By Garvin Karunarathe Economist Uswatta Aratchi  criticises the role played by the Chinese in his Paper:Capital Cheap in Chong Guo and expensive in Sri Lanka”(The Island 20/2/19) If not for the support Sri Lanka received from China with the provision of weapons, all on loans, we could never have defeated the LTTE. It is true […]

by Garvin Karunaratne,  Right or wrong, our President Sirisena has taken a step, as described by me earlier, “If a Prime Minister appointed by the President, is not acting in the interests of the country and its people by opening up the country for foreigners and foreign countries to rule, selling family silver, neglecting the […]

By Garvin Karunaratne  former G.A. Matara Instead of reflecting back on their ignominious past, the Ambassadors of the UK, the USA among others have thought it fit to at first declare that the decision of the President of Sri lanka to remove the Prime Minister and replace him with another as unconstitutional. Later once our […]

By Garvin Karunaratne The Chinese Company- the China Merchants Port Holdings to whom the Hambantota Port and its 1235 acres of land was leased, insisting on as much as Rupees 23 million as Ground Rent for the miniscule bit of land where the five Wind Turbines are sited is a fore runner of what is […]

Garvin Karunaratne On 23 rd August 2018,  a relation of mine who was unconscious was discharged from a leading Private Hospital in Colombo., because the son and daughter  could no more pay hospital bills They had paid three million rupees to the Hospital  for 17 days stay and had no more funds. Until then they […]

By Garvin Karunaratne Scotland Yard is no more what it was a few decades ago, when there was hardly any criminal activity in Britain. The situation is getting worse by the day. Last week a criminal gang closed down a major road in Wimbledon Village, the home of millionaires, chased away everyone in sight at […]

Garvin Karunaratne I doubt whether we have learned a lesson from the Meetotamulla Garbage Disdaster where 32  people died. The garbage collection at Muturajawela is yet intact. Recently it is reported that the garbage collected in Blumendhal, Colombo is ablaze. I am aware that action is being taken to dispatch the garbage to Puttlam. But […]

by Garvin Karunaratne The Kotmale Valley was a thriving  area full of production when I worked in Nuwara Eliya in the Sixties. This valley, its luxurious vegetation and  a vibrant community that lived in plenty was sacrificed to get  200 MW of power.    The Kotmale dam does not provide any water for irrigation. Fifty Wind […]

By Garvin Karunaratne These days very often it is in the news that Estate Workers in the Hill Country  are being bestowed with the ownership of land- seven or nine perches  equipped with a house- mostly donated by India.  This happens to be the Estate population that was brought in as indentured labour from South […]

Garvin Karunaratne Ph.D. Michigan State University Is it not sad when we can get Wind Power at five cents we are paying over 25 cents.  On my drive to Scotland this morning,  14 th August 2018, the scene that struck my eyes was how the Scots have harnessed Wind Power to produce Energy. As I […]

By Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University. Professor  Ricardo Hausmann of Harvard, Sri Lanka’s Economic Advisor, has come up with a remedy to boost economic development. Sri Lanka can fast-track growth, diversify exports and create new jobs by reforming immigration laws to permit know-how and skills to enter the country:…To get there, Sri Lanka will […]

by Garvin Karunaratne  I can remember the days when, on all my visits to Polonnaruwa, Hingurakgoda and Valachenai I was trailing behind lorry loads of straw. . Then the roads were narrow and a straw  loaded lorry  with bales jutting out could not be overtaken. That was in the Sixties. I was a frequent visitor […]

By Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. The prime need of the Commonwealth countries, the home to a third of the World’s population, today is economic development in terms of alleviating poverty, creating employment, in short, to bring about development. According to the ILO, almost 43% of the global youth labour force is still either unemployed or working […]

By Garvin Karunaratne I am a product of both Universities- Colombo and Peradeniya, entering Colombo in 1950 and ending at Peradeniya in 1954. In the initial period, called the Golden Age, our University did shine and it held personages like Dr Malalasekera and Dr Ediriweera Sarathchandra, who I think were in a super class, inspiring […]

By Garvin Karunaratne The formation of a National Economic Council(NEC) to attend to national planning, the establishment of the Grama Shakti Programme to combat  poverty alleviation and the rebuilding of Irrigation Tanks on a massive scale, is a development to be heralded. It is essentially a move in the right direction. It was way back, […]

By Garvin Karunaratne I am a product of both Universities- Colombo and Peradeniya, entering Colombo in 1950 and ending at Peradeniya in 1954. It is true that in the initial period, called the Golden Age, Peradeniya did shine and it held personages like Dr Malalasekera and Dr Ediriweera Sarathchandra, who I think were in a […]

By Garvin Karunaratne Our country is at the crossroads, saddled with an international debt that cannot be sustained, corruption going through the roof and the people suffering, unable to make ends meet. The situation is extreme. It is ,my opinion that there is yet a way ahead. Our International Debt. Chandra Maliyadde, a former Permanent […]

Garvin Karunaratne Author of How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(Kindle/Godages) Cyprus, a fertile land As fertile as Califoni Fruit trees fully  laden, all varieties,  all over, But all coastal areas, ALL GONE Parcelled into bits, sold to foreigners, Realtors everywhere Selling-enticing strangers to buy- Do bring in  foreign exchange We make you a citizen Do […]

By Garvin Karunaratne Inflation- Rising Prices is a major concern today. Sri Lanka had built up the infrastructure to control inflation. What we are seeing today-unbridled inflation, has been caused because we  did away with the infrastructure we had. For the marketing of essential commodities, in my own words: The Department for the Development  of […]

Garvin Karunaratne The GramaShakti Programme initiated by President Sirisena is intended to alleviate poverty that has become a severe threat to the country’s economy, especially to the rural economy. It is a flagship development programme in line with the vision of President Sirisena for a sustainable Sri Lanka, with a robust economy, free of all […]

By Garvin Karunaratne I enclose a Paper I wrote way back in 2008 detailing what has happened to Zimbabwe, to illustrate how the Superpowers strangled Mugabe. This provides the background to understand  what is currently happening in Zimbabwe. The conclusion deals with what was happening to the economy of Sri Lanka in 2008. That also […]

by Garvin Karunaratne( Ph.D. Michigan State University) When my first book exposing the sinister actions of the IMF: Micro enterprise Development: A Strategy for Employment Creation and Poverty Alleviation in the Third World: The Way out of the IMF Stranglehold was published in 1997, a full half a decade before the Argentina Crisis of 2002, […]

By Dr Garvin Karunaratne In my paper, ‘Dry Zone Drought and Empty tanks: A Blessing in disguise?’(Lanka Web 28/7/17), I had highlighted the plight of the small tanks in the Dry Zone, the bulwark our ancient forefathers had built up to enable the Dry Zone to become the Granary of the East. It has so […]

By Garvin Karunaratne, former CAS . The decision of the Hon President of Sri Lanka to concentrate on developing the economy of Sri Lanka is very timely and it is hoped that this will usher hope for the very large majority of people who are today eking a hand to mouth existence. Our Hon. President […]

by Garvin Karunaratne Former Government Agent, Matara District July 28, 2017, 9:42 pm The plight of the dry zone farmer and the depleted water in the tanks has come to centre stage again. It is July. The dry zone had little rain in April. July and August are the driest months. Once in a decade […]

By Garvin Karunratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University The Sri Lankan economy is truly in the doldrums. The BBC has recently in a spate of news broadcasts, derogatorily questioned: Is Sri Lanka Up for Sale.”(28/5/2017). This was preceded on 26 th June 2017, by another news item, A Country Trapped in Debt”. Their  Is Sri Lanka […]

Garvin Karunaratne Former Government Agent, Matara It is reported in the past Sunday Times  that we are getting sand from overseas as far as the Philippines and Indonesia.(Sunday Times) I wonder why. We have ample resources of sand. Having worked in over half the Districts in Sri Lanka and having done islandwide circuits over the […]

Garvin Karunaratne HLD Mahindapala  in his Paper, How Many Homelands do the Jaffna Tamils need, quotes Historian Arsaratne who states that there was a Jaffna kingdom in 1325. This is incorrect. The evidence is that when the Portuguese did attack Jaffna the king of Kandy who ruled entire Sri Lanka sent his army headed by Mudliyar Atapattu […]

Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University Former Government Agent, Matara District. 12/5/2017 The Garbage Disaster The garbage pile at Meetotamulla erupted, took the lives of 32 or more and we are in complacency- now, we are talking. There are piles of Garbage at various places and some authorities state that they will not explode.  I […]

By  Garvin Karunaratne Ph.D. Michigan State University Former SLAS, Government Agent, Matara In the Seventies, the IMF took on the new role of prescribing the  path to be taken by the Third World countries to run their economies. This was the Structural Adjustment Program the IMF  foised on  every country that sought financial help. In the […]