Dr Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, knows first-hand about dealing with the scars left by violence and poverty – four of his eleven brothers and sisters were killed by the Indonesian military. He can also speak with authority on peace and politics – for over 20 years he travelled the world urging nations to remember the plight of East Timor, occupied by Indonesia for 24 gruelling years.
Now Dr Ramos-Horta is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Co-Operation in East Timor. His knowledge of international affairs is vital to this tiny, new and poor nation.
His Excellency will be in Sydney on Friday April 30 to speak at a charity fundraising dinner at the Swissôtel, Market St. His topic will be “East Timor at the Crossroads”.
Dr Ramos-Horta’s speech at the forceten dinner should prove to be a lively and interesting insight into the issues facing a new country. May 20th is East Timor’s second birthday – it is a time to celebrate achievements and to think of the challenges facing our new neighbour. Challenges such as reconciling the past, feeding its people and resolving the dispute over oil reserves in the Timor Gap.
Dr Ramos-Horta’s views are forged by his experiences. He stated recently “Surely there must be the goodwill, leadership and vision to forge a new international coalition against hunger, abject poverty, malaria and AIDS. Extreme poverty is an affront to us all. It should shame us that governments can readily allocate billions of dollars to fight wars and yet refuse to spend modest sums to fight poverty. As a human being I am ashamed.”
All profits from the evening will go to food projects in rural communities in East Timor. The projects provide basic supplies to help set up community gardens. Over 30% of all homes, buildings, farms and other infrastructure were destroyed in 1999. A third of the population were made refugees. It takes time for any society to recover from such upheaval - and East Timor is desperately poor. So the help from the projects is vital.
Money from the dinner will go to two agencies working in East Timor - Caritas and YASONA.
If you would like to attend the dinner, please contact Amanda Jackson on 02 9299 2215 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Interview times with Dr Ramos-Horta are available on Friday April 30. Please contact Amanda Jackson.
