You have GOT to see the absurdity in this!

greenspun.com : LUSENET : FRL friends : One Thread

Elec Telegraph

British 'minstrels' roam East Timor By Jenny Jarvie

THE United Nations has flown a group of British disc jockeys and entertainers to East Timor to play dance music to victims of its bloody 25-year independence war.

Earthdream 2000 is touring towns and mountain villages of the former Portuguese colony playing reggae, dub, ambient, breakbeat and drum 'n' bass. Bishen Bhanabai, 26, from Brixton, south London, said: "I'm just so glad to have had the opportunity to go to East Timor and attempt to restore peace to a country that has been brutally raped and pillaged. About 10,000 local people came to our first party in the capital of Dili and they really appreciated what we were doing."

A United Nations Hercules aircraft flew in the DJs last month alongside UN soldiers, police and volunteers. Last week Tony Blair urged the UN to develop more "robust policing" and a "far more substantial professional military staff" in the wake of last week's violence.

As the Britons approached Maliana, near the volatile West Timorese border, with an armoured escort, one DJ said: "The road where we will go had 650 bullets fired two days ago but, hey, we say they really need a party."

The DJs, who describe themselves as a "band of roaming minstrels", put on a show in the mountain village of Aileu for the commanders of Falantil, the resistance which fought Indonesian occupation for 25 years. They stayed at the house of Josi Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, the Falantil guerrilla leader who became a figurehead in East Timor after being imprisoned in 1991, and were fed at the Falantil force's headquarters.

In the tiny town of Soibada the DJs stayed at a monastery and entertained 400 people with live music, comic theatre, fire twirling and shadow dancing. Since the DJs arrived in East Timor, members of the contingent have contracted malaria and Dengue fever, a disease which causes severe pains in the joints and muscles, headache and an itching rash. They have also suffered from food poisoning.

Earthdream 2000 was conceived in the early Nineties by the Mutoid Waste Company, a group of artists who combine sculpting scrap metal with anti-uranium protesting and "Rainbow tribe healing" events.

Phil Boutle, 34, a DJ from Hackney in east London who is involved in Ruud Awakening, a pirate radio station, said the Asia Pacific Support Collective set up local accommodation and provided transport for the DJs.

Mr Boutle conceded that the East Timorese are not partial to British dance music. He said: "They weren't really into dancing to our music and seemed to appreciate it more as a background thing. They do not dance very much. They are a very Catholic nation and appreciate the religious side of life. The fire, stiltwalking and clowning acts were certainly far more popular.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), September 09, 2000

Answers

This sounds like a Monty Python skit. Unreal.

-- (Sis@home.zzz), September 10, 2000.

What can we say? The inmates have seized control.

gene

-- gene (ekbaker@essex1.com), September 10, 2000.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ