Just imagine. Its late, you’re scrunched in a car with four guys with guns, they are Malaysian or Bangladeshi or Pakistani and may have just arrived in Timor Leste the night before. And when you come across some angry people, you are the voice of the soldiers.
This is white-knuckle work, and my friend is scared to start.
But it’s a job with the UN, so at least it must pay well. Right?
1,100 USD per annum.
Note: In large part becuase of the UN mission and NGO presence, East Timor has a tremendously stratified, cash-based economy. Goods that foreigners want - for example processed food or apartments in Dili - go for US prices or higher. Paying 600 USD in rent for month is not outrageous. Food is similar; a can of coke costs 1.50 USD in the supermarket and Häagen-Dazs is 14 USD per pint.
The UN pays foreigners salaries that make it possible for them to pay the rent, buy the ice cream, and go for a dive. While 1,100 USD may be three times the average per capita income (making, by that measure, East Timor the poorest country in the world), in the context of Dili and UN work, it simply fails to impress.
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