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“Before you study the economics, study the economists!”
Cool Marx on Sri Lanka
e-Con e-News 05-11 July 2020
“Some countries are more planned against than planning…”
• Why Industrialize? • Historic Julie Hathai Mala Keliyai!
• 1953 & 1956 • Rice Power
“We do not want to industrialize for the sake of power. We want to industrialise because it is the only way to get rid of the curse of poverty. It is the only way to ensure higher living standards and to give our people, when they are free from the pursuit of inadequate food and shameful housing, the leisure and serenity to enjoy our beautiful country; to develop their culture in their own way” – Philip Gunawardena
• 67 years ago on 7 July 1953, Finance Minister JR Jayawardene announced the removal of the rice subsidy. As ordered by the US-dominated World Bank, the government increased the price of rice by nearly 200% – from Rs 25 to Rs 70 per seer (roughly 1kg) at a time when the average monthly expenditure was Rs 20. This kicked off a chain of events, which led to the 1953 Hartal and the ‘1956 revolution’.
Without considering the enormous significance and consequences of 1953 and 1956, no major political development that’s happened since in Sri Lanka may be properly understood. The most decisive (and ill-advised) event of Sri Lankan history after 1948 seems to be what happened in 1953 to our staple – for a long time the major source of protein in our collective diet – rice!
• The first governor of the Central Bank, US citizen John Exter, sought to transfer our diet from local rice to imported wheat. Yet rice and its cultivation is both the fulcrum of our collective strength, and the very root of our discontent due to the failure, postcolonial depredation, to fully mobilize rural labour power! (see ee Focus, Marx & Sri Lanka)
A US-dominated World Bank and IMF still plays their pestilential role in preventing the transformation of the colonial import-export plantation economy. Colonialism’s shameful impoverishment of the peasantry, who form the majority of the country, prevents the growth of the rural home market, which is the basis of industrially modernizing rice production.
The continued blaring in the news promoting low-skill tourism and ‘small’ industry (assembly and export of imported goods, etc.), proves the media owners and the advertisers who control them, have absolutely no interest in informing or transforming people. Shameful indeed!
On 12 August 1953, the UNP cabinet fled onto an English warship, HMS Newfoundland, in Colombo harbor, to direct the repression of the Hartal, where many were killed, maimed and jailed. The UNP government was 3 years later buried in an Sri Lanka Freedom Party landslide. The advances that innovative 1956 government made in economic transformation, then led to sabotage as well as assassination of a popular Prime Minister. Was it to prevent their 10-year industrial plan? (see, eesrilanka.wordpress.com/2019/10/12/exposing-the-real-assassins-of-swrd-bandaranaike)
• Miniran Balakaya, a new local video cooperative, has made a wonderful 11-minute documentary, Why Can’t We Make It Here?, to challenge the US-funded media whitewash. It recalls the attempt to industrialize in Sri Lanka, focusing on the successes and travails of the 1956-77 period – ‘For the serene joy and emotion…’ ee Readers may watch it, like it and share it
– youtube.com/watch?v=0WUrUpKBMnM
Contents:
A1. Reader Comments –
• Focus on Credit Not Debt • Congratulations to ee Robots
A2. Quotes of the Week –
• 77 Years of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka • Falling Income 27% • White vs Black Despots • Awaken Islamic Fanaticism • Scrubbing Civilization
A3. Random Notes –
Unilever Gives itself a Prize! • White Jihad • Jilmart$, Pandemic$ & Crying Fraud • Prepare for Election to be called ‘Fraud’ • Balakrishnan’s English Traditions • Residual Eco-baggage • Repo Ripoffs • CB, Blockchain & BS • War on Drugs • CTC & Pushers • World War 3 & 4 • Where do Profits Go?
B. ee Focus
B1. Marx turned to Sri Lanka in the Last Years of his Life
C. News Index
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A1. Reader Comments
• ee thanks Readers who send articles of interest. Please excerpt or summarize what is important about any article sent, or your comments, and place the e-link at the end. It’s better to send them as email.
•“ee focuses too much on debt and not on credit… Where has investment gone in the last 72 years?”
• “I want to congratulate the anonymous robots behind ee for its progress”
• “Those who wax on military rule, don’t admit the connection between mercantilism, monopoly and militarism?”
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A2. Quotes of the Week_
• “Various industries were established in Sri Lanka as donations or with aid from socialist countries. The steel factory, the Modara flour mill, the Kelani tire factory, the pre-fabricated concrete factory at Narahenpita and Ekala, textile factories at Tulhiriya, Pugoda and Minneriya, the Yakkala Metal Factory, were some of those industries gifted by socialist countries.” (ee Industry, 77 Years of the Communist Party)
• In June, the UN office in Sri Lanka released a report, Tackling the Covid-19 economic crisis in SL: Providing universal, life cycle social protection transfers to protect lives and bolster economic recovery, which claims contraction in the Sri Lankan economy in 2020 could be anywhere between 4.8% and 18.5%, much more severe than the World Bank’s prediction of 3% contraction. According to the UN report, this unprecedented economic contraction could result in average household incomes falling by 27%. Globally and in Sri Lanka, these are economically devastating times. What could be the political fallout? How will countries be ruled amidst such a deep-seated crisis?” (ee Sovereignty, Bonapartism)
• “The use of the term despotic to characterize the nature of government in Asia can be traced back to the works of Plato and Aristotle and probably reflects the Greek reaction to political life in the Persian empire. It was revived in the French polemics against the absolutism of Louis XIV but was to become, at a later date, a convenient phrase for the supporters of monarchy as well. It was during these debates that views on ‘Oriental despotism’ hardened into a concept which was carefully distinguished from the ‘legal’ and ‘enlightened’ despotism of the European monarch.” (see ee Focus, Marx & Sri Lanka)
• “Revolution in India and Egypt, and also in the Caucasus is of the highest importance… to awaken the fanaticism of Islam.” – General Helmuth von Moltke Jr, chief of German General Staff (1906-14)
• “Scrubbed from all memory is the ferocious take-no-prisoners, yield-no-quarter stand of heroes beginning with our first freedom fighter, Baucunar, Chief of the Carinepagoto people, who successfully repelled Spain’s first attempt to settle Trinidad at Mucurapo in 1531. It was a mighty battle that would launch over 200 years of unrelenting indigenous resistance against land capture, enslavement and, ultimately, the genocide of the civilization that owned and nurtured this Caribbean for thousands of years before we inherited it.” (ee Sovereignty, Trinidad)
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A3. Random Notes (‘Seeing Number in Chaos’)_
• Anglo-Dutch Unilever this week received another ‘award’, as Sri Lanka’s top ‘Multinational Corporate Brand’ by LMD magazine. LMD is a prize recipient of Unilever’s huge advertising budget, which consumers and taxpayers ultimately pay for. Talk about loving incest! (see ee Business).
Unilever modestly proclaims: “96% of its products are manufactured locally, to the strictest manufacturing standards.” Unilever’s media defenders, both pseudo-nationalist and NATOpolitan, chorus, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah’, but what on earth does this “manufactured locally” actually mean? How and where are its capital goods – the machines and the biochemistries – made? This is the question!
While it’s good news to hear that exports have exceeded imports for the first time since ‘independence’, the real issue is to calculate how much of these exports depend on the import of expensive capital goods and other ‘intermediate’ goods, which could also be made here? And yes, how the multinational Unilever’s dominates our home market and obstructs technological innovativeness! (see ee Economy)
• Jilmart$, Pandemic$ & Crying Fraud – Why is Europe and its settler states, so busy ‘culling’ their own people with Covid, acting so generous about giving us aid to fight Covid. What’s going on, and what is that ‘aid’ money really intended for? To buy their machinery, chemistry, and to buy elections?
If imperialism fails to prevent the election by hook or by Covid, their next step will be to declare the election results fraudulent. They will then accelerate their attempt to divide the country, targeting Trincomalee and the East.
Hints are evident in both the NYT and BBC shedding vulpine tears for Muslims in Sri Lanka. This is the same duo who promoted ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq, and ‘freedom fighters’ in Syria and Libya, to show their concern for Muslims? And now ee hears that the fib about ‘China detaining millions of Uyghurs’ originated with an US-backed NGO and far-right researcher ‘led by God’ to bring down China (see ee Sovereignty).
• ‘Liberal’ Indian journalist PK Balachandran claims “China’s centralized authoritarianism and Hong Kong’s European traditions do not match…” What on earth are these “European traditions”? Such dichotomies have long antecedence in tenets of white supremacism – the NATO gospel! (see ee Quotes, despotism; Focus, Marx & SL)
HK was a colony until the English were allowed to leave, peaceably, though the English keep attempting to subvert the peace there. As for English concern for ‘human rights’: Anybody who has lived in Europe and the settler states knows in their bones (even if their minds deny it) of the genocidal white supremacist practices they have imposed there and try to impose around the world.
• Environmentalists are alarmed about a cabinet decision to hand over forest land to US multinational companies under the guise of helping chena cultivators, to promote the MCC plan to grab more state land for private interests.
Environmentalists need to uphold such crucial priorities as gainful employment, and rid themselves of the charge that they’re amply funded by white countries to prevent a modern industrial economy. Only then can they rid themselves of their hypocritical classist, eugenicist, Malthusian, anti-industrial, NGOist baggage.
• The Central Bank this week announced the offer of a billion dollars of US Federal Reserve ‘repo’. The offer of a billion dollars may also explain the wavering over the MCC.
ee recalls the origins of the ‘repo’ market in attempts to rescue failing banks, and provide daily parking for corporate pfotis. The US Central Bank – the Federal Reserve – recently handed control over corporate debt to BlackRock, entrusting them with FR “giveaways” to banks. BlackRock is a major (if not controlling) shareholder in Unilever.
– see, ee 21 June, commondreams.org/views/2020/05/18/another-bank-bailout-under-cover-virus
In April 2020, India’s Central Bank’s long-term repo operation (offering money at a cheaper price to banks for lending to a particular sector) targeted shadow bankers on condition that half the funds must go to small and mid-sized Non-Banking Financial Companies. This attempt failed as banks avoided such risky moves.
– see, qz.com/india/1860466/how-indias-nbfc-crisis-deepened-from-ilfs-defaults-to-covid-19
• A Top IT giant based in London, which outsources work to Sri Lanka coders and programmers, has not only cut its local staff, and wrapped up their local physical office HQ, it has cut back on workers’ pay. Gone are the benefits of regular hours of work, overtime, meals, breaks, etc. While their workers in Europe organized and refused to accept the pay cut, etc., the Sri Lankan workers here are so divided, they meekly went along! One worker quipped, “We’re still a colony!”
It is in this light ee views the Central Bank’s announcement of the development of a blockchain facility with a Swedish company. ee wonders, unless the CB wishes to appear modern, why they need to hire expensive Swedish companies when less expensive local options are available? It evoked ee’s revulsion about local institutions and academics marketing fancy buzzwords like Blockchain, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Education, IT, etc. It all amounts to grand bull, as long as the mass of our workers are not organized, without a class dedicated to advancing the basics of modernity.
• The War on Drugs Drags on – “The English opium monopoly yielded one-7th of the total revenue of colonial English India, as trade in opium soon eclipsed sale of cotton to China. Opium became ‘the largest commerce of the time in any single commodity’ in the 19th Century.” (British Trade and the Opening of China 1800-42, Michael Greenberg)
• It isn’t just a matter of arresting rogue police, army officials and lumpen gangsters. Overcoming the drug trade in Sri Lanka will be most dangerous for anyone, let alone a popular president, because this is an almost 200-year game of ghouls and spooks, bolstered by the US war on Afghanistan, which has seen opium production boom under NATO’s aegis.
This drug game in Asia harks back to the English trade in opium, backed by their politicians and bishops, which, beginning with the English East India Company, ignited the growth of the massive English banks and multinationals of today, from Standard Chartered to HSBC, from Unilever to Jardine Matheson (still the largest employer and landlord in HK!) to Oppenheimer’s Anglo-American Corporation (which runs South Africa) and BHP Billiton (which runs Australia!)
Yes, taking on the drug trade is to take on capitalism itself. Then there’s regulating the modern pharmaceutical industry, whose chemistries have long overwhelmed the ‘natural’ drug trade. Ganja is now a highly genetically modified pharmaceutical product, vended in the white countries by former police officers and government officials who once put 1,000s of young people in jail for the herb. Synthetic Fentanyl sold in pharmacies, 1,000 times more powerful than Heroin, has long been devastating working-class communities in the US and Canada, while a compliant media acts coy.
In Lanka, we endure the monopoly enjoyed by the Ceylon Tobacco Co, owned by British American Tobacco. How do monopolies operate? Don’t monopolies also need a monopoly of violence to protect their monopoly? Most of CTC’s workforce is salesmen, we are told. Do these salesmen only sell tobacco through their vast distribution network? Their product, grown through highly dubious agricultural practices, also involve toxic chemistries and curing processes. Further, the cigarette itself is made with capital-intensive machinery, and multinational CTC-BAT ensures that none of those machines or parts are made here.
If the powers that be are truly interested in overcoming a rapacious born-again capitalism, which is behind the drug trade, nothing less than mobilizing the entire peasantry and working class for socialism can ensure victory and independence in the coming wars. But will they? The so-called national bourgeoisie, nurtured in the period 1956-77, turned comprador when they grew frightened by the strength of the rising Sri Lankan proletariat. They wished, like in the white countries, to bid farewell to such a spectre, and engender an atomized precariat.
• Whoever wins the elections now, inherits a poisoned chalice. Generally, it’s when economies are in a downturn that capitalism allows social democrats to take over briefly, while reorganizing their battalions of reaction. All indications are that economies worldwide are in free fall. If you appreciate the trajectory of white history, ‘Peace’ will only arrive after another ‘World War’ – a round of mass murder overwhelming the last series by a 100 million or more
All is not gloom, however! With China providing the undergirding rationality, it’s possible several more socialist states will sprout. The USSR bloomed after WW1. China, Cuba, Vietnam, etc bloomed after WW2.
Ever since WW2, while declaring a form of peace (of the graveyard), Europe and its satellite settler states, have conducted regional wars and counter-revolutions murdering millions across the world, to precisely prevent the birth of socialism. The Bretton Woods triad – WB, IMF and WTO – have maintained a tentative peace among capitalists to help them rob our countries. Now that agreement may no longer serve their purposes, they seek to entrap us in MCCs, FTAs, ACSA’s and SOFAs, etc.
• What is Sri Lanka to do? It is clear from the capitalist media, with their spirited (drunken?) raving against import controls and demands for more privatization, that they intend to maintain the ruinous status quo. But what is all this promotion of SMEs and tourism all about? Where are profits invested? All this talk of revenue and profits, is of absolutely no use unless we are told where the money is being invested in. When will it be invested in making capital goods, in making machines and creating a producer culture? Where is the Plan?
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B. Special Focus_
B1. Marx turned to Sri Lanka in the Last Years of his Life
Karl Marx died in 1883. Two years before, the great revolutionary sage made detailed notes about Sri Lanka. ee readers may be intrigued to learn Marx’s references include the Mahavamsa, Anuradhapura, the Dalada Maligava Librarian, the Aggañña Sutta of the Digha Nikaya, Buddhagosa, and discussions on the cohesion of the Sinhala village and Sinhala traditions of solidarity, cooperation and sharing at work.
Marx highlights the role of the gamarala and lekham, atuwa, ande, muttetuva, etc. All this detail is gathered in Larry Krader’s Ethnological Notebooks of Karl Marx.
While Marx did not have the fortune to seek refuge in Sri Lanka, he relied on several books available in the British Museum, particularly by John Budd Phear, the 13th Chief Justice of colonial Ceylon 1877-79, who published The Aryan Village in India and Ceylon in 1880, and Henry Maine’s famous tome Ancient Law. (Clearly, writing about Lanka after short sojourns is not a recent NGO practice!)
The Aggañña Sutta is itself absolutely fascinating. Phear learned about it from ‘Suriyagoda Unanse, the Librarian of the Maligava in Kandy’. Marx’s interest in the Sutta, was due to it being considered the earliest reference to a tax in Sri Lanka, via Buddhagosa’s Sumangala Vilāsinī, a commentary on the Aggañña Sutta. Here it’s suggested that ‘sali’ (money) originated in the word for ‘rice’. Buddhaghosa’s commentary refers to the purpose of the ‘tax’ as being a salary to a leader: “We shall give you at the rate of ammunan of paddy from each field of ours. You need not follow any trade. But be you our chief.”
Buddhaghosa, a South Indian monk, is famous in Sri Lanka for burning all the original Buddhist texts – first written down in Sinhala – after he translated them into Pali.
Yet, the other most fascinating influence of the Aggañña Sutta was on Engels’ The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State: in the Light of the Researches of Lewis H Morgan. In fact, it’s not Morgan but the Sutta itself which seems to have had the greater influence on Engels’ work, for it provides a backbone metanarrative for how the triad of family, property and state was first formed.
It is curious that, while imperialism has invested much in creating divisions between Sinhala Buddhism and Marxism, Burmese independence hero General Aung San reread the Aggañña Sutta to argue it was the establishment of private property that was the root cause of greed and economic inequality, saying the Sutta had been used by landlords to karmically justify the lineage of Kings and economic inequality – the very embodiments of attempted permanence and egoism.
What is more interesting than Phear’s work on Ceylon, is what Marx wished to draw from him and reject, and what seemed to interest Marx towards the end of his life. Marx’s interest in Asian society related to ancient and modern society, the origins of class division, state formation, communal and private property. His notes on Sri Lanka run to 10 pages.
Marx was harsh on Chief Justice Phear: “The donkey lets everything be founded by private families.” As for Maine, who had been on the colonial Council of India from 1862, Marx criticizes Maine’s historical school of jurisprudence, and Utilitarians (like Bentham, Mill). He also notes the work on Sri Lanka by other foreign chroniclers, Ribeiro, Valentyn and Knox.
It was in the last years of Marx’s life that he turned to the study of Sri Lanka, and forms of collective land ownership. Phear’s book provides descriptions of the agricultural, village and family institutions of East Bengal and Sinhala peasantry in the 19th century, and their relations to landlords, moneylenders, government taxes, judicial systems, and to feudalism.
Phear had attempted to “reconstruct the ‘Aryan’ village from data” gathered in Bengal and in Sinhala Ceylon: “The contrast of the position of the peasant in the land tenure system… was the last thought that Marx took from Phear’s book”, writes Krader.
“Anuradhapura, the classic city of the Mahawansa, with successive dynasties ruling over the larger portion of Ceylon”… Marx noted Phear’s divisions among the Sinhala, upcountry and maritime, as well as the dominant (absurd – ee) racialized classifications of Aryan and Dravidian, features, etc. Phear spent much time trying to stereotype the Sinhala as a mix of Yellow and Black.
“Exigencies of cultivation under the primitive conditions which obtain in the North Central Province, and indeed throughout Ceylon generally, necessitate certain combined action on the part of the villagers for their joint benefit.” (Phear)
Marx was interested in the formation and “the interaction throughout of the individual and society,” and of the business of the “primitive” and the “civilized”, the differences between rural and urban, agriculture and industry. He thought the endurance of the Sinhala village lay in its combining of agriculture and industry.
Marx noted “the joint or communal activity of Ceylonese villagers, the interest rates and methods of debt collection… the village smithy, the village office and accounts, interest rates and collection practices, and the watering of plots in Ceylon.” Marx made note of Sinhala boats, hoes, and “pools for irrigation” and “Ceylonese payment in services and kind”.
“The shareholder in the village paddy field, has in his plot the right of cultivating it exclusively, the mode of cultivation which is generally pursued connects him in almost every step of his tilling with his neighbours… The village paddy field can be effectively cultivated, that limited portion taken as the whole unit is divided among village shareholders as the original entirety was, shareholders as a body. Known in practice, often in the newly framed Gansabawa rules, at the instance of the villagers themselves, to indicate that it was a deeply rooted ancient custom.” (Phear)
In fact, while the gansabha were indeed old, it is the English who “newly framed” the “Gansabawa rules”, undermining solidarity by imposing their capitalist legal system over it! Nevertheless, an older democracy and cooperation persisted.
“The head of the village in each village of the North Central Province (in fact prevailing universally), the vel vidane, was chosen by the shareholders to control and carry out the system of fencing, ploughing, sowing, shifting of allotment, when necessary, etc, or generally the internal agricultural economy of the village.”
Marx seemed interested in how water was stored throughout Ceylon’s climates: “In drier seasons, the water bulk shrinks back towards the bund, ie, towards the deeper side, it withdraws from the greater portion of the tank space, so that the jungle is enabled to flourish there (as it also does on the embankment itself) vigorously in the surrounding tracts.”
Marx, most interestingly, noted Phear’s contention, that the “controlling element” of the village was the paddy tract or paddy field, which is itself “a function of the supply of water”. and describes how water is retained and shared with the fields. The sharing, discipline at work and the solidarity that arose out of this cooperation, indeed appears to be the key to heaven!
It is to RALH Gunawardana’s The Analysis of Pre-Colonial Social Formations in Asia in the Writings of Karl Marx, we must turn to understand Marx’s earlier interest in Asia, and his shifting ideas. Gunawardana begins:
“The study of Asian society had made little progress in Europe at the beginning of the 1850s when Karl Marx, then a young revolutionary who had been expelled from his homeland after the abortive insurrection of 1848, began to work at the British Museum library on his economic studies.”
Marx studied Asia in the proceedings of the English Select Committee of 1810, the renewal of the charter of the East India Company in 1853, Dalhousie’s policies in India, and England’s opium wars on China that led to the fall of the Palmerston government, the Indian uprising of 1857-8, and the influential yet limited research of Ricardo and Smith, James Mill, Stamford Raffles, William Jones, etc.
“Characterizations of Asian society which were popular during this period claimed to distinguish what were supposed to be its cardinal features, viz its antiquity and resistance to change, the despotic nature of its governments and the absence of private property in land.”
The official English debates over the nature of Asian society, related to purely pecuniary matters – “the settlement of revenue”, and if “the existence of private property rights should be recognized”.
“The wide variety of tenures in India”, wrote Gunawardana, “did not lend to easy generalization… The whole question whether the State was the proprietor of land or not could be narrowed down to the question whether the State receipts were to be called rents or taxes; and the answer to the latter depended on the proportion of the produce of the land that was collected.”
“It was the current rates of assessment and methods of settling the revenue that were being argued about in these discussions on the nature of property rights in India.”
As ee has noted before, all the so-called English ‘discoveries’ of ancient cities (where people were already living and were in no hurry to be registered in English), all their archaeology, anthropology, epigraphy, numismatics and other arts, ultimately and ironically, are related to this need to create a land market in private property, extract profits, and destroy solidarity!
“A letter written to Engels on June 2, 1853, reveals for the first time that Marx was making a serious attempt to analyse and understand social formations in Asia. He had by this time read the account of travels in India that Francois Bernier, a Frenchman, had written… In his letter, Marx cited Bernier’s comment ‘the king is the one and only proprietor of land in the kingdom’. Marx remarked that Bernier had discovered the basis of Asian society – the absence of private property in land. This was ‘the real key to the Oriental heaven’, and explained the durability of its institutions.”
Yet, he realized “the question of property” was “very controversial” among English writers on India. As Marx grew increasingly aware of the diversity of the forms of land tenure in Asia, he turned his attention more and more to a related institution – the village community. Hence his later interest in Sri Lanka. It was in A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859) that Marx first spoke of Asian society as representing a specific “mode of production”, as well as in his Grundrisse and Capital.
“However, the views that Marx held on the nature of Asian society were not a mere synthesis or a composite summary of the dominant opinions of his time. He clearly differs from all previous writers in attempting to analyse Asian society in accordance with principles of historical materialism. Neither Marx nor Engels was satisfied with merely describing Asian society. They were constantly attempting to find out why and how Asian society had come to assume its peculiar form. It was these investigations that led Marx to the concept of the Asiatic Mode of Production. Further, Marx soon realized the inadequacy of the knowledge available to him.
In A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, he expressed the need for a more exhaustive study of Asian, especially Indian, forms of property as it would reveal the different forms in which primitive common property had been dissolved. Though he borrowed certain concepts popular at the time, Marx constantly tested their validity against new material that became available to him. Thus some of his early views were modified while certain others were abandoned. Some recent discussions on the Asiatic Mode of Production have not only failed to bring out the changes in views, modifications and refinements that appeared as Marx accumulated new material, but also, by focusing on the complementary nature of the views of Marx and Engels, they have tended to obscure their diversity.
In fact, where Marx has not expressed any specific opinion, some writers cite Engels on the facile assumption that Marx would have agreed with his point of view. The views of Marx and Engels, based as they were on a common ideological framework, were obviously complementary. But, in their study of Asian society, they did not always arrive at the same conclusions. A detailed examination of the views that Marx held on the nature of property in Asian society is useful for understanding his position on this controversial issue; it also reveals gradual changes in his views and highlights…”
On Sri Lanka, “Marx made detailed notes on the system of land tenure, particularly such practices as ande, betma, thattumaru and service tenure. Methods of cultivation, the ways in which the produce was divided and the importance of joint labour in this economy impressed him… Marx’s interest in the material is clear from the fact that he carefully underlined long passages on the above-mentioned topics, sometimes adding further emphasis with lines on the sides as well. However, it is not possible to ascertain what specific conclusions he drew from this evidence except on one point, that the head of the village in Sri Lanka was entitled only to services. This he considered to be an earlier organizational type than what was found in India….”
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C. News Index______________________________________________
• ee News Index provides headlines and links to gain a sense of the weekly focus of published English ‘business news’ mainly to expose the backwardness of a multinationally controlled ‘local media’:
C1. Sovereignty
(ee is pro-politics, pro-politician, pro-nation-state, anti-corporatist, anti-expert, anti-NGO)
ee Sovereignty news emphasizes sovereignty as economic sovereignty – a strong nation is built on modern industrialization fueled by a producer culture.
• Wijeyadasa’s revelation: How a Bill to ‘abolish and repeal’ H’tota port agreement stymied
‘The former Justice Minister asserted that debilitating Western interventions would continue as long as the Hambantota port remained in the hands of the Chinese.’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224572
• UNP split, treasury bond scams, Geneva betrayal will influence electorate
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224622
• India Told Unable to Lease Out Mattala Airport
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/PM-tells-Indian-counterpart-Unable-to-lease-out-Mattala-Airport/108-191506
• Mattala Airport is not for sale
‘To make the Mattala Airport pay is very simple. Firstly we must understand our resources. Chena cultivators in Hambantota & Moneragala must be activated to plant melon, red pumkin, ash pumpkin.’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/10/mattala-airport-is-not-for-sale/
• Sri Lanka President orders probe on crane purchases, Japan, India terminal deal
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-president-orders-probe-on-crane-purchases-japan-india-terminal-deal-71680/
• Sri Lanka fixes cranes at terminal linked to India deal after protests
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-fixes-cranes-at-terminal-linked-to-india-deal-after-protests-71668/
• Diplomatic tussle for ECT continues
‘Adani Ports (which intends joining John Keells Holdings – JKH) to operate the terminal) is developing the proposed Vizhinjam International Deepwater Multipurpose Seaport Project in Kerala which in such case would be acting in competition to the Colombo Port.’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/business-times/diplomatic-tussle-for-ect-continues-408134.html
• ECT deal put on hold; conflict of interest
‘…after revelations of a conflict of interest involving a senior official of the present Government.
The local company owned by a relative of the senior official has been proposed as a partner for the proposed company which will hold 51 percent of the local shares.’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/news/ect-deal-put-on-hold-conflict-of-interest-408433.html
• India remains interested in developing ECT
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/India-remains-interested-in-developing-ECT/108-191358
• India in talks with Sri Lanka over its request for debt relief
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/India-in-talks-with-Sri-Lanka-over-its-request-for-debt-relief/108-191674
• Sri Lanka-U.S. sign SOFA: License for U.S. Military to Enter
‘…was revealed by Cabinet spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardene at a media briefing in Colombo July 01.’
– asiantribune.com/node/94361
• MCC Agreement: President gives ministers two more weeks to express views
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224670
• Who says MCC is not linked to Bim Saviya (Title Registration)
‘It is important that the GoSL realize this danger and immediately come up with an alternative and take local ownership of all land projects especially e-land registry and have our IT experts take complete control with a set of patriotic lawyers to look into every legal angle as well as ensure that all manual deeds are conserved and protected as well as we do have an electronic transaction act that prohibits fully automation of land under an e-registry.
• Message from ‘Stop MCC Save Sri Lanka Movement’ Sri Lanka Depends on you
‘Do Not Vote For Any Of The Recognised Political Parties – The MCC is the preferred instrument of the Americans to physically capture the geographic territory of a country whose legislative, executive and administrative organs are already under their control. The MCC is the coup de grace.’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/05/message-from-stop-mcc-save-sri-lanka-movement-sri-lanka-depends-on-you/
• GMOA, UNP accuse Govt. of looking for excuses to sign MCC
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224515
• MCC Agreement : Govt. says pacts cannot be discarded according to Opposition dictates
‘The Aquisition and Cross-Service Agreement (ACSA) signed in 2007 and the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed in 1995 with the USA, would also come up for discussion along with the proposed MCC agreement, he noted.’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224515
• MCC better than Port City – Philips
‘from engineering and environmental standpoints, the Transport and Land projects identified in the MCC agreement will have greater benefit/cost ratios and minor externalities than the Port City project’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224387
• Did Expert Committee use similar standards in evaluating MCC and Port City loans? – Pieris
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224603
• Sri Lanka has no obstacle to refuse MCC pact : Samaraweera
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/09/sri-lanka-has-no-obstacle-to-refuse-mcc-pact-samaraweera/
• Now, President wants all ministers to state their opinion on MCC
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224373
• Sri Lanka to launch e-Land Registration program by August
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224402
• Future cannot be built on the failed past of minorities
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/04/future-cannot-be-built-on-the-failed-past-of-minorities/
• Rathana Thera calls for banning burka, madrasas
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224578
• Facebook ban on Gnanasara Thera – Rathana Thera complains to HRC ban
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Facebook-ban-on-Gnanasara-Thera-Rathana-Thera-complains-to-HRC-ban/108-191683
• Deception & Muslim vote
‘Ministers who sought to justify the barbaric attacks in Aluthgama and defended the perpetrators joined the yahapalana camp a few months later. The Muslim political leaders had no qualms about joining forces with those rabid elements for political expediency…’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=news-section&page=news-section&code_title=60
• Regimes in Times of Crisis: Authoritarian Populism, Bonapartism and Fascism
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Regimes-in-Times-of-Crisis-Authoritarian-Populism-Bonapartism-and-Fascism/172-191282
• Bid to observe Black Tigers’ Day signals attempt to revive LTTE in Sri Lanka
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/10/bid-to-observe-black-tigers-day-signals-attempt-to-revive-ltte-in-sri-lanka/
• Sri Lanka likely to ban some foreign organizations and individuals for LTTE links
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/09/sri-lanka-likely-to-ban-some-foreign-organizations-and-individuals-for-ltte-links/
• Is Sri Lanka On It’s Way To Becoming A Dictatorship?
‘new infographic reveals how President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is ruling Sri Lanka, as if he is autonomous, through powerful militarised task forces that bypass the usual checks and balances of a democratically elected parliament.’
– colombotelegraph.com/index.php/is-sri-lanka-on-its-way-to-becoming-a-dictatorship/
• President’s military-led mechanisms necessary and legal – SLPP Chairman
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224584
• Northern Islands of Sri Lanka
‘There are a number of tiny islands in Palk Bay and Palk Strait. The biggest among them is Delft Island (Nedunthivu) with about 4,800 inhabitants. Another island is Nainativu or Nagadeepa, belonging to the ‘Naga’ tribe, the ancient seafarers who were very wealthy. Other islands, in the North, are Karainagar, Kayts, Mandativu, Pungudutivu, Analativu, Eluvativu, Kakarativu, Palitivu, Iranativu (North and South) and the famous Kachchtivu (“tivu” means ‘island’ in Tamil). Kayts, Karainagar, Mandiativu, and Pungudutivu are connected by causeways of the Jaffna peninsula’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224535
• Indian PM Modi says Buddhism can give lasting solutions to the world’s problems
‘The Indian Cultural Center in Colombo conducted a webinar on Buddhism in India-Sri Lanka relations to mark Esala Poya Day’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/04/indian-pm-modi-says-buddhism-can-give-lasting-solutions-to-the-worlds-problems/
• Dear High Commissioner David McKinnon: Re: Your Canada Day Message to Sri Lanka.
‘Canada operates a discriminatory white policy where employment is concerned…’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/09/dear-high-commissioner-david-mckinnon-re-your-canada-day-message-to-sri-lanka/
• Political reforms for reconciliation after the elections – NPC Jehan
‘The ground reality is that Sri Lanka’s population consists of different ethnicities and religions and the minorities among them comprise around 30 percent of the population, which is a substantial amount. However, with elections looming and less than a month away political leaders who are seeking election would be reluctant to publicly admit to this reality.’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224539
• Is US Dependency Actually “Self-Determination” for Hong Kong?
‘Author Chu Lap-tung questions the pro-democracy (Pan-Dem) camp’s romanticization of political dependency under the imperialist West’
– qiaocollective.com/articles/hong-kong-dependency
• Is the principle “One Country Two Systems” tenable? – Balachandran
‘China’s centralized authoritarianism and Hong Kong’s European traditions do not match…’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/06/is-the-principle-one-country-two-systems-tenable/
• India, China withdraw in key Ladakh areas with new buffer zones
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224638
• India, China diplomats meet today on Ladakh stand-off to expedite pullback – Venkat Narayan
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224671
• China detaining millions of Uyghurs? – Guess who originated this claim..
‘Serious problems with claims by US-backed NGO and far-right researcher ‘led by God’ against Beijing’
– thegrayzone.com/2019/12/21/china-detaining-millions-uyghurs-problems-claims-us-ngo-researcher/
• China has territorial disputes with 21 neighbouring countries: India – Venkat Narayan
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224398
• ‘Defeating China’ is wishful thinking from Soros
– https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1166080.shtml
• Senior China diplomat urges ‘positive energy’ in ties with United States
“Current US policy towards China is based on strategic misjudgments which lack a factual basis, and is full of emotional outbursts and McCarthyist prejudice,” he said, referring to an anti-communist witch hunt inspired by a US senator in the 1950s.’
– ft.lk/news/Senior-China-diplomat-urges-positive-energy-in-ties-with-United-States/56-702887
• Big power tensions rise in IOR, dimming South’s growth prospects
‘Mutually-beneficial economic ties have been forged between Western China and India’s North-East. Similar linkages are being established between the same region and Pakistan, besides other neighbouring countries. Continued international military tensions in the IOR could unravel these beneficial links and dim this half of the South’s growth prospects.’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224628
• France and the Indo-Pacific region
‘in the Indian Ocean, Reunion and Mayotte are considered as French overseas departments and regions ( the latter is also claimed by the Comoros). Several scattered islands in the Indian Ocean owned by France with sparse populations such as Glorioso, Bassas da India, Juan de Nova, are also claimed by neighbouring states such as Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius and Seychelles. In the Pacific Ocean, French territories include New Caledonia and the nearby Loyalty Islands, a special collectivity, French Polynesia which is an overseas country, Windward and Leeward Islands, Marquesas Islands, Austral Islands and Wallis and Futuna considered an overseas collectivity, and also Clipperton Island said to be uninhabited… the French government unlike the US, does not consider China a geo-political rival in the Indo-Pacific’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224393
• Iran-Israel hybrid war
‘On July 2, Iran reported a major fire in a factory where it manufactures advanced centrifuges for the fast enrichment of uranium needed to fuel its ambitious nuclear programme. Middle East intelligence officials point their finger at Israel…’
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Iran-Israel-hybrid-war/172-191595
• Nasrallah to U.S.: Your Policy Won’t Weaken Hizbullah but Rather Your Allies, Influence
‘Moreover, Nasrallah accused US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea of “inciting the Lebanese against each other,” in her recent remarks… He charged that the USA has waged “a fierce campaign against the Chinese choice to scare the Lebanese and prevent them from cooperating with China.”’
– naharnet.com/stories/en/273171-nasrallah-to-u-s-your-policy-won-t-weaken-hizbullah-but-rather-your-allies-influence
• Palestine solidarity groups in Lanka condemn Israeli moves to annex more of West Bank
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224593
• Why Afrikaner Affirmative Action was more effective than Black Economic Empowerment
‘From 1924 onwards, with the support of white trade unions, AEE became a project of the nationalist government to roll out welfare benefits, to provide standard employment with regular hours, pensions and service benefits to poor whites. This combination of racist labour market policies, social welfare, and favourable credit arrangement allowed the white elite to become professionals and supervisors, and steadily increased their real pay’
– mg.co.za/opinion/2020-06-29-why-afrikaner-affirmative-action-was-more-effective-than-bee/
• Our Unfinished Revolution – Trinidad
‘In the spaces of an amnesia engineered through the education system has sprung the myth that there is no lineage of heroism in our march to freedom, that our independence was the gift of a benign sovereign and that our political and economic victories were not won by rebellious and rioting masses but by a benevolent State.’
– trinidadexpress.com/opinion/columnists/our-unfinished-revolution/article_f678ba16-be5b-11ea-952f-0f2dff892eef.html
• A Southern Vanguard, The Lost History of Communism Below the Mason-Dixon Line
‘Alabama Communists helped lay the foundation for the organized civil rights movement that emerged in the late 1940s and early ’50s.’
– blackagendareport.com/southern-vanguard-lost-history-communism-below-mason-dixon-line
• Seattle protests: Woman killed after car strikes protesters
– bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53291289
• To Defeat Systemic Racism, USA Must End Endless War
‘The racism that permeates U.S. foreign policy today “is an extension of the belief in white supremacy that shaped the territorial and ideological boundaries of our nation from its inception.”
– commondreams.org/views/2020/07/06/defeat-systemic-racism-america-must-end-endless-war?
• Racism, COVID-19, and the Fight for Economic Justice
‘African Americans are disproportionally dying from the virus. They account for 22.4 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths despite making up only 12.5 per cent of the population.’
– socialistproject.ca/2020/07/racism-covid-19-fight-for-economic-justice/
• Call a Thing a Thing – White supremacy’s the biggest racial problem the US faces
– nytimes.com/2020/07/08/opinion/racism-united-states.html?
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C2. Security (the state beyond ‘a pair of handcuffs’, monopolies of legitimate violence)
ee Security section focuses on the state (a pair of handcuffs, which sposedly has the monopoly of legitimate violence), and how the ‘national security’ doctrine is undermined by private interests, with no interest in divulging or fighting the real enemy, whose chief aim is to prevent an industrial renaissance as the basis of a truly independent nation.
• Navy launches Maritime Doctrine of Sri Lanka
– sundaytimes.lk/article/1122066/navy-launches-maritime-doctrine-of-sri-lanka
• Navy reinforces base next to strategic Hambantota Port
– ft.lk/news/Navy-reinforces-base-next-to-strategic-Hambantota-Port/56-702775
• Protect 19th amendment, US-funded civil society activists urge voters
– economynext.com/protect-19th-amendment-civil-society-activists-urge-voters-71791/
• ‘Swiss embassy employee abduction, Rajeewa’s killing deadly threat to democracy’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224663
• SL, India blamed for empowering leaders at the expense parliament –‘Rapidly growing military role worrisome, democracy at risk’
‘A meeting called by newly formed civil society grouping ‘Freedom: People’s Collective’ at the New Town Hall….Prof. Samarajiva said that in spite of him being called an Indian agent in view of his stance on India, he wouldn’t hesitate to condemn how the country dubbed the world’s largest democracy delivered a knockout blow to parliamentary system of governance.;
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224664
• CEAT donates Rs 2 million towards new Army Hospital in Kandy
‘CEAT Kelani Holdings, which manufactures nearly half of Sri Lanka’s pneumatic tyre requirements, is considered one of the most successful India – Sri Lanka joint ventures in the manufacturing sector.’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224653
• Chennai-based BALM to train 50 community mental health workers in Sri Lanka
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224675
• Narcotics Joke – Joke is on the people!-Let the people see the narcotics destroyed – Follow the money to see who is involved!
‘difficult to comprehend why such a highly-priced as well as a highly dangerous haul of drugs have been handed over to a few low-ranking police officers for safe custody’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/09/narcotics-joke-joke-is-on-the-people-let-the-people-see-the-narcotics-destroyed-follow-the-money-to-see-who-is-involved/
• PNB constable ring leader of drug operations: SL Police
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/08/pnb-constable-ring-leader-of-drug-operations-sl-police/
• Drug barons buy over police narcotics sleuths
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/columns/month-to-go-for-polls-campaigning-still-on-low-key-due-to-pandemic-408379.html
• Failure of National Police Commission
‘The NPC, established under the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, commenced on October 23, 2015’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224542
• Plastic explosives found in cave at Kotmale
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224582
• West getting dose of karma: UK’s first female suicide bomb plotter inspired by SL terrorists
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/06/west-getting-dose-of-karma-uks-first-female-suicide-bomb-plotter-inspired-by-sri-lankas-terrorists/
• How Many More Lives Need to be Lost to Ensure Road Safety
‘We lose huge human capital daily due to road accidents and road safety issues in Sri Lanka. Statistics have publicly revealed 12,000 deaths occur each year in the country.’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/06/how-many-more-lives-need-to-lose-to-ensure-road-safety/
• Ship repair team embarkations under strict Govt. regulations: Hambantota Int’l Port
– lankabusinessonline.com/ship-repair-team-embarkations-under-strict-govt-regulations-hambantota-intl-port/
• Department of Archaeology to conduct surveillance on archaeological sites from Colombo
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/10/department-of-archaeology-to-conduct-surveillance-on-archaeological-sites-from-colombo/
• India SATP – South Asia Intelligence Review
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/07/india-satp-south-asia-intelligence-review/
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C3. Economists (Study the Economists before you study the Economics)
ee Economists shows how paid capitalist/academic ‘professionals’ confuse (misdefinitions, etc) and divert (with false indices, etc) from the steps needed to achieve an industrial country.
• Let us undo the damage to Sri Lanka’s economy – Vitarane
‘Through the MCC, the US government was hoping to purchase not only the private lands but also the state lands, which had been given out to smallholder farmers to cultivate in perpetuo without being able to sell the land…The US Embassy is now questioning some of the facts mentioned by the MCC Review Committee in an effort to continue with the agreement. Their aim was to establish mono crop plantations in Sri Lanka on the lines of those that prevailed from the time Sri Lanka was a colony….’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224399
• 2020 and the Destiny of Sri Lankan Bamunukula
‘Although they were successful in winning the positions based on educational qualifications, Sinhala and Tamil children of ‘56 who studied in the vernacular did not rapidly reach the higher levels within the business sectors. i.e. import, export, plantation and industries. However, a handful of those pertaining to the children of ‘56 such as Dasas, Gnanams, as well as DSI Rajapakshas were seen coming up especially during the period of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, through the path created by way of restrictions imposed on import businesses. Large scale businesses such as Aitken Spence, George Stuarts, Hayleys and Browns as well as some of the other medium scale enterprises that were nourished by the bourgeoisie originated during the colonial period too, have already come under the ownership of the children of fifty six. With the spread of this trend into the fields of electronic and other media, the sources which conventionally provided momentum to UNP are now seen to be withering away.’
– http://www.dailynews.lk/2020/07/11/features/222975/2020-and-destiny-sri-lankan-bamunukula
• Kenneth De Zilwa to head Central Bank’s Financial System Stability Consultative Committee
The newly reconstituted FSSCC members include Insurance Regulatory Commission Director General Damayanthi Fernando, Credit Information Bureau Director/General Manger C.N.S.N. Anthony, Sri Lanka Bankers’ Association Secretary General Ravi de Silva, CSE Chairman Dumith Fernando, SEC Chairman Viraj Dayaratna, People’s Leasing Senior Deputy General Manager Operations Sanjeewa Bandaranayke, Sri Lanka Forex Association President Rihaan Shakoor and Finance House Association Chairman Roshan Abeygoonawardena.
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Kenneth-De-Zilwa-to-head-Central-Banks-FSSCC/273-191387
• Meeting with President was only portrayed as a crisis – CBSL Governor
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/09/meeting-with-president-was-only-portrayed-as-a-crisis-cbsl-governor/
• Sri Lanka central bank complied with government directions as allowed by monetary law
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-central-bank-complied-with-government-directions-as-allowed-by-monetary-law-deputy-governor-71800/
• We are pressurizing banks to cut rates – CBSL chief
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/we-are-pressurizing-banks-to-cut-rates-cbsl-chief/
• CB committee to probe why banks won’t reduce interest rates
– sundaytimes.lk/article/1122059/cb-committee-to-probe-why-banks-wont-reduce-interest-rates
• Drop in interest rates not beneficial as it seems – analyst
‘Banks would be more willing to lend to this creditworthy customers like large businesses. “..it is really questionable whether the middle category businessmen or the Small and Medium Scale Enterprise category will be given loans,” he added.’
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/10/drop-in-interest-rates-not-beneficial-as-it-seems-analyst/
• Investments slow in Special Deposit Accounts
‘Only US$ 86.9 million has been brought into the country through the Special Deposit Accounts (SDAs) announced in late April, Central Bank (CB) data showed.’
– sundaytimes.lk/article/1122039/investments-slow-in-special-deposit-accounts
• Sri Lanka debt relief: borrowers need not pay interest at once: Central Bank
‘Borrowers who had got a moratorium from banks and leasing companies can demand when the interest is charged… there had been problems when borrowers signed leasing documents without reading. The central bank had said earlier it would examine leasing contracts’
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-debt-relief-borrowers-need-not-pay-interest-at-once-central-bank-71796/
• 2020 second half re-bounce crucial for 1.5 per cent GDP growth in SL’ – CB
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224641
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/sri-lankas-gdp-to-contract-in-2q-2020-and-rebound-in-second-half-cb/
• CB is Part of the State
“There are many definitions of independence in relation to Central Banks, but my personal view is that the Central Bank is an institution linked to the Government structure and it is part of the State. This is the reality.”
– ft.lk/top-story/CB-slashes-rates-to-spur-2H-growth/26-702906
• Working without a budget: Can this be done? – Karunaratne
‘Our President Gotabhaya has cleared finance for banks by ordering the Central Bank to relax. This has been done. Can the availability of finance by banks in itself bring about development- create production, create employment and achieve the goal of poverty alleviation. Import controls that have been imposed to save foreign exchange, will inevitably cause a shortage of goods. The responsibility of immediately approving small industrial units to spring up to create the lost production within our country falls on our new Government. This is a situation that has to be faced and won….;
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/07/working-without-a-budget-can-this-be-done-2/
• SL descent to lower middle income: Strategise to move up to high-income level – Wijewardena
‘Since SL is paying a massive amount of interest to foreigners on its foreign loans, its GNI is a little lower – by about 3% – than GDP. What this means is that the some of the incomes earned within SL are leaked out to the rest of the world thereby reducing the resources available to citizens for their use…. In the case of income disparity among citizens, the top 20% of the population normally bags a little over 50% of the total income. In the opposite, the lowest 20% gets only 5% of the total income. .. With income disparity among provinces, the lion’s share of 37% was earned in the Western Province whereas the rest of the country had earned only the balance 63%. Accordingly, eight out of the nine provinces were below the minimum income threshold for an upper middle-income country’
– ft.lk/columns/SL-s-descent-to-lower-middle-income-Strategise-to-move-up-to-high-income-level/4-702627
• Printing money, data massaging will lead SL to economic disaster : Eran Wickremaratne
– dailymirror.lk/hard-talk/Printing-money-data-massaging-will-lead-SL-to-economic-disaster-Eran-Wickremaratne/334-191600
• Opinion: Import controls – out of control? – US Advocata
‘WB statistics indicate that 38.19% of our total merchandise imports are intermediate goods that are used locally as inputs for production.’
– lankabusinessonline.com/opinion-import-controls-out-of-control/
• Sri Lanka Treasury & Central Bank Should Consider Credit Guarantees For Covid-19 Distressed Bank Loans – US Advocata
– colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sri-lanka-treasury-central-bank-should-consider-credit-guarantees-for-covid-19-distressed-bank-loans/
• Budget-making should be first order of business for new Parliament: US Pathfinder
‘Sri Lanka’s tax system is one of the most regressive in the world (in the case of indirect taxes the richest person in the country and the poorest person are subject to the same rate of tax)’
– ft.lk/business/Budget-making-should-be-first-order-of-business-for-new-Parliament-Pathfinder-Foundation/34-702656
• Sri Lanka gross official reserves at USD 6.7Bn by end June
– lankabusinessonline.com/sri-lanka-gross-official-reserves-at-usd-6-7bn-by-end-june/
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-forex-reserves-recover-to-us6-7bn-in-june-central-bank-71789/
• Increasing balance of payments deficit eroding external reserves – Sanderatne
‘Sri Lanka’s economic recovery and increased exports are possible only after a global economic revival. This is particularly so with respect to the country’s manufactured exports to western economies that purchase about 70% of these exports.’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/columns/increasing-balance-of-payments-deficit-eroding-external-reserves-408306.html
• The dung in the milk
‘At least the older among our people will remember the travails of the 1970 to 1977 period when scarcities were rampant and essentials including rice, sugar and flour became extremely hard to get. So much so that a popular ditty that went thus, apey mathini seedevi, seeni nethuwa te devi, gained currency. Who among us living through that period will forget the endless queues at cooperative stores, the rice barriers (haal pollas), and the ran keta which was a jaggery-like sweetener made out of locally grown sugar cane. The year 1977 changed all that with the new government opening the economy and satisfying pent-up demand for not only essentials but also less vital goods. The import substitution industries encouraged by its predecessor were dismantled or allowed to disintegrate.’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=news-section&page=news-section&code_title=69
• Central Bank cuts SDFR & SLFR by 100 bps to induce further reduction in lending rates
– lankabusinessonline.com/central-bank-cuts-sdfr-slfr-by-100-bps-to-induce-further-reduction-in-lending-rates/
• CB must balance financial stability and credit growth: ICRA Lanka (Moody’s)
‘Reducing policy rates beyond certain point won’t expand credit as banks have limited risk appetite’
– ft.lk/top-story/CB-must-balance-financial-stability-and-credit-growth-ICRA-Lanka/26-702953
• CB begins process to develop PoC of blockchain-based shared KYC facility
‘Sampath Bank PLC and University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) …Norbloc AB from Sweden, Yaala Labs (Pvt.) Ltd and Linearsix (Pvt.) Ltd, as joint applicants.’
– dailymirror.lk/business__main/CB-begins-process-to-develop-PoC-of-blockchain-based-shared-KYC-facility/245-191475
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-swedish-firms-asked-to-develop-blockchain-based-kyc-71737/
• This pandemic has exposed the uselessness of orthodox economics
‘Economic orthodoxy supports the narrative that this pandemic is a unique disaster no one could have prepared for, and with no wider lessons for economics and politics. This story suits some of the world’s billionaires, but it’s not true’
– theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/05/pandemic-orthodox-economics-covid-19
• The Coming Economic Crash will be like Nothing in history
Professor of Economics Richard Wolff explains the dire direction our economy is headed towards as unemployment continues to skyrocket.
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/07/the-coming-economic-crash-will-be-like-nothing-in-history
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C4. Economy (Usually reported in monetary terms)
ee Economy section shows how the economy is usually measured by false indices like GDP, etc, and in monetary terms, confusing money and capital, while calling for privatization and deregulation, etc.
• Export revenue exceeds imports for the first time in SL
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Export-revenue-exceeds-imports-for-the-first-time-in-SL/108-191591
– ft.lk/front-page/SL-achieves-first-trade-surplus-in-decades/44-702901
• Will restructure funding laws to address pressing issues: SLPP
‘He said all foreign funds flowing in should go through the External Resources Department at the Central Bank in order to ascertain their origin.’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/06/will-restructure-laws-to-address-pressing-issues-slpp/
‘• Sri Lanka says making progress with IMF program, budget support
‘Sri Lanka is also seeking a billion US dollar repo from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and 400 million US dollar swap from the Reserve Bank of India.’
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-says-making-progress-with-imf-program-budget-support-71717/
• Sri Lanka eyes US Fed Reserve US$1 billion Repo facility
‘to meet the country’s monetary needs… The Repo Facility opened on April 6 and will remain open for at least six months.’
– sundaytimes.lk/article/1122041/sri-lanka-eyes-us-fed-reserve-us1-billion-repo-facility
• Federal Reserve’s USD 1bn Repo facility available to Sri Lanka
‘The Federal Reserve in the United States has opened a temporary repurchase agreement facility for foreign central banks including Sri Lanka to support the smooth functioning of financial markets.’
– lankabusinessonline.com/federal-reserves-usd-1bn-repo-facility-available-to-sri-lanka/
• Sri Lanka seeking billion dollar repo from New York Fed
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-seeking-billion-dollar-repo-from-new-york-fed-71713/
• Another VoA likely with Budget for 2021 in Nov.
– ft.lk/front-page/Another-VoA-likely-with-Budget-for-2021-in-Nov/44-702849
• Government’s debts ballooned by Rs. 1,000 bn in first four months of the year – UNP Harsha
– economynext.com/governments-debts-have-ballooned-by-rs-1000-bn-in-first-four-months-of-the-year-harsha-71729/
• Sri Lanka tax revenues drop 26%-pct up to April 2020, Rs200bn printed
‘Tax revenues dropped to 408.5 billion rupees up to April 2020 and the finance ministry has halved capital spending to keep total spending below last year in the same period, amid a fiscal and monetary stimulus compounded by a Coronavirus crisis.’
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-tax-revenues-drop-26-pct-up-to-april-2020-rs200bn-printed-71692/
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/07/sri-lanka-records-revenue-drop-in-first-quarter-of-2020/
• Sri Lanka rupee ends firm, gilt yields down (July 08)
‘Ceylon Tobacco Co. stocks gained Rs. 13.70 (1.43 percent) to trade at 974.70 rupees a share.’
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-rupee-ends-firm-gilt-yields-down-71762/
• Sri Lanka rupee flat, stocks plunge at open (July 10)
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-rupee-flat-stocks-plunge-at-open-71805/
• Central Bank approved Rs.53Bn for 20,240 COVID-19 affected businesses
‘45% has been provided to businesses in the services sector led by trade services, while distributing 38% and 17% among businesses in the industry sector and the agriculture sector…’
– lankabusinessonline.com/central-bank-approved-rs-53bn-for-20240-covid-19-affected-businesses
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-central-bank-approves-rs53bn-in-re-financed-covid-19-credit-71681/
– dailymirror.lk/business__main/CB-approves-Rs-60bn-in-loans-for-COVID-hit-biz/245-191716
• Sri Lanka trims some excess liquidity
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-trims-some-excess-liquidity-71720
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/cb-has-necessary-instruments-to-mop-up-excess-liquidity-if-need-arises-dr-nandalal-weerasinghe/
• Budget deficit in first four months expands to 2.9%
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Budget-deficit-in-first-four-months-expands-to-2-9/273-191474
• Tougher times for General Treasury
‘Total cash deficit as .. Says combined effect of decline in cash inflows to General Treasury by 34%, 10.6% increase in operational expenditure was cause…Cash flow dip attributed to lag effect of revision of taxes to economy due to COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March’
– ft.lk/front-page/Tougher-times-for-General-Treasury/44-702690
• Economy was poised to take off before COVID-19: Treasury
– ft.lk/front-page/Economy-was-poised-to-take-off-before-COVID-19-Treasury/44-702689
• Commercial debt jam, large-scale projects, and corruption
‘The Government faces a grave crisis on its commercial borrowing. The repayment period on commercial loans, currently totalling US$ 17 billion, is 10 years or less. From 2020 to 2030 we have loan repayment obligations of around US$ 2 billion a year aside from high interest payments.’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/editorial/commercial-debt-jam-large-scale-projects-and-corruption-408360.html
• Economic Recovery Mandates Banks to be Proactive
‘A direct beneficiary of this [CB’s R150 billion) stimulus is the Construction Industry. Ongoing projects had to come to a standstill, causing the supply chain of consultancy firms, contractors, material suppliers, and related entities…resulting in massive lay-off of employees with no alternative means of earning a livelihood for themselves and their families numbering well over 100,000…’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224408
• Gold price hits record high – No Decline in Gold Reserves (CB)
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/gold-price-hits-record-high/
• Creditor countries urged to think about post-2020 debt relief – IMF
‘Speaking to online G20 debt conference, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said debt restructuring needed…for those “that simply cannot stay above water without determined action”.’
– ft.lk/front-page/Creditor-countries-urged-to-think-about-post-2020-debt-relief/44-702956
• UAE restructures government, seeking more agility to deal with COVID impact
– ft.lk/front-page/UAE-restructures-government-seeking-more-agility-to-deal-with-COVID-impact/44-702684
• IMF must defend reform in Ukraine – Gontareva
‘The IMF must suspend payments to Ukraine if the country’s government does not appoint an independent central bank governor’
– centralbanking.com/central-banks/governance/7651851/imf-must-defend-reform-in-ukraine-gontareva
• EU chief proposes 5 bn euro Brexit emergency fund
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/EU-chief-proposes-5-bn-euro-Brexit-emergency-fund/273-191715
_________________________________________________________________________
C5. Workers (Inadequate Stats, Wasteful Transport, Unmodern Plantations, Services)
ee Workers attempts to correct the massive gaps and disinformation about workers, urban and rural and their representatives (trade unions, etc), and to highlight the need for organized worker power
• Priority was safety of life, not employment profile; President addresses ILO Global Summit
‘SL has a considerable workforce that is employed outside the country. Even during the period when restrictions for air travel were in force, we have repatriated nearly 15,000 Sri Lankans from destinations abroad so far” President said addressing ILO Global Summit on ‘COVID-19 and the World of Work – Building a Better Future of Work’ today (08)…. We have an active labor force of 8.6 million, out of which, the private sector employs nearly 3.5 million. The social security measures that we introduced during the COVID outbreak covered all sectors of this workforce.”’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/08/priority-was-safety-of-life-not-employment-profile-president-addresses-ilo-global-summit/
– ft.lk/columns/Reimagining-education-to-deal-with-future-economic-shocks/4-702866
• Government doctors threaten to strike if demands are not met by July 16
‘more than 2,000 medical officers working on temporary appointments who had completed their internships more than two years ago…there are about 6,000 medical officers awaiting transfers and permanent appointments.’
– economynext.com/government-doctors-threaten-to-strike-if-demands-are-not-met-by-july-16-71726/
• Powerless PHIs to limit polls duties
‘will not cover any campaign rallies or meetings in the next few weeks as they are yet to be given powers under the Quarantine and Diseases Prevention Ordinance.’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/news/powerless-phis-to-limit-polls-duties-408437.html
• President looks into grievances at Excise Department
‘Service Charter, recruitment and promotions… were identified and solutions were recommended with the collective of Trade Unions…’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224402
• Sri Lankan fishermen rescued from sinking boat
‘around 170 nautical miles off Chennai in rough seas were rescued…’
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/06/video-06-sri-lankan-fishermen-rescued-from-sinking-boat/
• Workers and businesses in SL tourism industry hit by crippling income and employment losses
‘…accounting for 5% of its Gross Domestic Product and employing 250,000 persons directly and up to 2 million persons indirectly…. This meeting engaged decision-makers from key ministries, other UN agencies such as ILO, UNWTO, IOM and ITC, and development partners such as, World Bank, ADB, EU, USAID, Australia and others…’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224424
• COVID-19 leaves 13,575 private sector employees out of jobs: Department of Labour
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/10/covid-19-leaves-13575-private-sector-employees-out-of-jobs-department-of-labour/
• No change in interest rate paid to senior citizen’s deposits: Finance Ministry
– lankabusinessonline.com/no-change-in-interest-rate-paid-to-senior-citizens-deposits-finance-ministry/
• TUs voice concerns over student and teacher safety
‘There are 4.3 million students and 247,000 teachers in Sri Lanka in addition to the 15,000 Principals’
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/10/tus-voice-concerns-over-student-and-teacher-safety/
• Why have our Universities failed? – Karunaratne
‘Peradeniya as well as our other Universities have concentrated more on teaching, whereas the emphasis should have been wider- a contribution to the country and also to the world….I learnt my econ ideas from Dr GVS de Silva though I was not a student in econ…Dons not only at Peradeniya but worldwide have kept away from critiquing the Milton Friedman economics that underlie the IMF’s policies.’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/05/why-have-our-universities-failed-3/
• University Grants Commission to establish five new universities
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/08/university-grants-commission-to-establish-five-new-universities/
• Foreign students in the US
‘all international college students who take only online courses in the US will lose their visas’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=news-section&page=news-section&code_title=55
• Sri Lanka is world’s second best country for affordable talent — Global report on start-ups
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224589
• Sri Lanka’s leading corporates believe ‘work from home’ is here to stay
‘A recent webinar organised by MillionSpaces, a leading venue solutions provider in SL, brought together leaders from a variety of Sri Lanka’s leading conglomerates and companies – namely MAS, Hemas, JKH, Virtusa and PwC – to give their thoughts on the path ahead for Sri Lanka’s economy…’
– lankabusinessonline.com/sri-lankas-leading-corporates-believe-work-from-home-is-here-to-stay/
• Vietnam says 31 million workers impacted by pandemic, risk of rising unemployment
– ft.lk/front-page/Vietnam-says-31-million-workers-impacted-by-pandemic-risk-of-rising-unemployment/44-702955
• Learning from the lockdown
‘From Brazil’s favelas and India’s migrant caravans to France’s banlieues and communities of color in the US, it is the poor who have borne the brunt of COVID’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/sunday-times-2/learning-from-the-lockdown-408296.html
• The European Automotive Sector – Time to Rethink Mobility!
‘There are 12 million EU workers employed in the automotive industry, either directly in production or in parts manufacturing. The sector accounts for 7% of the EU GDP… the state will also have to ensure proper funding’s available to advance development of public transport & long-distance rail travel.’
– socialistproject.ca/2020/07/the-european-automotive-sector-time-to-rethink-mobility/
• COVID-19 pandemic plunges working world into crisis: ILO
The UN agency said the fall in global working hours was “significantly worse than previously estimated” in the first half of the year.
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/covid-19-pandemic-plunges-working-world-into-crisis-ilo/
_________________________________________________________________________
C6. Agriculture (Robbery of rural home market; Machines, if used, mainly imported)
ee Agriculture emphasizes the failure to industrialize on an agriculture that keeps the cultivator impoverished under moneylender and merchant, and the need to protect the rural home market. Also, importation of agricultural machinery, lack of rural monetization and commercialization, etc.
• Invisible Hand, Visible Hand & Bloody Hand: The Political Economy Of Rice Market In SL
‘To deal with the artificially created shortage, Chairman, Consumer Affairs Authority, and 50 officials undertook an inspection tour in Polonnaruwa, the largest cultivation area and the most prominent wholesale rice/paddy centre of the country. After failing the CAA’s attempts, the Government later allowed the traders to sell rice at higher prices- revising the earlier enforced price controls. These incidences show the involvement of visible and bloody hand in the market…f cultivable land area. About 98% of paddy production is locally consumed. Paddy production is no longer a profitable business, and farmers have become massive debtors….In some rice milling areas, 90% of the mills have been closed. Many paddy farmers outside major cultivation districts such as Polonnaruwa, Ampara, Hambantota, Anuradhapura, and Kurunegala have abandoned paddy cultivation. Those farmers and millers were compelled to leave the market because there is no conducive business environment in the presence of a controlled price….The writer, who is now living in Niigata, the best rice producing region in Japan, has been observing with great pleasure how farmers engage in rice cultivation and how rice market is behaving in Japan. Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (also known as Nōkyō or JA Group) play a vital role in Japanese agriculture with its nation-wide networks. The government established the JA, and it grew into a powerful farm lobby. The JA deal with the supply of inputs for agricultural production to engage in packaging, transportation, marketing, and provide financial services for millions of farming members. Before 1995, the price of rice was determined by the government. However, currently, farmers are free to sell their products to anybody, enjoying the free market situation. Paddy production has gone up mainly because of the high yield and modernisation of the agricultural sector….’
– colombotelegraph.com/index.php/invisible-hand-visible-hand-bloody-hand-the-political-economy-of-rice-market-in-sri-lanka/
• August Maha season fertiliser deal goes to two firms
‘Cabinet has given approval to award the contract for the supply of fertiliser to Ceylon Fertilizer Company (Lak Pohora) and Colombo Commercial Fertilizer Company (Commercial Pohora) for the August 2020 Maha Season to Midgulf International Ltd. and Swiss Singapore Overseas Enterprises.’
– ft.lk/front-page/August-Maha-season-fertiliser-deal-goes-to-two-firms/44-702903
• Our Failing Agriculture
‘As far as agriculture is concerned, the extension service, which has been weakened has to be restored to enable development, to achieve increases in production and poverty alleviation goals.’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/04/our-failing-agriculture/
• Polonnaruwa farmers urge President not to allow artificial rice shortages
‘At a meeting at Kaduruwela, the people requested the President to renovate the tanks in the area. They drew the President’s attention to the issues relating to supply of paddy seeds and fertiliser.’
– ft.lk/front-page/Polonnaruwa-farmers-urge-President-not-to-allow-artificial-rice-shortages/44-702682
– colombopage.com/archive_20B/Jul05_1593959971CH.php
• President wants more local produce following halt of grain imports
‘The President called upon farming community to engage in mass cultivation of grains such as Maize, Undu, Mun, Cowpea and Kurakkan. Farmers conveyed the President that they are capable of delivering good produce if they receive their water supply and fertilisers in time. The President also highlighted using more organic fertiliser for agricultural purposes. In Horowpathana the villagers informed the President that the development process has been delayed due to to the prevailing contract system. They further said that Aloe vera, paddy and maize cultivation is also successful in their areas. President Rajapaksa also paid his attention to the steps taken to curb the spread of kidney diseases and the problems related to the lack of storage facilities for the farmer community’
– ft.lk/front-page/President-wants-more-local-produce-following-halt-of-grain-imports/44-70268
• Excess fertilizer bought under subsidies to farmers at concessionary prices
‘Meanwhile, international competitive bids have been invited for the Procurement of fertilizer for Lanka Fertilizer Limited (Lak Pohora) & Colombo Commercial Fertilizer Limited for the requirement of fertilizer during the month of July 2020, a statement on cabinet decisions taken on July 01 said.’
– colombopage.com/archive_20B/Jul07_1594094374CH.php
• Sri Lanka coconut auction price drops 6-pct
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-coconut-auction-price-drops-6-pct-71742/
• Outcry over illegal land take-over resulting in water contamination by US Dole Co.
‘Fishermen claim the Ulhitiya-Ratkinda twin reservoir is contaminated by a certain chemical substance which they suspect is released to the reservoir from a farm owned by a multi-national company’
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/06/outcry-over-illegal-land-take-over-resulting-in-water-contamination/
• MEPA to monitor ship-generated waste facilities from today
‘According to MEPA there are over 28 licensed SGW reception service providers in the country and average annual collection of SGW oil in the country is 26,904 cubic meters while 7404 cubic meters of garbage are collected by the listed companies.’
– colombopage.com/archive_20B/Jul07_1594062614CH.php
• Memories of opposition to felling of trees
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224690
• Do or do not, there is no try: Mangroves and their future
‘Sri Lanka is home to 1/3rd of the known mangroves in the world…’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224396
• Singapore company beneficiary of ‘residual forestland’ transfer?
‘Chamikara also questioned the government’s move to hand over land to multinationals lands earlier demarcated for chena cultivations and now they were concerned about the plight of chena cultivators.
“Thousands of acres of lands will be sold to multinational companies under the MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) concept,”’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224673
• Environmentalists oppose proposal to acquire “Residual Forests”
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224427
• Stripping the environment naked in the guise of development
‘500,000 hectares of forest land in danger…Out of the 33% of agri lands only 12% is used’
– dailymirror.lk/news-features/Stripping-the-environment-naked-in-the-guise-of-development/131-191446
• Environmentalists oppose bid to grab forest land
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224613
• Land Development Ordinance (LDO)
‘It was during the time of the State Council (1931-1947) that the Dry Zone was opened up. There was first, the Land Settlement Ordinance (1931) and… the Land Development Ordinance (LDO). The Land Development Ordinance provided the legislative framework for the opening up of the dry zone and the establishment of Colonisation Schemes all over the dry zone. There was a large transfer of population from the wet zone to the dry zone in the 20 to 30 years from 1931.’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/sunday-times-2/the-donoughmore-commission-a-watershed-moment-in-lanka-history-408245.html
• No more auctioning of beedi leaves confiscated by Customs
– ft.lk/front-page/No-more-auctioning-of-beedi-leaves-confiscated-by-Customs/44-702902
• The myth: Self-sufficiency guarantees food security – US Advocata
‘Singapore imports over 90% of their consumption needs with only 13% of vegetables and 9% of fish being produced locally’
– lankabusinessonline.com/opinion-the-myth-self-sufficiency-guarantees-food-security/
_____________________________________________________________________
C7. Industry (False definitions, anti-industrial sermons, rentier/entrepreneur, etc)
ee Industry section notes the ignorance about industrialization, the buying of foreign machinery, the need to make machines that make machines, build a producer culture. False definitions of industry, entrepreneur, etc, abound.
• Why Can’t We Make it Here? – Miniran Balakaya
‘An interesting short video on the attempt at industrialization in Sri Lanka’
– youtube.com/watch?v=0WUrUpKBMnM
• Joint Venture in the offing to develop oil storage facilities at Trincomalee
“The oil tank farm in China Bay has a huge capacity but with a disproportionately low utilization rate. As a good deep-water harbour at the gateway to the Indian Ocean, Trincomalee Harbour located on the golden route from the Suez Canal to the Strait of Malacca is called the “Strategic Pearl of South Asia”.
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224652
• Alahera Mining
‘The President also advised the Alahera people who are engaged in small scale gem mining to continue their industry without causing any harm to the environment.’
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/President-calls-for-full-report-on-shortcomings-in-Polonnaruwa-schools/108-191314
• Sand mining racket exposed in Kantale
‘Large scale sand mining takes place along the sandy stretch of the Mahaweli river from Suriyapura to Neelapura in Kantale. However, tipper trucks from Kantale remove certain amounts from the load at several areas between Dambulla and Kajugama before reaching the buyer. “This is a huge mafia, people might not be aware of it,” an area resident said.’
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/07/sand-mining-racket-exposed-in-kantale/
• Paranthan Chemicals’ commitment towards infection-free Sri Lanka
‘Paranthan Chemicals being a responsible state-owned company has fully operated its manufacturing capacity and manufactured Sodium Hypochlorite and distributed it to many public authorities… also performs a vital national role of providing liquid chlorine for national water purification and meeting the chlorine need of the National Water Supply and Drainage Board… Paranthan Chemicals is also working on expediting the reestablishment of Paranthan Chemicals Factory in Paranthan in Kilinochchi District, which could manufacture Caustic Soda, Chlorine, Hydrochloric Acid and Sodium Hyphocholoride.” These chemicals are used as raw material by many local industries such as manufacturing of paper, steel, soaps and detergents, rubber based products, textiles, water purification and in many other industries.’
– ft.lk/business/Paranthan-Chemicals-commitment-towards-infection-free-Sri-Lanka/34-702652
• Sri Lanka will stage an economic and industrial revival : Bandula Gunawardena
‘SL graphite is of very high quality. But we export graphite as raw material and earn a small amount of foreign exchange. What we must do is to make a new graphite based product with value addition and give it a SL brand and export it to the global market as a product exclusively available only in SL.
– dailymirror.lk/hard-talk/Sri-Lanka-will-stage-an-economic-and-industrial-revival-Bandula-Gunawardena/334-191599
• President allows clearing of DCSL ethanol shipments – Appeal by Harry Jayawardena
‘DCSL used to import one million litres of ethanol per month mainly from South Africa, Pakistan, and Australia, in addition to purchasing the local product.’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/business-times/president-allows-clearing-of-dcsl-ethanol-shipments-408132.html
• DCSL says recent clearing of imported ethanol shipments licenced and approved late last year
‘its recently cleared imported shipments of ethanol were legitimate, hence allegations and opposition by certain parties were unwarranted.’
– ft.lk/front-page/DCSL-says-recent-clearing-of-imported-ethanol-shipments-licenced-and-approved-late-last-year/44-702790
• People’s Bank partners IDB to empower around 5,000 MSMEs
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224643
– ft.lk/front-page/People-s-Bank-IDB-partner-to-empower-5-000-micro-small-and-medium-enterprises/44-702900
• We urge govt. to adopt sustainable measures to protect local manufacturers – Pandithage
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/we-urge-govt-to-adopt-sustainable-measures-to-protect-local-manufacturers-mohan-pandithage/
• Solar getting stepmotherly treatment from Govt.
– ft.lk/front-page/Solar-getting-stepmotherly-treatment-from-Govt/44-702905
• Govt officials scheming to reduce unit cost to rooftop solar power suppliers, industry reps warn
‘the “diesel and coal mafia” are planning to reduce the unit cost of electricity offered to rooftop solar power, a collective of solar power industry representatives said’
– economynext.com/govt-officials-scheming-to-reduce-unit-cost-offered-to-rooftop-solar-power-suppliers-industry-reps-warn-71806/
• GRI unveils Rubber Collection Centre and GREENX Circle
‘GRI produces radial agriculture tyres, construction tyres and material handling solid tyres and has offices in 9 countries, with sales in over 50 countries. GRI’s advanced new factory is the largest in Sri Lanka to produce specialty tyres and the first to produce radial agriculture tyres in the country’
– ft.lk/business/GRI-unveils-Rubber-Collection-Centre-and-GREENX-Circle/34-702781
• EDB Chief opines WB downgrade is blessing in disguise for exports
‘The EU remains SL’s largest export market, accounting for 30% of the total, while the US is the largest single export market, accounting for 27% of total merchandise exports last year. Nearly 60% of SL exports benefit from some form of preferential access due to EU GSP+ and US GSP schemes.’
– ft.lk/front-page/EDB-Chief-opines-WB-downgrade-is-blessing-in-disguise-for-exports/44-702788
• Govt. to regulate construction industry
‘New regulations under the Construction Industry Development Act dealing with registration of skilled workers, issuing of ID cards, sanctioning and penalty for errant contractors, and disciplinary procedures for qualified persons in the industry.’
– ft.lk/front-page/Govt-to-regulate-construction-industry/44-702785
• Hot coffee and cold tea – Reductio Ad Absurdum
‘Coffee has become the second most-traded commodity in the world, after oil, while tea is not among even the top-10 most traded commodities.’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/business-times/hot-coffee-and-cold-tea-408119.html
• National study moots 15 key steps to boost MSME sector post-COVID-19
‘The recommendations follow a countrywide survey of nearly 3,000 MSMEs by the Small and Medium Business and Enterprise Development Ministry with academic inputs from Universities of Colombo, Peradeniya and Sabaragamuwa and consultancy facilitation from PASSAsia….MSMEs were the backbone of the economy, contributing to over 75% of total enterprises, 45% of employment and 52% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.’
– ft.lk/top-story/National-study-moots-15-key-steps-to-boost-MSME-sector-post-COVID-19/26-702736
• 60% of registered vehicles not in running condition: DMT
8.1 million vehicles were registered with the Department. “4.6 million Motorcycles and 1.1 million three-wheelers were registered. 80% of the total registrations were personal vehicles,”
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/60-of-registered-vehicles-not-in-running-condition-DMT/108-191503
• 115th AGM of Automobile Association of Ceylon successfully held
‘President : Dhammika Attygalle. Vice Presidents : Deshabandu Dr Lakshman Weerasena and Ananda Dangalle. Executive Committee : S.V.Ganesh, Keerthi Gunawardena, N Z Passela, P H Liyanage, P B Kulatunga, S Mannapperuma, Dr Vijaya Corea, Harsha Panduwawela, Dampiya Banagala, S.Ravi, Wickrema Punchihewa, Prasanna de Zoysa.’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224606
• PM instructs to expedite work on 10 Colombo Port City bridges
– colombopage.com/archive_20B/Jul08_1594174895CH.php
• Central Expressway: Cabinet to take up tender proposal for 3rd and fourth phases
‘The third phase spanning a distance of 31.7 km from Pothuhera to Galagedera is to be awarded to China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) and CATIC-Eng (China National Aero Technology International Engineering Corporation), he said. The fourth phase that covers a stretch of 58.6 km from Kurunegala is to be undertaken by the UK-based Roughton company.’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/news/central-expressway-cabinet-to-take-up-tender-proposal-for-3rd-and-fourth-phases-408461.html
• Govt. plans to cap loopholes in Customs processes
‘Yu Ping, the owner of the trade centre, with high political connections is also involved in various other businesses including large scale quarrying and making concrete tiles, official investigations revealed.’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/business-times/govt-plans-to-cap-loopholes-in-customs-processes-407895.html
• Faulty PCR reports issued by external research labs could jeopardise COVID-19 containment: CMLS-SL
– economynext.com/faulty-pcr-reports-issued-by-external-research-labs-could-jeopardise-covid-19-containment-cmls-sl-71732/
• Massive Japanese boost for Lanka health sector to face corona threat
‘Equipment procured under this grant include MRI scanners, CT scanners, X-ray systems, and Central Monitors’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224623
– economynext.com/japan-gives-sri-lanka-rs1-3bn-of-advanced-medical-equipment-for-coronavirus-battle-71747/
• ABC becomes partner in national program to eradicate COVID-19 from Sri Lanka
‘ABC T&I represents reputed companies of Japan, Israel and the USA as solution providers for SL…’
– ft.lk/business/ABC-becomes-partner-in-national-program-to-eradicate-COVID-19-from-Sri-Lanka/34-702913
• UNDP and EU support COVID-19 Response of Local Government Authorities in Sri Lanka
‘Protective and preventive equipment to 134 Local Government authorities across the Eastern, Northern, North-Central and Uva Provinces’
– sundaytimes.lk/article/1122013/undp-and-eu-support-covid-19-response-of-local-government-authorities-in-sri-lanka
• JKH-(Blackrock?)-linked Fairfirst Insurance reaches out to more than 1,000 households
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224684
• Sole agent for UV-C based pathogen prevention products
‘England-based Health Tech giant Pathogen Prevention Pvt Ltd (PPL) appoints Northwood Consulting – as its sole distributor for a range of UV-C based pathogen prevention products for Sri Lanka…’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224685
• Who sold State assets for back hand deals?
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/01/03/corruption-in-sri-lanka-who-sold-state-assets-for-back-hand-deals/
• PwC Sri Lanka Advisory Leader Channa Manoharan appointed SLASSCOM Chairman
– lankabusinessonline.com/pwc-sri-lanka-advisory-leader-channa-manoharan-appointed-slasscom-chairman/
• Nawaloka Hospitals Group kicks off Rs. 350 m expansion in Negombo
– ft.lk/front-page/Nawaloka-Hospitals-Group-kicks-off-Rs-350-m-expansion-in-Negombo/44-702687
• The Cargills Foundation Early Childhood Program
‘in partnership with Calm Island Inc. of South Korea, by customising their Badanamu ESL program to suit the preschool learning standards of Sri Lanka’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224406
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C8. Finance (Making money from money, banks, lack of investment in modernity)
ee Finance tracks the effects of financialization, pointing to the curious role of ratings agencies, again false indices, etc.
• Rs.5.1 billion foreign outflow from Government Securities in a week
‘Further, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka issued Rs. 60 billion worth treasury bonds during an auction held on 29 June 2020’
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/rs-5133-mn-foreign-outflow-from-government-securities-in-a-week/
• Stock market rebounds but foreign selling persists
‘The Capital Goods sector was the top contributor to market turnover (due to John Keells)’
– ft.lk/front-page/Stock-market-rebounds-but-foreign-selling-persists/44-702730
• CSE remains positive on improved turnover
‘The Banking sector was the top contributor to the market turnover (due to Commercial Bank, Sampath Bank and Nations Trust Bank)’
– ft.lk/front-page/CSE-remains-positive-on-improved-turnover/44-702787
• What are Credit Irregularities & How They are Determined?
‘The investigation of credit irregularities in government banks is not limited to a political issue, but it is an issue to entire bank management and concerning issues for maintaining viable credit assessment in the country.’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/05/what-are-credit-irregularities-and-how-they-are-determined/
• Finance companies still facing difficulties: CBSL
‘We had about 55 financial institutions experiencing financial difficulties, but after the consolidation, liquidation and cancellation of licenses, we have about 41 now. This process will continue.”’
– newsfirst.lk/2020/07/09/finance-companies-still-facing-difficulties-cbsl/
• Senkadagala Finance receives USD 25mn facility from a Dutch development bank
‘… it received a US $25 million 5 Year Green Investment Facility from Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), a Dutch Development bank co-owned by the Dutch Government and Dutch Commercial banks…’
– lankabusinessonline.com/senkadagala-finance-receives-usd-25mn-facility-from-a-dutch-development-bank
• SL faces significant deterioration in debt affordability: Moody’s
‘Second highest deterioration among non-investment grade sovereigns, only behind Angola… Interest payments to GDP ratio forecast to increase by almost 10% this year…borrowing requirement likely to exceed 20% of GDP…Debt servicing obligations worth of US $ 4.3bn per year on average over 2021-2025 period’
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/SL-faces-significant-deterioration-in-debt-affordability-Moodys/273-191389
• Government mulls single shareholder limit increase in banks
‘LOLC has around 25% of voting shares in Seylan Bank and 44% of non-voting and John Keells Holdings (JKH) has 30% of voting shares in NTB and 50% of non-voting shares. The US-based global private investment firm TPG’s investment through its affiliate Culture Financial Holdings Ltd bought a 70% stake in Union Bank (UB) in 2014 for US$.117 million. In 2017 Amana Bank PLC got CB special permission for the bank’s fourth largest shareholder— Islamic Development Bank (IDB) – to own up to 29.99% of the voting shares by acting in concert with IB Growth Fund (Labuan) LLP (IBGF). A senior banker pointed out that the recent rights issues by Sampath Bank and NDB Bank were not successful and in this backdrop, banks need to have strong equity holders. NDB Bank was not even fully subscribed while Sampath was bailed out after the rights were closed by high networth investor, Prabhash Subasinghe.’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/business-times/government-mulls-single-shareholder-limit-increase-in-banks-408136.html
• Banking industry expresses concern over removal of 2 bank CEOs
‘The recent removal of CEOs/General Managers of two state banks – Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank – by the Government has raised ‘grave concerns’, according to a top banking industry body. Raising concerns is the Association of Professional Bankers-Sri Lanka…’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/business-times/banking-industry-expresses-concern-over-removal-of-2-bank-ceos-408108.html
• Saga of finance companies
‘A top CB official at a recent media briefing said that 20 of the 42 licensed finance companies in Sri Lanka were presently facing liquidity issues with some in severe distress with a high percentage of non-performing loans….More than 50% of shares in 30 firms were owned by the main shareholder and in eight firms the ownership was limited to the main shareholder and related parties, while two shareholders controlled two companies.’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/business-times/saga-of-finance-companies-408123.html
• Orient Finance appoints Anil Tittawela PC chairman
‘He was also a member of the SL Swedish joint legal team to formulate the new SL Arbitration Act…’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224569
• Another brazenly shameful act by the Central Bank!
‘…extending the retirement age of their directors beyond the current age of 70 years…Central Bank publicly admitted that several finance companies under its purview are in serious financial difficulties and attributed this largely to the mismanagement of these finance companies…’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/business-times/another-brazenly-shameful-act-by-the-central-bank-408098.html
• BOC raises Rs. 5bn via BASEL III compliant additional Tier 1 Capital Perpetual Bonds
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224479
– ft.lk/front-page/BOC-raises-Rs-5-b-via-BASEL-III-compliant-Additional-Tier-1-capital-perpetual-bonds/44-702688
• ComBank MD/CEO explains private placement– WB IFC’s $50 million investment
‘CEO did not think that the dilution arising from the IFC investment will badly affect shareholders’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224430
• COMBank’s COVID-19 debt moratorium tops Rs. 300 b
‘“Under this scheme, we provide financial support to micro finance enterprises coming under the purview of our Agriculture Micro Finance Units (AMFU) numbering 17 countrywide. We hope to support at least 500 microfinance borrowers under this scheme since the loan size is ~Rs.100,000,”…’
– ft.lk/front-page/COMBank-s-COVID-19-debt-moratorium-tops-Rs-300-b/44-702735
• Ceybank’s equity funds outperform ASPI in 2019
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224434
• Slow Libor transition prolongs risks across markets: Moody’s
‘The London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) will likely be discontinued at the end of 2021, but other market standards and issues remain unsettled, exposing issuers and investors across many sectors to uncertainties and potential credit risks…’
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/slow-libor-transition-prolongs-risks-across-markets-moodys/
• Sri Lanka says strong interest in US$500mn term loan
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-says-strong-interest-in-us500mn-term-loan-71739/
• Akbar Brothers: First ‘Covid-19 Controlled Environment’ tea company globally
– ft.lk/business/Akbar-Brothers-First-Covid-19-Controlled-Environment-tea-company-globally/34-702891
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C9. Business (Rentierism: money via imports, real-estate, tourism, insurance, fear, privatization)
ee Business aka ee Rentier focuses on diversions of the oligarchy, making money from unproductive land selling, tourism, insurance, advertising, etc. – the charade of press releases disguised as ‘news’
• Unilever Sri Lanka again adjudged top ‘Multinational Corporate Brand’
‘Its current product portfolio includes 28 market leading brands in categories such as Home Care, Personal Care and Consumables. 96% of its products are manufactured locally, to the strictest manufacturing standards.’
– colombopage.com/archive_20B/Jul07_1594090106CH.php
• President leads Exporters’ Forum
‘The first forum was held on 22 April 1982 under the Chairmanship of Late Lalith Athulathmudali, the then Minister of Trade [with] the participation of South Korean Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Min-Gil Chung [delivering] the keynote address sharing the Korean experience of Korean Exporters’ Forums.’
– ft.lk/columns/President-leads-Exporters-Forum/4-702635
• Sri Lanka among few markets to avoid contraction in insurance biz this year: Allianz Global
‘German-headquartered insurance giant had operations in SL via its subsidiary Allianz Insurance Lanka for years but it really cemented its position here after a blockbuster deal, which led to the 100% acquisition of the general insurance business of Janashakthi Insurance in 2018, for Rs.16.4 billion.’
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Sri-Lanka-among-few-markets-to-avoid-contraction-in-insurance-biz-this-year-Allianz-Global/273-191473
• SL SME’s using ICTs get double the profits, information gulf blocks wider use: LirneAsia
‘The SME sector is estimated to be 75 percent of the total enterprises in Sri Lanka which contribute to 52 percent of the country’s GDP… That was an estimated 51,000 non-agricultural SMEs, which employed about 308,000 persons, and contributed about 31 percent to gross domestic product…’
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-smes-using-icts-get-double-the-profits-information-gulf-blocks-wider-use-lirneasia-71685/
• Sierra Cables appoints Harsha Jayatunga as new CEO
‘He played a role when Sierra forming joint ventures with foreign leading construction companies such as Shapoorji Pallonji Mid East LLC in UAE, Gold Mantis China, Toda Corporation Japan’
– ft.lk/business/Sierra-Cables-appoints-Harsha-Jayatunga-as-new-CEO/34-702654
• Dart Global to set up US$3mn logistics fulfilment centre in Muthurajawela
‘HK-based Dart Global Logistics (DGL) agreement with the Board of Investment (BOI) to set up at the Muthurajawela Industrial Zone in Kerawalapitiya, Wattala.
– dailymirror.lk/business__main/Dart-Global-to-set-up-US-3mn-logistics-fulfilment-centre-in-Muthurajawela/245-191390
• Property developers will require registration
– ft.lk/front-page/Property-developers-will-require-registration/44-702786
• Edwards money laundering case: Ex-FCID chief’s son explains how he bought Monarch apartment
‘Asela Waidyalankara, son of former Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) head Senior DIG Ravi Waidyalankara…’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/news/edwards-money-laundering-case-ex-fcid-chiefs-son-explains-how-he-bought-monarch-apartment-408431.html
• BBC helps Sri Lanka to revive tourism sector with free ads in June
– ft.lk/front-page/BBC-helps-Sri-Lanka-to-revive-tourism-sector-with-free-ads-in-June/44-702793
• Sri Lanka Tourism to support SMEs and product development with EU funding
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224525
– ft.lk/front-page/Sri-Lanka-Tourism-to-support-SMEs-and-product-development-with-EU-funding/44-702733
• Northshore Campus to provide English course discounts for COVID-19 frontline heroes
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224410
• Sri Lankan heads Rotary, the world’s leading philanthropic foundation
‘Ravindran is the CEO of Prinntcare Plc, one of Sri Lankas top export houses in printing and packaging’
– sundaytimes.lk/200705/sunday-times-2/sri-lankan-heads-the-worlds-leading-philanthropic-foundation-408201.html
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C10. Politics (Anti-parliament discourse, unelected constitution)
ee Politics points to the constant media diversions and the mercantile and financial forces behind the political actors, of policy taken over by private interests minus public oversight.
• 77-year struggle of the Communist Party
– dailymirror.lk/news-features/The-77-year-struggle-of-the-Communist-Party/131-191381
• CC member all out to foil SLPP’s bid to secure 2/3 majority
‘Constitutional Council member, Attorney-At-Law Javed Yusuf, yesterday (8) threw his weight behind a fresh initiative by civil society grouping, Freedom: People’s Collective project, to prevent the ruling SLPP from securing a two-thirds majority to abolish the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224630
• Elections Commission in the eye of a storm
‘At this moment, the rule that all candidates are most annoyed with is their inability to display their number so that voters will know who to vote for.’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224423
• Let candidates display their numbers as before – Wasala
‘The unacceptable conduct of one of the EC members, Ratnajeevan Hoole, (as shown, for example, in his advice, as reported in the media, to members of his own Tamil community in his hometown Jaffna not to vote for the SLPP) has brought that body to disrepute’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224575
• Elect MPs Like Me with Integrity and Pluck – David
‘It is a great pity that in 70 post-independence years, with the brief exception of Pokey Kandiah (Point Pedro Communist MP from 1956-60) no Tamil or Muslim has been elected to parliament from a left party’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224392
• Academics backing JVP-led NPP call on people to vote wisely
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224625
• JVP outbids Sajith with offer of salary increment to match cost of living
‘None of the main parties that had governed the country for the past 70 years had given a salary increment to public sector workers to match the cost of living, JVP trade union wing said yesterday’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224591
• Safeguarding our franchise: The triple dangers to our democracy – S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole
– ft.lk/columns/Safeguarding-our-franchise-The-triple-dangers-to-our-democracy/4-702626
• Parliamentary Elections, North & Army – Our franchise stolen: Totally lawless 2020 elections? – ft.lk/columns/The-Parliamentary-Elections-North-and-the-Army/4-702925
• Call for US style methodology for electing future presidents in SL
‘Yuthukama is in agreement with the US system in principle….People in USA have mixed feelings about this system. In fact, critics view the Electoral System as ‘stupid’
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Call-for-US-style-methodology-for-electing-future-presidents-in-SL/172-191514
• Comrade Shan and the Tamil Militant Armed Struggle
‘Shan was somewhat sympathetic towards the LTTE fight with the IPKF but hostile towards the JVP’s anti-Indian campaign. ‘
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Comrade-Shan-and-the-Tamil-Militant-Armed-Struggle/172-191725
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C11. Media (Mis/Coverage of economics, technology, science and art)
ee Media shows how corporate media monopoly determines what is news, art, culture, etc. The media is part of the public relations (corporate propaganda) industry. The failure to highlight our priorities, the need to read between the lines. To set new perspectives and priorities.
• Bhadra Gunatilake
‘She was a political creature who was ardently Marxist in her youth; probably a red flag carrying marcher for the causes she believed in.’
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224661
• Few Comments on background images of TV news broadcasts
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/05/few-comments-used-as-back-ground-images-of-tv-news-broadcasts/
• Sumanthiran, Saravanapavan and the politics of media freedom – Jeyaraj
– ft.lk/columns/Sumanthiran-Saravanapavan-and-the-politics-of-media-freedom/4-702757
• Sinhala language film gets commendation award at IndieFest Film Festival in California
‘The film is the story of two men from rural Sri Lanka wading their way into the city to request a correction be printed on a newspaper which falsely accuses one of them to be a terrorist and the turbulent passage they endure along the way.;
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/08/sri-lankan-sinhala-language-film-gets-commendation-award-at-indiefest-film-festival-in-california/
• The lyric as a communicative event
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224570
• The hidden racism and naming of roads in Sri Lanka
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/The-hidden-racism-and-naming-of-roads-in-Sri-Lanka/172-191724
• Deep commitment to 2 beloved countries – Naseby’s Lost Paradise Regained
– island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=224657
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