navelfluff

My Windows and Mac colleagues will sneer at me, but i finally have MP3 support on my Linux box, that runs Kubuntu 6.06. The Ubuntu Wiki suggests enabling the multiverse repository and installing libxine-extracodecs but that didn’t help me since i couldn’t find the libxine-extracodecs listed at all.
In the end, i googled for libxine-extracodecs and [...]

Guess my previous post was more emotional than factual, but then it was written in a spur of emotions rather than in a spur of facts. If you read Janne’s post about the same thing, i guess you can understand why. I’ll do some more research before my next post.
Yesterday was UN Peacekeepers Day. Be [...]

Update: Wikipedia is following the East Timor crisis.
The situation in Dili has deteriorated into what seems to be full chaos. I am no longer worried for my friends’ well-being. I am scared. Dili was in the main Finnish news today for the first time since the independence four years ago. It was ugly.
Since my [...]

According to today’s UNOTIL media monitoring, things are cooling down in Dili. There are still people leaving town, but the numbers are few compared to what it’s recently been. Maybe there’s nobody left to leave?
The same press monitor raises another serious issue. Many of the “internally displaced people” (internal refugees) are children. [...]

BBC has an article on post-riot Timor-Leste with some background on both what happened and a bit of insight to the Timorese political scene.
And on Pacific Magazine, José Ramos-Horta says that given the right circumstances, he might run for UN Sec-gen after all. Ramos-Horta still says that his first and foremost obligation is to his [...]

Yesterday was UN World Press Freedom Day (campain page here). Indymedia has a good writeup on the subject of free press, with strong pictures and a special note on Burma and the current lack of press freedom there (with reference that there isn’t much other freedom there either).
Very appropriately, the first independent newspaper started in [...]

I had my first mid-life crisis this morning. In a bit less than a week from now, i’ll turn 36. Friggin’ 36. That’s a lot.
I started to think about my life and what i’ve done so far. I’ve worked for UN in some bizarre far-away country, check. I’ve travelled to Nepal, Galápagos and a bunch [...]

In today’s UNOTIL media monitoring, two stories caught my eye (sorry, you’ll have to scroll the document, there are no anchors to link to). WFP has started a new program to provide food to schools.
Rozinha de Jesus:
Before this, not many students could attend class up to twelve thirty because they could not bear being hungry [...]

Speculations are over. For now. Timor-Leste Foreign (and Senior) minister (and altogether hoopy frood) José Ramos-Horta has stated that if he has to choose between becoming Secretary-General of the UN and President of the Republic, the priority would be Timor-Leste.
A week or so, i pondered which position he would pursue if presented with both. If [...]

News from Timor-Leste. Current president Xanana Gusmão has, at least to my considerable surprise, decided not to run for a second term . When asked who he imagines may be his successor, Xanana answered that the name on everybody’s lips at the moment is that of José Ramos-Horta — holder of the Nobel Peace Price [...]