UN exodus pinches East Timor economy

East Timor is readying to stand on its own feet as international forces withdraw by the year-end. But for some in the 10-year-old nation, one of the poorest in Asia, the exodus also comes at a steep price. The bars and restaurants on "the avenida" that runs along the coast of the capital Dili are now lonely haunts with the odd NGO worker or energy company representative dropping in.
The nightly roar of helicopters on patrol has subsided, while the UN's four-wheel drives that once packed the Avenida are replaced by old sedans and ramshackle yellow taxis looking to pick up Timorese for a $2 flat rate.
"Not many UN people come to our bar and restaurant anymore," Dili Beach Hotel manager Domi Riu told AFP.
The bar-restaurant alone used to take in $2,000 a day, but since peacekeepers began withdrawing in large numbers last month, it is lucky to make $500.
Sixteen UN workers once occupied the hotel's most expensive rooms, between $700 and $1,500 a month, but today only five rooms are filled and the hotel may be empty by December 31, when all 1,200 peacekeepers will have returned home.
"We have three options: cut the number of staff, cut their hours or go out of business," Riu said.
On Saturday, Portugal withdrew the bulk of its police, may of whom employed drivers and maids who will have to find new jobs. Some 850 Timorese UN staff and around 1,300 security guards will also be dismissed, according to the UN.
The UN said it was running a training program that involved more than 90 percent of its employees and it hoped the mission had given local staff an opportunity for professional development.
"We see pretty good prospects for our professional officers, who have really advanced their skills and experience here," the UN mission's chief of staff Gary Gray said.
"It may be a little more problematic for what you might call the unskilled part of the labour force -- the cleaners, the drivers and the security guards. It's going to be a lot tougher for them."
Francisco Moniz, who has been working as a driver for the UN since 2000, said he was looking for work and expected to make less than the $570 monthly salary he has become accustomed to.
"The money I get from the UN is enough for our daily needs, including paying for my children's school fees," the 40-year-old with four children said.
"But I'm happy that our country is trying to develop. East Timor is stable now so it's a good thing the UN is leaving.

 

Work underway on contested mega-dam: Laos official

 AFP - Laos has begun work on a controversial multi-billion dollar dam, an official confirmed Thursday, defying objections from environmentalists in its bid to become a regional energy hub.

Construction on the main part of the $3.8 billion hydroelectric project at Xayaburi -- stalled for about 18 months over concerns about its impact -- formally began after Laos said it had adapted the design to assuage its neighbours' fears.
"We started working on the river yesterday after a ground-breaking ceremony," deputy energy minister Viraphonh Viravong told AFP, refuting a previous report that the country's Prime Minister had said work had not begun.
The project, led by Thai group CH Karnchang, has sharply divided the four Mekong nations -- Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand -- who rely on the river system for fish and irrigation.
Thailand has agreed to buy most of the electricity generated by the dam, but Cambodia and Vietnam have raised fears it could ruin their farming and fishing industries.
Laos has said the project is on course to be completed by the end of 2019.
"The ambassadors of Vietnam and Cambodia were there at the ceremony yesterday," Viraphonh said, responding to a question over whether Laos' neighbours had complained about the official start of construction.

Sandy Island goes missing in the South Pacific

A team of scientists doing a geographical survey and tasked with locating a South Pacific island released a report of their findings on Thursday. What they found, or more importantly what they did not find, has left them befuddled.

By FRANCE 24 (text)

 

A small sausage-shaped island, roughly 20 miles long and five miles wide and located in the South Pacific Ocean is posing a big problem for scientists after apparently vanishing off the face of the earth.
Sandy Island, believed to be located in the Coral Sea midway between Australia and the French-governed New Caledonia, might exist on world maps and on Google Maps, but it seems it no longer exists in reality.
A team of Australian scientists, who went in search of the land mass during a recent geographical expedition, reported Thursday that Sandy Island was nowhere to be seen.

Sandy Island , as located on Google Maps Agrandir le plan

"We’re really puzzled. It’s quite bizarre," Dr Maria Seton from the University of Sydney told AFP after the team’s 25-day voyage aboard their ship, the Southern Surveyor. "It’s there on Google Earth and other maps but when we went to check it out there was no island."
When the scientists, who were tasked with identifying fragments of the Australian continental crust, arrived in the area where the island was meant to be, the ship’s navigation charts reported water depths of 1,400 metres. A sign Sandy had well and truly vanished.
"How did the island find its way onto the maps? We just don’t know, but we plan to follow up and find out," Dr Seton vowed.
Human error or in the wrong place?
There appear to be a few strong leads for scientists to follow up in their quest to solve the riddle of the missing island, which according to Google Maps should belong to France because it is located inside the territorial waters of New Caledonia.
The Australian Navy’s Hydrographic Service believes human error may be behind the mysterious disappearence of Sandy.
The service, which is responsible for producing official nautical charts, told Australia’s Fairfax media it took the world coastline database "with a pinch of salt", due to the fact that some entries were old or erroneous.
Another theory is that the Australian scientists may simply have been in the wrong place. A quick search through Bing Maps, a rival service to Google Maps run by Microsoft, indicates that Sandy Island is actually located on the other side of Australia, just off the west coast.
To muddy the waters even further, Wikipedia also makes reference to a Sandy Island but places it north of the atoll ‘Oeno’, among the British owned Pitcairn Islands, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Google, for its part, offered an attempt to explain the presence of Sandy on its map system by appearing to suggest the device might be out of date.
"One of the exciting things about maps and geography is that the world is a constantly changing place and keeping on top of these changes is a never-ending endeavour," a spokesman for the internet giant told AFP.
In recent days, geography buffs have been offering up their own theories on the missing island on Internet sites.
On the Above Top Secret site, discussions were robust, with one poster claiming he had confirmed with the French hydrographic office that Sandy was indeed a phantom island and was supposed to have been removed from the charts in 1979.
The author of another post claimed Sandy's presence could be due to the fact that map makers deliberately put mistakes into their maps "so they know when someone steals the map data".
Unfortunately FRANCE 24 was unable to contact any Sandy Island inhabitants - real or imagined - to verify their location

China arrests 90 over child abductions

China arrests 90 over child abductions

File picture. Police have arrested 90 gang suspects across China and freed 28 children who were allegedly kidnapped from the far west and taken to various cities to steal, the China Daily said. Authorities carried out the operation last month in Beijing and various provinces around the country.

AFP - Police have arrested 90 gang suspects across China and freed 28 children who were allegedly kidnapped from the far west and taken to various cities to steal, the China Daily said.
"Suspected gang members 'beat, abused or threatened' these young children to force them to steal and rob in public places," it quoted the Ministry of Public Security spokesman Huang Shihai as saying.
The locations ranged from shopping centres to underpasses and railway stations, he said.
Authorities carried out the operation last month in Beijing and various provinces around the country as part of a campaign launched in April last year that has netted 2,700 suspects and rescued 2,300 children.
The gangs often targeted youths in the Xinjiang region where the Uighur ethnic minority speaks a different language, making their cases more difficult for police to investigate, criminal investigation expert Dai Peng was quoted as saying.
The traffickers also often targeted poor children who had dropped out of school, promising them a path to prosperity in cities elsewhere, a Uighur interpreter named Ablikim who helped with police investigations told the newspaper.
But once they arrived the children were forced to beg or pick pockets.
"It has become a profitable industry," Ablikim said. "Every child has to get back a certain amount of money or the boss may hit him or her."

China think-tank calls for end to one-child policy

China think-tank calls for end to one-child policy

A group of young Chinese children take part in a swimming contest at the National Swimming Centre in Beijing on September 22. China should phase out its unpopular one-child policy and let families have two children by 2015, an influential think-tank with close links to the government has proposed.

AFP - China should phase out its unpopular one-child policy and let families have two children by 2015, an influential think-tank with close links to the government has proposed.
The suggestion comes from the China Development Research Foundation (CDRF), adding to growing calls for a relaxation of a policy first introduced over 30 years ago.
It would see the world's most populous country eventually abandon a measure that has been blamed for creating a demographic timebomb, with an ageing population foreshadowing huge economic and social problems.
The policy has also fostered a gender imbalance.
"Problems in population structure, quality and distribution have become increasingly visible and will have a profound impact on China's future social and economic development," the CDRF said in a report, according to a Xinhua news agency dispatch late Tuesday.
"China has paid a huge political and social cost for the policy, as it has resulted in social conflict, high administrative costs and led indirectly to a long-term gender imbalance at birth."
The report calls for family planning to be "loosened" in those provinces with stricter controls -- which are commonly urban areas -- allowing families nationwide to have two children instead of one by 2015.
All restrictions should be lifted by 2020 "as people will make more rational decisions on birth issues", the CDRF said.
The southern province of Guangdong asked Beijing in July for permission to relax the policy and allow couples where just one parent is an only child to have a second baby.
But the plan was dropped when Zhang Feng, director of the province's population and family planning commission, said there would be "no major adjustments to the family planning policy within five years".
Family planning officials in Beijing have defended the one-child policy in the past, claiming China's population -- currently 1.3 billion -- would have hit 1.7 billion without it.

Samsung finds 'inadequate' practices in China plants

Samsung finds 'inadequate' practices in China plants

The Samsung Electronics logo is seen outside its offices in Seoul. Samsung said Monday that a probe of its suppliers in China had found no evidence of alleged child labour, but did uncover some "inadequate" employment practices that needed to be remedied.

AFP - Samsung Electronics said Monday that a probe of its suppliers in China had found no evidence of alleged child labour, but did uncover some "inadequate" employment practices that needed to be remedied.
The South Korean technology giant inspected 105 Chinese partners in September following a report by China Labor Watch that at least one supplier was employing children under the age of 16.
The US-based watchdog said staff at some plants were forced to work up to five times the legal overtime limit and denied basic labour rights.
Samsung said its investigators had reviewed employment records at all 105 suppliers and conducted face-to-face ID checks, but "did not identify any instance of child labour".
However, they did find "several instances of inadequate practices" including excessive overtime and a system of fines imposed for lateness or absenteeism.
"We have identified the need for initiatives to reduce employee overtime as a top priority, and we are researching and developing measures that will eliminate hours beyond legal limits by the end of 2014," Samsung said in a statement.
Samsung said it would finish reviewing 144 additional suppliers by the end of this year.
From 2013, working conditions at all 249 suppliers in China would be monitored by a third party audit programme, it added, vowing to terminate contracts with any found to be using child labour.
All suppliers have been told to correct irregularities in labour contracts, and to provide adequate safety equipment and sufficient safety training, the statement said.
Managers will receive additional training on sexual harassment and physical and verbal abuse, while hotlines are being established for workers to report any inhumane treatment or labour violation, Samsung said.

Thai anti-government protesters clash with police

Police in Thailand fired tear gas and arrested dozens of anti-government protesters on Saturday in Bangkok, in the largest public demonstration against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra since she came to power last year.

Thai police fired tear gas at stone-throwing demonstrators and made dozens of arrests on Saturday as thousands demanded the overthrow of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in the biggest street protest yet against her 16-month-old government.
Protesters from the royalist Pitak Siam group, led by retired military general Boonlert Kaewprasit, repeatedly tried to breach police lines in the Thai capital and rammed a six-wheel truck into a security barrier but were held back.
They accused Yingluck’s government of corruption, being a puppet of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck’s brother, and of disloyalty to Thailand’s monarchy. Many were members of a yellow-shirt protest movement that helped trigger a coup by royalist generals in 2006 that toppled Thaksin.
“If I can’t overthrow this government, I am prepared to die,” Boonlert told supporters. He made a plea for “soldiers to come and protect us” shortly before ending the protest as torrential rain fell in early evening.
The clashes revived memories of a tumultuous 2008, when yellow-shirted protesters seized government offices, fought street battles with police, and occupied Bangkok’s main airports for eight days. Amid that turbulence, two pro-Thaksin prime ministers were forced to resign by the courts.
Yingluck won a 2011 election by a landslide on support from the rural and urban poor. Her supporters, who wear red shirts at protests, held mass street rallies in 2010 against a military-backed Democrat-led government. Those demonstrations ended with a bloody army crackdown in which 91 people were killed.
“Our biggest concern is if Pitak Siam decides to escalate their rally or protesters move into key government buildings including parliament,” said Piya Uthayo, a national police spokesman.
Pitak Siam, or Defend Siam - an old name for Thailand—taps many of the same supporters who backed the yellow shirts: the traditional Bangkok elite that includes generals, royal advisers, middle-class bureaucrats and old-money families.
Saturday’s rally follows a visit to Thailand by U.S. President Barack Obama—part of a three-country tour of Asia -- during which he praised Yingluck, calling her a “democratically-elected Prime Minister who is committed to democracy.”