(It’s not that nobody knew about East T imor. It w as covered
extensively back in 1974–75, w hen the Portuguese empire w as
collapsing—although the articles then w ere mostly apologetics and
propaganda.)
T he first article after the invasion that the Reader’s Guide to
Periodical Literature lists as specifically dealing w ith East T imor is
one of my ow n; it w as published in January 1979 in Inquiry, a right-
w ing libertarian journal I sometimes w rote for in those days. T he
article w as based on testimony I’d given at the U N on the
suppression of the issue by the Western—primarily the U S—press.
Arnold Kohen had discussed T imor in an earlier article about
Indonesia he’d w ritten in the Nation, and that w as it for the journals.
Incidentally, here’s a case w here a very small number of people
—the most important by far being Arnold Kohen—managed to save
tens of thousands of lives, as a result of getting an issue into the
public arena. T he R ed Cross w as allow ed in, and although the terror
continued, it lessened.
It’s also a case w here the internet made a difference. T he East
T imor Action Netw ork w as a very small and scattered group until
Charlie Scheiner and others used the internet to bring information
to people w ho otherw ise couldn’t get it.
Friends in Australia had been sending me articles from the
Australian press, but how many people have that luxury? Now
everybody could get information very fast. T he movement grew and
became significant enough to have an impact.
India
Didn’t Adam Smith criticize the British crow n for giving the East
India Company [chartered in 1600 by Queen Elizabeth I] a monopoly
in India?
Yes, he did. He w as very critical of w hat the British w ere doing
there; he said the “savage injustice of the Europeans” w as
destroying Bengal [in the northeast part of the country]. One
example w as the activities of the British East India Company. It
forced farmers to destroy food crops and plant opium instead, w hich