Thread: Employment Opportunities

Originally Posted by EchiDna

still it is a sad indictment that not so long ago it would have been spot the tojo...

Loved the ABC mini series on the peace keeping mission to Timor...Discos everywhere!
Mike

Move over Tony Park, Wilbur Smith.

Magnificent.

Originally Posted by MickS

Keep it going BBC. Fantastic! You need an agent

The orphanage pics just go to show - no matter where you go, kids are kids..

Keep the posts coming mate.

Micks,

Yes. The innocence of kids is universal, everything else is learned from us. Let me tell you of an aspect of being a kid in a well supported orphanage in Timor. Make comparisons between the health, cleanliness, and clothing on the kids from the Gleno Orphanage, compared to any of the kids from the villages. Unfortunately, the people running the orphanage had the experience of village kids being abandoned because it was believed, if a kid was left there it might have a better chance in life...sad, but true.

Originally Posted by 2 rocks

BBC
I cannot thank you enough for this thread, the insights and images you have shared.

Mozambique was fantastic - and fuels my fascination with Africa. Reminding me of the countryside and people in two films I never tire of, however tragic, Hotel Rwanda and Sometimes in April documenting the evil that occurred there.

Don't suppose you came across any Shetani while in Africa??

Similarly, with East Timor - I've read a few books on the Balibo 5, "Cover Up" by Jill Joliffe and "Death In Balibo, Lies In Canberra" by Hamish MacDonald and Des Ball. To see this country in your photos is deeply evocative.

While to many it will sound gauche and simpering, you live a life I always wished I had, and now, as I find myself at a crossroads, I wonder if there's the chance fo me to have a little of that too, if I only knew how.

Respect, BBC, keep it coming as long you want. We'll be waiting!
Mike

Thanks for your comments.

My fascination with Mozambique runs deep and is because of my desire to know and understand my wife. Many people will look at peoples from the developing world and will often make a judgement of them as being unsophisticated...nothing is further from the truth.

In comparison, we who exist in the developed world have been 'dumbed down' and much of our humanity has been cast aside in the race to modernize. We have become mere units of consumption in an economy...instead of being humans who are valued within a a societal community...my thoughts.

Shetani come from further up the coast, nearer to Kenya. I note there art has some similarities to be found within the MaKonde of northern Mozambique and Tanzania: Modern Makonde Art: Hamburg Mawingu Collection

Having spent time in Mozambique before I went to Timor was of benefit to me. When the Timorese understood I had lived and worked in Mozambique and had family there, they were often admiring. Australians, think we are adored in East Timor, and we are respected and viewed as a benevolent power...probably similar to how many countries view the USA. Something that is not often well appreciated by our diplomats and officials.

Whereas, Mozambique is highly respected and loved. After speaking with the former DFAT Desk Officer for Timor, I found this aspect of Timor was not well appreciated...our people just did not well appreciate the respect and historical linkages between the two countries.

Firstly, Mozambique was the very first country to lead protest against the Indonesian invasion in the UN....and never gave up. Mozambique gave refuge to a significant number of the people who were able to get away, and to this day, there is still a Timorese enclave in Maputo, Mozambique.

The Portuguese, from the 1850's until the 1930's, used Mozambican troops to put down a series of insurrections in East Timor...especially out along the western border. None of these troops were ever returned to Mozambique.

It was noticeable to me that there were similarities between the forms of housing in the western end of East Timor, to what I have seen in Mozambique.

Mr Geoffrey Hull of the University of Western Sydney remains in Timor Leste to this day, studying and documenting all the living languages of the place. I asked him if he had detected any trace of Makuwha, Makonde, or Mashangaan within the linguistics of the western region. He was surprised by my question and said that honestly it had never occurred to them. Though he doubted, with the assimilation of any Mozambican males into the local culture, that any words or idioms would have lasted beyond a generation. Because, like in most cultures, language is normally learned from your mother.

I did find another living trace of Mozambique in Timor. There was a girl, who worked in the Australian Embassy. Her grandfather, had been bought out from Mozambique as a young child, to be a slave for a Portuguese Agricultural company, and this was before WW2. I met him, he did not speak Portuguese and sadly, he had little recall of where he came from. He was estimated to be in his 80s, which is a grand old age for East Timor...and Mozambique. Here is his photo:



What a story this man held inside.

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This is a photo of Mick Stone, having caught this cod off the wharf at Com, near Los Palos. Mick was an infantry Major who was the mentor for 1Bn at Los Palos. He is an excellent tetum linguist, and highly respected by the Timorese. He is now out of the Army and working for President Ramos Horta as an aide.

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This man is Brigadier Tuar Matan Ruak, commonly referred to as TMR. TMR took the fight to the Indons after Xanana Gusmao was captured. He lived and fought in the bush for 25 yrs. TMR and I would sit and converse in Portuguese, he is a real gentleman, and will be a future President of Timor Leste.

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TMR and the Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, at the marchout of my recruits.

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Never a parade without smoke and mirrors.

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Inspecting the troops. Reinado the rebel who was recently killed is in the rear rank of this parade.

This was an exercise we did on the southern side of the island, getting a Bn out and manouvering, being seen by the people, and showing them the F-FDTL were a force of the people. This photo shows how we also used the exercise as an educative process for revisiting the battles that FALINTIL fought against the Indons. This was an old ABRI barracks that was attacked.

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This man is a great officer, COL Lorei, a disciplinarian who did not brook any poo.

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Here COL Lorei is showing his hard side to the local inhabitants...the little girl grabbed onto his finger and did not want to let him go....another cutie overpowered by Lorei.

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And here is the man, the President, Xanana Gusmao, used to make it his practice to get out in the bush as much as he could with his troops. These people are so much at home in the bush...they have knowledge of their country we would never learn in a hundred years.

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Evidence of the gas riches of Timor. This gas has been burning for goodness knows how long. It is located over near Beaco on the south coast to the east of Viqueque.

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