Watch Out – another American coming!
Posted on August 8th, 2016
Kumara Gopallawa Courtesy The Island
Another top official of the US government is visiting Sri Lanka. News reports that Charles Rivkin is coming to Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan political leaders need to note that he is not a career professional diplomat, but an Obama government appointee like Ms. Biswal, Samantha Power et.al. If there is a change of government, both Power and Biswal will no longer serve an incoming regime. Power, for example, will most likely be removed by a Hillary Clinton administration because Power once called Hillary a “monster”during the 2008 Presidential nomination process. Definitely in a Trump administration, both Biswal and Power will have to look for work outside the State department.
Mr. Rivkin is not a career diplomat, but a trade negotiator. Only started working in the State Department in 2014. So he is another political appointee who served as Ambassador to France under Obama. He is an educated and smart man. He is looking for US investments in Sri Lanka and probably for a market for US goods, tied to Human Rights. He has an MBA from Harvard and a Bachelor in Political science from Yale. He is a good and successful businessman. He is definitely looking to sell and invest.
Charles Rivkin is an American ambassador of a peculiar kind. He is not a career diplomat but a political appointee, with no previous professional experience in international relations.He has received rave reviews for his performance in Paris both in official State Department audits and from his embassy’s employees.
But it wasn’t Rivkin’s diplomatic skills that landed him the coveted political ambassadorship. Rather, it was his skillful fundraising for President Obama during his 2008 election campaign. So, like so many Sri Lankan politically appointed Ambassadors and High Commissioners, he too is a Political appointee. Under Obama the percentage of political appointees has reached a new high, after he broke a promise not to have too many political appointees. Another example of a high profile Political Appointee is Carolyn Kennedy, late JFK’s daughter. But the difference is usually Obama’s political hacks have been highly educated and have credentials, unlike Sri Lanka’s appointees, almost none of who have a tertiary education.
Beware of those who come bearing gifts. US have not hidden its selfish interests in coveting Trincomalee and hoping to partner with Sri Lanka to encircle China, in keeping with their long term strategic goals and interests.
Kumara Gopallawa
August 8th, 2016 at 4:38 pm
The writer has forgotten of the current Indian vermin from the US who first looks after Indian interests and any US interests are secondary.
US is no longer Anglo it is mostly Indian when it comes to its public service all Indian Peons.
August 8th, 2016 at 4:41 pm
Watch out for millions of Indians who will come under ETCA. There are currently half a million tertiary educated Indians applying for about 1500 street sweeper jobs in Bihar.
So education is not a sign of competency like our US ambassador.
August 9th, 2016 at 3:12 am
I would strongly urge those who are interested to read up on 2600 years of Sri Lanka’s history. We were totally located on the maritime silk road. At first it was Mahatitta Harbour (todays Mannar) which was the main port where maritime trade took place. Mahatitta Harbour was Anuradhapura or Rajarata Kingdom’s main harbour, whereas Gokanna (Trincomalee) was one of Kingdom of Ruhuna’s harbours. However, during these 2600 years, Godawaya (today’s Hambantota), Dikwella and Galle were also major harbours on the maritime silk road. All sorts of traders came to these ports to exchange goods, the Chinese, Persians, Indians, Ethiopians, Somalians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Arabs, Malays, Indonesians, Thais, Malays, Burmese, Cambodians and so on. The Sinhala Kings major source of income was charging taxes from these maritime merchants in return for using these harbours. Sri Lanka also traded with the world gemstones, pearls, elephants, timber, spices etc. It is with this major source of income that the Sinhala kings built large stupas, large scale irrigation works etc.
Please read history and archaeology and ancient history articles on ancient maritime harbours of Sri Lanka which are on the LankaLibrary website.
When reading this history, it become extremely obvious how important Colombo and even Hambantota Harbours are and even Triincomalee Harbour is and will be in the future. Same goes for any airports in the vicinity of these harbours.
The treacherous UNP full of idiots who do not know or care about Sri Lankan history and do not understand these things. In fact today, Colombo Harbour is probably our number one or two foreign exchange earner and in time to come Hambantota Harbour and even Trincomalee Harbours will join it. However the treacherous UNP who are subservient and puppets of the US,EU,UK, Canada, Norway, Sweden, India, the TNA and the separatist terrorists may jeopardise these happenings since they are only interested in creating an eelam or a separate state which was never ever in existence when looking at Sri Lanka’s history and is a totally fake creation.