck me was the use of plastic and nylon, plastic sheeting for sun protection, nylon rope for washing lines, plastic bottles for water, plastic baskets for possessions and plastic bags for food. I saw a young mother washing her baby in a plastic bowl, scooping water over him with a plastic cup. The only organic thing I saw in these camps was the wood on the fire. You see an abundance of plastic all over Asia, whereas china is more acceptable in 1st world countries and plastic scorned upon as the cheap throw away alternative only used for picnics.
It was heart warming to watch the little naked boys playing in the sea again. Of course as soon as they saw I had a camera it was ‘Hello Mister, photo’. That’s the nice thing about digital, as soon as you take the photo you can show it to them, which is responded to with infectious giggling and broad smiles. I once saw a girl in Cambodia taking photos with a Polaroid camera. The best shots she got were the looks on the kid’s faces as their image appeared on the paper by magic.
Aid workers are slowly trickling back into East Timor; many have been here before so we are seeing the return of some die hard divers at our door. We had one guy from the Red Cross enquiring about diving at the weekend that had been a regular customer 4 years before. So the plan is to go diving on Saturday, not sure where yet, that all depends on the situation, but I can’t wait to get working again.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Come back Johnny the Tooth – East Timor 3rd June 2006
We have 5 staff here at the dive centre all locals of East Timor, 4 officially and then there is Johnny. Maria, the housekeeper, disappeared up to the hills at the very start of the troubles and hasn’t been seen or heard of since. We suspect she’s up in the hills with no money to get back down again but our endeavours to try and contact her have remained fruitless. Nelson and Jose are our main dive hands and are both Advanced divers, they are both staying in refugee camps with their families. Nelson is staying at Arte Morris, an Art centre for Timorese boys and Nelson with Dr Dan. Both these organisations are charities not NGO’s (Non-Government Organisations), so do not have funds from private investors. Arte Morris promote and sell Timorese art as far as Europe and Dr Dan is probably the most knowledgeable authority on malaria and dengue fever in this part of the world. Every other fortnight the proceeds of the quiz night at the Dili Club go to Dr Dan.
Manuel I can only describe as Manuel out of Faulty Towers, ‘Que?’! He speaks Bahasa rather than Tetun and is a man of very few words. If you ask him something and he doesn’t understand, he remains motionless looking at you, so you try again, an awful lot of pointing at things goes on. Manuel had left his bike at the dive centre and we hadn’t seen him for a few days so we were getting a little concerned as Jose and Nelson couldn’t contact him. Wayne was out at the Komoro Bridge yesterday which was the centre of the gang fights. As he approached Australian troops detaining five Timorese men crouching on the floor, he realised that one of the men was Manuel. Picking him up and giving him some money raised the voices of the Australian troops who demanded to know what Wayne had given him. Wayne explained he was an employee and he had given him his wages. Manuel was then allowed to walk away.
It’s very hard for the Australian troops to make a judgement call. Is this a looter? Or is this someone trying to save his own possessions before his house is burned to the ground. Wayne came across another guy who was being detained by the troops; he was trying to take the tin off of his own roof as he feared that the house was going to be torched.
At least though the Ozzies came and helped, along with the Kiwis and Malays, in total over 2000 troops. But the snotty Portuguese have refused to put 120 police in here because quote ‘Portugal did not accept, does not accept, nor will not accept that the Republican National Guard be subordinate to the operational command of a foreigner’. A foreigner! Who do they think they are, with their piddly little force! They abandoned East Timor and allowed the Indonesians to invade in 1975; they are just as much foreigners to East Timor as the Australians are. Sorry, I’ll get off my soapbox now.
Normality is returning, the trouble spots are much quieter, the supermarkets, banks and petrol stations are open again. A few chicken vendors are open at night, occasional taxis can be seen and an enterprising phone card vendor has set up a new pitch outside the Esplanada, lots of business for him because that’s where many of the journalists are staying. All we need now is for Johnny to return. Johnny owns a vending cart and his pitch is just opposite the dive centre Many a young whippersnapper has tried to muscle in on his pitch to no avail, when Johnny is there, we only buy from him. Because the dive centre has no bar, Johnny is our mobile off licence selling the cheapest Tiger beer in Dili. He also stocks our individual brands of cigarettes, Ann smokes menthol which is not popular with Timorese, but Johnny knows he will have regular demand. Johnny, like Manuel, is a man of little words and I've never seen him smile, but it would be quite hard for Johnny to smile as he has one protruding front tooth, hence the name Johnny the Tooth. Johnny sits outside come rain or shine with his extremely ventilated Freeflow T-shirt which has seen better years let alone days. So when Johnny’s cart appears again outside the dive centre then I can safely say things are getting back to normal.
Manuel I can only describe as Manuel out of Faulty Towers, ‘Que?’! He speaks Bahasa rather than Tetun and is a man of very few words. If you ask him something and he doesn’t understand, he remains motionless looking at you, so you try again, an awful lot of pointing at things goes on. Manuel had left his bike at the dive centre and we hadn’t seen him for a few days so we were getting a little concerned as Jose and Nelson couldn’t contact him. Wayne was out at the Komoro Bridge yesterday which was the centre of the gang fights. As he approached Australian troops detaining five Timorese men crouching on the floor, he realised that one of the men was Manuel. Picking him up and giving him some money raised the voices of the Australian troops who demanded to know what Wayne had given him. Wayne explained he was an employee and he had given him his wages. Manuel was then allowed to walk away.
It’s very hard for the Australian troops to make a judgement call. Is this a looter? Or is this someone trying to save his own possessions before his house is burned to the ground. Wayne came across another guy who was being detained by the troops; he was trying to take the tin off of his own roof as he feared that the house was going to be torched.
At least though the Ozzies came and helped, along with the Kiwis and Malays, in total over 2000 troops. But the snotty Portuguese have refused to put 120 police in here because quote ‘Portugal did not accept, does not accept, nor will not accept that the Republican National Guard be subordinate to the operational command of a foreigner’. A foreigner! Who do they think they are, with their piddly little force! They abandoned East Timor and allowed the Indonesians to invade in 1975; they are just as much foreigners to East Timor as the Australians are. Sorry, I’ll get off my soapbox now.
Normality is returning, the trouble spots are much quieter, the supermarkets, banks and petrol stations are open again. A few chicken vendors are open at night, occasional taxis can be seen and an enterprising phone card vendor has set up a new pitch outside the Esplanada, lots of business for him because that’s where many of the journalists are staying. All we need now is for Johnny to return. Johnny owns a vending cart and his pitch is just opposite the dive centre Many a young whippersnapper has tried to muscle in on his pitch to no avail, when Johnny is there, we only buy from him. Because the dive centre has no bar, Johnny is our mobile off licence selling the cheapest Tiger beer in Dili. He also stocks our individual brands of cigarettes, Ann smokes menthol which is not popular with Timorese, but Johnny knows he will have regular demand. Johnny, like Manuel, is a man of little words and I've never seen him smile, but it would be quite hard for Johnny to smile as he has one protruding front tooth, hence the name Johnny the Tooth. Johnny sits outside come rain or shine with his extremely ventilated Freeflow T-shirt which has seen better years let alone days. So when Johnny’s cart appears again outside the dive centre then I can safely say things are getting back to normal.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
We’ve got limes! – East Timor 1/6/06
Yesterday in Dili, the supermarkets opened and the petrol stations. Ann had a field day, she even bought frozen limes, which turned out to be a cross between a lime and an orange, but what the hell, they still tasted good. Supplies were limited but she managed to concoct a fantastic feast for eight people that night. I was the only non-journalist related person in the crowd which is fascinating because you get a completely different take on things. One of the die hard journo’s was concerned about his rookie cameraman because the cameraman had got some superb up close and personal shot that day, but the temptation with the adrenaline buzzing is to get an even better shot the next day, regardless of his personal safety.
The French Ambassador came round. His contract actually expired today, but he has his staff and their families living in his home at the moment, so he’s not going to leave until his staff are re-housed safely, even though as from today he will not be insured to be in the country.
Hector is a very eccentric Australian guy who speaks the most fluent Tetun of any westerner. He lives up in the hills with the Timorese community. Up in the hills there is a shortage of rice, you can’t buy rice or water in the supermarkets because the UN has bought it all for redistribution to the refugees. Hector came down escorting a microlet on his motorbike, the microlet was full of vegetable, the local community here was ecstatic. One old guy was driving past on his motorbike and screeched to a halt, bought a bag of vegetables then drove away singing at the top of his voice. All the villagers seemed to have smiles on their faces and the chicken vendors even set up stall for a couple of hours tonight.
The vegetable truck really saw the turning of a corner because trade s starting to happen again, also many people that are stuck up in the hills with no money and no petrol are now seeing an empty microlet returning to the village with rice after having ventured into the city. That vegetable truck speaks volumes to the local community about safety.
I saw my first Australian army foot patrol in East Timor today, there were only two of them on foot, but it reassures the villagers that they are being protected. There are still gangs fighting on the streets of Dili, but the press have finally got it right, they are gangs of scroates, not army versus police. What makes it worse is many of the gangs have Chinese fire crackers which to the untrained ear sound like gunfire, of course there is still some gunfire but it makes it hard to differentiate. Here, if you insult a Timorese then you insult 30 members of their family, so much of the violence and burning is to do with revenge, also jealousy, if one family has more than another in their Campong.
The atmosphere is definitely calmer today with the Ozzy troops and Xanana declaring a state of emergency yesterday whilst taking control of the country’s forces. That’s the one guy that has the history and charisma to command respect in East Timor, let’s hope a peaceful solution is around the corner. The water is calmer again and I cant wait to get diving!
The French Ambassador came round. His contract actually expired today, but he has his staff and their families living in his home at the moment, so he’s not going to leave until his staff are re-housed safely, even though as from today he will not be insured to be in the country.
Hector is a very eccentric Australian guy who speaks the most fluent Tetun of any westerner. He lives up in the hills with the Timorese community. Up in the hills there is a shortage of rice, you can’t buy rice or water in the supermarkets because the UN has bought it all for redistribution to the refugees. Hector came down escorting a microlet on his motorbike, the microlet was full of vegetable, the local community here was ecstatic. One old guy was driving past on his motorbike and screeched to a halt, bought a bag of vegetables then drove away singing at the top of his voice. All the villagers seemed to have smiles on their faces and the chicken vendors even set up stall for a couple of hours tonight.
The vegetable truck really saw the turning of a corner because trade s starting to happen again, also many people that are stuck up in the hills with no money and no petrol are now seeing an empty microlet returning to the village with rice after having ventured into the city. That vegetable truck speaks volumes to the local community about safety.
I saw my first Australian army foot patrol in East Timor today, there were only two of them on foot, but it reassures the villagers that they are being protected. There are still gangs fighting on the streets of Dili, but the press have finally got it right, they are gangs of scroates, not army versus police. What makes it worse is many of the gangs have Chinese fire crackers which to the untrained ear sound like gunfire, of course there is still some gunfire but it makes it hard to differentiate. Here, if you insult a Timorese then you insult 30 members of their family, so much of the violence and burning is to do with revenge, also jealousy, if one family has more than another in their Campong.
The atmosphere is definitely calmer today with the Ozzy troops and Xanana declaring a state of emergency yesterday whilst taking control of the country’s forces. That’s the one guy that has the history and charisma to command respect in East Timor, let’s hope a peaceful solution is around the corner. The water is calmer again and I cant wait to get diving!
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