Zero Kilometer Marker in Dili City

Dili, 20-02-2022.

When we notice, we all are certainly familiar with the model of these two tiny blocks in front of Palasiu Guvernu. It is known as road kilometer sign block marker. The similar blocks can be seen everywhere, so there is no doubt that we know what it is. However, I am afraid if you, people, know these blocks are different from the other thousands that you see in other places. I had never noticed these two blocks until the JICA Chief of Representative in Timor-Leste once asked me. “Dear Profirio san, do you know where the Zero Kilometer, the 0 point from which all roads in Timor-Leste area measured?.” I was wondering that I knew this kind of concept, but I have never seen one in Dili. I then immediately remembered and recalled one of my memories in the USA that reminds me exactly what the JICA Chief means.

Those two blocks are important for Timor-Leste. Many countries around the world also have Zero Kilometer setting point. It is usually located in the capital city of the country. In the capital city, the setting point is to measure the distances to the other parts of the country. The fundamental importance in Dili is to plan, to develop infrastructure, and to measure-then-visit places as far as Lautem (Jaco Island) and Oe-cusse. Even though it is important, there is no public knowledge about it as far as I observe. I assume that majority of the locals in Dili do not know the concept and the location itself; it is unknown to students, intellectuals, let alone public officials. It is also difficult to be noticeable by international travelers or tourists.

This is unfortunate because according my experience, the Zero Kilometer point should be one of the city attractions people could find in a capital city. It is potential to become another cool attraction for people visiting a capital city. I had that experience in the USA, Washington DC. The Zero Kilometer block is called Zero Milestone. The block marker is designed and placed in a strategically visible position in front of the White House. The size is also noticeable for people, its historic status and descriptions are all written on it. Visitors are literally in queue to take photos. I assume that the taking photo interest is attributable to the White House factor in my back; but the Zero Milestone monument of course enhances the experience, it is a one package experience, NOT only the White House. 

  

My intention of blogging about this is to spread the words out there to the public, and start to explore what we can do to enhance the value of Dili city. What I understand is that the mainstream attractions alone are not sufficient to make Dili attractive to be a new alternative in the South East Asia region. Tourism industry is so competitive nowadays; it is small things that count and build up the whole image of Dili city, the capital of Timor-Leste. I will personally raise this small but interesting topic in the relevant forums, discussions; if I ever get a chance, I would share it with the relevant individuals to think (LET US THINK BEFORE DOING). This is a small and petty stuff, but it could have huge impact in cumulative fashion.

 

**I hope this gives you an inspiration.  

The Fastest Chinese Store Construction in Fatuhada

I noticed this last year, but I had no time to blog about it until today. As far as I remember, this Chinese mall opened just one or two weeks before December 2021. The construction schedule seemed targeting afore December, the month which most Timorese spend money to welcome a Christmas and New Year. This is a real Chinese action I saw with my own eyes. I don’t know the size of this commercial building, you can make your own estimate, but the construction could finish less than two months. I paid attention to it every day I commute to work. The progress amazed me every day. The work duration was 247 during the construction period.  I still saw people working when I came back at like 1 or 2 am.

It is not only me saying this is the fastest building construction I have ever seen in Dili. But the FDTL commander, Lere Anan Timor, last year made a comment saying, “I am afraid of the Chinese building in front of my office; they built it incredibly fast.” Like me he also saw the building being erected and covered with the roof just within weeks. The owner was sprinting with the holiday season. It is therefore, he mobilized and invested all the resources he had to reach that goal.

Finally, they made it once finished. The store was full of people going to buy new and cheap stuff. The store is indeed more attractive than other Chinese stores in the area because it has an ample space to walk in, more options of choosing goods, and of course with the Chinese price. It has sufficient lighting that makes people feel comfortable and safer. However, this new commercial building adds up traffic congestion problem for the area. On-street parking and its U-turn location make the area becomes very congested in busy hours.  

*I hope this gives you an inspiration

GIS Day 2021 in Timor-Leste

18^th November 2021 is the World’s GIS Day. I knew about GIS day at the first time when I came back from Indonesia in 2008. After being admitted to work for the Ministry of Public Works, I went to know a Japanese advisor working at the Land and Property, Ministry of Justice. I forgot on what occasion we became friends. I was a fresh graduate at the time, so I took part in every event voluntarily for the sake of learning after college. The advisor invited me, along with other friends from government organizations, to prepare for the first GIS day in Timor-Leste. At that time, the event was mostly organized by internationals because the UN mission was still here in Timor.  I think the GIS day was then being exposed to public regularly thereafter.

This year, the Ministry of Planning and Territory (MPT) where I am currently working at took initiative to hold the 2021 GIS Day seminar after a long stop since 2009. The MPT is a new Ministry, and it has responsibility of doing spatial planning activities. So it is so much related to GIS. The event was organized by MPT, specifically, from National Directorate of Geospatial Data. They are the experts of GIS and other mapping stuff.

One of the objectives of this year’s seminar is to gather GIS users from different organizations to share thoughts, and ideas in order to establish NSDI (National Spatial Data Infrastructure). According to the GIS experts talking in the seminar, NSDI is very important. By the way, I need to learn more about what NSDI is, and how it is related to spatial planning because I don’t know much about it.

As a GIS user, I also participated in the seminar by presenting our Land Use Survey results (Center of Dili Existing Land Use survey). We utilize GIS a lot in our surveys. That is why our project is relevant for the seminar. Other presenters came from Institute of Petroleum and Geology, Directorate of Statistics, Land and Property, Ministry of Agriculture, National University of UNTL, and so on. The number of participants was quite big compared to previous GIS day events that I have experienced.

Personally, I thank the organizers because they prepared the event pretty well. There were many participants from various organizations. The venue and the foods were LUXO. I think I would like to see a better and more eventful GIS day in the coming years. Particularly, actions of NSDI establishment should start now.

 

*Hope this gives you an inspiration.

VIDEO DOKUMENTASAUN ATIVIDADE PLANEAMENTU

Depois muda ba iha servisu fatin foun iha Ministeriu Planu i Ordenamentu, hau servisu hamutuk ho kolega sira seluk nebe antes ne iha neba ona hodi halo estudu ida ho naran Estudu ba Usu de Solo Existente Sentru Dili. Antes hau tama ba servisu iha neba, Ministeriu iha ona programa ida atu halo politika ordenamentu spesifiku ba iha Sentru Dili. Ninina intensaun maka atu halo ordenamentu ba Sentru Dili tanba ita hare katak, Sentru Dili hanesan etalase ba estadu Timor Tanba kuaze edifisiu publiku sira barak maka lokadu iha fatin refere. 

Hau lidera ekipa diresaun nebe responsavel ba atividade estudu. No ikus mai ami nia atividade ne ezekutadu ho diak. Hau halo resumu ba atividade ne'e iha video dokumentasaun ida. Ita bo'ot sira bele hare iha video Youtube karaik.

 

*Epera katak video ne'e bele fo inspirasaun.

Pengalaman Bekerja Dengan Orang Jepang (Oleh Aida)

Berbicara tentang negara Jepang, banyak dari kita yang akan langsung mengingat kartun Doraemon, Naruto, bunga Sakura, Harajuku style dan lain-lain. Film-film kartun masa kecil yang sangat terkenal, dan keunikan ikon Jepang (Sakura) itu membuat banyak dari kita sangat kagum. Kekhasan ini membuat Jepang menjadi salah satu negara yang sangat populer di Dunia. Tidak terkecuali di Dili. Saya kurang tau apakah ada banyak anak muda yang suka dengan budaya Jepang. Tapi yang saya tau, Jepang dikenal di Timor-Leste sebagai negara sahabat yang sangat tulus membantu pembangunan kita dari dulu hingga sekarang. Secara spesifik, orang Jepang dikenal pintar dalam hal civil engineering, seperti membangun jalan, jembatan, pelabuhan, bandara dan lainnya.  

Saya ingin bercerita sedikit mengenai pengalaman saya bekerja dengan orang Jepang. Saya tau kalo jaman sekarang, orang bisa belajar mengenai apa saja lewat internet. Jadi mungkin, pengalaman yang akan saya ceritakan bukan lagi hal yang wao bagi teman-teman. Tapi dalam konteks pengalaman pribadi, saya ingin berbagi, siapa tau ada manfaat yang anda bisa ambil dari pengalaman saya ini. Yang paling penting adalah, bagaimana kita bisa belajar hal-hal positif dari orang Jepang buat diri kita, masyarakat kita, dan juga negara kita, Timor-Leste. 

Yuk, kita langsung saja ke ceritanya. 

Pertama, orang Jepang Gila Kerja

Pada umumnya, orang Jepang adalah tipe orang penggila kerja (entah mereka cinta dengan pekerjaan mereka atau sebaliknya, mereka dibudaki oleh pekerjaan itu sendiri.. entah-lah). Mereka betah untuk tetap dikantor sampai berlarut malam hanya untuk menyelesaikan pekerjaan yang mungkin bagi kita, ahh,, pekerjaan ini dapat saya selesaikan besok, namun tidak bagi mereka. Disini saya bertanya-tanya, apakah mereka tidak mempunyai kehidupan lain selain bekerja? Dan kadang saya melihat mereka sanggup melewatkan jam makan (entah makan siang atau makan malam) mereka dengan duduk manis di depan komputer tanpa merasakan lapar sekalipun. Dan kadang kita juga dibuat untuk bekerja dibawah tekanan. Salah satu contoh kecilnya terjadi pada saya, ketika jam kantor selesai, saya tidak dapat langsung begitu saja meninggalkan meja saya dan berlenggak pulang dengan riang selama atasan saya masih berada didalam ruangannya (kesel, pengen nangis itu yang saya rasakan). Saya diharuskn bertanya kepada-nya, ‘’ Apakah saya sudah bisa pulang, Sir?’’ kalau dia meng-iya-kan, maka dengan riang kaki ini melangkah dengan cepat meninggalkan kantor (sebelum si Sir ini berubah pikiran), namun, jika dia mengatakan, ‘’ Oh, saya masih membutuhkan kamu, jadi jangan pulang dulu’’ (oh com’on). Dan ini berlaku bagi saya setiap hari. 

Berbeda dengan sistem yang dianut orang Timor-Leste, begitu jam kantor selesai anda langsung pulang tanpa harus izin kepada atasan anda, kecuali anda lembur. Dan anda-pun boleh meninggalkan kantor sebelum jam kantor itu usai  (super sekali…hahahaa) 

Kedua, budaya Orang Jepang Berbeda 180˚

Saya benar-benar menyadari perbedaan budaya itu diminggu pertama saya bekerja. Saya kurang begitu paham mengenai budaya orang Jepang dalam memberikan ‘’salam’’ (seperti: Ohayou Gozimasu) dengan cara membungkuk. Ini sedikit berbeda dengan negara Timor-Leste, anda tidak perlu bersusah payah memberikan salam kepada atasan anda dengan cara membungkuk. Dan, cara orang Jepang dalam memberikan salam dengan membungkuk-pun sedikit berbeda terhadap atasan yang tingkatan-nya lebih tinggi, anda harus benar-benar membungkuk disini (bener-bener dah). Ini menunjukan rasa hormat kita terhadap mereka. Awalnya saya hanya sekilas membungkuk dan menganggap ini hal yang biasa, namun tidak bagi atasan saya. Selang beberapa minggu dia memanggil saya ke ruangannya dan mengajari saya tentang adat istiadat, budaya, dan hal-hal yang berhubungan dengan Jepang dan lambat-laun meskipun saya merasa sedikit aneh pada awalnya (hahahahaa), namun saya bisa membiasakan diri dengan budaya mereka hingga sekarang.

Ketiga, tidak ada kata TIDAK dalam kamus orang Jepang

Yah, tidak ada kata TIDAK ketika anda bekerja dengan orang Jepang. Itu yang saya dan mungkin bagi anda yang pernah bekerja dengan mereka bisa merasakannya. Segala pekerjaan seperti apapun yang mereka perintahkan harus anda terima dan katakan YES,SIR atau YES, MA’AM,  meskipun anda tahu, kadang apa yang mereka perintahkan kurang masuk akal (tidak semuanya sih, namun ada sebagian yang menurut saya begitu..hahahaaaa). Bahkan hal sederhana dapat menjadi sulit ketika anda deal dengan orang Jepang. Saking sistematisnya, mereka tidak akan mengambil jalan potong (percaya deh) dalam mempermudah pekerjaan mereka, walaupun hal itu dapat menghemat waktu mereka.

Sangat berbeda dengan Timor-Leste, suka memotong jalan dan tidak sitematis pula (hahahahahaha).

Dan sebenarnya, masih banyak surprise-surprise lainnya lagi yang akan anda dapatkan ketika bekerja dengan orang Jepang dan akan memberikan anda (sedikit) serangan jantung ringan,hahahahaha. Saran saya sih, anda harus memiliki mental baja ketika bekerja dengan mereka. Karena mereka malas tahu, anda dibayar, jadi anda harus melakukan apapun bentuk pekerjaan itu. Seperti kata salah satu teman saya yang mengatakan, ‘’ kita ini seperti robot-nya mereka, hahahaa ‘’.

Namun dari semuanya itu, ada hal-hal yang saya pelajari dari mereka dan patut dicontoh oleh kita seperti, mereka sangat menghargai waktu; mereka menghargai proses bukan hasilnya; mempunyai loyalitas yang tinggi; suka membaca; jika mereka bepergian ke negara mereka, mereka tidak akan pernah lupa untuk membawakan sesuatu untuk anda yang berciri-khas-kan negara mereka (omiyage) dan tentunya, mereka tidak pernah telat dalam membayar gaji karyawannya (itu yang saya suka, hahahaha). Saya pikir masih banyak hal-hal baik lainnya yang bisa kita petik ketika bekerja dengan mereka. Mungkin bisa anda tambahkan sendiri.

Semoga cerita saya ini bisa menginsiprasi anda. 

My Team in Planning Arena

After several years of being outside of the spatial planning arena, I now come back to it again. Even though planning in this country (Timor-Leste) is still extremely challenging, through the institution where I am working right now, with the Team, we would like to try something that we could from our end. From small and trivial things, take time, but the effects will deep rooted, and then materialize later.  

I was recently given a responsibility to lead the Team to plan land use surveys in Dili. This is a regular activity that the Ministry of Planning and Territory (MPT) has put in its portfolio to be done regularly every year. This year, the MPT tried to pilot the activity. The urban land use surveys are important because it is necessary for the institution to understand the baseline situations, and to compile and create an organized data base for any future’s land use policies.

Our team conducted a three day training to surveyors.  The surveyors are students from the National University of Timor-Leste. We conducted the training from 18 – 20 August 2021.  I just started now to work with new people whom I have never met before.  This is a new beginning. I found out that even though we are still facing managerial, and office facility challenges, but by working together we can achieve our objectives.

We did our training well. Everyone contributed by playing their respective roles. The Team Members are young and energetic. They are fresh professionals in planning, architecture, and economics. Something that I found interesting here is young people are excited when it comes to professional works. They are interested to involve when there are clear objectives, directions, and tendency of good team management.  All would involve fully, and feel own the activity.

*I hope this gives you an inspiration.

Lagoa of Comoro River Estuary

Rivers when flown through by storm water in rainy season become extremely overwhelming, and intimidating.  Runoff water flows ragingly along the banks, erodes anything on its way even the concreted riverbank walls. People who live nearby are usually anxious, afraid of being affected. But how it feels when the water filling the river stays calm and static?

Comoro River is seasonal. It gets water when there is rain. No water remains after the rain; the storm water usually goes straight down to the sea because of the short distance of upstream to downstream. The river empties in short time. The river then becomes dried, dusty, and barren. What worse are sand diggers or miners excavate the deposit or materials for sell. This mining activity is not a very good thing for the river to stay intact to serve its functions.

After all the downside, the Comoro River estuary shows something that could be tapped and enjoyed buy the community in Dili. The estuary got filled by seawater after high tides in recent weeks. The seawater intruded up to like 400-500 meters long to the upstream. The water then trapped after the tides transported sands and closed the way out.

The trapped water now stays inside the enclosed estuary. There, a small Lagoa (lake) created. The water stays calm allowing mosses, small fishes, and other biodiversity around the area start to form. Birds and other animals get a new plaza at the side of the river to roam around. The Lagoa looks very natural and fresh in the morning time.

The Comoro River estuary is a public space. Some people go there to exercise; not only that, it is one of the best sunset spots in Dili. When this small lake formed, it adds more attraction not only for the biodiversity but for people. Many people go there to take photos. The main features that they would like to capture with when they take photos are the lake itself, the sunset, and some part of the sea body. The whole area of the estuary is now getting more photogenic. 

I was sitting on river protection wall while looking over the Lake; the water is so calm, and beautiful. It is so relaxing that I could listen to the sound of birds, and feel the gust of wind that is so fresh. I was thinking that whether the government can do something to this estuary in a long term plan.  It needs some engineering intervention to keep the Lake stay longer and public infrastructure arrangement as well. I was imagining if in the future, the lake does not only serve as photo spot, but also paddling of small canoes. This is mostly considerable when I think about the development of Dili International airport. Tourists could see this when they fly overhead. This calm water makes people to come closer and love rivers more instead of afraid of it.

**I hope this gives you an inspiration.