I struggled to wake up thismorning, snoozing the alarm several times before hauling myself outfrom under the covers. I guess even in tropical climes the start to theweek is sometimes a difficult one.
International Relations.
Undoubtably the highlight of my day today - a very long day by any stretch of the imagination - was meeting the retired Bishop of Oslo, Bishop Gunnar. He's been appointed to facilitate the national dialogue process amongst the political leadership.
An interesting man; one whose life dedicated to the church has led him to build peace and bridges all over the world. Guatemala, Namibia, South Africa.. the names of the various countries in whose peace processes he has played a role popped up in the casual conversation over dinner at the very fancy Hotel Timor. A close friend of Tutu and Mbeki from anti-apartheid days, he also served on the Nobel Peace Prize committe for about 40 years. Now 2 years after being forced to retire at age 70 he has been commuting on a monthly basis between Oslo and Dili for the past 7 months with no sign of letting up.
A formidable person in a soft, humble way. And committed to building a peace from within Timorese society. He is interested in furthering the work that GTZ has started among the martial arts groups rather than reinventing the wheel which seems to be a sensible approach.
The international presence in Dili is huge. For a country of 14,000 square kilometres, a population of just under 1 million it seems half the population of Dili is international - in compounds, behind high fences and barbed wire. Even my hotel's like that.
All here to help. All here to make a difference. But very rarely working together it seems, or working together in silos. The challenges of this little island touch every aspect of its inhabitants' life. Yet much of the international response is targeted at delivering partial solutions only. Only food supplies. Or only security. Or only small income generating activities. There does not seem to be a co-ordinating structure that the multitude of aid activities are working in harmony with each other rather than at cross purposes.
But this kind of situation is also, rather cynically, the life-blood of many of these agencies. If a crisis did not exist, they would not be there. So create the sense of a human catastrophe, and we have a reason to be there. Keep it going and we can keep going. Of course this is not necessarily a conscious thought - but I think once one is operating in a particular paradigm you find what you are looking for. If all you have is a hammer, everything else becomes a nail.
So it is gratifying to think that the small contribution that I'm making by breezing in as an expert then breezing out after my analysis and recommendations will hopefully add some weight to concrete actions with the martial arts groups. That would be worthwhile...
On another note, Reis my interpreter was looking a little worse for wear today. Initially we put that down to him having had a late night watching movies, but as the day progressed he got more and more silent. He eventually admitted he was feeling a little glum because his friends were graduating this week from the National University and he was not. He had had to cut short his studies to work to support his family back in Lospalos on the far Eastern side of the island.
And he is one of the lucky ones. The effect of the outbreaks of physical violence are minor in comparison to the silent structural violence people suffer everyday. In 2002, 30 people were killed, 2000 homes were destroyed across East Timor. That's bad enough, but on a global stage, it would not be an extraordinary event. The fact that 174,000 people fled their homes is phenomenal. It speaks of a deep-rooted sense of insecurity that the moment something
happens, the reaction is to run.
And now those people are living in IDP (internally displaced people) camps all over. And long-term damage is being done because children aren't being educated and those lucky few who have been educated are leaving the country (or more likely have left) because of the lack of employment opportunities....
Ah well, a blueish Monday for me....
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