In any case, I have to completely disagree with your assessment that UNTAET was a ‘disaster’. Building a state from the ground up -literally from nothing – was never going to be easy, and most Timorese agree de Mello did a fine job under tough circumstances. He is well regarded, and remembered publicly in ET each year since his death. As for institutions, well, we all know the problems with the army and police. But Im sorry to tell you that Australians (some ex-INTERFET) advisers were primarily responsible for training and advising the army, so give UNTAET a break! And the Police were well and truly screwed up after UNTAET by Rogerio Lobato (though I agree, to be fair, that recruiting former police from the Indo era was one clear example of a bad UNTAET decision).

More positively, democracy actually works pretty well (eg much greater % of voter turnout than the US or UK), the education system is barely above adequate, but hardly a “disaster”, and the court problem is very serious, but not one that could ever have been addressed in 3 years, by anyone or anything. Its a simple question of a a lack of human resources, complicated by language policies. Neither of which were UNTAET’s fault.

On expense: what Australia proposes with a ‘green helmet” operation means taking all those costs itself, rather than spreading some to the international community.

The ADF is copping a bit of flack for some simple failures (eg failure to station security at the refugee camps, until guess who – the UN – took up that cause recently). Plus there is a huge % of the timorese population who – rightly or wrongly – believe Australia was implicated in bringing down the government they voted for. Australia is in NO position to run this reconstruction without adding to tensions within Timorese society.

Thats why the Timorese Government itself is asking for a blue helmet operation. They know the Australians cant do it as effectively – this is no longer a simple security operation, but a political reconstruction exercise.

“You know, the INTERFET/ UNTAET shift worked really well last time while they were there”

You are right Lefty…I should have provided detailed evidence that UNTAET was a disaster…perhaps I may as soon as I sift through the wealth of evidence you provide for your statement (wouldn’t want to be one sided now would we..)

In the meantime, perhaps you could name some (one?) of those wonderful working public institutions they left behind (or even whilst they were there)..you know like the police service, customs, tax office..wait maybe the courts..Perhaps we should mention the floating hotel and the fun that was had there. Gee and it only cost…??

Sorry what were those daily allowances again? How many 4×4 vehicles. What about a tax code that specifically identified Tampons in its own special paragraph as GST FREE because that happened to be the big bad GST issue (anti howard) in Australia at the time. At least we knew they were focused on helping the people not playing with their own little agenda.

The AFP getting footage of a foreign war, that might be really helpful for the case of the (Anglo!) terrorist recently arrested in Brisbane.

Why do you feel the need to point out his race? I think you might be a racist.

You’re an idiot Alice. The point is whether or not Weathergirl’s neighbor is connected to Hezbollah, whatever video he has could come in very useful to the AFP or ASIS in the whole “war on terrorâ€? thing that you may or may not realise has been going on for quite some time now.

Oh… the “war on terror” thing. Do you mean that ad campaign where they distributed free merchadise — fridge decoration, I think it was — to try and scare the bejesus out of people and make them think a war and local police state were justified?

Hmm, let me have a think about that. The AFP getting footage of a foreign war, that might be really helpful for the case of the (Anglo!) terrorist recently arrested in Brisbane.

Cliff:
About the parents – be polite and respectful but definitely NOT humble; they want their daughter to be with an ambitious young man who will make his way in the world, not a wimp.

I’m going to have to be a very polite, humble and incredibly chaste young Cliff for a month or too.

This is China in 2006 we’re talking about; didn’t you mean very discrete and very private?

Nanjing is pretty good. Modernizing like mad but it has a lot of charm; maybe you would prefer Nanjing to Shanghai.

Before you go: Get into drinking practice with nips of neat vodka (or Mao Tai, Wu Liang or Er Guo Tou if you can get your hands on any); first toast down the hatch, subsequent toasts just take a wee sip and say quietly “Sui Bian” unless you are a champion tosspot …. in which case, go for Gold!

December-January is frrreezing cold in Nanjing. Just watch out for black ice when you are walking if it has been snowing …. and especially if you are crossing the road.

Northerners eat dog too but it’s too expensive. Stick to beef, pork, chook, duck or fish. Hope you’ve learnt to handle slippery jiaozi with slippery plastic chopsticks.

Whatever you do, you MUST learn some basic phrases and answers/responses and practice them until they become automatic …. you’ll miss out on 95% of the fun if you don’t