Greetings from the Wig and Pen Bar at the Australian National University. His Excellency Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, Minister of Planning and Strategic Investment for the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste just made a speech in the hall next door. His excellency talked about the failure of peacekeeping operations in Africa which did not take into account local political considerations and his own efforts to help. He criticized large multi-national companies and powerful nations for exploiting the resources of developing nations. He mentioned how Australia had urged other nations to respect the UN laws on the exploitation of maritime resources, while not doing so with Timor-Leste. However, he also acknowledged Australia's role in bringing independence to his country. He ended on a note of optimism speaking of the development of his country since independence.
ps: This talk has some parallels with the earlier one by Professor Keith Jeffery on intelligence agencies, as Australia stands accused of having spied on Timor-Leste during resource negotiations.
Showing posts with label Timor-Leste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Timor-Leste. Show all posts
Monday, March 16, 2015
Xanana Gusmão Gives Australia a Lesson in Diplomacy
Greetings from the Wig and Pen Bar at the Australian National University. His Excellency Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, Minister of Planning and Strategic Investment for the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste just made a speech in the hall next door. His excellency talked about the failure of peacekeeping operations in Africa which did not take into account local political considerations and his own efforts to help. He criticized large multi-national companies and powerful nations for exploiting the resources of developing nations. He mentioned how Australia had urged other nations to respect the UN laws on the exploitation of maritime resources, while not doing so with Timor-Leste. However, he also acknowledged Australia's role in bringing independence to his country. He ended on a note of optimism speaking of the development of his country since independence.
ps: This talk has some parallels with the earlier one by Professor Keith Jeffery on intelligence agencies, as Australia stands accused of having spied on Timor-Leste during resource negotiations.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Rights and Sustainability in Timor-Leste’s Development
Greetings from the Australian National University where Charles Scheiner, Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis, is speaking on "Rights and Sustainability in Timor-Leste’s Development". He questioned the Timor-Leste's government's policy of economic development based on petroleum extraction and processing. He presented a detailed analysis of the problems. However, these problems could equally apply to many small developing nations and some to Australia.
What was lacking from the analysis was proposals for fixing the problem. At question time Scheiner related an anecdote that junior public servants in the Timor-Leste government who related in private they agreed with the analysis but faced political pressure preventing putting this in official proposals.
Perhaps there is need for more emphasis in higher education courses on how to have policy proposals adopted.In the course "ICT Sustainability" (COMP7310) I have the students spend the first half working out what the problem is and the second what to do about it. Students discover that it is relatively easy to come up with a technical proposal, but much harder to put it in a way their boss will find compelling. This is something which we can teach over the Internet to students anywhere.
There is a Timor-Leste Conference at ANU tomorrow.
What was lacking from the analysis was proposals for fixing the problem. At question time Scheiner related an anecdote that junior public servants in the Timor-Leste government who related in private they agreed with the analysis but faced political pressure preventing putting this in official proposals.
Perhaps there is need for more emphasis in higher education courses on how to have policy proposals adopted.In the course "ICT Sustainability" (COMP7310) I have the students spend the first half working out what the problem is and the second what to do about it. Students discover that it is relatively easy to come up with a technical proposal, but much harder to put it in a way their boss will find compelling. This is something which we can teach over the Internet to students anywhere.
There is a Timor-Leste Conference at ANU tomorrow.
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