Loro Horta is the son of President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prosecutor General Ana Pessoa. He published an article on the openDemocracy website on March 26. Loro Horta is known for being outspoken when it comes to issues in Timor-Leste. Apparently he is in Dili at the moment.

Excerpts:

While most people live on less than a dollar a day, the 350 foreign advisors hired by the Timorese government have salaries as high as $20,000 a month, while government officials drive Lexus, Mercedes and luxury four-by-four vehicles along the potholed streets of Dili. Power cuts are frequent, with a dozen cuts a day a common occurrence.

Near schools men wait in their cars for young girls to approach them. A young school girl relates her story, “we approach them and tell them we need a new pair of shoes to go to a party. We go with them and then do it and get our shoes". Girls are reported to have sold their bodies for as little as $5. In the countryside local journalists have reported various cases of girls as young as 10 prostituting themselves for $1.

I did a radio piece for ABC Radio Australia this week. It was played on Connect Asia yesterday morning. Here is the link to the story. Take a listen and please reassure me that I haven't lost my British accent altogether.

Gay Timor is most probably Timor-Leste's first-ever attempt at representing the country's gay community on the Internet. The self-proclaimed "blog for Timorese gay guys" only has four posts up so far. One of those posts is a list of "Gay Place in Dili for Cruising". The top 10 spots are:

1. Beach front, Palacio do Governo (Government Palace)
2. In front of National University (UNTL)
3. Park in front of Hotel Dili and World Bank Office
4. Beach front, Hotel Turismo
5. Dili Trade Centre during opening hours
6. Amigos Club on Fridays and Saturdays
7. Exotica, on Friday
8. Atlantico on Saturdays
9. Casa Minha on Fridays
10. Motion on Thursdays

I'm curious to see how, if at all, the blog develops. I'm told that there used to be an exclusive gay club in Dili.

Regardless of how Gay Timor goes, I think this is certainly an interesting subject-matter and one that I've seen very few reports and papers about.

At what point are you supposed to stop being reasonable and make a stand against publishers who fail to pay journalists for commissioned work? This happens too often in Thailand. Every time I speak with journalists working for Thailand-based publications I hear stories about people not being paid, especially in Phuket.

Some publishers are just inexcusably slow at paying their freelancers, but you know that eventually the money will come. Others, on the other hand, will lie through their teeth to avoid paying commissions.

Part of the problem is that the English-language media in Thailand is struggling. It’s been like this for a while. Magazines come and go on an almost weekly basis it seems. Part of the problem I’ve had is with magazines ceasing publication.

It happened to me with Hype magazine. I wrote content for them and then the magazine closed down. I’d been promised payment multiple times and then one day I found out the money had apparently been spent on petty cash.

That was a little while ago. Right now, I’m chasing 7,500 baht from the former editor of a magazine that ceased publication less than a year ago. I have emails promising me the money was coming and that requests had been made to the accountant and so on.

The editor sent me an email saying that there was no doubt in his mind that I should be paid for the work I had done. Now the editor won’t return my emails. To rub salt into the wounds, there were reports in January about this man’s exciting new business venture, which is related to property.

What am I supposed to do in this situation? Should I name and shame the individual or would that show a lack of professionalism on my part? I’d be happier to just take it on the chin if I hadn’t been lied to. If someone can afford to start a new business venture then you’d think he could pay me the 7,500 I’m owed.

But this is only the tip of something. There are a number of other websites and magazines in Thailand that put freelancers in the same position. There has been talk of publishing an article about these individuals. I doubt that I’d publish such an article myself because I really don’t see any benefit in making enemies of people in the same line of work as me.

As a freelance journalist, I live off of commissions and when people don’t pay me it really screws me over. This is the main reason why I’m glad I don’t have to work for Thailand-based media outlets any more. The people I work for now chase me up if I haven’t been paid.

I’m sure other people have had similar experiences. Feel free to share them, but let’s keep names and companies out the discussion for the time being. I can only speak based on my experiences at this stage.

If you can read Tetun, you might find this story interesting. I can't read Tetun very well, but there is a mention there about the Dili carnival, among other things.

I was also at the carnival. I have spoken to the Brazilian who was removed from the event by the GNR and I have heard his side of events. I saw most of it happen before my own eyes. At the time, I was planning to write a story about it, but after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to focus my efforts on other work I had.

I would have preferred someone else to have written the story because I was involved to an extent. After taking photographs of the incident between the GNR and the Brazilian, I was ordered by a member of the GNR to delete my photos. He stood over me with a baton in his hand, yelling at me until I had deleted the images. I was extremely angry. But, life goes on.