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the national identity thing
So, one time my dad was in Timor Leste, in a meeting that ran inordinately long because they had to translate everything from Portuguese to English. (The official languages in Timor Leste are Portuguese and Tetum.) "And after the meeting, we started chatting," said my dad. "And you know what language we were chatting in? Indonesian!"
The guy reckons that in five years or so, everyone in Timor Leste will be speaking Portuguese and most people won't even know Indonesian. The translator said, "Naw, man, the kids'll know Indonesian. How'll they watch their sinetron otherwise?" (Sinetron are like narmy Indonesian telenovelas with a lot of tears and screaming.)
Which is hilariously unsurprising but also not hilarious at all.
East Timor never really got the chance to develop a national identity. It was Portuguese for 300 years, and Timorese for like 10 seconds before we swooped in going, "MINE MINE MINE." Thirty years later, they can't get enough of our soap operas.
When Portugal granted East Timor its independence in 1975, it had a weak coalition government, and we totally took advantage of that. Before the Timorese knew it, they were Indonesian (or so we said). That is, if they weren't already one of the tens of thousands dead from violence, deprivation, and disease. And 1975 isn't so long ago. It's not even two generations ago. It was just roughly a decade before I was born, but I didn't know anything about this growing up. I didn't grow up in Indonesia, so it wasn't like I was subjected to its propaganda machine, but sometimes the best propaganda is no propaganda, is silence.
One time I was YouTubing Indonesia and came across this 1993 commercial and was really confused. Why the hell would Portugal care? Why was it picking on us? Well, Portugal was by far the strongest foreign supporter of Timorese independence. The Timorese cause was popular enough in Portugal that politicians would bandy it about to win public favor. As for the attitudes of other Western countries, well. East Timor had had a strong leftist party when Portugal left in 1975, and the Western neoliberal powers - fearful of a communist domino effect in Southeast Asia - supported the violent subjugation of East Timor by Indonesia. To whom they did pretty much the same thing 30 fucking years ago.
Timor Leste, here's to you making narmy telenovelas (or... something better) of your very own someday.
On an unrelated note: am I probably going to use part of my $25 iTunes gift-card to buy this?? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT.
INSTAVIDREC: Merlin/Will set to Telepopmusik's "Close" fsnkjfksajflkjsdflkjdfd I don't usually do vids, okay, but I am warming to them, especially if they're gonna be ABOUT MERLIN AND WILL BEING HEARTBREAKING. omg. Watch it, guys.
The guy reckons that in five years or so, everyone in Timor Leste will be speaking Portuguese and most people won't even know Indonesian. The translator said, "Naw, man, the kids'll know Indonesian. How'll they watch their sinetron otherwise?" (Sinetron are like narmy Indonesian telenovelas with a lot of tears and screaming.)
Which is hilariously unsurprising but also not hilarious at all.
East Timor never really got the chance to develop a national identity. It was Portuguese for 300 years, and Timorese for like 10 seconds before we swooped in going, "MINE MINE MINE." Thirty years later, they can't get enough of our soap operas.
When Portugal granted East Timor its independence in 1975, it had a weak coalition government, and we totally took advantage of that. Before the Timorese knew it, they were Indonesian (or so we said). That is, if they weren't already one of the tens of thousands dead from violence, deprivation, and disease. And 1975 isn't so long ago. It's not even two generations ago. It was just roughly a decade before I was born, but I didn't know anything about this growing up. I didn't grow up in Indonesia, so it wasn't like I was subjected to its propaganda machine, but sometimes the best propaganda is no propaganda, is silence.
One time I was YouTubing Indonesia and came across this 1993 commercial and was really confused. Why the hell would Portugal care? Why was it picking on us? Well, Portugal was by far the strongest foreign supporter of Timorese independence. The Timorese cause was popular enough in Portugal that politicians would bandy it about to win public favor. As for the attitudes of other Western countries, well. East Timor had had a strong leftist party when Portugal left in 1975, and the Western neoliberal powers - fearful of a communist domino effect in Southeast Asia - supported the violent subjugation of East Timor by Indonesia. To whom they did pretty much the same thing 30 fucking years ago.
Timor Leste, here's to you making narmy telenovelas (or... something better) of your very own someday.
On an unrelated note: am I probably going to use part of my $25 iTunes gift-card to buy this?? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT.
INSTAVIDREC: Merlin/Will set to Telepopmusik's "Close" fsnkjfksajflkjsdflkjdfd I don't usually do vids, okay, but I am warming to them, especially if they're gonna be ABOUT MERLIN AND WILL BEING HEARTBREAKING. omg. Watch it, guys.
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muchas thanks!