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Miguel Carreira deixou um novo comentário na sua mensagem "Time to face the raw and naked truth":

Dear Sir,


As you can see, I am a English speaking Portuguese citizen working for a private Portuguese company here in Timor.

I dont believe Australia and Indonesia are ignorant of Timor history, much because they are also part of it. Regarding the knowledge of Portugal of geography, well, you see the world map as it is ? Half of it was made by portuguese travelers, and I would match my knowledge of geography and traveling with you any day, Sir.

Also please consider the fact that there is a Portuguese link with a place on the other side of the world, and respect it, as much as I respect the fact that the Aussies still sing "God save the Queen".

If the choosing of a native language is connected only to economic reasons we would all be speaking English by now. The single fact that I'm writing this comment in English should make you wonder really who has limitations, the ones that only speak one language, or the ones that speak more than one. Any developed country speaks english, yes, even the danes and portuguese learn that in school, as well as geography, as well as history!

So you see, the problem is not teaching the timorese to speak english, they will, once they have a proper education like any one of us, the problem is that the native speaking english nations are not willing to speak anything else than their own. But sir, thats a problem that the rest of the world as left behind a long time ago.

East-Timor is the youngest nation in the world, they value their identity and independence more than anyone else (and they dont sing God save some-other-country Queen, not even a Portuguese one!). Besides beeing catholic you need to consider what makes them diferent from the surrounding countries:

- Just the political borders ?
- Their costumes ?
- Their race ?
- Their Flag ?

Might be all of that those togheter, AS WELL AS LANGUAGE. English makes them citizens of the world, Portuguese makes them Timorese in this part of the world.

So you see, any John Doe little country like Portugal or East-Timor can teach and learn english, but that doesn't make them who they are.

Regarding the Portuguese lack of investment, its a natural resources problem Sir. Compare it with Denmark for example. But that never stopped us of being who we are, we don't speak the danish as a native language because of that either, or spanish, or whoever owns more investment. The economic importance of language is overrated in your assessment Sir. Money speaks no language, its all about profit.

As a final note, here in East-Timor, Australians, Indonesians and Portuguese all get along very well and don't give a **** about political empty games.

I do hope you publish this comment as I feel that I'm entitled to the right of reply.

Respectfully

Miguel Carreira
From East-Timor