Learning more about Timor

About one week into my stay in Dili and I’ve found out some things:

1. It’s very hot and dry
2. People are generally friendly
3. Food is surprisingly good and varied (i.e. Indonesian, Thai, Turkish, Chinese, Western)
4. You need a car to go just about anywhere
5. You don’t want to be walking on the streets between 10am – 4pm
6. Expats tend to spend their weekends on or near the beach
7. God rested on Sunday… so does the East Timorese… its basically a ghost town on Sunday afternoon

I’ve been talking to the locals and been reading up about the not-so-clear historical facts of Timor-Leste and it’s a bit shocking. From what locals tell me, what the media writes about, to what writers such as Noam Chomsky says, it’s a mix bag of opinions ranging from goodwill to visitors to suspicion of foreigners (i.e. UN, the oil industry) in Timor.

Here are a few stories about Timor that you might not know about.

East Timor, horror and amnesia – by Noam Chomsky

Australia in graves hunt – The Age

East Timor facing food, hunger crisis: NGOs