[Anthropgrad] Seminar - Petroleum visions: East Timorese opinions about how their petroleum revenue is managed.

[Mary Walta]

SEMINAR NOTICE

Petroleum visions: East Timorese opinions about how their petroleum 
revenue is managed

Jenny Drysdale, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian 
National University

The East Timorese people imagine a better future in which the riches 
from the Timor Sea will reduce their poverty. Timor-Leste now has 
over $1.5 billion worth of revenue in its Petroleum Fund but the 
quality of life for most has not improved. Why? Because Timor-Leste's 
institutions wear the hallmarks of Portuguese colonisation and 
Indonesian occupation, its formal institutions are weak and 
destructive institutions, like corruption and nepotism remain. The 
2006 crisis and the ongoing violence rocked the weak foundations of 
state and the world wonders whether Timor-Leste is yet another victim 
of the 'resource curse' that has destroyed countries such as Nigeria and Nauru.

To avoid the resource curse, the Fretilin-led Government of 
Timor-Leste established conservative, and potentially sustainable, 
mechanisms for managing Timor-Leste's petroleum revenue. This 
research presents the opinions of a range of East Timorese 
decision-makers, foreign advisers and civil society about those 
plans, and cross-checks those opinions with the policy directions of 
the new Xanana Gusmao-led Government.

Jenny Drysdale recently completed a PhD at the Fenner School of 
Environment and Society entitled 'Sustainable development or resource 
cursed? An exploration of Timor-Leste's institutional choices' 
(available for download at 
<http://cres.anu.edu.au/~jenster>http://cres.anu.edu.au/~jenster) and 
is the moderator of the Timor-Leste Studies Association's e-list 
(<http://www.etstudies-aust.org/>www.etstudies-aust.org).

The seminar will be recorded and available for download from 
<http://www.etstudies-aust.org/>www.etstudies-aust.org after 23 November.

12-1pm, Thursday 15 November
The Fenner School of Environment and Society,
Seminar Room, Level 6 (take lift to level 5), Hancock Building West (43),
Biology Place, ANU.



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Please consider the environment before printing this email
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Jenny Drysdale
Researcher, Fenner School of Environment and Society
Moderator, Timor-Leste Studies Association List
Mobile 0407 230 772
Business Hours Internal x 51651 External 02 6125 1651
Email Jennifer.Drysdale at anu.edu.au
Personal Website http://cres.anu.edu.au/~jenster
East Timor Studies www.etstudies-aust.org  



-- 
Mary Walta
Research Editor and Publications Manager
Resource Management in Asia-Pacific
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
Australian National University

T: 6125 9925
RMAP Blog: http://rspas.anu.edu.au/blogs/rmap