la politica

Everyone in Timor seems to have been intensely involved in the independence struggle. I don’t think anyone is neutral when it comes to politics. They all have very strong opinions, and I attribute it to the tradition of wanting something and actually seeing it get done. Circumstances have facilitated this—while in bigger countries, political will and action are wieldy and clumsy at best when they try to become actualized, in a small and young government like Timor’s, it is a few people at top who makes the decisions and the politicians who can sway their opinion are in relative easy reach of the people.

This notion came to me as I was looking for people to interview in Timor. I wanted to find people that have had interesting and notable experiences during the independence struggle and upon its inauguration in 1999. I thought I would only be able to find a handful of people that would be willing to talk to me, but in fact, I realized I had a wealth of readily accessible sources all around me. Every Timorese friend I asked had a relative who was an important part of the movement or had an interesting perspective. Such was the case in my interview with Janio’s dad. My friend Sergio (who, by the way, must be the best translator in Timor) was busy and couldn’t translate for me one day and he called his friend Janio to sub for him. Janio was not an impressive translator—he refused to do some things I asked him to do (like calling to schedule appointments) and gave me a lot of stress but if nothing else he introduced me to wonderful interviewees.

Janio told me about how his father had close relations with Xanana (the former president and current prime minister of Timor) during the revolution. I was excited by this piece of information and when I went down to Same during a visit to Hato Udo province, I specifically looked for Janio’s father and interviewed him. It was probably one of the best pieces of footage I had ever acquired during my time there—not only in terms of content, but lucky me--aesthetics as well.