Security Update

Last night, standing barefoot in the courtyard, I had a long talk with Eugenio, one of NDIs security guards. The conversation started with mangos; they are becoming ripe and during the night they fall onto the roof and make a loud "bang." This wakes Eugenio up and reminds him of the sound of shooting and rock throwing during the crisis. At night we also hear the sound of helicopters.

That evening Eugenio said that he might have to return to his district, and today he left. He is the youngest guard, with the best English skills, and he liked to hang out and help me with my Tetum. I am sad to see him leave.

In Dili, East-West tensions are not easing. Large demonstrations are scheduled for the 20th, so many Easterners are trying to leave before then. Australia just issued a new warning, so the office is in touch with Washington and Princeton has been in contact with the Prime Minister. While no one is jumping the gun, we decided to hold onto my passport for now rather than to hand it over to the Ministry (it needs it to processes my work visa) as had been planned. I am getting together tonight with some other Fellows and we will compare notes.

The situation is difficult to understand - Why after suceeding to depose Prime Minister Alkatiri is the new Prime Minister now a target? Why when calling for a better justice system may demonstrators seek to disolve Parliament? Brown did a good job in teaching me to stop thinking about political action as instrumental, and to intsead see it as potentially expressive, group-driven and the product of social constructions. Those question, in essence, are not the right ones to ask. The emergence of the East vs. West discourse reminds me of excellent scholarly work on the construction of identity in the Balkans. A more productive question may be: How is identity constructed and enforced in East Timor? And who benefits?

It is incredible to think that East Timor - a state the size of Connecticut - is ripping itself in two.

Eugenio blames political leaders for the ongoing insecurity by using the analogy of two elephants fighting: both elephants end up unhurt, but the ants get trampled. Political leaders, the rich, and foreigner can all afford private security. The collapse of the domestic police forces (replaced now by UN-led forces) meant that public security disappeared. Eugenio was trained to join the police, but has now decided not to join becuase of concerns with ethnic tensions within the force.

This has been a frustrating day - Eugenio leaving, a logy English class, hours spent translating electoral law from Portuguese, and negative security news. The day was not frustrating becuase any of these activities were vacuous - to the contrary, they now seem to have mass.