This is an appeal to the masses.
Has anyone seen a real live bottle of local Buffalo or Lion beer lately ? I would like to acquire.
Does anyone know the history of these two breweries ?
Don’t worry, I have no intention of actually drinking them.
Author Archives: Squatter
A week all over the place
For me, the last week has been pretty confusing and all over the place, like flies at a BBQ. (How did I post an article twice – I don’t know !) Hopefully, the last of the big power problems have fizzled away. But the violence appears on the increase again. Election dates have been called and the election campaigns are starting to wind up. There are chronic rice shortages and a perplexing lack of coordinated effort to sort it out.
I received messages yesterday to avoid unnecessary travel due to trouble and the absence of diners at lunchtime at the Beach Cafe or Castaways was a sure sign. (Bicycle now tucked away at home for the time being !) I believe someone from the OZ embassy had their car stoned on arrival at the embassy yesterday. Rock fights and stoning of vehicles reported near City Cafe and One More Bar – places I happily cycled past yesterday. Troubl;e near the Bebonuk rice warehouse. The Fomento building (Ministry of Agriculture) has come under sustained rocking over the last 36 hours. (This is the building that was comprehensively trashed last year.)
I believe the UN police suggest that it is the worst they have experienced since they arrived last year. (Keep in mind they arrived a number of weeks after the military forces had subdued the more serious stuff of last year.)
Rice shortage
The rice shortage has been known about for weeks but nothing much “seems” to have happened. The shops do not have any at the moment and this is a local staple. The World Food Program (WFP) warehouses are said to have stocks but it has also been reported they have been looted. There are other reports that the looting was politically motivated and I have read assertions from both Fretilin and its opposition inferring that the other may have been behind the looting.
When out east a couple of weeks ago, it was quite noticeable that the rice paddies near Baucau were drastically short of water, with perhaps only about 5 to 10% of the paddies in operation. It seems generally accepted that the wet season is about 6 weeks late, with more regular rain only over the last week.
Commission of Truth and Friendship
The international news has tended to concentrate a lot on the Commission of Truth and Friendship at a time when ironically, security issues here have been deteriorating. It seems to have grabbed a bit more attention but I am sure the events of the last 24 hours will swing the action back here again.
Traffic lights
The traffic lights came into operation about 2 weeks ago but at first, for short periods only. I have never seen anything grossly offensive but admit to driving through a red when no traffic was around. Others have reported being overtaken at a red light and today, I was told that no-one is stopping for fear of being a target. Some have dutifully stopped and then been rocked. No, it is not the time to be sitting down and doing a photo shoot on the subject.
The Presidential election
I believe a couple of candidates have put their names forward, with the current PM Jose Ramos Horta expected to so by the end of the week. People were suggesting that the PM was angling for Fretilin backing, but it was not to be as the President of Fretilin Lu’Olu is now the Fretilin candidate.
The Parliamentary elections
The date is still unknown but the real political fight is this election. Australia’s “Age” newspaper reported that the current president Xanana Gusmao was going to be a candidate under the resurrected CNRT party. We will have to wait and see on that one.
UN Police
Well the boys are doing it tough right now. Dare I say the unsayable, but it is pretty obvious that an integrated force from over 20 countries is a bit of a shambles. Command structures and communications are said to be a bit on the disorganised side. We all know how inefficient things get, the bigger the committee.
Weekly Summary
In general, it feels like things have reverted to the way things were in May last year. Lots of ad-hoc security problems and a feeling like things may still get worse. Once the streets get too unsafe, movement of goods and services will start to suffer, fresh fruit and veg supplies may be affected and general food distribution could be a problem for everyone.
As long as the elections are on the forward planning calendar, one feels that we are in for a roller coaster of a ride. And no limes at home … again.
Bicycle rage 101
Maybe I was on the angry pills last week. But usually, I don’t have any trouble driving around and rarely have much trouble on my bicycle but one day last week, I must have popped a bad pill or something.
How can someone on a bicycle get road rage ? Well, if you cycle back from Cristo Rei not long before sunset, you will find yourself cycling west against a stream of vehicles heading for a sunset drink down at the “Caz Bar” or “Sol e Mar” (or a bit of exercise). The road can just fit 2 vehicles and is quite rural at the edges.
But 3 times, oncoming drivers attempted overtaking manoevres just as they were about to pass me. The first time, I was too late to get out a suitably aimed string of invective, but the 2nd guy copped both barrels. You can imagine how it went. I am wary of this stream of traffic, warning systems on alert and say to myself, “you are about to overtake right now aren’t you?”. And he did.
The 3rd one happened in slow motion outside the Lita Store. Another string of invective and my hand went into the air in consternation. The UN police driver following the offender, merely threw both hands into the air as if to say “what can you do?”.
Two minutes later, the piece de resistance occured next to the Palacio do Governo where the traffic was filling both lanes on the one way system. My way was blocked by a group of Timorese trying to cross the road at a “pedestrian crossing”. They were stuck, creeping out a few steps then retreating and I could not get around them unless I veered out into the traffic. I stopped, pondered the situation for 10 seconds then I snapped.
I got off my bike, walked out across the traffic (on the pedestrian crossing) holding up my hand to stop the traffic and herded the group of shocked Timorese across the road, while offering constructive suggestions to the drivers shocked into stopping at such a critical moment in their driving day.
The real power struggle
There are a couple of power struggles going on here – in the “corridors of power” and in the “generators of power”. Who knows what is going behind the corridors of power but behind the generators of power is some sort of battle which is being realised as continuous rolling power cuts.
If you are fortunate to have a generator, then you may not even notice too much but if you happen to be located near to a generator that sounds like a Mac truck idling under your bed, you tend to notice. Particularly when it runs all night just to keep your body temperature at the cutting edge of sleeping efficiency.
I still do not know the real story but I have heard two takes on this. One is that the diesel fuel supply was contaminated with water and the other that a cheap (and bad) batch of fuel was purchased. And with no fuel testing facilities here, it seems to be taking a very long time to resolve. I did see that some sort of government committee made a special inspection of the generating facilities in a response to all this.
There have been about 3 weeks of rolling cuts now, anything from 3 to 6 hours per day with the odd day much more than that. It will of course, depend where you live and I am unsure if both the generating plants are affected in a similar way.
For many people, this is not even a discusson point any more.
Coffee report updated
On 19 November, I reported on the local coffee industry but didn’t give figures and I should give a likely correction as well. 19.11.2006 The Coffee report
Firstly, oil income has probably now displaced coffee as the primary source of export earnings.
Cooperative Cafe Timor is the biggest coffee producing entity in the country so the figures I have are from them. Delta coffee elected not to get involved in the 2006 harvest due to the security problems. I am unaware of what exporting Ensul coffee may or may not do.
As for CCT figures, the final figures for 2006 are :
- Production was 2300 tons which is down from over 3000 tons in 2005. Security issues were the main cause of a reduction and it is estimated production would have been around 3000 tons.
- Three critical weeks during harvest time were lost due to unrest.
- CCT employ around 700 to 900 workers (mostly women) at their dry processing facility in Akadera-hun in Dili, around 300 workers at their drying facility in Tibar and another 20 at their premises in Comorro.
- The delayed rains in the 2006/07 wet season will most likely lead to a reduction in the 2007 harvest to around 2500 tons.
Yesterday was the first significant rainfall of this year. I can recall about 3 separate heavy rains in December but so far, that has been it this wet season.
The Thai food explosion
I like Thai food (and Indian and Italian and Turkish and …). Unless you live in Dili under a rock, you should have noticed the steady growth in this segment of the eating scene.
I finally got around to going to the Thai Pavilion near the Pertamina wharf. Looked flashy, looked a good candidate for a big let-down, but no, I give this one the big thumbs up. I will need to go a few times to give the extensive menu a good (chili) workout but looks good.
You can eat inside in the air-con or on either the lower or upper floor balconies. There is a waiter who can actually describe what you might be considering eating. If you regard this as a good thing, it joins the 2 Burmese restaurants plus the Golden Star Chinese in Audian. You also get a real cloth napkin and cloth tablecloth … plus large LCD screen for karaoke.
The main thing is that it felt so uniquely different than anywhere else and the prices are not excessive. I have marked my card for the $5 lunch buffet, but I will not hold that against it if is not as good as a la carte.
“Thai Foods” near the Esplanada Hotel has now moved into the old Paradise restaurant premises across the road from Hotel Dili 2001. Based on the significant increase in after work road traffic in the Cristo Rei direction (ie east), it may be a good move. The old Thai Foods premises is currently being re-worked into a Filipino restaurant just as it was before Thai Foods appeared.
If you like “padh thai” noodles, you can now get them at Bangkok Thai, Bangkok Spice 2, Dili Club, Thai Foods, Bagan Beach Cafe, Thai Pavilion, Harbour View Cafe and Dili Beach Cafe.
With the Thai Pavilion adjacent to the “new” Comorro fruit and market, it struck me that I could return to going to the market on Saturday morning and following it up with a good cheap lunch in relaxed setting, just like back in OZ. Now, all we need is the delicatessen with the cheeses, fresh pasta, freshly sliced pastrami, espresso coffee, continental butcher and … Drats, just dribbled on my keyboard.
Snorkeling out east
There is no doubt I have been getting too serious here lately. I haven’t even commented on my trip out east a week or so ago when I finally got to stay at the “Com Resort” at Com which is the only establishment in the country that uses the term “resort”. And possibly after the Hotel Timor, the only accommodation with conference facilities.
I guess it is the closest thing to a resort. It’s not bad but perhaps a shade expensive for what you get. But on the other hand, it is a remote sort of place without electricity, apart from that generated by the resort generator.
We took a Supreme room, meaning it had air-con. Technically, the small AC unit was probably too small to handle the luxuriously-sized room, but it worked during the prescribed generator operating times of 7pm to 9am. There was no sign of life from the TV which showed a blue screen and none of the Indovision satellite I expected. But we were not there to watch TV.
We had our snorkelling gear and were told the best places were at the point to the west of the resort or down at the port in the harbour. After breakfast, we walked down to the port where 2 Thai fishing boats were docked. Now, if you don’t snorkle but do want to see coral and fish and stuff like that, the wharf is the place to go (with your camera). But it is not the place to go to get wet if fishing boats are there as I am sure it was a little bit more than bilge water scum on the surface.
Funny how on the walk back, 10 tais* vendors appeared and had their wares out. Prices were a bit high so we didn’t partake. There are probably about 3 or 4 guest houses on the shoreline and if you are prepared to forgo AC (next time) one or two look quite neat. I love the one with the sign “cold beer, warm beer”. I think that covers all possibilities.
Later on when the tide was right, we went the other way to the point about 1km west of the resort. Pretty good to get a coral reef to yourself. Clearly the other resort guests were not there to get wet.
The next day, we went to Jaco Island via Tutuala. This is the most eastern point of the island of Timor. We rented a boat to take us the 500m across to the island and snorkeled off the island just because we were there. Again, a coral reef to yourself. You could see a mile under the water which was just far enough to see a small shark, which on seeing us, disappeared as fast as a speeding bullet. We returned to the mainland and had barbecued fish cooked by the fisherman who inhabit the shore. The fish was excellent and cost 1/10th of Dili prices and was much better.
All in all a very pleasant trip with absolutely none of the security problems of Dili.
* tais is Timor’s unique woven cloth that at the end of the day, is probably the most likely souvenir purchase one will make.
Elections coming up – lawyers win again
There are 2 election processes coming up in the next few months – Presidential and Parliamentary elections. The Presidential election has been called for 9 April – about 2 months from now. My understanding is that the Parliamentary election must be held within 80 days of the Presidential election so it must be held by 28 June.
The Fretilin party claim the Parliamentary election must be held by the end of May. I don’t know why but there may be more on this to come.
A 3 person foreign election certification team has released 3 reports on the progress of the organisation for these elections. Their most recent report #3 concluded :
On this basis, the Team finds that at present the electoral process in Timor-Leste is not proceeding satisfactorily. The findings set out at Annex 3 are of substantial significance, and relate to all but one of the main areas on which the Team has been mandated to focus. It is therefore imperative that appropriate corrective action, as recommended in this Report, be taken as a matter of the highest priority.
I downloaded the report from the UNMISET web site and rather than attempt to read it (its not exactly comfortable reading), skimmed my eyes over a number of sections that are shaded. These are the key action items.
The thing that strikes me is that with 2 months to go, the certification team’s action items include a number of recommended law changes in relation to electoral laws. I counted recommendations to repeal 3 laws and recommendations to amend 18 others.
These law changes are based on meeting benchmark (international) criteria and also to tidy up electoral laws that are in conflict with the constitution.
This will be a test. Changing 21 laws in 2 months.
Press freedom a la rsf.org
Reporters Without Borders (AKA Reporters sans frontiere) at http://www.rsf.org have published their 2006 Annual Report on press freedom around the world.
As the TL report is short, I will reprint it here (and hope I don’t get my freedom to re-publish it infringed)
East-Timor – Annual report 2007
Riots and political tension did not make the job of the press any easier. Several publications were threatened by supporters or opponents of the former prime minister, Mari Alkatiri. Despite this violence, the young country continues to enjoy a favourable atmosphere for press freedom.
A military rebellion against the government triggered a serious deterioration in working conditions for journalists from May 2006. Several publications had to work in secret for fear of reprisals. The Timor Post and Suara Timor Lorosae had to halt publication for several days under pressure from supporters of Mari Alkatiri, who was forced to resign at the end of June. The former head of government had openly criticised and called for a boycott of independent media like Suara Timor Lorosae.
Journalists were physically attacked on several occasions. On 10 June, an Associated Press reporter was manhandled and briefly detained by Australian peace-keeping soldiers. On 12 June, a gang of youths stoned journalists from the Timor Post. Political militants ransacked the offices of the leading radio and television channel TVTL in Dili on 29 June demanding the suspension of news programmes. Finally, on 9 November an Agence France-Presse correspondent was hit in the face by a stone thrown by a demonstrator.
As for me, I am not press and apart from a couple of ranters last year accusing me of being a patsy for the Australian presence here, I have received no heavying. In the interests of open-ness, yes I did delete their rants. I am the author, this is my blog, no-one pays me to do this – so there !
Actually I do not have a lot of sympathy for some reporters who were here in May/June/July last year. They only came to see blood, fire and rampaging and then were gone. They were racing around trying to go anywhere to see some of this. When I saw one TV reporter doing a story while walking amongst a group of running youths, I can easily see how a security force would get cheesed off with this.
Oops, there goes the media career.
Water problems
If you can’t talk about bottoms and personal hygiene, do not read any further. This article is for scatologists only. Repeat : “Warning Will Robinson”.
For the last week, I have self-diagnosed myself as having a mild case of giardia. In the past, I have had the real deal but this is very mild. If you have had it, you know the drill – bad wind, burping, distended stomach, bloatedness, following by the occasional evacuation. Add on to that a bit of lethargy and loss of energy.
For me, it has been manageable this time except for the day I “followed through”. May I thank the Lord for permitting this to happen while at home and not (for example) while riding my bike.
While in South America, I was not so lucky. Three hours on a bus in the Andes, precipitous drops right outside the bus window, arrive at destination, feel warm wetness in nether regions, ask partner to check rear-end, confirmed severe accident and I didn’t even know I did it. Emptied contents of underwear, hauled them straight back up and proceeded to tackle the day as planned (sans toilet or any personal hygiene products). That was one of those days when you just want to go into a coma until it is all over. And the next day, I was in a coma.
I had pondered whether you should all know this, but I grabbed the half-consumed plastic bottle of commercially acquired water from last week, opened it up and … it smelt like a botty burp (ie toilet water). I had another bottle in the corner that had been opened for a couple of weeks and … no smell of used toilet paper. Conclusion : I copped a bad bottle and domestic environmental conditions were not to blame.
I am not the only one who been affected by reverse enjoyment, and I have got off lightly as the main detrimental effect has been loss of energy and the strong desire to lie down and have a good deskansa. (Or malinger around my laptop and write blithering dross.)
The word around town is that the culprit is the large plastic water barrels that many people use for drinking water. I doubt that any expat would risk tap water, whether it be the Dili piped supply or bore water. The OZ doctor has had a big run with this one and the drug that appeared to fix it up for severe sufferers was the classic anti-giardia drug, Bactrim. Hence my self-diagnosis.
It seems to be well-known that the bottled water company has quality control issues at regular intervals. I assume this means “run out of chemical A … she’ll be right for a week”, or “UV lamps broken … better order some more”. A long-term resident once told me to never use the barrel water. So one reverts to the smaller 1.5 l and 0.6 l plastic bottles, which has been the house rule for last 2 or 3 weeks.
It is somewhat disconcerting to cop a bad small bottle as well. But I did buy it in LosPalos last week and I had never seen this particular brand in Dili before. Warning over.