°Timor
Newly-elected President of East Timor, Jose Ramos Horta - pictured here on election day promoting himself as Jesus Christ, and whose suits uniformly sport priestly collars - has, perhaps unsurprisingly, promised $10m to the Catholic Church so that it can “assume a bigger role in the spiritual and moral guidance of our people”, and intends to constitutionalise God. Describing himself as “President for the Poor”, he has also suggested the effective abolition of corporate taxes so as to make East Timor one of “the easiest countries in the world to do business”, and proposed expanding a “cash for work” programme (which I assume is another phrase for workfare/work-for-the-dole). There are currently around 1,700 UN police (mainly from Portugal, the previous colonial power), and 1,250 Australian and New Zealand troops deployed in East Timor - needless to say, each of those countries’ governments have applauded Horta’s election win. While abolishing visa payments from overseas “humanitarian workers”, Horta will no doubt enthusiastically embrace the trilateral agreement between Australia, Indonesia and East Timor to control undocumented migration in the region. East Timor - a firmly re-colonised, theocratic, impoverished, outpost of the Vatican.
More here. Some very brief remarks of mine on East Timor from 1999, in Italian (because there’s no English version via the wayback machine).
