Friday, August 21, 2009

I've been tagged

Thanks to the beautiful CT in Mexico, I've been tagged...not once but twice. I'll have to do them one at a time as my girls are tired and having sharing issues and I may need to dash off. This is already my second attempt. Here's what I have to do for the first one before passing it on .

1.Collect the book you have most handy.
2. Turn to page 161.
3. Find the 5th complete sentence.
4. Cite the sentence on your blog.
5. Pass it on to five other blog friends

The book I have been reading is "Shooting Balibo" by journalist, Tony Maniaty. It is a memoir of his experiences in East Timor just prior to the invasion by the Indonesians in 1975. He narrowly escaped death but the journalists who have become known as the "Balibo Five" and a sixth Australian journalist, all of whom were warned of the dangers by Tony, were brutally killed by the Indonesians. It is also about his experiences some thirty years later when he returned to East Timor with the film crew and actors who made the recently released film about the 1975 dramas - "Balibo". We saw the movie on the weekend (thanks Mum and Dad for babysitting). I was on the edge of my seat and the book by Tony Maniaty was just unputdownable. Given that the movie has just come out (and the book too, I think) and my brother has just married his beautiful East Timorese girl, my family are slightly obsessed with East Timor at the moment - both its sad history and its challenging present. I hope there are happier times ahead for this tiny, fledgling nation.

So, here's the 5th sentence from the book. It's actually from one of the most dramatic moments when Tony and his cameraman and sound guy are being shot at by the Indonesians and he risks his life to run back and collect his passport.

"I could see the chopper in the sky over Batugade, and I could see my passport sitting there, the loneliest passport in the world at that moment, on the wall where I'd left it".

I don't know if I have five bloggy friends that I can tag with this - I have a small audience! So I think I'll pass the baton to CGDK. at Wind Screamers.

1 comment:

Miss Prudence said...

Lucky you for getting to see a grown ups movie! I see movies all the time but they are all rated G!