Timor Oan Mos Bele/We Timorese Can Do It

[asakiyume]

Doing some research, I came across this moving song, "Timor Oan Mos Bele," ("We Timorese Can Do It"), sung in Tetun, Portuguese, and English. It's addressed to everyone in Timor-Leste and urges them not to lose faith in the possibility of a good future for the country.

Watch on YouTube

hatudu ba ema katak Timor oan mos bele,
labele lakon esperansa tuba rai metin
no lao ba oin nafatin

We have to show people that we Timorese can do it
We can't lose hope; we must stand firm
And continue to walk forward

The little signs say things like "Fight Corruption," "Education Starts in the Household," "Stop Using Violence," and "Create Peace and Love."

There are lots of tensions in Timor-Leste; violence and corruption¹ are problems, and I bet it's easy to get discouraged. But lots of people are doing such great work--I'm not talking about million-dollar initiatives; I'm thinking just of the ordinary people I met, who are running computer classes or transportation services, or investing in a washing machine and then offering laundry services, etc. And those are just the people I was aware of from my brief stay. But meanwhile there's a law in the works that may restrict journalistic freedom, and there've been some pretty dramatic police actions . . . so, I appreciate the spirit of this song, and I hope people hang on to this spirit.

Timor Oan Mos Bele Halo--Viva Timor!

(And I do love learning language through listening to songs. Phrases I learned today include fiar-an, "believe in yourself," and ida-idak, "everybody.")

¹Like this worrying story about petty police corruption that came down the line this morning from the East Timor Action Network :-(

Comments

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Learning through songs is great! There are some French expressions I still remember from childhood when my father would sing French songs in the house.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yep, it was the way I learned to talk about love and feelings in a dramatic way in Japanese. I remember surprising folks with that :-)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

It looks like the ordinary people trying to save the country. Really lovely!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I can't articulate very well the sense of desperate, anxious hope, pride, and fear I feel when I think about Timor-Leste's future. Xanana Gusmão, the national hero, is stepping down as prime minister. What happens when he and the president Taur Matan Ruak, another hero of the resistance, are no longer around? There has to be a will to keep going, to hold things together--which is what this song is trying to encourage. I hope and pray so hard.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yes. Rather grim tidings.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

--though in editing my comment, I made it grimmer than it actually is because I cut out the key phrase "next year." He's stepping down next year. Still not great, but on the other hand, eventually the next generation does have to step up and take over the reins, and *they* have to try to be inspiring. It's hard when it's the business of nursing along a fragile country rather than the heroics of resistance--but on the other hand, compared with those days, everyone *is* better off. Now people just need to get into the business of nurturing this flower and making it bloom.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

This is true.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

This post reminds me not to be so pessimistic about the political situation here.

And off-topic, GoW.... Whoa, so quotable. Many tidbits to mull over. I can tell you were restraining yourself in posting snippets. :P

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Isn't it so quotable! SO VERY QUOTABLE. I did restrain myself. Otherwise, there would have been about three times as many GoW quotes.

I'm glad this gives you some hope for over there. It's hard though; I understand that, for sure.

Song

[glenn cheney (from livejournal.com)]

Lovely sentiment, one I certainly share. I hope it catches on. Too bad, though, that it's an emulation of American culture.

Re: Song

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

True…. there are other songs in Tetun on YouTube that are more in the model of what I think of as Japanese enka --like French chansons, I guess--which I suppose must be modeled on something Portuguese? And reggae and Cuban music seem to have been popular for decades. But you still get plenty of traditional dances and drumming (judging from what I heard in Ainaro, anyway).

Here's the resistance song "Eh Foho Ramelau" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAOZOHD2lT0) and here's Kolelei Mai (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_dM225sLUc), which was also sung as a resistance song.

Watching that second one… the live footage is from 2002. Makes me feel all choked up.