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“Before you study the economics, study the economists!”
e-Con e-News 11-17 April 2021
A US warship this week violated India’s claim to its ‘Exclusive Economic Zone’ in the Bay of Bengal. Then an Indian warship, rather than challenging the US intrusion, instead entered Colombo Port to wish us happy new year!
Earlier the US withdrew its warship in the Black Sea on Russia’s warning. Japan meanwhile announced plans to dump a million tons of radioactive waste from Fukushima into the oceans. The seas about us in this here ‘torrid zone’ clearly froth tempestuous…
How exclusive is our ancient port of Kolomthota, long monopolized for the last 225 years by England’s agency houses and their agents, such as P&O etc?
• The Indian Ocean, with its fabulous marine wealth and worker power is being tagged, ‘The Last Frontier’. ‘Frontier’ is an old conceit for the encroaching plunder, genocide and land theft by white settlers in the Americas.
History, we ignore at our peril, is not just staring us in the face, but hammering us over the head, with bludgeons made both of imported steel and sugar.
• The US government has dedicated $300 million annually to its ‘Agency for Global Media’ (AGM), to focus on countering China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), etc. This should generate lots of fog, and more. Blaring about Colombo Port City being a ‘Chinese colony’, first shrilled by the US ambassador, was soon crowed here by related media, NGOs, opposition parties, and others. (AGM operates Voice of America’s Radio Free Asia to attack Vietnam and China, Radio Marti to attack Cuba, etc.)
• Now they blame China. It was the USSR, 40 years ago: Mervyn de Silva, Lanka Guardian editor, exposed how the US was using the USSR as an excuse for indefinitely postponing the Indian Ocean Peace Zone (IOPZ) Conference, to be held in Colombo in 1981. A week before his talk, the US announced B52 nuclear-armed bombers would be operating from illegally occupied Diego Garcia. (LG Vol. 4: No. 9), their largest base south of us.
Last month (March) England declared their ‘armed forces will also maintain a permanent presence in the… British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT)’ – despite the UN declaring their presence there illegal! No UN office has been set up to evict them!
The BIOT is of course what the English Department backwardly miscalls the 7 atolls of the Chagos Archipelago of over 1,000 islands, the largest and most southerly being Diego Garcia, whose residents England dumped onto the streets of Port Louis, in Mauritius! (see Random Notes)
• NATO forces led by the US have been pouring heroin from Afghanistan, cocaine from South America (Brazil & Colombia), weapons (from the usual dealers), ‘freedom fighters’ (terrorists) and media foggery into the countries of the Indian Ocean to sow chaos, to soften the ground for further intervention. Low-level pirates, terrorists, drug dealers and gunmen are instead caught and headlined.
Meanwhile the whites are escalating their wars, sometimes overt, most times covert, in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. NATO’s wars also link to the horror unfolding in northern Mozambique, whose waters lap on our shores. An eerie silence befogs Mozambique in such organs as the BBC and CNN, who perennially squawk about human (minus economic) rights, with France blocking naval access and stealing its gas, while England operates huge ruby mining. The same silence abounds about Yemen, where the so-called ‘Islamic’ states, so worried about ‘burials’ here, maintain an equally deafening silence. England last month declared it would not vacate Diego Garcia, despite the UN declaring they should. ee Random Notes examines some recent history of white invasion of this ocean called Indian.
• Is the continued rule of the import mafia in Sri Lanka, despotism? They use bribery, media, officials and gangs etc. This is most evident in the Ports, wherein most ‘contaminants’ have for a long time entered the country unimpeded, despite high-profile arrests offering photo-opportunities. Can sweet talk alone seduce them?
Those who elected this president and this government by a massive majority are waiting for them to act decisively, and tame the multinationals, their merchant mafia and media. Merchants have been given enough tax breaks, loans, incentives, yet still refuse to invest in machine industry. They and their media are clear: they are aiming to undermine any goodwill the president has. The entire media rhetoric for the last year aims to somehow prevent the president from deploying his power.
The cry everyday of every jaded economist & thinktank is: ‘debt’, exports and FDI. GVS de Silva’s classic Some Heretical Thoughts on Economic Development (1973) provided a famous riposte ~50 years later, our loud media and NGOs act as if rural debt is something new (see ee Focus)
• Port City a ‘colony’? No exact details are provided as to what being a ‘colony’ means. ee, one moon ago, pointed out the difference between (settler) colonies of investment and (non-settler) colonies of exploitation (ee 27 March 2021).
Who prevents development banking in Sri Lanka? Can Citibank, Morgan, Standard Chartered or HSBC tell us? Who prevents investment in modern industry (machine making)? Who has prevented land reform by furthering debt bondage? Who has sabotaged such initiatives via assassination, attempted coups, terrorism? Who has fostered a mafia class of importers and consumers dedicated to wasteful expenditure?
Sri Lanka has for the last 500 years been a colony of exploitation (though apparently not ‘exploited’ enough so as to create a strong working class). So isn’t it strange that, all of a sudden, we are a ‘Chinese colony’ (see ee Focus, Port City). The economy is still firmly in the hands of the whites. This is evident by us having to even listen to the UNHRC drivel, with lectures (about how Hitler is bad) by countries inflating war budgets and invading Asia and Africa.
ee directs readers to a discussion on the difference between fictitious money and money invested in production (which our merchants refuse to do, see ee Focus). Meanwhile, the IMF has taken on new masks claiming it’s abandoned its old robbery and wishes to aid us once again! (ee Economists, IMF)
• Governments ‘come to power’, and some insist they’re ‘in power’, yet have no power. This power is ensconced safely in the hands of private banks, their multinationals and merchants, and their media, as parties and promises may come and parties and promises may go.
Any popular government, once elected, is soon caught in a pincer movement: It has to agree to maintain the status quo, pay odious debts, much being interest on interest. Meanwhile, these same media, all claim to ‘protect’ the country, while lamenting the devaluation of the rupee, yet demanding more foreign imports to worsen the debt load, and preventing investment in modern industrialization that could pay those debts…
ee does not wish to sound trite or ‘reductionist’, yet the longer we ignore investment economics, the quicker it creeps up on us in a unlit alley and knocks us over the head. Most times it happens in broad daylight, we don’t feel it or hear it, but soon find our pockets empty…
Contents:
A1. Reader Comments –
• May ee bring new insights into the New Year • Government being pushed around • US Killings Normalized • JVP derailed Mrs B • Bring Back IMF? • ee ignores SOE Robbery • Muslims Manipulated • ee mouthpiece for Port City capitalists • Are we Really Engaged in Import Substitution? • Firecrackers Frighten Animals
A2. Quotes of the Week
• IMF’s Customary Country Surveillance • Many State Corporations formed 1956-64 in Sinhala Areas • Paddy Lands Bill Undermined • New Year Harvesting Makes Crooks Happy • IMF Technicians Spying on Central Bank • Central Bank Attack Funded by Canada • France Stealing Uranium from Mali • US Spies on All Social Media
A3. Random Notes –
• Taking the Indian out of the Ocean • US blamed USSR then, China Now to Prevent Ocean Peace Zone • England Insists Won’t Leave Diego Garcia • NATO Drives Mozambique into Terror Network • England’s Gemfields Kills to Control Ruby Market • Germany’s Hitler Complex • Australian drones to spot smuggling • Stock Market Swindles & Rural Gods • 243 SL Army to French-dominated Mali • Government needs to put tighter regulations on NGOs • Chairman Mao’s Favorite Books
B. ee Focus
B1. The Village Must Take Control of the City – GVS de Silva
B2. What Port City is and is not…
B3. What is Real Money?
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 news sent, or your comments, and place any e-link at the end. It’s better to email: econenews@gmail.com
• ‘Happy New Year! May we hear more from ee, and may ee bring about a change in perception & perspective leading to a transformation in society!’
• ‘The government has given the impression of being easy to cajole, hence why so many interest groups, even those allied with the nationalist right, are filing petitions against Port City. From the burials issue to the ECT deal, it’s been a series of U-turns. and V X Y Z turns as well.’
• ‘ee taking up of subjects for incisive analysis – JVP, last week – is what makes ee so interesting and educational. Thinking of how the US treats its own citizens (new killings include in Minneapolis: bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56714346) shows why they do not have to think twice about launching murderous outfits globally. Killing is normal and fun and sinless, if it’s aimed at getting the killer more loot or power. “This land was made for you (wink, wink) and me”. Setting up not only JVP but IS, Khalistan Liberation Army, LTTE, Boko Haram as annihilators cum cannon fodder to do their bidding is a matter of pride I am sure. JVP was needed to derail Mrs B.’
• ‘The institutional corruption with various politicos heading government institutes is appalling!! These cabinet and state ministers treat SOEs like their common whore! It’s not their money so they rape and pillage and won’t let the government servants work! They order loans to be taken to curry favour with the Unions inside the SOEs! Having seen this and more. I am for IMF directives if only to stop the corruption and rape!! That’s why the JARAPASSA’S especially Mahinda doesn’t want to take IMF loans so he and his cohorts can’t have a free hand in the ravishing! I’m sure ee knows all this but chooses to ignore because of its anti-privatisation views amongst others.’
• ‘A segment of Muslims are on a suicidally aggressive hegemonic mission. But these Muslims are only a tool – one weapon in the armoury of the handful of ultra-wealthy and nearly all-powerful clique hell-bent on further global dominance. Even Israel (virtually the whole nation) is another tool in their hands. Neither the extremists Muslims nor the Israelis see how they are used – and some of them may believe they are cleverly manipulating the clique of global controllers. One hope for humankind is that a few of this ruling elite can be helped to see reality, free of illusion. But they occupy the stratosphere and are out of reach.’
• ‘What do they plan to manufacture at the port city offshore tax haven? It’s a tax-free district for shell companies?? Like Unilever South Asia HQ to sell Astra, Sunlight, Marmite. It is only for the richest of the rich. ee should not be a mouthpiece for more capitalist endeavours from the oligarchs.’
• ‘SJB’s Harsha de Silva seems to think we’re engaged in import substitution now. Are we? I see cinnamon cigars and shoes. But have we shifted priorities to rubber products, like tyres, to cables, to dairy products, etc? To machine manufacture?’
• ‘Happy New Year! etc. – which we still are celebrating. And thankfully the trend of diminishing use of firecrackers is continuing. For the last 10 years or so there’s been a public dialogue on how animals and birds react in terror to the crackers. More needs to be done.’
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A2. Quotes of the Week_
• ‘More state corporations were formed 1956-64 than in any other period in history. About 20 state industrial corporations were created, for textiles, engineering, oils and fats, cement, chemicals, ceramics, small industries, salt, industrial estates, mineral sands, paper, plywood, steel, leather, tyres, sugar plantations. The CTB was created in 1957, Ceylon Port Cargo Corp in 1958. Followed in the 1960s by Ceylon Petroleum Corp (1961) and Ceylon Insurance Corp (1964). Before 1956, industries were set in Tamil-majority areas. Cement Factory at Kankesanturai (est 1950) Paranthan Chemicals Corp at Kilinochchi (1954) and Valaichchenai paper mill in Batticaloa district (1955). Many of the state corporations established after 1956 were in Sinhala-majority areas…’ (see ee Politics, 1956)
• ‘The Paddy Lands Bill (PLB) was nowhere as drastic as the land reform of Japan, Taiwan and India, said Meegama. The PLB was emasculated by vested interests even before it reached Parliament. The PLB gave security to the tenant farmer. The Multipurpose Co-ops and the proposed cooperative bank were to provide the farmer with the much needed services and credit. (ee Politics, 1956)
• Suba Aluth Avurudhak! – ‘Harvesting makes only moneylenders and the middlemen happy. The farming community is caught in a debt trap. Loan sharks prey on them with impunity. Harvesting is followed by debt-servicing, and farmers either cannot pay back their loans or are left with little or nothing after debt repayment; they have to borrow more for consumption and cultivation purposes, and never will they be able to break this vicious circle unless the state makes a meaningful intervention.’– island.lk/happy-new-year/
• “Even now there are some IMF technical people, experts working in Sri Lanka… And we are planning to have Article IV consultations to be held towards the end of this year. So, those discussions are going on,” [the CBSL governor] said. Article IV consultations is the IMF’s customary country surveillance, which typically happens annually. Under this, a visiting IMF Staff mission meets with various government officials, the Central Bank, legislators, businesses and a section of the civil society to assess the country’s economic and financial policies.’ (ee Economists)
• On September 22, 1993, $990,987 was wired from an HSBC Bank account in Vancouver controlled by the Tamil Tiger senior leadership in Canada to purchase 60 tons of RDX and TNT from the Rubezone Chemical factory in Ukraine… These explosives, 440lb, were used in a truck bomb to attack the Central Bank in Colombo’s Financial Business District, bringing it down on 31 January 1996, killing 91 and injuring and maiming for life another 1,400 people’ (ee Sovereignty).
• ‘France’s military actions protect their access to oil and uranium in Mali… An incredible 75% of France’s electric power is generated by nuclear plants…mostly fueled by uranium extracted on Mali’s border region of Kidal, in the north…’ (ee Sovereignty, Mali).
• ‘The US National Security Agency has records of everyone’s electronic communications. Every email, phone call and social media post is in federal hands because of private sector cooperation with the government.’ – blackagendareport.com/freedom-rider-vaccine-passports-failed-state
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A3. Random Notes (‘Seeing Number in Chaos’)_
• Taking the Indian out of the Ocean: ‘The guided-missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones sailing past Lakshadweep Islands April 7 has thrown India’s Sinophobes into confusion… [entering] India’s Exclusive Economic Zone without any warning, in violation of Indian law, but the US asserted that it was consistent with international law.’ (ee Sovereignty, US: Indian Ocean is not India’s Ocean)
ee provides small insight below into the largely un-headlined horror going on in Mozambique, its links to NATO’s heroin trade, and the pretexts for white armies to increase their presence in this ocean, while their media headlines China’s presence…
• In 1948, the US navy set up in the Persian Gulf, which became the Middle East Force in 1949. By the early 1980s the US already had at least 60 warships in the Indian Ocean, at any given moment, officially. France then had a permanent 25 or more warships here (with bases in Djibouti & Reunion). White South Africa, Australia and England too operated armed navies in this ocean. The centrepiece of the US dominance in the Indian Ocean was of course their massive Diego Garcia base, just south of Sri Lanka. Further, the US had military bases in West Asia (quaintly still called the Middle East), Mombasa in Kenya, Mogadishu and Berbera in Somalia, and 20 bases then in Australia.
Integrally linked to the IOPZ was the Law of the Sea Conference, which again the US refused to sign in March 1981. The US government declared, that calling the wealth of the seabed and the ocean floor, the ‘common heritage of mankind’ was a damned ‘socialist’ plot. London’s Financial Times (you won’t hear the local FT say these things!) noted, corporate interests led by mining giant Kennecott, which financed Reagan’s presidency, had opposed the signing of the Law of the Sea.
Even before Reagan, the ‘peace-loving’ President Jimmy Carter had set up the Rapid Deployment Force, which in January 1983, became the US Central Command (USCC), based in Bahrain, ready to attack 19 shoreline countries along the northwest Indian Ocean, from there they invaded Iraq, Afghanistan…
This USCC was also set up claiming to counter ‘the spectre of a pervasive “Russian Threat”’ – the standard rationale for military invasion of our countries. So it is ‘a state of irony’ indeed that all of a sudden in the last 10 years, China stands accused of roping a ‘string of pearls’ around us… Back then as now the Russian and this Chinese ‘threat’ has been a mere pretext to prevent decolonization and true independence. Just look how our white-Blacks sing chorus to empire’s cues!
• NATO Drives Mozambique into Terror Network – ‘Mozambique is part of the East African heroin network. NATO heroin is sent from Afghanistan to the Makran coast of Pakistan, and taken by dhow to northern Mozambique… moved more than 3,000km by road to Johannesburg, and from there by ship to Europe… England’s Gemfields (produces 25% of the world’s emerald supply, 50% of rubies) owns the Monte Puez ruby mine in northern Mozambique, while a South African-owned security company kills illegal miners for them…it’s a big business involving gem and timber smugglers, wildlife and human traffickers – including those selling human body parts… also Brazil’s fearsome cocaine cartels is involved… Mozambique’s many gas projects…are Africa’s biggest industrial projects today. French company Total’s $20bn gas project alone would be the continent’s largest-ever foreign investment… South Africa’s state investment company IDC invested in Total’s Mozambique project. Also, South Africa’s largest bank Standard Bank sunk $485mn into the project… Shengen [European travel zone] starts just a few 100km from Palma, where jihadis took over briefly. Mayotte is still a French colony. French islands dominate the Mozambique channel, and Operation Atalanta, the EU’s naval force is off Somalia, and Europe could extend naval forces there…Even former colonial power there, Portugal is threatening to send troops to Mozambique. What will the UN’s (Portuguese) Chief then say?
• An MP reminded, the president had been ‘expected’ by some people and the white media to be a Hitler. German Ambassador Holger Seubert, and allied liberals, then choked on their sauerkraut and hectored us: ‘Let me remind you… Hitler was responsible for human suffering…beyond imagination… with millions of deaths.’ The correct phrasing should be: ‘The German government killed millions…’ The ambassador will not tell us that almost all the political parties in Germany – Greens, Social Democrats etc. – still support wars on Asia and Africa. This is Hitler enough for us, thank you. Get out of Afghanistan before you say another word! (ee Sovereignty, Germany).
• ‘Australia gifts SL drones to spot people smuggling’ – If Australia is so concerned about Sri Lankans coming there, why don’t they stop interfering in our economy and our international relationships? Why do they sell us diseased cattle, and poisoned milk powders? Why do we pay so much to Australian universities? If we had an industrial economy we would not wish to go that largely desertified land run by Broken Hill, Billiton… We should use this drone to spot Australian and other white interference in our country!
‘In every stock market swindle everyone knows that some time or other the crash must come, but everyone hopes that it may fall on the head of his neighbor,
after he himself has caught the shower of gold and placed it in safety.’ – Marx, Capital
The stock market thrives on uncertainty. Constant fluctuation is its sport, heavily weighted in favor of the multinationals’ agents. Here is the whimsy of the rolling dice (yes, it’s loaded, watch the spin). Even better, here’s a rickety rollercoaster, careening from side to side, up and down, threatening to throw riders off and kill, or throw up on, everybody below who didn’t even buy a ticket to ride this part of the circus. Should an entire country have to live this way? The capitalist media thinks this is just fine, a law of nature, while calling for the ‘rule of law’.
Take their sham shock (as they sit in their AC cars/ offices) that it gets hot in April, that the rupee devalues in the New Year season (as people rush to buy imported goods). The media of course acts shocked, headlining ‘Rupee under pressure’. Well, what’s new? Do they even suggest we should make some of these imported goods, so we don’t have to pay in increasing dollars? No way. They want no restrictions on their import-export plantation casino.
Yet, when the cultivators go out to the fields, or the fishers to the seas, and pray to the 330 million deities, they’re considered ‘backward’. Given the vagaries of tropical monsoonal weather, perhaps they have to pray for harvest, sun or rain, or for calm winds, for protection from lighting, vermin and predators, for they have little to fall back on: no science or technological support, no credit other than the moneylender who also fleeces them by selling imported industrial goods such as clothes and other consumption goods. Read ee Focus, on the needed rural renaissance, by GVS de Silva.
• 243 SL Army personnel are bound for Mali on a UN peacekeeping mission. The UN, so concerned about the behavior of the SL armed forces, is yet relying on a local ‘peacekeeping force’. Wonder why? Is the UN plan to play factions of the forces against each other? France just aerial-bombed and killed 22 wedding guests in Mali this week. France’s electrical power depends on uranium stolen from Mali.
• The government must put tighter regulations on NGOs: Another creepy US-Government-funded INGO, the US National Democratic Institute is coming to Sri Lanka (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National Democratic Institute). The fundamental problem is, we have no legal definition of what constitutes an NGO. Under current regulations, NGOs engaged in social services such as relief work, ranging from charities to CBOs, need to register. There are no regulations governing funding bodies, political or advocacy NGOs etc. Every government has shied away from defining NGOs. Meanwhile there’s no mechanism to monitor NGO funding.’
• This list of books was recommended by Chairman Mao to China’s Communist Party just before they took power in 1949: Marx: 1) Communist Manifesto, 2) Wage-Labor and Capital, 3) Preface & Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, 4) The Class Struggles in France, 1848-50, 5) The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, 6) To Kugelmann, 7) Wages, Price & Profit, 8) The Civil War in France, 9) Critique of the Gotha Program. Engels: 1) The 1852 War of the Holy Alliance Against France, 2) Introduction to Dialectics of Nature, 3) Socialism Utopian & Scientific, 4) Anti-Duhring (section on violence), 5) Ludwig Feuerbach & the End of Classical German Philosophy. Lenin: 1) Philosophical Notebooks. 2) What is To Be Done? 3) Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution, 4) Materialism & Empirio-Criticism, 5) On Imperialism, 6) The State and Revolution, 7) The Proletarian Revolution & the Renegade Kautsky, 8) ‘Left Wing’ Communism an Infantile Disorder, 9) Concerning Marx, Engels, and Marxism. Stalin: 1) Problems of Leninism, 2) Concerning Reactionaries (Collected Works), 3) Short Course of the History of the CPSU (Bolshevik), 4) Marxism and Problems of Linguistics, 5) Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR. Plekhanov: 1) Concerning the Evolution of the Monist View of History, 2) Concerning Literature and Art.
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B. Special Focus_
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B1. The Village Must Take Control of the City – GVS de Silva
(from Some Heretical Thoughts on Economic Development, 1973)
The central economic question in our country today is the development of the rural productive forces. By ‘productive forces’ are meant the instruments and technology of production, and the skills and productivity of labour.
Why rural? Why not urban, or both urban and rural? Firstly, the development of urban productive forces is helplessly dependent on foreign equipment, technology, inputs and expertise. With the limits to industrial import-substitution being rapidly reached, it is also becoming increasingly contingent on the availability of foreign markets.
Hence, in the context of a severe foreign-exchange shortage, the urban economy, far from expanding, is being forced to contract. The only growth possible for the urban economy, in such a situation, is as a satellite of foreign capital. It is doubtful whether even this road is open to it, since foreign capital is now extremely sensitive to the mood of a country, and most fastidious in its selection of those on whom it will confer satellite status.
Secondly, the general level of urban technology and expertise available within the country, though comparatively low by foreign standards and hopelessly inadequate for any independent & self-generating development of the urban productive forces, is infinitely higher than the technological level of the rural areas of the country, and is capable of developing rapidly the rural productive forces, with the minimum recourse to foreign exchange. Thirdly, it is significant that, while import-substitution possibilities in industry are almost reaching exhaustion, import substitution in the non-industrial sector yet remains a wide open field. Food & agricultural raw materials still account for almost half our annual import bill.
Thus, it is only a decisive breakthrough in the rural sector that can crack open the foreign-exchange problem which confronts us at every turn today. It is therefore abundantly clear that both the opportunity and the means for the swift development of the productive forces exist in the rural, but not in the urban sector. Besides, the tempo of development of the rural economy is conditional on the massive diversion to it of resources, technology & skilled personnel, from the urban economy. This, if nothing else, rules out the possibility of the simultaneous development of both rural and urban productive forces. On the contrary, it indicates that the development of the rural economy necessarily implies, in our present circumstances, the contraction of some bloated areas of the urban economy.
We have apparently taken a wrong turning which has led us to a blind-alley. Should we not even now retrace our steps, rather than stubbornly continue to knock our heads against an unyielding wall? This is a hard decision for urban policymakers to take. It may be softened by the awareness that the decline of the urban economy has already set in, and there is very little anyone can do about it other than prolonging the end by injecting successively heavier doses of foreign-aid sedatives. The danger is that the crisis, when it comes, will find us totally unprepared, unless we resolutely turn back now and take the alternative road without delay. If there is still a doubt as to whether there is, in fact, another road, let us reflect awhile on the experience of North Vietnam, which fell back on the tremendous reserves of strength available in the countryside to fight a protracted war when US bombs threatened to disrupt its city life.
The deployment, on an immense scale, of resources, technology, skills and expertise, from the urban to the rural sector, is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the development of the rural productive forces. Equally necessary is a transformation of the economic relations within the framework of which these productive forces operate. The basic cause of rural economic backwardness is that these economic relations have become a fetter impeding the growth of the rural productive forces. They must accordingly be changed into relations which are conducive to and foster growth.
What are these economic relations which obstruct the growth of the rural productive forces, and which must therefore be changed? They are:
(1) The relations between the rural economy and the urban economy, and
(2) The relations within the rural economy itself.
Rural-Urban Economic Relations – The present rural-urban economic relations are based on the exploitation of the countryside by the town. By ‘exploitation’ is meant the appropriation of the rural economic surplus by the urban economy. This exploitation takes many forms. The most vicious method by which the town plunders the village is through trade. The unconscionably high profits appropriated by the urban traders in rural produce are well known, but the extent of exploitation that takes place through the terms of trade (i.e., the price relationship) between rural and urban commodities is not so fully appreciated. To cite a few striking instances: A bushel of paddy gives the farmer an income of Rs18, while a cotton shirt is also priced at about the same level. A pint of milk earns the dairyman 40 cents, while a bottle of aerated water costs him 50 cents, and a throwaway ballpoint pen Rs1.25. The rural surplus is also pilfered by the cities through the provision of finance at exorbitant rates of interest. Often, the financier is also a trader, and the loan and interest are recovered through excessive trading profits. The urban transport contractor too takes his share of the spoils, and absentee landlordism is still another method of siphoning the rural surplus to the towns.
It is interesting to observe that the exploitation of the rural economy by the urban, takes practically the same forms as the exploitation of the urban economy, in turn, by the imperialist economics of the developed countries. In both cases, the economic surplus is appropriated through the terms of trade, transport, finance & property ownership. The rural-urban relationship is a mirror image of the urban-foreign relationship, even faithfully copying a phenomenon such as the brain drain. Further, by being a satellite of the urban economy, which is itself exploited by foreign economies, the rural economy, in spite of its apparent isolation, is drawn into the mainstream of world capitalist domination and exploitation. Our rural economy, therefore, is a doubly exploited one.
The [1970-77] State, it is true, has attempted to redress the balance somewhat, through institutional and other devices. It has promoted the growth of consumer and, to a lesser extent, service co-operatives. It has sponsored co-operative and rural banking. It has carried out measures of land reform. It has instituted State marketing schemes, and has guaranteed the prices of certain agricultural commodities. It has established a network of extension and advisory services. It has subsidized fertilizer inputs for some crops. It is also attempting to channel funds to the rural areas through District Development Councils and decentralized budgeting. The measures appear quite impressive, but the results are not. This is because these efforts have not even touched the heart of the rural-urban conflict, nor transformed the economic relations within the rural economy, which are the twin fetters imprisoning the rural productive forces. These measures, taken by themselves, are as reformist and ineffective as the attempts to solve the basic capital-labour contradiction through labour laws, profit sharing, diffusion of shares and Workers’ Councils, or the basic imperial-colonial contradiction through economic co-operation, commodity agreements, financial aid and international currency manipulations.
The essence of the rural-urban contradiction is the domination of the rural economy by the urban economy. In Nature as well as in Society, 2 mutually contradictory entities (or aspects) coexist as a unity, because they are also mutually interdependent; but they never coexist as equal partners. One is dominant, the other subordinate. The character of any phenomenon is essentially determined by the dominant aspect of the contradiction within it. Whatever the changes that may take place in the mutual relations between 2 aspects, so long as the dominant aspect retains its position of dominance, the character of the phenomenon remains basically unchanged. The phenomenon changes into something essentially and qualitatively different, as opposed to mere quantitative changes, only when the dominant aspect becomes subordinate and the subordinate aspect becomes dominant. Hence, if the rural-urban relationship, which is one of both mutual interdependence and conflict, is to be qualitatively changed, the rural economy must become dominant and the urban economy subordinate. In our present situation, this is the only way of releasing our rural productive forces from the chains that restrain them. Anything short of this is only a palliative, and will not result in a fundamental transformation of the rural economy.
In countries where the urban economy has an independent momentum of its own and can carry the rural economy along with it, though as a subordinate subject to its exploitation, such a fundamental transformation of the urban-rural relationship may not be necessary. But in countries such as ours, where the urban economy is not self-generative, and is incapable of further growth without large doses of foreign technology, equipment, inputs & skills, for which it does not have the means to pay, it is fast becoming inert and totally parasitic. It must therefore be made subordinate, if the country is to survive and not be dragged down with it.
What does subordinating the urban economy to the rural mean, in practice? It means a complete reversal of Government priorities, policies, attitudes and thinking, in respect of investment, research and technological innovation, deployment of skilled personnel, internal marketing and the terms of trade, housing, transport, education, health, administration and cultural activities. It means that the Government must organize a tremendous shift of resources to the rural economy, at the expense of the urban economy. The only resources that should be allocated to the urban economy are those that would serve the development of the rural productive forces. The urban economy must be reduced to the status of a satellite, the direction and pace of growth of which is solely determined by the development needs of the rural economy. (to be cont’d: Investment in the Village)
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B2. What Port City is and is not…
‘What should have been developed were the shanties of Panchikavatte and Colombo North’
Our dear US Ambassador in Colombo, is indeed a delight, for what is lovely about these white folks (and their off-whites) is how they curl thin pale lips to tongue the most outrageous dissimulation. Teplitz is worried about China and Port City undermining our sovereignty, that it may be a ‘money laundry’ – and, worse, she then wonders why we don’t bend down to the IMF.
The US is unable to resolve their own economic and social problems, or do not wish to, evident in that there have been 146 mass shootings in as many days as there have been in 2021!
‘It’s a state of irony for all the world to see,
Some call it the capital, it’s Washington DC…’
So goes a Gil Scott-Heron rap, and indeed the US ambassador would like us to believe she has no idea that her president Joe Biden comes from Delaware, which offers the best internal laundry facilities and tax haven for over 50% of all NYSE-listed corporats and 60% of the Fortune 500. The US surrounds itself with tax hideouts and money laundries from Bermuda to the Caymans to Panama and beyond. But this Ambassador acts the baba.
The US is investing huge funds ($300million annually!) to attack China’s Belt and Road Initiative, especially in countries along the BRI, in the local media as much as global media. This week’s attack led by the US embassy soon had the UNP, SJB, JVP, SL Bar Association (BASL), and the usual NGO gang, CPA, TISL etc hollering. The JVP leader, accused of taking US money to bring the Yahapalana government to power in 2015, is also claiming loss of sovereignty. Someone should ask the JVP: what does sovereignty mean to the worker?
The USAID has been involved with BASL, particularly under the presidency of Upul Jayasuriya. Under Kalinga Indatissa, we had seen a shift. There was a considerable pro-Gotabaya faction in BASL – led by the likes of Manohara Silva and Gomin Dayasiri. Both Kalinga Indatissa and UR de Silva won against increasing odds. It’s not easy to be a lawyer and claim to support the Left or Mahinda. The BASL under Indatissa and Silva led the campaign from the legal profession against the MCC. We have a different head of BASL now, and a resurgence of the pro-US faction within it. Lots of dollars have accordingly flowed under the Galle Road sewers in Kollupitiya.
Look at the luxury cars on the road, with only one person in each. Look at the towering condominiums with no one living in them. Colombo has long been turning into a laundromat, with the existing rules for FDI allowing it. So, how surprising to hear from the US ambassador that suddenly the Port City is going to allow laundering! Even better, the leader of the JVP also joins in!
The capitalist media protest against the ‘colonization’ of SL by capital is funny. Foreign bankers, import merchants & landlords own Colombo. The old ‘yellow peril’ is a US ploy, to save the skins of the comprador rentiers. So, now we have an alliance of western and local ruling classes, mouthpieced by the Colombots – to gaslight the ordinary citizens and denizens of Colombo.
• The Port City (PC) cannot be defended from a Left perspective. The whole idea was originally the UNP’s Ranil Wickremasinghe’s – but there’s no Chinese exceptionalism or colonialism here.
It’s clearly a high-class enclave. But it’s a mistake to characterize it as Chinese ‘colonialism’. It’s merely a capitalist enterprise, not of a manufacturing sort, but of a merchant and financial kind. No different from other such capitalist urban enclaves, not all of which are Chinese. In a presentation to the Sri Lankan Town Planners Institute, the executives of the Singapore-based company managing PC characterized it as a regional alternative to Dubai or Singapore, a similar ‘hub’ with the radius of a 4-hour flight (main catchment area). They were quite sincere and explicit about it: this is not for ordinary Colombo folk, but for the global jet-set class who happen to be in or would like to come to this corner of the world. The Singaporeans were asked what it would do to help the ordinary people of Colombo: they promised several thousand jobs, while noting – in a very matter of fact way –it is the responsibility of the Sri Lankan government to look after the ordinary people.
This will be a tax haven for capitalists from other countries. We don’t think it will significantly change the level of domestic tax evasion, though it could lead to repatriation of funds kept abroad.
The main draw of PC is it could buffer foreign reserves, provide some currency stability & more space for investing in industrialization. Our main concern is about how they will regulate the outflows.
The amount of jobs it will create is anything to scoff at though. Sri Lankans will scramble to get a foot in once it’s up and running. The Colombots will be the biggest beneficiaries, of course. Though we can dread the vices that will come with casinos.
Colombots have a history of opposing the same things that end up entrenching them even more. Look at the highways. What’s strange is no one has done more for the Colombots than Gota! Gota should have read more GVS de Silva and focused on rural relations and forces of production. It’s good to read GVS’s ‘heretical thoughts’ in the middle of this fiasco! (see ee Focus).
The PC will boost foreign reserves, and perhaps currency stability. But what is done with the money flowing through PC or stationed there will at the behest of the financiers. We’re not optimistic about industrialization. Jobs will be more like those in tourism and high-end hotel sector, perhaps teachers in the new international school and doctors in the luxury hospital. Better than nothing, but it’s going to be a world unto itself. The Colombots protesting now will out there partying all night long!
The professional associations (of architects, lawyers, engineers, accountants etc) are easily bought and will be bought by PC in due course. At the Singapore presentation, there were many architects and planners salivating at their professional prospects. They’re what Lenin would have called ‘objective friends’ of PC!
The PC itself is a total FDI. The trade-off for the government to invest infrastructure is relatively favourable.
It’s a Catch-22: we need foreign currency to repay debt and meet our consumption, but once we’re in a comfortable forex position there’s a tendency to abandon industrialization until the next crisis.
The National Professionals Front has also filed a petition against the PC Bill. The government has done a poor job, or no job at all, communicating what Port City is supposed to be and what if any benefits will come to Sri Lanka and how externalities will be managed. This is a general, and generic, limitation of the government. Their fat ad agencies clearly are not doing their job!
The Singapore-based executives of Port City were asked: what about all the public infrastructure and investments PC is going to relying on – power, electricity, water, waste disposal, roads and even a proposed highway extension from the airport highway? PC investors are not going to pay for any of that (except for the monthly bills – but not for all these infrastructure investments). The SL taxpayer – disproportionately the public servants, because the corporates get away with murder – will therefore subsidize that glitter, and this has to be part of any realistic cost-benefit analysis. Capitalists have got the government by the ‘privates’, because the indebted government needs forex – and capitalists milk this pincer to their advantage. We’re dealing here not with the government of China – as the protestors would have it – but with corporations. We could have entered into a much more sensible deal with China – to build our railways and transit, eg, rather than this spectacle.
The Port City sits on the most-isolated extremity of a quadrilateral, to which access is limited to 2 sides. This causes commuters and infrastructure to be funnelled in, causing bottlenecks. Even for ShangriLa, the other Galle Face sites and the Elephant House development, a special water pipeline had to be installed – which we suspect is intended to supply PC. What should have been developed were the shanties of Panchikavatte & Colombo North. However, even the Panchikavatte Triangle scheme was kyboshed to make way for the PC.
After the yahapalana debacle, the masses expected great things of the new government. However, the poorer people suffered, while the rich were pandered to, with exceptions being made to various rules and regulations. (see, documents.gov.lk/files/bill/2021/4/51-2021_E.pdf)
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B3. What is Real Money?
ee Economists’ previous news sections carried details on the burgeoning of fictitious capital, postponing capitalism’s crises. The question is, for how long…and what on earth is ‘real money’?
Simply: money-capital is money invested in actual production: The relationship known as M-C-M’, where C = a commodity, and M’ is the money made from investing money in making a commodity. Money and markets existed long before capitalism, but what distinguishes capitalism from other modes of production for Marx is the employment of money in this M-C-M’ relation (M-C[LP+MP] …<production> C’-M’). Money invested in real industrial production, creates other lines of industry, downstream and upstream, hence the power of industrialization.
Part 1 of Utsa and Prabhat Patnaik’s new book, Capital and Imperialism – a bit technical at times, when they critique orthodox economics – is still readable for nontechnical people. Surplus value, as Marx defines it in Capital Vol 1, is the specifically capitalist form of profit, derived from the difference between the value contributed by workers to the commodities produced (measured in labour-time) and the value of their labour power (wages). In other words, the difference between the total labour expended by the workers in the production process and the ‘necessary labour’, ie, the value of what is needed to reproduce the worker in the form of wages.
To explain surplus value, we have to start with feudalism or more generally what Samir Amin calls the tributary mode of production (of which feudalism is one). The lord-serf relation also involved a transfer of value from the serf to the lord – pretty much what the serfs produced in excess of subsistence-needs, would go to the lord. But this is a primarily political-juridical-ideological transfer, where tribute takes one of 3 typical forms: in rent, in kind, and in money. It is political-juridical-ideological because the tribute is legitimated in these domains, not the economic. The invention of capitalism – on the back of bourgeois revolutions opposed to feudal ‘restrictions’ and ‘inequities’ – was to preserve the essence of tribute without the older political-juridical-ideological setup, and to cloak it under liberal ‘freedoms’. The new form of exploitation – under conditions of ‘free labour’ and ‘free markets’, and other assorted freedoms – is what Marx theorized as surplus value. This is best seen in historical perspective.
[Question: Do each of the forms correlate to the domains? How does rent differ from kind and money? Legitimated? How? Isn’t it all economic? So many questions, so few tweets.]
No, the forms of tribute don’t correspond to those domains. Feudal tribute was paid in many forms, but basically in three forms: serfs worked for the lord, say 3 days a week, after they had taken care of their subsistence in 3 days, with a day for prayer, etc. (kind); serfs turned over to the lord a portion of their produce in return for being allowed to live in the lord’s estate (rent); serfs paid the lord rent by selling their surplus ‘petty-commodity’ or agricultural product, after taking care of their subsistence (money). Of course they are all economic, to the extent they involve labour and value, but the transfer of tribute from the serf to the lord is secured politically, juridically and ideologically – in the sense that the lord-serf relation is fundamentally a political and legal one, legitimated in the consciousness of both lord and serf. Everyone generally understood it was the legitimate right of the lord to receive tribute from the serf, just because he was the lord, and it was the duty of the serf to pay tribute to the lord, just because he was the serf. This ideology legitimating such tribute was grounded in the political and legal structure of feudalism. The bourgeois revolutions overthrew that explicitly hierarchical system, proclaiming the principle of equality. Classical political economists took the bourgeois ideology of equality at its word – reducing freedom to the freedom of private property in the market for those considered fit for it, obfuscating the capitalist reformatting of feudal tribute as surplus value, and gaslighting the working class.
This is why Marx considered ‘surplus value’ his most significant discovery – to show how capitalist exploitation (extraction of surplus value in the process of production, M-C-M’) happens even and especially under liberal freedoms, even when everything is supposedly equal. The mystery Marx solved: how can exploitation (extraction of surplus value) take place when things are now equal and free, unlike in feudalism?
‘The process of the consumption of labour-power is at the same time the production process of commodities and of surplus-value. The consumption of labour-power is completed, as in the case of every other commodity, outside the market or the sphere of circulation. Let us therefore, in company with the owner of money and the owner of labour-power, leave this noisy sphere, where everything takes place on the surface and in full view of everyone, and follow them into the hidden abode of production, on whose threshold there hangs the notice “No admittance except on business”. Here we shall see, not only how capital produces, but how capital itself is produced. The secret of profit-making must at last be laid bare.’ – Marx, Capital Vol 1: 279-80 (Penguin/NLB).
On p280, Marx also said (SBD de Silva also quoted a bit of this): ‘The sphere of circulation or commodity exchange, within whose boundaries the sale and purchase of labour-power goes on, is in fact a very Eden of the innate rights of man. It is the exclusive realm of Freedom, Equality, Property and Bentham.’
On feudalism, the key point is there’s a variety of ways in which serf pays tribute to the lord. We were just listing the top 3, of which one involves actual money, and 2 don’t involve money (ie, labour in the lord’s estate, or part of the serf’s product). Rent as we know does not end with feudalism, persisting into the time of capitalism, but not necessarily as the main form of profit – which is, when capitalism is working well, surplus value (profit made in the production process). In reality of course, the ‘ruling class’ includes not only industrial or productive capitalists, but also rentiers and merchants. All of them live off the workers, in distinct but related ways. Related because money accumulated in the domains of production, rent and commerce are not insulated from each other, but flow in and out of each other (Capital Vol 2 & 3; David Harvey also good on this, among others). Today financial institutions play a massive role in those flows – which at end of the day, aside from mere speculation, comes from what is robbed from the workers.
Marx wrote a lot about money and what people call ‘finance capitalism’. Naturally, not about the latest technologies and forms of ‘financial engineering’, but the basic theoretical and methodological framework is there in Marx. Paraphrasing if not directly quoting Marx: Interest is rent on money. Profits, rents and wages were the 3 forms of income he looked at – and the role of money in all that was of course central to Marx’s concerns.
In Sri Lanka, because the cultivator’s harvest is already owed in advance to the moneylender & merchant, there is little monetization and commercialization within the village to enable investment in rural industry. The moneylender/merchant steals the cash to Colombo, to buy imported goods, and the money flies to….See you, later, agitator…in a while, rank-and-file!
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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.
• Indian anti-submarine warfare capable INS Ranvijay visits Sri Lanka for Happy New Year
– timesonline.lk/news-online/Indian-anti-submarine-warfare-capable-INS-Ranvijay-is-to-visit-Sri-Lanka-this-week/2-1132971
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Indian-warship-Ranvijay-to-arrive-in-Colombo/108-209932
– island.lk/indian-guided-missile-destroyer-leaves-today/
• England insists it will not vacate Diego Garcia or Indian Ocean
‘Global Britain in a Competitive Age: the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy: ‘the government’s vision for the UK’s role in the world over the next decade and the action we will take to 2025’’
• USA Countering Chinese Influence fund: $300 million a year….
‘$300,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2024 for the Countering Chinese Influence Fund to counter the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party globally”
– https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7937/text
• Chinese Defense Minister’s Visit To Sri Lanka In Perspective – Analysis
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/13/chinese-defense-ministers-visit-to-sri-lanka-in-perspective-analysis/
• Colombo Port City a Chinese colony? SL Media Center replies to 7 key allegations
• US hand behind Port City legislation issue: Mahindananda
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Foreign-hand-behind-Port-City-legislation-issue-Mahindananda/108-210060
– newsfirst.lk/2021/04/16/sri-lankan-minister-hits-out-at-us-for-flagging-chinese-port-city
• President appoints members to Port City Economic Commission
– island.lk/cabraal-prez-appoints-members-to-port-city-economic-commission/
– island.lk/colombo-port-city-will-not-be-handed-over-to-china-state-minister-cabraal/
– ft.lk/top-story/Port-City-will-be-turning-point-for-SL-Cabraal/26-716349
– economynext.com/sri-lankas-port-city-will-be-a-driver-growth-fdi-not-a-chinese-colony-minister-cabraal-80841/
• US cautions China-backed Port City could turn into money-laundering haven
– island.lk/us-cautions-china-backed-port-city-could-turn-into-money-laundering-haven/
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/editorial/a-new-city-and-its-all-powerful-commission-439632.html
– ft.lk/front-page/Dinesh-meets-US-envoy/44-716260
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/11/us-envoy-warns-china-backed-colombo-port-project-may-create-safe-haven-for-money-launderers/
– island.lk/monumental-blunders-paralysing-sri-lanka/
– ft.lk/top-story/Petitions-pile-up-against-Port-City-Bill/26-716285
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-bar-association-opposition-parties-to-challenge-china-backed-colombo-port-city-bill-80802
– island.lk/port-city-bill-requires-referendum/
• UNP: Is Port City a separate state?
– island.lk/opposition-is-port-city-a-separate-state/
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-colombo-port-city-commission-given-undefined-powers-equal-opportunity-denied-sjb-80843/
• Proposed law will turn Port City into a province of China – JVP
– youtube.com/watch?v=8k-gBbMDjdI&ab_channel=ApeMedia
– island.lk/proposed-law-will-turn-port-city-into-a-province-of-china-jvp/
– newsfirst.lk/2021/04/16/president-govt-dont-have-mandate-to-make-sl-a-chinese-territory-jvp/
• Govt. MP Wijeyadasa strikes discordant note on Port City Bill
– island.lk/govt-mp-wijeyadasa-strikes-discordant-note-on-port-city-bill/
– newsfirst.lk/2021/04/16/video-the-president-phoned-me-and-threatened-me-this-morning-mp-wijeyadasa/
• Sri Lanka needs Port City but bill raises Constitutional and regulatory concerns: Harsha
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-needs-port-city-but-bill-raises-constitutional-and-regulatory-concerns-harsha-80819/
• Sri Lanka Port City will be a ‘Chinese colony’ claims monk linked to ruling party
– youtu.be/BWeZKT8dFEM
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-port-city-will-be-a-chinese-colony-claims-monk-linked-to-ruling-party-80809/
• Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary responds to Western criticism on China
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/14/sri-lankan-foreign-secretary-responds-to-western-criticism-on-china/
• Book on ‘Foreign Policy Perspectives: Port City Colombo & International Financial Centre’
– ft.lk/business/Book-launch-of-Foreign-Policy-Perspectives-Port-City-Colombo-and-International-Financial-Centre/34-716310
• SL discusses further cooperation with EU
‘French Ambassador Eric Lavertu, Italian Ambassador Rita Mannella, the Chargé d’Affaires of Romania Ambassador Victor Chiujdea, as well as the Deputy Heads of the Missions of Germany, the Netherlands and the EU participated’
– ft.lk/front-page/SL-discusses-further-cooperation-with-EU/44-716261
– island.lk/fm-gunawardena-meets-with-eu-senior-diplomats-in-colombo/
• Happy Aluth Avurudda: US President Joe Biden
‘ Jill and I send our warmest wishes to the many South Asian and Southeast Asian communities celebrating Vaisakhi…This is likely the first time a sitting US president has wished SLs in Sinhala’
– economynext.com/happy-aluth-avurudda-us-president-joe-biden-80732/
• The English will not learn English, let’s not kid ourselves
‘England now faults their Lt. Col. Gash for not obtaining independent confirmation of reports’
– island.lk/the-british-will-not-learn-english-lets-not-kid-ourselves/
• ‘UNHRC missive exposes English duplicity in grave accountability matters’
– island.lk/unhrc-missive-exposes-uk-duplicity-in-grave-accountability-matters/
• US briefs Sri Lanka on Biden’s commitment to democracy
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/US-briefs-Sri-Lanka-on-Bidens-commitment-to-democracy/108-209805
• Maha Sangha will rise against Provincial Councils – Muruththettuwe Thero
– newsfirst.lk/2021/04/16/maha-sangha-will-rise-against-abuse-of-power-muruththettuwe-thero/
• India feels let down – Sunday Times
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/columns/national-new-year-dawns-as-govt-plunges-from-crisis-to-crisis-439639.html
• 3 major Canadian political parties licking the boots of the Tamil voters
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/11/canadian-resolution-as-core-group-at-unhrc-on-sri-lanka/
• The glorious years of Jaffna youth were hijacked by Ponnambalam
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/10/the-glorious-years-of-jaffna-youth-were-hijacked-by-ponnambalam/
• Security Threats Faced by TNA Jaffna District MP Sumanthiran
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Security-Threats-Faced-by-TNA-Jaffna-District-MP-Sumanthiran/172-210081
• Sooka pushing UK for punitive action against Army Commander
– island.lk/sooka-pushing-uk-for-punitive-action-against-army-commander/
• Rajiv gave his bullet proof jacket to Prabhakaran
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/15/where-the-indian-politicians-and-kautillyan-mandarins-have-gone-wrong-and-digging-their-own-grave-by-supporting-tamils-living-in-sri-lanka-leading-to-balkanization-of-british-india/
• The Geneva game and the 13th Amendment:
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/15/the-geneva-game-and-the-13th-amendment-a-geographical-analysis-part-iii-to-expert-committee-to-draft-a-new-constitution/
• Sri Lanka’s diplomatic synchronicity with its neighbourhood
– island.lk/sri-lankas-diplomatic-synchronicity-with-its-neighbourhood/
• DS’ instructions to JR prior to the San Francisco Peace Treaty Conference in September 1951
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/14/d-s-senanayakes-instructions-to-j-r-jayewardene-prior-to-the-san-francisco-peace-treaty-conference-in-september-1951/
• Quad cannot replicate NATO, given internal divergence and China’s economic clout
– globaltimes.cn/page/202103/1218189.shtml
• US: Indian Ocean is not India’s ocean
‘The ocean beds of South China Sea and Indian Ocean are sitting on unimaginable wealth of mineral resources — potentially, the last frontier… the differing interests of the US and India in the IOR will be difficult to reconcile.” Chickens are coming home to roost.’
– indianpunchline.com/us-indian-ocean-is-not-indias-ocean/
• Indian State, Maoists and Tribals
‘accepting tribals can guide state policy and abjuring violence on all sides.’
– newsclick.in/indian-stat-maoists-tribals
• Adani Ports to be removed from S&P index due to business links with Myanmar military
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/adani-ports-to-be-removed-from-sp-index-due-to-business-links-with-myanmar-military/
• Neoconservatives Demand More Meddling In Afghanistan
‘The US will not have it all their own way. Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, India, and the Central Asian republics have their own stakes in this war, and not all of them want to see an outright Taliban victory. So they will fund clients and proxies, as will, in all likelihood, the United States. And the people of Afghanistan will continue to suffer.’
– moonofalabama.org/2021/04/neoconservatives-demand-more-meddling-in-afghanistan.html
• India should welcome the end of US occupation of Afghanistan
‘The spectre haunting India today is that its worst case scenario in Afghanistan is becoming reality — a Taliban takeover. Delhi watches with disquiet the United States unceremoniously dumping its “conditions-based” troop withdrawal agenda, cutting loose and quitting the war…Pakistan which has invested so heavily through past 4 decades to install a friendly government in Kabul — and is about to achieve that final objective’
– indianpunchline.com/india-should-welcome-the-end-of-us-occupation-of-afghanistan/
• U.S., NATO Give Up – Will Leave Afghanistan By September 11
‘For obvious strategic reasons Pakistan can never allow its enemy India to gain a foothold in Afghanistan.’
– moonofalabama.org/2021/04/us-nato-give-up-will-leave-afghanistan-by-september-11.
• Chronicle of the unavailing Afghan war
‘he didn’t order a commission of inquiry into the disastrous military invasion of 2001’
– indianpunchline.com/chronicle-of-the-unavailing-afghan-war/
Germany extends military invasion in Afghanistan, threatens Russia & China
– wsws.org/en/articles/2021/04/07/kram-a07.html
• Sri Lanka warned against ‘Hitler’ wish by German envoy
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-warned-against-hitler-wish-by-german-envoy-80715/
• The H-word and retro-economics of unreason – Jayatilleka
‘If the Quad and the world’s democracies can’t beat the external-internal autocratic convergence and consolidation in Sri Lanka… where can it succeed in defeating despotism…’
– ft.lk/columns/The-H-word-and-retro-economics-of-unreason/4-716282
• US lost touch with a generation of Pakistani military officers because of military sanctions.
‘Pakistan has now gone over to the Chinese side.’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/16/have-us-sanctions-been-effective/
• Alliance of Adversaries: The Congress of the Toilers of the Far East – book review
‘The 1922 Comintern Congress of the workers of the Far East underlines the importance of anti-imperialism and the politics of liberation to the revolution’
– counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/22223-alliance-of-adversaries-the-congress-of-the-toilers-of-the-far-east-book-review
• Iran says blackout at Natanz facility was ‘nuclear terrorism’
– ft.com/content/13e4662c-6b64-47e7-9284-e745e8fac1d2
• A “win-win” for US, Turkey in Hindu Kush
‘Turkey is a pillar of NATO mission to Afghanistan… Pentagon and CIA are reluctant to vacate Afghanistan by May 1. Turkey will be overseeing an open-ended US-NATO presence… Turkey has staked claims for the mantle of leadership of the Turkic world stretching from the Black Sea to the steppes of Central Asia and Xinjiang.’
– indianpunchline.com/a-win-win-for-us-turkey-in-hindu-kush/
• Israel’s reckless nuclear terrorism: Disarmament the only solution
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Israels-reckless-nuclear-terrorism-Disarmament-the-only-solution/172-209976
• UN WFP warns Ethiopia of ‘starvation crimes’
– theafricareport.com/78501/ethiopia-looming-famine-in-tigray-is-the-making-of-starvation-crimes-says-report-by-wpf/
• French oil major Total withdraw staff from Mozambique; Fitch warns….
– theafricareport.com/80186/mozambiques-insurgency-raises-risk-of-government-debt-default/
• France Mass Murder in Mali
‘In a recent report, the UN Mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, concluded, on Jan 3, French warplanes had struck a crowd attending a wedding in the remote village of Bounti, killing 22 guests… based on a thorough investigation and interviews with 100s of eyewitnesses, 19 guests were unarmed civilians whose killing constitutes a war crime…
– counterpunch.org/2021/04/15/the-clandestine-war-on-africa-frances-endgame-in-mali/
• After The Bear Showed Its Teeth The Ukraine Filed For Peace?
‘‘Liberation” of Donbass by force will lead to mass deaths of civilians and servicemen, and this is unacceptable for Kiev, said Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ruslan Khomchak.’
– moonofalabama.org/2021/04/after-the-bear-showed-its-teeth-the-ukraine-filed-for-peace.html
• CNN Fakes: Ukrainian Trains With Heavy Weapons Going East Are ‘Russian Aggression’
– moonofalabama.org/2021/04/cnn-ukrainian-trains-with-heavy-weapons-going-east-are-russian-aggression.html
• 3 Recent Failures In Foreign Policy Coordination – Why Is Jake Sullivan Creating A Mess?
– moonofalabama.org/2021/04/three-recent-failures-in-bidens-foreign-policy-planing-.html
• Putin signs law allowing him 2 more terms as Russia’s leader
– adaderana.lk/news/72847/putin-signs-law-allowing-him-2-more-terms-as-russias-leader
• Prince Philip: Three royal visits to India and a tiger controversy
‘During his 1961 visit to India, he was pictured with…with a dead 8-foot tiger he had shot while on a hunt. It happened to be the same year he became president of the World Wildlife Fund…’
– timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/81991695.cms
• Indigenous Peoples’ History of the US: HBO Docuseries
– beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2021/04/indigenous-peoples-history-of-the-us-forms-part-of-raoul-pecks-hbo-docuseries.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.
• Indian Marine Piracy, An Invasion of Sri Lankan Waters
– newsfirst.lk/2021/04/14/exclusive-video-marine-piracy-an-invasion-of-sri-lankan-waters/
– newsfirst.lk/2021/04/14/sls-marine-resources-at-risk-sumanthiran/
• Defence Review by Institute of National Security Studies
‘six papers authored by authorities on security studies in Sri Lanka and abroad. ‘
– ft.lk/columns/Defence-Review-by-INSSL-A-timely-contribution-to-the-current-knowledge/4-716227
• Sri Lanka proscribes 11 extremist organizations to fight against terrorism
– timesonline.lk/news-online/Sri-Lanka-proscribes-11-extremist-organizations-to-fight-against-terrorism/2-1132969
• In 2014, Govt. paid US$ 6.5 million to CIA mole, who has now been jailed
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/news/in-2014-govt-paid-us-6-5-million-to-cia-mole-who-has-now-been-jailed-439751.html
• 1,600 Jaffna-based Tamil youth joined Army recently
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/1-600-Jaffna-based-Tamil-youth-joined-Army-recently/108-209959
• President announces additional steps to maintain law and order: 10,000 new recruits to Police
– ft.lk/news/President-announces-additional-steps-to-maintain-law-and-order/56-716253
• A senior cop remembers April 1971
‘At the end of March 1971 there was specific information that the first targets would be the police stations. The attacks were to be carried out simultaneously on a particular day at a given time.’
– island.lk/a-senior-cop-remembers-april-1971/
• 243 Army personnel bound for Mali
– island.lk/third-ccc-bound-for-mali-present-formal-salute-to-army-chief/
• Taking Lessons From LTTE New Narco-Terrorism Network Takes Shape In South Asia
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/10/taking-lessons-from-ltte-new-narco-terrorism-network-takes-shape-in-south-asia-oped/
• The ban on the BBS: A sop to Cerberus?
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/10/the-ban-on-the-bbs-a-sop-to-cerberus/
• No vaccine is believed to be able to ensure life-time immunity
– island.lk/bridging-vaccine-divide/
• Emergence of the Global Police State
‘The emerging megacities of the world are becoming the battlegrounds where the excluded and the oppressed face off against the global police state’
– youtube.com/watch?v=G4mDx2XitJw
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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.
• Two IMF economists in Colombo conducting annual Article 1V consultations
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/business-times/central-bank-governor-predicts-5-5-6-economic-growth-this-year-439305.html
• No IMF bail-out though various other discussions ongoing: CB
– dailymirror.lk/business_247/No-IMF-bail-out-though-various-other-discussions-ongoing-CB/395-209849
• WB urges SL to focus on competitiveness, debt sustainability for resilient rebound
– ft.lk/front-page/WB-urges-SL-to-focus-on-competitiveness-debt-sustainability-for-resilient-rebound/44-716262++
• US offers Sri Lanka debt management support
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/US-offers-Sri-Lanka-debt-management-support/108-209985
• Sri Lanka resolved to maintain relative monetary stability: CB Governor
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-resolved-to-maintain-relative-monetary-stability-cb-governor-80749/
• Central Bank Corrects Sunday Times: No plans to defer payments; only to ‘rollover’
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/news/central-bank-no-plans-to-defer-payments-only-to-rollover-439674.html
• Debt repayment commitments are being met: CB Governor
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/news/debt-repayment-commitments-are-being-met-cb-governor-439668.html
• Commodity prices to increase this year – Sanderatne
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/columns/opportunities-and-threats-of-global-economic-recovery-439623.html
• Is Sri Lanka an open economy? – Abeyratne
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/business-times/root-cause-of-all-problems-439320.html
• Corrupted inflation targeting, output gap targeting not in line with monetary law: Wijewardene
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-has-a-corrupted-inflation-targeting-output-gap-targeting-not-in-line-with-monetary-law-wijewardene-80678/
• Sri Lanka will discourage FDI with abrupt tax changes, policy upheavals: Eran
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-will-discourage-fdi-with-abrupt-tax-changes-policy-upheavals-eran-80708/
• Free-market and socialism According to Ronnie de Mel
‘one can see that he only opines how capitalism can emerge stronger and remain relevant….The 1970-77 state’s vise-like grip on the economy retarded the growth of the private sector much to the resentment of the capitalist bloc’
– island.lk/free-market-and-socialism/
• The Bank of Ceylon: what it was, is and can be
‘BOC in the early ‘70s was requested to extend its services to the rural areas by opening over 300 islandwide Agricultural Service Centre (ASC) branches…the bank introduced a plethora of concessionary credit schemes with refinance facilities from the Central Bank and credit lines from international funding agencies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) to uplift the economy of the rural farmers, small and medium entrepreneurs as well as self-employed artisans in the semi-urban sector’
– island.lk/the-bank-of-ceylon-what-it-was-is-and-can-be/
• Proceed with caution: Is Approach to Import Substitution Sensible? – Rockefeller Pathfinder
‘In practice, countries as large as China or as small as Singapore have been able to transform their economies through this combination of increased FDI and rising exports’
– island.lk/proceed-with-caution-is-sri-lankas-approach-to-import-substitution-sensible/
• Special Series on ‘Dual Circulation’: An Overview of China’s New Economic Strategy
– news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-06/Dual-Circulation-Ep-01-An-Overview-of-China-s-New-Economic-Strategy-YpfHmPogjS/index.html
• 98.99 million Chinese lifted out of absolute poverty – a miracle in human history
– island.lk/alleviating-poverty-the-chinese-way/
• IMF and Debt: A new consensus?
– thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2021/04/15/imf-and-debt-a-new-consensus/
• Neoclassical mainstream economist Mundell dead
‘He won a Nobel (Riksbank) prize in economics for his extension of general equilibrium theory as applied to Keynesian macroeconomics into the international aren…none of his ‘solutions’ worked’
– thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2021/04/10/robert-mundell-nothing-optimal
• The Trillion Dollar SUV
‘The USA’s eight richest individuals held over $1 trillion for the first time ever. Six of the eight — Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, and Larry Ellison — each now sit on a personal fortune worth $100 billion or more.’
– counterpunch.org/2021/04/13/the-trillion-dollar-suv/
• Margin Debt Has Exploded…May Be in the Trillions.
‘Wall Street banks are creating private derivative contracts known as swaps, to magically transform margin loans used for stock trading into simple collateralized loans…dramatically under report the amount of margin debt in the financial system.’
– wallstreetonparade.com/2021/04/margin-debt-has-exploded-by-49-percent-in-one-year-to-814-billion-the-actual-figure-may-be-in-the-trillions-heres-why/
• Fed Chair’s False Narrative on Mega Banks Loaning Out their Balance Sheets to Hedge Funds
– wallstreetonparade.com/2021/04/fed-chair-jerome-powell-goes-on-60-minutes-to-present-a-false-narrative-on-mega-banks-he-supervises-loaning-out-their-balance-sheets-to-hedge-funds/
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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, their constant moaning about debt and balance of payments without stating the need for industrial production to overcome such issues, etc.
• Intermediate and Machine Imports Up in February
‘Intermediate goods were up 3.8 percent to $945 million with textiles and textiles articles up 22.4 percent to $222.8 million…Wheat and maize rose to $55.5 million from 8.4 million…Machinery and equipment was up 5.6 percent to $193.8 million… Rubber products were up 13.2 percent to $81 million US dollars.
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-imports-down-2-5-pct-in-feb-2021-exports-down-3-7-pct-80839/
• JVP Women for Rights raise fears about cost and safety of food for New Year
– island.lk/jvp-women-raise-fears-about-cost-and-safety-of-food-for-new-year/
• US would support Sri Lanka in efforts to manage debt, stabilize economy: Ambassador Teplitz
– economynext.com/us-would-support-sri-lanka-in-efforts-to-manage-debt-stabilize-economy-ambassador-teplitz-80734/
• Sri Lankan rupee faces depreciation pressure despite foreign currency swaps
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/business-times/sri-lankan-rupee-faces-depreciation-pressure-despite-foreign-currency-swaps-439291.html
• Massive tax evasion aggravates economic stress
‘Inland Revenue Department deprived of around Rs. 144.5 billion in revenue last year… Over 200 individuals, finance companies, casinos and state institutions were among the tax evaders.’
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/business-times/massive-tax-evasion-aggravates-economic-stress-439284.html
• Sri Lanka extends bar on banks buying sovereign bonds till April 23
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-extends-bar-on-banks-buying-sovereign-bonds-till-april-23-80754/
• Treasury move to handle special GST sparks protests
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/business-times/treasury-move-to-handle-special-gst-sparks-protests-439346.html
• Sri Lanka cuts exporter proceeds conversion rule to 10-pct
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-cuts-exporter-proceeds-conversion-rule-to-10-pct-80762/
• China’s US$500million New Year gift to Sri Lanka
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/12/chinas-us-500-m-new-year-gift-to-sri-lanka
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-signs-us500mn-loan-with-china-development-bank-80694/
• Sri Lanka’s China-backed Port City to bring in US$5bn in land sales
– economynext.com/sri-lankas-china-backed-port-city-to-bring-in-us5bn-in-land-sales-80666/
• Colombo Port City & Hambantota port are dual engines of economic growth: Chinese envoy
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/12/colombo-port-city-and-hambantota-port-are-dual-engines-of-lankas-economic-growth-chinese-envoy/
• Digitalization & Modernizing Trade Business & Consumerism
‘quality of goods services of food and consumer items are substandard, and of inferior quality due to lack of supervision and regulation’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/12/digitalization-and-modernizing-trade-busienss-and-consumerism-for-the-citizen-2/
• Myanmar military coup slams economy, to shrink 8.9-pct in 2021: IMF
– economynext.com/myanmar-military-coup-slams-economy-to-shrink-8-9-pct-in-2021-imf-80743/
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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
• Sri Lankan Mother Seeks Truth Behind Daughter’s Death at Japan Detention Center
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/16/sri-lankan-mother-seeks-truth-behind-daughters-death-at-japan-detention-center/
• CEB employees launch ‘sick note’ campaign, pay rise to cost govt. an additional Rs. 9bn
‘government is expected to grant a 25 per cent salary increase to the 28,000 workforce of the Ceylon Electricity Board’
– island.lk/ceb-employees-launch-sick-note-campaign-pay-rise-to-cost-govt-an-additional-rs-9bn/
• Rs 5,000 allowance in disarray as Grama Niladharis, Samurdhi officers boycott
‘A relief programme to provide a one-time cash allowance of Rs 5,000 each to 2.8 million low-income families for the upcoming Sinhala & Tamil New Year is in jeopardy’
– economynext.com/rs-5000-allowance-in-disarray-as-grama-niladharis-samurdhi-officers-boycott-80697/
• Cabinet paper submitted to pay lifetime salaries and allowances for war hero families
– timesonline.lk/news-online/Cabinet-paper-submitted-to-pay-lifetime-salaries-and-allowances-for-war-hero-families/2-1132956
• Trade unions challenge Port City Commission Bill
‘“Six to seven unions have expressed interest in challenging the bill particularly since it exempts the operation of the Termination of Employment of Workmen (Special Provisions) Act, No. 45 of 1971 for companies operating within this special zone.’
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/business-times/tus-to-challenge-port-city-commission-bill-439334.html
– ft.lk/front-page/Federation-of-Labour-expresses-concern-over-Colombo-Port-City-Bill/44-716350
• SL women detained for months in Saudi Arabia due to abusive kafala system: AI
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/business-times/new-port-city-gazette-needs-3-months-of-public-consultations-439317.html
• Sri Lanka to advertise internationally for Colombo Port City Commission staff
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-to-advertise-internationally-for-colombo-port-city-commission-staff-80692/
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/SL-women-detained-for-months-in-Saudi-Arabia-due-to-abusive-kafala-system-AI/108-209965
• 80% of Colombo’s private bus drivers are on drugs; test on the cards: state minister
– economynext.com/80-percent-of-colombos-private-bus-drivers-are-on-drugs-test-on-the-cards-state-minister-80711/
• Consumer Rights Activist remanded
– newsfirst.lk/2021/04/14/consumer-rights-activist-remanded/
• Australia gifts SL drones to spot people smuggling
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Australia-gifts-SL-drones-to-spot-people-smuggling/108-209940
– island.lk/quad-member-australia-provides-uav-capability-to-police/
• Fires at Toronto homeless camps & shelters linked to police informant
– counterpunch.org/2021/04/13/will-a-scorched-earth-campaign-successfully-invisibilize-torontos-homeless-encampments/
• Biden is Mass Deporter of Haitians and Other Blacks
– blackagendareport.com/biden-mass-deporter-haitians-and-other-blacks
• The Greed of San Francisco’s Hyper-Gentrifying Classes
‘Black push-out has become endemic in the Bay Area.’
– blackagendareport.com/greed-san-franciscos-hyper-gentrifying-classes
• Black Urban Crises and Push-Out “Engineered”
– blackagendareport.com/black-urban-crises-and-push-out-engineered
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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.
• Lightning kills four farmers in Mullaitivu and Batticaloa
– timesonline.lk/news-online/Lightning-kills-four-farmers-in-Mullaitivu-and-Batticaloa/2-1132989
• eLand Registration in Sri Lanka; A pathway for the mother of all scams?
‘Bim Saviya land registration system, legislated in 1998 at the behest of the World Bank, and without consultation with Sri Lankan lawyers, and introduced in 2007, has been a complete failure.’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/13/eland-registration-in-sri-lanka-a-pathway-for-the-mother-of-all-scams/
• Reconstruction of tanks in A’pura, Puttalam, Kurunegala must start before end of April
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Reconstruction-of-tanks-in-Apura-Puttalam-Kurunegala-must-start-before-end-of-April-Anuradha-Jay/108-209935
• Farmers lament shortage of seeds, fertilizer
– newsfirst.lk/2021/04/13/farmers-lament-shortage-of-seeds-fertilizer/
• 270,000 metric tons of vegetables and fruits wasted annually
‘…270,000 metric tons of vegetables and fruits are being wasted annually…’
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Strong-domestic-agricultural-policy-needed-to-eliminate-waste/172-209904
• National program to be launched to distribute 1 million Moringa plants
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/16/national-program-to-be-launched-to-distribute-1-million-moringa-plants/
• SL to import dehydrated coconut chips to manufacture coconut oil
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/12/sl-to-import-dehydrated-coconut-chips-to-manufacture-coconut-oil/
• Importers bring crude palm oil for industrial use and mix it causing health issues
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/news/about-turn-on-palm-oil-ban-fails-to-quell-industry-uproar-2-439739.html
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/news/analyst-dragging-feet-over-reports-on-oil-safety-phis-2-439722.html
• Sri Lanka to allow palm stearin imports, other fractions ‘unhealthy’
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-to-allow-palm-stearin-imports-other-fractions-unhealthy-80670/
• Customs officer arrested for allegedly forging documents to re-export areca nuts
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/13/customs-officer-arrested-for-allegedly-forging-documents-to-re-export-areca-nuts/
• Canteen Owners’ Assn. Chief arrested
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Canteen-Owners-Assn-Chief-arrested/108-209929
• Government should consider distributing plantation land as tea smallholdings to workers
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/business-times/bold-changes-needed-to-salvage-sri-lankas-tea-plantation-sector-439301.html
• B2B meeting to boost Sri Lankan exports of fruits and vegetables to Oman’s French Carrefour
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/b2b-meeting-to-boost-sri-lankan-exports-of-fruits-and-vegetables-to-oman/
• World Bank Galle Fort boulder wall project abandoned as residents protest
‘“According to World Bank regulations, if there are protests from the community and social issues, they will not proceed with the work…So this was called off.”
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/news/galle-fort-boulder-wall-project-abandoned-as-residents-protest-439718.html
• Weliweriya, Uruwala piggeries and poultry farms: large scale burning of polythene and offal
– island.lk/villagers-miss-opportunity-to-brief-president-on-environmental-problems/
• PM asks where today’s protesters were when forests were destroyed under former govt.
– island.lk/pm-asks-where-todays-protesters-were-when-forests-were-destroyed-under-former-govt/
• Walsapugala Farmers continue Sathyagraha
– newsfirst.lk/2021/04/13/walsapugala-continue-sathyagraha/
• ‘Mahaweli bid to reduce size of EMZ will worsen human-jumbo conflict’
‘More than 156 farmer organisations and a number of trade unions have joined the struggle of the Hambantota farmers.’
– island.lk/environmentalists-sound-warning-mahaweli-bid-to-reduce-size-of-emz-will-worsen-human-jumbo-conflict/
• Japan to Start Releasing Fukushima Water into Sea in 2 Years; Fierce Opposition by Residents
– newsclick.in/japan-start-releasing-fukushima-water-sea-2-years-fierce-opposition-residents
• Nuclear Waste dumped in the Maritime Silk Road
‘The 2011 accident has had an impact on Japanese economy as about 15 states and regions including South Korea have imposed import bans on agricultural and marine products from Japan’
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/nuclear-waste-dumped-in-the-maritime-silk-road/
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C7. Industry (False definitions, anti-industrial sermons, rentier/entrepreneur, etc)
ee Industry notes the ignorance about industrialization (versus handicraft and manufacture), the dependence on importing foreign machinery, the need to make machines that make machines, build a producer culture. False definitions of industry, entrepreneur, etc, abound, and the need for a holistic political, economic and military strategy to overcome the domination by merchants and moneylenders.
• Govt. seeks deals with oil producing countries to secure long-term payment facilities
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/news/govt-seeks-deals-with-oil-producing-countries-439753.html
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-seeks-to-extend-payment-terms-for-oil-imports-80706/
• Special Representative of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa visits Oman
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/special-representative-of-prime-minister-mahinda-rajapaksa-visits-oman/
• Fuel shortage likely after New year: Bowser Owners’ Assn.
‘Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL) and the Petroleum Minister had advised… main responsibility should be taken by the CPSTL Chairman if any inconvenience is caused’
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Fuel-shortage-likely-after-New-year-Bowser-Owners-Assn/108-209862
• Litro Gas Lanka and Singer Sri Lanka renew strategic partnership
– island.lk/litro-gas-lanka-and-singer-sri-lanka-renew-strategic-partnership/
• In power business: oil lobbies, coal lobbies, religions & multimillion-dollar commissions
– island.lk/those-who-really-saved-country-from-a-power-crisis/
• Viper Networks Signs $150 Million JV Agreement with BIET Group to Launch Renewable Energy Power Generation Projects Using an Innovative Hybrid PV-Thermal Technology
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/14/viper-networks-signs-150-million-jv-agreement-with-biet-group-to-launch-renewable-energy-power-generation-projects-using-an-innovative-hybrid-pv-thermal-technology/
• Shipping pressures to continue
‘ Shippers will have to brace for continuous uncertainty, high ocean freight rates, space shortages, frequency delays and schedule disruptions throughout 2021’
– ft.lk/columns/Shipping-pressures-to-continue/4-716231
• Shots fired in Point Pedro to stop Sand mining Truck; 02 injured
– newsfirst.lk/2021/04/16/shots-fired-in-point-pedro-to-stop-pick-up-truck-02-injured/
• Sri Lanka to ban fabric imports
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/14/sri-lanka-to-ban-fabric-imports/
• Canisius Fernando elected new Ceylon National Chamber of Industries Chairman
‘He is the Chief Executive Officer of Aqua Packaging’
– island.lk/canisius-fernando-elected-new-cnci-chairman/
• Newly developed Sathosa Motors Service Complex to service all vehicle brands
– island.lk/newly-developed-sathosa-motors-service-complex-to-service-all-vehicle-brands/
• SA Welgama & Sons became synonymous with road freight
‘He owned and controlled over one hundred and fifty trucks and became a trusted agent of the colonial government, transporting goods to and from the Colombo harbour to the massive godowns built in anticipation of wartime food shortages.’
– island.lk/s-a-welgama-a-man-amongst-men/
• ‘80% of 152 Grama Niladari Divisions (GND) don’t have broadband coverage
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/business-times/trcsl-fixing-laws-for-equal-play-439340.html
• Virtusa sponsors first virtual IEEE Sri Lanka robotics workshop
– island.lk/virtusa-sponsors-first-virtual-ieee-sri-lanka-robotics-workshop/
• Pathfinder-Vivekananda discuss connectivity between Sri Lanka and India
– island.lk/pathfinder-vivekananda-discuss-connectivity-between-sri-lanka-and-india/
• Sri Lanka and India to kick off joint research in science and tech
– dailymirror.lk/business_247/Sri-Lanka-and-India-to-kick-off-joint-research-in-science-and-tech/395-209961
• English Ayurveda Medical Council established in England
– island.lk/british-ayurveda-medical-council-established-in-the-uk/
• INSEE: Sri Lanka’s leading cement producer
– economynext.com/brand_voice/reimagining-construction/
• Growth & decline of Muslims in maritime trade European intolerance & Muslim inability to keep pace with technology caused their downfall
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Growth-and-decline-of-Muslims-in-maritime-trade-European-intolerance-and-the-Muslims-inability-to-k/172-209905
• Precision measurement shakes world of science
– island.lk/precision-measurement-shakes-world-of-science/
• On December 7, 1961, Gagarin first to see Earth visited Sri Lanka
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Yuri-Gagarin-first-to-see-the-Earth-as-a-foreign-land/172-209804
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C8. Finance (Making money from money, banks, lack of investment in modernity)
ee Finance tracks the effects of financialization, the curious role of ratings agencies, false indices, etc., and the rule of moneylenders.
• MONLAR castigates govt. for not saving the poor from microfinance loan sharks
‘By the end of 2018, over 2.2 million Sri Lankans had taken microfinance loans amounting to Rs. 84.2 billion (Microfinance Practitioners Association)… an overwhelming number of individuals who had obtained micro credit loans were women.’
– island.lk/monlar-castigates-govt-for-not-saving-the-poor-from-microfinance-loan-sharks/
• Borrowing ceiling for finance companies increased to 20%: CBSL
– ft.lk/front-page/New-regulations-for-forex-borrowings-by-finance-companies-Central-Bank/44-716354
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-raises-finance-company-forex-borrowing-ceiling-80837/
• CBSL suspends business of Swarnamahal Financial services
– newsfirst.lk/2021/04/13/cbsl-suspends-business-of-swarnamahal-financial-services/
• Standard Chartered Bank SL ‘AAA(lka)’ rating confirmed: Fitch
– economynext.com/sri-lankas-standard-chartered-bank-aaalka-rating-confirmed-fitch-80677/
• Standard Chartered SL appoints new Head of Consumer, Private & Business Banking (CPBB)
‘Aroshana Fernando has worked at Alawwal Bank (former Saudi Hollandi / ABN Amro Bank), Samba Financial Group (former CITI Bank, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Standard Chartered Bank in Bahrain & Qatar, First Abu Dhabi Bank in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’
– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/standard-chartered-sri-lanka-appoints-aroshana-fernando-to-country-management-team/
• Sarvodaya Development Finance recognized as fastest growing development finance company
‘by England’s Global Banking and Finance Review Awards 2021’
– island.lk/sdf-recognized-as-fastest-growing-development-finance-company/
• Sorrowful state of the listing standards at the New York Stock Exchange
– wallstreetonparade.com/2021/04/scorpion-capital-calls-a-new-york-stock-exchange-listed-company-a-fraud/
• Bernie Madoff, Mastermind of the Largest Ponzi Scheme in History, Dies in Prison at Age 82
– wallstreetonparade.com/2021/04/bernie-madoff-mastermind-of-the-largest-ponzi-scheme-in-history-dies-in-prison-at-age-82/
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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, the domination by a merchant mafia, making money from unproductive land sales, tourism, insurance, advertising, etc. – the charade of press releases disguised as ‘news’
• Hemas is the leader in pharmaceutical distribution in Sri Lanka
– economynext.com/hemas-holdings-aaalka-rating-confirmed-by-fitch-80714/
• ‘The Suites’ and ‘The Offices’ a joint venture between Hyundai, Keangnam and Nawaloka
– island.lk/category/business/
• In 14 years over 1,500 transactions over $250 million for large-scale real estate developments
‘Acquest will be the trusted real estate partner’
– economynext.com/brand_voice/the-real-estate-expert/
• Institute of Chartered Accountants & University of Kelaniya strengthen accounting profession
– island.lk/ca-sri-lanka-university-of-kelaniya-mou-to-strengthen-accounting-profession/
• ‘Kingdom Sigiriya’ housing complex gets underway near prehistoric site
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/business-times/kingdom-sigiriya-housing-complex-gets-underway-amidst-public-concern-439331.html
• Dialog’s Genie partners MyDoctor for digital healthcare payment mechanism
– island.lk/elevating-the-digital-healthcare-payment-mechanism-in-sri-lanka/
• Using a LG Inverter Air Conditioner costs less than a cup of tea per night’s sleep
– ft.lk/business/Using-a-LG-Inverter-Air-Conditioner-costs-less-than-a-cup-of-tea-per-night-s-sleep/34-716307
• China fines Alibaba record $ 2.75 b for anti-monopoly violations
– ft.lk/it-telecom-tech/China-fines-Alibaba-record-2-75-b-for-anti-monopoly-violations/50-716242
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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.
• US Aid funded think tanks working overdrive to bring into power the son of a mass murderer
– ft.lk/columns/Is-Port-City-not-important/4-716223
• The whole country is in chaos: Karu Jayasuriya
– island.lk/karu-j-focuses-on-pressing-national-issues-at-nmsj-event/
• Sunday Times Lists Government Faults
– sundaytimes.lk/210411/business-times/avurudu-rantings-439327.html
• An Unwieldy Mix
‘Once you see in the coalition an unwieldy mix of corporate heavyweights and trade unions, of estate owners and estate workers, it’s easy to understand the contradictions that make up the government’s economic policies, both in the short run and the long.’
– island.lk/staying-alive-in-the-long-run/
• How confidence has been eroded
‘Tamara Kunanayagam understands the UN system backwards. Why Dinesh has not consulted her on how to cope with the next stage, which is the discussion in the General Assembly on the budget requested to destroy us, is beyond me. She has excellent relations with the Latin Americans… it may not be too late to use the intelligence and experience she possesses, while also working out guidelines on how to do better in Africa, which too we have woefully neglected’
– island.lk/how-confidence-has-been-eroded/
• The General Election Of 1956 Part 5E,F, 9D, 10D, 10F
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/11/the-general-election-of-1956-part-5e/
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/11/the-general-election-of-1956-part-5f/
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/13/the-general-election-of-1956-part-9d/
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/14/the-general-election-of-1956-part-10d/
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/15/the-general-election-of-1956-part-10f/
• Dialectics for a fast evolving scenario – David
‘I see developments in Sri Lanka moving fast with unforeseen changes and a regime that most of us last year considered strong and stable, now tottering.’
– island.lk/dialectics-for-a-fast-evolving-scenario/
• (Video) Sri Lankan Minister says President should become ‘Hitler’
– newsfirst.lk/2021/04/12/sri-lankan-minister-says-president-should-become-hitler/
• New twist in UNP national list saga
– economynext.com/new-twist-in-unp-national-list-saga-80804/
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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.
• Portuguese era – Dark Chapter in Sri Lanka’s History: Balachandran Misleads
‘‘Was Portuguese proselytization ruthless as portrayed?’ by Balachandran is inaccurate, misleading and contrary to well established historical facts.’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/14/portuguese-era-dark-chapter-in-sri-lankas-history/
• International Federation of Journalists demands release of arrested journalist Abeykoon
‘The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Sri Lankan affiliates, the Federation of Media Employees Trade Unions (FMETU) and the Free Media Movement (FMM)… He was arrested while covering a health workers’ protest rally organised by the United Health Workers Union (UHWU)’
– timesonline.lk/news-online/IFJ-demands-immediate-release-of-arrested-journalist-Malika-Abeykoon/2-1132967
• Govt grants relief to marketing communications industry with double tax deduction
‘to seek relief for the Rs. 151 billion marketing communications industry… providing direct employment to over 100,000 Sri Lankans.’
– island.lk/govt-grants-relief-to-covid-19-hit-marketing-communications-industry-with-double-tax-deduction/
• Was Chulalongkorn insulted at Sri Lanka’s Temple Of The Tooth in Kandy?
– vimeo.com/217919958
• Carcinogenic Kumar: Thanks, But No Thanks
‘Sangakkara has been a consistent endorser of cancer causing (carcinogenic) food and beverages over the decades. His most noted TV commercial “Brrr!” endorsing Coca Cola is the most notorious to date.’
– colombotelegraph.com/index.php/carcinogenic-kumar-thanks-but-no-thanks/
• Advice from down under on Investigative Journalism?
– island.lk/investigative-journalism/
• Minute on Indian Education by Thomas Babington Macaulay
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/04/12/minute-on-indian-education-by-thomas-babington-macaulay-february-2-1835-this-day-in-history/
• Murder of Daunte Wright Ruined Derek Chauvin Show Trial
– blackagendareport.com/murder-daunte-wright-ruined-derek-chauvin-show-trial
• Many organizations, institutions, and personalities claim to represent justice
‘Most are compensated to play charades that they are guardians of ordinary people as they contain our better instincts.’
– blackagendareport.com/spirit-self-emancipation-continues-rise-st-louis-city-justice-center
• Cool Soviet Moldova photos
– rferl.org/a/astonishing-photos-of-soviet-village-life-discovered-in-abandoned-house-in-moldova/30383072.html
• The USSR film director Eisenstein’s The General Line!
‘A communist interpretation of overflowing milk! Some say the Eisentein movie is ‘creepy’ (36:00-40:00). Yet Eisenstein, a gay man, had a propensity for sexual symbolism, in this case, linking the triumphal joy of industrialization in an utterly backward place to nothing less than ejaculation. Hollywood wouldn’t even dream of going there!
– archive.org/details/Eisenstein-TheGeneralLine
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• Please note our new email address: econenews@gmail.com,
and our blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com
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