Structural and Systemic Problems Make Young People in Dili Get Wilder

Dili 07 January 2023

It was heartbreaking to watch the video in which a guy jumped off motorbike stabbing a young boy walking at the street. It happened on 06 January 2023 around mid-night. The young boy was stabbed multiple times until he could barely walk and fell off eventually. According to information he went dead right there at the scene before the police arrived. The video attracted my attention because the way the suspect stabbing is scary. It is also sad to see that young people nowadays are much wilder, and extremely hostile to each other more than my time when I was at their age.

Naturally crimes happen anywhere in the world, even in the most peaceful countries. I consider that as a way the Nature processes, people born to die. But in the case of Timor-Leste. The pattern of young people conflict indicates some structural and systemic problem in this country. I thought that poor education system contributes to this outcome. Young people are not well educated from school, and I would say from family as well. One generic and biased personal observation. When I observe school youngsters grouping along the street of Dili, they are not disciplined. They don’t respect public street norms, they bully each other, they interfere one another, and worst they fight, sometimes. This type of attitude and behavior are brought in to the society eventually.

Similarly, desperation for economy in the country also contributes. What young people mostly do at home is nothing but just sitting in their neighborhoods. There is no work to do because there is no work indeed. I don’t think the State can recruit all people to work for government. Even if there are jobs in industries, they don’t have skills. They become desperate because of the nothing-to-do. They find each other to plan for activities such as drinking alcohol, gambling, etc. These activities are poisons for peace when done in poor society.

All culminates in the martial art fight phenomenon. All these years, after independence, martial arts conflict has become the major reason why people fight each other, it even affects the political and democratic processes. Is it not horrible? In this country, when there is dissenting opinion, defamation, harassment, and other serious conflicts or crimes happen among individuals and community members, most people don’t seek for justice, they don’t go to tribunal. There are many reasons why, but some are because they are not able in terms knowledge, and resources. Another is because they don’t trust the judicial system. Officials in law enforcement entities are partisan because being inclined to their groups' principles. As a result, some people make their own decisions, they act directly, they fight-they kill to feel like getting justice.  

*I hope this gives you an inspiration

Social Media Cant Change Me from Being A Radio Listener

26 December 2022

I grew up in a home where my father was a hardcore radio listener; he had to listen to radio every morning, noon, and evening to accompany news of independence struggle. Radio stations that he listened to everyday were Radio Australia Indonesia, Radio BBC Indonesia, RTP, and RRI. I remember my father assembled a broken old radio connected to a huge speaker; in a small village in 90s there was no electricity, and so was TV. The only way to access media or information was through battery-powered radio. My father erected a tall antenna in order to be able to receive radio frequencies from those stations which I think aired from London, UK; Lisbon, Portugal; Melbourne, Australia; and Jakarta, Indonesia.  

I was exposed to this kind of culture everyday. So I happened to love listening to radio until now. Social media has taken over conventional media. Most of my generation has shifted from convectional media, particularly from radio to social media. Social media is super easy, cheap, and freaking convenient. You can just have it on your bed, and whenever you go. Information content is also limitless. Therefore, nowadays most people like it more than radio. I once asked milennial a question. Do you listen to radio? he questioned back my question "what is radio? lol. I don't make this up. It is a real story. 

 

By the way, it never changed me from being a radio listener until now. I still listen to radio due to following reasons. First, it is a vintage style, I want to keep the old style in this modern era because I just feel different. News and music presentations on radio are felt more real, according to my personal opinion. Second, listen to radio is even cheaper than social media. It does not cost me money like accessing social media. Radio tool is being part of mobile phones nowadays. It is so convenient as well. Third, radio has less fake news. I feel like listening to a radio station is less stressful than playing social media. Radio presents predetermined sources and guests. On the other hand, social medial allows anyone, literally every single person on earth can say anything they want to which I think sometimes I don't get what the heck theytalkinabout. 

As I have got connected with GMN TV previously, we agreed that I would love to come filling in a session at their radio station called Radio Semanal.  I showed up, we talked about urban planning like in my previous engagement on the TV talkshow. Urban planning issue is interesting to be raised and voiced out to broader audience. This radio talk, however, is more on real life related planning issues. 

By the way, GMN has  a very nice radio station room. The show room design is simple but elegant. It is indicated by the audio equipment such as microphones and headsets, room walls, ceilings, and lights. I would say that it is more LUXO than other radio stations I have seen before. 

*I hope this gives you an inspiration.  

Experience with GMN TV Talkshow (INSIGHT)

Dili 24 December 2022

Nine months ago, I was contacted by a friend. He said that GMN, the largest national private TV station is looking for a guest to appear on a relatively new talkshow program. INSIGHT, a new program designed to bring young people from different backgrounds to share their thoughts and ideas and inspire audience or public in general. The first thing come to my mind at the time was that people who deserve this kind of opportunity in Timor-Leste,  are mostly politicians, independence veterans, influential people, and other well-known ones. Most national TVs want them because they have high rate of views as the society has been set that way. A TV program would be interesting to most viewers if it talks about memory of the past, and also who should rule in the government. They argue more about one politician should be better than the other because contributed plus to the independence effort, or else the other politicians are bad to govern because they have gray or less contribution history, or even traitor etc.  

I felt like the public has been hypnotized in the media, TV included, to believe that politicians are the ones who can do miracles to change the country's destiny by telling stories, counting privileges they should have but not HARDWORK. Factual, rational, and bipartisan views on issues and developments in the country rarely win the the heart and mind of the people. In the meantime, there has not been much change in the last 23 years of independence. To name a few, our petroleum funds leaked significantly every single year, the current only oil field, Bayu Undan, dried up, lack of job opportunities making young people migrated overseas, urban developments become wicked problem, rural areas are getting isolated due to outpacing climate change impacts that make infrastructure development cant catch up.     

I finally accepted the call with a thought that I could attend the media to reach more audience to promote the culture of objective and bipartisan views on things. This does not mean that I am claiming myself as the most independent person, NEVER. I do have political and subjective views. However, like many of you, rationally, we need to develop this culture from the media to instill good attitudes, develop visionary look to the future, and most importantly walk the talk instead of talk the talk. This is the reason why I would advice all of you to join the cause from your own profession wherever you interact with humans, and environment.   

Back to the topic. I talked on the INSIGHT program as Urban Planner. It means that I was expected to talk on major urban problems such as floods and traffic congestion currently facing urban population. Director of the program at GMN thought that the major urban problems somehow have indirect correlation to lack of urban management. One gap is urban comprehensive plan. As GMN understands, Dili as a home of more than 200k population should be managed. There is something wrong that we need to pay attention to. Dili faces regular floods, traffic congestion occur uncontrolled at some point of time in several areas. The problems seem to occur constantly. However, there is not much narration of solutions from the public, and professionals. Actions to prevent the urban problems appear to be petty, insignificant, unsustainable, and inconsistent, and only project oriented. With all that understandings, GMN would like to present a perspective from which to understand the urban problems situation, and to discuss how to promote urban planning public policy intervention to prevent the problems from being rampant in the future.   

As you all may understand that urbanism is one of the most complex topics to explain exactly. This nature makes it even more difficult to solve its problems. Among other things, if the Timorese want to mange Dili city or any other cities livable for now and future, it requires personal principles to start with, adequate professional skills to go through ideal technical processes, political commitment to influence participation of communities, economic capacity to finance programs and projects, etc. There is no single or one size fits all formula because the process of achieving livable city requires commitments, times, and resources as well. It is an aggregate and now action that needed. My very first advice in the last minutes of the interview is to start things from individual level; incremental effort is the most realistic action to change our situation. We then can keep advocating to the government to pay attention on what they should do.  

*I hope this gives you an inspiration. 

The Silence of Dili Port

Dili 11 December 2022

One night, at 8pm, I sat on the beach front concrete bench of Government Palace/Palacio do Guverno. A place I sometimes go for after 6 pm relax. Even though the place is a center, and being in the side of a main road, is so quite. Cars and pedestrians just pass by unless there is an event nearby. Often times I wont see many people there; that is the moment I love to go there.  

The view sitting there is quite relaxing and calming. I look over to the Cristo Rei lined street lights on the East side, and the straight view to Atauro Island. They are still the same as usual. However,  there is a significantly noticeable situation looking on the West side. That is Dili Port. The only port that had been serving Timor-Portuguese, Timor-Timur and lately Timor-Leste for mostly receiving goods from abroad, is so silent. At glance, I thought it was because either there were no ships yet or all left. 

I then realized that the Dili Port, as cargo port, has just been taken over by the newly inaugurated Tibar Bay Port. All cargo ships are now handled by the Tibar Bay Port. Thus, there are no ships, heavy cargo machines are left at the Dili Port. 

The Dili Port becomes silent if one observes at night. The legacy left now is no longer being noisy and smoky as usually; there is a calm and clear view towards the port's old and rotten buildings and its platform. The port is even astonishing when the lamps illuminate the sea and reflect back. The evening breeze makes the port become so friendly due to its silence. 

The Dili Port becomes a historical and also strategic asset for Dili city. What are we going to do with the Port? in most cities around the world that I have read about, old ports like this are modified and changed to tourism and recreation function. That is because cities are expanding due to population and pressing needs of space. Thus cargo ports are no longer suitable in the city center. 

I am aware that all people know this paradigm. I know it as well that the government is now working with USAID to make a plan for the future use of the Dili Port. I have also attended several meetings and presentations. it shows that the Port development concept is quite good. Equally important, however, institutional capacity has to be considered in the plan as an indispensable component for future port development. 

 

*I hope this gives you an inspiration. 

Completion of National Road Number 1 (Dili – Manatuto Section)

Dili 06 September 2022

Dili – Manatuto road section project is one of the current national road improvement projects in Timor-Leste.  The government of Timor-Leste has been focusing on national road network improvement. The core network comprises 1,400 km of national roads connecting the capital, Dili, and 13 municipalities. Dili – Manatuto is the first prioritized road sections to link the entire National Road Number 1 (Dili-Com). The rest of the sections are on-going such as Manatuto – Baucau, Baucau – Lautém, and soon for Lautém – Com.

National road improvement projects have been mainly financed by the international Development Banks operating in Timor-Leste. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), The World Bank, Asia Development Bank (ADB) have been financing the national road projects since 2011. JICA introduced the lowest interest loan offer to the government of Timor-Leste to finance Dili – Baucau section. The government took the offer and finally implemented Dili – Manatuto section. It is no wonder that the presence of the development banks in Timor-Leste is important. Similar to nearly every country in the world, Timor-Leste cannot afford to finance its entire development singly. Thus, the split of financing is crucial, but there is no free lunch. Timor-Leste has to pay back the loans when in due course.

The Indonesian left existing road condition was deteriorating due to wear out factor, natural as well as inexistent maintenance effort from the government after Independence in 1999. Narrow and bumpy roadway, inadequate or dysfunctional drainage, and lack of road safety apparatus have now changed. The 49 km long road from Dili – Manatuto has completely improved. The project was financed with  $54 million JICA loan.

Even though the project has been finally completed and inaugurated in 26 August 2022, it was not successful in terms of the planned schedule. I remember the ground breaking launch was in 2016. The project was supposed to be a 2-year long work. However, it finally got 6 years to complete. This is not a good project management example because the delay surpassed much more than the normal tolerance. I realized that there is a need for infrastructure project management resource improvement. As the infrastructure development growth increases, there is a need to employ competent individuals and improve stronger institutional system. By this, the future implementation of road projects can be efficient and effective.

The impact the road provides will be enormous and long term. The travel time from Dili to the easter parts will significantly cut. People will have safer travel, and more comfortably. The agricultural activities may grow. The Laleia , and Manatuto area, narrowly speaking, where the JICA irrigation project is developed, rice and other agricultural production will have efficient distribution because of the easy accessibility to the market.

The road completion leaves more jobs to do actually. The maintenance is so important afterwards. As the construction quality is not perfect in anyway, any defects after the construction should be paid attention to. If there is any defect found, the relevant ministry should take action immediately. The periodic maintenance work should be consistently performed. In the era of the intensifying climate change impact where the erratic weather and rain intensity increases, it is important to keep an eye to the road in terms of maintenance and other works that can prevent from substantial damage due to storm water. This is the continuous work that needs to be done. Otherwise, Timor-Leste will pay back the loans even before the road is fully utilized.

 

**I Hope this gives you an inspiration.

Sea Turtle Sleeps Forever in Kaisa’a, Baucau

Dili, 08-04-2022.

Look at that rock formation; do you see the rock looks like something? If you still can’t notice, please keep your eyes closely on its eye ball I made up there. It is obvious now, right? That is called Fenu Afa, the original name in Makasa’e dialect or in Tetum we call it Fatuk Lenuk. This sea turtle-shaped rock is located in Kaisa’a, Seiçal. A few kilometers from Baucau town, on the way to Lautém and Lospalos.

Even though the photo shows obvious sea turtle-shaped, we cannot notice the shape in both opposite angles. It is only noticeable from the east side of the rock, and at this close as photo taken. The further you move away, the more the shape disappears. The rock lies right on the road side, so it is easily accessible, but for people who do not have pre knowledge they will not notice it at all. I travelled regularly going and back to my home village Com, but I never noticed it until my friend told me some years back.

This Ipit Matar, we call in Fataluku language, has been there for a long time. I can’t explain the geological process of it. But I think the locals there believe it is some kind of sacred rock. The rock was nearly removed by the recent road construction contractor from China. I was wondering whether the design engineer was aware of local values along the existing road alignment at the time. The contractor was insisting to remove the rock according to the design given by the government. The locals there fought back against the contractor to keep the rock intact. And they finally won, and many people supported the locals after learning that it is not a plain rock, but a treasure.

I think, yes, it is a treasure because it becomes tourism attraction. It is a photo spot for travelers or tourists who bound to Jaco Island and Com in Lautém Municipality. The rock area used to be very narrow, and unsafe to stop by for sightseeing and taking photos. But since the road construction has cleared up the road side bushes and drainage, the area becomes wider, and very safe to stop and rest a bit. In my humble opinion, if somebody could tap this spot by adding a rest area with some amenities, it would bring some money. Why? There are three things to enjoy: This rock itself, photo spot with view of Mountain of Matebian, and View of Seiçal rice fields.  

*I hope this gives you an inspiration. 

Dili City is Building Back Back, NOT Building Back Better after 1 Year of Disaster

Dili, 05-04-2022.

One day after the flood of 4^th April 2021, with JICA Chief Representative in Timor-Leste, we made a site visit appointment to Hinode Bridge, a bridge which was constructed under the Japanese government grant aid program. One main purpose is to check whether the Japanese constructed bridge could withstand the powerful floods. Also, we would like to see impacts of the floods to the community and other infrastructure. The Hinode Bridge was doing fine. The flooding day photos and videos showed the bridge was functioning well serving the traffic, and people were forming along the bridge rails to observe the occurring river flow.

On the site, we were discussing so many things. I heard first time about Build Back Better slogan on that day from the Chief of JICA. In principle, I knew by the default what the slogan means. But I was not aware that international agencies in global and here in this country are singing the words to advocate effort to adapt and mitigate the Climate Change challenge. Ever since, Build Back Better has become the most popular words, on Facebook posts, survey reports, seminar speeches, and news and educational videos. But how is the Build Back Better doing after the disaster?

I have no data to show, but I think somewhere only in between 1 – 5% damages in Dili city got recovered since last year. I mean recovered, not Build Back Better. The recovered damages were prioritized because they were indispensably needed to survive; they were fully damaged or inoperable. That ranges from the only roadways, the only cross drains, no-longer-habitable after the flood areas. Those are recovered only to facilitate the survival. Yes, the recovered damages are back in function, but do not seem to be improving much compared to the baseline condition. They were still using the same material, and technology. I am afraid whether it could withstand other equal or more powerful disasters in the future. We never know, only engineers know; well, only another flood disaster could test.

Build Back Better has not come to reality yet. Instead, what I see is Build Back Back. Thousands of half damaged or partly damaged, and already fragile infrastructure are left behind. It is surveyed, but no action until now. The lag behind action has made the list adds up on and on. This year’s rains have debilitated the existing problems and created new damages. I remember an old gentleman in my neighborhood. He commented on several road surface settlement spots and drainage retaining walls collapse near his house. He said he does not expect at all the government to recover those damages soon. He imagined that there are other thousands of damages around the Dili city that need attention as well. He also said the contributing factor for the damage is very complex.  Thus it will take time for the government to recover and even near impossible to build it back better given the current resources that this country can offer.

The disasters have outdone the capacity of the government to catch up. If Build Back Better should be achieved, the approaches and strategies must be future oriented. Build Back Better should not be shortsighted and narrowly defined at building scale, or sectoral and only for today.  It should be integrative, comprehensive and is to withstand future’s challenges. This will be the potent way to Build Back our Community Better or out city better, otherwise, we Build Back Back, as I sarcastically invent, what I meant is we are building backward, not forward.  

**Hope this gives you an inspiration.