Dili Days Decrease

International Crisis Group and other topics

2006-10-13T15:25:00.000+03:00

I have decided to post all further Timor-Leste related comments in my Itinera Mundi Mentisque blog, so check there for eventual updates. The most recent entry is on the International Crisis Group report.

Photo albums index

2006-07-30T19:08:00.000+03:00

As I may have mentioned somewhere before, I've got this never ending project of organising my photos and posting them to the blog. While my intention remains to make some commentaries of the events where the photos are taken I have to recognise that this may take much more time than I think. Therefore, I'm now posting an English index of the photo albums that I have managed to construct so far. This is actually covering more or less all my photo-events in Timor-Leste, but many of the links lead to pages where the commentary is in Finnish only.

Enjoy!

Dili-Denpasar Merpati Flights...

2006-07-28T10:28:00.000+03:00

UPDATE (01 NOV 2006): A commentator reports that as of 1 October 2006, Merpati has resumed daily service between Denpasar and Dili again. Knowing Merpati's communications record, I still strongly reommend contacting Merpati diectly for latest information before travelling with them.

I had a look on the site access statistics, and noticed to my surprise that a fair number of people had accessed my blog by searching something like 'dili denpasar flight schedule', which is probably because of this post. Obviously that is not much help for someone who wants to get to Dili, so I try to be nice and give the schedule here. This should be effective from June until further notice, but obviously I take no responsibility of the accuracy of the information. One should probably check Merpati's own site, but it seems to be down as usual, and as far as I remeber, the Dili flights could never be found there anyway.

So, here is the schedule:

Mon
MZ8480 DPS 10:10 -> DIL 13:00
MZ8480 DIL 13:40 -> DPS 14:35

Wed/Fri/Sun
MZ8490 DPS 10:30 -> DIL 13:20
MZ8490 DIL 13:55 -> DPS 14:50

Unfortunately no more flighs Tue/Thu/Sat. This is a communication from some time ago, but be aware that some online travel sevices list the schedules differently (but still flights only Mon/Wed/Fri/Sun). Probably better to call Merpati before travel, telephone (Bali office): +62 361 222864 /...225841 /..228842.

Farewell to Dili

2006-07-24T09:00:00.000+03:00

It is still hard to understand how little there were visible signs of upcoming misfortune in second-last week of April. Even if there were some tension in the air, I still wouldn’t ever have anticipated what was coming, as I have reported earlier.

These photos are from 21 and 22 April, my last day at the UNDP office as well as the farewell party and the departure from the airport. At that time, it was still more or less business as usual. There are more related pictures here. Thanks again everybody who came to the party or airport, and to all other people I got to know during my 3.5 year stay in Dili. Hope to see you soon somewhere in the world!

More farewell party pictures here.

Small world...

2006-06-03T08:02:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, I was walking and talking to my cell phone, when suddenly someone tapped my shoulder at the Central Railway Station square. I hardly believed my eyes to see two Timorese civil service directors, Mr Augusto Barreto and Mr Liborio Pereira here. Considering how much I have been thinking about Timor-Leste in the past week, I almost felt these people were miraculously summoned by my thoughts (in reality, they had been attending a training).

While they told me some scary details, and even scarier rumours, they nevertheless seemed to have an underlying confidence that things will get better again. This attitude I think is one of the most important resources in the country.

I remember witnessing the same attitude all over the country many times: despite the harsh conditions and often many complaints about various things, the majority of the people want to participate in the nation building. That is also why I found some of the reporting by press (especially information coming from certain countries…) almost offending. I hope that the Timorese don’t start to believe in such statements as ‘There is zero belief in future among the people’ and ‘the nation is deeply divided in two’.

What is happening there?

2006-05-30T05:51:00.000+03:00

What is happening in Timor-Leste?

I’ve tried to locate the best sources to follow the development of the situation. Here’s what I’ve found so far:

http://timor-online.blogspot.com/
This blog is by far the best, updated almost every 10 minutes. Mostly in Portuguese; if you are not lusophone, this google translation gives a pretty decent idea still.
UNOTIL
The official website of the United Nations Office in Timor-Leste. Updated daily with situation reports.
Lusa Timor-Leste
The Portuguese news agency present in Dili. Updated several times a day. Obviously in Portuguese.
Wikipedia: 2006 East Timor Crisis
Gives a concise background. Apparently hasn’t been updated for two days now.
BBC Asia-Pacific
News stories every day.

Other blogs

There are also some friends of mine who have been in East Timor and are keeping blogs:

Navelfluff (Robin’s blog, multilingual)

My Own Development Odyssey (Miwako’s blog, in Japanese)

Life at SIFA (Yukiko’s blog, in Japanese)

Dili Days Disasterous...

2006-05-29T04:50:00.000+03:00

Since I am no longer in Dili, I was going to end writing this blog and start a new one with a more accurate tile. However, the title words have got a whole new meaning now, so I continue with that for time being. Although I have made a couple of posts about recent violence in Dili, I didn’t comment the events frequently or extensively. It is very difficult to believe what I clearly see. Despite the reports, I remained confident that the situation would normalise soon until last Thursday when we received the shocking news that, against the agreement reached, the F-FDTL soldiers shot dead ten disarmed national police officers who were marching peacefully under UN protection (the photograph is from UNOTIL press release / Lusa). I cannot believe this happened literally in front of the building I was still working in only one month ago.

I've been in touch with many friends in Dili, but at the moment most of the expats there are busy being relocated to Darwin, and those few who are staying must be even busier. Most worrying is the situation of the Timorese friends, most of whom are supposed to stay at home or wherever it is safest in country. From the little I’ve heard, they are all alive at least.

Timor-Leste has probably got more media coverage in the Finnish media in past four days than in past four years combined. Yesterday, I was watching evening news where they showed picture material from Dili. There I sat, with a devastating feeling of watching my home burning in the television. And I also experienced the inexplicable and irrational 'I should be there now' sentiment. Had the report gone on any longer, I would probably have started to cry.

The very latest information I have is that President Xanana is leading the national effort for a peaceful end, and the international forces have got increased mandate to calm the ongoing looting and anarchy. I can only hope for the best.

The world has turned upside-down!

2006-05-20T19:20:00.000+03:00

Finland has won the Eurovison song contest. Now, this was always thought to be something as probable as pigs having wings. After more than 40 years of repeted humilation, the victory came with an utterly unconventional pice of music, 'Hard Rock Hallelujah', presented by a monster band Lordi. An as if that weren't enough, they also scored the highest points in the history of the contest. Now, I just wonder who seriously wants to listen to that sort of music... (many people, apparently). Well, judge yourself: http://www.eurovision.tv/english/finland.htm

Gone are the days that earned us the title of the Worst Music Video Ever. It is not the Armi & Danny classic Tahdon olla sulle hyvin hellä, even if sang in English (translated as I wanna love you tender) with a cunningly Finnish accent ('... you vant me tyday, put vat apout tomoRRou'), but rather the stunning coreography that takes this amazin video to the hall of fame. Watch this!

Happy Restoration Day, Timor-Leste!

2006-05-20T16:01:00.000+03:00

Today, it is exactly four years since the United Nations handed over the full government of Timor-Leste to the Timorese people. By a somewhat amazing coincidence, it was also today that I met with Lady Patricia Mirrlees, wife of the Nobel laureate who was in Helsinki to receive a Doctor Honoris Causa title from the Helsinki School of Economics yesterday. It turned out that Lady Mirrlees, a great friend of Timor, had been in Dili just a couple of weeks ago. We had a long discussion especially about the importance of education in building a new country with a majority of the population being youth, along with many other things. The occasion made me feel very proud of having been contributing, with whatever tiny input, to the future of the world's newest nation. My best wishes to the people of Timor-Leste!

Dili and Helsinki calmer already

2006-05-11T11:25:00.000+03:00

I haven't been updating my blog properly for a while, so I haven't reported that it was not only Dili in turmoil, but we had some terrifying incidents here in Helsinki too. These things happened around 1st of May celebrations, which are a really big thing here, but I missed them this year because of an irritating deadline for a conference paper, set very untoughtfully to 1st of May (no cultural sensitivity there!).

Robin has been covering both Dili and Helsinki incidents in his blog, so look there. As he's promised to avoid copying and pasting any more press releases, I save him from that and put the latest press release regarding Dili situation here:

- - -

REPÚBLICA DEMOCRÁTICA DE TIMOR-LESTE

GABINETE DO PRIMEIRO-MINISTRO
PRESS RELEASE

High Level Commission starts the hearings with the ex-military

The High Level Commission will start in the next few days the hearings for the ex-military that of the “petitioners” group. The ex-military that will be heard by the members of the commission belong to a group of 51 people that is in Maliana.

At the same time, contacts are being maintained with the other ex-military that are in the districts of Aileu, Oe-Cusse and Ermera. O Government believes that soon these men and women can be heard in connection to the work that is being developed by the Commission which has representatives from the four sovereign bodies, the Catholic Church and civil society, and whose purpose is to find the truth behind the claims made by the “petitioners” regarding life within the F-FDTL.

Contact is also being maintained between the 20 members that are a part of the F-FDTL and the Timor-Leste National Police and their respective chiefs. The Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, hopes that soon, these man can go back to their units. Until now, a harsher action against these men, forcing them to go back, has not yet been considered by the Government.

The Minister for Labour and Social Reinsertion, Arsénio Bano, delivered yesterday five tonnes of food the for the people that fled and are now in the Aileu district, and has also maintained contacts with the group of about 350 ex-military “petitioners” in order to debate over ways on how the proceed on the humanitarian and financial support that the Government intends to give to the ex-military, so as to integrate them in civil life.

Díli, May 11 2006

Dili in turmoil

2006-04-29T17:17:00.000+03:00

Only a week after I left, we are receiving alarming news about situation in Dili, Timor-Leste. I did know about the demonstrations planned for this week, which were motivated by the frustration of some 600 soldiers who were earlier dismissed from service, but Saturday last week was still perfectly calm and normal. The dismissal itself was due to the said soldiers absent from duty for several months because they were not happy with the conditions of service – or something else; the whole situation and especially the real reasons were somewhat unclear all the time. UNOTIL media monitoring is a good source for more detailed information, as always.

Now the international media has reported at least two deaths. I truly hope that the situation calms down and no further casualties will occur. According to my private sources, unlike the international media even in Finnish news today have reported, the aforementioned dismissed soldiers are not part of the violence, but some other groups have taken advantage of the demonstrations to spread instability. This sounds very much like the 4^th December 2002, when the peaceful student demonstrations escalated to widespread destruction. The picture here is from 2002.

Zero

2006-04-22T17:31:00.000+03:00

Greetings from Bangkok airport! I really feel as in a transitional space in many ways right now.

The morning went surprisingly smoothly. I woke up at 7:00 without alarm clock (very unusual), packed the few remaining items, and was all done by 10 o'clock. As the flight -- I was counting the Indonesian visas required for unavoidable overnight stay in Bali on way to Timor-Leste in my passport and adding up the time before 2004 when the visa was not needed, and concluded that I must have taken the flight MZ8490 from Dili to Denpasar (and the MZ8480 from Denpasar to Dili) at least 18 times during past 3.5 years. Pity that Merpati doesn't have a frequent flyer programme (or actually I think they have one, but only for Indonesian residents). Well, I was about to write that as the flight was at 13:40, I had an idle hour or two, and couldn't figure out what to do and how to be.

Thanks for you all wonderful people who came to my farewell yesterday and/or to see me off at airport today! More on those occassions a bit later.

1 Day to go: busy

2006-04-21T12:36:00.000+03:00

In principle, I'm on leave since Wednesday afternoon, but the only time off that I have managed to take was a quick swim right after lunch then. Otherwise I've been trying to wrap up (though I have to admit I haven't come to office before 10 o'clock).

I managed to arrange the piano to its new home, but I forgot to give them the chair. Have to figure out a solution for that... Now I have to go for my farewell party.

2 Days to go: more rain and challenging schedules

2006-04-20T09:36:00.000+03:00

I didn't quite manage to take the time off today (is somebody surprised), and I still have a plethora of thigs to do. I met the Bishop last week and promised to donate my piano to the local music school that is about to start, but I still haven't asked them to pick up the instrument from my house. I think this means I have to wake up really early tomorrow morning.

3 Days to go: Holiday!

2006-04-19T09:31:00.000+03:00

I am now officially using my remaining annual leave balance until the end of the month. I did go to beach after lunch, but I think I am going to spend quite some time at the office still. I also have managed to arrange my farewell party for Friday.

I also have now my one-way ticket from Dili to Denpasar on beloved Merpati Nusantara Airlines in my pocket. Flying out on Saturday.

4 Days to go: trying to wrap up

2006-04-18T07:29:00.000+03:00

I should only have one working day left, meaning that I should be finishing tomorrow noon. This doesn't seem a very feasible scenario right now - so many things to do still. I'm also beginning to feel overly nostalgic.

5 Days to go: finally saw turtle

2006-04-17T16:20:00.000+03:00

It did rain yesterday again, but we went diving anyway. The visibilty was surprisingly good despite the rain. We first did a place called Pinnacle just a short boat ride from Dili, a reef in the middle of the open sea. We saw an absolutely huge ray; probably it was an owergrown sting ray, I think it was about 3 meters wide, and it came just a couple of metres from us before it turned away.

The other dive we did just behind Jesus (i.e. at the beach behind the statue of Christo Rei at the Eastern end of Dili's coast. And I finally managed to see a turtle there, so I'm quite happy now.

6 days to go: Happy Easter!

2006-04-16T06:43:00.000+03:00

Dili is still quiet, apart from the churches where the Easter mass is being celebrated. And it rained again, just 15 minutes a go a little shower. I hope it didn't blur the water too much, since I'm going diving in an hour.

All in all, it has been a good, long week-end. Lot of good food (and some drinks), a little bit outdoors activity when it wasn't raining too much, and I even managed to complete a couple of school assignments.

Happy Easter to everyone!

7 days to go: still raining

2006-04-15T12:54:00.000+03:00

I had planned to go to beach after lunch today, but it started raining. It seems that the climate change is true, as the weather everywhere is something it is not supposed to be at this time of year.

8 days to go: count down begins

2006-04-14T08:35:00.000+03:00

With this few days left, I thought it might be appropriate to start a count down. Good Friday is very quiet here. Apart from updating the blog, I try to deal with some of my backlog of school assignments. Tomorrow, I shall definitely opt for beach and/or diving. By the way, the number of working days left is only two and a half, so from Wednesday lunchtime I shall be out of office.

Enhanced framework for comments

2006-04-14T08:23:00.000+03:00

I was notified that commenting this blog is complicated, and I discovered that I had indeed forgot to enable anonymous comments. I have now adjusted the settings, so please feel free to comment whatever you want :)

Bangkok & Bali

2006-04-09T15:59:00.000+03:00

Counting the decreasing Dili days, there are 8 working days left, so I am now on my way to complete what remains to be done (and enjoy the weather). I have a bit awkward itinerary with overnight stops both in Bangkok and in Bali.

Yesterday, I spent a whole afternoon shopping, so that now my legs hurt. Actually, I didn't buy much anything, but there is a new shopping centre 'Siam Paragon' next to Siam Centre, and just wandering around there filled my exercise quota for the week. And there was some 'midnight shopping fever' (or whatever it was called), so I had plenty of time for pointless wandering and wondering. Funny, now that I think about it, a same kind of midnight shopping thing was going on last time I was in Bangkok more than two years ago; maybe that's on all the time.

This is probably my last night in Bali, at least in the near future. I must admit I used to think that this place is over-advertised, and never thought much of it as a holiday destination, just an unavoidable stopover (and I have indeed stopped here overnight at least 15 times during past three and a half years). But now, I think I'm really beginning to like this place. The weather is simply marvelously pleasant, atmosphere very friendly, and the hotel so unbelievably comfortable... Well, I think this is some kind of grass-is-greener-on-the-other side syndrome.

Arrivals

2006-04-05T16:52:00.000+03:00

My shipment arrived in Helsinki today, which is even a bit earlier than anticipated. Unfortunately, It won't be out of port before next week, and then I'll be in Dili again. But at least I shall have furniture in my flat when I come back.

A more remarkable arrival today is that of a healthy baby girl to my sister. I guess I should begin to adapt myself to the role of uncle... Anyway, congratulations to the family!

Is this Spring or Autumn?

2006-04-02T07:40:00.000+03:00

A common belief in Finland is that Autumn is a season gray, chilly and depressing. I am not sure what this typology is based on, but all the criteria are certainly matched now, yet it is Spring, according to the calendar. Confusing.

I am quite happy to have another two weeks in Dili soon and enjoy the climate that is so obviously more suited for human beings. The only problem is that I have already developed quite a backlog with my course assignments - I hope they have installed wireless internet on beaches while a have been away...

Multi Release

2006-03-21T15:17:00.000+02:00

I had a couple of drafts posts that I only published now, so here we go. I was hoping to put some pictures there, but since I haven’t been carrying the camera with me, that doesn’t work.

I thought I would have had time to organise photographs, write long stories, email friends etc., but it looks like I’ve managed to construct an unsolvable equation (again). I’m furnishing my flat, attending two PhD classes and trying to finalise a conference paper, on top of which I’m anxious to take some classes in Latin and ancient history as well. It would help if I could wake up earlier on Mornings, but I like sleeping far too much…