Mariko Sorimachi, the representative of the NGO, took care of me a lot when I started exploring Southeast Asia. By chance I met them in Bali on their way back from East Timor and could hear stories about the country.
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| Kuta beach where she told me the story |
East Timor is a proud country which won independence after a long struggle against Indonesia. Although their living standard is defined as poverty, people live well, and the country is a major production area that supplies high quality coffee to the world.
I was concerned with the country since I knew it by a documentary movie 'Kanta Timor' on the independence struggle, but I couldn't visit because the hotel rate is too high there. So it was a precious opportunity to see people who went to the site actually.
While listening to the stories, I thought that this country can play a role to show important diversity to the world.
- History and language of East Timor
East Timor was Indonesian territory temporarily. It was not Indonesia originally, right after the former suzerain withdrew, Indonesia invaded.Indonesia was a Dutch colony, East Timor was dominated by Portugal. When Portugal went away and everyone was pleased, Indonesia attacked. Everyone was relieved and let the guard down after the suzerain power is gone so they were occupied again in a blink of an eye.
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| Probably the predecessor's blood is soaked in this rustic landscape |
They became independent in 2002 after the long struggle against the Indonesian’s invasion. Isn’t it quite rare to win independence in the 2000s? Actually one third of adults died. Although Indonesia is a country suffering from long time colonization, the situation that the weak oppresses the weaker makes me distracted.
After the independence, people who fled to Portugal during the struggle (basically rich people who were former government officials) also came back, and it was the language that first discussed.
Portuguese is widely used in East Timor in relation to former suzerain state, and some people who have escaped to Portugal could only speak Portuguese. During the 25 years of Indonesian rule, Indonesian language was also spoken by many people. Local languages are varied and different from tribe to tribe, like Indonesia. Because the currency is US dollar, it was possible to use English.
The most population spoke Indonesian but off course it was immediately dismissed, the official language was set to Portuguese, common language for the returned people. It became a rare country like Brazil to speak Portuguese except its home country. And the national language is set to Tatunese with the most population in the local language. It is said to be a very easy language like Indonesian.
It is similar to Philippines which use English as the official and Tagalog as the national language, but I think that not choosing English as official language will probably be a barrier against the economic and cultural invasion against this country. Incidentally, I think that Japanese language had such aspect for Japan.
- Coffee cultivation and Bricolage
The main industry of East Timor is coffee as I wrote earlier. Or should I say, there is nothing else. So it is an absolute monoculture, and rice, the main food, is imported from Indonesia.While they don’t have enough money to buy agricultural chemicals and machinery, all the utensils are handmade by themselves utilizing anything there, to grow coffee. There are craftworkers with such a feat that produce agricultural tools from broken automobile parts and drums.
For example, coffee peeler. Of course they don’t have money to buy it. While there is no satisfactory tool, they make a dent of a certain height on a disk punched from drum with a hammer. If the height is not perfectly constant, you can not peel the coffee skin keeping the quality.
After that, the produced disk is attached to the axle. Screws are also from broken cars. It is a peeler made of waste drums and scrapped cars.
To use wastes in the area, this is exactly permaculture. It may affect that there seems to be a lot of Australian supporters. There are local permaculturists in the county, and it is said that they got the government posts recently and are going to promote dissemination activities.
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| Finished product! |
Even though it is a primitive society, the efficiency of coffee production is tremendous as a result of such efforts. Though it is only a part of the whole production, a Japanese NPO purchases 250t of coffee! East Timor boasts one of the biggest coffee brands in the world. It is quite great to realize it with whatever resource is available to go with, bricolage.
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| Coffee skin peels cleanly |
- Learning from modernization
If capital comes and brings efficiency with modern plantation and factory, jobs and technique of craftsman are lost accordingly. Workstyle changes monotonous as if you became a machine part.
In Cebu in the Philippines, I have acquaintances working in the Japanese factory, and she said she is working everyday thinking that she can go back to the village full of greenery in the mountains after she finishes the day. It gives her some cash income, but it is not happy that a large part of your life is occupied with such situation.
To thrust her is the educational expenses of children she will have in the future, and educational qualifications in emerging countries should be quite critical. She was driven by such a modern system.
When plantation comes, what happens is the destruction of resources that make you imagine the invasion of Indonesia. In Mindanao in Philippines there are banana plantations, where indigenous peoples were literally deprived of their ancestral land by violence, and made plantation workers.
If plantation is made, the land will be pickled with chemicals. If the land becomes useless, capital will just come out without recovering anything.
What remains behind is a contaminated farmland, people without skills, living on cash, a town with extraordinary maintenance costs compared to the original lifestyle. Unlimited nature is surrounded by steel wire netting, and no one can enter the site of the rough plantation. There is no longer a forest where food could be obtained free of charge. The river was polluted and the fish disappeared. Slums are thus born.
- Two ways and the world's hope
Many emerging countries followed this route. Japan, which was also a emerging country and could earn money in the gap of the Cold War, will probably follow the same path if we go without any change. It is highly likely that the same thing will happen to Europe when the doping of wealth, which was taken from and Southeast Asia, has been used up. This is a huge historical turning point, it is not something that can be managed by ordinary policy.
‘The end of capitalism and the crisis of history [Kazuo Mizuno]’
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Ms. Sorimachi who told us the country’s story, while looking at the bustle of Kuta in Bali, said it should not be this way.
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| Bustle of Kuta clubs |
To me, Kuta still has Bali's atomosphere and goes into the category I like, but to a person who always sees the traditional lifestyle of the hill tribes of the Philippines, it seemed to be fully destroyed. And it is probably the possibility of this world that there is a viewpoint different from person to person.
The fact that permaculturists were held at government officials in East Timor lights up this country’s destination with the hope that Mindanao was deprived much of. The hope seems to be something that developed countries have not noticed that they have lost yet. Natural farmers call it ‘great relief’.
‘Standing in a enchanting field [Yoshikazu Kawaguchi]’
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| It is impossible to maintain Bangkok for the future |
Related links：
Brand of Independence against being Spirited away - From East Timor to the Future of the World (2)
East Timor Renaissance and Children of Permaculture - From East Timor to the Future of the World (3)
Original pots in Japanese:
世界に多様性を示す東ティモール――東ティモールから世界の未来へ（１）
千と千尋と独立のブランド――東ティモールから世界の未来へ（２）
東ティモール・ルネッサンスとパーマカルチャーの子どもたち――東ティモールから世界の未来へ（３）
パーマカルチャーと東ティモールの”エッジ”――東ティモールから世界の未来へ（４）
Brand of Independence against being Spirited away - From East Timor to the Future of the World (2)
East Timor Renaissance and Children of Permaculture - From East Timor to the Future of the World (3)
Original pots in Japanese:
世界に多様性を示す東ティモール――東ティモールから世界の未来へ（１）
千と千尋と独立のブランド――東ティモールから世界の未来へ（２）
東ティモール・ルネッサンスとパーマカルチャーの子どもたち――東ティモールから世界の未来へ（３）
パーマカルチャーと東ティモールの”エッジ”――東ティモールから世界の未来へ（４）
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