austraLasia 1138
ET turns 3, today!
DILI: 20th May 2005 -- ET, or East Timor
(Timor-Leste, to the locals) turned three years of age today. The world's
youngest nation gained independence formally, and the support of the UN
peacekeeping force in May 2002. Today, most of the 450 peacekeepers pulled
out, leaving a small group of 130 or so behind. They will remain a further
year.
East Timor President, 'Xanana' Gusmao, addressed a crowd
in Dili today, telling them: "we are a resilient
people and we understand that independence is a long process". East
Timor is desperately poor and faces a struggle to kick-start its economy to finance education, health
and other necessary public services. But a long-awaited deal with
Australia to develop undersea oil and gas deposits is due to be signed
shortly. Benefits for East Timor are expected to be in the order of $5
billion.
Meanwhile, Br Marcel Lopes SDB, who had taken up studies
in education at Australia's Catholic University, became the first East Timorese
last month to graduate with a Masters Degree in education from that
university. Br Marcel is stationed at Don Bosco Technical School at
Fatumaca.
_______________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian
Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based
in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml If you
subscribe, email this information and your name will come off the regular email
list. RSS really is the way to go. Think about
it!
VOCABULARY
resilient: ability to recover from sickness or
other serious difficulty
kick-start: to make a strong, even forceful
beginning
