what's with East Timor

I came across a subject about East Timor from an unexpected article.  I have been reading articles about the Cold War, and there, just like popping from mid-air, the situation of East Timor was mentioned.  What I knew about the country before was that it is a former Portuguese colony, and Indonesian forces invaded it during the time of Indonesian president Suharto.  So it appeared to me that the situation in East Timor was another case of annexation, which is usually associated with economic interests; thus, something not right was going on.  Furthermore, it occurred during problematic times in Portugal leading to its decolonization, so it made me think that the Indonesian government during that time might be taking the opportunity to invade the colony.

The Cold War articles revealed interesting logical connections with the East Timor invasion.  It also revealed that my knowledge about the invasion was very limited.  Yes, it is related to the Cold War in many probable connections such as the case of what has been a fragile relationship between UDT and Fretilin - the two leading nationalist movements aiming for East Timor independence.  UDT is essentially democratic, as the name says; while Fretilin has a program considered to gear towards the left wing (read "East Timor Revisited" for more details).  Fretilin, however, is known to have the greatest public support.

Articles that I have read about the Cold War showed situations wherein superpowers tend to take sides in favor of movements in a foreign country that hold the same ideology as theirs.  Ultimately, they get direct involvement when the clash of ideologies went worse into a war situation, e.g. civil war.  Little did I know that the case with East Timor is somewhat related to the case of Vietnam War, Korean War, Cuba, and Afghanistan.  I think you might be familiar with the scenarios in those countries, and superpowers such as USSR and/or US are visibly involved.  In the case of East Timor, you might be interested to read an article by the Sydney Morning Herald.  Think about how Vietnam was divided into North and South, whereas Korea is until now divided into North and South.  These situations demonstrate acute cases of clashing ideologies.  Afghanistan, on the other hand, has its own Soviet regime when the communist forces prevailed in that country sometime in its history.  A more popular case is Cuba.  As you might have known, the world was almost brought into nuclear war mainly between US and the former USSR because of the situation in Cuba.  That was the Cold War, and it is a heavy subject matter.

I don't know a lot of things about East Timor so I think it is worth to explore some things about this young independent state.  

East Timor is located in the island of Timor in the archipelago of Indonesia (see map below).  It's a small country that comprises approximately half of Timor, and it was colonized by Portugal in the 16th century.  It became a sovereign state in 2002, but prior to that, the country declared its independence in 1975.  In that same year, however, Indonesia launched its invasion of the territory in December.  The history leading to its independence is bloody, and until now, peace and order is still prone to disturbances.  Its capital and largest city is Dili.  It has two official languages: Portuguese and Tetum, and in distinction to its largely Islamic neighbor Indonesia, majority of the people in East Timor are Christians by affiliation.  It is home to two Nobel Peace Prize laureates: Jose Ramon-Horta and Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo.

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Time will come for a more peaceful Repúblika Demokrátika Timór-Leste.

Matthew Winterburn

Janina Pawelz

青函トンネル, Channel, and Берингов пролив

Seikan Tunnel, Channel, and Bering Strait

While browsing for some information about the Caspian Sea, I find the oil pipeline system remarkable.  The system would go for miles in order to reach their country or region of destination; they originate from areas near or within the Caspian Sea.  Thinking about the pipelines made me think about tunnels and eventually about the ambitious tunnel projects that mankind has undertaken.  Somewhere at the top of the list are the two longest undersea tunnels in the world: Seikan tunnel in Japan and Channel tunnel between Great Britain and France.  Seikan tunnel is the longest and the deepest undersea tunnel in the world running for 53.85 km and 140 m below seabed and 240 m below sea level.  It connects the Honshu and Hokkaido islands in Japan and allows train travel between the two islands.  It crosses the Tsugaru Strait.  Similarly, the Channel tunnel allows train travel between the island of Great Britain and continental Europe through France.  It connects Folkestone, Kent in United Kingdom and Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais in France.  It is 50.5 km long and 75 m deep at its lowest point.  Seikan tunnel opened in 1988 (construction started in 1971) while Channel tunnel opened in 1994 (construction started in 1988).

Seikan Tunnel Location:


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Channel Tunnel Location:


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For a developing country like the Philippines, these projects are totally not feasible in the economic perspective.  In fact, at first impression, one may find these projects unbelievable to exist in reality given the engineering challenges and the project cost.  It costs $3.6 billion in 1980's prices to build the Seikan tunnel while it costs around £4.7 billion in 1985 prices to build the Channel tunnel.  Huge projects indeed; however, many years from now, the records established by these tunnels will be surpassed by a proposed project in Bering Strait that was already given a go signal by the Russian government.

The proposed tunnel project in Bering Strait is estimated to cost up to $30 billion (according to interbering.com) while the railway constructions in Russia, US, and Canada leading to the tunnel are estimated to cost up to $70 billion.  Think about spending for a connection by land going to North America or going to Asia - soon to be a link between two of the largest economies of the world and a major link between two of the biggest continents.  The significance can be comparable to that of the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal.  The tunnel will link Siberia in Russia and Alaska in the United States.  The map below shows the locations.  Of course, what goes together with the project are the engineering challenges, and perhaps a big challenge there is how they are going to deal with the seismic activities in the area.  Let's just hope that it is not going to lead into any major disaster brought about by unforeseen factors and consequences.

The length of the tunnel will be around 103 km or 64 miles, and it may take up to 10-15 years to complete.

Bering Strait:


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A press release of the project is found here.  Although additional figures can be found here.  For Russia, creating a tunnel in the Bering Strait means more infrastructure projects such as railway systems in a relatively "infrastructure-deprived" Northern Siberia where the temperature can drop to as low as -50 degrees Celsius.  Russia plans to extend rail lines to the northeastern part of Siberia, which is expected to be completed by 2030.

This project is not really new for it has a long history in its planning and proposal.  It dates back in 1905 from the idea of Tsar Nicholas II.

Around Caspian Sea

Caspian Sea / Xəzər dənizi   / Каспийское море / Каспий теңізі / Hazar deňizi /
دریای کاسپین /دریای مازندران /دریای خزر


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Speaking of lakes, one may recognize the unique designation of Caspian Sea.  From the looks of it, it is essentially a lake, but no, it is a full-fledged sea.  So what's the largest lake in the world in terms of area?  According to a scholarly source (take a look at their Editorial Board here), it is Caspian Sea; besides, is there a real contradiction between a lake and a sea? It's the largest inland body of water on Earth, and it's salty with salinity levels ranging from 1.0 to 13.5 parts per thousand (north to south region salinity levels; sea facts found here).

Another interesting thing about Caspian Sea is that it is surrounded by five countries: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan; therefore, one may wonder if ever there are some sort of demarcation issues in the body of water like that of the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea.  In fact, there is; given that it is known to be rich in hydrocarbon resources, it must have been difficult to settle the issue.  As far as I have known, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan already made some agreements when it comes to their sectors.  Turkmenistan, on the other hand, seems passive; and I think Iran is pushing for equal division of the sea among the five countries although the extent of the coast line of each country varies considerably.  There is a disputed region between Azerbaijan and Iran, and this is one of the major concerns in the area.  Setting the issue aside, there are many amazing small things and big things in Caspian Sea; and it is charming in many perspectives.  The sea itself seems peaceful.

I did some little research, and I have some small things featuring some big and small things from Caspian Sea.  Not just things, but also the life in there.

Turkmenistan:

Peretz Partensky                Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan

Shown in the picture above is a port in Turkmenistan, which is considered to be the only sea link to the West (which refers to West Asia and Europe).  The city is situated in a region that contains petroleum and gas reserves, and in fact it contains the largest oil refinery in Turkmenistan.

Kazakhstan:

Mouser Williams                A view from Aktau, Kazakhstan

The second image is a perspective of Caspian Sea from a city in Kazakhstan.  It's the sole seaport of Kazakhstan in Caspian Sea.  The two cities so far seemed not so densely populated, but I think I found one when I came across Baku, Azerbaijan (see image below).  It is the capital city of Azerbaijan.  The areas seem sparsely vegetated, which is usually evident in regions with large reserves of hydrocarbon resources (take for example the desert of Saudi Arabia).

Azerbaijan:

David Davidson                Baku, Azerbaijan 

Perspectives taken from Russia and Iran are shown below.

Russia:

   

Bolshakov              View of the sea from Dagestan

   

Ekaterina Didkovskaya    Derbent, Russia (in Dagestan)

Iran:

Mohammad Emdadi      Caspian Sea view from Iran

Ninara              A boat in Mazandaran province in Iran

Mohammad Emdadi    Fereydūn Kenār, Iran (in Mazandaran)   

Looking at the images, I think Caspian Sea can be a place not just for oil explorations and fishing, but for photography as well.  Onward for a peaceful Caspian Sea.