‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’
e-Con e-News 13-19 February 2022
“Colonies should not be permitted to manufacture so much as a horseshoe nail’
– William Pitt the Elder (Earl of Chatham, 1770)
• Astrologers! Here is a list of Planetary Coincidences: An all-new US Envoy disembarks, twittering of human rights, just as Sri Lanka pays $11million for a US military aircraft (made in Kansas, where MP Eran Wickramaratne’s Assembly of God first assembled).
• India promises an economic aid package ‘to be received by 1 March 2022’.
• The UN’s rogue Geneva Human Rights Commission will deliver accusations against Sri Lanka, February 28.
• On February 25, the US Treasury-controlled International Monetary Fund’s executive board will signal capitalists with a report on Sri Lanka’s economy.
• On February 19, Tamilnadu held urban elections where DMK politicians accused the BJP, who rule India’s centre, for not doing enough for Tamil people, tho they themselves fail to provide basic sanitation.
• On February 14, the England and Germany launched an exhibition in Sri Lanka on It’s About Time, a traveling history museum….Yet the English have removed their imperialist history from their own education system:
• Ahhhhhh! History is all about the future. It’s all about: Writing that Conquers! The road to Geneva is indeed paved with false memories (see, Random Notes).
• And so, India (who trained Eelam terrorists) pours oil & dollars down deep throats to lubricate the 13th Amendment & Trinco oil tanks. Where to, do these dollars and oil flow? To make and drive farm machinery? Industrial machinery? No! For people to drive Tata cars & Bajaj 3wheelers. Where are they driving to? To a factory to build machines? Nah! Nikang! To the supermarket to buy more imported goods. Their fuels feed private vehicles running nowhere in particular on the roads – such that oil imports here rose 88.2%, after a >100% increase in refined oil in December, to feed fuel to the petrol sheds. Here then is the Political Economy of Human Rights!
• While blaming Russia, the US and its white allies are threatening war in Eastern Europe and driving energy and food prices thru the roof. The US-controlled IMF and the latest pro-NATO government in Ukraine, will carry out ‘substantial privatization of banks and state enterprises in the interests of ‘efficiency’ and to control ‘corruption’’ (see ee Economists, Ukraine).
Meanwhile, the armies of France and other imperialists are bombing and murdering people in Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, across the Sahel. No headlines, here.
• Here headlines get more ridiculous: ‘Lanka warned of vehicles going off roads as forex crisis bites spare parts’. ‘Shortage of Suzuki car mirrors reflects SL’s growing economic crises’. And despite the fuel crisis, the ‘ADB funds 25 ambulances, 38 double cabs for countrywide hospitals, MOH offices.’ The ADB, a Japanese wooden horse, will of course not invest in making any of those vehicles or spare parts. No, never! Though as Garvin Karunaratne reminds, we were once quite capable of making rear-view mirrors! (ee Industry).
• The road to Geneva is paved with false memories. England’s history of imperialism has been removed from their education curriculum, yet England and Germany are funding history to teach Sri Lankans about Sri Lanka! Or are they rather funding erasure, teaching amnesia, and selective memory? Germany after all pioneered ‘Orientalist’ scholarship (see Random Notes)
• German hypocrisy on Trade Bans – In 2020, claiming an emergency, the German government’s BAFA banned export of facemasks and other medical protective equipment. Their ban was soon replaced by an EU Regulation prohibiting the export of medical gear to states outside of the EU. Violating such bans is punishable by German law with high sanctions up to imprisonment of the exporting company’s responsible employees and a fine.
Germany’s Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) is careful not to include ‘import control’ in its title. BAFA originated in 1954 as the Federal Office for Industrial Economics. So, what exactly is: “Industrial Economics“? BAFA, not only oversees German exports, weaponry and dual-use technology, they also enforce EU regulations on the import of specific goods including textile and steel (see ee Focus)
• Sri Lanka far exceeds far-more populous India – nay, all South Asia – in annually drenching arable land with imported chemical fertilizer. Yet, imperialism’s toxic salesforces merrily rouse their capitalist media and ‘scholars’, local and foreign, to stall attempts to heal the soil. Not a word is written about how they ban exports of machinery (that makes machines) to Sri Lanka: eg, machines to make better fertilizers and vaccines. This ‘economics of machines’ underpins all other concerns. They keep extracting huge royalties for patents & copyrights. This ee looks at how imperialists enforce their chemical & machine monopolies, while demanding we open our ports and other holes wide.
And so they adulterate these impertinences with adulation for ‘human rights’. Their deadly history – not just of tariffs, import restriction & substitutions – gives the US and the EU, led by Germany & England, no shame, as they wail against any import bans. So saccharine sweet of them! And how dare bitter we?
Contents:
A1. Reader Comments –
• Equality is not Economic • Publish ee World Histories • ee Podcast?
A2. Quotes of the Week
• USA is still Indian • The Crimes of Titanium & Graphene • R&D is mostly D •
A3. Random Notes –
• English & Germans Sponsor False Memory Syndrome • The Hulabaloo Toxin Cartel • Attack of the Bananas • Jesuit Spies • Fukushima Mon Amour • Hemas & Moderna Block Local Vax+ Production • No Mass Media Yet • Need for National Wage Policy • Per Cuts & Rocky • Singapore Freest Economy – for Arjuna too • HSBC’s Secret Offshore $Accounts • Taiwan’s Slavish Auto Industry
B. ee Focus
B1. A Short History of Protection & Preventing Export of Machinery
B2. Germany & its Import-Substitution Game
B3. The Biggest Chemical Exporters in the World
B4. How Ecuador Played the Stock Market Against So-called Debt Crisis
C. News Index
______________
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. Email: econenews@gmail.com
• ‘Super… enjoyed the telling truth of these, re Geneva: ‘a seasonal call to the principal’s office’ and re so-called socialists – ‘a conglomeration of ‘nice’ people, ‘woke’ people, who say all kinda good things against poverty, for equality, etc.’ I think the equality they understand is gender equality and that between minorities and the majority – eg, on religious, ethnic, sexuality and like measures, not economic.’
• ee should publish a Lanka-centric World History book, even if very few will read the whole thing…’
• ‘We’re still waiting for the ee podcast?’
______________
A2. Quotes of the Week_
• ‘The US has long been, is, and always will be an Indo-Pacific nation’ – US Secretary of State Anthony J Blinken (ee Sovereignty)
• ‘When talking about minerals, it is vitally important that the government should invite Public Private Partnership whilst keeping majority shares in the value-adding process for all our minerals such as ilmenite in making Titanium/Nano Titanium, rutile, graphite making graphene, phosphate in making much needed NPK fertilizer for the farming community, tea extracts such as antioxidants and in cosmetics… We are selling our gold. There are things more valuable than Gold itself. Sri Lanka is rich with all the natural resources of metals in its raw format, be it Graphite, ilmenite or phosphate from Eppawala to name a few. We have the best graphite in the world, whereas if you add value to it we can export graphene at USD700/kg… A ton can be sold for $25,000. We sell graphite in gunny-bags at a rate of $2000/ton. Is it not a crime?’ (ee Economists, Jayasuriya)
• ‘R&D is, in fact, overwhelmingly D. Yet, we know more about the 12% of R&D that constitutes basic research than of the 68% that constitutes development. While this may be understandable on the part of natural scientists, it is less so on the part of economists. Nevertheless, US thinking about the innovation process has focused excessively upon the earliest stages – the kinds of new products or technologies that occasionally emerge out of basic research, the creative leaps that sometimes establish entirely new product lines, the activities of the ‘upstream’ inventor or scientist rather than the ‘downstream’ engineer. US discussions of technical change are more likely to be presented in terms of major innovations and pioneering firms, rather than in terms of the success of particular sectors or firms at catching up and overtaking other organizations through sustained effort and small improvements. In this respect, the dominant view of the innovative process is still overly Schumpeterian, in its preoccupation with discontinuities and creative destruction, and its neglect of the cumulative power of numerous small, incremental changes. We suggest that the Japanese have had a much deeper appreciation of the economic significance of these vital development activities than their US counterparts. – Why are Americans Such Poor Imitators?, Nathan Rosenberg
______________
A3. Random Notes (‘Seeing Number in Chaos’)_
• Germany pioneered ‘Orientalist’ scholarship. Recall Wilhelm Geiger etc – who Munidasa Cumaratunga pilloried and Rapiel Tennakoon’s rapier wit impaled – for mangling the oldest continuous historical chronicle in the world, the Mahavamsa. Why is Germany so interested in recasting our history? German ‘Orientalism’ (first fabricated via Herder to Goethe, via Humboldt to Nietzsche, etc) claimed to seek their gods and origins not in a Jewish Jehovah, Adam and Eva by the Dead Sea, but in mythical white men they claimed as their true ancestral nobility – their version of Aryans – whose pale asses were chased away by Black monkeys in our part of the world. We cannot blame them – why worship gods that do not look like the people they serve? Better to invade places where they could lord it over us. And lord they do!
Yet, what is the government afraid of? The bankers’ debt agonies flicker with the power cuts, on the back ovens (for now), and here come the Geneva boys and girls, all fired up.
This white history aka historicaldialogue.lk is ‘supported by Strengthening Reconciliation Processes in Sri Lanka (SRP), jointly funded by the EU and the German Government. SRP is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the British Council.
The Germans also sponsor the Centre for Poverty Analysis, whose employees (except perhaps the peons, cooks & security) are anything but ‘impoverished’. So why don’t these Nazis support a ‘Centre for Wealth Analysis’ – and tell us how they got so rich?
• Oh! What a to-do, hullabaloo and brouhaha this ‘organic’ policy (for reasons of toxicity or saving dollars) has wrought. This ‘organic’ policy, reducing chemical kidney-damaging fertilizer/pesticide imports, has exposed many frauds. Fascinating insights have popped out about the monopoly media, and its control by multinationals and their import agents, who operate as massive cartels and lobbies.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) issued a Global Information & Early Warning System update on January 26, about Sri Lankan ‘people eating less or switching to cheaper and less nutritious food… due to skyrocketing inflation owing to the rupee’s depreciation coupled with the fertilizer crisis and a fuel shortage.’ Wow!
Where has this effin FAO been all these years? What have they ever said about malnutrition, and all the chemicals in our food, we’d really like to know? At first, ee thought it’s only the UNHRC that’s been hijacked. But no. What fools, as some readers rightly call ee – for not knowing the UN was and remains a white fraud, and needs to be liberated.
For now we have the UN joining with the MNCs (led here by Unilever, CIC/ICI, CTC, Baurs, etc), and the Agriculture Professors, etc. The sheer multibarrel barrage of words – media drones, like maddened dhimiyas and drunken bambaru attacking – launched from all sides & angles – bing, bang, bong – hourly and daily and by the nanosecond, of national and international news, all with one aim and one voice, just shows how the imperialist mafia truly operates. All these ‘experts’, professors, from (almost) around the world (or so they’d like us to think)! Wow! All on behalf of them MNCs.
This ee tosses a diminutive Molotov cocktail to expose the history of the MNC chemical monopolies in our lives. The combined power of the US, England and Germany. ee’s snapshot of German chemical history, looks at the origins of IG Farben, the folk who delivered poison gas to concentration-camp ovens. University of Moratuwa chemistry undergraduates have won some US Institute of Chemical Engineers award. We wonder if they’re taught such history of such chemistry, and why we have to only import them. No awards, for that.
• All roads lead to the imported dollar! And all imported vehicles lead to the roads. And every news item is glue-trapped in the US military’s worldwide web. All such information highways lead to the highway robbers. Whether it’s about the just-discovered people’s suffering – food, health, education. All news eventually links to the capitalists’ lack of access to dollars. This week, the JVP’s ‘Mass Artists’ joined the printing capitalists, who insist they need dollars to import paper, ink, of paper, inks, chemicals, flex & boards, printing plates, etc. Why don’t they just print the dollars! Anyway, the issue is not printing money, but for what is money being used? Meanwhile, remember (see, below) when HSBC SL was caught ferreting dollars off to secret offshore accounts? Did they ever stop? The truth is we have no control over capital. Until then, it’s Not Yet Uhuru (Nidhasa), as our African comrades across the Indian Ocean, remind.
• Attack of the Bananas – The media choirs are threatening and cajoling the government to respect human rights and do away with import restrictions. The US/EU-funded National Peace Council claims we’ll lose access to white markets if we do not properly reconcile by doing away with security laws quite similar to their own funders. Meanwhile France is bombing people in Mali and Burkina Faso, the US is starving an entire people in Afghanistan, while robbing their central bank. They, England and their West Asian dupes are also starving and bombing Yemen, Syria, Libya, etc. Destabilizing Myanmar.
White, as ee keeps insisting, is not just an imaginary pigmentation. Listen: ‘New US ambassador to Sri Lanka reiterates human rights, accountability her priorities’.
The new US envoy (who an ee correspondent last week rudely called a ‘banana’ – slavish Korean yellow on the outside, white on the inside) flies in, claiming to be an expert on human rights. And another banana expert, the US State Department’s Donald Lu will arrive, after colluding with the Eelamist lobbies they fund, to also tell us about human rights. These bananas are experts on human rights everywhere except within the US itself, where attacks on Asians (read ‘slant eyes’ like these State Dept kneegrows sent to us) have risen 400-700% the last year.
• The Catholic Church, one of the most powerful multinational corporations in the world, with links into almost every nook and country, cannot use its Vatican links and Jesuitical spy networks (Jesuitical also means, ‘dissembling or equivocating’) to uncover who was behind the April 2019 Easter Terror.
• While Pacific nations are objecting to Japan dumping a million tons of radioactive Fukushima waste water into the Pacific’s seas, Japan is supporting the ‘offshore spill response capabilities of Sri Lanka’s Coast Guard!’ While Indian capitalists are plundering our seas (& other liquid assets), Australia is worried about us exporting workers by sea (even as they hint they need more farm workers to grow parippu to sell to us!), see ee Security.
• Hail Hemas! Moderna, Pfizer and other MNC drugmakers have lobbied successfully to block a waiver on Covid vaccine patent rights at the World Trade Organization. While its companies are blocking vaccine production in the rest of the world, for over a year now, the EU this week wants to promote ‘wellness tourism’ in Sri Lanka. At the same time, the EU and US have blocked ‘Exports of critical raw materials used in the production of some Covid-19 vaccines as a result of Biden’s decision to invoke the US Defense Production Act.’ While demanding no import controls, etc, the EU is seeking emergency powers on supply chains to ‘Address structural strategic dependencies, diversify sources of supply and increase EU industrial capacities… include measures aimed at reducing the EU’s dependence on China’. And this week, Germany was exercising its trade powers, when it blocked their NATO ally Estonia from ‘Transferring German Weapons to the Ukraine’.
• Why does ee refer to a ‘capitalist media’. Isn’t it a mass media? No! Most articles are copy-paste jobs of business press releases, giving mouth (& our ears & eyes) to capitalists and their superficial interests. Rarely, is there any detailed exploration of working-class issues. A small news item mentions the GMOA’s assertion this week that behind many strikes is the lack of a National Wage Policy and the ad-hoc gifting of benefits to workers (ee Workers).
The media overflows with stories about impending power-cuts and need for dollars, provoking panic (ee Industry). Not one story discusses how Sri Lanka was prevented from developing its own energy resources, and now made dependent on Rockefeller’s Exxon-Chevron etc, who also fund many thinktanks (Pathfinder, Advocata etc) and NGOs, who merely add to the media diversion.
The capitalist media, however. only wishes to destroy any labor laws, and the right of workers to withdraw their labor. Whereas there’s little examination of how capitalists are hourly preventing the country from advance.
• HSBC’s PR department was working overtime this week, announcing a ‘new season with special emphasis on societal, environmental wellbeing’. Along with ‘Fair & Lovely’ Unilever, the Wildlife 7 Nature Protection Society, the UNFP etc. Dermatology turns out to be a white-run turn-white growth industry (ee Industry, Skin). So HSBC is concerned not about capital but suddenly about society? Check this:
• Singapore is the ‘freest economy’ in the world announced the capitalist US Heritage Foundation. Sri Lanka’s former Central Banker, Arjuna Mahendran will most certainly agree. A wanted criminal, Mahendran is indeed ‘free’ in Singapore. An original English pirates’ haven for opium smugglers, like colonial Hong Kong, Singapore is providing a luxurious hideout. Singapore is still a laundry for a lot of dollars stolen from Sr Lanka. The refining scam, perpetrated by the Rockefeller ‘sisters’, Chevron et al, sees crudes extracted from West Asia, sailed past us to industrial Singapore and then brought here as refined oil to be sold at inflated prices, as Sri Lanka’s most expensive import bill.
A former wealth manager from HSBC, Pamankade Arjuna aka Royal-College Arjuna was made governor of the Central Bank, where he and his associates in the ‘good governance’ clique robbed the treasury, and their subset, the footnote clique who helped him escape, are now experts on corruption!
Mahendran also helped HSBC steal state funds intended for agricultural programs. HSBC passed ‘bogus’ loans to agriculture sector clients, to meet a Monetary Board (MB) stipulation that 10% of the loan portfolio of all commercial banks must go towards the agriculture sector. At first only HSBC’s local Chief Risk Officer (CRO) was suspended in December 2015, to protect the CEO Patrick Gallagher. ‘It is always the local staff that suffer and have to pay the price’.
The CBSL was ‘informally’ aware of what was going on, but former governor Mahendran’s connections with HSBC (as its former Wealth Manager in Singapore) had allegedly helped avert trouble. HSBC rejected the media’s assertion that the agriculture sector clients whose accounts were used for malpractice purposes, were not aware loans were being passed to them. Yet HSBC declined to provide its 2015 lending figures.
Earlier, some senior HSBC managers and staff were sacked after allegations they had fudged incentives-linked performance figures. HSBC then paid off employees to be silent. There was so much secrecy, they were instructed to provide bank account #s outside HSBC for individual payments to be deposited. The money was then remitted from Hong Kong.
HSBC SL also violated exchange-control regulations by opening offshore current accounts in its Maldives branch for domestic corporate sector clients who used the Sri Lanka government’s External Commercial Borrowing Scheme (ECBS). It allowed local companies to borrow outside Sri Lanka up to US$30million or its equivalent value in any other foreign currency. These transactions were done via various Lanka-based banks.
HSBC SL allegedly facilitated borrowings through the ECBS but, instead of setting up offshore loan accounts for clients, opened current accounts – which are transaction accounts and, therefore, prohibited – on behalf of several of them in infringement of Sri Lanka’s exchange-control regulations (sundaytimes.lk/161002/news/another-scandal-reported-at-hsbc-forex-law-violations-under-probe-211218.html).
• Taiwan has a thriving auto industry – it is half Sri Lanka’s size, yet equally populated. Over 70 Taiwan auto part and component suppliers play a major role in serving Ford, GM, Chrysler, Benz, BMW, Honda. They also supply 90% of the total annual purchases of 4 Taiwan auto manufacturers: China Motor Corp (Mitsubishi), Hotai Motors Corp (Toyota), Yulon Motor Co (Nissan), and Sanyang Industry Co (Hyundai). The 4 automobile manufacturers are the main customers for most of the suppliers. Yet up to 75% of the auto parts and components manufactured in Taiwan are for export. The US is the major export destination, followed by Asia and Europe. Auto parts and components manufactured in Taiwan have a complete supply chain, and include automobile electronics, punching articles, safety buckles, sunshades, transmissions, tailpipes, lamps, etc. And yet, Taiwan, like Japan and South Korea, is a colony, colonized by the Great White Father in Washington.
______________
B. Special Focus_
B1. A Short History of Protection & Preventing Export of Machinery
‘Once English entrepreneurs had demonstrated the superiority of machinery in the manufacture of textiles, in the decades following inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton & Cartwright, traditional efforts to contain English technology within the kingdom were intensified. Checks against the outflow of England’s early industrial technology were applied both by private business and the government. The attitudes of suspicion and secrecy displayed by numerous early-19th-century manufacturing firms are well known. Even more familiar are numerous aspects of the protectionist system constructed by 17-18th-century governments. But relatively little has been written on the working of English legislation aimed at the retention of technology.’ (‘Damming the Flood: English Government Efforts to Check the Outflow of Technicians & Machinery’, 1780-1843, DJ Jeremy)
’19th-century German economist Friedrich List (1789-1846) is commonly known as the father of the infant industry argument, namely, the view that in the presence of more organised countries, backward countries cannot develop new industries without state intervention, especially tariff protection. Yet List himself first learned about industrial protection during his exile in the USA (from Daniel Raymond, Mathew Carey, Alexander Hamilton). The USA in turn had learned the lesson from studying England’s rise against Europe’s domination, learning not from England’s sermons.
List’s first petition for the Union of German Merchants & Manufacturers, was against the division of Germany into small states. His masterpiece, The National System of Political Economy, originally published in 1841: the first 115 of 435 pages review the trade and industrial policies of the major western countries up to his time. He also surveys Venice (& other Italian states), the Hanseatic cities (led by Hamburg & Lubeck), the Netherlands, England, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, and the USA.’
List’s accounts are exactly the opposite of the fake economic histories Sri Lankans are taught about these countries. List analyses England and the USA, ‘the supposed homes of liberal economic policy’.
The USA has been called the ‘mother country and bastion of modern protectionism’ (Paul Bairoch). England did not want to industrialize the colonies & duly implemented anti-industrialization policies. Around 1776 settler independence, Southern US agrarian interests opposed any protection, while Northern manufacturing interests wanted it: Their most ardent representative was Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the US Treasury (1789-95), whose Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury on the Subject of Manufactures (1791) shows that it’s not List, as often thought, who first systematically set out the infant industry argument.
List argued, England was ‘actually the first country to perfect the art of infant industry promotion’, which in his view was the principle behind most countries’ journey to prosperity. List said, ‘let [whoever is not convinced of the infant industry argument] first study the history of English industry’. He summarized the English road to industrial success: ‘The great [England] monarchies perceived that the highest degree of civilisation, power and wealth can only be attained by a combination of manufactures and commerce with agriculture. They perceived that their newly established native manufactures could never hope to succeed in free competition with the old and long-established manufactures of foreigners [Italians, Hansards, Belgians, Dutch]… Hence they sought, by a system of restrictions, privileges, and encouragements, to transplant on to their native soil the wealth, the talents, and the spirit of enterprise of foreigners.’
For List, English politicians and economists preaching on the virtues of free trade, was for nationalistic purposes, even though cast in the generalistic language of what he called ‘cosmopolitical doctrine’: ‘It is a very common clever device that when anyone has attained the summit of greatness, he kicks away the ladder by which he has climbed up, in order to deprive others of the means of climbing up after him… Any nation which by means of protective duties and restrictions on navigation has raised her manufacturing power and navigation to such a degree of development that no other nation can sustain free competition with her, can do nothing wiser than to throw away these ladders of her greatness, to preach to other nations the benefits of free trade, and to declare in penitent tones that she has hitherto wandered in the paths of error, and has now for the first time succeeded in discovering the truth.’
As for the US, List pointed out, the country had previously been misjudged by great economic theorists Adam Smith and Jean Baptiste Say as being ‘like Poland’, ie, destined to rely on agriculture. Indeed, Smith in Wealth of Nations sternly warned the US against any attempt at infant industry promotion…
Two generations later, when List was writing, many Europeans still shared Smith’s view. Fortunately for them, List argued, the US firmly rejected Smith’s analysis in favour of ‘common sense‘ and ‘the instinct of what was necessary for the nation’, proceeding to protect their infant industries with great success after 1816. List’s observation was more than vindicated subsequently, as the US remained the most ardent practitioner – and the intellectual home – of protectionism for a century after he wrote, but also became the world’s industrial leader by the end of that period. List was also proven right by subsequent historical events with regard to ‘kicking away the ladder’. When its industrial supremacy became absolutely clear after World War 2, the US was no different from 19th-century England in promoting free trade, despite the fact it acquired such supremacy through the nationalistic use of heavy protectionism….
England & IPR – ‘By mid 19th century, the key technologies had become so complex that the importing of skilled workers and machinery was not enough to achieve command over a technology. Reflecting this, the English bans on skilled worker emigration and machinery exports had by that point been abolished. From then on, an active transfer by the owner of technological knowledge through the licensing of patents emerged as a key tech-transfer channel in a number of industries. This made the policies and institutions regarding the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) a lot more important than they had previously been. This eventually culminated in the emergence of the international IPR regime, following the 1883 Paris Convention on patents and the 1886 Berne Convention on copyrights, under pressure from the technologically more advanced countries, especially the US and France.
1790 -1850, most Now-Developed Countries (NDCs) established their patent laws. However, all these earlier patent laws were highly deficient, judged by the modern standards demanded even from the developing countries after the TRIPS (trade-related intellectual property rights) agreement in the WTO…
What is notable is that, despite the emergence of an international IPR regime in the last years of the 19thC, even the most advanced countries were still routinely violating the IPR of other countries’ citizens well into the 20thC. Switzerland and the Netherlands did not have a patent law until 1907 and 1912 respectively. Even the US, already a strong advocate of patentee rights, did not acknowledge foreigners’ copyrights until 1891. As late as the last decades of the 19thC, when Germany was about to overtake England technologically, there was great concern in England over the widespread German violation of its trademarks.
At the same time, the Germans were complaining about the absence of a patent law in Switzerland and the consequent theft of German intellectual property by Swiss firms, notably in the chemical industry. Although England did not have a trademark law until 1862, ‘as early as the 1830s a number of English manufacturers were continuously engaged in litigation to protect trademarks’.
In 1862, England introduced a trademark law (Merchandise Mark Act), which banned ‘commercial thievery’, such as the forging of trademarks and the labelling of false quantities. In the 1887 revision of the act, mindful of foreign, particularly German, infringement of the English trademark law, the English Parliament specifically added the place or the country of manufacture as part of the necessary ‘trade description’. This revised act banned not only patently false descriptions but also misleading descriptions – such as the then widespread German practice of selling counterfeit Sheffield cutlery with fake logos. According to this act, ‘it [was] a penal offence to sell an article made abroad which has upon it any word or mark leading the purchaser to believe that it is made in England, in the absence of other words denoting the real place of origin’… the law also made specific provision requiring that ‘foreign goods marked with the name of an English dealer carry indication or place name of their foreign origin as well’.
However, German firms employed a range of measures to get around this act: eg, they placed the country of origin’s stamp on the packaging instead of the individual articles, so once the packaging was removed customers could not tell the products’ country of origin (a technique said to be common in imports of watches, files).
Alternatively, they would send some articles over in pieces and have them assembled in England (a method apparently common for pianos, bicycles), or would place the country-of-origin stamp where it was practically invisible. Williams documents: ‘One German firm, which exports to England large numbers of sewing-machines, conspicuously labeled “Singers” and “North-British Sewing Machines”, places the Made in Germany stamp in small letters underneath the treadle. Half a dozen seamstresses might combine their strength to turn the machine bottom-upwards, and read the legend: otherwise it would go unread’. (from Ha-Joon Chang, Kicking Away the Ladder, Development Strategy in Historical Perspective,)
_________
B2. Germany & its Import-Substitution Game
‘We know from experience that all over continental Europe economic units which could rightly be designated cartels according to traditional nomenclature, substituted less significant words in their titles for the expression “cartel,” such as association, federation, bureau, company, entente, comptoir, convention, agreement. Even in Germany, often regarded as the mother country of cartels, terms like Verband, Gemeinschaft, Konvention have been applied, though no one denied that these organizations were typical of cartels. No important international cartel included in its official name the word cartel.’ – International Cartels in the Postwar World, Ervin Hexner
After 2 European-led ‘world wars’, wholesale mass murder, destruction and dissolution of their major monopolies, Germany still remains the world’s largest chemical exporter, with BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, among the world’s top chemical industries. It’s no wonder Germany is giving us lectures on ‘human rights’, and import restrictions, etc.
From the 19th century the use of nitrates and ammonia for explosives, fertilizers and industrial feedstock increased. This required increased exploitation of niter deposits and guano from the tropics. At the start of the 20thC, the English still dominated the heavy chemical industry. The US (Dupont) and the English (Nobel) dominated the explosives industry. The English and the US controlled the most important source of nitrogen, the Chilean saltpetre deposits, and their navies controlled the sea routes.
Chemical Industries Colombo (CIC)’s English owner Imperial Chemical Industries was also heavily funded by the English government to develop the hydrogenation process (of bituminous coal, producing synthetic fuel). The food industry hydrogenates vegetable oils to convert into semi/solid fats used in spreads, candies, baked goods, margarine. The petrochemical industry uses hydrogenation to convert alkenes & aromatics into saturated alkanes (paraffins) & cycloalkanes (naphthenes). Also converting unsaturated compounds (alkenes, alkynes, baldehydes, imines, nitriles) into saturated derivatives, alcohols, amines.
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) dominated the dyestuffs trade. Most natural dyes are derived from non-animal sources: roots, berries, bark, leaves, wood, fungi, lichens. Most synthetic dyes, made from petrochemicals, now used in organic dye lasers, optical media (CD-R) and camera sensors (color filter array).
ICI used the media to patriotically insist that the English government should invest in hydrogenation to relieve their depressed coal industry and contribute towards wars to defend England and its empire!
Germany therefore invested heavily in building large synthesis plants using BASF’s Haber-Bosch process. They also synthesised organic acids (acetone), rubber (methylene rubber) and staple rayon, developing new processes to promote import substitution. Countries that depended on imports from Germany also then invested in local chemical industry to produce explosives and poison gas.
In 1904 BASF, Bayer and AGFA created the Interessengemeinschaft (IG, Combine), dominating the international dyestuffs trade, and expanding into pharmaceuticals and photography. In 1913 Germany’s BASF synthesized ammonia using the Haber process (high-pressure catalytic hydrogenation of nitrogen) on an industrial scale. They set up sales outlets and agencies in almost every country. To get around countries with effective trade barriers & import duties, Germany set up branch plants in Russia, England, the US, France, Belgium. These branch plants only produced ‘special products’ in those countries, their main aim to guarantee the validity of patents and trademarks. They also had to import many of their inputs.
During WW1, weapons required large amounts of nitrate, derived from large sodium nitrate deposits in Chile (saltpetre) controlled by English companies. Germany used the Haber process to produce nitric acid, for the later nitrates used in explosives.
After WW1, a defeated Germany had to share information on chemical processes in order to re-establish international agreements, with other imperialist governments, such as the IG-French Nitrogen Agreement of 1919. These agreements between chemical corporations were more important than national trade policies in determining the terms of international trade.
In 1923 Germany struck deals with the US companies that had grabbed their assets during WW1. They set up Winthrop Chemical Co, to incorporate former confiscated Bayer assets, and retain their profitable aspirin profits and trademark rights for the Americas and England. They also made agreements with US dyestuffs and photographic companies.
IG also developed crucial foreign links with Central Europe, Spain, Italy. IG’s Dynamit-Actien-Gesellschaft (DAG) controlled Dynamit Nobel Bratislava (DNB), a holding company dominating chemical industries in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, Yugoslavia. In 1924 IG struck an export trade pact between DAG, Brunner, Mond & Co, and DuPont.
In the 1920s classical dyestuffs profits shrank, but new products, especially nitrogen fertilizer profits grew. Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG or IG Farben (German for ‘Colors’) was formed in 1925, merging Germany’s 8 biggest chemical firms to dominate the dyestuffs, pharmaceutical, photographic industries.
The mergers mainly resulted from the need to pool technological resources, also adding new fields, eg, metals, artificial silk, gasoline. Technological progress also promoted pharmaceutical and dyestuffs profits, as well as new products like synthetic methyl alcohol, light washing dyes, indanthrene dye (for food, clothes, paints), vulcanisation-accelerators, new solvents, special lubricants. IG then set up a dyestuffs cartel with US Dupont & English ICI, and a French-Swiss-English German dye-cartel, with the US hiding behind England.
In 1926 IG reconquered the German explosives trade, along with chemicals (coal, coal-tar & derivatives), cellulose, and mining. IG Farben became Germany greatest producer of explosives.
In 1928 Germany eventually set up a holding company (US IG Chemical Corp) to take over the shares of companies that had been confiscated during WW1, and transferred them to a Swiss holding company formed in 1928 to provide a ‘neutral platform’ for multinational movers. A controversial ‘procedure’ to this day.
In 1929 Rockefeller’s Standard Oil and IG secretly divided the chemical oil industries to extend hydrogenation and rubber synthesis from oil: IG would stay out of the oil business, except in Germany, and Standard would stay out of the world chemical industry, including the US.
A German-English-Norwegian (DEN) nitrogen export cartel and general European cartel (CIA) was also set up to monopolize the international nitrogen trade. In 1930 ICI joined the DEN export cartel, which became the core of the later general nitrogen cartel. ICI’s directors in 1933 included former viceroy of India (Lord Reading) and former Secretary of State for Air (Lord Weir).
A Joint American Study Company (JASCO) was set up by IG and Rockefeller for common research and to avoid competition. IG also made agreements for magnesium and glycols with other US firms like Alumini Co (ALCOA) and Union Carbide. In 1932 US Dupont began to market commercial rubber, then synthetic fibre (1938). In 1938 CIA and Chilean salpetre exporters formed a cartel.
In 1933 the Nazi German government guaranteed IG Farben, prices and sales for 300,000 tons of petrol, enabling full use and covering any losses. In 1936 Goering, as political head of economic planning, entrusted research & development within their 4-Year Plan to the head of IG’s nitrogen division. IG also introduced new products like modern plastics, synthetic rubber, fibres, detergents, fatty acids.
By 1937 IG was the sole producer of methylalcohol, magnesium, nickel, synthetic tanning agents, sera, and cellophane, dominating dyestuffs, photographics and organic intermediates, solvents, plastics and plasticisers, and nitrogen. The German market was completely regulated by conventions, cartels and syndicates…
The Anglo-US powers broke up Germany’s IG Farben, famous for its Zyklon-B concentration-camp poison gas, into BASF, Bayer, and Hoechst, who, with the US and Switzerland, still dominate the world’s chemical industries. In the 1960s there was a huge increase in nitrogen fertilizers with the so-called Green Revolution – to prevent the ‘Red Revolution’ kind, by soaking the earth in carcinogenic chemicals, to then sell medicines and vaccines, sectors they also dominate. (Data from: The Political Framework of Structural Modernisation: The I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, 1904–1945, by Gottfried Plumpe)
__________
B3. The Biggest Chemical Exporters in the World
The chemical industry around the world is worth US$4trillion. In 2020 its export value totalled $1.347trn, led by North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. Involving nearly every goods-producing sector in the world, the chemical industry represents 7% of the world’s GDP, supporting 120 million jobs worldwide.
Germany – In 2020 German chemical exports were worth €192.1billion. 3,000 chemical companies employed 464,400 people as Germany’s 3rd-largest industry, after automotive, machinery & equipment. They had 70% of the European chemical export market. In 2018 they spent $118.5bn on R&D – 3.1% of GDP. They produce polymers, speciality chemicals, petrochemicals, inorganic basic chemicals, pharmaceuticals.
USA – The US chemical industry employs 529,000 people. In 2020 US chemical exports reached $184bn. The world’s biggest chemical companies are US: Dow, LyondellBasell, DuPont. In 2020 Dow’s revenue was $38.5bn – the 2nd-largest chemical company after Germany’s BASF. US production is along the Gulf Coast, with natural gas and petroleum feedstock refineries. Louisiana and Texas mainly produce primary petrochemicals. Fertilizers, plastics and pharmaceuticals are produced elsewhere. Canada, Mexico, China are the 3 biggest importers of US chemicals.
China – 2019 China chemical exports, $130.29bn. Of $4trn in global revenue, 41% came from China. Domestic chemical consumption was $1.7trin. 75% of chemical exports are organic chemicals. Total revenue organic chemicals of $314bn, employing 710,000 people. Mostly state-owned, the petrochemical, oil and gas sector, is headed by PetroChina and Sinopec, each with $392bn in revenue in 2020.
Ireland – In 2019 chemicals were 60% of Ireland’s total exports, worth $104.5bn, employing 30,000 directly and 30,000 indirectly. Mostly dominated by Pharma companies producing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) or dosages. In biopharmaceutical manufacturing, Ireland is 2nd to the US. API facilities cluster around Cork, dealing with high-end chemical synthesis. Dublin invests in drug product formulation, chemical synthesis, abiotechnology manufacture (+ fermentation, purification, formulation). Investment in new chemicals, 2012-20, was €10 billion in capital projects, with 2018 R&D expenditure of $657.6mn.
Switzerland – 2019 chemical exports, worth $123.3bn, were from ~1000 chemical, Pharma and biotech companies employing 74,200 people, 338,000 worldwide. The chemical industry is Switzerland’s biggest exporter, contributing 47% of total exports. In 2018 the sector invested $7.8bn in R&D, a third of their worldwide research investment, with focus on speciality chemicals – pharmaceuticals & diagnostics, vitamins, crop protection agents, flavours & fragrances, fine chemicals, pigments & dyestuffs. The Swiss chemical industry’s biggest corporates (including Pharma) are Novartis, Roche, Syngenta, Firmenich, Givaudan. (see: nesfircroft.com/blog/2021/12/the-top-5-biggest-chemical-exporters-in-the-world)
__________
B4. How Ecuador Played the Stock Market Against So-called Debt Crisis
In the years since the 1980s’ so-called ‘developing country debt crisis’, a growing number of scholars and activists have advocated an [unilateral default] approach on the basis of the idea that many heavily indebted countries’ obligations are in fact ‘odious’. The concept of odious debt was first developed by legal theorist Alexander Sack in 1927, who argued that a loan cannot be considered binding upon the nation if it was contracted without the consent and benefit of the general public. The basic idea is that, insofar as it can be proven that creditors were aware of this fact when they first extended the loan, the debt fails to qualify as an obligation of the nation and instead constitutes a personal debt of the ruler, meaning that its binding nature legally expires along with the fall of the regime or government that contracted the original loan.
In recent years, the concept of odious debt was perhaps most prominently drawn upon by Rafael Correa in an attempt to legitimize the Ecuadorian payment suspension and debt buyback of 2008. After a debt audit commission made up of representatives from grassroots movements, civil society organizations and government institutions concluded that part of the country’s obligations since the 1970s were indeed odious, Correa declared a unilateral moratorium on two-thirds of Ecuador’s outstanding foreign commercial obligations; an uncompromising position his government maintained for 6 months, during which it secretly instructed the US investment bank Lazard to begin buying back its defaulted bonds on secondary markets at discounts as low as 20 cents on the dollar. Through this neat trick, the government succeeded in purchasing over 90% of its own worthless obligations, extinguishing $3.2billion in external debt in the process, for a cost of only $900million… the total savings from the default (including interest) amounted to $7bn, ‘which became available for social spending for items such as healthcare, education and infrastructure development’.
Today, Ecuador’s default stands out as an exceptional case in which a developing country defied its foreign creditors without suffering debilitating economic spillover costs. The fact remains, however, that the relatively successful outcome of Correa’s confrontational debt strategy occurred under the same favorable external conditions as Argentina’s debt restructuring of 2005. As in Argentina, the international commodity boom rendered Ecuador much less dependent on international capital markets and international financial institutions, contributing to a breakdown of the first and second enforcement mechanisms. Combined with intense popular pressure from below, in the form of mass mobilizations that contributed to the ouster of several presidents in the years preceding the default, disarming the third mechanism of internalized debtor discipline in the process, these external conditions greatly expanded the government’s room for maneuver compared to the capital-scarce environment it had encountered in the 1980-90s. Under less-forgiving external conditions, the situation might have been very different, leaving Ecuador considerably more vulnerable to a strong market reaction and aggressive official creditor intervention.
In normal circumstances, unilateral default strategies therefore run into the same set of constraints that all other solutions to debt cancellation have encountered over the past 4 decades: the structural power of capitalist finance. Clearly, unilateral solutions alone cannot resolve the systemic problem of the debtors’ limited policy autonomy – at least not in the absence of a broader shift in the international balance of forces underpinning the creditor-friendly status quo. (from: Why Not Default? The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt, Jerome Roos)
__________________________________________________________
C. News Index______________________________________________
• ee News Index provides headlines & links to make sense of the weekly focus of published English ‘business news’ to expose the backwardness of multinational, corporate 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 (machine-making) industrialization fueled by a producer culture.
• Erasing the Eelam Victory Part 26A
‘UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon sent his chief of staff, Nambiar to meet the President. UN wanted an immediate ceasefire. USA wanted a meeting between the UN representative and Prabhakaran as well. Representatives of UN, UNDP, ICRC together with the ambassadors for USA, India and European Union met the Foreign Minister. ‘
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/18/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-26a/
• Modi expected to arrive through Palaly
– island.lk/modi-expected-to-arrive-through-palaly/
• Jaffna Choon Paan Bread Delivery plays Latest Indian Tamil music
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/18/sri-lankas-musical-tuk-tuks-blare-beethoven-as-they-deliver-fresh-bread/
• Top US official here next month
‘US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu… with the Tamil National Alliance and Global Tamil Forum in Washington last November, Donald Lu had underscored that human rights was central to US foreign policy on Sri Lanka’
– dailymirror.lk/print/front_page/Top-US-official-here-next-month/238-231328
• Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Wang Wenbin Remarks on China-Sri Lanka cooperation
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/17/chinese-foreign-ministry-spokesperson-wang-wenbins-remarks-on-china-sri-lanka-cooperation/
• Geneva: circuses and audiences
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Geneva-circuses-and-audiences/231-231204
“The US and Sri Lanka have a lot in common”: New US envoy to SL
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Im-so-excited-to-represent-US-on-this-beautiful-island-New-US-envoy-to-SL/108-231368
• Dollars to Swallow India’s 13th Amendment? – Nalin de Silva
– kalaya.org/?p=5048
• India has thrown a lifeline to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC)
– island.lk/fodder-for-thought/
• Current political crisis through the eyes of ex-Ambassador to Myanmar
‘Prof. Nalin de Silva has questioned the absence of a ‘mechanism’ to implement President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s strategies’
– island.lk/current-political-crisis-through-the-eyes-of-ex-ambassador-to-myanmar/
• Burying Indian Ocean Peace Zone in the high seas
‘IOPZ drew support from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) at the UN during the Cold War years and anti-Western imperialism also because of Diego Garcia where original inhabitants were expelled by colonial power England and a military base carved out there by the US….With the increasing importance of the Indo-Pacific region for the US, a Peace Zone in the Indian Ocean may not be a political reality’
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/sunday-times-2/burying-indian-ocean-peace-zone-in-the-high-seas-472181.html
• Motion for “Indian fishermen’s illegal trawling in Northern waters’ withdrawn
‘Tamil National Peoples’ Front motion withdrawn after assurances by Indian High Commission’
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/seized-indian-vessels-go-under-the-hammer-rs-5-2mn-raised-472267.html
• Geneva sessions: Lanka seeks backing of Southern African countries
– island.lk/geneva-sessions-lanka-seeks-backing-of-southern-african-countries/
• Ahead of 49th Geneva sessions: FM questions English duplicit, UN interference
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/14/ahead-of-49-geneva-sessions-fm-questions-uk-duplicity-un-interference-in-parliamentary-functions/
• England works overtime to prevent a senior English MP from securing classified documents
– island.lk/ahead-of-49-geneva-sessions-fm-questions-uk-duplicity-un-interference-in-parliamentary-functions/
• New US ambassador to Sri Lanka reiterates human rights, accountability her priorities
– island.lk/new-u-s-ambassador-to-sri-lanka-reiterates-human-rights-accountability-her-priorities/
• Lanka gets opportunity to counter Feb 28 accusations by UNHRC’s Bachelet at 49th session
– island.lk/lanka-gets-opportunity-to-counter-accusations/
• 2021 UN Human Rights Council wanted Adherence to 13th Amendment – USAID NPC Perera
– island.lk/elections-to-revive-democratic-legitimacy/
• Geneva controversy: Ambika hits back hard at Foreign Ministry
– island.lk/geneva-controversy-ambika-hits-back-hard-at-foreign-ministry-2/
• Weaponising human rights: The dilemma for Sri Lanka at UNHRC
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/sunday-times-2/weaponising-human-rights-the-dilemma-for-sri-lanka-at-unhrc-472188.html
• Foreign Minister meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not materialise
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/columns/spreading-covid-19-ruling-alliance-faces-charges-of-hypocrisy-472430.html
• Misleading statements from High Commission in New Delhi branding every project “strategic.”
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/columns/slpp-launches-go-it-alone-political-campaign-in-apura-472345.html
• Sri Lanka-India ties at high point, concerns about Chinese presence in country ‘consigned to past’: GL Peiris – Nirupama Subramanian
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/12/sri-lanka-india-ties-at-high-point-concerns-about-chinese-presence-in-country-consigned-to-past-g-l-peiris/
• Basil to visit India again to finalize agreements
– adaderana.lk/news/80575/basil-to-visit-india-again-to-finalize-agreements
• 12 Indian fishermen arrested along with two trawlers in SL waters
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/12-Indian-fishermen-arrested-along-with-two-trawlers-in-SL-waters/108-230977
– timesonline.lk/news-online/Navy-seizes-two-Indian-poaching-trawlers-in-Lankan-waters/2-1136770
• Sri Lanka bringing Israel to help the country in defence and counter-terror activities.
‘Israel no doubt has the expertise, not in eliminating terrorism but in sustaining terrorism, to keep over hundreds of arms manufacturing factories in Israel and the US working’
– dailymirror.lk/news-features/UN-HRC-February-March-sessions-and-the-plight-of-Sri-Lankas-true-patriots/131-230992
• Sinhaladeepa (Sri Lanka) as Switzerland of the East – Reply to Dr. Jehan Perera
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/12/sinhaladeepa-sri-lanka-as-switzerland-of-the-east-reply-to-dr-jehan-perera/
• Xi Jinping Congratulatory Letter to the Chinese and Sri Lankan Political Parties
‘Celebrating the 65th Anniversary of the Establishment of China-Sri Lanka Diplomatic Relations and the 70th Anniversary of the Signing of the Rubber-Rice Pact’
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/18/xi-jinping-sends-a-congratulatory-letter-to-the-chinese-and-sri-lankan-political-parties-celebrating-the-65th-anniversary-of-the-establishment-of-china-sri-lanka-diplomatic-relations-and-the-70th-anni/
• Rebalancing India-China, The Sri Lanka Way – Sathiya Moorthy, Observer Research Foundation.
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/14/rebalancing-india-china-the-sri-lanka-way/
• Basil Rajapaksa’s NK weapons claim, displaying of LTTE image at Ind. Day galvanize media
– island.lk/brs-nk-weapons-claim-displaying-of-ltte-image-at-ind-day-galvanize-media-et-al/
• TNA commence island-wide campaign against PTA
– timesonline.lk/news-online/TNA-commence-island-wide-campaign-against-PTA/2-1136800
• Sampanthan writes to UNHRC
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/16/sampanthan-writes-to-unhrc/
• Criticisms against Prevention of Terrorism Bill are “unfair”: GL
– themorning.lk/g-l-says-criticism-of-pta-amendments-unfair-wrong/
• Eve of the 65th anniversary of Russia-Sri Lanka ties
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Two-countries-look-for-ties-covering-entire-spectrum/108-231366
• Why US QUAD Is Irreplaceable
– strategic-culture.org/news/2022/02/14/why-quad-is-irreplaceable/
• Is India Bangladesh’s True Friend And Well Wisher?
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/13/is-india-bangladeshs-true-friend-and-well-wisher/
• Mohini, the-She-Devil, Insisting Her Baby on Nepal
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/13/mohini-the-she-devil-insisting-her-baby-on-nepal/
• Afghan Central Bank condemns US decision to seize billions in assets
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286176-afghan-central-bank-condemns-us-decision-to-seize-billions-in-assets
– globalresearch.ca/us-steals-billions-afghan-bank-funds/5770508
• Biden Moves to Give Half of Afghanistan’s Frozen Funds to 9/11 Families
– globalresearch.ca/biden-moves-give-half-afghanistan-frozen-funds-911-families/5770512
• Anti-U.S. rallies continue across Afghanistan over stolen money
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286587-anti-us-rallies-continue-across-afghanistan-over-stolen-money
• China slams U.S. seizure of Afghanistan’s assets as the behavior of bandits
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286575-china-slams-us-seizure-of-afghanistans-assets-as-the-behavior-of-bandits
• A ‘number’ of English citizens being detained in Afghanistan: UK
– globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1252115.shtml
• Pacific islanders condemn Fukushima water plan
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286296-pacific-islanders-condemn-fukushima-water-plan
• China’s triangulation gambit – Former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/sunday-times-2/chinas-triangulation-gambit-472255.html
• European Union and Chinese leaders are set to hold a virtual summit on April 1
– indianpunchline.com/biden-dials-back-belligerence-toward-russia/
• U.S. Sends Nuclear Submarine To Harass Russia Near Japan
– moonofalabama.org/2022/02/us-sends-nuclear-submarine-to-harass-russia-near-japan
• Biden dials back belligerence toward Russia
– indianpunchline.com/biden-dials-back-belligerence-toward-russia/
• US war hysteria over Ukraine won’t gel
– indianpunchline.com/us-war-hysteria-over-ukraine-wont-gel/
• Germany Blocks NATO Ally Estonia From Transferring Weapons to Ukraine
– wsj.com/articles/germany-blocks-nato-ally-from-transferring-weapons-to-ukraine-11642790772
• The ‘Frozen Ground Theory’ And Other Ukraine War Nonsense
– moonofalabama.org/2022/02/the-frozen-ground-theory-and-other-ukraine-war-nonsense
• Ukraine: trapped in a war zone
‘IMF is insisting, with support of the latest post-Maidan government, to carry out substantial privatisation of banks and state enterprises in the interests of ‘efficiency’ and to control ‘corruption’’
– thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2022/02/14/ukraine-trapped-in-a-war-zone/
• The Big White House Plans Behind Its ‘Russian Invasion’ Scam
– moonofalabama.org/2022/02/the-big-white-house-plans-behind-its-russian-invasion-scam
• Ukraine: The Tip of the Spear for the Imperialist Project
– blackagendareport.com/ukraine-tip-spear-imperialist-project
• Happy ‘Russian Invasion’ Day
– moonofalabama.org/2022/02/russian-invasion-day
• Panic spread in the West by their governments hyping war
– ft.lk/columns/War-Games-Phantom-Invasion/4-730728
• Moscow’s coercive diplomacy is working
– indianpunchline.com/moscows-coercive-diplomacy-is-working/
• Israel bars UN team from probing its crimes during Gaza war
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286723-israel-bars-un-team-from-probing-its-crimes-during-gaza-war
• UN says 8 million Yemenis could lose all humanitarian aid in March
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286672-un-says-8-million-yemenis-could-lose-all-humanitarian-aid-in-march
• U.S. military admits killing civilians in latest Syria raid
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286111-us-military-admits-killing-civilians-in-latest-syria-raid
• Syria repels Israeli attack on Damascus countryside
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286513-syria-repels-israeli-attack-on-damascus-countryside
• Ericsson says employees may have bribed ISIL in Iraq
– aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/16/ericsson-employees-may-have-bribed-isil-in-iraq
• Iran Unbound. What it means.
‘Iran’s negotiator Ali Bagheri says nuclear deal ‘closer than ever’
– indianpunchline.com/iran-unbound-what-it-means/
– newsclick.in/Can-Iran-United-States-Breathe-Life-Back-into-Nuclear-Deal
• Israeli aggression escalates across occupied territories
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286279-israeli-aggression-escalates-across-occupied-territories
• Gazans rally to support Palestinian prisoners
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286315-gazans-rally-to-support-palestinian-prisoners
• Attacks in Mogadishu kill at least five people
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286508-attacks-in-mogadishu-kill-at-least-five-people
• Analyst says African Union should not be legitimizing Israeli regime
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286278-analyst-says-african-union-should-not-be-legitimizing-israeli-regime
• African Union Ignores Foundational Values By Upholding Apartheid Israel’s Observer Status
– blackagendareport.com/african-union-ignores-foundational-values-upholding-apartheid-israels-observer-status
• French air raids kill 40 fighters in Burkina Faso
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286061-french-air-raids-kill-40-fighters-in-burkina-faso
– reuters.com/world/africa/burkina-faso-coup-blow-france-sahel-military-mission-unravels-2022-01-25/
– aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/13/france-air-strikes-burkina-faso-benin
• Along the Belt and Road: Breaking the Cycle of Underdevelopment in Latin America
– blackagendareport.com/along-belt-and-road-breaking-cycle-underdevelopment-latin-america
• International meeting for the reconstruction of Haiti looks for aid
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286365-international-meeting-for-the-reconstruction-of-haiti-looks-for-aid
• Articles of Pacification with the Maroons of Trelawny Town, Concluded March the First, 1738
– blackagendareport.com/document-articles-pacification-maroons-trelawny-town-concluded-march-first-1738
• Investigation reveals that Argentinean army prepared for invasion of Venezuela in 2019
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286064-investigation-reveals-that-argentinean-army-prepared-for-invasion-of-venezuela-in-2019
• Venezuela denounces links between criminal groups and Colombian authorities
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286586-venezuela-denounces-links-between-criminal-groups-and-colombian-authorities
• Bolivian president says maritime claim is inalienable
‘In the so-called War of the Pacific, Chile, with English support, deprived the Andean-Amazonian nation of its sovereign access to the sea’
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286197-bolivian-president-says-maritime-claim-is-inalienable
• Honduran ex-president detained as US seeks extradition
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286319-honduran-ex-president-detained-as-us-seeks-extradition
• Italian Court sentences former Peruvian dictator to life imprisonment for Operation Condor
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286206-italian-court-sentences-former-peruvian-dictator-to-life-imprisonment-for-operation-condor
________________________________________________________________
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.
• SLAF enters $11 Million contract with US aircraft manufacturer
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/US-company-to-deliver-Beechcraft-King-Air-360ER-aircraft-to-Sri-Lanka/108-231419
– themorning.lk/slaf-enters-11-mn-contract-with-us-aircraft-manufacturer/
• Australian War delegation calls on Commander of the Navy
– ft.lk/news/Australian-Defence-delegation-calls-on-Commander-of-the-Navy/56-730786
• Australia to assist SL in comprehensive national maritime disaster preparedness mechanism
– adaderana.lk/news/80682/australia-to-assist-sl-in-developing-comprehensive-national-maritime-disaster-preparedness-mechanism
• Need more dialogues on registration of new places of worship: Maha Sangha
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Need-more-dialogues-on-registration-of-new-places-of-worship-Maha-Sangha/108-231369
• ‘One Country, One Law’ Presidential Task Force briefs 3 key Ministers on evidence gathered
– island.lk/one-country-one-law-presidential-task-force-briefs-three-key-ministers-on-evidence-it-has-so-far-gathered/
• Easter Sunday carnage case: Hemasiri, Pujith acquitted and released
“… unacceptable to file cases against government servants alone as politicians were above them.”
– island.lk/easter-sunday-carnage-case-hemasiri-pujith-acquitted-and-released/
• 25 female suspects detained under PTA simply for being family of a PTA detainee
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/columns/opposition-hits-out-at-epf-etf-levy-and-eyewash-pta-amendments-472397.html
• PTA: HRCSL takes a contrary view to that of the govt
– island.lk/pta-hrcsl-takes-a-contrary-view-to-that-of-the-govt/
• Data protection or data secrecy?
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/editorial/data-protection-or-data-secrecy-472336.html
– ft.lk/opinion/Experts-share-key-insights-at-inaugural-National-Data-Protection-Law-Symposium/14-730560
• Sri Lanka Institute of Directors webinar on cyber security for Board members
– island.lk/slid-organizes-timely-webinar-on-cyber-security-for-board-members/
• Army to Army staff talks: India and Sri Lanka discuss future course of action
– adaderana.lk/news/80580/army-to-army-staff-talks-india-and-sri-lanka-discuss-future-course-of-action
• Occupation of state-owned house: CPA moves Supreme Court against Sirisena
– island.lk/occupation-of-state-owned-house-cpa-moves-supreme-court-against-sirisena/
• Archaeology Dept. to amend Antiquities Ordinance
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/14/archaeology-dept-to-amend-antiquities-ordinance/
• CID team to investigate looting of relics from Rambukkana Temple
‘Prince Keerthi Tissa had built the Kotawehera Rajamaha Viharaya during the reign of King Devanampiyatissa. The oldest evidence of silk in South Asia was also discovered from this site.’
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/14/cid-team-to-investigate-looting-of-relics-from-rambukkana-temple/
• Criminalisation of air accidents
– island.lk/criminalisation-of-air-accidents/
• Drugs worth over Rs. 9 million seized at Central Mail Exchange
– adaderana.lk/news/80606/drugs-worth-over-rs-9-million-seized-at-central-mail-exchange
• Ratwatte Prison Saga : Supreme Court issues order on Police Chief
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/15/ratwatte-prison-saga-supreme-court-issues-order-on-police-chief/
• Police officer killed in assault at Tangalle
– adaderana.lk/news/80662/police-officer-killed-in-assault-at-tangalle
• Security increased after snatching of five gold chains at Kovil festival
– island.lk/security-increased-after-snatching-of-five-gold-chains-at-kovil-festival/
• India bans 54 Chinese apps on security concerns
– adaderana.lk/technology/80596/india-bans-54-chinese-apps-on-security-concerns
• EU Watchdog Wants Pegasus Surveillance Tool to be Banned
– newsclick.in/EU-Watchdog-Wants-Pegasus-Surveillance-Tool-Banned
• Declassified US letter reveals CIA mass domestic surveillance program
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/285989-declassified-letter-reveals-cia-mass-domestic-surveillance-program
_____________________________________________________________
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 a modern industrial country.
• How the IMF stalled Sri Lanka’s Development – Garvin Karunaratne
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/15/how-the-imf-stalled-sri-lankas-development/
• Buying Power from Multinationals – Garvin Karunaratne
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2019/04/09/buying-power-from-multinationals/
• Where will the IMF take us this time: It already took us to our grave – Garvin Karunaratne
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/17/where-will-the-imf-take-us-this-time-it-already-took-us-to-our-grave/
• Lanka’s love for imports ‘irresistible’; ignition for forex crisis
– ft.lk/top-story/Lanka-s-love-for-imports-irresistible-ignition-for-forex-crisis/26-730547
• WB Chief calls on multiple efforts for greater economic transformation
– ft.lk/top-story/WB-Chief-calls-on-multiple-efforts-for-greater-economic-transformation/26-730695
• 5 political parties issue joint statement to solve the economic crisis
– island.lk/opposition-mps-former-speaker-urge-govt-to-have-debt-resheduled/
– ft.lk/front-page/Opposition-in-unison-calls-for-orderly-negotiated-postponement-and-restructure-of-debt-repayment/44-730545
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-senior-legislators-ex-speaker-call-for-debt-renegotiation-correct-policies-90461/
• Sri Lanka says it won’t rush to IMF despite rising economic risks
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Sri-Lanka-says-it-wont-rush-to-IMF-despite-rising-economic-risks/273-231007
• Rupee: To depreciate or not to depreciate – Jayampathy Molligoda
‘It is necessary to keep a close tab on spending foreign exchange on non-essential imports every month. The government needs to deploy people including our armed forces in the agriculture sector and farming activities coupled with appropriate technology and increase domestic production utilising our arable underutilized agricultural land based on a carefully prepared crop calendar for districts.’
– island.lk/rupee-to-depreciate-or-not-to-depreciate/
• High economic growth achieved only if non-economic preconditions established – Sanderatne
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/columns/post-independent-weakening-of-pre-conditions-for-economic-development-472258.html
• Surcharge tax and provident funds: From one mistake to another – Wijewardena
‘It was to be a one-time tax payable by 62 high value taxpayers in 2022… a tax on the super-rich?’
– ft.lk/columns/Surcharge-tax-and-provident-funds-From-one-mistake-to-another/4-730507
• Consequences of hyperinflation in Venezuela: Abeyratne
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/business-times/re-playing-beauty-and-the-beast-471784.html
• Miraculous economic growth of China: Abeyratne
– ft.lk/columns/Miraculous-economic-growth-of-China/4-730621
• SL needs strong austerity measures to ride the economic crisis – Weerakody
– ft.lk/columns/SL-needs-strong-austerity-measures-to-ride-the-economic-crisis/4-730729
• Crisis of overspending on rural development and mega infrastructure projects without revenue
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/business-times/sl-faces-crisis-of-overspending-without-proper-revenue-471781.html
• Sri Lanka chamber raises serious concerns over retrospective super gains tax
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-chamber-raises-serious-concerns-over-retrospective-super-gains-tax-90510/
– timesonline.lk/news-online/Ceylon-Chamber-urges-Govt-to-reconsider-the-Surcharge-Tax-Bill-provisions/2-1136767
– ft.lk/top-story/Ceylon-Chamber-urges-Govt-to-reconsider-Surcharge-Tax-Bill/26-730599
• Pathfinder Report on Tripartite Dialogue for Current Economic Crisis to Minister of Finance
‘The Study Group for Tripartite Cooperation comprised Amb. Nobuhito Hobo, Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) & Executive Adviser, GRIPS – ALLIANCE – Japan; Prof. Shinji Asanuma, Former Professor, School of International and Public Policy, Hitotsubashi University – Japan; Prof. Hirohisa Kohama, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Faculty of International Relations, University of Shizuoka – Japan; Amb. Dr. Mohan Kumar, Chairman, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) – India; Bernard Goonetilleke, Chairman, Pathfinder Foundation – Sri Lanka; Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Distinguished Fellow, The Pathfinder Foundation – Sri Lanka; and Dr. Shanta Devarajan, Professor, The Practice of International Development at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service – USA’
– ft.lk/business/Basil-gets-Pathfinder-Report-on-tripartite-dialogue-to-address-economic-crisis/34-730589
• No need for IMF to boost investor confidence – Governor of the Central Bank
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/18/no-need-imf-to-boost-investor-confidence/
• Citi Research confidence in Sri Lankan government’s external repayment remains weak
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Sri-Lanka-says-it-wont-rush-to-IMF-despite-rising-economic-risks/273-231007
• Decisions should have been taken by Country’s Civil Service and Technocrats
– ft.lk/columns/Effective-Governance-the-only-way-out/4-730541
• All parties should come to an agreement on IMF report : Ranil
‘poor are expected to increase by 500,000 while the middle class is expected to crash.’
– dailymirror.lk/latest_news/All-parties-should-come-to-an-agreement-on-IMF-report-Ranil/342-231195
• Sri Lanka “phone reload” debt plan unlikely to save economy: Champika Ranawaka
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-phone-reload-debt-plan-unlikely-to-save-economy-legislator-90633/
• Government should have secured credit from the International Monetary Fund – Ivan
– ft.lk/columns/Sri-Lanka-on-the-brink-of-anarchy/4-730730
• Poor Sri Lankan consumer is sinking
– ft.lk/columns/Poor-Sri-Lankan-consumer-is-sinking/4-730655
• ‘Inflation a major challenge going forward’ – ICRA
‘Ukraine crisis will increase global oil prices’
– themorning.lk/inflation-a-major-challenge-going-forward-icra/
• How a liberal and flexible mindset could attract more dollars – BASL Jayasuriya
‘‘Ease of Doing Business – The Way Forward’ organized by the Lanka-Japan Friendship Society’
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/How-a-liberal-and-flexible-mindset-could-attract-more-dollars-to-Sri-Lanka/172-230971
• Why Inflation Bothers Capitalist Govts More than Unemployment – Prabhat Patnaik
‘This is because such governments are blatantly subservient to the interests of the hegemony of finance, which is wary of financial assets losing value’
– newsclick.in/why-inflation-bothers-capitalist-govts-more-unemployment
• Fight of the Century – Keynes’ and Hayek’s Second Rap Battle
____________________________________________
C4. Economy (Usually reported in monetary terms)
ee Economy section shows how media usually measures economy by false indices like GDP, etc., in monetary terms, confusing money and capital, constantly calling for privatization, deregulation, moaning about debt & balance of payments, without stating the need for modern industrial production.
• Previous Yahapalana government included pension funds under definition of a ‘company’
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Amendments-to-exempt-EPF-and-ETF-from-Surcharge-Tax-to-be-introduced-at-Committee-Stage/273-231214
• Sri Lanka will not include EPF, pension funds in super gains tax: Minister
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-will-not-include-epf-pension-funds-in-super-gains-tax-minister-90521/
– adaderana.lk/news/80595/basil-assures-epf-and-etf-will-not-be-subjected-to-25-surcharge-tax
– ft.lk/top-story/Government-confirms-surcharge-tax-sans-superannuation-funds/26-730650
– ft.lk/front-page/Nivard-relieved-no-surcharge-tax-on-EPF/44-730651
• Govt. has second thoughts on taxing EPF, ETF and similar funds – DM Editorial
– dailymirror.lk/opinion/Govt-has-second-thoughts-on-taxing-EPF-ETF-and-similar-funds-EDITORIAL/231-231205
• Roses dominate in Sri Lanka’s picked up Valentine sales
– economynext.com/roses-dominate-in-sri-lankas-picked-up-valentine-sales-90543/
• IMF to discuss Sri Lanka economic report on February 25
– economynext.com/imf-to-discuss-sri-lanka-economic-report-on-february-25-90527/
• Finance Minister will inform IMF stance at next Cabinet meeting
– ft.lk/front-page/Finance-Minister-will-inform-IMF-stance-at-next-Cabinet-meeting/44-730653
• Sri Lanka Petroleum Minister bats for IMF deal as tankers stuck for dollars
‘Majority of Cabinet want to seek IMF assistance claims Gammanpila’
– ft.lk/front-page/Majority-of-Cabinet-want-to-seek-IMF-assistance-claims-Gammanpila/44-730791
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-petroleum-minister-bats-for-imf-deal-as-tankers-stuck-for-dollars-90609/
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/18/majority-in-cabinet-want-to-go-to-imf-gammanpila/
• Oil imports rose 88.2% after >100% increase in refined oil in December for fuel at pump
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Industrial-production-gathers-steam-signalling-economic-rebound/273-231099
• Sri Lanka spends US$967mn in ‘reserves for imports’
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-spends-us967mn-in-reserves-for-imports-90517/
• CB says no ban on imports except for gold and vehicles
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/CB-says-no-ban-on-imports-except-for-gold-and-vehicles/273-231100
• Treasury hints at new loan from China
– themorning.lk/treasury-hints-at-new-loan-from-china/
• India’s economic aid package in two weeks
– themorning.lk/indias-economic-aid-package-in-two-weeks/
• Sri Lanka crisis committee on essential items eyes New Year needs
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-crisis-committee-on-essential-items-eyes-new-year-needs-90484/
• Fresh moves by Govt. to ease cost of living
– ft.lk/front-page/Fresh-moves-by-Govt-to-ease-cost-of-living/44-730648
• Sri Lanka prints Rs1.2trn in 2021, money supply, food prices up 40-pct over 2-years
– island.lk/slpp-drops-election-threat-how-will-rival-parties-respond/
• Sri Lanka BOP deficit hits record US$3.9bn in 2021 amid money printing
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-bop-deficit-hits-record-us3-9bn-in-2021-amid-money-printing-90455/
• Trade deficit widens by $2billion in 2021
– ft.lk/front-page/Trade-deficit-widens-by-2-b-in-2021/44-730546
– themorning.lk/2021-import-growth-outpaces-exports/
• Soaring inflation, exchange rate make value added exports profitless
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/business-times/soaring-inflation-exchange-rate-make-value-added-exports-profitless-471806.html
• Central Bank says rupee won’t depreciate
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Central-Bank-says-rupee-wont-depreciate/273-231097
• CBSL raises $ 111.5 m via SLDB direct placements
– ft.lk/front-page/CBSL-raises-111-5-m-via-SLDB-direct-placements/44-730652
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-raises-us111-5mn-from-sldbs-sold-after-auction-90548/
• 5 Year bond yield hits 12%; liquidity shortfall exceeds Rs. 600 b – Wealth Trust Securities
– ft.lk/financial-services/5-Year-bond-yield-hits-12-liquidity-shortfall-exceeds-Rs-600-b/42-730526
• Sri Lanka bond yields steady at close
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-bond-yields-steady-at-close-90560/
• Sri Lanka sells Rs79bn in Treasuries, yields edge down
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-sells-rs79bn-in-treasuries-yields-edge-down-90558/
• Sri Lanka bonds steady, rupee indicative rate 202.1 to dollar
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-bonds-steady-rupee-indicative-rate-202-1-to-dollar-90605/
• India-Bangladesh’s Growing Trade And Economic Ties
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/15/india-bangladeshs-growing-trade-and-economic-ties/
• China tells U.S. to stop bullying in trade
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286674-china-tells-us-to-stop-bullying-in-trade
• China’s inflation slows, leaving room for policy easing
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Chinas-inflation-slows-leaving-room-for-policy-easing/273-231210
• England inflation climbs to highest since 1992 at 5.5%
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/UK-inflation-climbs-to-highest-since-1992-at-5-5/273-231211
_________________________________________________________________________
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
• COVID-19 strikes factories again
‘Huge absentees of about 15-20% in each and every factory as a result of COVID-19, Free Trade Zone Manufacturers Association Secretary Dhammika Fernando’
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/business-times/covid-19-strikes-factories-again-471794.html
• Labour Dept. activities hampered by severe human resource shortage
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Labour-Dept-activities-hampered-by-severe-human-resource-shortage/273-231213
• GMOA blames wave of strikes on govt. for violating the national salaries and wages policy
– island.lk/gmoa-blames-current-wave-of-strikes-on-govt/
– island.lk/gmoa-teachers-pay-hike-changes-in-health-sector-will-cause-havoc/
– island.lk/medical-specialists-read-riot-act-to-health-minister/
• GMOA calls off token strike scheduled for Monday
– adaderana.lk/news/80678/gmoa-calls-off-token-strike-scheduled-for-monday
– themorning.lk/gmoa-calls-mondays-strike-following-talks-with-keheliya/
• President tells govt. brass to address nurses’ issues considering financial crisis facing country
– island.lk/president-tells-govt-top-brass-to-address-nurses-issues-considering-financial-crisis-facing-country/
– adaderana.lk/news/80646/president-instructs-officials-on-granting-nurses-trade-union-demands
• Waving the red flag to a salivating trade union bull – Sunday Times
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/columns/waving-the-red-flag-to-a-salivating-trade-union-bull-472251.html
• GR in JR’s loincloth?
‘Unable to handle trade union disputes democratically, the government has taken a leaf out of the late President J. R. Jayewardene’s draconian rule book. Adopting his jackboot tactics, it has invoked a 1979 law to ban trade union action in the health and power sectors.’
– island.lk/gr-in-jrs-loincloth/
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-president-declares-health-electricity-services-essential-amid-ongoing-protests-90457/
• Where are Saman Ratnapriya & Ravi Kumudesh Going? – Nalin de Silva
– kalaya.org/?p=5040
• Support for Strikers – Nalin de Silva
– kalaya.org/?p=5045
• Government Nursing Officers’ Association (NOA) withdraws: other TUs continue strike
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/GNOA-withdraws-from-TU-action-other-TUs-to-continue-strike/108-230976
– island.lk/health-workers-determined-to-continue-their-struggle/
– adaderana.lk/news/80583/health-workers-protest-opposite-presidential-secretariat
• Sri Lanka health workers defy court order, presidential decree to protest, crippling sector
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-health-workers-defy-court-order-presidential-decree-to-protest-crippling-sector-90503/
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/public-hospitals-crippled-for-sixth-day-unions-defy-presidential-and-court-orders-472445.html
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/15/thousands-of-health-workers-continue-strike/
• Health unions decide to temporarily call off strike
– adaderana.lk/news/80607/health-unions-decide-to-temporarily-call-off-strike
• Patients painfully waiting, but no medicine
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/patients-painfully-waiting-but-no-medicine-472458.html
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Thousands-inconvenienced-as-health-services-crippled-for-9thday/108-231110
• SriLankan Airlines pilots on work-to-rule over 189 dollar rate, salary cuts
– economynext.com/srilankan-airlines-pilots-on-work-to-rule-over-189-dollar-rate-salary-cuts-90538/
• Education Co-operative Trade Union Confederation protest in Kollupitiya
– timesonline.lk/news-online/In-Pictures-Education-TUs-hold-protest/2-1136833
• Job security in limbo for masons and carpenters
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/17/job-security-in-limbo-for-masons-and-carpenters/
• Seylan Bank and Department of Pensions to check pension holders via biometric authentication
– island.lk/life-certificates-through-biometric-authentication/
• Strikes – another form of terrorism
– island.lk/strikes-another-form-of-terrorism/
• Opposition to Sri Lanka super gains tax on pension funds intensifies
– economynext.com/opposition-to-sri-lanka-super-gains-tax-on-pension-funds-intensifies-90481/
• 2018 attempt to put EPF on stock market failed
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/business-times/dipping-into-peoples-savings-471789.html
• Govt.’s failure to reimburse COVID-19 relief triggers possible Samurdhi Bank crash
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/business-times/govt-s-failure-to-reimburse-covid-19-relief-triggers-possible-samurdhi-bank-crash-471759.html
• Increased Samurdhi benefits provided from today
– adaderana.lk/news/80578/increased-samurdhi-benefits-provided-from-today
• Plantation families to be given wheat flour on monthly basis
– adaderana.lk/news/80602/plantation-families-to-be-given-wheat-flour-on-monthly-basis• • Rumble in the CEB Focus shifts from investigation to appointing GM
– dailymirror.lk/expose/Rumble-in-the-CEB-Focus-shifts-from-investigation-to-appointing-GM/333-231088
• Commercial Credit joins hands with Western Union
MMBL Money Master (MMBL Money Transfer), a joint venture between Mercantile Merchant Bank and Aitken Spence, the largest representative in Sri Lanka for Western Union money transfers.’
– island.lk/commercial-credit-joins-hands-with-western-union/
• Dullas goes to Delft to deliver laptop with internet to remote school
‘government is taking measures to equip all 10,142 schools with internet facilities and necessary provisions were allocated from the budget, and this would revolutionize the education sector’
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/18/dullas-goes-to-delft-to-deliver-laptop-with-internet-to-remote-school
• A game changer: National Science Foundation (NSF) ready to launch global digital platform
‘R&D personnel per million people is only 106 in Sri Lanka as against 253 in India, 336 in Pakistan, 2,397 in Malaysia, 7,980 in Korea and 8,250 in Israel’
– island.lk/a-game-changer-nsf-ready-to-launch-global-digital-platform/
– ft.lk/columns/PM-to-launch-gamechanger-National-Science-Foundation-global-digital-platform-on-Monday/4-730754
• Skills crisis in Sri Lanka’s hospitality industry
– ft.lk/columns/Skills-crisis-in-Sri-Lanka-s-hospitality-industry/4-730562
• US Calcey Technologies shifts to dollar-pegged salaries in Sri Lanka
– themorning.lk/calcey-technologies-shifts-to-dollar-pegged-salaries/
• Building higher education as an industry: A rejoinder to Dhammika Perera
‘he will help retain US $ 2.25 billion within the country annually. (All figures are his and no sources are provided)
– dailymirror.lk/features/Building-higher-education-as-an-industry-A-rejoinder-to-Dhammika-Perera/185-231001
• Tempest PE & Investor Consortium, led by AEC, partners buyout of SL Technological Campus
– dailymirror.lk/press-releases/Tempest-PE-partners-Investor-Consortium-led-by-AEC-partners-the-management-buyout-of-Sri-Lanka-Technological-Campus/335-230103
• Higher Education —The Private Sector & its Grave Shortcomings
‘Substandard and third-rate private institutions with massive amounts of money and huge advertising programs luring unwary and knowledgeable students to giving them even MORE money’
– island.lk/higher-education-the-private-sector-and-its-grave-shortcomings/
• Sexual violence in academia: Who will bell the cat?
– ft.lk/columns/Sexual-violence-in-academia-Who-will-bell-the-cat/4-730668
• Engaging in practical work enhances brain development, especially thinking capacity
– island.lk/moulding-a-complete-citizen-through-comprehensive-and-meaningful-education/
• Can World Bank’s outcome-based education get to the heart of the matter?
– island.lk/can-outcome-based-education-get-to-the-heart-of-the-matter/
• Whither the humanities and social sciences in the universities in Sri Lanka? – Susirith Mendis
– island.lk/whither-the-humanities-and-social-sciences-in-the-universities-in-sri-lanka-a-short-essay
• Where are ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ of Peradeniya?
– island.lk/where-are-soul-and-spirit-of-peradeniya/
• Contemplating on ‘class ceiling’: Pertinent ponderings on the ‘privileged’
‘our class background is defined by our parents’ stocks of three primary forms of capital: economic capital (wealth and income), cultural capital (educational credentials and the possession of legitimate knowledge, skills, and tastes) and social capital (valuable social connections and friendships)’
– ft.lk/columns/Contemplating-on-class-ceiling-Pertinent-ponderings-on-the-privileged/4-730511
• British College of Applied Studies Convocation Ceremony 2021
‘Chief Guest was Professor Kapila Perera, the Secretary Ministry of Education Sri Lanka.’
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/education/convocation-ceremony-2021-of-bcas-campus-471943.html
• Unilever’s ‘Saubhagya Programme’ awards 42 more schols to schoolchildren
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/business-times/unilevers-saubhagya-programme-awards-42-more-schols-to-schoolchildren-471770.html
• Hayleys continues to empower its adopted villages with educational care packs
– timesonline.lk/business/Puritas-Sathdiyawara-continues-to-empower-its-adopted-villages-with-educational-care-packs/10-1136776
– island.lk/puritas-sathdiyawara-continues-to-empower-its-adopted-villages/
• NYT pretends to care about social inequality in China and it backfires
‘Women, special treatment, and social inequality are among key elements Western reporters use to grab more attention’
– globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1252350.shtml
• Eileen Gu Controversy Exposes the Importance of Racial Loyalty to the US Empire
– blackagendareport.com/eileen-gu-controversy-exposes-importance-racial-loyalty-american-empire
• The Capitalist Imperative Driving Cruel and Bipartisan US Migration Policies
– blackagendareport.com/capitalist-imperative-driving-cruel-and-bipartisan-us-migration-policies
• The Realities of Temp Work
– blackagendareport.com/realities-temp-work
• ‘Sounding the Alarm’: Ontario Workers and the Ford Government
– socialistproject.ca/2022/02/sounding-the-alarm-ontario-workers/
• Prospects for the US Teamsters Under New Leadership
– socialistproject.ca/2022/02/prospects-for-teamsters-under-new-leadership/
• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists supportive of US/NATO imperialism.
– blackagendareport.com/its-doomsday-clock-100-seconds-midnight-bulletin-atomic-scientists-calls-escalating-us-aggression
• Paris transport strike over wages disrupts daily commute for millions
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286693-paris-transport-strike-over-wages-disrupts-daily-commute-for-millions
• The 4-Day Work Week: Who is Trialing it and Does it Work?
‘Belgium will now offer employees the opportunity to work a four-day week. Various countries and companies have experimented with the idea, which is gaining traction in many parts of the world.’
– newsclick.in/The-4-Day-Work-Week-Who-Trialing-Does-Work
_________________________________________________________________________
C6. Agriculture (Robbery of rural home market; Machines, if used, mainly imported)
ee Agriculture emphasizes the failure to industrialize an agriculture that keeps the cultivator impoverished under moneylender and merchant, and the need to develop the rural home market, monetization and commercialization, to produce, rather than import, agricultural machinery.
• Group of 4 Major Millers affiliated to SLPP manipulates paddy prices, says DEW
‘2 Polonnaruwa- based businessmen, plus Dudley Sirisena and State Minister Siripala Gamlath’
– island.lk/group-of-four-affiliated-to-slpp-manipulates-paddy-prices-says-dew/
• SL needs fundamental mindset transformation towards agriculture: CB Chief
– ft.lk/front-page/SL-needs-fundamental-mindset-transformation-towards-agriculture-CB-Chief/44-730694
• As cost of living soars, people eating less or switching to cheaper and less nutritious food: FAO
‘rice, wheat and sugar products account for about 40, 12 and 10 percent respectively of the average calories intake’
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/as-cost-of-living-soars-people-eating-less-or-switching-to-cheaper-and-less-nutritious-food-fao-472451.html
• Small Bakeries shutting down due to price increase
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/17/small-bakeries-shutting-down-due-to-price-increase/
• Sri Lanka soldiers to be deployed to paddy, vegetable farms: report
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-soldiers-to-be-deployed-to-paddy-vegetable-farms-report-90480/
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-air-force-undertakes-paddy-harvesting-to-assist-crisis-hit-farmers-90545/
– timesonline.lk/news-online/SLAF-undertakes-paddy-harvesting-for-low-income-farmer-community/2-1136837
• Sri Lanka may see 30-pct drop in Maha rough rice harvest: Paddy Board
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-may-see-30-pct-drop-in-maha-rough-rice-harvest-paddy-board-90520/
• Maha season yields better than projected: Paddy Marketing Board
– ft.lk/front-page/Mahaseason-yields-better-than-projected-Paddy-Marketing-Board/44-730644
• Sri Lanka state firm ready to buy 300,000MT of paddy in current season
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-state-firm-ready-to-buy-300000mt-of-paddy-in-current-season-90519/
• Fertiliser crisis fallout: Mannar Rice Bowl of the North’ harvest expected to fall by 50%
– timesonline.lk/news-online/Fertiliser-crisis-fallout-Mannar-harvest-expected-to-fall-by-50/2-1136801
• Only despair grows in this model organic village, Laggala-Pallegama in the Mahaweli F Zone
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/only-despair-grows-in-this-model-organic-village-472243.html
• Garlic scam at Welisara Sathosa Warehouse: “How can a whistle-blower become a suspect?”
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/12/garlic-scam-at-welisara-sathosa-warehouse-how-can-a-whistle-blower-become-a-suspect-hard-talk-daily-mirror/
• Lanka Sathosa undergoes transformation at a cost of over Rs. 5 bln
‘For the first time in history, Sathosa became the largest retail network in the country’
– timesonline.lk/news-online/Lanka-Sathosa-undergoes-transformation-at-a-cost-of-over-Rs-5-bln/2-1136765
• United States Department of Agriculture projects Sri Lanka’s rice imports to hit five-year-high
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/USDA-projects-Sri-Lankas-rice-imports-to-hit-five-year-high-this-year/273-231012
• Hayley’s Kelani Valley Plantations and Talawakelle Tea Estates 3Q profits Rs.1.24 billion
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Dipped-Products-3Q-profits-sink-as-revenues-languish-costs-rise/273-231006
• Seized Indian vessels go under the hammer: Rs. 5.2mn raised
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/seized-indian-vessels-go-under-the-hammer-rs-5-2mn-raised-472267.html
• Top experts to showcase new opportunities in agri, dairy and fishery sectors
‘World Bank Country Head Chiyo Kanda, Sri Lanka Agriprenuers Forum’s Rizvy Zaheed (agribusiness), Ocean University of Sri Lanka Dean Faculty of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences M.F.M. Fairoz (fishery), and Maliban Group’s Asoka Bandara (dairy).Each session chaired by CIC-ICI University Prof in Agriculture Buddhi Marambe, Huawei Technologies’ Indika De Zoysa focusing on agriculture, National Aquaculture Development Authority of Sri Lanka Director H.M.U.K.P.B. Herath on fishery and National Livestock Development Board Former General Manager Chithral Munaweera on dairy. Agribusiness session: Lanka Fruit and Vegetables Exporters Assoc.’ Charindi Ranasinghe, Industrial Technology Institute, Ilmi Hewajulige and SenzAgro’ Miller Alexander. Fisheries sector: State Ministry Secretary Jayantha Chandrasoma, Tropic Fishery’s Roshan Fernando and University of Ruhuna’ Prof. Ruchira Tharangini Cumaranatunga. Dairy panel: Pelwatte Dairy’s Ariyaseela Wickramanayake, Cargills Ceylon’s Nelum Vithana and Milco Ltd. former Chairman Lasantha Wickramasinghe. Creative partner of the forum is Ogilvy Digital.’
– ft.lk/front-page/Top-experts-to-showcase-new-opportunities-in-agri-dairy-and-fishery-sectors/44-730544
• Waiting in line for Milk Powder; an unresolved Sri Lankan crisis
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/17/waiting-in-line-for-milk-powder-an-unresolved-sri-lankan-crisis-2/
• No licence needed to import bovine, goat & swine semen as large-scale dairy farmers demand
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/now-no-licence-required-to-import-bovine-goat-and-swine-semen-472409.html
• The Milk Powder Formula – making of Anchor
– island.lk/the-milk-powder-formula-making-of-anchor/
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/plus/a-story-of-contrasts-a-story-of-success-471841.html
• Evacuation of X-Press Pearl begins
– ft.lk/front-page/Evacuation-of-X-Press-Pearl-begins/44-730794
• Wildlife Ministry orders Zoo DG to stay away from duty
– dailymirror.lk/latest_news/Wildlife-Ministry-orders-ZooDGto-stay-away-from-duty/342-231199
– dailymirror.lk/print/front_page/Until-organic-fertiliser-probe-concludes-Wildlife-Ministry-orders-Zoo-DG-to-stay-away-from-duty/238-231240
• Dambulla Sacred Area Jugglery in the name of development
– dailymirror.lk/expose/Dambulla-sacred-area-Jugglery-in-the-name-of-development/333-231207
• Bamboo for land restoration and income generation
– island.lk/bamboo-for-land-restoration-and-income-generation/
• Probe into Mirissa spearfishing video
– themorning.lk/probe-into-mirissa-spearfishing-video/
• 200 safari jeeps enter the Yala National Park daily
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/illegal-feeding-blamed-for-three-elephant-attacks-in-yala-472286.html
• ‘The Ecology and Biogeography of Sri Lanka: A Context for Freshwater Fishes’
– island.lk/an-incredible-biogeographical-journey/
• Resisting Fossil Fuel Extractavism in South Africa
– socialistproject.ca/2022/02/resisting-fossil-fuel-extractavism-in-south-africa/
_____________________________________________________________________
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 domination by merchants and moneylenders.
• Wimal urges President to give priority to local firms in Govt. deals
– ft.lk/front-page/Wimal-urges-President-to-give-priority-to-local-firms-in-Govt-deals/44-730711
• Institute of Policy Studies Industrialization Research Series
– ips.lk/publications/industrialization-research-series/
• Counsel for Yugadanavi says US won’t exploit agreement
– island.lk/counsel-for-yugadanavi-says-us-wont-exploit-agreement/
• SL ministers to get industrial raw materials from China, Japan, ME amid forex shortages
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-ministers-tasked-to-source-inputs-from-china-japan-me-amid-forex-shortages-90522/
– adaderana.lk/news/80603/three-cabinet-sub-committees-to-identify-alternative-methods-on-importation
– themorning.lk/committee-appointed-to-ensure-smooth-delivery-of-essential-goods-to-the-market/
– ft.lk/front-page/Ministers-tasked-to-secure-essential-imports-from-China-Japan-Middle-East/44-730647
– dailymirror.lk/business__main/Government-to-negotiate-with-China-Japan-and-ME-for-imports-export-inputs/245-231218
• Industrial production gathers steam signalling economic rebound
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Industrial-production-gathers-steam-signalling-economic-rebound/273-231099
• Improvements in new orders and production along with employment recovery
– island.lk/improvements-in-new-orders-and-production-along-with-employment-recovery/
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/January-Purchasing-Managers-Index-gains-reflecting-continued-economic-recovery/273-231212
– themorning.lk/manufacturing-index-pick-up-in-jan-due-to-new-orders-and-increased-production/
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-factories-extend-recovery-in-jan-but-short-of-raw-materials-from-forex-shortages-pmi-90586/
• FSP decries questionable Kantale sugar factory deal, Treasury denies
– island.lk/fsp-decries-questionable-kantale-sugar-factory-deal/
– timesonline.lk/news-online/Singapore-firm-and-MG-Sugars-to-revive-Kantale-Sugar-factory/2-1136769
– themorning.lk/treasury-denies-selling-kantale-sugar-factory-land/
• Renewable energy: Shocking indictment on CEB failure
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/renewable-energy-shocking-indictment-on-ceb-failure-472443.html
• CEB appoints consultants with monthly pay of Rs. 1 million each
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/ceb-appoints-consultants-with-monthly-pay-of-rs-1-million-each-472420.html
• SL fuel procurement tenders face corruption allegations
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/business-times/sl-fuel-procurement-tenders-face-corruption-allegations-471800.html
• Sri Lankan electricity sector: The headless chicken
– ft.lk/columns/Sri-Lankan-electricity-sector-The-headless-chicken/4-730564
• Association of Container Transporters (ACT) increase rates due to recurring fuel price hikes
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/cpc-decision-will-trigger-next-wave-of-price-hikes-472353.html
• CPC calls for fuel price increase; proposes more than LIOC hike
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/cpc-calls-for-fuel-price-increase-proposes-more-than-lioc-hike-472453.html
• No decision taken to increase CPC fuel prices: Energy Minister
– ft.lk/front-page/No-decision-taken-to-increase-CPC-fuel-prices-Energy-Minister/44-730543
• Vidullanka reports PAT of Rs. 850 mln for 9-mths to 31/12/2021
– timesonline.lk/business/Vidullanka-PLC-reports-PAT-of-Rs-850-mln-for-9-mths-to-31122021/10-1136766
• Grant Tax Concessions on fuel imports or increase fuel prices: CPC
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/14/grant-tax-concessions-on-fuel-imports-or-increase-fuel-prices-cpc/
• CEB to bring new plan to meet power demand
– themorning.lk/ceb-to-bring-new-plan-to-meet-power-demand/
• Daily power cut schedule to be announced today: PUCSL Chairman (15)
– dailymirror.lk/latest_news/Daily-power-cut-schedule-to-be-announced-today-PUCSL-Chairman/342-231112
• Sri Lanka may not be able to supply 50Hz power if Victoria, Kotmale dry up
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-may-not-be-able-to-supply-50hz-power-if-victoria-kotmale-dry-up-90501/
• Fuel price fund to be revived after initial failure
– themorning.lk/fuel-price-fund-to-be-revived-after-initial-failure/
• CEB & PUCSL to reach final say on Power Cuts on Tuesday (15)
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/15/ceb-pucsl-to-reach-final-say-on-power-cuts-on-tuesday-15/
• Indian IOC provides 40,000MT of fuel to SL
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/IOC-provides-40-000MT-of-fuel-to-SL/108-231121
– island.lk/india-prevents-disruption-of-diesel-supply-here/
– ft.lk/ft_tv/Indian-HC-hands-over-40-000-MT-fuel-consignment-to-Sri-Lanka/10520-730609
– ft.lk/front-page/SL-receives-over-40-000-MT-fuel-consignment-from-India/44-730646
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-gets-first-diesel-shipment-from-india-90554/
• CPC should absorb short-term world fuel price increases without passing them on to consumers
– island.lk/squeezing-hapless-public-dry/
• PUCSL assures uninterrupted power with new methodology
– ft.lk/front-page/PUCSL-assures-uninterrupted-power-with-new-methodology/44-730641
• Sri Lanka’s CEB ordered to halve hydro power, police AC use: PUCSL
– economynext.com/sri-lankas-ceb-ordered-to-halve-hydro-power-police-ac-use-pucsl-90561/
• Sri Lanka to announce power cuts as hydro storage plunges: regulator
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-to-announce-power-cuts-as-hydro-storage-plunges-regulator-90531/
• No decision taken yet on CPC fuel price hike increase
– adaderana.lk/news/80619/no-decision-taken-yet-on-cpc-fuel-price-hike-increase
• Did the Norochcholai breakdown lead to current power situation?
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/16/did-the-norochcholai-breakdown-lead-to-current-power-situation/
• CPC to incur loss of Rs. 11 Billion in February
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/16/cpc-to-incur-loss-of-rs-11-billion-in-february/
• CEB, LECO & PUCSL working together to ensure NO cuts
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/16/ceb-leco-pucsl-working-together-to-ensure-no-cuts/
• Power cuts: CEB’s claim false, PUCSL
– island.lk/power-cuts-cebs-claim-false-pucsl/
• CEB Act to be amended to meet President’s renewable energy target
– island.lk/ceb-act-to-be-amended-to-meet-presidents-renewable-energy-goal/
• National Audit Office urges CEB to help achieve renewable energy goals
– island.lk/national-audit-office-urges-ceb-to-help-achieve-renewable-energy-goals/
• PUCSL proposes blackout for bulk electricity users, large companies told to use generators
– dailymirror.lk/latest_news/PUCSL-proposes-blackout-for-bulk-electricity-users-large-companies-to-be-told-to-use-generators/342-231228
• Ceypetco rejects allegations that its petrol is substandard
– dailymirror.lk/insight/Ceypetcos-petrol-bunk/374-231201
• Laugfs Gas 3Q net loss of Rs.980.6 million
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Laugfs-Gas-3Q-deep-in-red-amid-loss-of-sales/273-231216
• Sri Lanka CPC seeks fuel price hike: report
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-cpc-seeks-fuel-price-hike-report-90576/
• SL hydro power generation drops with reservoirs drying up
– timesonline.lk/news-online/SL-hydro-power-generation-drops-with-reservoirs-drying-up/2-1136802
• CEB says unable to guarantee uninterrupted power; energy minister calls for power cuts
– island.lk/ceb-says-unable-to-guarantee-uninterrupted-power-energy-minister-calls-for-power-cuts/
• CEB Act to be amended to meet President’s renewable energy target
– island.lk/ceb-act-to-be-amended-to-meet-presidents-renewable-energy-goal/
• Government planning to jack up fuel prices claiming Ceylon Petroleum Corporation losses.
– island.lk/no-end-to-hooks-at-the-pump/
• Gammanpila reveals Treasury receives Rs. 368 m daily income from taxes on fuel
– island.lk/gammanpila-reveals-massive-fuel-tax-raked-in-by-treasury/
• Energy Minister calls on Finance Ministry to remove taxes on fuel
– ft.lk/front-page/Energy-Minister-calls-on-Finance-Ministry-to-remove-taxes-on-fuel/44-730798
• Sri Lanka facing unscheduled power cuts from Feb 18 amid forex crisis
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-facing-unscheduled-power-cuts-from-feb-18-amid-forex-crisis-90606/
• Sri Lanka’s CPC losing Rs551mn a day, requires price hike: Minister
– economynext.com/sri-lankas-cpc-losing-rs551mn-a-day-requires-price-hike-minister-90615/
• Residential energy storage using Lithium-Ion batteries
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/business-times/residential-energy-storage-using-lithium-ion-batteries-471777.html
• Teamwork prescribed to overcome electricity crisis
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Teamwork-prescribed-to-overcome-electricity-crisis/273-231300
• Laugfs Gas seeks support from Central Bank to procure LPG shipments
– dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Laugfs-Gas-seeks-support-from-Central-Bank-to-procure-LPG-shipments/108-231299
• Sri Lanka’s CPC asks CEB to settle Rs22bn arrears to continue diesel supply
– economynext.com/sri-lankas-cpc-asks-ceb-to-settle-rs22bn-arrears-to-continue-diesel-supply-90604/
• Sri Lanka’s CPC asks CEB to pay 30-pct more for diesel as oil prices go up
– economynext.com/sri-lankas-cpc-asks-ceb-to-pay-30-pct-more-for-diesel-as-oil-prices-go-up-90595/
• CPC to crack down on filling stations ‘hiding stocks’
– themorning.lk/cpc-to-crack-down-on-filling-stations-hiding-stocks/
• Remove taxes on fuel or increase fuel prices – Gammanpila
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/18/remove-taxes-on-fuel-or-increase-fuel-prices-gammanpila/
• Several power plants down; CEB await fuel stocks
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/18/several-power-plants-down-ceb-await-fuel-stocks/
• Long delays approving renewable energy: President makes unannounced visit to SLSEAU
– island.lk/long-delays-in-approving-renewable-energy-projects-president-makes-unannounced-visit-to-slseau/
• PUCSL chief eats his words, announces power cuts
– island.lk/pucsl-chief-eats-his-words-announces-power-cuts/
• Auditor General highlights delay in CEB paying renewable energy producers
– island.lk/auditor-general-highlights-delay-in-ceb-paying-renewable-energy-producers/
• Sri Lanka power cuts scheduled from 18 Feb amid forex crisis
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-power-cuts-scheduled-from-18-feb-amid-forex-crisis-90616/
• University of Moratuwa first in US Institute of Chemical Engineers Awards
– ft.lk/news/University-of-Moratuwa-comes-first-in-Global-ChemE-Sports-competition-of-American-Institute-of-Chemical-Engineers-AIChE-A-tale-told/56-730682
• Coralie Pietersz appointed Bogala Graphite Chairperson
‘Trained with Thornton Baker Chartered Accountants, in London, was with Commercial Bank, Nations Trust Bank, Richard Pieris, Finlays, Hapugastenne Plantations and Udupussellawa Plantations, currently Compass Advisory Services’
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Coralie-Pietersz-appointed-Bogala-Graphite-Chairperson/273-231008
• Protest & Counter-Protest over Anamaduwa Quarry
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/17/protest-counter-protest-over-anamaduwa-quarry/
• Govt. kicks off work on Ja-Ela Logistic Park
– ft.lk/front-page/Govt-kicks-off-work-on-Ja-Ela-Logistic-Park/44-730645
• Sankapala Forest threatened by proposed mineral excavation
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/14/sankapala-forest-threatened-by-proposed-mineral-excavation/
• INSEE Cement, major cement supplier to the Uma Oya Project
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/business-times/insee-cement-major-cement-supplier-to-the-uma-oya-project-471773.html
• HNB partners with Sun Lanka to offer special deals on SANY machinery
– ft.lk/business/HNB-partners-with-Sun-Lanka-to-offer-special-deals-on-SANYmachinery/34-730770
• ADB funds 25 ambulances, 38 double cabs for countrywide hospitals, MOH offices
– island.lk/adb-funds-25-ambulances-38-double-cabs-distributed-among-countrywide-hospitals-moh-offices/
• Rampala, first Ceylonese Chief Mechanical Engineer, was General Manager of Railway
– island.lk/travel-safe-travel-cheap-travel-by-rail/
– island.lk/rampala-and-the-cgr/
• Shortage of Motor Spares: We made side mirrors of cars – Garvin Karunaratne,
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/18/shortage-of-motor-spares/
• 30-40% increase in prices of spare parts over one year – Motor Spare Parts Dealers Association ‘Genuine replacement parts are supplied from Malaysia, Taiwan and China’
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/vehicle-market-running-on-low-gear-472263.html
– ft.lk/top-story/Motor-traders-honk-hazards-for-economy-from-forex-crisis/26-730799
• Sri Lanka warned of vehicles going off roads as forex crisis bites spare parts
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-warned-of-vehicles-going-off-roads-as-forex-crisis-bites-spare-parts-90631/
• Shortage of Suzuki car mirrors reflects Sri Lanka’s growing economic crisis
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Shortage-of-Suzuki-car-mirrors-reflects-Sri-Lankas-growing-economic-crisis/273-231406
• Oil-importer McLarens’ 3M-MLL achieves record-breaking year in 2021
– island.lk/3m-mll-achieves-record-breaking-year-in-2021-set-to-broaden-horizons-for-2022/
• Auction of Rolls Royce, Lamborghini abruptly stopped
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/news/auction-of-rolls-royce-lamborghini-abruptly-stopped-472447.html
• Proposed New Kelani-Athurugiriya expressway CA rules out preliminary objections from state
– dailymirror.lk/plus/Proposed-New-Kelani-Bridge-Athurugiriya-elevated-expressway-CA-rules-out-preliminary-objections-from-state-authorities/352-230239
• Govt. in major push to introduce non-motorised transport
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Govt-in-major-push-to-introduce-non-motorised-transport/273-231215
– ft.lk/front-page/Cabinet-nod-to-integrate-non-motorised-transport-to-existing-system/44-730690
• Fire breaks out on drillship in Sri Lanka
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/17/fire-breaks-out-on-drillship-in-sri-lanka/
– themorning.lk/fire-onboard-aquadrill-drillship-in-sri-lanka/
• Japan supports offshore spill response capabilities of Sri Lanka Coast Guard
– timesonline.lk/news-online/Japan-supports-offshore-spill-response-capabilities-of-Sri-Lanka-Coast-Guard/2-1136839
• New yachting infrastructure proposed in Sri Lanka
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/17/new-yachting-infrastructure-proposed-in-sri-lanka/
• Hayleys 3Q reported revenues of Rs.92.2 billion
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Hayleys-3Q-boosted-by-strong-performance-of-groups-multiple-lines-of-business/273-231217
• Hayley’s Dipped Products 3Q profits sink to Rs.2.31 billion, as revenues languish, costs rise
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Dipped-Products-3Q-profits-sink-as-revenues-languish-costs-rise/273-231006
• Access Engineering 9-month profit up 74% to Rs. 2.26 b
‘ADB and World Bank-funded road development programs and alternative road network expansion projects and expansion of expressway network driving up demand for construction materials’
– ft.lk/business/Access-Engineering-9-month-profit-up-74-to-Rs-2-26-b/34-730535
• Architect–2022 Exhibition to showcase ‘the latest in building tech’
– island.lk/architect-2022-exhibition-to-showcase-the-latest-in-building-tech/
• Tile importers moot imports through alternative funding
– themorning.lk/tile-importers-moot-imports-through-alternative-funding/
• TPS Ceramic to set up US $ 8.4mn tile manufacturing plant
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/TPS-Ceramic-to-set-up-US-8-4mn-tile-manufacturing-plant/273-231403
• Germany supporting Sri Lanka to keep up with technological developments in apparel sector
‘Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH- Vocational Training in Sri Lanka project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) partnered with Sri Lanka German Technical Institute (SLGTI) and MAS Holdings)’
– island.lk/germany-supporting-sri-lanka-to-keep-up-with-latest-technological-developments-in-apparel-sector/
• Eco Spindles helps Sri Lanka’s circular economy for plastic recycling
– timesonline.lk/business/Eco-Spindles-helps-Sri-Lankas-circular-economy-for-plastic-recycling/10-1136778
• Uncertain future for the local printing industry – Association of Printers (SLAP)
‘shortages of paper, inks, chemicals, flex boards, chip boards, printing plates and so on which are essential to produce a finished product for export. There are many local and foreign orders for printing but no raw material’
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/business-times/uncertain-future-for-the-local-printing-industry-471797.html
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/17/sri-lankas-printing-industry-at-the-brink-of-collapse/
• Dollar crisis poses existential threat to Sri Lanka’s publishing industry: authors
‘Mass Guiding Artists, a collective affiliated with the opposition National People’s Power (NPP)’
– economynext.com/dollar-crisis-poses-existential-threat-to-sri-lankas-publishing-industry-authors-90441/
• Sri Lanka Print Exhibition and Trade Fair 2022 kicks off
‘150 stalls displaying all types of imported products and machinery and equipment used for printing’
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Sri-Lanka-Print-Exhibition-and-Trade-Fair-2022-kicks-off/273-231405
• Where is the Sri Lankan cartoon and animation industry heading to?
– dailymirror.lk/insight/Where-is-the-Sri-Lankan-cartoon-and-animation-industry-heading-to/374-231152
• Pfizer doesn’t cause impotence, subfertility: Health authorities
– themorning.lk/pfizer-doesnt-cause-impotence-subfertility-health-authorities/
• India need Covid-19 vaccine ingredients from US (2021)
‘Exports of critical raw materials used in the production of some Covid-19 vaccines have been blocked as a result of Biden’s decision to invoke the US Defense Production Act’
– indianexpress.com/article/explained/us-embargo-raw-materials-covishield-covovax-production-covid-19-vaccine-7280711/
• Chinese firm says ASML’s IP infringement claims ‘inconsistent with facts’
‘China’s Dongfang Jingyuan Electron, which makes software for chip manufacturing procedures, has vehemently refuted accusations about intellectual property (IP) infringement against ASML Holdings, the world’s largest supplier of lithography machines.’
– globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1252074.shtml
• China Regulators warn iron ore traders not to engage in price gouging, profiteering
– globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1252323.shtml
• US urged to evaluate Chinese companies’ efforts in IPR after releasing Notorious Markets List
– globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1252585.shtml
• Civil society groups demand Moderna drop vaccine patent filings in South Africa
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286318-civil-society-groups-demand-moderna-drop-vaccine-patent-filings-in-south-africa
• Nigeria’s Capital Struggles with Gasoline Shortage
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/17/nigerias-capital-struggles-with-gasoline-shortage/
• EU seeks emergency powers on supply chains
‘Address structural strategic dependencies, diversify sources of supply and increase EU industrial capacities…include measures aimed at reducing the EU’s dependence on China’
– politico.eu/article/eu-seeks-emergency-powers-on-supply-chains/
• 1843 English Parliament Debate on Exportation of Machinery
– api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1843/aug/10/exportation-of-machinery
• Lingering Colonial Legacies: The Study of Skin is Too White
– newsclick.in/Lingering-Colonial-Legacies-The-Study-Skin-Too-White
______________________________________________________________________
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, preventing investment in modern production.
• Surcharge Tax to lower bank dividends
– themorning.lk/surcharge-tax-to-lower-bank-dividends/
• Lankan banks’ asset quality under pressure as relief measures end: Fitch
– ft.lk/front-page/Lankan-banks-asset-quality-under-pressure-as-relief-measures-end-Fitch/44-730708
– themorning.lk/sri-lankan-banks-asset-quality-under-pressure-as-relief-measures-end-fitch/
• Sri Lanka banks exposed to dollar bonds, loan losses edging up: Fitch
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-banks-exposed-to-dollar-bonds-loan-losses-edging-up-fitch-90588/
• HSBC CFW announces new season with special emphasis on societal, environmental wellbeing
– ft.lk/front-page/HSBC-CFW-announces-new-season-with-special-emphasis-on-societal-environmental-wellbeing/44-730742
• Sampath Bank Profit after tax Rs 12.5 Billion in 2021
– island.lk/sampath-bank-delivers-healthy-financial-results-amidst-challenges/
• Janashakthi Group’s First Capital Profit after Tax Rs. 47Mn for 9 months ended 2021
– http://bizenglish.adaderana.lk/first-capital-holds-strong-despite-economic-challenges/
• DFCC Bank to raise Rs. 6 b via Rights; announces scrip dividend
‘Shareholders of DFCC Bank are HNB (15%), BOC (12.5%), M.A. Yaseen (10%), SLIC (9%), AEPF (8%), Melstacorp (7.3%), Seafeld International (5.8%). Public float 62.5% by 10,955 shareholders’
– ft.lk/front-page/DFCC-Bank-to-raise-Rs-6-b-via-Rights-announces-scrip-dividend/44-730706
• Make the Board of Investment the final authority in managing economic affairs
– http://bizenglish.adaderana.lk/who-let-the-dogs-out/
• Shares extend gains as financial and communication services stocks rise
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Shares-extend-gains-as-financials-rise/273-231098
• Notable dip in blue-chip counters as macro and micro uncertainties weigh on bourse
– island.lk/notable-dip-in-blue-chip-counters-as-macro-and-micro-uncertainties-weigh-on-bourse/
• Stock market closes on a negative note
– ft.lk/front-page/Stock-market-closes-on-a-negative-note/44-730643
• Colombo shares drop on improved turnover
– timesonline.lk/business/Colombo-shares-drop-on-improved-turnover/10-1136790
• Sri Lanka shares slip to one-week low amid forced selling
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-shares-slip-to-one-week-low-amid-forced-selling-90594/
• CSE sees choppy trades
– timesonline.lk/business/CSE-sees-choppy-trades/10-1136842
• CSE turnover hits Rs. 5.1 billion but main indices dip
– island.lk/cse-turnover-hits-rs-5-1-billion-but-main-indices-dip/
• CSE suffers fourth consecutive week of decline
– ft.lk/front-page/CSE-suffers-fourth-consecutive-week-of-decline/44-730793
• Sri Lanka stocks fall to over 1-wk low on forced sales; LOFC boosts turnover
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-stocks-fall-to-over-1-wk-low-on-forced-sales-lofc-boosts-turnover-90585/
• Bank of Ceylon’s Property Development PLC announces plans to delist
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/PDL-announces-plans-to-delist-offering-attractive-exit-offer/273-231101
– ft.lk/front-page/BOC-subsidiary-Property-Development-to-delist/44-730598
• A preliminary inquiry into the new SEC Act
– ft.lk/columns/A-preliminary-inquiry-into-the-new-SEC-Act/4-730731
• ComBank, SL Insurance Institute & England’s Chartered Insurance Institute to finance studies
‘The Institute provides insurance education i with the England’s Chartered Insurance Institute and the Insurance Institute of India, on behalf of Insurance Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (IRCSL)’
– island.lk/combank-launches-scheme-with-slii-to-finance-professional-studies-in-insurance-2/
• Commercial Leasing and Finance and LOLC Finance amalgamation boosts CSE
– island.lk/commercial-leasing-and-finance-and-lolc-finance-amalgamation-boosts-cse/
• LOLC Finance first with Foreign Currency Savings and SWIFT transactions
– island.lk/lolc-finance-emerges-as-the-winner-of-most-innovative-and-most-trusted-financial-services-brand-of-sri-lanka-2021/
• Brutal US Stock Deterioration: Nasdaq Stocks over 50% Below their 52-Week High
– wallstreetonparade.com/2022/02/brutal-stock-deterioration-46-percent-of-nasdaq-stocks-are-more-than-50-percent-below-their-52-week-high/
• Since US Fed Announced “Tapering” Last November, It’s Added $332 Billion in Liquidity
– wallstreetonparade.com/2022/02/since-the-fed-announced-it-was-tapering-last-november-its-actually-added-332-billion-in-liquidity-with-new-debt-security-purchases/
• These Are the Banks that Own the New York Fed and Its Money Button (2019)
– wallstreetonparade.com/2019/11/these-are-the-banks-that-own-the-new-york-fed-and-its-money-button/
• The Money Behind US Senator Pat Toomey and His Boycott of the Vote on Fed Nominees
– wallstreetonparade.com/2022/02/follow-the-money-behind-senator-pat-toomey-and-his-boycott-of-the-vote-on-fed-nominees/
• FBI Raids and Subpoenas Have Been Occurring on Wall Street. What’s Up?
– wallstreetonparade.com/2022/02/fbi-raids-and-subpoenas-have-been-occurring-on-wall-street-whats-up/
• Banks Sink – Throwing More Cold Water on All Talk that Megabanks Are a Great Investment
– wallstreetonparade.com/2022/02/banks-sink-throwing-more-cold-water-on-all-that-talk-that-megabanks-are-a-great-investment/
___________________________________________________________________________________
C9. Business (Rentierism: money via imports, real-estate, tourism, insurance, fear, privatization)
ee Business focuses on the rentier diversions of the oligarchy, the domination by a merchant mafia, making money from unproductive land sales, tourism, insurance, advertising, etc. – the charade of corporate press releases disguised as ‘news’
• Hardest-hit by forex crisis $13billion retail industry calls for swift fix
‘Represents 14% of labour market with over 1.1 m people employed’
– ft.lk/top-story/Hardest-hit-by-forex-crisis-13-b-retail-industry-calls-for-swift-fix/26-730705
– island.lk/local-retail-industry-the-hardest-hit-by-the-forex-crisis-calls-for-solutions/
• SLT Group Rs. 12.2 billion Profit After Taxes for 2021
– island.lk/slt-group-topline-surpasses-rs-100-billion-recording-rs-12-2-billion-profit-after-taxes/
• Waiver on liquor licence renewal fee for industry withdrawn
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Waiver-on-liquor-licence-renewal-fee-for-industry-withdrawn/273-231302
• Twenty BOI firms to invest US$ 165mn to expand existing operations
– dailymirror.lk/business__main/Twenty-BOI-firms-to-invest-US-165mn-to-expand-existing-operations/245-231165
• HNB-Span Engineering partner to home loans promotion
– island.lk/hnb-span-engineering-partner-to-home-loans-promotion/
• Sri Lanka’s Home Lands Skyline rated ‘A(lka)’ despite macro challenges: Fitch
– economynext.com/sri-lankas-home-lands-skyline-rated-alka-despite-macro-challenges-fitch-90570/
• Pro-Poor Tourism: Can it reduce poverty in Sri Lanka?
– island.lk/pro-poor-tourism-can-it-reduce-poverty-in-sri-lanka/
• AirAsia boss calls on governments to be ‘brave’ and open borders
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/AirAsia-boss-calls-on-governments-to-be-brave-and-open-borders/273-231399
• Aitken Spence reports its highest ever Q3 PBT of Rs. 3 Billion
– island.lk/aitken-spence-reports-its-highest-ever-q3-pbt-of-rs-3-bn/
• Commercial High Court refuses Hayleys Aventura’s application for interim injunction
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/Commercial-High-Court-refuses-Hayleys-Aventuras-application-for-interim-injunction/273-231298
• South Asian Federation of Accountants Annual Report Awards
– dailymirror.lk/business-news/SAFA-Best-Presented-Annual-Report-Awards-honours-24-Lankan-companies/273-231294
• EU Delegation funds project to strengthen wellness tourism capacity here
– island.lk/eu-delegation-funds-project-to-strengthen-wellness-tourism-capacity-here/
• Lonely planet names 10 best beaches in Sri Lanka
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/17/lonely-planet-names-10-best-beaches-in-sri-lanka/
• Chamath Palihapitiya to step down as Virgin Galactic’s chairman’
– adaderana.lk/technology/80677/chamath-palihapitiya-to-step-down-as-virgin-galactics-chairman
______________________________________________________
C10. Politics (Anti-parliament discourse, unelected constitution)
ee Politics points to the constant diversions and spectacles and the mercantile and financial forces funding the political actors, of policy hijacked by private interests minus public oversight.
• At a distance from Salgado Stadium – Nalin de Silva
– kalaya.org/?p=5031
• Brahmin who Sell out to Christian Modernity against Sinhala Buddhists – Nalin de Silva
– kalaya.org/?p=5033
• Wijeweera Prabhakaran and Theekshana – Nalin de Silva
– kalaya.org/?p=5065
• Why is the government afraid?– Nalin de Silva
– kalaya.org/?p=5057
• Second interim report of PCoI to probe human rights violations handed over to President
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/19/second-interim-report-of-pcoi-to-probe-human-rights-violations-handed-over-to-president/
• People Demand Arrest & Trial of US Fifth Columnists for Treason & Abuse of Power
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/17/people-demand-the-immediate-arrest-and-trial-of-the-american-fifth-columnists-for-treason-and-abuse-of-power/
• The Ceylon Civil Service – Gamini Seneviratne
‘Divisional Revenue Officers (DRO) in ‘the Kandyan Districts’ an off-shoot of the Sinhala system of Rate Mahattayas…recruited by an interview…not through competitive examination’
– island.lk/the-ceylon-civil-service-2/
• All major political parties struggling to remain intact
– dailymirror.lk/latest_news/All-major-political-parties-struggling-to-remain-intact/342-231229
• Sri Lanka yet to find a firm power-sharing mechanism after war ended – former President
‘Marking boundaries based on surveyor’s lines have not solved issues with our neighbors as seen even today from the Radcliffe Line between India and Pakistan, and Chief English negotiator, Henry McMahon’s line dealing with the boundaries of Tibet, China, Bhutan, and even India’
– adaderana.lk/news/80572/sri-lanka-yet-to-find-a-firm-power-sharing-mechanism-after-war-ended-former-president
• Ranawaka faction claims being more popular than Premadasa faction – Devapriya
– island.lk/opposition-blues/
• “We are heading towards a social explosion” Champika Ranawaka
– dailymirror.lk/hard-talk/We-are-heading-towards-a-social-explosion-Champika-Ranawaka/334-230806
• Three Major Mistakes of the JVP & FSP – Jayatilleka
– island.lk/three-major-mistakes-of-the-jvp-fsp/
• The Left, Kumar Gunaratnam and Executive Presidency – Jayatilleka
– island.lk/the-left-kumar-gunaratnam-and-executive-presidency/
• Sinhala voter sentiment, Opposition opportunities, foreign policy paradigms
– ft.lk/columns/Sinhala-voter-sentiment-Opposition-opportunities-foreign-policy-paradigms/4-730660
• Sinhala Buddhist Strategist N.Q. Dias was Feared as the “Tsar” – Jeyaraj
– dailymirror.lk/plus/Sinhala-Buddhist-Strategist-N-Q-Dias-was-Feared-as-the-Tsar/352-231418
• No Parallel between Ukraine-Russia and national question in Sri Lanka – David
– island.lk/war-the-domain-of-the-demonic/
• IOUs became the organizing principle of Rajapaksa politics – Philips
– island.lk/slpp-drops-election-threat-how-will-rival-parties-respond/
• Wiggy tells Tamil political parties how to increase their clout
– island.lk/wiggy-tells-tamil-political-parties-how-to-increase-their-clout/
• Lack of transparency in HRCSL appointments blamed on 20A
– island.lk/lack-of-transparency-in-hrcsl-appointments-blamed-on-20a/
• Lankans want both elections and a strong leader untrammelled by elections – Balachandran
– lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/02/14/lankans-want-both-elections-and-a-strong-leader-untrammelled-by-elections/
• Up the garden path with the JVP. Again?
– island.lk/up-the-garden-path-with-the-jvp-again/
• How Biden Is Worse Than Trump
– indi.ca
• ‘DMK has Upper Hand, BJP Will not Gain in Feb 19 Local Elections
– newsclick.in/dmk-has-upper-hand-bjp-will-not-gain
• Tamil Nadu: Campaign Ends for Polls; Lack Infrastructure and Amenities a Major Concern
– newsclick.in/Tamil-Nadu-Campaign-Ends-Civic-Polls-Lack-Infrastructure-Amenities-Major-Concern
• Marx’s Conspectus of Bakunin’s Statism and Anarchy (1874)
– redsails.org/marx-on-bakunin/
• Terrell Starr and Black Support of Imperialism
– blackagendareport.com/index.php/terrell-starr-and-black-support-imperialism
• Why We Need A “Mau Mau” in Amerikkka
– blackagendareport.com/why-we-need-mau-mau-amerikkka
• Canada’s Alt-Right ‘Freedom’ Rage – The Lumpen Petty Bourgeoisie Does its Revolting Thing
– socialistproject.ca/2022/02/freedom-comes-to-canada/
__________________________________________________________
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.
• After UNP’s 1977 liberalisation, ad industry grew by 20 percent a year
– island.lk/not-just-her-good-karma/
• Media Studies – (‘Russian Invasion’ Scam)
– moonofalabama.org/2022/02/media-studies-russian-invasion-scam
• Dirty Media – Nalin de Silva
– kalaya.org/?p=5059
• Sri Lanka history project funded by English, EU & Germany
– island.lk/its-about-time-an-informative-experience-of-history/
• Is Queen Elizabeth a great woman?
– island.lk/is-queen-elizabeth-a-great-woman/
• Richard de Zoysa: 32 years later
– island.lk/richard-32-years-later/
• When Death Isn’t News Anymore
‘In May 2020 the New York Times called 100,000 deaths ‘incalculable’. By February 2022 they calculated the numbers and just didn’t give a fuck. They said, “900,000 Dead, but Many Americans Move On.” – indi.ca
• Move to use PTA and Penal Code to restrict freedom of expression: NPP
– dailymirror.lk/latest_news/Move-to-use-PTA-and-Penal-Code-to-restrict-freedom-of-expression-NPP/342-231197
• Signature campaign launched demanding repeal of PTA
– timesonline.lk/news-online/Signature-campaign-launched-demanding-repeal-of-PTA/2-1136843
• ‘New Wings’’ comes out against HR violations
– timesonline.lk/news-online/In-Pictures-New-Wings-comes-out-against-HR-violations/2-1136841
• Young Journalists’ Association writes UN Special Rapporteur on Data Protection Law
– timesonline.lk/news-online/SLYJA-writes-to-UN-Special-Rapporteur-expressing-concerns-on-proposed-Data-Protection-Law/2-1136838
• Sri Lanka journalist’s residence attacked; says too early to pinpoint possible culprit
– economynext.com/sri-lanka-journalists-residence-attacked-says-too-early-to-pinpoint-possible-culprit-90500/
– timesonline.lk/news-online/Journalist-cum-TV-presenters-residence-under-attack/2-1136763
– dailymirror.lk/print/front_page/Signs-of-the-dawn-of-a-black-era-for-local-media-Ruwan/238-231239
• UN reiterates need to protect journalists to ensure democracy
– newsfirst.lk/2022/02/15/un-reiterates-need-to-protect-journalists-to-ensure-democracy/
• SLCricket should have guts to protest against Australian umpiring, says Arjuna
– dailymirror.lk/top-story-sports-1/SLC-should-have-guts-to-protest-against-Australian-umpiring-says-Arjuna/324-231065
• I Faced It All by K.C. Logeswaran from the Notebook of a Public Servant
– dailymirror.lk/news-features/Book-Review-I-Faced-It-All-by-K-C-Logeswaran-From-the-Notebook-of-a-public-servant/131-231087
• Market research specialist decrypt launched in Sri Lanka to help MNCs,
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/business-times/decrypt-launched-in-sri-lanka-471762.html
• The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka kicks off second exhibition
‘generously supported by the European Union, Foundation for Arts Initiatives, John Keells Foundation, and Asian Hotels and Properties.’
– ft.lk/ft-lite/The-Museum-of-Modern-and-Contemporary-Art-Sri-Lanka-kicks-off-second-exhibition/6-730475
• The Reader’s Digest as US propaganda: A review 71 years ago
– sundaytimes.lk/220213/sunday-times-2/the-readers-digest-as-propaganda-a-review-71-years-ago-472177.html
• I Tried The Metaverse, and It’s None Of Facebook’s Business
‘The Facebook business model is a Marxist nightmare. Users contribute their own capital and labor to produce content which Facebook monetizes. It’s almost pure profit.’
– indi.ca
• We Never Lose Our Imagination, We Just Spend It Imagining Dumb Shit
– indi.ca
• How Reality Is Breaking Down
‘The artificial video game we call Capitalism is now overheating and melting the natural world. ‘
– indi.ca
• Madras High Court (HC) removes all posters by candidates in local government elections
– island.lk/a-welcome-gavel-blow/
• Senior Indian Photojournalist Dies by Suicide in News Agency’s Chennai Office
– newsclick.in/Todays-News-Round-Up-Feb-14-2022
• A Critical Read of “Animal Farm”
‘George Orwell expresses aristocratic contempt towards the people, the working class’
– redsails.org/jones-on-animal-farm/
• Swiss voters approve near-total ban on tobacco advertising
– radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/286114-swiss-voters-approve-near-total-ban-on-tobacco-advertising
_________________________________________________
email: econenews@gmail.com
blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com
_________________________________________________
e-Con e-News 