e-Con e-News

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’

e-Con e-News 25-31 January 2026

*

‘The visitor to Devundara (Dondra) inevitably visits

 the Vishnu Devale, the Buddhist vihara built

by Parakramabahu VI… Much less known is

 the granite structure called Gal-ge or Galgane… 

First discovered in 1914 by ER Ayrton, the

building was declared an archaeological reserve

in 1927… In Feb of 1587, the Portuguese

destroyed this grand shrine completely,

plundering the jewels & the valuables,

building a church where the shrine was.’

– ee Sovereignty, Gal-ge:

Forgotten shrine to Lanka’s guardian god

*

The shrine (to honor the Sinhala guardian deity Upulvan – not Vishnu, by the way) was destroyed in 1587 and a church built upon it. How then was it ’discovered’ by a roving Englishman in 1914 (when he was in the midst of fighting another of their wars on the world)? Uncovered, may be? This verbiage of ‘discovery’, trite as it may seem to be blatantly reiterated in 2026, is flashed before our eyes by this week’s Sunday Times (see ee Sovereignty, Gal-ge: Forgotten Shrine). The Times has not just cold blood but hot ink in their varicosed veins, and not only English whitewash. So how or why are they making such an egregious mistake about our own history in this moment of much babble about ‘Education Reform’. Or is it a mistake? Access to ink does not ensure an open sluice to common sense.

*

The merchant media in Sri Lanka absolutely love a good diversion, and the inclusion of a US homo mating site in a proposed education curriculum has given them enough powder to use up all the ink, electronic & chemical, to blanket paper & screen. Lost in the controversy is need for a modern industrial curriculum, which alone can prepare us to face the rest of the 21^st century. Lost also is identification of the main obstacles to realizing that goal. Lost then is the kidnapping of the education system by the USA’s World Bank & the ADB (see ee Random Notes), aided by their bribing of Education Ministry officials & employees via junkets & jaunts to England, the USA & Japan, etc. Lost as well is the failure to understand the role education, and the prevention of it, plays in reproducing an unequal class system.

*

 Here is another enlightening scoop from the same Times this week:

‘For many in the international community, it was a moment

of profound surprise – a realization that the US electorate

was willing to break entirely from established political norms.

However, when the US voter returned [US President Trump] to power

for a 2^nd term in 2024, that surprise transformed into a deeper,

more resonant disbelief.’ – Javid Yusuf (ee Politics, Trump phenomenon,

the Sri Lankan parallel & the responsibility of the American people)

Why ‘disbelief’? Liberals, like this disbelieving columnist (from a so-called ‘minority’ community) usually love to blubber about the USA & Europe being models of freedom to quickly emulate. Yet for those with eyes to see, and ears to hear, and a brain to smell a dead rat, it has always been very easy for the USA & Europe to ‘break entirely from established political norms?’ If and when they need to.

     The USA’s bottom-line ‘norms’ derive from their unapologetic genocide of the original owners of that so-called New World. It then profited intensely from the enslaved chattel slavery for their plantations (from whence its ‘human resources’ policies were imposed on us!). They did not share with us the intricate mechanisms of modern machine-making industry & capitalist wage slavery. But their more ‘established’ norms have always included the ‘divine right’ of these colonial settlers (regardless of their rulers being of Republican or Democratic Party vintage) to invade our & other countries at will.

     The clamour for so-called ‘minority’ rights, actually originates in the demand by the ‘minority’ English invading Sri Lanka & India: to have ‘equal’ rights over the majority they chose to oppress & exploit. (Once they wipe out the original majority peoples, of course, there is little dribble about minority rights). In the US, the constitutional 14^th amendment that reluctantly declared ‘negroes’ as ‘humans’ – actually as ‘persons’ – was passed only to also declare corporations as ‘legal persons’ too.

     In Sri Lanka, the rights of ‘minorities’ were provided to enable the continuation post-1948 of colonial rule by merchants, ‘to represent important interests which were not represented or inadequately represented in the House’ especially over the economy.

     As for that disbelieving columnist Yusuf, this disbeliever as usual only uses his ‘disbelief’ to divert to his (& other liberals’) favorite theme of abolishing the executive presidency in Sri Lanka (though they never call for abolishing corporate Chief Executive Officers ­– CEOs):

‘Perhaps the most alarming aspect of these developments

is the apparent inability of the US governance system to

restrain the executive. The US Constitution was designed

with a system of ‘checks & balances,’ yet the 2^nd Trump

term has demonstrated that these checks are only

as strong as the individuals who uphold them.’

Phew! It is not about ‘individuals’ but the collective forces, the classes, behind political actors. This dear liberal should really check his history books at the door. The US Constitution, from its very beginnings, was primarily concerned with preserving chattel slavery! Instead, mythologies are freely disseminated by our so-called ‘minority’ liberals. These are also promoted by other petty merchants, including lawyers. Look at these claims, again in the Sunday Times, about ‘English justice’ & ‘free speech’, especially in their colonies, where justice is still politically & economically prioritized for white settlers:

‘In South Africa, prosecutorial decisions are regularly reviewed

for their rationality & legality… I say this as a liberal proponent

of contempt of court laws & abiding fully by the standard set in

modern jurisdictions that, as well put by courts in England, there

must not be ‘gagging of bona fide public discussion of controversial

matters of general public interest’.’ – see ee Security, An Office

of a Director of Public Prosecutions independent of AG…

These columnists appear to be clearly ignorant of recent legal rulings in England, Europe & the USA (which are ‘legally’ suppressing speech & repressing demonstrations against the slaughter in Palestine, or the kidnapping of migrants). Their jurisprudence is always contingent on the political & economic priorities of their rulers.

*

‘US President Trump – despite deep differences with

most western allies – framed western power & prosperity as

the product of a shared & ‘very special’ culture, which he

argued must be defended & strengthened. The emphasis on

cultural inheritance, rather than shared rules or institutions,

underscored how far the language of the old order has shifted.’

M Moragoda (see ee Sovereignty,

India, middle powers & the emerging global order)

Moragoda Mahattaya, founder of the Pathfinder Foundation, a recipient of the beneficence of the Rockefeller dynasty’s oil-sucking Exxon Corp, cannot bring himself to address what this ‘very special’ ‘culture’ the US President is dog-whistling or helpfully trying to pry open our eyes to: white supremacism. Moragoda calls it a ‘shift’. As for the so-called ‘deep differences’ that Moragoda divines, he may be in for another surprise aka discovery. Now, what does this tell us about our so-called ‘thought leaders’? They are yet to ‘discover’ ourselves or our enemies:  

*

‘If you know the enemy & know yourself,

you need not fear the result of 100 battles.

If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every

victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you

know neither the enemy nor yourself,

you will succumb in every battle.’

– Sun Tzu, The Art of War

*

Just as the US amasses another ‘big, beautiful’ armada to attack Iran, again using stolen Diego Garcia as an attack base, the US Embassy in Sri Lanka last week claims it ‘welcomed’ once again the Montana National Guard to assess damage following Cyclone Ditwah. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in November 2025 with Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence formalized ‘cooperation under the US Department of War’s State Partnership Program’. We are thus moved to examine the extents of this enemy we are confronted with today in Sri Lanka and the seas we claim to own around us:

‘The Trump Administration & its NATO allies are clear:

They will escalate their war against Russia at sea, deploying

their navies to enforce trade blockades, ship sabotage &

seizures, & the closure of sea lanes, & to launch

‘pre-emptive’ attacks before their targets can defend

themselves. This is sea war to achieve regime change on

land. Trump’s current targets are Iran, Venezuela, Cuba,

Russia, North Korea, China, & India. Secretary of State

Marco Rubio told a Senate Committee hearing on Wednesday

that if these targets attempt to deter the US escalation by

raising their guard, the US Navy will shoot first.’

– John Helmer (ee Sovereignty, Trump’s Global Sea War

is the New Strategy for Regime Change)

*

This of course is not new. The US President’s blabber last week about England being ‘stupid’ for handing back nominal ownership of the Chagos Atoll (Diego Garcia), made sure that the media made no reference to England ‘leasing’ the base to the USA for the next 00 years. When England and their effusive choirs & tenured professors claimed ‘post-coloniality’ they forgot to note: 

*

‘British Overseas Territories (BOTs) are 14 territories

that maintain a constitutional or historically recognized

[imperialist– ee] link to England & constitute part of its

sovereign territory, yet lie outside the English Islands –

these include Anguilla, Bermuda, The British Antarctic

Territory, The British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin

Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat,

The Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie & Oeno Islands, Saint Helena,

Ascension & Tristan Da Cunha, South Georgia & the South

Sandwich Islands, Cyprus (Akrotiri & Dhekelia) & the Turks

& Caicos Islands. These territories are remnants of the former

English Empire, which remain under English sovereignty.’

– see ee Sovereignty, British Overseas Territories

Indeed, the English, even while their choirs & professors sang loudly about ‘free trade’, have continued to bawl out:

*

When Britain first at Heav’n’s command

Arose, arose from out the azure main

This was the charter, the charter of the land

& guardian angels sang this strain

Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves

Britons never, never, never will be slaves

– Rule Britannia! 1740

This bellicose anthem, played & sung by colonial forces (including the US) when Japan surrendered in Singapore in 1945, is struck aloud, annually at least, by the BBC. Note: ee does not use the words ‘Britain’, great or not, nor ‘United Kingdom’ – we always use ‘England’, and ‘English’, for that is the source & language of their power – not Celtic or Gaelic or Welsh which their immediate fiefs claim to also pronounce. Their principal institutions refer to a Bank of England, & Church of England. And then there is the USA’s Marines’ Hymn. ee always refers to this settler colony as the ‘USA’, not ‘America’ or even the ‘US’ as a noun (not us). In their hymn, Montezuma, the name of the Aztec leader killed by the Spanish, refers to the US War that stole parts of Mexico in 1847. And ‘Tripoli’ refers to the US wars on North Africa (1801-15) to avoid paying tariffs on the US opium trade from Turkey to China, an opium which created the USA’s first ‘millionaires’:

*

‘From the Halls of Montezuma

to the shores of Tripoli;

We fight our country’s battles

in the air, on land, and sea;

First to fight for right & freedom

& to keep our honor clean;

We are proud to claim the title

of United States Marine.’

– The Marines’ Hymn, 1867

‘To fight for right & freedom’ to enslave others & sell opium? Which brings us to the USA’s National Defense Strategy 2026 unveiled last week:

‘Among these expansions will be for the US to ‘erect’

new military installations in close proximity to China.

Per the jargon of NatSec Speak, this means establishing

‘strong denial defense’ in the ‘1^st Island Chain’ –

which may sound like a modestly-sized region to the

unschooled reader, but actually encompasses Japan,

the Philippines, Taiwan, & perhaps a smattering of

other places like Vietnam & Malaysia, depending on

what the cockamamie Grand Strategists decide to theorize

& war-game next… On top of ‘deepening’ US military

involvement in West Asia, so as to ‘enable integration

between Israel & our Arabian Gulf partners’.’

– Michael Tracey(ee Sovereignty, A note on the

ridiculous 2026 ‘National Defense Strategy’)

Well, the English are now the slaves of the USA! And the USA seeks to rule the waves along with them! And their guardian angels – the polluted MSM (mainstream media), & flunkies – strain to sing along:

‘Canada 2022 Indo-Pacific Policy (IPP) belligerently allocated

$500mn in military spending in the region. The number of

Canadian frigates assigned to the waters off the Chinese coast

will increase from 2 to 3. China considers sailings through the

Taiwan Strait to be provocations & in violation of its territorial

sovereignty but Canada routinely sails there alongside US warships.

Canadian foreign policy is in lockstep with the US in its hegemonic

design to threaten & contain China.’ – William Dere & Wawa Li,

– ee Sovereignty, Chinese Canadians Organize for Democratic Rights

& Against Modern Exclusion

*

Perhaps the Canadians & their de jure English overlords have changed their minds? Like a World Wrestling Federation tag team, taking over from their thumper Don Trump, the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney & the English PM Keir Starmer have both coming knocking on China’s door. The media has also been lighting fireworks about Carney’s supposedly ‘historic’ thunderbolt at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Charith Gunawardena & Kanishka Goonewardena (G&G) however urge Sri Lankans to be cautious (strategic & tactical) about decoding any ‘roadmap for reform’ in Carney’s words. G&G see an urgent need to ‘manage the destructive consequences of policies dictated by our creditors’ (which includes Canada), asserting ‘it would be naïve to trust global political-economic business as usual’ (see ee Focus).

     The speech by Carney (Canada’s ‘Governor’ as the US President refers to him) ignores the structural injustices of the imperialist system. G&G notes his speech is directed at the supposed ‘middle powers’: Europe, etc. These ‘powers’ have certainly not been in the ‘middle’ when it comes to us; they remain (pick one: ‘flunky’, ‘running dog’, ‘lackey’, ‘poodle’) accessories to major international crimes. This includes the stealing of Venezuela’s gold reserves – when Carney was Bank of England governor – and Canada’s role in the kidnapping of both Venezuelan President Maduro, as well as Haiti’s President Bernard Aristide in 2004.

     Europe (to be precise, Germany, England & France) have actively pushed the IMF programs that ‘limit policy autonomy in our economies while preserving advantages for multinational corporations (MNCs) & advanced industrial states’. G&G instead highlight the need for policies that would ‘prioritise value addition, food & energy security, import substitution &, above all… industrial development’ (see ee Focus).

*

• Our media remain insistently blind to how the white settler states (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) have become leading political economies in the world. Unravelling the roots of underdevelopment, SBD de Silva in 1982 classified the world into 3 parts: the states of new settlement (the genocidaire states led by the US, etc), settler-colonial states (largely led by the old European thugs) & non-settler colonial states (like ours), come into sharper focus with each passing day. Of course there are powerful exceptions to this division of the world, but much of the world is still colonized, and the USA’s & Europe’s tactics to besiege those who refuse to submit to their dictat, grow deadlier…

     This ee Focus concludes Chapter 6 of our reproduction of SBD de Silva’s classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. Here de Silva examines the differences (USA, Canada etc vs Sri Lanka, India) in the treatment of workers. In the non-settler colonies like Sri Lanka, unable to decimate the local population, colonial government officials had to project a semblance of justice.

     In settler states, however, government officials openly colluded with local investors against the indigenous people. Officials acquired property and political interests and even opposed the metropolitan government. White officials even insisted they be treated as indigenous, opposing attempts to regulate the conditions of labor, and attempts to improve African farming.

     De Silva also detailed how ‘the problem of a labour supply in different socio-historical situations’ was  ‘solved in different ways’. In the settler colonies, the settlers’ need for labor was linked to the officials’ needs for revenues; labour had to be ‘extracted by dismantling traditional economic structures – through taxation, land expropriation and by outright coercion’. In French West Africa, people were forced to ‘grow cotton (for export to France) under the threat of imprisonment if the quality was indifferent or the quantity insufficient’.

     De Silva also pointed to the different roles the export sector was made to play. In Sri Lanka, Malaysia & India, the export sector was based on plantations. In Sri Lanka & Malaysia, they chose to import Indian & Chinese workers. In Myanmar (Burma), Thailand & West Africa, the export sector was peasant-based and expanded beyond the home market. In Sri Lanka, the English impoverished the peasant economy, & prevented rural industrialization:

‘Unable to effectively utilize the available number of labourers

nor could it in the absence of organizational or technological

changes release labour to other sectors of production (This

‘irrationality’ was largely due to the nature of labour demand

& supply. The timing of labour requirements in grain

cultivation based on monsoonal rains was both uneven &

erratic, & the resulting variations in the demand for labour

were aggravated by a maldistribution in the supply,

intra-seasonally, inter-regionally, & even between

holdings in the same district).

De Silva added: ‘Settler agriculture was less labour intensive than either plantations or peasant-based cereal crops.’ Foreign absentee investors in non-settler states focused on the plantations, and the colonials formed an enclave. He also recorded the destruction of the ancient village administration (the self-governing gamsabhava), as well as the environment:

‘In Sri Lanka, there was a loss of village pasture land,

& a denudation of forests which caused soil erosion

& the silting up of water courses & paddy fields.’

*

• The media & plantation mafia have been working overtime to hide the culpability of the plantation system in the recent disaster. We cannot expect them to admit to the role that the plantations & the import-export fraud have played in the overall underdevelopment of the economy,as SBD de Silva has analyzed. The tea plantation mafia own the media. Instead, this mafia have poured out good unreported rupees to publish fine & glossy ‘coffee-table’ volumes on the wonders that the over-150 years of plantations have bestowed upon us! As for the recent flooding, at first the plantation owners denied they had been affected at all (see ee 26 Dec 2025). Then news ‘leaked’ out that workers had been very much affected, particularly due to the peculiar architecture of estates that values capital equipment over labor ‘resources’.

     Our attention was recently drawn (by Former Secretary to PM Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sudath Gunasekara, see ee 24 Jan 2026) to how, midst the general lament about ‘Malaiyaha’ Tamil workers, the landlessness & reduction to beggary of the evicted Kandyans has been studiously ignored, since 1948. Gunasekara referred to an 1894 Kelani Valley Railway Commission Report by the English, to estimate the cost of a railway and the profits that could be obtained, which had then noted the ‘recurrence of high floods’ & ‘allegations’:

‘Navigation of this river is yearly becoming more difficult

1) on account of the floods being more sudden & of higher

volume, owing to the denudation of the slopes of its upper reaches

through the opening of new tea estates; 2) on account of the detritus

swept down from these newly-opened lands, which has filled up

many of the deep reaches, & has formed sandbanks in the

navigable channels; & 3) on account of the rapid drainage into

the basin of the Kelani, which, while causing high floods during

the heavy rains, has reduced the ordinary low water level.’

– see ee Random Notes

Of course, these allegations were partially refuted by an English tea planter (of that infamous colonial Byrde family) who ‘owned’ 800 acres, even as he did not discount the possibility that it would get worse…

     This week, 131 years later, saw the government call to ‘vacate housing above 5,000 feet’. Rather than recall our own history, written in blood & tears, the President, rather ironically had to refer to a recent survey report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which he said, provided ‘a stark picture of the past, present & future of the Central Highlands: erosion is so severe that only exposed rock remains. Many reservoirs in the hill country risk being filled with silt & mud. The soil layers have become extremely thin.’ Soil is the most effective natural medium for storing water. ‘Healthy land absorbs rainfall, retains it, & then releases it gradually, forming streams, springs, waterfalls, and eventually rivers that sustain both people & agriculture across the island. This natural process is now under threat. All 103 major rivers & tributaries in Sri Lanka originate from the highlands. From the hilltops, water flows outward, supporting life in distant regions far removed from the mountains themselves. For this reason, protecting the Central Highlands is absolutely critical.’ Well, let’s see what England’s Unilever Corporation – direct descendant of Lever Brothers & Lipton’s, etc – its innumerable MSME fronts, and the rest of the plantation mafia, have to say about all this… Unilever will of course claim it has spun off its plantations – but they still control them remotely though other means. Will they pay reparations? Will the ADB cover it all up? (see ee Random Notes)

*

_________

Contents:

Unilever’s Plantations Should Pay Reparations for Ditwah’s Destruction of the Highlands