Spin & Saturation, Investment & Industry

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

“Before you study the economics, study the economists!”

e-Con e-News 30 May – 05 June 2021

Spin & Saturation – Certain words and themes, images and ideas are banned by artists themselves, by poets and musicians and philosophers. Self-censorship is key. Public censorship is a blunt weapon. Multinationals, their import mafia, and their media use more precision laser tools of spin and saturation.

ee is the only news medium in this country to continuously discuss the primary need in any modern economy ‘to make machines that make machines’.

     ee was delighted to hear the President, therefore, advise ‘officials to study the machinery required to produce organic fertilizer and manufacture machines that could be built locally with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Army Engineer’s Corps at state-owned factories…’ (see ee Agriculture)

     Is ee ‘kaday-going for the Rajapakses’ as detractors insist? ee responds: We all live in a damn kaday. Who will this big kaday serve, and how?

     In this thay kaday, meme-makers deploy expensive imported gadgets, musicians buy fancy ‘heavy-metal’ guitars and strings to rock’n’roll. They mimic white boys who mimicking Black musicians.

     Instruments made for mere cents or nano-fractions of cents, by workers in other countries, are sold here at 10,000% markups. ee is happy even one politician has stated our need for machines to make machines! Professors saying this are even rarer. No artist we know does. ee recalls poets who were also printers and machine-makers; musicians who sought to make their own instruments (Random Notes).

• This making of machines to make machines requires a national conversation. Machine making is indispensable for a modern industrial economy. Likewise, we need to wrench the home market from the control of Exxon (fuel, fertilizer) and Unilever (consumer goods) and sundry machine importers: To enable rural investment in rural industry. The media, both public and private, is fully controlled by this private import mafia and will not permit such conversation or practice. Instead, the noise of white jazz, riffing on regime change!

     The President advising officials ‘to study’ the manufacture of machines does not necessarily mean they will do so. Many officials, from colonial times, have been covert agents for multinational importers linked to foreign banks. They will either prevent or subvert. This is why workers backed by the military must direct production and distribution.

     The import media will praise SMEs making cutlis, handicraft and assembly (manufacture, using expensive imports) They highlight isolated ‘inventions’ and exceptional machinery (which doesn’t skill the worker). They will claim using the latest Big Data and other digital genitalia. Yet neither we nor cultivators may never hear about any new machines, unhappily ever after. Unless…

• Pharma Mafia Blocks Vaccines – ‘The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed, my friends.’ This pearl of wisdom spit out of the mouth of England’s PM Boris Johnson. Such nonsense was echoed by an eminent University of Colombo economist in his weekly Wijeya Group Financial Times column: crediting private corporations for the vaccines. Last ee highlighted the huge amounts of public (state)-funded research that’s been hijacked by private companies. Now, despite liberal promises to share patents, etc., they will prevent rational access to medicines. It’s an old weapon of war (ee Random Notes).

• This ee Focus excerpts LP Rupasena’s essay on Developing the Agricultural Marketing Sector. We have some reservations: the main rural challenge is more than a matter of ‘marketing’. It has more to do with the ‘forces and relations of production’; how work is organized; how tools/machines are made and used. The technical changes usually recommended are only agronomic rather than mechanical: raising yields per acre with little change in labor productivity and in the cost per unit of output.

     Rupasena points to the samsara of each new government formulating policies while ignoring existing mechanisms. He more importantly highlights the need for a PLAN! The only ‘planning’ the whites have allowed here is ‘family planning – and that to reduce the population. Another important attempt by the essay is to compare other Asian and European practices in agriculture. Our economists and their economics departments see no need to dedicate curricula to study practices in East Asia (Japan, China, Korea – North & South!)

     Most industrial countries ‘hide their light’! They do not advertise (in fact, they downplay) the powerful roles of their governments in protecting national security, which is intimately connected to modern industry. Our economists then repeat their mist & fog about laissez-faire, repeating bull about private-public-partnerships. The private sector here has absolutely no interest in long-term modern industrial investment. They prefer making easy money through pimping workers abroad, real-estate speculation, drugs, and promoting white culture.

     Any surpluses are then siphoned abroad, through such banks as Citibank and Standard Chartered. Surpluses left here are frittered away in imported luxury goods.

• ee chanced upon a story this week. It reminded that June 2021 marks the 3^rd year since the passing of SBD de Silva, to whose work ee is dedicated: This news was about the Asian Development Bank (girrl! hate the word, ‘development’!).

     The ADB is selling US$5.5billion in dual global benchmark bonds (whatever such fictions are!). But, this: ‘The transaction was lead-managed by Barclays, Citi, JP Morgan, & TD Securities. A syndicate group was also formed consisting of CIBC, Daiwa, ING, & Scotiabank.’ So now why is it that an ‘Asian’ bank has to choose these white banks (including ‘honorary whites’ as well). Well, check out ee Focus on SB’s take on why such ‘novel’ ‘development’ banks (WB, ADB, including local banks like Commercial Bank, and finance institutions like Sarvodaya, Sanasa) have come about. Of course, it’s a story about preventing investment in machines making machines here, machines they keep selling us, while we supply them with raw materials.

• Inbuilt Obstruction – Then there’s this upcoming June 7 investor conference (see ee Focus for the actors) However, an important theme in ee is the ‘in-built and systemic obstacles to a qualitatively different utilization of economic surpluses’ in such non-settler colonies as ours.

     The investor conference includes several famous rogues. These Robber Barons have long been here. That’s their job. Our issue is what will they invest in:

     ‘There are 3 factors behind productivity growth: the amount of labour employed; the amount invested in machinery & technology; and the X-factor of the quality and innovatory skill of the workforce… This last factor is in secular decline.’ (ee Economists)

• At least one-third of production, and 80% of world trade is claimed by multinational corporations. It’s probably more. They do not need to own it all, to control it all. The US Stock Exchanges have more money than all the wealthiest economies, US, China, Japan, Germany, combined.

     Do Asian and African countries, let alone China and Russia, Vietnam and Cuba perpetuate the international division of labor by participating in world trade? In fact, socialist countries have been subject to continuous blockades, sanctions, and sieges. They have demanded and attempted to set up alternate international structures (from the Comintern, to Warsaw Pact, NAM, NIEO, NIIO, and BRI). Russia and China are supposed to be steadily weaning themselves away from dependence on their markets, including dollar markets. Is is the Made-in-China-2025 goal that whites are said to be afraid of? In China, this refers to the production of the most advanced machines making advanced machines. This should be our goal too.

Contents:

A1. Reader Comments –

• Salt Import Mafia • Overthrowing Governments over Import Bans • One Poor 2 Votes • Study Needs a Reference Point • ee Takes 2 hours • China Bio Warfare?

A2. Quotes of the Week

• Champika & Imperialist Wolves • Western Province Wastes • White Love • Macron Also Sorry about Past Only • Putin-Biden Summit Foreplay

A3. Random Notes –

• Politics Highest Art & Science • Spin & Saturation vs Censorship • Diego Garcia Redux in Yemen • Jack London & Biowarfare • Whites Won’t Share Vaccine • International Division of Labor Obstructs Investment

B. ee Focus    

B1. The Role of the Asian Development Bank and other Novelties – SBD de Silva

B2. Developing the Agricultural Marketing Sector – LP Rupasena

B3. Top Policymakers to Speak at SL Investment Forum 2021

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

• Salt Import Mafia – ‘Siyatha TV featured 2 owners of the main salt manufacturing plants in SL: Raigam Inc and Lanka Salt, discussing how the import mafia is attempting to use the Express Pearl incident to induce salt importation yet again by fearmongering toxic salt on the SL coastline. These are baseless lies used to discredit the president’s decision to stop all salt importation. We’re currently manufacturing salt sufficient for SL household and industrial usage. The discussion was interesting as it highlighted how import mafia functions via the BOI, etc. Worth watching if possible. See: dailynews.lk/2021/06/05/business/250912/no-shortage-salt’

• ‘A government that says it wants to stop chemical fertilizer use cannot be allowed to succeed. Or survive.’

• ‘If a poor person gets 2 votes, will they be lifted out of poverty sooner? What steps should we take to dismantle the multiparty system in Sri Lanka?’

• ‘Rather than looking around the world too much we need to focus on Sri Lanka and its needs first, and then look at the world through those needs… true study needs a reference point.’

• ‘It took at least 2 hours to read the whole ee. Very interesting, but better explain the socialist meaning of class.’

• ‘The “white socialist” novelist Jack London wrote a story in 1910: China is on the rise and the white countries respond by bombarding it with biological warfare.’ (see Random Notes)

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A2. Quotes of the Week_

• ‘In 2010 Champika Ranawaka called the UNP a pack of imperialist wolves: live, on TV. When was the last time Ranawaka called his opponents imperialists, let alone imperialist wolves? The JVP still indulges in such rhetoric, but not as frequently as it used to: the temptations of a middle-class and left-liberal crowd, the milieu it targets, woos, and flirts with now, have seemingly made them forget the class struggle, the fight against neoliberalism; this is the same “revolutionary” party, after all, that critiques the Communist Party of China for its “centralised single party administration”, yet sent, in 2017, a congratulatory missive to that party’s 19th National Congress, in which it acknowledged “the progress of the people” and hailed “Comrade Xi Jinping” for taking steps to establish a “moderately prosperous society in an all-round way”.’ – Uditha Devapriya (ee Politics, Options)

• Home Market! ‘The Western Province alone generates around 7,500 metric tons of solid waste every day, of which only 3,500mt are collected. Of this, close to 15% becomes compost, 10% is recycled, and 75% is thrown into open dumps.’ – Central Environmental Authority (CEA)

• ‘Our elite, besotted with the USA and England, instead had their eyes cast on the vaccines developed in those 2 countries. That is, despite the gory past of the western pharmaceutical companies as bloodsuckers and predators in their propensity to make fortunes out of human disease, the [Indian] government put all its eggs in the Anglo-American basket. This mishap is emblematic of our elite’s sickening pro-western mindset.’ (ee Sovereignty, Westernism)

• ‘Colonialism is not an accident. It was the inevitable outcome of the emergence of Capitalism which pushed the large-scale industries to seek more and more raw materials and markets.’ – French President Emmanuel Macron, May 27, asked Rwandans to forgive France for its role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, while still waging wars in Asia and Africa.

• Putin-Biden Summit Foreplay? ‘Nasty events pointing to Russian malfeasance reliably occur in the US media prior to those occasions when decisions must be made as to the nature of US policy toward Russia. This is especially so when there is even a hint that bilateral relations might stand even a minimal chance of improving.’ (see ee Sovereignty, Switzerland)

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A3. Random Notes (‘Seeing Number in Chaos’)_

Many musicians and meme-makers blame politicians for taking a percentage from the markup of selling imported goods. These artists and meme-makers themselves work for a percentage off those percentages. They will name and blame politicians but not the banks or corporations behind them.

     Artists directly and indirectly are also part of a capitalist system that daily steals the surplus of people who have to work every day to live. The arts, media, advertising and tax-evasion business are intimately interlaced. In Sri Lanka, they’re part of the import mafia, who also run artists and politicians. Politicians are also artists. They may be the real superstars. Politics is also the highest science – the science of organizing people to a common goal, as puppets of capitalism, or for a better world.

     There’s a growling symphony blaring several rackets at the same time, rising like sirens about our ears, what may be labeled white jazz. The falsetto attacks on the Rajapakses and politicians in general (while CEOs are unnamed). A screeching, powered and disguised by a steady unrelenting thudding against import bans, for paying off white debts. Then comes their insistence on who our international friends should be. This involves another screeching against China and lesser ‘axes of evil’, who act as straw bodies like Zimbabwe of Mugabe, North Korea of Kim, China of Mao, USSR of Stalin – a pantheon or a pandemonium, depending on one’s plumbing of the world and of history.

• One reason ee arduously compiles the hourly detritus of the English capitalist media is to reveal its overall game, which is boringly the same, even as it appears ‘new’.

     Notice how identical news items are repeated in every newspaper. Sometimes with the same spelling mistakes. They can be guaranteed to be ‘paid ads’ parading as news. Paid by multinationals and their agencies, certain state ministers and officials to divert from what they are really doing or should be doing.

     Take the spluttering prognostications of the SL Agricultural Economics Association, who appear rudely awoken from a Rip-Van-Winkle dozing, with pidhuru in their jaws. Yet they have impressive (well, a dull-green-hued!) letterhead, comprising all the agricultural professors, etc., who bejewel its board. Their statements mouth all that capitalist ‘sustainability’ business – they love organic – but let’s get real. Their concerns about the fertilizer ban are preached religiously over and over again in all the English rags, from the Wijeya to Upali Groups to the Maharajah’s ventriloquist dummies. ee has been warned, however: never insult those who have more ink than you. And don’t be surprised if a few plagues suddenly attack harvests!

     Media-promoted economists are all of a sudden concerned for day workers losing out by lockdowns! Who atomized the working class to prevent united workers’ movement, and then declare them dead? Yet media attacks on trade unions (unless funded their international organs) continue. Whether it be port workers or railway workers or the GMOA. They all want their pound of ‘flexibility’ to remove any hint of organized worker power.

• Diego Garcia Redux in Yemen – Against Yemen’s wishes, Israel, the UAE and the US are imposing bases on Perim island and Socottra. Bab el Mandab and both islands belong to Yemen. Yemen states there’s NO treaty agreeing to this. ‘Bab El Mandeb’ means: Strait of Tears

• China is on the rise, so the white countries respond by bombarding it with biological warfare: Such is the 1910 plot in ‘white socialist’ novelist Jack London’s The Unparalleled Invasion. London added: ‘It must be taken into consideration that the above postulate is itself a product of Western race-egotism, urged by our belief in our own righteousness and fostered by a faith in ourselves which may be as erroneous as are most fond race fancies.’

     The use of biowarfare is key to the white genocides in the Americas and the Pacific, as in New York against the Haudenosaunee, and in Detroit against the Odawa. In Sri Lanka, the use of such warfare by Euro invaders is also documented. Most insightful is the malaria exacerbated midst the colonial destruction of agriculture and waterways under the English, as documented in Ananda Meegama’s Famine, Fevers & Fear: The State & Disease in British Colonial Sri ankaL.

     The tale of how the whites have erased records of their widespread use of germ and chemical warfare is recorded in The US & Biological Warfare: Secrets from the Early Cold War & Korea by Stephen Endicott.

• Hear ye then also the orgasmic praise for US President’s ‘liberal’ promises to look into sharing vaccine research, which includes the work of brain-drained Asian and African scientists. Yet white countries will never agree to a waiver of intellectual property rights over vaccines. Their adamant refusal is even forcing ‘naïve’ (?) white-Black rulers in India to take ‘India’s vaccine strategy out of the Anglo-American basket’ and turn to Russia.

     More information is, however, leaking out, about so-called medical bodies (funded by pharmaceutical importers!) preventing the rest of the world gaining early access to Chinese and Russian vaccines. There’s also no media on how these pharma importers prevented local research and production of medicines in Sri Lanka, a story linked to the murder of Senaka Bibile, formulator of a national pharmaceutical policy.

     Meanwhile, IMF, World Bank, WTO & WHO leaders have chosen to ignore the huge vaccine profiteering. They have instead, issued a joint statement calling for ‘$50billion in new investment’. They were cued by the ‘economic analysis’ of ‘the International Chamber of Commerce and the Eurasia Group’.

     The IMF etc wish to ‘to increase manufacturing capacity, supply, trade flows, and delivery, which would accelerate the equitable distribution of diagnostics, oxygen, treatments, medical supplies and vaccines. This injection would also give a major boost to economic growth around the world.’ Shush! The story does not say who will invest and who will profit, who must die and how many live.

     Instead, they inject their own ‘free trade’ doctrine: ‘Cooperation on trade is also needed to ensure free cross-border flows.’ This statement was issued before ‘a round of G7 meetings were set to start, beginning with a Finance Ministers convening later this week, and following a Global Health Summit co-hosted by the EU and Italy, which chairs the G20.’

     Here are some stories on Big Pharma’s reliance on state-funded research:

• TRIPS Waiver & Libertarian Brain Rot: ‘A libertarian Financial Post article opposes TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver for Covid vaccines, hiding the public research origin of the vaccines, and dissects Biden’s puzzling tentative support for a patent waiver.’

– socialistproject.ca/podcast/trips-waiver-libertarian-brain-rot/

• For Billion$ Covid Vaccines, Basic State-funded Science Laid the Groundwork

– scientificamerican.com/article/for-billion-dollar-covid-vaccines-basic-government-funded-science-laid-the-groundwork/

• ‘Redemption’: How a scientist’s unwavering belief in mRNA gave the world a Covid vaccine

‘A decade later, when at the University of Pennsylvania, Prof Karikó was again demoted when her focus on mRNA failed to attract financial backing.’

– telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/redemption-one-scientists-unwavering-belief-mrna-gave-world/

• In the nonsettler colonies, investment and trade flows were restricted to the attached metropolitan bases (London, NY, Bonn), with the division of labor based on an agriculture-industry dichotomy…

     In the nonsettler colonies, state intervention was aimed far more at obtaining captive markets for the metropolitan economy by developing a division of labor in which these colonies were relegated to the position of primary product suppliers.

     The division of labor and the improvement in skills were minimal. The ‘specialization’ of the plantation system meant virtually monoculture, or the absence of diversification – the production of one or a few crops instead of many.

     They encouraged a world division of labor, where technological improvements were concentrated at the manufacturing end, where most raw materials imported was a small percentage in the cost of final goods.

     Some economists sought to explain underdevelopment through ‘drain (& dependency) theory’ and surplus transfer models based on financial and commercial relations, obscuring the forces which underlie the modes of production in the centre and the periphery.

     The conditions of production, including the structure of internal class relations which support the world division of labor, are left ‘in splendid inviolability’ and likewise the in-built and systemic obstacles to a qualitatively different utilization of economic surpluses.

     Excluding the prevailing class structure and the factors both external and internal influencing the transformation of that structure, the historical basis of the surplus transfer models cannot explain the crucial changes in the already developed economies (Europe & settler colonies) or in those in which a forward movement is tending to occur. Surplus transfer models, and dependency, appeal to liberal developmentalists who wish to de-emphasize class relations as a transformative factor. (adapted from SBD de Silva, PEU)

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B. Special Focus_

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B1. The Role of the ADB & Other Novelties – SBD de Silva

“The competition among national capitals till WW2 reflected the prevailing level of productive forces, which required the concentration of capital on a world scale but its centralization only within national limits. (Concentration is an increase in capital outlays by the individual enterprise, and centralization is the fusion or common control and ownership of separate entrepreneurial units.)

     The extent of concentration of capital was itself limited by 2 factors. One was the different spheres of influence which defined the circuit for the capital of each metropolitan power, and the other was the low organic composition of investments in the periphery. Recently, however, concentration as well as centralization has become international in scope. New industries in the centre (aerospace, electronics & data processing, scientific instruments, the upstream products of the petrochemicals, etc) and, in the periphery, capital absorptive projects in mining and of an infrastructure type have caused a phenomenal enlargement in the unit of investment. Competition between national capitals is superseded by that between multinational conglomerates.

     In this process of concentration and centralization of capital, a novel element is the role played by institutionalized funding agencies, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, and by consortia of private firms. These agencies & consortia act as promoters mobilizing capital in areas and at levels where individual MNCs cannot operate. The investors are not mere conglomerates but a conglomerate of conglomerates. This is not to be understood to mean that the MNCs keep aloof or have no undercover role to play in the functioning of these agencies. The agencies and consortia provide a security blanket for private capital from various countries. They negotiate with a host country for an investment package which combines finance, technology, capital equipment and managerial services. The safety of the investment is further ensured through the involvement of the governments in the periphery. Investment is in infrastructure projects and, to a lesser extent, in state industrial enterprises producing capital goods. The investment results in large sales of equipment & machinery and opens up secondary opportunities for agribusiness and for engineering firms. The predominance of loan capital, unlike earlier flows of private capital in the form of equity, results in a periodic repatriation of the invested capital irrespective of the financial viability of the projects. The inefficiency and extravagance of the bureaucracies in the periphery and the vast opportunities for corruption cause the capital costs of these projects to escalate sharply. Such investments, nevertheless, have a pump-priming effect on the economies of the centre, helping to ward off stagflation in the centre, besides conferring direct financial gain on the investors.

     The multilateralization of capital is a process that was first manifest in Western Europe after WW2. The leading European nations, and ‘even the most nationalist of national capitals’ could not on their own exploit the potential of certain branches of production, some of which were strategically important like aerospace, computers, nuclear energy. The supersonic concord built by England and France was an outstanding case of centralized planning and control in these years although it is now regarded as a commercial fiasco. A fusion of the capital, technology and management skills requirements of different nations, sometimes under state sponsorship, was encouraged by the need to stand up to US economic hegemony. Unable to catch up with the USA’s extraordinary technological lead in the most advanced branches of industry, West European firms began absorbing US capital. ‘When a French or Italian firm gets into trouble it usually turns for help to an US firm rather than to another European power’. The transfusion of technology via US capital spared Europe the heavy research costs already incurred by the USA.

     In the periphery, multilateralization of capital occurred both at government level, through ‘aid clubs’ and consortia, and in direct investments….

(SBD de Silva, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment)

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B2. Developing the Agricultural Marketing Sector (Excerpts) – LP Rupasena

The government has given the highest priority to develop the SL agricultural sector in their Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour election manifesto… The following excerpts are from the author’s recommendations…

Agricultural policy formulation – Sri Lanka has several policy documents mostly duplicated one into another due to formulation of a new policy without reviewing the existing policy. There were cases where new policy documents were prepared when the Minister changed even in the same government. The mistake has been identified by the present government and planning to prepare a stable policy document after an indepth analysis of the existing policies (Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour, 2019). It is also very rare to prepare a functional plan to implement the strategies given in the policy documents. There were few functional plans but no monitoring. It is a fact that no plan and no monitoring means no progress. Regional experience shows countries with good planning and monitoring systems. India is now implementing the 13th economic development plan, while Malaysia is in their 12th economic plan after independence. In other countries, the planning process starts well in advance and all the stakeholders are involved in planning. Moreover, annual monitoring takes place and progress reports are submitted to the parliament annually. A new plan is prepared every 5 years. The National Planning Department (NPD) is responsible for preparing and monitoring of economic plans that includes agriculture. There should be a functional plan explaining activities, responsible agencies and timeframe to realise the plan. Similarly, there should be a sound monitoring system. Either the NPD or the proposed Planning and Implementation Commission should directly come under the President, as envisaged in Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour. It can be a responsible agency for planning, implementing and monitoring of agricultural marketing policies.

     Market-led production planning – Although the need of commercialisation of agriculture was proposed in several policy documents, the achievements are unsatisfactory. In this regard… farmers [should become] agro-entrepreneurs, to suit the competitive economic environment. Similarly, the production-oriented extension system should be transferred to the market-oriented extension system. Extension services should be able to guide what to grow, when to grow, how to grow, when to sell, how to sell and at what price.

     The marketing-pull approach is innovative, as against marketing-push approach that implies producing a product and then pushing it to the consumer. For the marketing-pull approach, there should be a market-led production plan monitored by Agrarian Service Centres (ASCs). ASCs should be upgraded as business development centres. Agricultural graduates should be absorbed to the extension service, and responsibility should be given to them to develop agriculture in the designated area. Monthly requirement of production of each commodity can be estimated by taking data on per capita consumption and population from the Department of Census and Statistics. Monthly extent required to produce the quantity can be computed with average yield of each crop. Having identified the required extent it can be allocated for each ASC, considering agronomic factors such as soil and climate. ASCs should monitor the production plan and report to divisional agricultural committees chaired by the Divisional Secretary, who’s responsible to report to the District Secretary. From there, information should be passed to either the NPD or proposed commission at national level. Under this process it does not need to wait to take action until the media raises the marketing problems.

     Agricultural value chain upgrading – The current agricultural value chain is long and fragmented and has no transparency. Traders hide their margins. Every player in the chain must know others transactions. A well-functioning value chain requires business trust and collaboration of each player in the chain. The proposed mechanism to rectify this situation is a public-private partnership (PPP). Although it has been popular now and implemented in Sri Lanka, recently the German Development Institute (GDI) suggested the PPP approach for effective agribusiness in SL in 2006. Although the PPP approach is being implemented in Sri Lanka its success is doubtful mainly due to the absence of a transparent information flow. Hence it is proposed to implement a transparent information flow on quantity, quality and price to establish business trust among players especially farmers. There should be effective and efficient agro value chains to reduce cost, to produce value-added products, convenient products and exportable products.

     Sustainable farmer collective action (formal) – Although farmer organisations have been implemented since the 1980s in different forms such as farmer producer groups, farmer cooperatives and farmer companies, mainly through donor assistance, and involved in different agencies such as Department of Agriculture, Dept of Irrigation, Dept of Agrarian Development, Dept of Cooperatives and Mahaweli Development Authority, their sustainability is questionable. Collective farmer actions either formal or informal are needed to solve marketing problems faced by farmers and increase their livelihoods. Success stories especially in Central America and Mexico show the need for government support continually, because there’s a long time lag (7 years in some cases) to self-sustain farmer organisations. Also the experience in Japan and Korea pointed to the need of vertical integration for effective farmer organisations. Success stories of producer companies established since 2002, by amending the Companies Act 1956 in India, reveal that commitment of both members and staff is the major success factor followed by participation, communication and managerial skills. Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium, established in 1994 by the Ministry of Agriculture, acts as facilitating agency for formulating producer companies and farmer producer groups in India. Considering all these aspects, it is proposed to provide full authority to the Department of Agrarian Development to create, develop and sustain farmer organisations because it has a network required for this task and legal authority. It is necessary to establish a farmer-driven value chain that is capable to compete with existing buyer-driven value chains. Poor leadership, lack of entrepreneurship skills and political influence have been identified as the poor performance of farmer organisations in Sri Lanka, and corrective actions have been already made to train farmer organisations on entrepreneurship. Evidence shows that training is inadequate and continuous government support is required to sustain farmer organisations.

     Sustainable farmer collective action (informal) – In addition to formal collective actions, informal collective actions should be promoted because they are more successful in Sri Lanka and Central America. The lead farmer-business model implemented by supermarkets in Central America is successful due to low cost to the supermarket. In this model, supermarkets have links with lead farmers who are responsible to provide required quantity with assured quality. The lead farmer has a network with other farmers…

     Government procurement system – Although open economic policies are dominant today, all the countries in the region have state organisations such as National Food Authority in the Philippines, BULOCK in Indonesia, FAMA in Malaysia and NAFED in India, involved in agricultural marketing. In Sri Lanka, Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) exists for purchasing of farm products. All these organisations were established during the closed economic period and continue up to now even at a loss. It has been proven that the private sector is not operating agricultural marketing systems effectively, mainly due to lack of interest and high cost. It is also argued that existence of government organisations have a big impact on agricultural marketing because it gives a signal of ‘government readiness’ to the private businessmen. Nevertheless, the sustainable procurement system (SPS) is being practiced in many countries in order to minimise their adverse impact on the Treasury on one hand and to improve food security, employment and livelihoods on the other hand. Denmark and Sweden introduced the green procurement system to promote green products. African countries such as Malawi and Ethiopia provide school feeding programs through government procurement. A public distribution system in India links with public procurement. Thailand has a system of providing requirements to government institutes such as hospitals and security forces through government procurement. Similarly, the government procurement system is now operating in collaboration with small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Based on these success stories the government procurement system in Sri Lanka should be revised to maintain SPS. Farmer organisations can operate as collecting centres of the PMB, and medium and small mills can process paddy into rice. PMB can distribute rice to the government agencies at a price on par with the open market. It is also necessary to revise the PMB regulations to enable it to procure other products especially organic products. PMB can be renamed as Food Marketing Authority (FMA).

     ….  Digitalisation of economic centres – Most agricultural products are distributed through economic centres. Operational efficiency of economic centres which is the key in the modern marketing can be improved by introducing an electronic marketing system similar to India. In India, farmer’s products are weighted electronically, auction is held online and products are transported by the organised transporters. All regulated agricultural markets in India have online wholesale business.

     Transportation of agro-products through railway – Value-chain analysis shows high transport cost in agricultural product distribution. This can be reduced through rail transport which is in operation successfully in India. Transport cost was able to reduce by one-third with rail transport in India. In Sri Lanka flower and vegetable transportation takes place on an individual basis on a small-scale using railway. Transport of agricultural commodities through railway is one of the proposals given in Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour as well. As a pilot, this can be implemented from Jaffna to Colombo.

     Formula for guaranteed prices – Decline in agricultural commodity prices during harvest time is a critical issue in both developed and developing countries. Introduction of a guaranteed price is one mechanism applied in many countries including Sri Lanka. However, setting a guaranteed price is on an ad hoc basis in Sri Lanka. There is no price formula and no specific time period for announcing it. It is proposed to adopt a formula that is cash cost plus added input cost to family labour and 50% profit, which is similar to India.

     (The writer is a Senior Lecturer, Dept of Agricultural Systems, Faculty of Agriculture, Rajarata University) – lrupasena@gmail.com

     – sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/developing-the-agricultural-marketing-sector-445254.html

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B3. Top Policymakers to Speak at SL Investment Forum 2021

The Board of Investment (BOI), the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Colombo Stock Exchange, all set to unveil the first ever virtual platform in Sri Lanka to attract foreign investments and Asia’s first and largest Virtual Investor Forum, 7-9 June 2021…for understanding FDI and Capital Market opportunities in Sri Lanka…

     Perspectives on policy and government will be addressed by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President of SL, Mahinda Rajapaksa, PM. Also by Ali Sabry, Minister of Justice, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, State Minister of Money & Capital Market and State Enterprise Reforms, and Nalaka Godahewa, State Minister of Urban Development, Coast Conservation, Waste Disposal & Community Cleanliness.

     Day 1 keynote speeches from Dr PB Jayasundara, Secretary to the President who will deliver a keynote address on the National Policy Framework. Prof WD Lakshman- Governor, Central Bank of SL, and Sajith Attygalle – Secretary to Treasury will be part of a panel discussion on Charting SL’s Economic Trajectory. Viraj Dayaratne Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission, Sanjaya Mohottala, Chairman BOI and Dumith Fernando, Chairman, CSE, will also deliver keynotes during the Day 1 plenary sessions.

     Day 2 speeches from Lalith Weeratunga Principal Advisor to the President, Suresh de Mel – Chairman EDB, Janaka Ratnayake – Chairman, Public Utilities Commission of SL, Pasan Wanigasekara Director General, BOI, Ms Kimarli Fernando, Chairperson SLTourism Development Authority, and Oshadha Senanayake, Director General, Telecommunications Regulatory Commission. Ms JM Bhadranie Jayawardhana – Secretary, Ministry of Trade, and Ananda Dharmapriya – Director General, Dept of Commerce will join a Deep Dive forum on Trade; while Mrs Geethanjali Ranawaka – ‎Director General · ‎National Intellectual Property Office will participate in focusing on the Intellectual Property Framework.

     Day 3 keynotes addresses by Lalith Gamage, Chairman, ICTA and Dr (Mrs) AAIN Wickramasinghe, Director, Dept of Foreign Exchange, Central Bank. Yvette Fernando – Deputy Governor, Central Bank, and Mr. Jayantha Fernando – Director/Legal Advisor, ICTA, will be part of sessions focusing on the Banking Sector and Cyber & Data Protection Frameworks, respectively (see, invest-srilanka.lk).

     SLIF 2021 partners & sponsors are: The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (Knowledge Partner), Boston Consulting Group (Strategic Partner), Port City SL (Flagship Project Partner), Microsoft (Technology Partner), HSBC (Banking Partner), Asia Securities (Platinum Sponsor), Shangri-La (Hospitability Partner), SLASSCOM (IT-BPM Sector Partner), FairFirst Insurance (Insurance Partner), Dialog (Communication partner), Citibank (Gold Sponsor), CAL (Gold Sponsor), NSB Fund Management (Silver Sponsor), CT CLSA (Silver Sponsor), NDBIB (Silver Sponsor), Melstacorp (Bronze Sponsor), Softlogic Stockbrokers (Bronze Sponsor).

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/top-policymakers-to-speak-at-sri-lanka-investment-forum-2021/

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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.

• President appoints three young private sector leaders to Port City Economic Commission

‘Chaired by Gamini Marapana PC and includes Orel Corporation Chairman and Managing Director Kushan Kodituwakku, he also sits on the board of the ICT Agency; McLarens Group Group Chairman and Managing Director Rohan de Silva; and Mercantile Investment and Finance Managing Director and Tangerine Group of Hotels Director Gerard Ondaatjie. Former Chairman of the Board of Investment and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority Saliya Wickramasuriya has also been appointed. Treasury Secretary S R. Attygalle and Water Supply Ministry Secretary Dr. Priyath Bandu Wickrama are the other two members of the Commission.’

– ft.lk/front-page/President-appoints-three-young-private-sector-leaders-to-Port-City-Commission/44-718640

• Erasing the Eelam Victory Part 20A & B

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/06/02/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-20a/

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/06/04/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-20-b/

• Will US help create Tamil Eelam Homeland in Tamil Nadu & will India allow it?

 – lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/06/02/will-us-help-create-tamil-eelam-homeland-in-tamil-nadu-will-india-allow-it/

• Tamil Nadu police on ‘high alert’ after SL passes law on China-backed Colombo Port City

– thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/tn-police-on-high-alert-after-sri-lanka-passes-law-on-china-backed-colombo-port-city/article34684689.ece

– island.lk/president-appoints-members-of-port-city-commission-tn-police-placed-on-high-alert-fearing-disturbances/

• Twin fears for India over the Colombo Port City

‘President Gotabaya’s reiteration of security commitments to India has to be seen in the context of the tri-lateral meeting of the National Security Advisors (NSA), including Maldives, in December last year, when they broad-based and upgraded the moribund ‘Maritime Security Agreement’ to ‘Maritime and Security Agreement’, with Colombo as the seat of its secretariat.’

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/05/31/twin-fears-for-india-over-the-colombo-port-city/

• Chagie picks holes in controversial US resolution

– island.lk/chagie-picks-holes-in-controversial-us-resolution/

• US urged not to proceed with resolution based on unverified ‘desk-reviewed’ info, etc.

– island.lk/us-urged-not-to-proceed-with-resolution-based-on-unverified-desk-reviewed-info-etc/

– ft.lk/front-page/Sri-Lanka-calls-on-US-House-Foreign-Affairs-Committee-not-to-proceed-with-Resolution/44-718881

• Sri Lanka – USA Action Coalition Memo Sent to US Senate Foreign Relations Committee & House Foreign Affairs Committee

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/06/01/this-communication-was-sent-to-the-house-and-senate-members-by-the-sri-lankan-american-action-coalition-on-may-27-2021/

• Pathfinder Foundation & Asia Society Policy Institute 2021 Report on Sri Lanka US Bilateral Relations Handed Over President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

‘The Sri Lankan delegation was headed by Bernard Goonetilleke, Chairman-Pathfinder Foundation and former Ambassador to the U.S. Other members included H.M.G.S. Palihakkara – Former Foreign Secretary, Ambassador & Permanent Representative to the U.N; Dr. Rohan Perera – Former Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & PRUN, New York; Prof. Rohan Gunaratne – S. Rajaratnam School of Int. Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Prof. Rohan Samarajiva – Chair, LIRNEasia & former Chairman of ICT; Dr. Indirajit Coomaraswamy – Former Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Distinguished Fellow – PF; Waruna Karunatilake – Former Chairman, Independent Committee for Digitalization of Television in Sri Lanka and Senior journalist; and Chathuka Senanayake, Director, Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies… Amb. Robert O. Blake Jr., former Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs under the Obama Administration and Ambassador to Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia, headed the US delegation comprising former senior government officials, representatives of civil society etc. The U.S. team included Alyssa Ayres – Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia, Council on Foreign Relations, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia; Nisha Biswal – President, U.S. India Business Council, Senior Vice President for South Asia, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, former Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia; Sajit Gandhi – Senior Professional Staff Member, House Committee on Foreign Affairs; Nilanthi Samaranayake – Director, Strategy and Policy Analysis, Center for Naval Analysis; John Sifton – Asia Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch; Knox Thames – Visiting Expert, US Institute of Peace, Senior Fellow, Institute for Global Engagement and Alice Wells – International Government Relations Adviser, ExxonMobil, former Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia.

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/06/02/pathfinder-foundation-asia-society-policy-institute-report-on-sri-lanka-us-bilateral-relations-handed-over-president-gotabaya-rajapaksa/

• England HC raises Geneva with Prez

‘English High Commissioner Sarah Hulton has asked how Sri Lanka and them could work together in respect of the Geneva resolution.’

– island.lk/uk-hc-raises-geneva-with-prez/

• Lankan High Commissioner’s meeting with England’s Speaker covers range of subjects

‘SL enjoys high human development indices, thanks to its free health and free education systems modelled on those of England. Lindsay noted close cooperation between SL and England on oceans and plastics.’

– island.lk/lankan-high-commissioners-meeting-with-british-speaker-covers-range-of-subjects/

• Sooka questions appointment of former IGP to OMP

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Sooka-questions-appointment-of-former-IGP-to-OMP/108-213281

• June 2 1987 Aranthalawa bikku massacre.

– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Recalling-brutalities-of-the-war-is-harmful-EDITORIAL/172-213383

• Are X’Press Pearl and Oil tanker accidents or manipulated conspiracies by the LTTE Diaspora or ISIS to destroy this country?

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/06/01/are-the-tragedies-of-xpress-pearl-and-oil-tanker-fires-accidents-or-manipulated-conspiracies-by-the-ltt-e-diaspora-or-isis-to-destroy-this-country/

• Who, me, Sinophobic? – Or: Baiting China

‘Port City, Xpress Pearl, vaccine rollout fiascos, and “Chinese colonialism” are making the rounds these days, and the Opposition’s milking mileage from them, taking the government to task and grilling MPs and officials over every little policy detour.’

– gammiris.lk/who-me-sinophobic-or-baiting-china/

• United Front formed: Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Inc

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/06/03/joint-statement-we-are-stronger-together-please-help/

• India & SL Discuss Strategies to Strengthen Indo-Sri Lanka Cooperation with South Africa

‘Indians migrated to South Africa as well as to Sri Lanka have formed a part of political, social and economic force in those countries today, as special interest groups… Indian origin population accounts for 3% of the South Africa’s population and about 80% of them live in KwaZulu Natal province and they are well represented in governance, business, media legal and other professions.’

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/envoys-of-india-and-sri-lanka-meets-to-discuss-strategies-for-strengthening-indo-sri-lanka-co-corporation-with-south-africa/

• India’s ‘westernism’ is its undoing in vaccine strategy

– indianpunchline.com/indias-westernism-is-its-undoing-in-vaccine-strategy/

• Switzerland Cancels Putin-Biden Summit – Not really

‘ Russia plans to fully abandon the US greenback in the structure of the National Wealth Fund (NWF) and reduce the share of the British pound within a month… 90% of ATMs in Russia are ready to accept the Mir payment system, a domestic version of Visa and MasterCard…. Switzerland will not accept certificates on COVID-19 vaccination with Sputnik V for the media accreditation at the upcoming Russia-US summit in Geneva…’

– moonofalabama.org/2021/06/switzerland-cancels-putin-biden-summit.html

• US Joint Chiefs aimed nuclear strikes against highly-populated areas in China

– thegrayzone.com/2021/05/27/eisenhower-military-chiefs-nuclear-war-china-classified-taiwan-strait/

• Covid-19 is far more likely to have originated naturally

– blackagendareport.com/index.php/return-lab-leak-conspiracy-shows-biden-democrat-trumpian-characteristics-china

• Truth and Justice Are the Ultimate Test, Not International NGOs

‘Human Rights Watch depends on its wealthy Jewish donor base’

– blackagendareport.com/norman-finkelstein-truth-and-justice-are-ultimate-test-not-international-ngos-0

• Africa insisting on two permanent seats with vetoes deemed a virtual non-starter.

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/sunday-times-2/the-un-where-diplomacy-is-97-alcohol-and-2-protocol-445611.html

• OK to deport the entire population of the Chagos Islands to make way for a military base

– craigmurray.org.uk/

• England Overseas Operations Bill grants impunity to Soldiers overseas for torture and war

– ft.lk/opinion/International-intervention-Mere-words-or-political-tool/14-718779

• Genocide of Children: Hide your head in shame Canada

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/06/02/genocide-of-children-hide-your-head-in-shame-canada/

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/06/03/gravitas-canadas-cultural-genocide-unearthed/

• Before Tulsa there was Bethesda, Washington DC: State Sponsored Racial Terror

– blackagendareport.com/tulsa-there-was-bethesda-cover-maafa-genocide-and-continuation-state-sponsored-racial-terror

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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.

• Rohan Masakorala, Shippers’ Academy, on the Burning Ship

– youtube.com/watch?v=MOicAlVPy1I

• Claiming compensation for X-Press Pearl inferno : Can the existing legal framework do justice?

– dailymirror.lk/news-features/Claiming-compensation-for-X-Press-Pearl-inferno-Can-the-existing-legal-framework-do-justice/131-213292

– island.lk/place-of-refuge-the-international-debate/

• Sri Lanka to sue Singapore ship owners over marine pollution

‘X-Press Feeders is covered for protection and indemnity insurance (P &I) by London Club P & I.’

– economynext.com/sri-lanka-says-x-press-pearl-insurers-have-agreed-to-interim-compensation-82681/

 – ft.lk/news/Sri-Lanka-to-sue-Singapore-ship-owners-over-marine-pollution/56-718584

• CEO of vessel operator apologises for impact of sunken ship off Sri Lanka coast

 ‘vessel operator X-press Feeders’ CEO Shmuel Yoskovitz said his company has enlisted environmental experts, such as the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation’

– dailymirror.lk/top_story/CEO-of-vessel-operator-apologises-for-impact-of-sunken-ship-off-Sri-Lanka-coast/155-213425

• Salvage operations led by Dutch Company SMIT’s specialist firefighting tugs

‘Four Indian vessels have joined Sri Lanka’s navy in the battle to contain the fire… Representatives from the International Tankers Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) and Oil Spill Response (OSR) were onshore monitoring the MV X-Press Pearl, X-Press Feeders said.’

– island.lk/sri-lanka-battles-waves-of-plastic-waste-from-burning-ship/

– island.lk/an-assurance-on-china-backed-port-city-project-as-indian-assets-fought-fire-on-x-press-pearl/

– economynext.com/salvors-board-x-press-pearl-off-sri-lanka-after-putting-out-fire-82594/

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/President-seeks-UKs-technical-assistance-to-study-evaluate-damage/108-213447

– island.lk/x-press-pearl-disaster-lanka-seeks-chinese-help-to-evaluate-pollution/

– ft.lk/front-page/International-experts-deployed-for-Sri-Lanka-oil-spill/44-718887

• Air Force deploys Bell 212 helicopter to monitor sinking ship

– newsfirst.lk/2021/06/02/video-air-force-deploys-helicopters-to-monitor-sinking-ship/

• Sri Lanka to fix transponders to monitor 4,200 ocean going boats

‘using a grant from Australia, which has been trying to stop boat people from migrating informally….In 2015 Sri Lanka had fixed transponders in 1,250 tuna boats under Indian Ocean Tuna Commission rules…Sri Lanka began a satellite based vessel monitoring system shortly after a the European Union slapped a fish import ban.’

– economynext.com/sri-lanka-to-fix-transponders-to-monitor-4200-ocean-going-boats-82588/

• 3 Foreign disaster management officers board burnt vessel for first time

‘sent by the owners of the Singapore-flagged stricken container ship… Captain of the vessel was interrogated for nearly 14 hours while the Chief Engineer and the Deputy Chief Engineer were grilled for 13 and 12 hours.’

– island.lk/foreign-disaster-management-officers-board-burnt-vessel-for-first-time/

• Disaster of the MV X-Press Pearl vessel: Could this be the death of Sri Lankan sea?

‘First compensate the fishermen hit by the disaster; Church urges…According to INTERPOL, the burning vessel was one of two vessels roaming around the Indian Ocean carrying dangerous chemicals over the last few weeks.’

– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Disaster-of-the-MV-X-Press-Pearl-vessel-Could-this-be-the-death-of-Sri-Lankan-sea/172-213064

– island.lk/sl-marine-scientist-says-x-press-pollutants-will-hover-around-for-over-a-century/

– island.lk/ship-fire-environmental-destruction-bill-could-be-highest-in-recent-history/

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/news/marine-life-devastated-by-burning-ships-toxic-debris-445811.html

• Arrested youth found dead in Batticaloa

– timesonline.lk/latest-news/Arrested-youth-found-dead-in-Batticaloa/18-1133577

• Cardinal says some politicians may be involved in Easter attacks

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Cardinal-says-some-politicians-may-be-involved-in-Easter-attacks/108-213350

– island.lk/cardinal-criticises-utterly-corrupt-parliamentary-system/

• Big overhaul plan for country’s largest prison

‘Welikada prison established in 1869 during English colonial period has 7,000 inmates & staff of 1200’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/columns/big-overhaul-plan-for-countrys-largest-prison-445729.html

• Sri Lanka to shift police HQ from Colombo to suburban Pepiliyana at cost of LKR 10 bn

– economynext.com/sri-lanka-to-shift-police-hq-from-colombo-to-suburban-pepiliyana-at-cost-of-lkr-10-bn-82587/

• Peace “is not the immediate order of business” in Palestine – US Secy of State Blinken

– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Palestinian-crisis-and-the-see-no-evil-diplomacy-of-the-US/172-212881

• Roman Protasevich, Casualty Of The Ryanair Incident In Belarus, Is Spilling The Beans

– moonofalabama.org/2021/06/roman-protasevich-casualty-of-the-ryanair-incident-in-belarus-is-spilling-the-beans.html

– moonofalabama.org/2021/05/by-the-book-what-really-happened-with-the-ryanair-flight-in-belarus.html

– moonofalabama.org/2021/05/ryanair-bomb-threat-in-belarus-western-media-narrative-disagrees-with-the-facts.html

– moonofalabama.org/2021/06/khodorkovsky.html

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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.

• Top Policymakers to Speak at Sri Lanka Investment Forum 2021

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/top-policymakers-to-speak-at-sri-lanka-investment-forum-2021/

• IMF, WB, WTO & WHO leaders Ignore Vaccine Profiteering

– ft.lk/front-page/New-50-b-Health-Trade-and-Finance-Roadmap-to-end-pandemic-secure-global-recovery/44-718771

• India demanded SL enter International Monetary Fund debt programme for stringent fiscal consolidation prescription

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/columns/government-fighting-fires-at-home-and-abroad-445705.html

• SL-China Rubber-Rice Pact was first instance of South-South economic cooperation

– island.lk/port-city-and-wisdom-of-past-leaders/

• SL lacks technology-driven growth – Colombage

‘Unless appropriate policy measures are adopted to fill such gaps targeting technology and innovation-driven growth without further delay, it would be impossible to revive the country’s economic growth hampered by the pandemic in the near future.’

– ft.lk/opinion/Sri-Lanka-unlikely-to-reach-speedy-V-shaped-economic-recovery-amidst-structural-imbalances/14-718615

• An alternate economic development strategy for the country

 ‘18 million people depend directly or indirectly on rural agriculture…. rural agricultural development should be increasing the earnings of some 81% of people out of the total, living in rural areas… About 42% of the population of about 22 million people in the country earn less than $ 5.5 a day per person…these are Sri Lanka’s (SL’s) poor; the same number for Malaysia which gained its independence a couple of years after SL, was 3%. Roughly 8 out of 10 persons in rural areas might be poor in SL. Undernourishment and malnutrition are reported to be rampant among them. The main reason for this serious situation could be low productivity in rural agriculture. In fact, agricultural value addition per employee in SL was $ 2,789 as against $ 18,008 in Malaysia and $ 91,547 in Israel, in 2018. In addition, the number employed in rural agriculture is too high in SL being 25.0% of total employment, due to low productivity, while it is 10% in Malaysia and just 1.0% in Israel. Since other sources of employment in rural areas are rare, the youth tend to encroach illegally on forested areas for cultivation. At present this appears to have been made legal and encroachment of forested areas is reported to be taking place on a vast scale, when the better alternative would have been increasing the productivity of the limited availability of cultivable land as in Israel for instance. The bulk of land (over 80%) especially in rural areas is owned by the Government which has leased out (later most of it converted to grants) in small lots under the Land Development Ordinance (1935); the tenure conditions are so restrictive that holders find it difficult to improve the productivity of the land while incurring much expenditure especially for bribing officials to get over the red-tape; in fact the rank of the quality of land administration in SL is one of the worst in the world being 135 out of 141 countries (Global Competitiveness Report, 2019). Since most of the lots are not owned, the farmers find it difficult to access bank loans and to invest in expansion of cultivation or on value addition to production to earn better prices. Fragmentation of the land is so heavy that 45% of the lots were less than ¼ acre in extent (out of a total of 3.3 million land parcels, according to the Census of Agriculture, 2002. (It may be worse now). This is mostly subsistence farming and mixed cropping; this is one of the reasons for low productivity in rural agriculture; the use of machinery on small scattered irregular plots requires long journeys and therefore is costly. In addition, as small quantities are being produced, it is infeasible to undertake further processing and provide for export. As fragmentation of holdings becomes worse with each generation and incomes decline, some of the youth especially the educated leave the land in droves due to poor returns/low wages and migrate to the already crowded urban areas, or go abroad legally or illegally to work under harsh conditions, leaving the children and the elderly behind creating a severe social problem. Thus, consolidation of the small lots by way of land reform is essential for increasing output and reducing unit costs (or for improving productivity/value added per person) to improve incomes.’

– ft.lk/opinion/An-alternate-economic-development-strategy-for-the-country/14-718612

• Fertiliser import ban policy fertile ground for food riots – Wijewardena

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/scaling-down-445299.html

• Idling tippers and workers – Abeyratne

‘Sand is an essential material in the construction industry which goes into buildings, houses and, infrastructure work together with other materials, parts and components such as cement, bricks, metal, wood, plastic, aluminum, and tubes; if they are buildings and houses, they also require floor tiles, wall tiles, roof tiles, granite surfaces, railings, electrical fittings, ceramic fittings and so on. The suppliers of all these materials, parts and components should now slow down their production just like what has happened to the sand supply. Together with all that, the workers of all types – masons, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, drivers, designers, architects, engineers, and labourers – they all lose both their work and income.’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/idling-tippers-and-workers-445294.html

• Country is going through deepest ever financial crisis: Patali Champika

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Country-is-going-through-deepest-ever-financial-crisis-Patali/108-213256

– ft.lk/opinion/A-new-financial-strategy-An-imperative-for-survival/14-718733

• Rockefeller Pathfinder wants SL, the World Bank and IMF to learn from each other

‘Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Distinguished Fellow, Pathfinder Foundation and former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Shanta Devarajan of the World Bank, Professor of the Practice of Development at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service…previously Senior Director for Development Economics (DEC) and former Acting Chief Economist of the World Bank Group. Since joining the World Bank in 1991, Dr. Devarajan has been a Principal Economist and Research Manager for Public Economics in the Development Research Group, and the Chief Economist of the Human Development Network, the South Asia Region and Africa Region.’

– island.lk/pathfinder-in-conversation-webinar-what-can-sri-lanka-the-world-bank-and-the-imf-learn-from-each-other/

• Peter Frankopan’s The New Silk Roads: The winning China factor vs. fading US factor – Wijewardena

– ft.lk/opinion/Peter-Frankopan-s-The-New-Silk-Roads-The-winning-China-factor-vs-fading-US-factor/14-718552

• Large mass in informal work on daily wages, with no savings, in severe hardships – Sanderatne

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/columns/containing-covid-for-economic-survival-restrictions-or-complete-lockdown-445577.html

• The currency swap deal from Bangladesh

‘what made Bangladesh Central Bank opt for this loan even deviating from its own Internal Treasury Investment Guideline as the borrowing country does not comply with the standard rating requirement… Has Sri Lanka offered any valuable security to moderate the high risk?’

– ft.lk/columns/The-currency-swap-deal-from-Bangladesh/4-718695

• Eminent Economist Dr. Kenneth De Zilwa assumes duties as the Chairman of LankaClear

‘At HSBC, Dr. De Zilwa was a part of the Global Advisory team for Government of Sri Lanka USD Bond Issuance and worked closely with the senior officials of the Central Bank in drafting guidelines for the market. At Citibank, as a senior manager, Dr. De Zilwa headed Fixed Income Currencies and Commodities (FICC)… consultancy assignments from top firms namely, KPMG, PwC Sri Lanka and with UNDP as a consultant to the Ministry of Finance & Planning. He also provides treasury consultancy for Amana Bank PLC as the first Islamic bank, NDB PLC, Union Assurance PLC, Brandix, First Capital Treasuries Ltd, Dialog PLC, Ceylon Electricity Board and other international firms such as China Harbor Engineering Company.’

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/eminent-economist-dr-kenneth-de-zilwa-assumes-duties-as-the-chairman-of-lankaclear/

• US moneyed classes fear Fed may raise interest rates and pop asset-price bubble – David

– island.lk/moby-dick-american-civilisation-imperilled/

• Some theoretical and practical issues on socialism and the path towards socialism in Vietnam

‘To achieve this goal, we must step up industrialization and modernization in conjunction with the development of a knowledge-based economy.’

– en.nhandan.org.vn/politics/item/9924202-some-theoretical-and-practical-issues-on-socialism-and-the-path-towards-socialism-in-vietnam.html

• The productivity crisis – Roberts

‘There are three factors behind productivity growth: the amount of labour employed; the amount invested in machinery and technology; and the X-factor of the quality and innovatory skill of the workforce…This last factor is in secular decline.’

– thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2021/05/30/the-productivity-crisis/

• Productivity, investment and profitability – Roberts

‘there’s been a broad-based slowdown in output per hour worked across the major economies…n many major economies like the US, England, Japan and in Europe, companies have preferred to keep their labour force and then employ new workers on more ‘precarious’ contracts with fewer non-wage benefits and part-term or temporary contracts.’

– thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2019/05/11/productivity-investment-and-profitability/

• Some Leftists advocate for “Growth Agnosticism”

‘A stance that acknowledges that some parts of the world still require some form of economic growth’

– island.lk/its-time-to-bust-the-myth-that-endless-economic-growth-is-good-for-us/

• Nikolai Veduta – a Soviet pioneer of introducing AI in economic planning

‘there are currently almost no training courses, programs, and textbooks on economic cybernetics.’

– defenddemocracy.press/nikolai-veduta-a-soviet-pioneer-of-introducing-ai-in-economic-planning/

• Going for gold: Russia to eliminate US dollar from sovereign wealth fund THIS MONTH amid warning of politics sabotaging currency

– rt.com/russia/525569-dollar-wealth-fund-currency/

• Keynes: being gay and caring for the future of our grandchildren

‘Apparently, right-wing Harvard Professor and author Niall Ferguson says John Maynard Keynes didn’t care about future generations because he was gay and didn’t have children.’

– thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/keynes-being-gay-and-caring-for-the-future-of-our-grandchildren/

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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.

• President says economy cannot be allowed to collapse due to COVID

‘ensure the implementation of Government-launched projects, including the rehabilitation of 10,000 tanks, development of 100,000 km of rural roads, establishment of 1,000 National Schools and housing, regional hospitals, drinking water supply and renewable energy development projects.’

– ft.lk/front-page/President-says-economy-cannot-be-allowed-to-collapse-due-to-COVID/44-718839

• Sri Lanka 2021 budget deficit revised up to 9.5-pct of GDP

 – economynext.com/sri-lanka-2021-budget-deficit-revised-up-to-9-5-pct-of-gdp-82611/

• Top bankers confident govt has taken the right approach to repaying foreign debt

‘international credit agencies jumped the gun on unnecessary hype when they downgraded Sri Lanka’s credit ratings, and therefore the current ratings are not reflective of the true fiscal status of the country.’

– island.lk/top-bankers-confident-govt-has-taken-the-right-approach-to-repaying-foreign-debt/

• Government expecting $780-800 million under IMF Special Drawing Rights facility

‘The IMF director board will take up this matter in June and the money will be disbursed by August’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/foreign-debt-servicing-continues-to-sustain-in-fiscal-tightening-445310.html

• S&P affirms SL’s ratings at ‘CCC+/C’; outlook remains stable, warns of macro policy

 ‘“Sri Lanka’s monetary settings remain a credit weakness, although it has seen some structural improvements. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has been preparing an updated Monetary Law Act in recent years. The passage of this act, which enshrines the Central Bank’s autonomy and capacity, will be crucial to improving the quality and effectiveness of monetary policy, in our view.”’

– ft.lk/front-page/S-P-affirms-SL-s-ratings-at-CCC-C-outlook-remains-stable/44-718638

– economynext.com/sri-lanka-sovereign-rating-confirmed-at-ccc-by-sp-warns-on-macro-policy-82572/

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/sp-affirms-ccc-plus-c-on-sri-lanka-ratings-with-stable-outlook/

• Ensure fairness in delivery of goods

– island.lk/ensure-fairness-in-delivery-of-goods/

• CCPI based Inflation increased to 4.5 per cent in May 2021

‘monthly increases of prices of items in both Food and Non-food categories.’

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/ccpi-based-inflation-increased-to-4-5-per-cent-in-may-2021/

– economynext.com/sri-lankas-inflation-rise-to-4-5-pct-in-may-foods-up-9-9-pct-82585/

• Financial institutions to widen reach to meet consumer needs

‘Purchases in the fast moving consumer good (FMCG ) category has doubled in March 2020 and is expected to grow from 20 percent to 70 percent’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/financial-institutions-to-widen-reach-to-meet-consumer-needs-445258.html

• Sri Lanka central bank announces credit relief for third Coronavirus wave

– island.lk/sri-lanka-central-bank-announces-credit-relief-for-third-coronavirus-wave/

• Sri Lanka money printing, state credit reduces in April

– economynext.com/sri-lanka-money-printing-state-credit-reduces-in-april-82561/

• Sri Lanka rupee bid at 199.90 to the US dollar, no offers

– economynext.com/sri-lanka-rupee-bid-at-199-90-to-the-us-dollar-no-offers-82564/

• Sri Lanka sells Rs25bn in Treasury bonds

– economynext.com/sri-lanka-sells-rs25bn-in-treasury-bonds-82607/

• Sri Lanka forex market remain inactive

 – economynext.com/sri-lanka-forex-market-remain-inactive-82632/

• Rising debt in emerging markets could push back Covid recovery and widen gap with developed world: Moody’s

‘Total global debt across government, corporate, household & financial sectors rose by a record $24 trillion in 2020’

– island.lk/rising-debt-in-emerging-markets-could-push-back-covid-recovery-and-widen-gap-with-developed-world/

• Retrospective tax law is bad, says professional

– island.lk/retrospective-tax-law-is-bad-says-professional/

• ADB sells $5.5bn dual global benchmark bonds

‘The transaction was lead-managed by Barclays, Citi, JP Morgan, and TD Securities. A syndicate group was also formed consisting of CIBC, Daiwa, ING, and Scotiabank.’

– island.lk/adb-sells-5-5-bn-dual-global-benchmark-bonds/

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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

• Trilingual gender-based report on health and life experiences in plantation sector

‘Oxfam, US ADRA (7^th-Day Adventist Development and Relief Agency International) & EU’

– ft.lk/news/Trilingual-gender-based-report-on-health-and-life-experiences-in-plantation-sector/56-718629

• MAS Holdings recorded 400 infections from its Thulhiriya plant.

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/covid-19-crisis-to-hit-apparel-industry-targets-445321.html

• Nurses to go on sick leave tomorrow (31 May)

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Nurses-to-go-on-sick-leave-tomorrow/108-213034

• Labour Commissioner General denies FTZ union allegation FTZ allowed factory spread

– island.lk/labour-commissioner-general-denies-ftz-union-allegation/

• Kumudesh: Some private hospitals tricking people into undergoing quarantine

– island.lk/kumudesh-some-private-hospitals-tricking-people-into-undergoing-quarantine/

– island.lk/vultures-in-pinstripes/

• Now, Devananda boasts of having got jab for Jaffna

– island.lk/now-devananda-boasts-of-having-got-jab-for-jaffna/

• CB brings back rule of 10% weekly conversion of workers remittances

– ft.lk/front-page/CB-brings-back-rule-of-10-weekly-conversion-of-workers-remittances/44-718720

• Plan International accused of abandoning children in Sri Lanka exit

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/05/22/plan-international-accused-of-abandoning-children-in-sri-lanka-exit/

• Twenty four migrant detainees have died in custody in Japan since 1997

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/plus/letters-to-the-editor-3-445371.html

• Japan has no national human rights institutions – Ageing Japan needs foreign labor to run its economy, which faces a marked labor shortage

‘Between 1640 and 1853, Japan followed the Sakoku (closed country) or isolationist foreign policy because it wanted to protect itself from Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and British Christian missionaries who were using class differences in Japanese society to stir revolts against the native rulers’

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/05/31/human-rights-in-japan/

• Family of Sri Lankan woman still pressing for disclosure

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/05/30/family-of-sri-lankan-woman-still-pressing-for-disclosure/

• Care Workers: Lankan who killed ex in Rome street found hanged in jail

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Lankan-who-killed-ex-in-Rome-street-found-hanged-in-jail/108-213206

• Ukrainian ship captain Gavrylov acquitted along with 5 others questions justice system

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/news/i-want-to-go-home-but-i-have-no-money-and-i-dont-know-what-i-will-do-445806.html

• Problem of private tuition classes

‘Many teachers teach only the absolute minimum in the classroom in subjects like mathematics, general science and English. They do not teach the full course in its length, breadth and depth or the finer points of the topics. They teach it in their Tuition Classes…’

– island.lk/problem-of-private-tuition-classes/

• Govt. to up science stream students to 60%, reduce arts students to 25% at A/Ls: Edu. Min. Sec.

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Govt-to-up-science-stream-students-to-60-reduce-arts-students-to-25-at-ALs-Edu-Min-Sec/108-213457

• An ‘enlightened infusion of private capital into higher education’ – Perera

– island.lk/situating-panduka-karunanayakes-politics-of-education/

• Myth of unemployable arts graduates

‘World Bank loan funded AHEAD programme currently implemented across university system’

– island.lk/myth-of-unemployable-arts-graduates/

• Australian assistance for investments and education sector promotion

– timesonline.lk/latest-news/Australian-assistance-for-investments-and-education-sector-promotion/18-1133536

• England’s Hospitality Sector ‘struggling to fill thousands of jobs’

‘There was currently a shortfall of about 188,000 workers, with the shortage of front-of-house staff and chefs being “particularly acute”.

– island.lk/hospitality-struggling-to-fill-thousands-of-jobs/

• AMS: Proper ventilation in buildings as important as washing hands

– island.lk/ams-proper-ventilation-in-buildings-as-important-as-washing-hands/

• “Income inequality is likely to increase significantly because of the pandemic,” – IMF

“Close to 95 million more people are estimated to have fallen below the threshold of extreme poverty in 2020 compared with pre-pandemic projections.”

– island.lk/chinas-growth-set-to-drive-world-economy-in-post-pandemic-years/

• The CIA’s New “Woke” Façade

‘The planet’s premier assassination and regime-change agency is advertising itself as a “woke” workplace populated by young Black, Latina and LGBTQ staffers. The ads are “an attempt to blend identity politics and intersectionality with imperialism…”’

– blackagendareport.com/cias-new-woke-facade

_________________________________________________________________________

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.

• President orders to buy crops from farmers, distribute free among needy: Amaraweera

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/President-orders-to-buy-crops-from-farmers-distribute-free-among-needy-Amaraweera/108-213354

• Furnace oil threatens Kelani River

‘Furnace oil from tanks at the Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery has overflowed following heavy rain…’

– dailymirror.lk/top_story/Furnace-oil-threatens-Kelani-River/155-213489

• Nilwala Flood Protection and Drainage Project

‘by constructing water control structures, these rice fields can be easily cultivated’

– island.lk/cultivating-acid-sulphate-paddy-tracts-under-nilwala-flood-protection-and-drainage-project/

• Low-lying areas of four rivers at risk of flooding, DMC warns

‘Kalu River: Horana, Agalawatta, Ingiriya, Palindanuwara, Bulathsinhala, Dodangoda, Millaniya, Madurawala and Kalutara Divisional Secretariat divisions…Kelani River: Dehiowita, Ruwanwella, Seethawaka, Dompe, Homagama, Kaduwela, Biyagama, Kolonnawa and Wattala Divisional Secretariat divisions… low-lying areas of Gin River and Attanagalu Oya…’

– adaderana.lk/news/74385/low-lying-areas-of-four-rivers-at-risk-of-flooding-dmc-warns

• Navy repairs and restores barge service in North

‘Previously used for transporting people and goods between Kurikattuwan pier of Punkudutivu island and Nainativu the barge had been out of service…’

– island.lk/navy-repairs-and-restores-barge-service-in-north/

• Recent frequent landslides in SL, a result of rock cutting: Prof. Kapila Dahanayake

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Recent-frequent-landslides-in-SL-a-result-of-rock-cutting-Prof-Kapila-Dahanayake/108-213498

• Agriculture Minister still grappling with rice mafia

– island.lk/agriculture-minister-still-grappling-with-rice-mafia/

• Smuggling of turmeric continues via Colombo Port and Northern and North Western seas

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/news/turmeric-hopes-for-price-drop-turn-sour-445762.html

• Developing the agricultural marketing sector

‘Sri Lanka has several policy documents mostly duplicated one into another due to formulation of a new policy without reviewing the existing policy… It is also very rare to prepare a functional plan to implement the strategies given in the policy documents. There were few functional plans but no monitoring. It is a fact that no plan and no monitoring means no progress.’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/developing-the-agricultural-marketing-sector-445254.html

• Expedite production of organic fertilizer: President

‘He advised the officials to study the machinery required to produce organic fertilizer and manufacture machines that could be built locally with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Army Engineer’s Corps at state owned factories and import the rest.

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Expedite-production-of-organic-fertilizer-President/108-213369

– ft.lk/front-page/President-directs-new-initiatives-to-boost-organic-fertiliser-use/44-718883

• Govt to import organic fertilizer needed for Maha Season

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/06/01/govt-to-import-organic-fertilizer-needed-for-maha-season/

• Release hidden chemical fertilizer stocks to wholesale market: Govt. tells traders

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Release-hidden-chemical-fertilizer-stocks-to-wholesale-market-Govt-tells-traders/108-213214

– ft.lk/front-page/Govt-tells-traders-not-to-hide-chemical-fertiliser-stocks/44-718721

– economynext.com/sri-lanka-asks-fertilizer-traders-to-release-stocks-as-import-ban-triggers-shortages-82657/

• CIC Holdings PLC turnover of Rs.37.2 billion

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/despite-covid-19-cic-posts-highest-ever-pat-of-rs-3-84-bn-445261.html

• President’s Office says shift to organic fertiliser moving ahead

‘work out supply, distribution and logistics for the Maha season starting in September’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/news/presidents-office-says-shift-to-organic-fertiliser-moving-ahead-445821.html

• Pelwatte welcomes the Government’s decision to ban agrochemicals,

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/pelwatte-welcomes-the-governments-decision-to-ban-agrochemicals-pledges-support-to-farmers-with-its-latest-range-of-organic-fertilizers/

• Indiscriminate overuse of chemical fertiliser due to fertiliser subsidy

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/news/ban-on-chemical-fertiliser-experts-call-for-phased-withdrawal-445819.html

• Sri Lanka Agricultural Economics Association warns of big economic losses

‘due to import restrictions on chemical fertilizers and pesticides’

– island.lk/saea-warns-of-big-economic-losses-due-to-import-restrictions-on-chemical-fertilizers-and-pesticides/

– newsfirst.lk/2021/06/02/agro-economic-body-warns-of-importing-organic-fertilizer/

• Needed: “National Land Use Plan” and a “National Agriculture Production Plan”

– island.lk/an-integrated-program-to-develop-agriculture-in-sri-lanka/

• Rs. 300 billion spent annually to import food

– island.lk/country-is-going-to-be-doomed/

• EDB supports farmers & processors to obtain Sri Lanka Organic Certification

– island.lk/edb-supports-farmers-processors-to-obtain-sri-lanka-organic-certification/

• Population depending on agriculture drops to 28%, accounting for 7% contribution to GDP

‘DIMO’s Agri Techno parks engage in agriculture research and development, seed production, farmer education and training initiatives to support the growth of the industry.”’

– island.lk/advancing-the-agriculture-industry-with-agri-entrepreneurship-opportunities/

• Tea revenue January to April 2021 Rs.81.27 Billion surpasses YOY 2020

– island.lk/tea-revenue-january-to-april-2021-rs-81-27-billion-surpasses-yoy-2020/

• A career in planting from 1961

‘An era when reputed Agency Houses, as Whittalls, George Steuarts, Carsons and Aitken Spence, managed plantations owned mainly by Sterling and Rupee Companies; a period that was undoubtedly the finest Summer for the Industry’

• Govt. should pass the Animal Welfare Bill

‘60% of the world’s grain is consumed by cattle going into the meat market.’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/editorial/govt-should-pass-the-animal-welfare-bill-445699.html

• Fall Armyworm (FAW) control and management in Sri Lanka

‘The Fall Armyworm Monitoring and Early Warning System (FAMEWS), a global surveillance system developed by FAO has been translated and adapted to the Sri Lankan context so that it becomes easy to use for farmers and local officials’

 – bizenglish.adaderana.lk/fall-armyworm-faw-control-and-management-in-sri-lanka/

– ft.lk/business/Fall-Armyworm-control-and-management-in-Sri-Lanka/34-718651

• Why plastic pellets called ‘nurdles’ are threatening miles of Sri Lanka’s coastline

‘It took 7,000 volunteers to clean up a nurdles spill of a similar magnitude in Hong Kong in 2012, according to Mongabay, though in that incident there were no fears of chemical contamination’

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/06/01/why-plastic-pellets-called-nurdles-are-threatening-miles-of-sri-lankas-coastline/

• Latrine branded polyethelene granules made by Qatar-based Qapco.

‘Oil producing nations are key producers of plastics’

– economynext.com/sri-lanka-in-biggest-ever-nurdle-hunt-after-x-press-pearl-spill-volunteer-hunters-arrested-82662/

• Sri Lanka’s burning cargo ship on track to become its ‘worst environmental disaster’

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/06/01/sri-lankas-burning-cargo-ship-on-track-to-become-its-worst-environmental-disaster/

• Moves to import urban waste from China as carbonic fertilizer: JVP

‘the 46-member Task Force on carbonic fertilizer includes crooked businessmen partial to the government…to create a new mafia for them through the import of carbonic fertilizer.”

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Moves-to-import-urban-waste-from-China-as-carbonic-fertilizer-JVP/108-213045

• Trolling for fish in the Eastern seas

– island.lk/man-eater-crocodile-in-mankulam/

• Two endangered geckos named after Jagath and Samantha

‘The Research team consist of four leading herpetologists, A.A. Thasun Amarasinghe from University of Indonesia, Suranjan Karunarathna from Nature Explorations & Education Team of Sri Lanka Majintha Madawala from Victorian Herpetological Society of Australia, Anslem de Silva from Amphibia & Reptile Research Organization of Sri Lanka’

– island.lk/two-endangered-geckos-named-after-jagath-and-samantha/

• Peace in Colombia Should Mean Land Reform and an End to Hunger

– newsclick.in/peace-colombia-should-mean-land-reform-and-end-hunger

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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.

• MP Wimal Weerawansa makes industrious observations on industrial production

‘(a) industries in total contribute to 26.4% of GDP, (b) industrial exports contribute 10% to GDP & (c) 10% of export against 26.4% production is a very low share of total industrial production to export.’

– dailymirror.lk/slide-1/MP-Wimal-Weerawansa-makes-industrious-observations-on-industrial-production/329-212979

• Govt. goes for 4 long-term fuel contracts

– ft.lk/front-page/Govt-goes-for-4-long-term-fuel-contracts/44-718717

• Sri Lanka petrol, diesel deals won by PetroChina International

– economynext.com/sri-lanka-petrol-diesel-deals-won-by-petrochina-international-82592/

• Crude oil price hits nearly 3-month high above $70

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/crude-oil-price-hits-nearly-3-month-high-above-70/

• Private sector to import, refine and distribute fuel

‘The Government has decided to open to the private sector the business of supply, refining and distribution of petroleum products which are at present handled by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/news/private-sector-to-import-refine-and-distribute-fuel-445823.html

• Petroleum corporation will not be privatized – Gammanpila

– adaderana.lk/news/74373/petrolium-corporation-will-not-be-privatized-gammanpila

• US firm’s bid to purchase power plant shares: President defers decision amid CEBEU protest

‘S-based New Fortress Energy (NFE), which wants to buy the 23.9 percent shares the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) holds in the 300 MW state-run Kerawalapitiya West Coast diesel power plant… The US company has proposed that it should control the pipeline, but CEB engineers insist it should be built & maintained by Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. They say it is strategically important & beneficial to the country that the FSRU, pipeline system and the gas supplies remain in separate hands.’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/news/us-firms-bid-to-purchase-power-plant-shares-president-defers-decision-amid-cebeu-protest-445803.html

• Govt. proposes merger of LAUGFS and Litro to stabilise LP gas price

‘Another critical reason for urgent restructuring is that the 2 state banks – Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank– have high debt exposure to LAUGHFS Gas of Rs 12.12 billion and Rs 10.1 billion making it difficult for the banks for further financing…. The Cabinet also recommended authorising the Treasury Secretary to direct Sri Lanka Insurance Company and Litro Gas Company Ltd to purchase equity stake of LAUGFS Gas terminal up to 40 percent and secure two positions in the Board of Directors.’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/news/govt-proposes-merger-of-laugfs-and-litro-to-stabilise-lp-gas-price-445817.html

• Vidullanka posts highest-ever after-tax profit of Rs. 601 m in FY21

‘following the addition of Bukinda SHPP to company’s portfolio… Vidullanka PLC recently formed a joint venture with Windforce Ltd., and HiEnergy Services Ltd., in April to jointly develop a 10MW Solar power plant in Vavunathivu at a total capital investment of Rs. 1.4 billion…Vidullanka acquired Orik Corporation Ltd., a company with approvals to develop a 1MW ground mounted solar power plant in Monaragala… Further, the company recently secured the rights to develop a 2MW ground mounted Solar power plant in Horana…’

– ft.lk/business/Vidullanka-posts-highest-ever-after-tax-profit-of-Rs-601-m-in-FY21/34-718702

• WindForce declares over 1 billion dividends with a strong performance

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/windforce-declares-over-1-billion-dividends-with-a-strong-performance/

• Stortera, England and StorLion in Sri Lanka to manufacture storage batteries

‘They have obtained ‘international’ patent rights on lithium-based energy storage systems, Flow Batteries, Active Battery Management Systems (BM), Wind Turbine Controllers and Electronic Devices…. ‘StorLion’s’ long term mission is to use abundant minerals available in the country such as ilmenite, phosphate, iron and graphite to manufacture the batteries. The company’s England facility produces portable storage batteries.’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/innovative-sri-lankan-engineer-takes-on-the-world-with-high-capacity-energy-storage-batteries-445289.html

• Germany Pushing their Green Technologies on Sri Lanka

‘8 German companies presented their technologies and energy solutions…including representatives of KACO New Energy GmbH – a Siemens Company, mycon GmbH, Team Blau GmbH, Weihe GmbH, Boreal Light GmbH, BAE Batterien GmbH, INTEC Engineering, and Inter-Engineering’

– ft.lk/business/Virtual-German-biz-delegation-on-energy-efficiency-and-self-sufficiency-in-industry/34-718749

– island.lk/sl-stands-very-good-chance-of-attracting-investments-for-renewable-energy-projects-german-ambassador

• Litro Gas Lanka to set up oxygen manufacturing plant in Kerawalapitiya

As national LPG provider, Litro already plays a pivotal role in the country’s energy sector with a 75% market share and a network of 42 distributors, over 14,000 points-of-sale, 1,500 home delivery hubs’

– ft.lk/front-page/Litro-ventures-into-manufacture-of-oxygen-to-meet-rising-demand-amidst-pandemic/44-718770

– dailymirror.lk/business/Litro-Gas-Lanka-to-set-up-oxygen-manufacturing-plant-in-Kerawalapitiya/215-213282

• Lankem Ceylon annual revenue of Rs.17.6Bn

‘….hospitality, packaging and distribution clusters plus subsidiary SunAgro Lifescience for high end products used in Crop Protection market…Founded in 1964 as Shell Chemical Company of Ceylon, Lankem Ceylon dominates Agriculture solutions, Paint manufacturer, Industrial Chemical and Pest Control, Coatings and Industrial Chemicals. The Company also has invested in the packaging industry through J.F Packaging Limited, in the FMCG space through its investment in C.W. Mackie PLC and in leisure through its investments in Colombo Fort Hotels. Directors comprise S.D.R Arudpragasam (Chairman), A. Hettiarachchy (Deputy chairman), A. Rajaratnam, Suren Goonewardene (Managing Director), A.C.S Jayaranjan, R Seevaratnam, P.M.A Sirimanne, G.K.B Dasanayaka , Dr A Mubarak

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/lankem-posts-stellar-performance-despite-the-covid-19-pandemic/

• How to prohibit unsafe consumer products: Lesson from electricity industry

– island.lk/how-to-prohibit-unsafe-consumer-products/

• Access Engineering ends FY21 on a high with Rs. 2.3 b profit

‘Access Engineering is Sri Lanka’s largest asphalt producer, with demand driven by the rural road network development plans along with ADB and World Bank-funded road development program… main local construction projects included the Orugodawatta Housing Project, Anuradhapura Water Supply Project, Bluemendhal Housing Project, Nanotechnology Building Project, Nittambuwa Pasyala Road Project, Stadiumgama Housing Project, i-Road project and the Elliot Place Building Project…the BIA piling project and design development of the multi-story car park project at Union Place…the company also invested in 50% of Lanka AAC Ltd., which is engaged in the production of autoclave aerated concrete blocks… Directors are Chairman Sumal Perera, Managing Director Christopher Joshua, COO Rohana Fernando, Shevantha Mendis, Dharshana Munasinghe, Dilhan Perera, Shamal Perera, Ranjan Gomez, Professor Malik Ranasinghe, Niroshan Gunaratne and Dinesh Weerakkody.’

– ft.lk/front-page/Access-Engineering-ends-FY21-on-a-high-with-Rs-2-3-b-profit/44-718769.’

• India spearheads 50% of SL drug imports followed by Pakistan, US, Switzerland, France, Bangladesh and England

‘Sri Lanka’s pharmaceutical market is expected to reach $787 million by 2022 with an increase in the country’s ageing population’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/government-steps-up-saline-production-locally-with-private-sector-assistance-445316.html

• Government frontmen lobbied private companies to act as middlemen to get vaccines rudely rebuffed by global pharmaceutical giant

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/columns/saluting-sri-lankas-courageous-public-officials-amidst-political-antics-445557.html

• Panadura Base Hospital (PBH) COVID Ward Gets Community Support

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/news/at-panadura-covid-ward-it-was-hell-on-earth-then-a-miracle-happened-445756.html

• Memo to US: Don’t do the dirty on the Lankan people

‘Has the US Government developed second thoughts on sharing vaccine largess with Sri Lanka?’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/columns/memo-to-us-dont-do-the-dirty-on-the-lankan-people-445606.html

• Sri Lanka to import 32,000 vials of Denosumab jab for cancer treatment

 – economynext.com/sri-lanka-to-import-32000-vials-of-denosumab-jab-for-cancer-treatment-82603/

• Global cold chain logistics market for pharma to grow by over US $ 9bn by 2024

– dailymirror.lk/business/Global-cold-chain-logistics-market-for-pharma-to-grow-by-over-US-9bn-by-2024/215-213114

• Colombo Port West Container Terminal: Adani gets 51%, Keells 34%, Ports Authority 15%

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/news/colombo-port-west-container-terminal-adani-gets-51-keells-34-ports-authority-15-445800.html

– economynext.com/sri-lankas-john-keells-to-get-34-pct-of-container-terminal-adani-51-pct-report-82559/

• Cabinet nod to remove Daya Gamage’s ‘Olympus’ construction company: Johnston

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Cabinet-nod-to-remove-Daya-Gamages-Olympus-construction-company-Johnston/108-213119

– island.lk/daya-gamages-company-stripped-of-central-expressway-contract/

• China Harbour Engineering Corp. to link Athurugiriya interchange & New Kelani Bridge

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/news/china-harbour-engineering-corporation-gets-contract-for-linking-athurugiriya-interchange-and-new-kelani-bridge-445810.html

• BOC yet to cancel LCs on importing 399 vehicles, despite GoSL suspending vehicle imports

‘if the Bank of Ceylon fails to pay the duty for these vehicles, it can be ruled as tax evasion.’

– newsfirst.lk/2021/06/04/boc-yet-to-cancel-lcs-on-importing-399-vehicles-despite-gosl-suspending-vehicle-imports/

• Dhammika’s Rocell to venture into confectionary biz

– dailymirror.lk/business_247/Dhammikas-Rocell-to-venture-into-confectionary-biz/395-213176

• Insee to launch Sanstha Composite Cement

– ft.lk/business/Insee-to-launch-Sanstha-Composite-Cement/34-718762

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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.

• Battle for Board seats hots up at HNB

‘The second-largest private sector bank, HNB is seeing a four-way fight, involving tycoon Harry Jayawardena, Finance Ministry, the Captains Group, and Browns investment’s Ishara Nanayakkara… The State institutions collectively have around 23% of HNBs voting shares (Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (13.3%), EPF (9.75%), ETF (1%)), but are not restricted in their voting rights…. Directors are Acting Chairman Dr. Harsha Cabraal PC, CEO/MD Jonathan Alles, Non-Executive Independent Director Amal Cabraal, Non-Executive Independent Director Nilantha de Silva, Non-Executive Independent Director Madu Ratnayake, Non-Executive Non-Independent Director Damien Fernando, Executive Director Dilshan Rodrigo, Non-Executive Independent Director Devaka Cooray, Non-Executive Non-Independent Director Aruni Goonetilleke, Non-Executive Non-Independent Director Osman Chandrawansa, Non-Executive Independent Director P.R. Saldin and Dr. Prasad Samarasinghe (Alternate Director to Damien Fernando).’

– ft.lk/top-story/Battle-for-Board-seats-hots-up-at-HNB/26-718842

• Sunshine Holdings finalises $5m funding from World Bank’s International Finance Corp. (IFC)

‘Sunshine recorded a consolidated Group revenue of Rs. 24.3 billion’

– ft.lk/front-page/Sunshine-Holdings-finalises-5-m-funding-from-IFC/44-718832

• Bank of Ceylon advance portfolio up to Rs. 2.25 trillion

– ft.lk/financial-services/Bank-of-Ceylon-s-pivotal-contribution-towards-country-s-mega-projects/42-718579

• LOLC total comprehensive income was Rs. 81Bn for 2020-21

‘The flagship finance company – LOLC Finance PLC (LOFC) – with a Total Assets base of Rs. 170Bn, recorded PAT of Rs. 4.4Bn. Commercial Leasing & Finance PLC (CLC) with a Total Assets Base of Rs. 77Bn also recorded strong performance, posting a PAT of Rs. 2.2Bn in 2020/21. Meanwhile, with a Total Assets Base of Rs. 19Bn, LOLC Development Finance (LODF) PLC recorded a PAT of Rs. 155Mn. Seylan Bank succeeded in delivering a steady PAT of Rs. 3Bn for FY2020.’

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/lolc-group-achieves-first-ever-historic-profitability-in-sri-lankas-corporate-sector-recording-a-stunning-rs-57-bn-in-pbt/

– ft.lk/top-story/LOLC-remains-King-of-profits/26-718643

– economynext.com/sri-lankas-lolc-profits-up-400-pct-in-march-82582/

• Janashakthi’s First Capital Records Highest Ever PAT of Rs. 2.09 Billion

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/first-capital-records-highest-ever-pat-of-rs-2-09-billion/

– island.lk/first-capital-records-highest-ever-pat-of-rs-2-09-billion/

– economynext.com/sri-lankas-first-capital-profits-up-more-than-1300-in-march-21-quarter-82620/

• “Without any regulation, Bitcoin investors may not get their money back in a scam etc,”: CB

‘Neighbouring India has proposed one of the strictest policies against cryptocurrencies while building a structure for an official digital currency. India may become first major economy to make holding cryptocurrency illegal…China, which has banned mining and trading, does not penalise possession.’

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/bitcoin-cbs-clarity-in-the-making-445313.html

• ComBank sponsored ‘Hack:bit 2020’ a spectacular success

– island.lk/combank-sponsored-hackbit-2020-a-spectacular-success/

• Best Hedge Fund Performance in History; Now Clients Can’t Get Access to their Money

– wallstreetonparade.com/2021/06/the-best-hedge-fund-performance-in-history-now-clients-cant-get-access-to-their-money/

• Reverse Repos Surge: US Fed has inserted itself far too deeply into the markets

‘It will have one helluva time detaching itself without causing a major market upheava’l

– wallstreetonparade.com/2021/06/feds-reverse-repos-surge-to-historic-485-billion-whats-wall-street-afraid-of-this-time/

• Crypto Unregulated by US Congress, Threatens Reputation of U.S. Markets

– wallstreetonparade.com/2021/06/crypto-congress-dawdles-as-1-7-trillion-con-game-goes-unregulated-threatening-reputation-of-u-s-markets/

• Crypto Will Be Put Under the Microscope at June 30 US House Hearing

– wallstreetonparade.com/2021/06/crypto-will-be-put-under-the-microscope-at-june-30-house-hearing/

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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’

• Land Prices in Western Province Increase By 74% from 2018 to 2021

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/land-prices-in-western-province-increase-by-74-from-2018-to-2021/

• Multiple properties in Colombo open for PPP

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Multiple-properties-in-Colombo-open-for-PPP/108-213204

• Prime Lands Residencies Limited to begin trading at CSE

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/prime-lands-residencies-limited-to-begin-trading-at-cse/

• Colombo Port City blitz at NY Times Square

– ft.lk/front-page/Colombo-Port-City-blitz-at-NY-Times-Square/44-718766

• Allianz Lanka, Ideal Motors & First Choice Partner offer insurance to new vehicle owners

‘Nalin Welgama – Chairman, Ideal Choice…Gany Subramaniam, CEO, Allianz Insurance Lanka, Arosh Jayawardena -Sales Manager, Allianz Insurance; Faheema Naseer, Ideal Motors’

– timesonline.lk/business/Allianz-Lanka-Ideal-Motors-and-First-Choice-Partner-to-offer-insurance-benefits-to-new-vehicle-owners/10-1133598

• BOI nod must for Registrar of Companies to register foreign-owned firms

– ft.lk/front-page/BOI-nod-must-for-ROC-to-register-foreign-owned-firms/44-718596

• NGO LEADS helps quarantine centres in Kandakadu, Ampara, Palamunai, Kilinochchi.

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/leads-helps-in-covid-19-efforts-to-combat-pandemic-445251.html

• Keell’s Supermarket, Consumer Foods, Frozen Confectionery, Insurance, Banking increased profits

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/like-many-conglomerates-jkh-reports-restrained-performance-in-202021-445273.html

• Healthcare & Consumer propel Sunshine Holdings’ FY21 Revenue of Rs.24.3 billion

‘Sunshine Holdings owns 72% of Sunshine Healthcare which was previously a fully owned subsidiary, whereas Akbar Brothers Ltd owns the remaining 28% shares.’

– island.lk/healthcare-and-consumer-propel-sunshine-holdings-strong-fy21-performance/

• Hemas revenue of Rs.16.6 billion for the quarter ended March 31,

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/hemas-reports-strong-performance-in-202021-445280.html

• Aitken Spence non-tourism sectors record highest ever pre-tax profit of Rs. 5.01 billion

– sundaytimes.lk/210530/business-times/aitken-spence-non-tourism-sectors-record-highest-ever-pre-tax-profit-445285.html

• Janashakthi Life outperforms Insurance industry with growth trajectory of 46% in Q1 21

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/janashakthi-life-outperforms-insurance-industry/

• International Association of Pageantry appoints Representative in Sri Lanka

‘“Pageantry is an extremely influential industry, especially in Sri Lanka where many young women either enter pageants in order to make a difference, or watch pageants religiously. These pageants function as a platform by which to empower women’

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/international-association-of-pageantry-appoints-representative-in-sri-lanka/

• IATA boss blames risk-averse governments for prolonging travel crisis

– ft.lk/front-page/IATA-boss-blames-risk-averse-governments-for-prolonging-travel-crisis/44-718598

• Metropolitan Group Chairman J.J. Ambani passed away yesterday

‘Sri Lanka’s leading workplace solutions provider and has evolved into a diversified group, supporting and implementing large projects involving advanced technologies in areas such as infrastructure, educational services and BPO operations and even medical radiology equipment.’

– ft.lk/business/J-J-Ambani-passes-away/34-718582

• Citi Foundation & UNDP’s Youth Co:Lab Summit

 ‘Asia Pacific is home to 55% of the world’s young people, or 660 million youth between the ages of 15 to 24. This segment accounts for almost half of the region’s unemployed.’

– ft.lk/business/Citi-Foundation-and-UNDP-s-Youth-Co-Lab-Summit-highlights-resilience-amid-COVID-19-pandemic/34-718746

• Ceylon Chamber signs MOU with Australia’s Market Development Facility

 ‘MDF is an Australian Government funded multi-country initiative, implemented by Palladium in partnership with Swisscontact…to bribe senior officials, decision makers, planters and agri firms’

– ft.lk/business/Ceylon-Chamber-signs-MOU-with-Australia-s-Market-Development-Facility/34-718748

– bizenglish.adaderana.lk/ceylon-chamber-of-commerce-signs-mou-with-australias-market-development-facility-to-promote-inclusive-and-sustainable-private-sector-led-growth/

• Seylan Bank gifts fully equipped ICU to Colombo East Base Hospital

– island.lk/seylan-bank-gifts-fully-equipped-icu-to-colombo-east-base-hospital/

• SLT-MOBITEL partners Maduru Oya Army Training School & Trincomalee DS to support COVID-affected communities

– island.lk/slt-mobitel-partners-maduru-oya-army-training-school-and-trincomalee-ds-to-support-covid-affected-communities/

• German Embassy hands over masks to Ministry of Health through WHO

– ft.lk/news/German-Embassy-hands-over-masks-to-Ministry-of-Health-through-WHO/56-718756

• BPPL Group calls for responsible disposal of plastic-waste

‘BPPL Holdings PLC and subsidiary Eco Spindles, Sri Lanka’s largest plastic recycler…

– island.lk/bppl-group-calls-for-responsible-disposal-of-plastic-waste/

• John Keells Foundation to reforest 20 hectares

– island.lk/john-keells-foundation-to-reforest-20-hectares/

• The Curious Case of Cox & Kings

‘the back story of the goings-on in India’s once leading travel agency, which has gone bankrupt, the allegations against its promoters and its various dealings…’

– newsclick.in/The-Curious-Case-Cox-%26-Kings

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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.

• Death of Ven. Baddegama Samitha Thera, a great loss to the nation – LSSP

– island.lk/death-of-ven-baddegama-samitha-thera-a-great-loss-to-the-nation-lssp/

– island.lk/tribute-to-ven-baddegama-samitha/

– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Fmr-MP-Ven-Baddegama-Samitha-thera-passes-away/108-213025

• A million able-bodied men driving three-wheelers; women slave away in garment factories”

– ft.lk/opinion/Samagi-Jana-Balawegaya-A-change-agent/14-718616

• Options for the opposition: The JVP

– island.lk/options-for-the-opposition-the-jvp/

• Open economy politics begun in 1977 and its social eruption in 1983

‘saw emergence of Tamil diaspora and Jathika Chinthanaya soul searching’

– island.lk/new-century-old-story-war-ends-as-social-tragedy-continues-as-political-farce-2/

• Country has been destroyed by chauvinistic or Marxist leaders – Ivan

– ft.lk/opinion/Sri-Lanka-Another-cause-for-failure/14-718780

• The alternative: what, where, who and why? – Jayatilleka

– ft.lk/opinion/The-alternativewhat-where-who-and-why/14-718736

• UPFA PS Chairman raped hundreds of women and even celebrated those crimes.

– island.lk/guru-gola-way-of-doing-it/

• Flight from History? The Communist Movement between Self-Criticism & Self-Contempt

– redsails.org/flight-from-history/

• My Mother, Comrade Mythily

‘Veteran communist leader Mythily Sivaraman’s daughter Kalpana recalls how it was growing up in a communist household, and how she had always seen her mother typing, reading, writing, making notes, on the phone, organising meetings, arguing with friends or giving interviews at home.’

– newsclick.in/my-mother-comrade-mythily

• Why Only Socialism Can Defeat Modi

‘Even the BJP, at its inception, adopted a form of paralysed Gandhian socialism. Its adoption of rabid Hindutva came only with the implementation of the Mandal Commission report when popular agitation unleashed social forces from below.’

– newsclick.in/Why-Only-Socialism-Can-Defeat-Modi

• Another View of Tiananmen

‘working closely with Chai Ling was the CIA’s man in China, Gene Sharp, who wrote the book on “color revolutions” for the USa.’

– redsails.org/another-view-of-tiananmen/

• Understanding & Engaging China From The Left: Geopolitical Economy Research Group

– youtube.com/watch?v=jaAbNu0-ALA

• Let Iran Choose its Next President

‘No credible reformist candidate has appeared in the electoral arena, not because any superior power ordained so but simply because the reformist platform stands discredited today to the electorate.’

– newsclick.in/Let-Iran-Choose-its-Next-President

• Israeli politics breaks through glass ceiling

‘success may depend on the participation of the culturally conservative (Palestinian) Arab party known as the United Arab List or Ra’am, the first Arab-led party to participate in a coalition government in Israel. It is absolutely amazing that the leader of the Jewish state is going to be determined by a Muslim Brotherhood party, something that is inconceivable anywhere else in West Asia.’

– indianpunchline.com/israeli-politics-breaks-through-glass-ceiling/
• George Floyd Not a Martyr

“George Floyd was “not a martyr…He’s a man who wanted to live – he didn’t give his life for the cause.”

– blackagendareport.com/george-floyd-not-martyr

• Bob Wing’s Strategy to Build the “Anti-Racist State” to Replace the “Racist State” is Liberal Social Imperialist Nonsense

– blackagendareport.com/bob-wings-strategy-build-anti-racist-state-replace-racist-state-liberal-social-imperialist-nonsense

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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.

• Troublemakers incite panic buying.

– island.lk/a-tale-of-two-bashes/

• Misinformation, conspiracy theories on Sinopharm delayed SL vaccine rollout: SPC chief

– economynext.com/misinformation-conspiracy-theories-on-sinopharm-delayed-sri-lankas-vaccine-rollout-spc-chief-82644/

• Fake issues crop up at such a rate that people cannot keep track of them

– island.lk/make-hoteliers-pay/

• A story of a girl, a photograph and a photographer

‘at a time when those who called for a military offensive to rid the country of the terrorist menace were called racists, chauvinists, bigots, warmongers and other such derogatory names. It was also a time when dollar-hungry, Eelam-touting, LTTE-loving academics, NGO racketeers, human rights activists who did not see victims of LTTE terrorism as ‘humans’…’

– gammiris.lk/a-story-of-a-girl-a-photograph-and-a-photographer/

• Is the Proposed Data Protection legislation a cause for concern for journalistic expression?

– ft.lk/columns/Is-the-Proposed-Data-Protection-legislation-a-cause-for-concern-for-journalistic-expression/4-718683

• How ethical is secret recording of calls?

– ft.lk/columns/How-ethical-is-secret-recording-of-calls/4-718850

• The impact of brand storytelling in advertising

‘Sri Lanka has 10.1 million internet connections, 6.4 million active Facebook users, 1.19 million LinkedIn users, 0.99 million Instagram users and a considerable number of TikTok users.’

– ft.lk/columns/The-impact-of-brand-storytelling-in-advertising/4-718667

• Facebook helps Sri Lanka’s small businesses benefit from the power of digital tools

‘Small businesses account for over 75 percent of all enterprises…The #DigitalSaubhagya program: 1,500 small and medium businesses from 15 districts received training on how to open business pages’

• Pandemic brings curtains down for small and medium cinemas

‘“There are some big Hollywood film releases this month, and if the Government increases the seating capacity from current 25% to 50%, there is hope for us…’

– ft.lk/front-page/Pandemic-brings-curtains-down-for-small-and-medium-cinemas/44-718878

• Why Was Sinhala language not used on this 15thC Zhang He plaque?

– island.lk/chinese-admiral-zheng-hes-trilingual-stela-in-galle/

• Laki Senanayake Works

– lakisenanayake.com/

• Condolence message on death of former The Island journalist

– island.lk/condolence-message-on-death-of-former-the-island-journalist/

– ft.lk/opinion/In-a-year-of-isolation-we-connected-A-personal-tribute-to-Qadri-Ismail/14-718856

• Desire for virality through exaggeration. Simply put it’s horror-porn

– dailymirror.lk/opinion/In-this-time-of-our-Collective-hallucinations/172-213231

• Developing cultural products and services to promote Viet Nam’s image to the world

– tapchicongsan.org.vn/web/english/culture-society/-/asset_publisher/nI7yCFQ01T3T/content/developing-cultural-products-and-services-to-promote-viet-nam-s-image-to-the-world

• How ProtonMail Lost The Public Trust It Needs To Do Business

‘ProtonMail is a Swiss provider of an end-to-end encrypted email application. The service is free to use for consumers but sold to businesses and other organizations. ProtonMail claims to have “Swiss Privacy Data Security and Neutrality”. But how far can one trust ProtonMail’s claims of a secure service when it is openly breaking, as we show below, its pledge of neutrality?’

– moonofalabama.org/2021/05/how-protonmail-lost-the-public-trust-it-needs-to-do-business.html

• ‘Like An Amoral Infant’ – How ProtonMail Contributes To False Media Claims About Belarus

– moonofalabama.org/2021/05/like-an-amoral-infant-how-protonmail-contributes-to-false-media-claims-about-belarus.html#comments

• Western media outlets, NGOs and powerful governments allied with the USA work in unison to deceive people about foreign policy

– blackagendareport.com/bar-book-forum-justin-podur-and-joe-emersbergers-extraordinary-threat

• Paul Jay and Sharmini Peries Ousted from The Real News Network in June; Current Fundraiser Hides that Fact; Falling Viewership and Liberal Turn Result

– nakedcapitalism.com/2019/11/paul-jay-and-sharmini-peries-ousted-from-the-real-news-network-in-june-current-fundraiser-hides-that-fact-falling-viewership-and-liberal-turn-result.html

• RSS Affiliate Sewa Bharati Made Nodal Agency for Distribution of Centre’s Ayush-64

– newsclick.in/RSS-Affiliate-Sewa-Bharati-Made-Nodal-Agency-Distribution-Centre-Ayush-64

• For the First Time Ever, the White House Celebrates Vesak, the Buddha’s Birthday

– lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/05/29/for-the-first-time-ever-the-white-house-celebrates-vesak-the-buddhas-birthday/

• The Politics of Performance Art

‘Performance art has the power to make the future felt in the present. “We are in the world that we want to create right now”.’

– blackagendareport.com/politics-performance

• Craig Murray’s Trial: Denial to Murray of the right to appeal

– craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/06/craig-murrays-trial-what-happens-next/

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• Please note our new email address: econenews@gmail.com,

and our blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

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