Stories from Quick Reads and Timor-Leste
Using Mobile Phones to Connect Pregnant Women and Midwives in Timor Leste
Liga Inan is using mobile phones to connect pregnant women and health workers in Timor Leste. The innovative program provides mothers with vital information and health advice to ensure the safe delivery of babies. Since its launch, almost 2,000 mothers have been already enrolled in the program.
Beatriz’s War: East Timor's First Feature Film
A Guerra da Beatriz (Beatriz’s War) is the first feature film from East Timor. It is about Indonesia's occupation of East Timor from 1975 to 1999 and its impact on the Timorese society. According to the producers of the film, it was “made guerrilla style by the men and women...
Why Human Rights Advocates are Opposed to East Timor's Draft Media Law
Various human rights groups, journalists, and scholars have signed a letter opposing East Timor's proposed media law which was recently approved by the Parliament. One of the issues they cited is the broad powers given to the Press Council: …we are concerned that the Press Council with legal authority, funding...
East Timorese Protect Land Rights Against Australian Cement Plant Deal
The announcement of a new cement plant project by an Australian company in Baucau, northeast of East Timor, has led local community groups to set up a non-governmental organization “to protect and preserve the communities’ rights to their culture, development and traditional land rights.” According to the community organization, Kapeliwa, the government...
Asylum Seekers Face Uncertainty in East Timor
Sharna Jade Bremner probes the situation of asylum seekers in East Timor: Asylum seekers have been arriving in Timor since the early 2000s, however the exact number that are still in the tiny half-island nation remains unclear. Fear and anxiety are rife in the asylum seeker community, and many people...
East Timor's Rising Budget for ‘Public Transfers’
The La’o Hamutuk NGO is concerned that the East Timor government is alloting more funds for so-called ‘public transfers’ which lacks transparent mechanisms: In recent years, Timor-Leste has spent about 20% of its state budget on “Public Transfers” – payments of money to individuals or institutions which are not controlled...
VIDEO: “Myths and Murals” of East Timor
East Timorese and Australian artists have come together to reflect and create around Myths and Murals, “promoting a common sense of national identity through art and story and collaborative strategies for engagement”. The cross-cultural public art and literacy project, between artists from Melbourne and the East Timorese free art school Arte Moris, takes...
Re-Imagining Lusophony and Decolonizing the Mind
The Fourth International Congress in Cultural Studies – Colonialisms, Post-colonialisms and Lusophonies has a call for paper submissions open until October 15, 2013 November 15, 2013 [deadline has been extended]: To demystify, to dehierarchize, to establish a policy of difference, to allow a multiplicity of voices, to constitute so many projects of possible modernities/rationalities...
Film Screening of East Timor's First Feature in Dili
The Díli premiere of East Timor’s first locally produced feature film, A Guerra da Beatriz (Beatriz’s War), takes place today, September 17, 2013. The love story spans the years of Indonesian occupation and beyond (1975 – 2009): [confronting] the issues at the heart of modern East Timor: forgiveness, reconciliation, and justice. The producers, FairTrade...
East Timor: “Literacy Often Falls by the Way Side”
Marking the International Literacy Day, September 8, The Asia Foundation's blog, In Asia presents striking numbers on the quality of educational outcomes in Timor-Leste, a country where “education, and literacy in particular, too often falls by the wayside”: World Bank research found that 70 percent of first grade students in Timor-Leste were...
VIDEO: “Mermaids of Timor-Leste”
A film about four generations of fisherwomen striving to make a living in the coastal village of Adara, in the small island of Ataúro, Timor-Leste is soon to be released – but you can already have a glimpse on what is coming at the Facebook page Wawata topu (Women Divers): Their daily lives, their...
Whistleblower Protection Urged to Fight Corruption in East Timor
Jose Antonio Belo, editor of Tempo Semanal, discussed the anti-corruption crusade of the paper in East Timor. He also urged the passage of a Whistleblower Protection legislation to fight corruption. We must find ways to support and protect people who blow the whistle on corruption. They must not be allowed...
Drug Trafficking on the Rise in Timor Leste
The East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin features the worsening drug trafficking problem in Timor Leste. It quoted a government report which recognized that the country is being used as a “transit zone for criminals smuggling drugs into both Indonesia and Australia.”
Timor Leste's Bid to Join ASEAN
Julio Gil da Silva Guterres writes about Timor Leste's application to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN. He warns that “ASEAN without Timor Leste is the same as a state without sovereignty.”
Foreign Investment Sidelines East Timorese
Olavio Quintas, from the eastern tip of Timor, expresses his frustration with “development” in his country to Radio Liberdade Dili. He says “Timorese people have become observers to foreigners’ investments” lamenting the lack of employment for young people, as investors and government do not trust Timorese to do the smallest tasks.
East Timor a “Failed State-in-Waiting”?
The La'o Hamutuk NGO links to an editorial of the influential Petroleum Economist which discusses the problems faced by East Timor's economy: Timor-Leste was once seen as the poster child for developing nations. It had natural resources, a comprehensive legal framework covering their extraction and an oil fund. Now, almost...
East Timorese Politicians on Social Media
The most popular East Timorese politician on Facebook, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, with a page that counts up to 6,737 likes, doesn't update it at all. Despite having used Facebook quite intensively during 2012's electoral campaign, President Matan Ruak, with 6,603 likes and a Twitter profile (@MatanRuak), seems to have abandoned...
Witchcraft and Dispute Resolution in East Timor
Following the report of the murder of an alleged witch in Maubisse, Timor Leste, on December 21, 2012, Australian anthropologist Matthew Libbis writes a comment on witchcraft and dispute resolution on the blog East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin.
Measuring Corruption in East Timor
Great news: Timor-Leste reduced corruption more than every other country in the world! But is it true? We have a rapidly growing state budget, a minister facing prison, reports about corruption in the media every day and falling scores from other rating agencies. La'o Hamutuk reviews the corruption indicators given...
Reflections on Teaching in Portuguese in East Timor
Valdir Lamim-Guedes, a Brazilian biologist, who blogs at Na Raiz [pt], shared an article he published together with Carlos Junior Gontijo-Rosa on the Global Education Magazine about their experience as visiting professors at the National University of Timor-Leste in 2012, focusing on the challenges of teaching in Portuguese. Despite being one...
East Timor: Monument to the Santa Cruz Massacre
On the preparations for the anniversary of the Santa Cruz Massacre (November 12, 1991), a photo of a monument to be inaugurated in Dili circulated on Facebook.
