There is HOPE!

It's been a great day to end the week! This morning, the First Lady and the Prime Minister welcomed a role model for girls' rights - MARTA - who was finally 'born' after 3 years in the making. She's going to be the vehicle for any agencies or organisations in ET to promote children and girls' rights. In fact, the First Lady herself promised to use Marta in Alola Foundation's advocacy for women.

In the afternoon, at the beach, it was the final day of a week of sports (tug o war and beach volleyball)organised by Joao Choque Becora's new youth group to commemorate 12th November - the Santa Cruz massacre. When i arrived it was the OZ diggers versus the Kiwis - they put down their guns on the sand and dug their heels into the sand and pulled like crazy. Both teams proved to be as beefy as each other and the marker never moved beyond the winning line so it was a draw next up, was the exciting one. PNTL (Police) versus F-FDTL (army). I couldn't help but feel slightly tense. But Mr X was there - oozing charm as usual to work the crowd which by then had swelled to hundreds. He asked them not to shout 'Police' or "army' but just 'forsa' for both teams. At the blow of the whistle, both teams began tugging the rope. Incidentally none were dressed in their uniforms, preferring to wear the "timor unidade nasional" tee. The police won and the crowd cheered and then it was really touching when the POLICE and ARMY guys lined up and hugged each other.
That was a GREAT GREAT moment that gave us all so much hope for a better future. This is IT , i thought. That's IT. That's what we all need now. Such moral and psychological support and great SHOW of reconciliation through sport. And there was no doubt, the President's charisma provided the glue and stabiliser for the event. And then for one more great RALLYING moment for ALL the timorese there at the beach - police AND army VERSUS the international forces. It was absolutely fantastic. Kudos to Joao Choque and his team! Suddenly, you could feel that the national pride was really at stake cos it was now US versus YOU. It was just elevating to see the police and army officers lined up as ONE to............ BEAT the international forces TWICE TWICE TWICE TWICE.......

"Timor oan kiik liu maibe forsa bot!" Someone even said, "malae isin bot maibe mamar oituan." haha hilarious. But it was more than words can express when the crowd roared with triumph when the skinny officers hauled their much bigger counterparts' arses across the winning line in the sand.

Timorese police and army officers UNITED as one in a tug of war against the international forces. 10th Nov 2006


International forces digging their heels deep into the sand as they compete with the Timorese forces.