Country profile. Minding The Timor Gap. Billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues are at stake as Australia continues to bully East Timor out of its undersea energy resources.
This article is from the July/August 2006 issue of Dollars & Sense: The Magazine of Economic Justice available at ShareThis This article is from the July/August 2006 issue of Dollars & Sense magazine. The outbreak of violent clashes between government forces and disgruntled former military personnel put East Timor,* one of the world's newest nations, into the headlines this spring. East Timor achieved full independence in 2002 after nearly three decades of profoundly destructive occupation at the hands of an American-backed Indonesian military.
There are four main oil and gas fields in or near production in the Timor Gap area that are currently at issue (see map); all of them would rightfully belong to Timor under prevailing principles of international maritime law. Vast sums are at stake. But the new nation has struggled to rebuild and develop. Joint Petroleum Development Area. A free East Timor struggles on.
Subject: AGE: A free East Timor struggles on A free East Timor struggles on By Lindsay Murdoch April 1, 2006 The winning of independence has not been the panacea that will rid the world's newest nation of all its problems.
DAN Murphy says he used to "stack the bodies" in his clinic in Dili in 1999 when he was one of only a few doctors in then Indonesian controlled East Timor. Four years after the tiny territory gained its independence, the American doctor says he has not seen much change in the health of the Timorese. "I still see malnourished children. The sick start queueing to see the tall, bearded man they call "Dr Dan" in Dili's misty pre-dawn outside a cluster of ramshackle buildings that serve as his clinic. "Are people happier now? "Now people go to the drinking wells and talk. East Timor faces hit by carbon tax. The extra costs from the carbon tax will cut revenue from shared gas fields such as Bayu-Undan.
EAST Timor could be slugged millions of dollars a year under the carbon tax, which is set to take a bite out of revenues from offshore natural gas fields that Australia shares with the impoverished nation. The tiny country, which relies heavily on revenues from fossil fuel deposits in the Timor Sea, has expressed concern after learning recently it would likely be financially disadvantaged under the tax. The federal government has acknowledged it needs to strike a compromise with its neighbour as to how the carbon tax will apply to greenhouse emissions arising from gas production in the Joint Petroleum Development Area, though no discussions have yet taken place.
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Assignment 2 Group Presentation Regional Economic Development Eas... East Timore - Table of Contents. By Andrea K. Molnar Northern Illinois University Department of Anthropology and Center for Southeast Asian Studies May 2005 If you utilize material from this web course, please cite it as you would any published work. This web course is intended as a general introduction to the people, culture, history and politics of the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste. The course is informed by a wide range of literature, web-sites, as well as on-going ethnographic field research.
The course is divided into four parts. Proud East Timorese Elders (photograph by Andrea K. 1. 1. a. 1. b. 1. c. 1. d. East Timor Country Profile. Research funded by Australian Aid specifically targets Timor-Leste’s development challenges.
Some highlights of this research are listed below. World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Timor-Leste : Overview. Environment The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste or Timor-Leste is in the eastern half of the island of Timor which it shares with Indonesia, though there is also one small parts of its territory which is completely encircled by Indonesia (Oecussi-Ambeno).
It is located at the very south-eastern tip of the Indonesian archipelago, and relatively close (just over 600 kilometres) to the northern Australian coast. Its geography is mountainous and climate tropical. Peoples Main languages: Tetum, Mambai, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia, Tocodede, Bunak Main religions: Roman Catholicism (90 percent), Islam, Animism, Islam (UK Foreign Office Country Profiles, 2007) Main ethnic groups: Tetum (300,000), Mambae (80,000), Tukudede, Galoli, Bunak, Kemak, Fataluku, Baikeno (UK Foreign Office Country Profiles, 2007) Among the largest ethnic groups are the Tetum whose language is one of the country's two official languages (the other being Portuguese).
History Independence Shifts in ethnic composition. Timor (island, Malay Archipelago. Plain facts aboutAustralia and East Timor’s Maritime Boundary. Download PDF version March 2005 After 400 years of colonization and a quarter-century of military occupation, East Timor became independent in 2002.
However, the world’s newest nation has yet to establish boundaries with its neighbors, Indonesia and Australia. Tens of billions of dollars worth of oil and gas lie under the Timor Sea between East Timor and Australia (see map on next page), and resolving that maritime boundary is essential to East Timor’s ability to provide for its people. So far, Australia has been unwilling to negotiate respectfully with East Timor according to international legal principles. Although it is a sovereign nation, East Timor has limited capability to persuade Australia to negotiate fairly. In response to initiatives by the U.S. GA3746. East Timor political Map - EAST TIMOR. East Timor Relief Map - East Timor. UNDP Timor-Leste. The World Factbook. Oil in Timor-Leste (Oilwatch) This chapter was written for the Oilwatch Network as part of a book exploring the relationship between petroleum development, economic debt, and ecological debt.
For more information on Oilwatch and its ecological debt campaign, see www.oilwatch.org. Links to a printer-friendly PDF version of this paper, with appendices, in English or Spanish. Introduction For the “developed” world, oil and gas are essential. Every country, especially rich ones, depends on oil to maintain their economy and their lifestyles. In recent decades, humankind has discovered that oil is not the blessing many believed it would be. Because the potential money from oil exploitation is so large, it attracts greed and corruption, often causing invasion, war and other conflicts. Petroleum development is also one of the environment’s worst enemies, destroying communities, livelihoods and habitats as well as disrupting the earth’s climate.