NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/8456

Text File | 1992-11-17 | 3.8 KB | 87 lines

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Timor: Book rev: "Telling"
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/** reg.easttimor: 344.0 **/
** Topic: New book "TELLING" now available in **
** Written  1:17 pm  Nov 14, 1992 by [e-mail] in cdp:reg.easttimor **
On the eve of the first anniversary of "The Santa Cruz
Massacre"of the November 12, 1991, a book was launched in
Sydney. "TELLING" is the name of this new book by Michell
Turner, a successfull Australian writer, longtime supporter
of the rights of East Timorese People.

"TELLING" is not just another book about East Timor.  It is
a living testimony of a war imposed upon a peacefull people
that refuses to be wiped out from the earth.  "TELLING"
mirrors the courage and determination of a people to fight
for their survival; it is a fight which mixes political
determination with a deep sense of respect for peoples,
individuals and nations.

"TELLING" does not only talk about today's suffering of the
Timorese. It revives the history back to the chapters of
the WWII when the Australian and Japanese "commandos" took
over East Timor and set the country of the Timorese as a
central but conveniently ignored stage ofthe WWII. The only
thing in common between thischapter and the current
Indonesian occupation is the atrocities - commited by
different peoples against the same people: the Timorese.

I guess "TELLING" tries to highlight precisely this fact;
and, by doing so, it tries to awake the readers to the fact
that the people of East Timor have been through a lot of
suffering and it is time for the world to wake up and
recognise that the Timorese, too, as a people and a nation,
must be respected. And, after all the suffering that, due
to the excesses of this world, the Timorese have been
forced to endure, it is time for them to be given a chance
to live in piece.   By the variety of stories and the
"natural" language used to express them, "TELLING" allows
the reader to structure his/her own conclusions; what it
can't do however, is allowing you - the reader - to stand
aside and do nothing.

The cover is a collection of cultural testimonies combining
the features of Timorese traditional and sacred houses -
Uma Lulik - with a couple and their son. This element
portrays the survival of the very basic fabric of the
Timorese Resistance: the Family. The cover is further
enriched with a clear picture of the last year's November
12 protest which led to the "massacre of Sta. Cruz". Hence,
the cover alone is already synthesizing what "TELLING" is
telling the world.

"TELLING" was promoted in Sydney through a "book reading"
on the night of the 27 of October.  It prolonged to about
midnight, the time that in East Timor, last year, the
courageous student leader, Sebastiao Gomes was killed by
the Indonesian troops and the Church of Motael was raided.
The assassination of Sebastiao highlighted precisely the
content and, I think, the spirit of this book.

"TELLING" was published by the University of New South
Wales Press", PO Box 1, KENSINGTON, NSW 2033, AUSTRALIA.
Fax [phone] and Tel. [phone]. Retail price:
$A19.95; also available throughout Australia at bookshops.
Also available in North America through:International
Specialized Book Services, Portland Oregon 97213-3640; Tel.
[phone]; Fax: [phone]. Agio Pereira


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** End of text from cdp:reg.easttimor **