United Nations

Ten years after Timor-Leste became an independent state, new schools are built every week and more students are going to school than ever before.

After hundreds of years of being a colony, in 1999 the United Nations administered a popular consultation, which allowed the people of Timor-Leste to decide in a referendum whether they wanted to become an independent state. I was 15 years old when the referendum took place. Just a few weeks before the consultation day, my family dropped me off on the island of Flores to attend high school. I remember clearly that as I waited on the dock of the ferry that took me away from the capital city of Dili, I prayed for peace to my country. I swore only to return after my country found its final freedom from colonization.

On the morning of August 30, 1999, I sat in my literature class listening to my teacher and other classmates discussing Timor-Leste and its future. My classmates asked my teacher why the Timorese wanted independence. My teacher looked at me and asked, “What do your parents think of this referendum? Do they also want Timor-Leste to become independent?” Fearing for the safety of my family and myself, I looked away and said that I had no idea where my parents stood on this issue. My heart ached to scream “Viva Timor Leste!” – but I knew full well that it would be asking for trouble to do that. That evening, sitting in front of TV, along with my other flat mates, we watched how the Timorese were dressed up early in the morning to go to the polling place. Many were dancing “dahur”, a Timorese traditional dance, as the long awaited day had finally arrived.

Pig farmers in Nias pull a 'waste disappearing act' by converting manure into useable energy.

At one of my trips to Nias, Indonesia, I discovered that a pig pen can actually be so clean without any spot of dirt or waste. It was something I have never imagined after seeing pig farms that have mud (of all kinds all) all over the place. You can imagine what it would look like, right?

The clean pig pen I saw was in the village of Tetehosi, Idanagawo sub-district owned by a farm group with the name Ternak Harapan Maju which means, “Farm Hopes to Progress.” The pen is managed by priest Sabar Markus Lase, not only because he knows about pig farming, but also because the pig pen is in the backyard of the church.

A few days before the 2008 Olympic Games began last August, China blogger David Dollar noticed that Beijing's efforts to clean up its air seemed to be paying off. Well, it seems that after the officials took the worst polluting vehicles off the road, temporarily shut down some major polluting factories, and limited the amount of traffic, the city's air quality did indeed get better.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) yesterday released a report concluding that Olympic organizers successfully made efforts to improving the city's environment for an "eco-friendly mass spectator sporting event." The press release stated, "These achievements are all the more impressive given that the Games were held in a rapidly developing city in a country facing multiple development challenges in the first decade of the 21st century." You can download the full report here.

An interesting part of the report points to NASA data, which used satellite imagery to demonstrate that air quality over the city improved. Mongabay.com wrote about these findings in December:

The Government of Myanmar, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations have released the first comprehensive report covering the impact of Cyclone Nargis on the people in the Ayeyarwady Delta and Yangon. Among the highlights:

- It estimates the cyclone killed over 84,530 people, with a further 53,836 still reported missing.

- The assessment of damage and losses confirms a similar scale of impact to that of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in Indonesia in 2004, especially at the household and community severely damaged, together with around 4,000 schools.

- The cyclone wiped out the livelihoods of families overnight, flooding over 600,000 hectares of agricultural land, killing up to 50 per cent of draught animals, destroying fishing boats and sweeping away food stocks and agricultural implements.

- This has left households extremely vulnerable – in mid-June, 55 per cent reported having only one day of food stocks or less, and have relied in part on the steady flow of relief supplies.

- The total economic losses amount to about 2.7% of the projected 2008 GDP, with the effects of the cyclone concentrated on a region important for agriculture and fishing in Myanmar.

- Recovery needs, which are estimated at just over a total of US$1 billion over the next 3 years, include the most urgent priorities of significant food, agriculture, housing, basic services and support to communities for restoring their livelihoods and rebuilding assets.

- The indicative estimate of recovery needs and costs is preliminary and will need to be updated over time, reflecting the experience of other natural disasters in the region which demonstrate the importance of refining assessments and recovery plans at a sectoral level.