Socializing on Friday

Today, I experienced island time at its finest. Various people had arrangements to see Bob before he leaves on Wednesday; spoiler alert, not everyone made it.

We started our day at the Gusman Reading Room, the closest thing to a public library. At the front door, there’s a plaster statue of an old man sitting in a chair waiting for visitors. Think of a wax museum figure without the oversized head.  It's benign, and just a wee bit creepy.  (Gusman was the first president after Restoration, the point that East Timor restored its independence.)

Nonetheless, there are several computer stations and it's free.  Bob has already handed over the netbook to me, so he was without any other way communicate with his stamp vendor, family and friends.

Lunch was scheduled with the famous Charlie. He heads an NGO that does political advocacy. Everyone knows and likes Charlie,and once I met him, it was easy to see why.

Bob didn't check his texts. Charlie was running late. He was sitting in a Parliamentary committee hearing equivalent to our Estimates debate. The subject was the Petroleum Ministry.  Oil and gas is responsible for 95% of the nation’s budget, so this committee hearing was VERY important.

We went to lunch at 1:30, and Charlie texted that he would join us when he could. Please order, he said.

Charlie left the hearing early in order to make it to the restaurant before the kitchen closed. We has a lively lesson on the oil and gas industry.  Essentially the offshore fields are almost depleted and the government us not ready to acknowledge this. There are a few on-shore wells, but none large enough to be commercially viable. The first test well was drilled in the mid 1970s, so as resources go, it's quite predictable that the last of the three offshore sites will close in five years or so.

Although Charlie’s group has been publishing such predictions for about four years, this is the first time opposition members have mentioned it in Parliament.

After Charlie returned to the hearings, we went to meet the man who served as Bob’s interpreter when he was here for the independence referendum. Mickey lived through three of modern history’s most significant events.

When the Portuguese pulled out in 1975, the Indonesians invaded.  Mickey’s mother fled to the hills with her infant son, and stayed in the jungle for three years.

In 1991, Mickey was at the Santa Cruz Massacre, and has a bullet wound on right leg to prove it. Protesting students were funnelled into the graveyard and shot at the only gate as they tried to enter. Mickey did not think of himself as an activist. His whole school joined the march as it went by.  When the shooting started, no one knew what was happening or where to run. The shooters were in the Indonesian army.

Survivors were shipped off to Jakarta, and Mickey found himself in a refugee camp. For four months he did not know where his family was,or even if they were alive. Eventually they communicated via Red Cross.

In 1999, Mickey became an interpreter for an international group of election observers. At night, militia members would come to Mickey, point their guns at him and demand he stop helping the foreigners. Mickey replied that the foreigners were there to help and make sure everything was fair. Other than intimidate him, Mickey remained unharmed.

As followers of Timorese history know, things got pretty bad after the referendum (the ballot). Again, Mickey’s family fled to the hills.

He's now in seminary school, working with youth and sport.  Sports here are football (soccer), basketball and volleyball.

We hoped to walk up Cristo Ries with Mickey. That didn't happen. I'll have to tackle those 500 steps another day.

From coffee with Mickey, we walked along the ware front to my hotel. Janu and a friend met us, but alas Felix didn't make it

Janu’s friend Tony is Chinese Timorese, and he told us of his sister's advocacy during occupation. She flew under the radar, getting away with some activist stuff because no one believed that she would be involved.  She's now a rich corporate lawyer in Aus.

The locals all seem to have a story about independence, and they are very very proud of independence. Makes me worried about what will happen when oil revenues dry up.

Saturday, we're off to Tutuala at the far eastern point of the Island. Should be pretty.