Then he asked to see our schedule of visits. There is a narrow gauntlet of stalls offering food and cheap goods for sale. There are some people still receiving pensions. I've been here three months. It feels like I'll be here 20 years.
Decisions have to be made right away.
The population of East Timor generally hovers a bit under one million, frequent genocide providing some precipitous declines, and it offers no staggering abundance of mineral wealth, no tourist paradise that can't be found in more convenient locations. South of the Philippines, north of Australia, it is no more strategically located than a dozen other islands in the same region. The land is mountainous, the people mostly farmers. Kissinger and President Gerald Ford happened to be visiting General Suharto on the day of the invasion. East Timorese resistance was far stronger than expected, and they paid by losing a tenth of their population in the first few months of battle.