East Timor
Capital:
Dili
Continent:
None - it's an island; closest continent is Asia
Map:
 |
| A close-up of East Timor & its neighbor. |
Neighbor:
It shares Timor Island with Indonesia. Indonesia is also the closest neighbor, to the north & northwest. Australia is to the southeast.
Water Borders:
Savu Sea, Wetar Strait, Timor Sea
Total Area:
5,743 square miles
Five Largest Cities:
Dili, Same, Maliana, Suai, Liquica
Famous Geographical Point:
Tatamailau (mountain)
Famous Person:
Martinho de Araújo, weightlifter
Book Set In/About:
East Timor: Genocide in Paradise by Matthew Jardine
While this book was written before East Timor gained independence in 1999, it covers much of the country’s recent history, which is marked by brutal occupations (Portugal & Indonesia) and neglect (the rest of the world).
Movie Set In/About:
“Balibo” (2009), directed by Robert Connolly
A fictionalized account of the true story of five foreign journalists who were killed during Indonesia’s 1975 invasion of East Timor. When Australian journalist Roger East arrives in East Timor to investigate the mens’ deaths, he too is caught up in the madness.
Headline of the Day:
"Former Macau Resident Couple on Trial in East Timor Flees the Country to Australia" in Macau Business
The first time I heard about East Timor was in college, when we watched a documentary in a sociology class. Noam Chomsky was in it and East Timor was brought up to make the point that terrible genocide is going on all the time, but we don't always here about it, due to various political factors.
ReplyDelete(Note that the above may be me conflating separate things. I'm too lazy to go check.)
Thanks to your post, I now know that something called a tautological toponym exists. East Timor is one; it's name means east east in two different languages. Here's a fun link with a list of redundant place names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_redundant_place_names
Ha! I didn't know that re: East-East.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember where I first heard of East Timor but I clearly recall saying something along the lines of, "Where the F is East Timor?"