US Mercy Ship in Dili

Today afternoon, I was strolling at the beach. See the picture up there. The ship did not have much activity. It looked so calm by the time the sun was about to disappear and be eaten by the horizon.  

The ship comes from the US, called US Mercy ship. It is here in Dili (East Timor) for a humanitarian visit. It carries doctors and surgeons to provide free health services to patients.

Doctors in it come from many different nationalities. From America, Australia and South East Asian countries. That is what I heard when I was once invited to tour in there four years ago. This week I saw it comes again.

It will provide medical assistance to patients who have got recommendation from local medics. There, patients will receive medical examinations and surgeries to various diseases.

It will also stop by in other Asia pacific countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, etc. to provide the same services; the visit is a huge help for East Timor because people from rural areas who cannot afford to go to doctor will receive a privileged treatment.  

**I hope this gives you an inspiration 

Triste no Hirus Dala Ida

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Triste tebes ohin meiu dia hau sai nudar sasin ba cruelidade desijaun ida husi ita nia nain ulun sira hodi harahun estátua ou uma adat oan ida iha rotunda estrada Mercado Municipal--Estadio Municipal nian. Ha’u haré bulldozer ida nia kakorok naruk kesi tutan ho martélu bo’ot maka baku no tú’u fila—fila uma oan ne too rahun-rihun ba rai leten.

Nudar humanu ida nebe iha sentimentu, maske ida ne’e laos criatura moris, maibe hau triste tebes wain hira haré ita nia desijaun hirak ne’e. Maske uma adat ne’e hare kikoan no lá vale, maibé ninia presensa ba ita nudar populasaun senti rotunda ne’e iha ona karater ketak ida ba ita sira nebe lor-loron halo movimentu iha estrada neba. 

  

Problema mak uma adat oan iha rotunda ne’e hau senti ema foin halo iha tinan hirak liu ba. Agora ita tengki baku rahun tomak. Tanba saida? Iha Timor, ita iha crise moral no étika ba profisaun balun nebe namkari iha instituisaun balun. Quando ita baku rahun sasan kada tinan hanesan ne, ita lá respeita ona ita nia resultado servisu origin, ita la respeita ona karater no valor nebe inherente husi sasan ida nebe ita hari ona.

Ita kán liu ba osan, ba físiku nebe laos tanba valor maibé tanba ho pinta—pinti ho kor oi-oin, ita kán liu ba festa, ita kán liu ba celebrasaun. Ita haluha ona katak wain hira ita mantein sasan tuan nebe ita hari uluk ona, ne signifika katak ita apresia ita nia idea, ita nia servisu, ita nia kreatividade. So lideres prematura deit mak la tau valor ba nia idea, kreatividade nebe nia rasik inicia. Tanba ne’e mak ohin nia halo, aban ba soe deit ou baku rahun deit.

Ema mentalidade destroidor deit maka hanoin halo ohin aban baku rahun tomak no halo foun deit. Ne mentalidade grupo intelektual nebe jagoan terlambat iha tempu mundu modernijasaun agora ninian. Ita nia nai ulun sira presija pikiniki (picnic) barak. 

Se karik nia rajaun tanba uma adat oan ne’e at ona, ntaun nia pergunta mak ne’e, tanba sa mak uluk la halo diak kedan para hodi dura netik tinan lima ba leten? Agora mak ita tengki halo fila-fila kada tinan ba tinan. Hau hanoin katak sorti estatua Nai Jesus Cristo ne nudar Maromak, se lae ida ne’e mos ema bele hanoin at hela mak ne. Tanba tauk tama inferno, sira troka ba troka mai kada tinan mak fasilidade no infraestrutura iha estatua ne’e nia okos deit.

Baku rahun tomak sasan ne laos alternativa mesak deit. Alternativa seluk presija tau hodi tetu par fo balansu ba interese entre saida mak ita iha ona no saida mak ita hakarak iha tempu oin mai. Kuandu idea mak buntu ou hotu ona, hanoin maka destroy los deit.

Sentimentu tristeja ida ne’e mosu wain hira ohin hau asiste ekipa destroyer baku rahun strutura uma adat ne ho live ou Timor balun bolu dehan siarang lansu. Hau ohin la konsege foti fotografia. Deskulpa!

**Espera artigu ne halo ita bot triste mos no fo inspirasaun dala ida

Congratulations to all my Classmates, Fulbrighters, and Friends

Taken in from of Marvin Hall

It was 7 am morning today here in East Timor, and about 5 pm in Lawrence, Kansas. I opened up my Facebook wall seeing it full of joyful photo poses. Everyone was happy to celebrate their graduation of college studies. Graduation is indeed one of the biggest life achievements one has. Everyone must be so proud of what they have completed in this phase of life.

Time flies. I just left Lawrence 5 months ago. I left friends as students, but they became graduates today and will become professionals in the future. They still look the same as I left them, friendly, welcoming, and inspiring. That I would like them to keep the characters because friendliness always brings rewards.

I graduated earlier than those who I congratulate here in this blog. However, the commencement part, the fun part, the last hours being together, was missed. I was not alone though. I have started seeing friends saying good bye to one another. Some of them will head South, North, West or East.

“Life must go on,” an old saying puts it. After this memorable event, everyone starts to leave. They leave the town, city, country, or even the continent. They leave to start a new journey in their life. School time will only become a story of their life. Everyone will miss everyone when they think about things and the place at which once they become students.

I did not think to blog today to congratulate them until a Facebook friend request pooped up today. It is the friend who made me to think to blog. The friend request tells me that the memory in school is about to fade as old friends leave and unknown folks reinstate our chairs. Thus, I should do something in order to preserve my memory.

It is sometime painful to leave friends and the place. However, the world is a small village now. We still can keep in touch and say hello anytime. Sharing stories about our impacts to people who really needs our contribution is one of the important things.  

Congratulations all the way from East Timor, crossing oceans and lands, to all of you who graduated from the University of Kansas.

Rock Chalk

**I hope this gives you an inspiration. 

Have You Ever Heard of Talk Fusion?

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To share the work, you search on google if you don’t know it yet. It might be new in your place, or you might have ever been invited to join by a sibling of you. I am referring to ‘sibling’ because one of the business’s potent strategies is to influence people from family first; if the inviter can’t start it in his own family, he will first from close friends. It does not care if you are interested in the products it offers you. If you know a friend participating the business, you are a target! Sooner or later you will get a call to participate in a workshop.

A pure business will let the market decides. I do totally respect friends who do the business; however, I have been so allergic to such a kind of business since the similar ones came into market, MLM, and Tien Sing. What animal is it? Again, we share the work. These sorts of businesses do not see us as free traders. I mean it does not let us to decide freely what we want to trade between two or more parties. It is, instead, like a sort of begging to find new members. They keep calling you, trying to convince that it is a good business. If you are close friends, it is very hard to refuse calls; and that makes you susceptible to join.

It was striking, at this time, to hear that Talk Fusion offers information technology business to illiterate users.” One question I was noting was what IT business it refers to? When I once attended its workshop, it presented products it offers such as applications of social media, videos, and emails to members to buy, and use. They argued that now we live in the 21^st century, digital world; yes it is true. However, the peculiar thing was that members were extremely illiterate of technology information. They looked like they do not even know how to sign up an email account.    

So, is that a real IT business or a mere of MLM’s sort which just uses products as a steppingstone to convince members that they trade real products? The business actually aims to do MLM’s sort of business. Top level members try to convince new members or beginners. Those new members joining add points to higher level members’, thus their bonuses inflate. On the other hand, the new members will, mostly, become losers at the end. I am mostly concerned to rural people who would potentially be scammed by this type of business. It is like selling an IPhone to a person who does not even have an internet connection in his village. Most members I saw in the workshop were people who do not know much about internet. Not to mention, the communication infrastructure in the country is still running even like a turtle.

Of course, there is a market for Talk Fusion. Government agencies, companies from service to oil and gas industries currently minding their businesses in East Timor are the potential users. They can use the products as it aims for, not people who do not even use internet as we do.  

**I hope this gives you an inspiration.   

The Wrongly Placed Two Bridges

Ponte Tono

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A few days ago a dude posted a picture on Facebook comparing a two bridge project costs information. One is from a newly-built Ponte Tono, in Oecusse and one is Ponte Comoro in Dili, the capital. Ponte Comoro’s cost is way way higher than Tono’s. When I looked at the photo closely, I saw a significant structural and look difference. Although Ponte Tono is less expensive, it looks very elegant; Ponte Comoro, on the other hand, was costly but looks dull. I apologize if I am, too, wrong regarding the cost since I could not find a reliable source to confirm it. However, my point is not about the cost.

Ponte Comoro

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I would swap the two bridges if I were witch. Ponte Tono should have been in Comoro instead. The rationale is because Ponte Comoro is dull; it is too dull for Dili, a place where the biggest money leaks here but does not get things it deserves. It is not only functions that matter; it should have also been a land mark for its locales and users from in and out; it should have also been a property that the community is proud of collectively as a progressive society as we aim to achieve.  

The reason that I am missing good looking bridge structures like Tono Bridge in Dili is because I am dreaming to have new more photogenic objects in Dili to blog about. Bridges are photogenic. They are not only hooking us up from a point A to point B, but it also provides a space for us to look out without buildings blocking us, ayes to reach out horizons towards greeny Dare and Fatu Ahi, and getting gust of wind blown from Atauro.

It is good to have a bridge that has co-benefits. However, the dream has gone because Comoro’s bridge had been designed as it is currently looking dull. It is no other than just to serve people to get around although there was sufficient resource to do more than that.  

It is fine though. I can shift my attention to Oecusse, to Ponte Tono, a good looking one that I can visit someday although it is far.

**I hope this gives you an inspiration

Carnival and Tradition in Dili

Today’s afternoon was a relaxing one. Carnival happened today in Dili. I saw kids, teens, and adults taking photos, watching musical performances; they did social interaction by looking, talking, and laughing to one another. This is a sort of life aspect that we expect to happen more often in where we live. In the city like Dili where majority of the population is young, such an event is magnet.  

Despite many such events had been organized before, I had never attended one until today. I did not know this time event’s theme, but my attention was drawn to the environmental and natural presentations. For the natural aspect, trucks were decorated replicating natural landscape and figure of animals. Some looked pretty heavy though as I saw a truck coated with soils molded looking like paddy fields. Another was made out of large three leaves that looked unorganized, yet it was representative to the message it carries. Other than natural, recycled materials were also seen pretty much everywhere.

I did not appear in the parade crowd. It is because the weather was freaking hot along the route. The heat would peel my skin a few inches down to my flesh. Hence, I just headed to the stop point where a music stage has been set up. Music is a thing that I always look for at any entertainment event. There was a pretty good band playing a song ‘Underneath It All’ by No Doubt.

Good looking kids were so photogenic. They wore traditional clothes and accessories. This is something that we should always keep it real and forever in developing our society. Do not ever try to import everything and proud of it for the sake of modernization. We will never have our own thing if we do so. In the current modern world, distinctiveness becomes very expensive to retain. That is because the power of globalization is outrun localization.

I kind of like carnival type of event to present our culture to others. Although I only saw a few foreigners today, it has a prospect to attract more in the future if we keep our thing real, and original. I believe, someday, when middle income people in the other side of the world have seen something twice, they would decide to go somewhere to see something new; that new thing might be in East Timor.

**I Hope this gives you an inspiration.   

Keta Ba Selfie ho Lafaek!!

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Feriado paskua tinan ohin nian lao ba foho rona tan istória ida kona bá crocodile ou lafaek han tan ema ida iha parte Lautém ninian. Maibe istória ida ne diferente oituan tanba lafaek han ema ne’e wain hira vitima ne’e ba hasai fotografia ho lafaek. Istoria, wain hira primos balun konta, ne’e lafaek kalan sai mai iha tasi ibun, vitima nia uma oin ne’e. Kalan sira hetan no maun alin nain rua ne’e hetan no lao sai ba par hodi hasai fotografia.

Lafaek sai mai toba ona iha rai henek, rai maran ona, kala mais ou menus metro ida ho balun husi tasi mai rai maran. Lafaen ninia pozisaun ne’e ulun mai iha rain maran no ikun ba iha tasi. Babain teoria nebe mak hau rona, karik ema ne’e hatene nune mos katak quandu animál todan sira hanesan lafaek ita hamarik iha kotuk, nia sei susar atu tata ita tanba sira fila an presiza esforsu nebe makas. Maibe teoria ne agora provado katak sala.

Wain hira ema nain rua lao ba tasi ibun, ninia alin ne diretamente ba hamarik iha kotuk, parte lafaek nia ikun e depois losu ninia camera ou telfone hodi hasai foto. Hau la dun hatene karik ema ne konsege hasai duni fotografia balun ou lae, maibe nia foin ba hamarik iha kotu, lafaek fila ana tata nia isin. Hotu tia vitima ne’e monu tun ba tasi laran. Lafaek continua ba kaer no tata nia isin hodi dudu ba tasi klaran.

Vitima nia maun ne mos bok an la diak. Ema hatete dehan, wain hira lafaek primeiro tata nia alin, nia konsege halo esforsu ida hodi prevene. Nia konsege kaer dada lafaek ninia ikun hodi dada sai maibe niania forsa ne laek. Tanba lafaek lori nia to’o laran no sira tuir la hetan ona. Wain hira hau tesik husi fatin neba, ema konta dehan ema lafaek lori ba ladauk husik. Ema barak tuir lafaek ninia ain fatin maibe lafaek la dauk  husik. Ema la barani hodi ba hakbesik, ntaun mate isin ne’e seidauk fila tan.

Karik istória ne’e los duni hansa ema konta mai hau ne’e, ntaun lisaun nebe ita presiza hatene mak keta koko atu ba bes-besik lafaek, sá tan ba selfie fali ho lafaek. Hau koalia ida ne’e tanba, iha Dili, ikus-ikus ne’e lafaek sae mai rai maran dala barak ona. Cada vez mosu iha Palacio do Guverno niania oin. Ita hare ema barak barani tebes ba hamarik sorin no fo han. Ida ne mos karik risko tanba hansa istória ida ne’e, quando lafaek sira hamlaha, sira bele ataka iha kualker pozisaun.

**Espera katak istoria ne’e fo inspirasaun          

My Country’s Small Airport Might Be Safer from Terrorists but That Is Not My Comparison

Nowadays, a notable airport is no longer defined by the state of the art design it represents, high class services it has to offer, or its level of crowd. More than that I define a notable airport is an airport that pursues every effort at any time to make sure that people are safe going through it. Of course this is highly anecdotal and experience-based bias, but making an airport, not only safe but extra safe from terrorist attack becomes very expensive to guarantee, and apparently only few places can afford to do so as far as I have experienced myself.

The idea of this entry came into my mind when I saw news about Brussels attacks yesterday. It came to my mind as I have been conditioned to believe that European and American airports should outdo any airport at its class to top the safety rankings. But I feel like a small airport in my country is the safest one. One, it is because terrorists might not even know whether it exists; it only has five flights every day from and to just three different foreign destinations.  

That is not my comparison in here though. From Dulles, Washington, JFK, NYC, or O-hare Chicago, or airports in Asia, I have not seen peculiar security checks until at the Ben-Gurion airport, Israel. This is where I saw how they do everything they can to increase the probability of safety confidence. I thought using conventional way of screening people like interviewing passengers at the boarding gate would be irritating. Not to mention screening people based on racial profiling would be so discriminative. However, people live with it.

I somehow experienced myself of profiling. I thought I was not really welcomed in that place, that I would like to fly back home immediately by a magic carpet of Aladdin. I even heard a New Yorker standing behind me wowing the security check mechanism that he told me he has never seen anywhere in the States. That is because he saw the two airport guys unloaded two Europeans’ huge suitcases at the security check-in gate and screened the piece by piece of every object in it. “What a work,” the New Yorker told me.

But I came to realize that for the common safety, some individuals need to sacrifice their rights, freedom, and egoism. That is why I did not complain of anything although I was treated in a way I felt it was discriminative or too much. I would also think that it is very expensive for some individuals to accept when they are treated differently as they are used to. And that is the time their common safety is at a stake.  

Although I feel like the peculiarity I have seen might result in a meaningful impact why Ben-Gurion airport holds a tittle of one of the safest airports, I feel like there is no way other than peaceful humanity can prevent such things to happen more frequent. When human beings can be more inclusive and tolerant, we will not need such extra security checks to feel safe.

**Hopes this gives you an inspiration

My “Hands of Timor’s Oil” Campaign

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I am participating in a movement called “Hands off Timor’s oil.” Instead of going to join rallies planned to happen on the 22^nd and 23^rd March, 2016 in Dili (East Timor), I participate through my conventional way of sharing feelings and thoughts, blogging. Every citizen has a responsibility to participate in any way he could. Respect to all those who go to streets to physically engage.

Australia, a giant nation which we are destined naturally to be neighboring with. We share a sea border, and a lot of other things. It helped us to get out independence, gives money and other resources in our nation-building effort. However, people said, we just found out that its giving is not sincere.

Our sea border with Australia is where our life extremely depends upon. Oil and gas wealth is found there. Several oil wells have been exploited and more to follow, and we share the money with Australia although these wells are located within our border, if we look at the International law. I don’t know anything about the International maritime boundary law, but it has been said all around media that median line is the fairest solution to divide a polygon of sea from one another.

Unfortunately, Australia is reluctant to sign the median line thing. It keeps refusing because if it signs, oil and gas wealth will fall into our hand, which in fact it must be ours. This is the story why Hands off Timor’s oil campaign is happening.

Although I am absolutely all in for the campaign, I am rather worried about the essence of nationality, sovereignty, and national interest slogans that many people have thrown out to the public. Indeed, like we did before in our struggle, unity is a key to encounter foreign powers. However, unlike the independence movement context, we now tend to forget to build from the bottom and from within, and to forget to improve the messes we make at home. We are now driven to rally for a symbolical unity more than functional unity. The rationale for us to pay attention to form a functional unity from within is because if without it, we will debunk our own promise to make use of what we call our rights over Australia.

Our failure to improve the current development management system makes no point to demand Australia vehemently. You may make your point by saying that “let us get our right first and then think about how to use it later”, or the opposite “let us use our resources wisely and efficiently before demanding median line in order to get more money from the Timor Sea. No matter which point you are standing on, you can check facts yourself. Again, I am absolutely all in for this campaign, but let us not to become hypocrite in front of Australia’s face.

**I hope this gives you an inspiration.  

Appreciate Constructive Critics

   Today, the public was astonished by the Head of State’s speech at the national parliament. I missed the live broadcast though. In lieu, I read Facebook postings showing a copy of the whole texts. I now have a little to post about. The news is extremely political; perhaps only politicians, and political observers can judge whether his speech contains a hidden political agenda or is objective reacting to the current lagging development stride we are making as a new and proud nation.

     I am NOT interested, at all, on the political perspective of it. I would rather be interested to say I do like people criticizing other people, even myself for instance, as long as it is for a progress. I do like nuisance, oddity, or things that we regard unusual to us in our regular life. The rational is because those words, at some contexts, can make people ponder their attitudes or actions, can wake people up to change the course towards betterment, and can drag people out from the comfort zone where they sleep too long and too much that the train could leave them behind.

     There was a protesting rally organized by activists in front of the Embassy of Australia two days ago. It was about demanding Australia to settle the maritime boundary problem with us. We know that it is within our maritime boundary, oil sources serve our future. Thus, we need to get the right. Although it was a good cause for the virtual public to share, I refused to blog about it because I felt the same like the President might imply in his speech that if we explore and exploit all oil and gas resources ourselves sooner, waste can rampant, and life gaps can be greater. Thus, I would agree if somebody agrees too that it would be a good choice to keep them there while negotiating, most importantly, improving what the President criticized today from within first.  

**Hope this gives you an inspiration

The telecommunication industry is still worse after I returned

       When I approached my last weeks of study in the US, last year, my sponsor sent me a video containing tips of addressing potential cultural shocks if students return to their home countries after living overseas for a while. The video perplexed me because I did not believe it would be true. How can I be shocked with my own culture? It sounds weird to some of us. However, it is true theoretically, based on research studies, the video explains the process why it could happen to expat students after they return home. Just an example, when you live outside of your country, you might experience a more reliable telecommunication service, but your country’s is fucked up; your phone plan credits are sucked in a matter of seconds with no reasons.  How would you feel? The feeling is part of the cultural shock thing.     

       By the way, I ended up agreeing everything that the video explains. However, I am not shocked, at all, with acute corrupt behaviors and politics. It has been and will be here for an undefined period. Instead, the shocking thing after I returned is the telecommunication service. I still remember, experts and politicians of this country used to argue that allowing competition in the industry would lower costs for users. However, the claim has never happened.

       Is there anybody agreeing with me, your internet plans are even more expensive than in America or Australia? Let’s imagine non-monetary costs you lose that tradeoff monetary costs of an American or Australian phone plan, for instance. You are told to have a very good plan. You refill five bucks for a 1 GB data ration; a half of it is gone before you even click anything yet. Another, your signal is on and off even when you are roaming like a homeless in downtown. Not to mention hassles dealing with the call center. The guy or lady tells you to wait until a problem is fixed, but you wait until the next day, there is nothing fixed. A week ago, you could not even do refills, and contact to the call center for two days. Those are more expensive than a fifty bucks phone plan per month.   

       Timor Telecom is the poorest service provider in our telecommunication history. It is the first, oldest, and richest, but the worst one. Why? it has never changed since I knew it sometime ten years ago, by the time we proudly got it as an independent country. I feel like Timor Telecom is like a regime, political entity which no one has been able to break its wall for a change. People said that the shareholders are influential people, that is why, complains have never been taken into account although some group of people have voiced it out through political channels to put pressure for changes in its service quality. Hopefully, it is not accurate.      

       The main message that I would like to express here is not asking telecommunication services here to be as sophisticated as in developed countries like America and Australia. But, we never learn to change. NEVER. No, there is a change, but the course is backward.

**Hope this gives you an inspiration