Further to my investigations of the Russian software industry in Australian Anthill (see this post below) I also had the chance to explore the topic in more depth for this story for The Diplomat. It's a magazine that is new to my roster, but is hopefully one that I'll be contributing to regularly this year. The story is locked behind the paywall, but I'd urge you to pick it up from your newsstand now - it's an interesting magazine.
Terrible news from East Timor over the weekend, as the situation deteriorated from bad to tragic. I was lucky enough to make two trips to East Timor in 2004, reporting on the country for BRW (Download east_timor.pdf) and Rolling Stone Australia (pages 1 - 4 here:Download rolling_stone_east_timor_1.jpg Download rolling_stone_east_timor_2.jpg Download rolling_stone_east_timor_3.jpg Download rolling_stone_east_timor_4.jpg). During those visits I got to travel extensively through the country (which is stunning) and also speak to many of its leading figures, including the PM, President and Foreign Minister. It was an enlightening experience, observing a nation that had been so beaten down for 400 years, finally struggling to get up on to its feet. At that time glimmers of hope were shining through in a situation of desperate poverty, as the government worked hard to attract foreign investment and create a future for its people.
To hear what is happening now is to learn how quickly the struggle of nation-building can be swept away with random, pointless acts. The latest round of violence has roots that are tangled in decades of history, dating back to the original Indonesian invasion. It is symptomatic of a people for whom liberation has removed fear of oppression, but done little to improve their situation for food, work and health care. Despite the best efforts of many international aid agencies, the East Timorese have been left pretty much to their own devices when it comes to developing their free society. East Timor has been listed as the 10th poorest nation in the world, and the poorest in South East Asia. Yet wealthier nations - including Australia - have turned a mostly blind eye to its struggle to build an independent democracy, preferring instead to graft one on to Iraq.
Yes, Australia has sent the troops in - a move that few Australians would reject (unlike sending troops to the US-led coalition in Iraq). But the sad fact is, that with the right level of assistance, it is quite likely they would never have been needed in the first place.
Last year I was fortunate to be able to travel to Africa and see first hand many of the problems confronting people in the developing world. Towards the end of the trip I visited Gulu, in the civil war-torn northern regions of Uganda. Below is a story that I subsequently wrote for GQ Australia, based on the experiences of children I met at a World Vision-sponsored camp who have escaped abduction by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). A quasi-spiritual movement, the LRA has gained notoriety through its preference for abducting small children and forcing them to fight in its ranks. It is a conflict seemingly without end ...Download children_of_a_lesser_war.pdf
Watching the Live 8 concert on the weekend prompted me to think about some of the work that I did last year on the effects of poverty in developing world. Below is an unpublished article I wrote a few months ago, based on interviews that I conducted last year while visiting a World Vision children’s camp in war-torn northern Uganda. I hope to be able to use this site to publish more articles from my time there. Read the full story here: Download the_night_commuters_of_gulu.rtf
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