Bill, you are safe here.

I understand a couple of international groups have been providing guidance in the process of electioneering. How to stick election posters on every known surface … how to string up tiny flags on strings and hang them across as many roads as possible …

Nowhere is safe. I hope they provided guidance on the appropriate glue, otherwise the biggest post-election job creation scheme will be removal of election materials.

There is no doubt that there has been a bit of tampering with opponent’s advertising, as you tend to notice things like “yesterday, that light pole was party A, now it is party B”. I haven’t seen any defacing of candidate faces yet.

Perhaps the most amazing posters and banners are the CNRT ones. This week, I hope to take a few photos of the more incredible ones. They all seem to have photos of Xanana, but many have photos of incredibly modern things like 22nd century 20 storey apartment buildings, jet fighters and all those things that are not here now. To be honest, lets hope they are kidding about the multi-story condos and jet fighters. Club Med TL ? No thanks.

There is no doubt that Xanana is one of those icons that ought to be an advertiser’s dream in the same league as Michael Jordan. I hope we are not heading for Xanana toothpaste, Xanana beauty soap or Xanana BBQ accessories. I could handle “Xanana Export Pumpkins” but I draw the line at exporting bananas.