Timor Leste essays

Timor Leste essays After centuries of external oppression as well as civil war, the Democratic Republic of East Timor is facing both challenges and opportunities with regard to the country's economic and environmental sustainability. Politically, oppression has been suffered at the hands of the Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese and Indonesians. The country has finally overcome all these invasions and gained its independence under United Nations mandate, to become a sovereign state on 20 May 2002. However, the repercussions of poor governmental management along with other issues have kept the East Timor wedged in its third-world status, with few resources to promote either financial or environmental sustainability. Combined with political difficulties, East Timor is furthermore challenged by its geographic environment. The country is for example very mountainous, which causes agricultural problems. Few crops will grow in such a region. Developments such as roads and other modern infrastructure are also difficult and expensive, due to the landscape structure. The current situation of the people in East Timor is that the nation comprises more or less four million inhabitants, relying mostly on crops such as rice, coffee and coconuts. Poverty and unemployment are two of the biggest social problems in the country. However, its recent gain of independence has injected into the country and its people a sense of both urgency and eagerness to rise above their situation. This paradigm should then be used by the international community to help the country achieve its ideal of becoming economically and environmentally sustainable. Being representative of the global community, the United Nations Development can make a significant contribution to improving East Timor's situation by means of its Environment and Natural Resources Unit. Inherently, East Timor has the capacity to be both enviro...