I'm five days before my contract here breaths its last....my last major 'deliverable' is done, and I am now catching my breath to pack up and see what else needs to be done. But i will return to Timor again next year, even if i don't get a job....this land is rather addictive ain't it?
A few issues popped into my mind, after glancing at the large number of ETAN mails in my mailbox and i am attempted to respond to them... or at least get them off my chest.
email "Whitlam asked to 'tell truth'" reminded me that the Balibo 5 were murdered on the day i was born... a great way to remember significant historical facts huh? It also reminded me of how ignorant I was of the happenings in ET all my life until 2 years ago even though my country is a close neighbour, yet,geopolitics caused my country's weak media to report little on ET's independence struggle... Other birthdays i know: Tia M was born on 28 November, and she celebrated her 16th birthday in 1975, while A was born on 7 December, and he was 4 when the Indonesians invaded Timor.Everytime I look at them, i see the miracle that they are still alive and breathing, knowing how thousands of Timorese were brutally slaughtered.
email "It makes you wonder, doesn't it?" had a really cynical comment from an anonymous reader about the fence at City Cafe. I would like to counterpose it. Recently, I met an Aussie woman who has been living in Timor for 7 years, and had met all kinds of awful people who did awful things to her, and so she had become really skeptical of all NGOs and UN staff. So when I first met, her fangs and claws were sharpened and ready to shred me apart. There was much bitterness in her. I had to gently remind her that i used to be a volunteer too, and eventually, through our interactions, she realised that I am indeed not evil or a bloodsucker, or what the anonymous reader described as " expats using the recipient country as a stepping stone for career advancement, paying off mortgages, financing expensive holidays, satisfying personal expenses and as a safe heaven sexual fraternisations..."
What i want to say, is, for every baddie out there, there are also many GOODIES! I've met so many great malaes who have truly embraced their Timorese brothers and sisters as their own, and are doing many good things here in Timor. perhaps Mr Anonymous Reader needs to stop hanging out at City Cafe and meet the other nice malaes i know, who are dedicated, passionated and sincere. And when i say malaes, let's try to think out of the box. Black-haired, brown-eyed Asians and Africans are also malaes. I think that while some people choose to volunteer (like i did) and find great satisfaction in that, there are others who prefer to have a career from international development - and they should not be burnt at the stake for that choice.
Remember, it is a CHOICE. I despise how some volunteers get all high-falutin about their 'sacrifices' and scoff at those who receive a salary. To each their own, i say. YOU chose to be a volunteer, nobody forced you to. (You can still fight for social justice if you receive a salary.) To be honest, i don't think there is such a thing as 'true altruism' in this world. When we volunteer, we DO get something back in return - a nice warm feeling in our hearts, and some people also get awards, recognition, and more warm feelings from others. So it's NOT for nothing, so stop getting all romantic about volunteerism. I dare say this, cos I have been volunteering since 1998, and I have never told anyone that it's ALTRUISTIC cos it's not. I do feel good about it, and that's the reward.
That said, i must admit that there are many baddies that exploit the system to linger on and get posted from one country to another. BUT there are also volunteers who are like that! So it's not about whether you have been PAID or not, but what YOU, your character is like, and what harm you do in the country. In a cowboy town like Timor where the laws are not loophole-free yet, there will always be opportunitists earning a fast buck at the expense of others. But that feeling of being in a frontier town (and lawlessness!)does make it all the more exciting to be here.
Okay, that felt good. I'm normally not this vitriolic.
Last one on my list: the doctor with a stethoscope round his neck.
one day, my father came to visit and he was climbing up to the Jesus statue. As he was going up the last flight of steps, he saw a man, and asked in amazement, "Is he really a doctor?" because this man was climbing up the hill with a stethoscope slung around his neck. We all know who this man is. Apparently, he's a bit of a legend in ET's neighbour to the east and many doctors volunteer at his clinic. He's also very popular with the Timorese people. I'm writing about him because recently there was a story by Jill Joliffe in The Age about women being trafficked into Syria.
There was a mention of the women being AIDS-tested before they were recruited. After this article was circulated around, someone sent me the FULL copy of what Jill Joliffe had written before her article was slashed down to exclude these few paragraphs:
27 girls were tested in Bui Kiak’s group, all signing forms filled in by others. She did not know she was being AIDS-tested, or might have suspected the job was not babysitting. Syrian visas do not require AIDS clearances, unlike some Middle Eastern countries.
Known as a champion of the poor, Dr M (deletion of full name, mine) said he ‘had no idea’ of the identity of the people who approached his clinic.
He said medical tests are usually free for Timorese but ‘because this was so unusual we tried to negotiate a contract, of 5USD per patient. It was not paid by the patient, but by those requesting the tests’.
He admitted women should not have been tested without informed consent. ‘They should have had VCT, voluntary counselling and testing’ he said, ‘we should have been more careful’.
Whoaaa....I don't have to say what's wrong here, do i? Will I get in trouble for posting this here? Maybe The Age was afraid of being sued that's why these paragraphs were deleted? Or maybe it's because the doctor mentioned is so popular in that country to our east? Or they just didn't trust Jill Joliffe's professional skills and her ethics? Hmmm.. makes me wonder if the media in the 'free, and developed world' is any freer than those in developing countries?
Anyways, just some rambling tots... before i pack up and wave tata. I should be in Laos in January volunteering there for a month before seeing what else i can do back here in Timor. So until then..................adios!
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