blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com
‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’
e-Con e-News 31 March – 6 April 2024
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‘Maersk wouldn’t have taken on board containers
carrying hazardous materials that were to be unloaded here
without specific approval from the relevant authorities in Colombo’
– Gomi Senadhira, Former SL Ambassador to the World Trade Organization
The US army has declared Baltimore Port a no-go area & drone-free zone, making it difficult for ‘independent’ investigators to report on the actual contents on that Maersk-chartered Singapore-flagged ship, Dali.
A Unified Command, ‘led by the US Coast Guard, US Army Corps of Engineering, Maryland Department of the Environment, Maryland Transportation Authority & Maryland State Police [has effected a ] 2,000-yard maritime Safety Zone for the M/V Dali recovery…which includes a temporary flight restriction that prohibits all drones from operating within 3 nautical miles from the surface, up to and including 1,500 feet above ground level’.
The 22 crew members, which US media earlier described as ‘22 Hindus’, now being reported as a still-unnamed ’21 Indians & 1 Sri Lankan’ are being detained on the ship, unable to leave. Indian crews, captains & engineers are paid less than their US counterparts, adds New York Times, and surmise they ‘must feel this weight of responsibility that they couldn’t stop it from happening’. No information independent of the US government will therefore be immediately forthcoming as to exactly what was on the Danish Maersk-chartered ship bound for Sri Lanka.
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The Fog Thickens – Almost all news stories first reported the ship was only headed to Colombo, but a Maersk-linked supply-chain platform e2open Executive now suddenly claims, ‘Dali was headed to China with stops in Sri Lanka & Malaysia’! How’s thaaat for some ‘new cold war’ diversion?!
Subsequently, in the Financial Times (SL), Ports, Shipping & Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva on April 3 supposedly ‘verified… out of the 57 containers onboard; only one was destined for Colombo… I have inquired from the Maersk shipping line and they confirmed that there were 57 containers with toxic materials that can be categorised under the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code. But only one box was bound for Colombo and the rest were for re-export.’
‘Addressing misinformation circulating in the media, the Minister criticised individuals lacking proper knowledge of the situation. He highlighted the vessel’s final destination was China, a detail he claimed was overlooked in media coverage. The Minister also underscored the necessity of handling classified goods, such as flammables & hazardous materials, in international trade & logistics: ‘Goods falling under classifications 1-9 require special approval from the Ministry of Defence and under the current law we have been doing that without any issue.’
Regarding cargo declaration procedures, the Minister clarified that containers’ contents must be declared 72 hours or 3 days before arrival at Colombo Port. ‘However, given the negative publicity surrounding the incident, authorities sought additional details from the shipping line,’ he added, ‘We still do not know what exactly is in that one container bound for Colombo. We would only know when the vessel entered the Indian Ocean. But now the ship won’t come as per the scheduled date.’
Maersk’s e2open ‘Executive’ keeps adding to the fog: Dali ‘had about 4,700 full containers (about 50% of its 10,000 capacity) and probably a batch of empty containers – this is in line with what is expected on a west to east voyage where container vessels carry less cargo back than they bring in’. What these ‘empty containers’ actually contain has led to intense speculation. Was it full before, and have only become empty now? Denmark’s Maersk, transporter for the US Department of War, provides integral ‘logistical support’ to the US military, whose government seeks to turn Sri Lanka into a war zone, installing a base for its new 8th Fleet.
Could the Singapore-flagged vessel have been carrying military weapons loaded at the largest US Navy base in Norfolk, which the Dali had entered earlier? And what is the ship’s link to Baltimore’s medical waste scandal? (see below) With the drone-free zone, for whom & for where & for what, will now be made increasingly unclear.
Meanwhile, ministers & officials in Sri Lanka are also contradicting each other, about who knows or knew exactly what. They simply parrot talking points supplied by officials from the huge multinational Maersk, which has powerful links with Sri Lanka’s colonial import-export plantation oligarchy led by colonial conglomerate John Keells etc, and even more powerful multinationals like Unilever…
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• In late 2023, Curtis Bay Energy (CBE), the USA’s largest medical waste incinerator, which operates in South Baltimore, Maryland, was fined almost $2million as a criminal penalty for improper disposal of biohazardous materials from hospitals and medical laboratories. Curtis Bay Energy disposes of biohazardous material from around the US & from Canada.
Such ‘raw materials’ could include liquid or dried blood, anatomical materials and other biohazards. CBE had also improperly disposed of untreated water used in the waste incineration process into nearby lands.
Despite the penalties, the company recently came under scrutiny again in early 2024, involving 2 of Maryland’s largest health systems: Johns Hopkins University said it would divert nearly all of its medical waste from CBE; while MedStar Health, which operates 10 hospitals, insisted they had to continue using CBE, a week after Maryland again filed a lawsuit against Curtis Bay Energy. Most of Johns Hopkins medical waste comes from its university, rather than its hospital system. CBE operates in a heavily industrialized area in a working-class south Baltimore neighborhood, whose residents are demanding action from the hospitals contracted with CBE. The question is how much of this waste was shoved onto that Maersk-chartered Singapore-flagged ship bound for Sri Lanka.
Ironically, on the day of the Baltimore bridge crash, on 26 March, southern New Mexico marked the 25th anniversary of the USA’s only underground repository for radioactive waste from decades of nuclear research & bomb making. New Mexico, home of the Navajo & Apache, has long been targeted for such ‘disposables’. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant outside Carlsbad has taken in around 13,850 shipments from more than a dozen national laboratories and other sites since 1999.
New Mexico was concerned about US government plans for ‘repackaging and shipping’ drums of nuclear waste packed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to be stored at WIPP, which were later rerouted to Texas. Would such ships now carry such materials as well, and was the Dali the only such ship that’s been heading to Colombo?
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ee’s main goal in this short and sometimes sweet life, is to discuss the prevention of investment in modern machine-making industry in Sri Lanka. Therefore the ’recycling’ of ‘hazardous wastes’ even into useful substances may be possible if there is investment in such processes. However, we are not allowed to invest even in our own ‘safe’ resources. However, such countries as the USA could easily process their own wastes, rather than dump it on us. Yet they would rather invest in ‘global warring’.…So whatever surprises they had been planning for us after this New Year, have been perhaps postponed for now.
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• ‘Maersk wouldn’t have taken on board containers carrying hazardous materials that were to be unloaded here without specific approval from the relevant authorities in Colombo’, former SL Ambassador to the WTO & Minister Counsellor in Washington & Brussels, Gomi Senadhira told The Island on April 2. Senadhira also pointed to an agreement with Singapore to accept ‘waste’: ‘The government without any further delay should take tangible measures to identify those who had authorised the shipment of such dangerous materials.’ He said, ‘the identities of those who had been involved in this operation must have been known to the powers that be’.
‘The government could seek the assistance of the US in this regard,’ the outspoken former official said. ‘The issue at hand is how many such shipments reached Colombo over the years,’ pointing out, if not for the ship crashing into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Baltimore, it could have been on its way to the Colombo harbour. He added, the possibility of persons with authority exploiting BoI procedures for their benefit couldn’t be ruled out.
ee already noted Maersk’s partnership with colonial conglomerate John Keells’ South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) located in England’s Peninsular & Orient (P&O)-controlled Queen Elizabeth Quay in Colombo Port (see below). Last November 2023, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) promised a $553mn investment in the Adani Ports-led West Container Terminal port project in Colombo, to be jointly developed with John Keells and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).
Director Customs Seevali Arukgoda says, ‘Customs has no way of knowing who the consignee is and what the cargo is until the cargo manifest is filed by the agent here. Even then, cargo description is in most cases not sufficient to properly identify such goods. No one will declare contents as ‘Toxic Waste’.’
Senadhira recalled that a few years ago England was exposed for shipping to Colombo, 263 containers of hazardous waste, including human body parts from hospitals/mortuaries. Those containers were taken back after the exposure. Senadhira expressed ‘serious concern whether far more hazardous waste were being shipped here aboard Dali with the connivance of the relevant authorities here’.
Senadhira said, he was glad the Opposition raised this issue in Parliament April 02. Referring to the extensive coverage of the accident & its aftermath, he said, the ship’s next stop was to be Colombo, adding that prior to Baltimore, Dali called at New York & Norfolk, Virginia, where some of those containers or all bound for Colombo were loaded.
Senadhira said, this was nothing but a massive crime perpetrated on hapless people by those who would turn the country into a toxic-waste yard for personal gain… Parliament should take up this issue vigorously and seek answers as every attempt would obviously be made to suppress the information by those involved. Some politicians & officials obviously cooperated with interested parties and reached agreements for their benefit, but at a massive expense to the country. The controversial agreement finalized with Singapore during the Yahapalana administration to accept waste from that country was just a case in point. The Baltimore accident is a tragedy as it caused colossal damages and claimed the lives of several persons. But, that incident is in a way a blessing in disguise as it exposed a grave crime about to be perpetrated against Sri Lanka, Senadhira said.
Rather ironically, Singapore’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau this week blamed the ship crew and the Colombo Port for the 2021 X-Press Pearl disaster!
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• A Maersk-linked ‘CEO’ of a Colombo Port Co, who ‘contributes valuable insights to the industry’, criticized ee & media who dared share ee content: ‘Better stick to matters you can grasp. The toxic cargo story was floated by a Sri Lankan blogger who writes all sorts of nonsense on various topics. [The] importing country knows whats [sic!] on a ship by its manifest declared to customs.’ He told the Daily Mirror, ‘You are copying from a blog, which writes bulshit [sic!] on topics they have no idea of.’
However, no media, free or expensive, had dared mention the Sri Lanka-related issues involved with the Baltimore bridge, until ee broke the story on 30 March.
On 31 March, The Island only reported the accident had only ‘two remote connections to Sri Lanka in that the vessel was headed for Colombo, and the US Senator for Baltimore, Chris Van Hollen Jr who figured prominently in the reporting of the disaster, is the son of Christopher Van Hollen Sr, a career diplomat, one time US Ambassador in Sri Lanka’ in the 1970s. They forgot to add that father Hollen had opposed Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s Indian Ocean Peace Zone Initiative, then actively destabilized her government. Son Hollen, active in the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ousting and jailing of Pakistan PM Imran Khan, and in the current destabilization of Sri Lanka & Somalia. He visited Colombo in September 2023.
Even more intriguingly, on 31 March, a Sunday Times story, headlined ‘Baltimore bridge disaster: Vessel carried containers for transhipment from Colombo’ by Sunimalee Dias, also quoted unnamed Maersk officials, claiming: ‘According to the vessel manifest there was cargo to be discharged at Colombo Port comprising one cargo with resin solution for manufacturing. In addition, there had been over 500 containers to be discharged as transshipment volumes meant for India. With the Baltimore Port closed, it is likely to take some time until operations resume and investigations are carried out on the accident, local agents stated. Maersk in an updated statement noted that no new bookings in to or out of the Port of Baltimore will be accepted.’ [Ha! – ee]. ‘However, they will continue to offer options through alternate US East Coast (USEC) ports.’ There was no mention of the other 4,199 containers on the Dali. Nor that it was on its way to China.
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Yet the next day (April 01), media quoted Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chair Keith Bernard as saying shippers have to declare the contents of containers only 72 hours before the time of arrival into the Colombo Port:
‘The ship [was] supposed to arrive here on April 21, 2024. It means they are supposed to inform us by April 17 or so. There is enough time. If there are containers with hazardous items as declared by them, we will isolate such containers in accordance with protocols. As a major transshipment hub, we have a procedure set in place to deal with such containers. Most likely, these containers are meant for transshipment.’
Asked about the procedure if the containers are meant to be allowed into the country, Bernard said, ‘the clearance of the Defence Ministry and others would be sought’.
However, ‘Deputy Director of the Central Environment Authority (CEA) Ajith Wijesundara said it is not yet clear whether the ship was carrying containers with hazardous wastes or toxic substances. According to the Basel Convention, he said such wastes would not be allowed into the country.
The text of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal was adopted on March 22, 1989, and entered into force on the 90th day after the date of deposit of the 20th instrument of ratification, acceptance, formal confirmation, approval or accession, on May 5, 1992. The text has been subject to various amendments since its adoption. He added that toxic substances are imported as raw materials and guidelines are applied. (see ee Sovereignty, SL unaware of ship carrying toxic wastes from the US)
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On April 2, Daily Mirror reported, ‘The Central Environment Authority (CEA) has launched a comprehensive investigation, according to State Minister of Environment Janaka Wakkumbura. He told Parliament, the CEA was unaware that the cargo ship carrying hazardous materials was heading to Sri Lanka… while responding to questions raised by SLPP MP Charitha Herath and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa… a proper investigation should be conducted as to how such a cargo ship carrying hazardous materials was heading to Sri Lanka without the knowledge of the country.
‘We would not have known of the hazardous material in the cargo ship unless it encountered an accident. A proper investigation should be conducted as to how such a ship was heading to Sri Lanka in such a manner.’ Wakkumbura said, Sri Lanka Customs and Colombo Port have been informed of the cargo ship and assured to provide a report to the House of the incident.
The SLPA Chair claims, it does not mean that the hazardous material that was said to aboard the ship was intended for Sri Lanka. Most of the containers… were to go to other destinations (countries) via Sri Lanka… the SLPA was not even aware of the contents of the containers at the time of the collision. ‘Of the containers that the ship was carrying, we do not know how many were intended for Sri Lanka.’
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said, the investigation as to contents could take 12-24 months, although the NTSB will not hesitate to issue urgent safety recommendations during that time. The preliminary report would be released in 2-4 weeks.’
The Morning newspaper added: ‘Attempts to contact the Central Environmental Authority and the Sri Lanka Customs to get more information in this regard were not successful.’
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• While not a single environmental organization has uttered a word (further evidence that these NGOs are only triggered by their funding masters in the US & EU), ee’s report last week caught the attention of both media and parliament. The Daily Mirror muddled ee’s narrative and left out crucial information:
‘It is more foggy which Maersk-linked US companies export toxic materials to Sri Lanka. Maersk, which the US government’s local media mouth EconomyNext calls ‘a global shipping industry giant’, recently partnered with the privatized National Development Bank (NDB) to help Sri Lanka’s ‘Small & Medium Enterprises’ grow. What SMEs, US-military-linked Maersk wishes to ‘grow’, is unclear’.
The privatization of the NDB & DFCC banks should be considered a national scandal. That it has been hijacked by the likes of Maersk is no surprise. DM also left out, in reference to the longer route via South Africa’s Cape:
‘The more expensive and longer diversions are blamed by the white media on Yemen, which by ‘international law’ (which the US invokes but does not abide by) controls access through the Red Sea & Somalia which has Africa’s largest coastline & controls eastern access to the large continent’.
Indeed, the constant media reference to ‘Somali pirates‘ diverts from the robbery of their seas & the US financing of various ‘terrorist’ groups in Somalia. The media fears offending the USA, which is seeking to block Asia’s sea traffic (see ee Quotes). The announcement this week that an Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) is ‘welcoming’ new shipping regulations in the Arctic, is also another attempt to interfere in the traffic, this time, between Russia & East Asia. The ICC has been long funded by Exxon’s Rockefeller Foundation, etc.
The DM’s carefully manicured ‘Comments Section’ on the ship story also sought to divert focus to the retail corruption of politicians and away from the wholesale exploitation by multinational corporations (with budgets far bigger than most nation-states). Check out the link to all these sea games & England’s Peninsular & Orient (P&O) Company’s colonial monopoly (see Random Notes).
ee here recalls, ‘The first roadblock to the Hambantota Port project was placed by P&O… If Hambantota was developed as a major hub port it would have posed a threat to Indian ports, like Nhava Shiva developed by P&O and now competing with Colombo.’ Those who claim to be experts on China’s ‘sinister designs’ on our ports & our seas, are curiously ignorant of England’s P&O’s control of international shipping, etc, for almost 200 years. In 1999, P&O was given a 30-year lease over Colombo Port’s Queen Elizabeth Quay – a fact never mentioned in the media (see ee 02/11, 2019).
This week saw media focus on revelations by an ex-President about India’s involvement in the April 2019 terror, as well as India’s claim on an islet north of Jaffna. This diverted from India’s claims over the oceanic floor’s mineral wealth within Sri Lanka’s maritime territories (see ee Sovereignty, Seabed). This ee Focus looks at the un-investigated revelations made by the Speaker about blatant foreign interference in the country’s internal affairs, as well as an ex-Air-Force officer’s exposure of the stages leading to the ouster of a legally elected head of state.
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Contents:
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A1. Reader Comments –
• Nalin & the Nayakkars • Damn! • ee turns Clickbait • Watch out! • What about Past Containers? • US Sh…for Sh…holes? • ee Must Carry on • Media Smooths Mass Murder
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A2. Quotes of the Week –
• SL Migrant Worker Deaths • Legal NGOs Plan Lynching • US Plan to Depress Asia’s Economy • English & Burgher Servants • Israel Bombs Iranian Embassy • Underplaying Manufacture • Baltimore & White Flight • Unions & Worker Defeats • Banning Capital’s Fictions
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A3. Random Notes –
• India Grabs SL Ocean Floor • P&O Monopolizes Colombo Port • CEB’s Secret Plans • Japan & Australia’s Oceans • 1941 & England at War Yet Again • Marx on Bitcoin
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B. ee Focus –
B1. Thorough Investigation of Speaker’s Disclosure Absolutely Essential – Gunadasa Amarasekera
B2. Ex-SLAF Officer Unveils Developments Leading to Aragalaya – Shamindra Ferdinando
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C. Building Blocks –
• Guaranteed Rice Price for Industrialization • Creation of a Home Market for Industry • Japan’s Limits on Industrial Exports • Smallholding & Science • Extraordinary Culture of Machine Tools • Making Central Banks Independent of the People? • On State-owned Enterprises & Privatization
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D. News Index
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A1. Reader Comments
ee thanks Readers who send articles of interest. Please excerpt or summarize what is important about any news sent, or your comments, and place any e-link at the end. Email: econenews@gmail.com
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• ‘Re: History of Nayakkars & Nalin de Silva – This has nothing to do with what I wrote, I didn’t go into the origins of the Nayakkars. It’s only about assimilation, associated with French colonialism as against the English, what the French did in Africa.’
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• ‘Re: US Toxic Waste – Damn!’
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• ‘ee has turned into a media moghul and clickbait press!’
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• ‘ee better watch out!’
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• ‘What about the several container loads already unloaded here, last month, last year, last decade – only one or 2 containers were interdicted once, of all these, and another now slowed because of an inconveniently placed bridge.’
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• ‘They call us shithole countries and now we know which hole it comes from…’
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• ‘Re: US Toxic Waste – Yes indeed carry on with our blessings – which deliver nothing of use of course. Re: good vs evil (ee is on the good side – the side that always loses). Always. Jesus was on the good side and had to lose – the good are left to rely on divine intervention, which is highly selective.’
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• ‘Euro-American media always have the following lines at the end of any story about Israel & Palestine. 100s of stories like this, in the last months. This one is about McDonalds being hit by boycotts – but the end is the same: ‘So long as this war is going on… we’re not expecting to see any significant improvement [in these markets],’ the McDonald’s boss added. The company is hoping that by taking the Israeli business back ‘in house, it can restore its reputation in the Middle East and meet its key sales targets once more. Much of Gaza Strip has been devastated during the Israeli military operations that began after Hamas-led gunmen attacked southern Israel on 7 Oct, killing about 1,200 people & seizing 253 hostages. About 130 hostages remain in captivity, at least 34 of whom are presumed dead.’ It’s lately been adding also this tag, maybe for ‘balance’: ‘More than 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says’.’
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A2. Quotes of the Week_
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• ‘In 2022, most deaths of Sri Lankans [abroad], or 146, were reported from Saudi Arabia… 107 Sri Lankan men & 39 women. The next highest tally of deaths was from Kuwait… 53 men & 55 women. In the United Arab Emirates, 60 Sri Lankans ended up dead – 39 men & 21 women. 6 men & 3 women have died in Japan. In Israel, 4 men & 4 women.’ – see ee Workers, Fleeing bankrupt Lankan homes, overseas job-seekers opt to die in fight for their lives
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• US-NGOs Plan Lynching – ‘Those who were named as responsible for the country’s economic debacle by their Lordships of the SC in 2023, shall be prosecuted under Public Property Act No12 of 1982. Those who have been accused – Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa, Nivard Cabraal, PB Jayasundera, SR Attygalle, WD Laxman & Samantha Kumarasinghe have to serve a mandatory jail term of minimum one year & maximum 20 years and a fine of 3 times the value of the loss caused for making the Government of Sri Lanka lose tax revenue of Rs493billion and foreign reserves of US$7,780.08million. In addition, action will be taken to recover the losses incurred as referred above. All those who are holding assets that are unaccounted for, shall be frozen and confiscated after an investigation under the supervision of the judiciary.’ – see ee Security, Indians praise legal experts’ reforms to jail former Presidents Rajapakse etc
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• ‘The US aim in Pivot to Asia is to create tensions & war in Asia, not to win because the US can’t win against China in Asia. The goal is to depress the Asian & Chinese economy by at least 30% decline of its GDP.’ – Filipino General Victor Corpus
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• ‘But [English Governor] North had one major difficulty with the Dutch civil servants. They refused to take the Oath of Loyalty to England… This was probably because they hoped that the Dutch would come back to rule Ceylon again. According to UC Wickremeratne, they did not approve of the changes in Holland brought about by the French Revolution. They were more nationalistic than the Dutch in Holland. However, Sir Codrington Edmund Carrington as the Chief Justice of Ceylon declared that the proceedings of the Court of Equity with Dutch judges would be invalid if they had not taken the oath of loyalty to the British monarch. Upon this ruling, North dissolved the court.’ – see ee Politics, Why did the English retain Dutch officials after taking over Ceylon?
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• ‘This is a grave violation of the UN Charter & international law and a breach of the sovereignty of both Syria & Iran. This attack is of an extremely vicious nature… 25 years ago, China’s embassy in Yugoslavia was bombed by a US-led NATO.’ – China Blasts Israel at the UN
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• ‘EU, England & above all the USA – they all support dropping bombs on people because they want to teach a lesson to the entirety of humanity. They’re telling us: look at our military power. What happens to Palestine can happen to any of you if you dare to make changes without our permission.’ – Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia
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• Has Manufacturing been Underestimated? – ‘Manufacturing businesses contribute nearly 3 million mostly high-paying jobs, half of England’s exports, the bulk of this country’s R&D spend, and England is today the 9th largest manufacturing economy in the world in GDP terms.’ (see ee Industry)
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• Baltimore Drive-by: ‘White flight made it easier to systematically neglect a city’s remaining, Black neighborhoods. So did the real-estate practice of ‘blockbusting’, which lowered the value of working-class white homes by preying on racist fears over integration…blockbusting in Baltimore allowed real estate companies to buy White homes at a loss and then sell them to Black families at inflated prices. Working-class Whites were robbed of an asset, Black families were robbed through overcharging, and segregation got worse.
Not that housing discrimination was anything new in Baltimore. It pioneered residential segregation in 1910, when the City Council passed a law designating city blocks as White or Black. (It was later struck down by the Supreme Court).’ – see ee Workers, The Bridge, the City, & Infra-Structural Racism
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• ‘The history of Unions is a long series of defeats of workers, interrupted by a few isolated victories. All these efforts cannot alter the economic law according to which wages are determined by the relation between supply & demand in the labor market’ – Frederick Engels
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• ‘The answer is not regulation (before or after the event), but the banning of fictitious capital investment. Close down hedge funds, bitcoin exchanges & exchange trade funding. Instead, banking should be a public service for households & small companies in order to take deposits and make loans – not funding for a massive financial casino where criminals & swindlers gamble away our livelihoods.’ – see ee Economists, Bitcoin & other crypto currencies (also see, Random Notes, Marx)
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A3. Random Notes (‘Seeing Number in Chaos’)_
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• ‘India [is] taking another step in its quest to find valuable minerals hidden in the depths of the Indian Ocean and applied for more licences to reach the huge deposits of cobalt, nickel, copper & manganese that lie 1000s of metres below the surface of the oceans. These minerals are used to produce RE[ renewable energy] eg, solar, wind power, EVs (electric vehicles), battery technology.
UN-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA) issues licences for such exploratory work. The ISA met in Jamaica this week, and India sent a high-powered team from its Ministry of Earth Sciences to argue its case clearly to catch up with increasing Chinese work and dominance in the same field in the same seas. ISA pointed out there is another country that has claimed the seabed area that India has applied for. That country is Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has already made a claim under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea that this patch is within its continental shelf beyond its EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone). India could not have been unaware of Sri Lanka’s claim, but went ahead with its application.
This explains India’s vehement protests over the increasing requests for visits by Chinese maritime research vessels in Sri Lankan waters wanting to study sea currents & seabed activity, which forced Colombo to declare a 1-year moratorium on such research exercises. It seems India’s concerns were not only of these Chinese vessels engaging in spying activities, but also to do with the race for the minerals on the ocean floor… While these under-sea mineral resources are useful components to make the world cleaner with RE resources, environmentalists say with Planet Earth’s land area & space already devastated by human consumption, the seabed remains the last frontier, which will have its days numbered with the kind of exploration exercise mapped out amid geopolitical competition.’ – Sunday Times, Indo-China Cold War goes to Seabed
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• Up to the 1880s, Galle was the main port in Sri Lanka, and many of the companies which would dominate the import-export trade were set up there. Sea traffic was then diverted to Colombo after the construction of the breakwater. By 1947, 90% of the Island’s seaborne trade passed through the Port of Colombo.
Colombo Port, one of the biggest artificial harbours in the world, was set up to serve imperialist interests. With a 1 sq-mile water area, it also became a refuelling point & gateway to the eastern coast of India up to Calcutta and through to Burma, Singapore & SouthEast Asia, East Asia, and Australia. Oil Bunkering facilities, eg, were built to service the Asiatic Petroleum Co (Ceylon), Anglo-Persian Oil Co, & Standard Oil Co of New York.
Mercantile agencies in Colombo were directly linked with the plantation economy, and controlled it on behalf of their English owners. The Peninsular & Orient Corporation (P&O) set up the Ceylon Wharfage Company as a subsidiary to do the cargo handling for ships, for their imports and exports in the Colombo Port. The P&O also had another firm, Mackinnon Mackenzie, which did shipping agency work, as well as the engineering firm, Walkers, originally the Marine Engineering Co, which serviced the ships.
After destroying the Sinhala boat-building industry, by demanding insurance sureties which were denied to them, England formed the Cargo Boat & Wharf Improvement Co in 1847 to supply of boats, setting up the Colombo Shipping Association in 1868, and Colombo Boat Co in 1873. The Wharf & Warehousing Co was sold in 1876 to Bois Bros, agents to London’s Wharfage Co, which had shipping magnates representing the major shipping lines on its Board of Management. Wharfage Company, controlled by P&O, the foremost shipping line engaged in the Indian Ocean trade, was then given the contract to carry the imperial mails, to Asia.
The persistence of labour unrest in the Port of Colombo has been due to the historical practices of a management, beginning in the colonial period, which used prison labour to build the harbour, involving unfree workers in the dangerous work of building the harbour breakwater. Stone breaking, the loading and unloading and setting of stones in the deep were all done by prison labour, and in order to further maintain an insecure workforce, management also relied on imported labour for its skilled work.
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• Electrical Secrets – The Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers Union (CEBEU) says a new electricity sector reform bill is being drafted in secret. They want President Ranil Wickremesinghe to appoint a Cabinet Subcommittee for the reform procedure in the power sector.
‘We, as CEBEU, earnestly request your intervention in arranging a consultative process before the approval of the electricity sector reform bill by the Cabinet of Ministers. This could be facilitated through a cabinet subcommittee or any other suitable mechanism that ensures the involvement of all key stakeholders,’ the engineers’ union said in a letter. Last December, the draft bill was with the Cabinet for 3 weeks, but opposition parties said in parliament it contained significant errors, and the same was highlighted by industry experts. Ultimately, the Ministry had to withdraw the bill, which was already approved by the Cabinet and gazetted.
The CBEU letter adds, ‘Regrettably, the same process has been repeated for the past 2 months, with another bill being drafted in secrecy and without any stakeholder consultation. None of the stakeholders, including the management of CEB, has seen the new bill, which is now about to be submitted for cabinet approval.’
CEBEU wants the President to particularly examine the proposed CEB restructuring. A proper reform process could not materialise without a coherent consultation with key stakeholders, including the engineers and unions.
‘Restructuring only the CEB would not solve every problem in the power sector, including key issues such as policy inconsistency, high electricity costs, independence of the regulator (PUCSL), and non-implementation of the long-term generation expansion plan.’ Several critical aspects have been overlooked in this latest draft, despite spending more than 3 months redrafting. Power & Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara was set to submit the draft bill to cabinet last Monday. – ee Industry, CEB engineers seek major changes in power sector reform procedure
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• ‘Enhancing disaster risk management & climate change response: Collaborative efforts by Japan & Australia in the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) member countries’, organised by the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute (LKI) on March 28. Moderated by LKI Research Fellow (Global Governance) Nilupul Gunawardena, the show included: LKI Executive Director Ravinatha Aryasinha, Professor Turney Pradeep Kumara of Department of Oceanography & Marine Geology of the University of Ruhuna, 1st political & economic Secretary of the Australian High Commission in Colombo Paul Zeccola, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency Tetsuya Yamada, Institute of Policy Studies Research Economist Pulasthi Amarasinghe. Japanese ambassador Mizukoshi Hideaki opened, keynote by Foreign Affairs State Minister Tharaka Balasuriya. – ee Sovereignty, Japan & Australia discuss disaster risk management & climate change at LKI
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• 1941, England at War Yet Again: After Japan took over Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) & Malaysia, the English forced workers in Lanka to ‘slaughter tap’ rubber, damaging the trees yet collecting great profits, as Lanka became the main rubber supplier to England’s Allied forces in WW2 • History teacher Von Nguyen Giap started to train VietMinh in Vietnam. • England’s Propaganda Department (renamed SO1) was removed from Special Operations Executive (SOE) and made the Political Warfare Executive (PWE). SOE set up Norwegian Independent Co 1. SOE base set up in Oshawa & Okanagan Valley, Canada. SOE office in New York – British Security Coordination – set up by Canadian Sir William Stephenson, to coordinate SIS & MI5 with Office of Strategic Services (OSS) & US FBI. Hyde Park Agreement to promote large-scale US purchases of Canadian war material ‘removed the border with respect to defence production’. Canadian uranium earmarked for US. • January: CIC Mediterranean fleet suspended convoys thru Mediterranean, and Cape became main supply for operations in Asia for next 3 years. • West African Supply Centre set up. English in Cairo appealed to Kenya for more food for Middle East commands’ imperial forces. Kenyan colony encouraged production of European maize, guaranteeing prices.• War Office & Admiralty took command of locally raised military & naval units in colonies. • Feb: General Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps landed in Libya. • England’s 23rd (Nigerian) Brigade captured Mogadishu while invading Italian Somliland.• March: 200 ships a month called at Colombo, requiring air cover. • Indian soldiers of English Army reconquered ‘British Somaliland. ‘ • Under Lend-Lease program (of An Act Further to Promote the Defense of US), USA supplied England, the Soviet Union, China, France & other linked nations with war material, 1941-45, in return for England’s colonial military bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, English West Indies. This US law ended supposed US neutrality. • April 6: German, Italian & Hungarian forces attacked Yugoslavia, dividing the Kingdom of Yugoslavia • April: Hyde Park agreement for US to purchase Canadian war material, ‘effectively removed the border’. Canada’s war industry employed 1.2 million people, 13% of population. • Addis Abbaba recaptured, with 1st Nigerian Regiment giving guard of honor for Selassie. • England invaded Iraq. • Japanese captured Malaya. England now depended on exploiting Nigerian tin & Ceylon rubber, for Malaya had produced 38% of world rubber and 58% of tin, and £93mn of £131mn export business was conducted with foreign mainly US companies, making Malaya the English Empire’s premier dollar earner. England also lost major stake in foreign investment in China’s Shanghai, the great ‘imperial banking & commercial centre of the East’. • May: England’s RAFA ship from Singapore arrived in Chagos with huts, and ‘coolies’ & Air Ministry World Department officer to set up seaplane outpost, Eclipse Point became base for flying boats.• Vichy France granted Germany access to airfields in Syria and port of Bizerta. • June: English evacuation of Alexandria & Port Said. • July: Japan lost 93% of its oil supply. US froze all of Japan’s US assets and embargoed all oil exports to Japan. • General Archibald Wavell CIC Middle East, made CIC India. • Aug: England ordered UK Commercial corp to supply USSR thru Iran. • Oct: Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten appointed ‘Chief Adviser’ of Combined Operations, with rank of acting commodore. • Dec: Japanese bombed Rangoon. After US embargo on oil exports to Japan, and transfer of US Pacific Fleet base from San Diego to Pearl Harbor, Japan attacked US at Pearl Harbor. Japanese bombers wiped out Englands’ eastern fleet in Gulf of Siam, the first battleships ever destroyed by aircraft. The Eastern fleet, then based in Ceylon, was only naval presence east of Suez, and only major English base between Cape & Australia. • After Java (main supplier of sugar to Ceylon) was taken by Japanese, and Ceylon government applied to Ministry of Food in London for release of Mauritian sugar. 11,500 English & Australian servicemen captured in Java. Japan also captured Sumatra. • Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor denied USN support to for England’s control of the ‘Malay barrier’ and made impossible the relief of US garrisons in the Philippines. • Hitler declared war on US. • Dec: Essential Undertakings Board & district labor committees in Kenya enacted by Defence (African Labor for Essential undertakings) Regulation. Farms producing coffee, pyrethrum, rubber & certain foodstuffs deemed essential and thus eligible for conscript labor. To force Africans to accept low-paid agricultural work. • Dec: • Eastern Fleet set up, joining East Indies Squadron & China Squadron (& would include Royal Netherlands Navy, Royal Australian Navy, Royal New Zealand Navy, & US Navy) Prince of Wales & Repulse sunk along with Admiral Tom Phillips: ‘The Allies lost face throughout the Orient and began to lose confidence in themselves.’ After the sinking of these warships, Admiral Geoffrey Layton assumed command of the Eastern Fleet. The fleet withdrew first to Java and, following the Fall of Singapore, to Trincomalee. • 8 Dec: Netherlands declared war on Japan. Japan began Pacific War with invasion of Kota Bahru in Kelantan, 90 minutes before the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. • 17 Dec: Japanese forces landed on Miri, an oil production centre in northern Sarawak. Before the Japanese invasion, the Brooke family that ruled the Kingdom of Sarawak, fled for Australia. • Dec 1941 to Jan 19, 1942: Japanese forces landed at Seria, Kuching, Jesselton & Sandakan. (A Very Personal Ingrisi History of the World)
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• Marx on Bitcoin’s Cryptic Currency: ‘This is the abolition of the capitalist mode of production within the capitalist mode of production itself, and hence a self-dissolving contradiction, which prima facie represents a mere phase of transition to a new form of production. It manifests itself as such a contradiction in its effects. It establishes a monopoly in certain spheres and thereby requires state interference. It reproduces a new financial aristocracy, a new variety of parasites in the shape of promoters, speculators and simply nominal directors; a whole system of swindling and cheating by means of corporation promotion, stock issuance, and stock speculation. It is private production without the control of private property.
Aside from the stock-company business, which represents the abolition of capitalist private industry on the basis of the capitalist system itself and destroys private industry as it expands and invades new spheres of production, credit offers to the individual capitalist; or to one who is regarded a capitalist, absolute control within certain limits over the capital and property of others, and thereby over the labour of others. The control over social capital, not the individual capital of his own, gives him control of social labour. The capital itself, which a person really or is supposed to own in the opinion of the public, becomes purely a basis for the superstructure of credit. This is particularly true of wholesale commerce, through which the greatest portion of social products passes. All standards of measurement, all excuses more or less still justified under capitalist production, disappear here. What the speculating wholesale merchant risks is social property, not his own. Equally sordid becomes the phrase relating the origin of capital to savings, for what he demands is that others should save for him. [Just as all France recently saved up 1.5billion francs for Panama Canal swindlers. In fact, a description of the entire Panama swindle is here correctly anticipated, fully 20 years before it occurred. – Engels]
The other phrase concerning abstention is squarely refuted by his luxury, which is now itself a means of credit. Conceptions which have some meaning on a less-developed stage of capitalist production, become quite meaningless here. Success and failure both lead here to a centralisation of capital, and thus to expropriation on the most enormous scale. Expropriation extends here from the direct producers to the smaller & medium-sized capitalists themselves. It is the point of departure for the capitalist mode of production; its accomplishment is the goal of this production. In the last instance, it aims at the expropriation of the means of production from all individuals. With the development of social production the means of production cease to be means of private production and products of private production, and can thereafter be only means of production in the hands of associated producers, ie, the latter’s social property, much as they are their social products. However, this expropriation appears within the capitalist system in a contradictory form, as appropriation of social property by a few; and credit lends the latter more and more the aspect of pure adventurers.
Since property here exists in the form of stock, its movement and transfer become purely a result of gambling on the stock exchange, where the little fish are swallowed by the sharks and the lambs by the stock-exchange wolves. There is antagonism against the old form in the stock companies, in which social means of production appear as private property; but the conversion to the form of stock still remains ensnared in the trammels of capitalism; hence, instead of overcoming the antithesis between the character of wealth as social and as private wealth, the stock companies merely develop it in a new form.’ – Marx, Role of Credit in Capitalist Production, Capital 3, Chapter 27
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B. Special Focus___
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• B1. Thorough Investigation of Speaker’s Disclosure Absolutely Essential
– Gunadasa Amarasekera
On being questioned by Shamindra Ferdinando on the request for a thorough investigation of the Speaker’s disclosures made by Prasanna Ranatunga, the chief government whip, the Speaker dismissed it saying, ‘What is there to investigate further?’ The Speaker may have his reasons for saying so. But, we citizens in this country who cherish our sovereignty do not think so.
Was it the individual subjected to those threats and indignities, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena? If so, he is entitled to dismiss it, saying ‘what is there to investigate’, and exhibit his magnanimity. According to us, it was not an individual who was subjected to those threats & indignities; it was the Speaker of a sovereign country. The Speaker does not seem to realize this. It was not only a challenge to the sovereignty of the country, but the beginning of a diabolical plan to make this country a vassal state of some powerful political power or at least to make this country a Libya or an Afghanistan (as made out by the Speaker). This diabolical plan is bound to be executed in due course.
The Speaker is duty bound to prove his innocence by answering the following questions: What made the speaker disclose this information at this juncture? Was it to display his patriotism or was it due to some other ulterior motive? Why was there this inordinate delay in coming out with this disclosure, which had such a vital bearing on our sovereignty? Wimal Weerawansa came out with this disclosure many months ago in his book. He challenged the Speaker to either affirm or contradict him. The Speaker kept mum, while Julie Chung denied. Sena Thoradeniya in his book, to which I had contributed a foreword, confirmed Weerawansa’s observations.
Why did Gotabhaya Rajapakse speak to you at that juncture as stated by you? Was it to ask you to comply with Julie Chung’s request or not to comply with it? Did you seek GR’s approval to respond to Chung’s request? We request you to answer these questions and prove your innocence on this matter. A thorough investigation would not only answer these questions, but answer a host of other question that have a bearing on this horrific dreadful episode. The public has the right to that information.
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• B2. Ex-SLAF Officer Unveils Developments Leading to Aragalaya – Shamindra Ferdinando
Against the backdrop of Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena’s quite belated (but better late than never) public confirmation of external interventions in Aragalaya, that led to the overthrow of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government in mid-July 2022, former cashiered Flying Officer Keerthi Ratnayake, with a never-say-die attitude even when odds are overwhelmingly stacked against him, asserted that he was the first to alert the then government regarding the impending chaos.
Ratnayake disclosed that he realized the unprecedented threat and got in touch with Shermila Rajapaksha, then head of Social Media at the Presidential Secretariat. She conveyed the information to the relevant authorities, though to the unfortunate detriment of the country, they chose to turn a blind eye to the stunning disclosure, Ratnayake said, in an interview with The Island last week.
Responding to the writer’s query as to how he obtained such information and whether he could verify the same, Ratnayake revealed that a female Indian diplomat, based in Colombo, explained to him how a frightening situation could develop over a period of 6 months in case Sri Lanka failed to procure the essentials. This happened in mid-2021 as the country was beginning to experience economic difficulties, but the government remained adamant that it could overcome whatever the challenges ahead, Ratnayake said.
The Island decided to withhold the diplomat’s identity, though Ratnayake had no objections to us disclosing her name. ‘I was flabbergasted when she explained how a sharp and simultaneous drop in foreign remittances from Sri Lankan workers employed overseas, income from tourism and exports could overwhelm the government of the day. Unfortunately, instead of acting on the information provided by me, the government targeted me,’ he claimed.
Ratnayake alleged that, ironically, the powers that be found fault with Shermila Rajapaksha for being in touch with him. ‘The government shifted her from the Presidential Secretariat to the National Zoological Gardens, in late Oct 2021, as those in authority discarded my timely warning,’ Ratnayake said.
Asked to clarify, Ratnayake pointed out telephone records didn’t lie: ‘I have passed the information regarding some high-profile incidents/developments over the years to authorities. Whatever I have done can be easily verified with telephone records as well as recorded conversations, in addition to statements taken from me.’
The writer got in touch with Ratnayake on Good Friday (March 29) after having watched his explosive interview with Chamuditha Samarawickrema that dealt with the sordid operations undertaken by a section of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). ‘The Truth with Chamuditha’ discussed clandestine operations undertaken by certain corrupt powerful elements in the CID against the backdrop of an alleged plot to assassinate Fort Magistrate Thilina Gamage. Ratnayake revealed that the ongoing investigation into the targeting of the Fort Magistrate was prompted by information provided by him to Public Security Minister Tiran Alles regarding the alleged plot.
The issue at hand is whether the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government could have averted the political-economic-social crisis, even if his administration acted on the information provided by Ratnayake. Why should a government react to such unsubstantiated claims? It wouldn’t be fair to find fault with the government for disregarding Ratnayake’s alert received in Sept 2021, but when violent public protests started on March 31, 2022, outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s private residence at Pangiriwatte, Mirihana, someone in authority should have immediately realized the validity of the warning received 6 months earlier.
Unfortunately, the ruling SLPP, possibly overwhelmed by the snowballing situation, simply failed to inquire into the warning received in Sept 2021. Less than 4 months short of 2 years since President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ouster, the high profile operation remained uninvestigated.
CBK withdraws commission – Having passed out in 1998 from the SLAF training academy after he successfully completed training there as an officer cadet, during Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s first tenure as the President, Ratnayake got into serious trouble quite early in his career after he exposed an unprecedented racket in gold smuggling allegedly carried out by corrupt elements in his own service, but then President withdrew his commission for cooperating with then Ravaya Editor Victor Ivan in the writing of ‘Chaura Rajina’ (Lankan bandit queen), clearly accusing the then Head of State & Commander-in-Chief of high-level corruption.
Ratnayake justified the support provided to Victor Ivan: ‘I have no qualms about furnishing information at that time,’ identifying himself as the one who was arrested over the death threats issued to Sunday Times defence correspondent Iqbal Athas & WG Gunarathna of Lankadeepa in its editorial in late August 2007. Ratnayake acknowledged he did so over the inaccurate reportage of questionable acquisition of MiG-27s from Ukraine at the onset of Eelam War IV. Ratnayake disclosed how the relevant MiG-27 file had been surreptitiously removed from Air Force headquarters by a senior officer (name withheld), now retired, during Air Marshal Roshan Goonetilleke’s tenure as the Commander of the Air Force.
Responding to queries, Ratnayake explained how he served the government in spite of losing his commission during Kumaratinga’s administration. The case was quietly settled by granting Ratnayake bail.
There had been a previous case involving Air Force personnel. The accused-appellants HM Rukman Herath (gunned down near his home) & Don Pradeep Sujeewa Kannangara, convicted for intimidating & assaulting Sunday Times defence columnist Athas and his family in 1998, were acquitted by Appeal Court Justice SI Imam & Sarath de Abrew in Dec 2008. They were earlier sentenced by the High Court for a period 10 years RI each and fined Rs 10,000 each for intimidating and threatening them. They were found guilty, by the Colombo High Court on Feb 7, 2002, of several charges including intimidation & criminal trespass.
Reference was also made to paramilitary operations undertaken at the time by renegade LTTE field commander Karuna in support of the then government. Ratnayake complained bitterly how successive administrations conveniently failed to reinstate him, though the Court of Appeal quashed the SLAF Commander’s decision to recommend the withdrawal of his commission following the exposure of gold & computer spare parts smuggling by some of its personnel.
An angry Ratnayake said he asked for a Court Martial as he was confident of proving his innocence: ‘There were altogether 13 serious charges’, adding the Court of Appeal observed that the procedure followed by the Air Force to withdraw his commission was entirely contrary to the stipulated process.
Ratnayake recalled how those who had been involved in the gold and computer spare parts smuggling operation made an attempt to do away with him: ‘Having abducted me, they assaulted me before making an attempt to drown me in the sea off Negombo in the first week of March 2022. But I was lucky to be rescued by some fishermen’. He produced the front-page of the Lankadeepa report of March 3, 2002, revealing the incident.
‘All print media, both Sinhala and English, reported the attack on me. They exploited Defence Ministry approval to deploy aircraft to fly in spare parts from abroad required by the Air Force to smuggle in gold & computer parts. We are a corrupt country. Corruption is a way of life here and both civilians & military alike rob at all levels,’ he said as a matter of fact.
Developments in Aug 2021– Ratnayake said several weeks after he passed the information to the Presidential Secretariat official regarding the impending economic catastrophe, a very interesting and significant development took place. Having heard of a clandestine operation to attack Indian diplomatic mission in Afghanistan or in this region, including Colombo, Ratnayake sent a WhatsApp message to the Indian diplomat who shared information regarding the impending chaos in Sri Lanka. ‘As soon as I sent the message, internal security system incapacitated her phone. This happened on Aug 11, 2021, morning. 2 hours later, Kollupitiya Police contacted me and requested me to come over regarding an inquiry. However, the OIC there, at that time, wasn’t aware of what was going on. I then got in touch with Sr DIG (WP) Deshabandu Tennakoon and shared with him the developments taking place.
Ratnayake asserted that the particular diplomat arranged a vehicle for him to safely reach the Kollupitiya Police where he found intelligence officers from different units, including State Intelligence Service (SIS) & Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) present. Asked why he first contacted the diplomat instead of local security authorities, Ratnayake explained, the information received suggested that the attack was to take place on Aug 15. Therefore, he first alerted the diplomat as Indian interests were under threat, then the police at the highest level. Having questioned Ratnayake at the Kollupitiya Police station, a team of senior officers put him into a white van and were on their way to Homagama to collect his laptop & other personal belongings. ‘On the way to Homagama, one of the officers received a call. I was told of instructions received from higher authorities to take me into custody immediately. I sought an explanation and was told they couldn’t under any circumstances disregard the orders of their superiors.’
Later, Ratnayake had been taken to the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD), Dematagoda, where, after being held for several hours, arrangements were made to take him to Kandy around midnight. Ratnayake had opposed the move as he felt that the police were planning to get rid of him. Meanwhile, someone who had been at the CCD at that time contacted Saliya Peiris, PC, and the swift intervention made by him saved Ratnayake’s life.
Ratnayake said he was granted bail on Feb 11, 2022, a few weeks before ‘staged’ public protests erupted demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation.
Responding to Chamuditha Samarawickrema, Ratnayake revealed that during the time he was held at the Magazine Prison he was able to contact the Indian diplomat as 2 persons held in custody there had hand phones. The 2 were identified as a drug dealer & a politician. Following a short stint here, the diplomat received an appointment to a key Indian mission in a Commonwealth country. Her transfer happened just 2 days short of one year after the Pangiriwatte incident. ‘I could contact her freely and she knew what was happening,’ Ratnayake said.
The Island sought an explanation regarding the current status of the investigation into the Aug 15, 2021, threat against the Indian mission here. Ratnayake said the Indian High Commission never furnished a statement requested by the local police, though its First Secretary in a note simply identified my telephone number as the one from which warning was issued over an impending attack. The Indian High Commission owed an explanation why it didn’t assist an investigation, Ratnayake said, revealing the role played by the same diplomat during the Norway-led peace process though, at that time, she hadn’t been with the Indian Foreign Service.
An incident in Nov 2019 – In spite of the eradication of the LTTE in the battlefield, in May 2009, successive governments never sought to restore normalcy. In fact, they worked overtime to cause turmoil. The constitutional coup caused by then President Mairithipala Sirisena, in late Oct 2018, plunged the country into an unprecedented crisis. Both Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe claimed to be the legitimate Prime Minister, Ratnayake said, claiming that he was based in Dubai at that time. Ratnayake, with the intervention of an interested party, had received lucrative employment from an affluent Indian there.
During this period, widely described as a 52-day government, there had been talk of a military takeover and Ratnayake acknowledged he played a role and was to explore ways & means of securing support from various parties. However, at the last moment, Ratnayake alerted President Sirisena as well as Basil Rajapaksa through an academic (name withheld) regarding the plot. Mahinda Rajapaksa, too, had been alerted, and on the orders of the President the military guard at the President’s House was replaced by the Special Task Force (STF).
Ratnayake said he believed a military takeover could have caused a catastrophe. The former Air Force officer said that the killing of 2 policemen at Vavunathivu, Batticaloa, in late Nov 2018, destruction of several Buddha statues in Mawanella police area in Dec 2018, recovery of explosives at Lactowatte (Wanathawilluwa, Puttalam), and shooting of Minister Kabir Hashim’s Coordinating Secretary Mohamed Naslim at Danagama, Mawanella, in early March 2019, should have been properly investigated. Had that happened, the Easter Sunday plot could have been averted, Ratnayake said, asserting that perhaps former President Sirisena, too, has now decided to reveal an external hand in the Easter Sunday carnage.
Sirisena’s statement to the CID that India engineered the Easter Sunday carnage has raised eyebrows. Perhaps Sirisena hadn’t anticipated a swift intervention by Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam, PC, thereby paving the way for the Maligakanda Magistrate to record Sirisena’s statement tomorrow (4). Did Sirisena seek political advantage for him and his party in the run-up to the presidential poll scheduled for later this year.
But the issue at hand is whether the 2019 Easter carnage here helped the BJP polls campaign in neighbouring India, Ratnayake queried, calling for an investigation with an open mind. Perhaps, the Parliamentary Select Committee & the Presidential Commission of Inquiry failed to go deep enough to ascertain foreign interventions.
Speaker Abeywardena’s recent declaration regarding direct external intervention to overthrow Gotabaya Rajapaksa and make him interim President as a patsy of the conspirators didn’t result in the anticipated response. The government and the Opposition alike simply ignored that statement, whereas the Speaker himself asserted that there was no point in looking into that matter, obviously due to the influence and power of those behind it. Seeing what is blatantly happening in Palestine before the entire world since the October 07 attack on Israel by Hamas, we, too, won’t blame Speaker Abeywardena for his assertion.
It would be a grave mistake on Sri Lanka’s part to be influenced by assertions made by foreign governments regarding the 2019 terrorist attacks, though there is absolutely no harm in securing their assistance.
President’s Counsel Dappula de Livera, who declared, on the eve of his retirement as the Attorney General, that the Easter Sunday massacre was a grand conspiracy, for there is clear evidence of a grand conspiracy linked to Sri Lanka’s 2019 Easter carnage, the privately owned News1st network that quoted Attorney General Dappula De Livera as having said so on May 18, 2021. In an exclusive comment telecast by it, the AG said information by the state intelligence service, ‘with times, targets, places, method of attack and other information is clear evidence there was a grand conspiracy in place with regard to the April 21, 2019, attack’.
The identities of those involved in the grand conspiracy must come by way of evidence, the AG has said, adding there were multiple suspects connected to the attack, including Maulavi (Islamic preacher) Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed Naufer, ‘the person that the Sri Lankan government ruled as the mastermind of the attacks.’
But, De Livera declined to be subjected to police investigation, having clearly recognized the peril he was putting his retirement into by being a party to any such investigation.
Five years after the Easter Sunday carnage, the country remains in the dark as to police investigations and legal proceedings as regards the heinous crime that claimed the lives of nearly 270 and wounded approximately 500 other innocent people. The dead and wounded included foreigners. (see ee Sovereignty)
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C. Building Blocks
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Every ee carries these extracts below to counter: 1) The constant harangue about exports, when they must at all times serve to advance or recapture and control of our home markets to develop modern industry. 2) We need to learn about machine industry versus handicraft, assembly and manufacture 3) The rules of the Sangha require constant interaction between people.
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• ‘The biggest handicap to industrial development is not the lack of capital but the absence of external economics, such as cheap power, cheap transport, technical and managerial ability, and above all the lack of a home market. The home market in an agricultural country is essentially the rural market. It is only a prosperous peasantry that can provide the home market for our industry. This is the connection between a guaranteed price for paddy and the industrialization of our country’ – Philip Gunawardena
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• ‘The Creation of a Home Market for our Industry is the pivot on which the future industrialisation of our country rests. In Ceylon’s context The Home Market essentially means The Peasant Market. To create the home market therefore we must substantially raise the living standards of the mass of the peasants so that they will be able to buy the goods produced by our industry. This demonstrates clearly the necessary connection between Industrialization & Agrarian Reform.’ – Policy Statement of the Ministry of Industries, 1956
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• ‘Their field of production, the smallholding, admits of no division of labor in its cultivation, no application of science and, therefore, no diversity of development, no variety of talent, no wealth of social relationships. Each individual peasant family is almost self-sufficient; it itself directly produces the major part of its consumption and thus acquires its means of life more through exchange with nature than in intercourse with society.’ – Karl Marx, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, p124
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• ‘Japan will retain and encourage the branches of the machine industry that yield high added value, but production facilities that involve a low degree of processing and generate low added value should be moved to developing countries… so that Japan can concentrate on high technology & knowledge-intensive industry.’– Japan’s Council on Industrial Structure, 1977 (in SBD de Silva, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment)
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• Economics Not Taught – The Machines Nobody Knows – The Extraordinary Culture of Machine Tools – If we were a truly ‘developing’ country, here are the questions a national media would need to ask: A plan requires a political, economic & military strategy, which will first assess peasant & worker power, land (including natural resources), & capital, that the nation possesses, and the time needed to transform these powers into material reality:
Here’s ee’s Index of a Real Economy or, at least, how a real economy would be measured:
1. The index of a strong economy is modern industry.
2. The index of modern industry is the production of machines.
3. Machine tools (MT) are the most important of all machines.
4. MT is needed for huge diversified metal fabricating industries (auto, electrical, etc.)
5. MT is essential for production of machines for all other industries.
6. Full data on machinery production is needed:
7. What portion of our machinery needs are supplied by machines built in Sri Lanka?
8. What is the trend? Are we producing more or less machines than we did before?
9. Data on imports & exports of machinery is needed (esp shipments of MTs & other Industrial Machinery)
10. MT production vs imports, must include: Mining & Metallurgical Machinery, Pulp & Paper Machinery, Textile Machinery, Woodworking Machinery, Logging Machinery, Sawmill Machinery, Office & Business Machines (adapted from: ee 20-26 Sept 2020).
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• Making Central Banks Independent of the People?
– anchor.fm/shiran-illanperuma/episodes
– youtube.com/watch?v=_AWg6VvTj9g
– eesrilanka.wordpress.com/2019/08/10/imf-independence-the-central-bank/
– eesrilanka.wordpress.com/2020/06/27/make-the-central-bank-independent-of-capitalism/
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• On State-Owned Enterprises and Privatization
– anchor.fm/shiran-illanperuma/episodes/On-State-Owned-Enterprises-and-the-Privatization-Debate-w-Vinod-Moonesinghe-e1vric4
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D. 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’:
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D1. 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.
• Ex-SLAF officer sheds light on developments leading to Aragalaya
– https://island.lk/ex-slaf-officer-sheds-light-on-developments-leading-to-aragalaya/
• Speaker’s claims that foreign powers pressured him to take over: Probe needed
– https://island.lk/speakers-claims-probe-needed/
• Speaker says he didn’t allege foreign hand in Aragalaya uprising
– https://island.lk/speaker-says-he-didnt-allege-foreign-hand-in-aragalaya-uprising/
• A thorough investigation of the speaker’s disclosure absolutely essential
– https://island.lk/a-thorough-investigation-of-the-speakers-disclosure-absolutely-essential/
• HRC Chief asks whether Speaker’s claim of external intervention is an issue of national importance
• Sirisena: India was behind the Easter Sunday massacres.
‘due to the arrest of commanders and intelligence officers of the armed forces, the relevant sections showed a decline.’
– https://www.sundaytimes.lk/240331/columns/master-of-controversy-553633.html
– https://island.lk/easter-sunday-carnage-sajith-promises-fresh-probe-under-an-sjb-govt/
– https://island.lk/easter-sunday-attack-claims-sirisena-ordered-to-make-statement-in-court/
– https://island.lk/sirisena-stirs-up-a-hornets-nest/
– https://island.lk/sirisena-wont-appear-before-maligakanda-magistrate/
– https://island.lk/sirisena-asked-to-make-full-and-honest-disclosure-regarding-easter-sunday-carnage/
• When “Aiyo” Sirisena accused India’s RAW of plotting to assassinate him – David Jeyaraj
‘it was the Economy Next website which broke the story first….’
• Who is behind the Maithripala statement? – Nalin de Silva
– http://www1.kalaya.org/2024/04/blog-post.html
• Sectoral Oversight Committee summons Fisheries Ministry officials over poaching by Indian fishers
• SL gained Katchatheevu Island at the cost of Wadge Bank to India
• Modi wants Katchchatheevu – its election time in Tamil Nadu
• Katchatheevu row: Sri Lanka says India’s remarks not unusual during polls
• Mody claims 1974 handover of Katchatheevu to SL has angered every Indian
• Modi questions Congress about island ceded to Sri Lanka
– https://english.newsfirst.lk/2024/04/01/modi-questions-congress-about-island-ceded-to-sri-lanka
• Katchatheevu neither acquired nor ceded, lies in SL maritime area – Shiv Sena (UBT) leader
• P Chidambaram slams PM Modi’s Katchatheevu remark, says talk about China’s invasion on Indian territory
• Sri Lanka’s sovereignty of Kachchativu was never in doubt
• ‘No ground’ for India’s request for return of Kachchatheevu: Minister Douglas
– https://www.themorning.lk/articles/43wjsOrD3QIIIVqlahmK
• Kachchativu: Enigma of A Barren Island – Pathfinder Foundation
– https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2024/04/04/kachchativu-enigma-of-a-barren-island/
– https://island.lk/kachchativu-enigma-of-a-barren-island/
• Kachchativu Island Debate: Political fodder, No Serious Intentions
• Indo-China Cold War goes to the seabed
– https://www.sundaytimes.lk/240331/editorial/indo-china-cold-war-goes-to-the-seabed-553629.html
• Ranil’s Akhand Bharatisation, Sajith’s socialist nightmare and religious rampage – Jayatilleka
• Parliamentary oversight committee calls for comprehensive report to address illegal fishing
• US uncovering maritime history beneath the waves
– https://island.lk/uncovering-maritime-history-beneath-the-waves/
• X-Press Pearl disaster: Singapore transport safety body finds fault with crew and Colombo port
• Baltimore bridge disaster: Vessel carried containers for transhipment from Colombo (M31)
• Govt. confirms only one container bound for Colombo from Baltimore port (Ap03)
• Ex-Ambassador to WTO demands disclosure of contents of containers consigned to Colombo aboard ‘Dali’
• Govt. assures thorough probe
‘Premadasa demanded to know from the government whether permission had been granted to unload cargo in the Colombo port.’
– https://island.lk/govt-assures-thorough-probe/
• Baltimore Ship Was Carrying ‘Class-9’ Hazardous Material
– https://english.newsfirst.lk/2024/04/01/baltimore-ship-was-carrying-class-9-hazardous-material
• Indians and one Sri Lankan kept aboard ship till probe is complete
• Baltimore bridge collision ship: Ship’s content only informed 72-hrs pre-arrival
– https://www.themorning.lk/articles/rVcvLsD8XYw7OrdNBSMU
• Baltimore Bridge Collapse: MV Dali, SL authorities anchored in mystery?
• Govt. assures thorough probe
– https://island.lk/govt-assures-thorough-probe/
• Sri Lanka unaware of ship carrying toxic wastes from the US
• Central Environment Authority investigating into ship carrying toxic wastes from US: Minister
• Cargo Ship that Struck Baltimore Bridge Carried Tonnes of Hazardous Materials, Investigation Reveals
– https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/unified-command-begins-wreckage-removal-at-key-bridge/
– https://www.wmar2news.com/local/ntsb-hazardous-waste-spilled-into-water
– https://patch.com/maryland/across-md/crane-arrives-francis-scott-key-bridge-baltimore-report
– https://www.wmar2news.com/local/ntsb-hazardous-waste-spilled-into-water
• State seeks more pollution fines against Baltimore medical waste incinerator
• Investors in Sri Lanka to be given autonomy to manage zones: President
• Validity of Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalism as a political strategy – Financial Times Editorial
• Global Tamil Forum (GTF) & Better Sangha saddened by Maha Shivaratri Incident
– https://island.lk/statement-by-sbsl-and-gtf-on-recent-events-in-sri-lanka/
• Give Kalmunai North Division its due status, protesters demand
• Proportion of Tamil youth in public institutions, tri-forces must be increased: AKD
• Karuna loses Eastern battle but Prabhakaran loses Eelam war
• Karuna adopts wartime strategy for political comeback
• Minister Jeevan Thondaman named Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum
– https://www.themorning.lk/articles/r3GOyVwkwY67vtfF346B
• Thondaman calls for formal Govt. apology to Muslim community over COVID cremations
• Sri Lanka minister apologizes for forced cremation of Muslims
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-minister-apologizes-for-forced-cremation-of-muslims-157570/
– https://island.lk/forced-cremations-jeevan-apologises-to-muslim-community/
• JVP meeting: Front-row pix has diplomat in a political fix
• President Xi recalls long-standing links with Premier Gunawardena’s family
‘The PM’s mother, Kusuma Gunawardena, was the first chairperson of the Sri Lanka-China Friendship Association in 1950. In 1951, his father, Philip, was part of the first-ever Sri Lankan delegation to visit’
• Japan and Australia discuss disaster risk management and climate change at LKI
• Dumbara Beyond Colombo’s English Mists and Myths
– https://island.lk/dumbara-beyond-colombos-english-mists-and-myths/
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba’s mission to India is a qualified success – Bhadrakumar
– https://www.indianpunchline.com/kulebas-mission-to-india-is-a-qualified-success/
• Ukraine urges India to rethink ‘Soviet legacy’ of Russia ties
‘Ukraine is enduring the most difficult phase…with..further US military support frozen over opposition from Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress’
– https://www.ft.com/content/8a66bfb7-ae66-477d-b58d-37866ff9252c
• Pakistani court suspends ex-PM Imran Khan’s graft conviction but keeps him in jail – Reuters
– https://www.themorning.lk/articles/CFvDyVm1u47USNhRP2eh
• Why did US diplomat say Scarborough Shoal belonged to the Philippines?
• Biden reaches out to Xi Jinping with eye on financial stability
– https://www.indianpunchline.com/biden-reaches-out-to-xi-jinping-with-eye-on-financial-stability/
• Iranian foreign minister says US must answer to deadly Israeli attack on consulate in Damascus
• UN Palestine Commission – Partition recommendation – Statement from the Arab Higher Committee, 6 February 1948
• Israel and the US are Gangster States
– https://blackagendareport.com/israel-and-us-are-gangster-states
• McDonald’s buys all 225 of Israeli franchise restaurants after boycotts
• Palestinian women against bourgeois feminism – a commentary
– https://blackagendareport.com/palestinian-women-against-bourgeois-feminism-commentary
• US Black and Brown Coalition for Palestine Meets with South African Foreign Minister
• MLK Jr. Gala Action & MLK Gala Speech & Palestine
– https://blackagendareport.com/mlk-jr-gala-action-mlk-gala-speech
• Eric Nshimiye, Another Rwandan American Facing Trial in Another Rwandan Witch Hunt
• US Out of Africa Network Applauds Niger’s Move to Expel Africom
• Senegal Elects New President
– https://blackagendareport.com/senegal-elects-new-president
• Descendants of Caribbean slaves break silence around France’s shameful past
• US divides up the pie of millions for subversion in Cuba
– https://en.granma.cu/mundo/2024-03-26/us-divides-up-the-pie-of-millions-for-subversion
• Puerto Ricans take to the streets against Kamala Harris’s visit
– https://blackagendareport.com/puerto-ricans-take-streets-against-kamala-harriss-visit
• Guyana is an Imperialist Target
– https://blackagendareport.com/guyana-imperialist-target
• Venezuelan defense minister denounces plans of aggression
‘new attempt at destabilization confessed by ”mafias” who make life in the USA and Colombia’
• Indefensible Democracy
‘Ukraine is supposed to be a battle for democracy, but what are they fighting for? Ukraine has suspended elections, banned opposition parties, and is run (into the ground) by foreign arms dealers.’
– indi.ca
• The Rules-Based Order Is Precisely The Violation of International Law
– indi.ca
• Ogdensburg Agreement of 1940 tied Canada to US War Machine
– https://www.cgai.ca/nato_if_necessary_but_not_necessarily_nato
• From the Rivers to the Seas of the World, the Peoples of this Planet must be Liberated from US and European Domination If we are to Survive – US Black Alliance For Peace
• U.S. Has Claimed Duty to Warn Russia But Did Not Do It
– https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/04/us-has-claimed-duty-to-warn-but-did-not-do-it.html#more
• Russian Opinion Poll on Crocus Attack Backfires as Kiev Propaganda
• Ukraine Plan of Crocus City Hall Attack to Start Ethnic Pogroms, Civil War In Russia
• A Polish General dies deep in Ukraine
– https://asiatimes.com/2024/03/a-polish-general-dies-deep-in-ukraine/
*
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D2. 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.
• Sri Lanka offers general amnesty for military deserters
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-offers-general-amnesty-for-military-deserters-157601/
• 100 intelligence officers reassigned for security in Colombo
• 14th contingent of SLFPC returns home after successful mission with United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon
• 24 suspects died in police custody last year
– https://www.dailymirror.lk/top-story/24-suspects-died-in-police-custody-last-year/155-280221
• Deaths in police custody continue in spite of issuance of guidelines
– https://island.lk/deaths-in-police-custody-continue-in-spite-of-issuance-of-guidelines/
• Keheliya’s revision bail application rejected
– https://island.lk/keheliyas-revision-bail-application-rejected/
• Removal from roll of lawyers: Naga takes his case to UN
– https://island.lk/removal-from-roll-of-lawyers-naga-takes-his-case-to-un/
• Indians praise legal experts reform plan to jail former Presidents Rajapakse, etc.
• BASL condemns attempts to curtail citizens’ right to seek redress from Supreme Court
• Bodu Bala boss jailed for four years
• Court refuses bail to Ven. Gnanasara Thera
– https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/Court-refuses-bail-to-Ven-Gnanasara-Thera/108-280035
– https://island.lk/colombo-hc-rejects-gnanasara-theras-bail-application/
• Soldiers with guns drawn in front of Sri Lanka’s churches?
– https://www.sundaytimes.lk/240331/news/police-and-military-presence-increased-553577.html
• Corruption taints operations on drugs, underworld criminals
• Sri Lanka starts surveying drug addicts as authorities seek public help
• Police arrest woman linked to police who claimed her life was under threat
‘she was also wanted in connection with investigations into death of the former OIC of the Eheliyagoda Police, Suranjith Silva, who had reportedly shot himself in his quarters in October last year.’
• Ex-Police Officer arrested over stones pelted at hotel housing Japanese Envoy’s spouse
• SL Scout Association new President meets Defence Secretary
– https://island.lk/sl-scout-association-new-president-meets-defence-secretary/
• Resurgence of Police Cadet Corps
‘Sri Lanka Cadet Corps, which was part of the Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force became the National Cadet Corps which was ceremonially inaugurated on April 29, 1988 by J. R. Jayewardene’
– https://island.lk/resurgence-of-police-cadet-corps/
• Four takeaways from the UN Security Council resolution on Gaza
– https://island.lk/four-takeaways-from-the-un-security-council-resolution-on-gaza/
• 55th Anniversary of the NY Panther 21 Case
– https://blackagendareport.com/55th-anniversary-ny-panther-21-case
• The Forever Failure of USA’s Failed Forever Wars
– https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2024/04/04/the-forever-failure-of-americas-failed-forever-wars/
• US Preparing More “Islamic” Terror
– https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2024/03/30/us-preparing-more-islamic-terror/
• Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Uhuru 3 put state on trial in fightback against bogus charges
• The New Modern Day Militarized Fort! (in Atlanta, Georgia)
– https://blackagendareport.com/new-modern-day-militarized-fort
• European Officials Weaponize Intelligence Services to Censor Political Enemies
– https://public.substack.com/p/european-officials-weaponize-intelligence
• The Ukrainian Army is No Longer Mechanized
– https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/04/the-ukrainian-army-is-no-longer-mechanized
• How The Electric War is Redrawing the Ukraine Map – In Black
‘Without effective defence for its power generating plants, distribution hubs, and grid lines, the Kiev regime’s power is being stopped across the country’
– https://johnhelmer.net/how-the-electric-war-is-redrawing-the-ukraine-map-in-black/#more-89613
• Electric War Goes West – Depopulation turns into Displacement turns into Civil War in Galicia
• Ukraine fires over 50 drones against Russia in one of biggest air attacks
• Ukraine – When Opinionated War Experts Can’t Read Maps
– https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/04/ukraine-when-opining-war-experts-cant-read-maps.html
*
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D3. 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.
• National planning comes centre stage at Gamani Corea Foundation forum
‘Sri Lankans are very good at writing plans but nothing very positive has resulted from these efforts over the years’
– https://island.lk/national-planning-comes-centre-stage-at-gamani-corea-foundation-forum/
• Avurudhu, Ramadan and Easter Sunday amid a crumbling economy
• Anura ready for public debate with Sajith on economic policies: Handunnetti
• Reform agenda must be progressive, not regressive: SJB
– https://www.ft.lk/business/Reform-agenda-must-be-progressive-not-regressive-SJB/34-760294
• Short term pain from Sri Lanka’s reforms subsiding, economy strengthening: Minister
• President says Rupee to appreciate to Rs. 280 against US Dollar
• Traders profiteering, Rs. 188 b in tax arrears
– https://www.ft.lk/top-story/Traders-profiteering-Rs-188-b-in-tax-arrears/26-760305
• Marikkar criticises Govt. over neglected tax arrears
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Marikkar-criticises-Govt-over-neglected-tax-arrears/44-760316
• SOE losses costing Rs. 141,809 per Sri Lankan household: US Advocata
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/SOE-losses-costing-Rs-141-809-per-Sri-Lankan-household/44-760315
• Anti-privatization statements will depress bid prices: Will JVP be held accountable?
‘These kinds of statements will increase the perceptions of risk among bidders.’
• Practical problems that can pop up in a NPP (JVP) government – Chanaka Bandarage
• SJB boycotts COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises)
– https://island.lk/sjb-boycotts-cope/
• US World Bank cautions possible slowdown in reform efforts due to elections
• Can the lenient IMF program be renegotiated by a future government? – T. Rafi
– https://www.ft.lk/columns/Can-the-IMF-program-be-renegotiated-by-a-future-government/4-760327
• Lanka’s foreign debt and Chinese puzzle – Editorial
– https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/Lankas-foreign-debt-and-Chinese-puzzle-EDITORIAL/172-279897
• Uncertainty over IMF programme’s continuity: A serious threat to economy – Sanderatne
• Money and inflation: Loose connections – Abeyratne
– https://www.sundaytimes.lk/240331/business-times/money-and-inflation-loose-connections-553290.html
• Colombo University Business Economic Summit 2024: Keynote address – Wijewardena
‘This is a general weakness in Sri Lanka’s development planning that it has no capacity to prepare a plan, let alone implement it.’
– https://www.ft.lk/columns/Colombo-University-Business-Economic-Summit-2024-Keynote-address/4-760120
• Taxation and the social contract: Thatcherites holding Sri Lanka back: K. Wijetilleka
• Nexus between money, exchange rate, money printing and inflation: CA Saliya
– https://island.lk/nexus-between-money-exchange-rate-money-printing-and-inflation/
• Serious consequences of failing to implement IMF programme: USAID NPC Perera
– https://island.lk/serious-consequences-of-failing-to-implement-imf-programme/
• On President Plan to leverage National Trade Facilitation Committee (NTFC) – C Jayaratne
– https://island.lk/open-letter-to-president-on-sls-path-forwards/
• Fury over wage hikes – Kussi Amma Samath
‘While public servants in the US and most of Europe are paid competitive salaries, it is Singapore that pays the highest salaries in the world for public servants, largely to deter corruption.’
– https://www.sundaytimes.lk/240331/business-times/fury-over-wage-hikes-553296.html
• Politics behind economic recovery – A. Ali
– https://www.ft.lk/columns/Politics-behind-economic-recovery/4-760329
• NPP’s flawed stance on taxation: A Gunawardena
– https://www.ft.lk/columns/NPP-s-flawed-stance-on-taxation/4-760191
• Professional accountants: Best equipped & placed in fighting bribery & corruption: R. Peiris
• Sustainability in business – or corporate greenwash: FE Dias
– https://www.ft.lk/columns/Sustainability-in-business-or-corporate-greenwash/4-760321
• Developing sustainable business: Power of people-centric management – SK Silva
• Build business to scale – M. Ramsy
– https://www.ft.lk/columns/Build-to-scale/4-760322
• Samir Amin’s last two battles – Dimitris Konstantakopoulos
– https://www.defenddemocracy.press/samir-amins-last-two-battles/
• Chinese Mayors: What does it take to be a Chinese official?
‘How is public policy formulated? In what ways does the government serve the people, and how can it be held accountable?’
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEM903DsC5U
• US Continues Economic Warfare Against Cuba
– https://blackagendareport.com/us-continues-economic-warfare-against-cuba
• Bitcoin and other crypto currencies experiencing a massive rise in price
– https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2024/04/01/bitcoin-24/– https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2024/04/01/bitcoin-24/
• The Geopolitics of Global Capitalism and Ukraine
‘Ukraine most likely be treated post-conflict as another growth opportunity for transnational capital.’
– https://socialistproject.ca/2024/04/geopolitics-of-global-capitalism-and-ukraine/
• US Capitalism & English Empire – 1492 to 1776
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1ORzOnRNq4
*
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D4. 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.
• SOE reforms must move ahead without disruptions: CTC Shah
‘Among the 16 recommendations highlighted by the International Monetary Fund, SOE reforms are reiterated to be of high importance’
• Sri Lanka’s economy shows signs of stabilization, but poverty to remain elevated
– https://island.lk/sri-lankas-economy-shows-signs-of-stabilization-but-poverty-to-remain-elevated/
– https://www.dailymirror.lk/top-story/Sri-Lankas-economy-shows-signs-of-stabilization-but-poverty-remains-elevated/155-280045• Investors in Sri Lanka to be given autonomy to manage zones: President
• Sri Lanka, bondholders plan fresh round of debt talks this month – Bloomberg
– https://www.adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=98464
• Key officials in London for Secret-Not-Secret Debt Restructure Talks
• Sri Lanka seeks 5-year debt relief during London creditor talks
• Any deviation from Sri Lanka’s reform programme could jeopardise stability: minister
• Even minor deviation from IMF program poses a serious risk to country – B. Gunawardena
• IMF says “strong expectation” on Sri Lanka deal with private creditors
– https://economynext.com/imf-says-strong-expectation-on-sri-lanka-deal-with-private-creditors-157659/
• Lanka expected to reach agreement with its commercial creditors – IMF
– https://island.lk/lanka-expected-to-reach-agreement-with-its-commercial-creditors-imf/
• IMF Anticipates Agreement with Commercial Creditors, Soon
– https://english.newsfirst.lk/2024/04/05/imf-anticipates-agreement-with-commercial-creditors-soon
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/IMF-anticipates-SL-commercial-creditors-agreements-soon/44-760397
• India goes along with Paris Club, China says no
• France assures unwavering support for SL’s debt restructuring process
• Sri Lanka, France discuss debt restructuring process, future financial collaboration
• US Ambassador commends Sri Lanka’s progress on IMF program
– https://www.ft.lk/business/US-Ambassador-commends-Sri-Lanka-s-progress-on-IMF-program/34-760289
• US World Bank projects 2.2% growth for Sri Lanka in 2024
– https://www.dailymirror.lk/business/World-Bank-projects-2-2-growth-for-Sri-Lanka-in-2024/215-280071
• ADB to resume Sri Lanka project financing, back PPPs under new strategy
• Sri Lanka private banks unlikely to need state recapitalization
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-private-banks-unlikely-to-need-state-recapitalization-157467/
• CBSL requests banks to set up Business Revival Units by May
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/CBSL-requests-banks-to-set-up-Business-Revival-Units-by-May/44-760300
• Sri Lanka’s official reserve assets increase by 9.5% in March
– https://www.adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=98454
• SL repays $ 2 b of multilateral debt in less than 2 years
– https://www.ft.lk/top-story/SL-repays-2-b-of-multilateral-debt-in-less-than-2-years/26-760398
• Sri Lanka settled nearly $2bn worth of foreign debt and interest, govt. says
• Sri Lanka repays $1,338mn to multilateral lenders up to Feb 2024: PMD
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-repays-1338mn-to-multilateral-lenders-up-to-feb-2024-pmd-157756/
• Higher increase in imports than exports in February 2023
• Sri Lankan exporters badly hit by appreciating rupee, which is of benefit to importers
• Sri Lanka plans to roll PAL, CESS into new customs duty band
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-plans-to-roll-pal-cess-into-new-customs-duty-band-157442/
• Repealing SCL tax good for importers, remains a risk for the poor and vulnerable
• Taxes to be levied from importers who have earned undue profits
• Vote on increasing VAT to 18% passed
– https://island.lk/vote-on-increasing-vat-to-18-passed/
• IRD defaulted taxes surpass Rs. 1 trillion
– https://www.themorning.lk/articles/Yop0oMbC1KbwCbnYQESS
• State institutions called upon to provide monthly reports online to Inland Revenue Department
• Speaker endorses certificate on seven Bills
‘Secured Transaction, Registration of Documents, Trust Receipts, Mortgage, Finance Leasing, Inland Trust Receipts and Companies’
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Speaker-endorses-certificate-on-seven-Bills/44-760307
• High-powered delegations to China and India emphasise strengthening bilateral collaboration
– https://island.lk/lanka-and-china-premiers-witness-signing-of-9-bilateral-agreements/
• Sri Lanka ready to provide Chinese enterprises preferential policies
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-ready-to-provide-chinese-enterprises-preferential-policies-157514/
• BRICS’ new step to end U.S. dollar dominance
– https://www.radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/351188-brics-new-step-to-end-us-dollar-dominance
*
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D5. 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
• Inflation Stabilizes, but Sri Lankan Wages Lag Behind
– https://english.newsfirst.lk/2024/04/05/inflation-stabilizes-but-sri-lankan-wages-lag-behind
• Sri Lanka’s economy shows signs of stabilization, but poverty to remain elevated
– https://island.lk/sri-lankas-economy-shows-signs-of-stabilization-but-poverty-to-remain-elevated/
• Sri Lanka poverty being addressed by Aswesuma safety net: Minister
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-poverty-being-addressed-by-aswesuma-safety-net-minister-157508/
• President orders review of Central Bank salary increase
– https://island.lk/president-orders-review-of-central-bank-salary-increase/
• McDonald’s employees lose jobs after Abans outlets shut down by the courts
• CA allows AG to make submissions on Dr Kapila Wickremanayake’s bail application
• A departure from the 1995 Age of Consent Legislation
– https://island.lk/a-departure-from-the-1995-age-of-consent-legislation/
• Senior citizens want reinstatement of tax category called Personal Expenditure
– https://www.sundaytimes.lk/240331/plus/letters-to-the-editor-3-553230.html
• Govt has not lost sight of senior citizen FD rates:State Minister
– https://island.lk/govt-has-not-lost-sight-of-senior-citizen-fd-ratesstate-minister/
• “Awarding land rights to the estate community” becomes a reality
– https://island.lk/awarding-land-rights-to-the-estate-community-becomes-a-reality/
• RW promises to extend SSC’s 99-year lease
– https://island.lk/rw-promises-to-extend-sscs-99-year-lease/
• Residents of Frankfurt Place overwhelmed by construction of large apartment complex
• Broad set of policies needed to reduce gender pay gap in Sri Lanka – J. Simpson, ILO
• Regional integration to empower Sri Lankan women
– https://economynext.com/regional-integration-to-empower-sri-lankan-women-157498/
• Women: Empowering or endangering one another?
– https://island.lk/women-empowering-or-endangering-one-another/
• Canada funds UNDP, UNFPA project to help victims of sexual violence in Sri Lanka
• New Bill to combat domestic violence – State Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs
• Sri Lanka Ayurveda hospital to offer paying wards, looking for PPP
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-ayurveda-hospital-to-offer-paying-wards-looking-for-ppp-157648/
• Sri Lankans reluctant to get tested for HIV: State minister
– https://economynext.com/sri-lankans-reluctant-to-get-tested-for-hiv-state-minister-157724/
• About 75,000 Lankans have left for foreign employment in Q1 2024
– https://island.lk/about-75000-lankans-have-left-for-foreign-employment-in-q1-2024/
• Sri Lankans among those injured in Ukrainian drone strike in Russian Region
‘All those affected by the attack were studying at a technical college’
• Fleeing bankrupt Lankan homes, overseas job-seekers opt to die in fight for their lives
• Ambitious Sri Lankan jobseekers ‘trafficked into Ukraine war zones’
• Remittances and tourism earnings mainstays in the economy
• SL border officials thwart 10 illegal migration attempts via BIA in first quarter
• Actress Damitha Remanded in Fraud Case on Employment in South Korea
– https://english.newsfirst.lk/2024/04/05/actress-damitha-remanded-in-fraud-case
• South Korea promises to open new job opportunities incl. seasonal work for Sri Lankans
• Foreigners overstaying visas and doing odd jobs
– https://www.dailymirror.lk/top-story/Foreigners-overstaying-visas-and-doing-odd-jobs/155-280216
• State must not provide pensions to MPs and official residences to ex-Presidents
– https://island.lk/state-must-not-provide-pensions-to-mps-and-official-residences-to-ex-presidents/
• School student dies after concrete bay collapse in Maskeliya
• Cabinet approves providing free sanitary pads for 800,000 remote school students
– https://island.lk/cabinet-nod-for-free-sanitary-pads-to-needy-female-students/
– https://island.lk/free-sanitary-pads-for-female-students-from-april-2024/
• Western science and education – Nalin de Silva
– http://www1.kalaya.org/2024/04/blog-post_2.html
• Is history a science? – Nalin de Silva
‘Physics is all about finding out whether something works or not’
– www1.kalaya.org/2024/04/blog-post_5.html
• Fundamental Studies in Western Science and Us – Nalin de Silva
– http://www1.kalaya.org/2024/04/blog-post_3.html
• Moratuwa medical students yearn for tooled up specialist training unit
• Ernst and Young (EY) considers AI and data analytics as key areas for upskilling
• Positioning the idea of Sri Lankan English in the field of English language teaching in SL
• Enhancing future-proof competencies: Education for excellence: A. Dharmasiri
– https://www.ft.lk/columns/Enhancing-future-proof-competencies-Education-for-excellence/4-760185
• Education Ministry website hacked by ’Student’
– https://sundaytimes.lk/online/news-online/Education-Ministry-website-hacked-by-Student/2-1145484
• Shinso Ito Scholarship Awarding Ceremony empowers Buddhist Scholars in Sri Lanka
– https://island.lk/shinso-ito-scholarship-awarding-ceremony-empowers-buddhist-scholars-in-sri-lanka/
• Biden appoints Lankan to US National Security Education Board
– https://island.lk/president-biden-appoints-dr-mendis-to-us-national-security-education-board/
• Workers splattered ink on Government Press Works Manager Samath’s full white attire
– https://www.sundaytimes.lk/240331/plus/appreciations-2-553225.html
• Karl Marx’s grandson fought for Savarkar against English in International Court of Justice
• Baltimore Drive-By: The Bridge, the City and Infra-Structural Racism
– https://eskow.substack.com/p/baltimore-drive-by-the-bridge-the?
• ‘Equity-Based Algebra’ Is as Bad as You Imagine it to Be
• Not Everything Is About Gender
– https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/03/judith-butler-whos-afraid-of-gender/677874/
• Why are so many left-wing people losers?
‘One of the most useful things we could do is cast-off this baggage of being part of ‘the left’. We are communists and our demand is Marxism-Leninism’
– https://challenge-magazine.org/2024/03/30/why-are-so-many-left-wing-people-losers/
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D6. 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.
• Crop depredation by wild animals in Sri Lanka, and farmers are crying out
– https://island.lk/farmers-fury/
• Agriculture was the success of our past and it is our future too: Ariyaseela
• Brown sugar, red rice, chillies, sauces all bathed in carcinogenic dyes
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qrrat1n3BY
• How the doctor and PHI who told the country about poisoned food were killed
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I8hL2FBwCI
• Cabinet decides to repeal tax that led to sugar scam
• Govt’s nutrition-boosting school meal programme: Suppliers face bitter reality
• Mangoes and apples fit for pigs
– https://island.lk/mangoes-and-apples-fit-for-pigs/
• Pre-festive checks uncover fakes and hidden rice stock
• Balancing Rice Prices: Is It Really the Case?
– https://english.newsfirst.lk/2024/04/05/balancing-rice-prices-is-it-really-the-case
• Nilwala salinity barrier: Another white elephant – Matara District Farmers’ Federation
– https://island.lk/nilwala-salinity-barrier-another-white-elephant/
• Equitable sharing of water powerful factor in maintaining peace & harmony among communities
• South Asia’s largest water research institute opens at Peradeniya Uni.
• President and PM to chair high-powered Agricultural Modernisation Council
• Parliamentary oversight committee calls for comprehensive report to address illegal fishing
• Colombo round-table focuses on climate change & fisheries issues
‘ongoing Indo-Lanka fishing dispute…bottom trawling and degradation of marine environment’
– https://island.lk/colombo-round-table-focuses-on-climate-change-fisheries-issues/
• Lanka Milk Foods appoints Manil and Thusitha to Board
– https://www.ft.lk/business/Lanka-Milk-Foods-appoints-Manil-and-Thusitha-to-Board/34-760243
• Familiar “issovadai” carts on Galle Face Green may soon be a thing of the past
• Plan to move sellers into underground shops: Director SLPMCS
• Sri Lankan agricultural products have no legitimate roots!
• Spotlight on Moragahakanda Development Project Moragolla villagers lose livelihoods and down to one meal a day
• Onion imports from China after Indo-Pak export ban: Minister
– https://island.lk/onion-imports-from-china-after-indo-pak-export-ban-minister/
• Softening of tea prices unlikely to hurt earnings: Capital Trust Research
• Cinnamon Museum officially opened near Weligama
– https://www.sundaytimes.lk/240331/plus/where-the-tale-of-cinnamon-comes-alive-553234.html
• Iconic English brands unveil culinary charms in Sri Lanka
• Baltimore Bridge & X-Press Pearl
– https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2024/03/31/the-francis-scott-key-bridge-a-catastrophic-collapse/
• Mannar wind farm: Another folly like Sinharaja logging project on the horizon? I & II
– https://island.lk/mannar-wind-farm-another-folly-like-sinharaja-logging-project-on-the-horizon-ii/
• First Private Land donation to WNPS PLANT for conservation, by a visionary nature lover
• Has Sri Lanka become a potential hub for the illegal wildlife trade?
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D7. 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.
• Health unions expose procurement of substandard oral rehydration solution
– https://island.lk/health-unions-expose-procurement-of-substandard-oral-rehydration-solution/
• HRCSL probes procurement of fake immunoglobulin
– https://island.lk/hrcsl-probes-procurement-of-fake-immunoglobulin/
• Court orders DGHS to name patients who died after being given fake immunoglobulin and those adversely affected by it
• Patient seeks Rs.100 m from Keheliya and others over permanent loss of sight
• Vernolac’: Ayurveda Commissioner General instructs to stop all forms of advertising
• Batik wars: Indian Imports vs local producers
– https://www.sundaytimes.lk/240331/news/batik-wars-imports-vs-local-producers-553538.html
• Shaping Sri Lanka’s industrial recovery: EU, Industry and Government leaders convene
‘econd edition of the Industry Dialogue organised by the European Union (EU)-funded Accelerating Industries’ Climate Response in Sri Lanka project’
• Dhammika Fernando re-elected Chairman of Free Trade Zone Manufacturers’ Association
• Fire safety regulations go up in smoke as corruption, deception hold sway
• New public procurement regulatory framework to deter corruption
• Youth-led movement calls for end to coal plants
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Youth-led-movement-calls-for-end-to-coal-plants/44-760393
• Power and Energy Ministry reviews comprehensive fuel strategy for next year
• Minister clarifies CPC fuel costs amid price revision
– https://www.ft.lk/business/Minister-clarifies-CPC-fuel-costs-amid-price-revision/34-760213
• SL explores renewable energy initiatives with US World Bank international financial institution
• Wind turbines in Mannar designed to pose no threat to birds: Minister
– https://island.lk/wind-turbines-in-mannar-designed-to-pose-no-threat-to-birds-minister/
• Adani Green Energy’s wind power project in Mannar & Pooneryn undergoes technical review
• Adani Green Energy surpasses 10,000 MW renewable energy
– https://island.lk/adani-green-energy-surpasses-10000-mw-renewable-energy/
• CEB engineers seek major changes in power sector reform procedure
• Govt. steps up effort to iron out issues in local gem and jewellery sector
• Inflated construction material prices ‘not coming down’ despite strengthened LKR
– https://island.lk/inflated-construction-material-prices-not-coming-down-despite-strengthened-lkr/
• Sri Lanka container volumes surge 30-pct in Feb amid Red Sea troubles
• Sri Lanka state bus system looks to e-ticketing to combat revenue leaks
• BoI companies allowed to import electric vehicle, with conditions
• Access Engineering secures contract for Bandaranaike International Airport Development
• SriLankan Airlines Chief says procurement delays impact fleet expansion plans
• Cabinet approves contract for four aircraft to Sri Lankan Aviation Company
‘4 aircraft from Orix Aviation and Aergo Capital’
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/SriLankan-Airlines-to-get-4-wide-body-aircraft-on-lease/44-760224
• SriLankan discontinuing flights to Beijing from next week
• Sri Lanka to Transform Hingurakgoda Domestic Airport into International Hub
• Jetwing Jaffna turns profitable in 2023/24
• Oman Air drops Colombo flights
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Oman-Air-drops-Colombo-flights/44-760306
• Crumbling pottery industry has potters worried
– https://www.sundaytimes.lk/240331/news/crumbling-pottery-industry-has-potters-worried-553608.html
• Sri Lanka to get AC efficiency testing lab with South Korean support
• China’s ability to flood EV market concerning to US, energy secretary says
• Inuit Circumpolar Council welcomes new shipping regulations in the Arctic
• Ukraine “interested in importing some of the heavy machinery items that India is producing”
– https://www.ft.com/content/8a66bfb7-ae66-477d-b58d-37866ff9252c
• Has manufacturing been underestimated?
– https://www.ciip.group.cam.ac.uk/reports-and-articles/has-manufacturing-been-underestimated/
• Lessons from Corporate Labs: Technological Competition in a Changing Business Environment
‘An organizational process that combines the discipline needed to commercialize great new technologies with the individual researcher initiative that maximizes rare innovative talent.’
• Boeing pays Alaska Air US $ 160m after mid-air blowout
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D8. 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.
• Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) leads overhaul of Microfinance Bill
– https://www.ft.lk/business/CoPFleads-overhaul-of-Microfinance-Bill/34-760290
• Sri Lanka private banks unlikely to need state recapitalization
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-private-banks-unlikely-to-need-state-recapitalization-157467/
• Seylan Bank halts parate execution on three Asia Capital hotels
• HSBC warns customers of rise in credit/debit card scams here
– https://island.lk/hsbc-warns-customers-of-rise-in-credit-debit-card-scams-here/
• Visa sees over 35% surge in debit card spends; trend expected to continue in Avurudu season
• HNB ramps up Board with ex-MDs of Commercial and Sampath
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/HNB-ramps-up-Board-with-ex-MDs-of-Commercial-and-Sampath/44-760237
• Sampath Bank appoints Keith Modder to director board
– https://www.dailymirror.lk/business/Sampath-Bank-appoints-Keith-Modder-to-director-board/215-280068
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Tech-industry-veteran-Keith-Modder-joins-Sampath-Bank-Board/44-760234
• Aravinda de Silva among buyers as 27% stake in Ambeon Capital transacts for Rs. 1.5 b
• ARCASIA Investments acquires 11.97-pct stake in Sri Lanka’s Ambeon Capital
• CSE losing shine on big market caps
‘Nestle Lanka PLC and Expo Lanka PLC, two companies with some of the largest market caps in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), were recently delisted’
– https://www.sundaytimes.lk/240331/business-times/cse-losing-shine-on-big-market-caps-553304.html
• Sri Lanka rupee opens at 299.80/90 to the US dollar (A03)
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-rupee-opens-at-299-80-90-to-the-us-dollar-157275/
• Sri Lanka stocks close up, interest in bluechips, banks
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-stocks-close-up-interest-in-bluechips-banks-157398/
• Sri Lanka rupee closes at 299.80/95 to the US dollar
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-rupee-closes-at-299-80-95-to-the-us-dollar-157402/
• Sri Lanka Treasury bill yields up, 12-month flat
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-treasury-bill-yields-up-12-month-flat-157416/
• Net foreign inflow continues; CSE sustains Rs. 2 b turnover level
• Sri Lanka rupee opens at 299.85/95 to the US dollar (A04)
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-rupee-opens-at-299-85-95-to-the-us-dollar-157484/
• Sri Lanka stocks close up, banks push turnover
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-stocks-close-up-banks-push-turnover-157594/
• Sri Lanka rupee closes at 299.70/80 to the US dollar
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-rupee-closes-at-299-70-80-to-the-us-dollar-157598/
• Bourse driven onwards by banking sector counters
– https://island.lk/bourse-driven-onwards-by-banking-sector-counters/
• Sri Lanka rupee opens at 299.35/55 to the US dollar (A05)
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-rupee-opens-at-299-35-55-to-the-us-dollar-157650/
• Sri Lanka stocks close up, banks bring in 1.5bn
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-stocks-close-up-banks-bring-in-1-5bn-157716/
• Sri Lanka rupee closes at 299.25/30 to the US dollar
– https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-rupee-closes-at-299-25-30-to-the-us-dollar-157720/
• Colombo stock market notches a bullish week
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Colombo-stock-market-notches-a-bullish-week/44-760391
• Nine crossings lend sparkle to share market; indices at their highest over past 52 trading weeks
• Revival of the Dotcom-esque Froth in Today’s Markets; Nasdaq Is Playing Nasdaq
• Billionaire Larry Fink of BlackRock, Which Grabbed Fed Bailouts in 2020-2021, Lectures Struggling Seniors on Making More Sacrifices
• Five Banks Have Combined Half Trillion Dollars in Commercial Real Estate Loans; Number 1 is JPMorgan Chase
• Wall Street Mega Banks Have Overstated Income for Years on Commercial Real Estate Loans They Sell to Investors
• JP Morgan’s Dimon Huddles in Private with Biden Bigwigs as Bank Faces More Charges
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D9. 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’
• Ex-KPMG fame Yohan Perera joins Hayleys, Haycarb and DIPD Boards
– https://www.ft.lk/business/Ex-KPMG-fame-Yohan-Perera-joins-Hayleys-Haycarb-and-DIPD-Boards/34-760244
• Exxon Pathfinder webinar: “Sri Lanka’s path to RCEP membership: Unlocking new horizons”
• March notches fourth consecutive month of over 200,000 tourist arrivals
• Tour, MICE operators cry foul of demand to extend minimum room rates
‘rebuked calls by what they alleged as “a cartel of lazy hoteliers”… Sri Lanka has about 40,000 registered rooms, with a total of about 90,000’
• Largest travel firms and tour operators dictate terms to hoteliers
– https://island.lk/hoteliering/
• English bequeathed large horse racing racket in 1948
– https://island.lk/the-sport-of-kings/
• Shangri-La pares losses; hotels, mall, and apartments generating billions
• 1,000 vehicles to be imported to accelerate tourism industry development
• Vehicles imported for Sri Lanka’s tourism sector will be year-old, taxed: official
• Tourism businesses wants loan restructuring solutions from IMF
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D10. 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.
• After Mahinda – Nalin de Silva
– http://www1.kalaya.org/2024/04/blog-post_4.html
• NFF leader Wimal Weerawansa likens SL’s situation to a house on fire being robbed
– https://www.ft.lk/news/Opposition-politicians-unite-to-critique-current-political-culture/56-760169
• Udaya: Govt. planning to hold presidential and general elections simultaneously
– https://island.lk/udaya-govt-planning-to-hold-presidential-and-general-elections-simultaneously/
• Dilith declares himself as most suitable Pohottuwa presidential candidate
• What will come first, the presidential or the parliamentary election? – Island Editorial
– https://island.lk/chicken-or-the-egg/
• Some benefits if a general election is held first – Island Editorial
– https://island.lk/ranil-puts-his-foot-down/
• Election on shifting sands
– https://www.ft.lk/columns/Election-on-shifting-sands/4-760228
• Why elections for Presidency all political parties have promised to abolish?
• Electing a President: Three against one in the US, and three against three in Sri Lanka – Philips
• Election Commission to set spending limits for presidential and upcoming polls
• Three FSP activists granted bail
– https://island.lk/three-fsp-activists-granted-bail/
• FSP to commemorate 53rd anniversary of ’71 youth uprising
– https://island.lk/fsp-to-commemorate-53rd-anniversary-of-71-youth-uprising/
• AKD urges northerners to help relegate political dregs into dustbin of history
– https://island.lk/akd-urges-northerners-to-help-relegate-political-dregs-into-dustbin-of-history/
• Sajith pledges to convene an international aid conference to develop North
– https://island.lk/sajith-pledges-to-convene-an-international-aid-conference-to-develop-north/
• Another round of talks between Ranil and Basil
– https://island.lk/another-round-of-talks-between-ranil-and-basil/
• The Paradox of Ranil Wickremesinghe: No IMF, No Election
– https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2024/04/05/the-paradox-of-ranil-wickremesinghe/
• Most contenders for presidency will gather around Wickremesinghe: UNP
– https://economynext.com/most-contenders-for-presidency-will-gather-around-wickremesinghe-unp-157410/
• Countering NPP’s rise: Emerging political alliances and election strategies
• Court of Appeal (CA) quashes political victimisation panel findings against Yahapalana Govt.
• Wimal Weerawansa Acquitted in Passport Case
– https://english.newsfirst.lk/2024/04/01/wimal-weerawansa-acquitted-in-passport-case
– https://island.lk/passport-case-wimal-acquitted-and-discharged/
• SLPP Must Contest Presidential Election to Remain Relevant (Otherwise SLPP Will Permanently Slip from the Top)
• SLPP split over presidential candidate: Basil plays role of peacemaker
• The SLPP”s newly appointed national organiser, Namal Rajapaksa
• Prez polls: Chief Govt. Whip dismisses Namal’s candidature, reiterates support for Ranil
• Three senior SLFPers lose posts, vow to challenge party decision in court
• CBK secures interim injunction against Maithri’s SLFP chairmanship
– https://island.lk/interim-injunction-bars-sirisena-from-functioning-as-slfp-chairman/
• SLFP’s ‘important’ files reported missing from party headquarters
– https://www.adaderana.lk/news/98458/slfps-important-files-reported-missing-from-party-headquarters
• Dayasiri says he does not rejoice in the court injunction against Sirisena
– https://island.lk/dayasiri-says-he-does-not-rejoice-in-the-court-injunction-against-sirisena/
• Ready to face any challenge – Maithri
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Ready-to-face-any-challenge-Maithri/44-760310
• SLFP to embark on new journey – Duminda
– https://www.ft.lk/front-page/SLFP-to-embark-on-new-journey-Duminda/44-760311
• MPs who call Sri Lanka Freedom Party their home eager to return: Amaraweera
• Party leaders gun for Deputy Speaker
– https://island.lk/party-leaders-gun-for-deputy-speaker/
• Sri Lanka’s SJB welcomes SLPP dissidents, heaps praise on G L Peiris
– https://economynext.com/sri-lankas-sjb-welcomes-slpp-dissidents-heaps-praise-on-g-l-peiris-157753/
• “Samagi Jana Sandanaya”
– https://island.lk/section-of-njs-forms-alliance-with-sjb/
• Political Coalitions purely to pursue power aggravate political immorality & unethical behavior
• At least 11 Sri Lanka MPs elected in 2020 not any more in Parliament
– https://economynext.com/at-least-11-sri-lanka-mps-elected-in-2020-not-any-more-in-parliament-157609/
• Why did the English retain Dutch officials after taking over Ceylon?
• Electoral bonds, and India’s tumbledown democracy
• Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland Diagnosed with Progressive HPD – Incurable unless she Takes the Prime Ministry from Justin Trudeau
• Against Bourgeois-Liberal Distortions of Leninism on the Negro Question in the US – Haywood, 1930
– https://redsails.org/haywood-national-question/
• The Black Vote and Swing State Michigan in 2024
– https://blackagendareport.com/black-vote-and-swing-state-michigan-2024
• Leftists Waste No Time in Attacking Legacy of Francis Scott Key after Bridge Collapse
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D11. 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.
• SSP: CID receives over 1,500 complaints of cyber crimes in first quarter of 2024
– https://island.lk/ssp-cid-receives-over-1500-complaints-of-cyber-crimes-in-first-quarter-of-2024/
• 80% complaints SLCERT receives are related to social media
– https://island.lk/80-complaints-slcert-receives-are-related-to-social-media/
• Technical overview on Online Safety Act of Sri Lanka – R Paliyaguru
‘The extent to which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Internet Intermediaries will accept orders of the commission directly depends on the bargaining power we have as a country.’
– https://www.ft.lk/columns/Technical-overview-on-Online-Safety-Act-of-Sri-Lanka/4-760226
• Colombo Chief Magistrate issues conditional order in first application under Online Safety Act
• Chief Incumbent of Mihintale threatens to go to people to fund national Poson festival
• UNESCO to commemorate International Day of Vesak in line with UN resolution
• “Most eligible recipient’’: Sri Lankan monk on presenting sacred Buddha relics to Dalai Lama
• Why this Buddhist is Fasting This Ramadan
– indi.ca
• Ramadan 2024: Where do your dates come from?
– https://island.lk/ramadan-2024-where-do-your-dates-come-from/
• India’s Nrityagram and Chitrasena Dance Company present Ahuthi
‘the Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust and the Foundation partner the John Keells Foundation.’
• The creations of Mary Shelley and that of Lord Balfour – are there lessons to be learnt?
• German Tunes of freedom for a better and freer world; Friedrich Naumann Foundation
– https://www.ft.lk/ft-lite/Tunes-of-freedom-for-a-better-and-freer-world/6-759828
• Meetings About Massacres
– indi.ca
• Israeli government says it will block Al Jazeera from broadcasting
– https://island.lk/israeli-government-says-it-will-block-al-jazeera-from-broadcasting/
• Falling Into the pro-Israel Trap: Canada’s La Presse Cartoon Scandal
– https://socialistproject.ca/2024/04/falling-into-pro-israel-trap-cartoon-scandal/
• Another Sports Team Fleeces the People (in Washington, DC)
– https://blackagendareport.com/another-sports-team-fleeces-people
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email: econenews@gmail.com
blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com
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