Diak ka lae

I’ve been in Dili in Timor Leste for a bit over a week now and the thing that has struck more than anything else is the emptiness.

It’s quiet, there’s little traffic, there’s hardly any activity in the evenings, at least compared to previous years. “Why is this?” I thought. Then I realised, the UN has left!

Apart from a few longer term liaison or maintenance personnel, The UN and the other supporting bodies, such as international police forces, completed their transition programs and left the country in December. It’s made a huge difference!

It struck me that the UN has been here since independence apart from a brief withdrawal in 2006 which resulted in several outbreaks of violence. During that time the UN, and other international support organisations, have been helping the Timorese people in their transition to independence and self reliance. Well the time has come, and now the Timorese are charting their own course.

I realised that the UN brings with it its own unique culture, a culture that permeates and influences the indigenous culture in which it operates. But that culture is largely self contained and moves with the organisation,  and then, only shadows and echoes remain.

It permeates everything but somehow remains separate, aloof. But not in a deliberate or calculating way. It is an indifference, a lack of emotional involvement. That’s not to say that individuals don’t care, they do! and deeply and passionately. But the UN community as a whole, as an organisation, is there to do a job, to fulfil it’s purpose, its mission, its reason for being. When that reason disappears it simply moves on to the next situation that will give it purpose again. And, when it does, it feels like there’s something missing.

There’s that lack of camaraderie, of purpose, of excitement that the UN brings with them. Is this what drives the UN and other organisations like them, following one situation to the next. Like wandering Gypsies or Travellers meeting families again in new places and re-creating their familiar culture and support, almost self contained and insulated. Membership becomes a badge or uniform signifying belonging much, much more than the conflict or situation could ever be.

The UN is gone and there is an emptiness, an emptiness that will take some time to fill.