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e-Con e-News 12-18 October 2025

The English left time bombs in South Asia…– Zhou Enlai, Premier of China, 1949-76

‘In Muhamalai, once one of the world’s densest minefields,decades of clearance are allowing people, once displaced by the war, to finally come back home.’ – 22 June 2025, Sunday Times, ‘Recovering a Mined Patch of Land to breathe free once more’

The USA is not only constructing miracles in Argentina, but in Sri Lanka too. Constructing the Miracle is the title of Argentine leader Javier Milei’s new book. Unfortunately, that ‘anarcho-capitalist’ miracle maker, usually waving his signature chainsaw (with which he promised to symbolically sever state interference in private capital), needed an emergency bailout from that state called the United States of America (see ee Who’s Who, US Vulture Funds over Argentina). US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is said to be bailing out Argentina in order to save his hedgefund friends. And Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF (which constantly demands that our Central Bank remain ‘independent’ of the people’s legislature) was also reported as stating an IMF bailout was needed to ensure Milei won this month’s election! Policy independence? Miracles indeed! (see ee Quotes)  

     Yet a most amazing miracle in Sri Lanka was performed this week, as the US issued another ‘Travel Advisory’ warning about landmines. It’s an old story, says the always-leaving but never-exiting US Envoy Julie Chung, who just returned from Washington after giving them lessons on Marxism-Leninism in Thambuttegama. But lo & behold, landmines, supposedly fully cleared in 2017, were soon uncovered by a farmer in Muhamalai, Kilinochchi, just days after the advisory! (see ee Quotes) Is it miraculous serendipity, or big, beautiful coordination?

     It was only in June 2025, just a few moons ago, that once-Tiger-infested Muhamalai in Jaffna was officially again declared mine-free! The mine-free declaration was made at another ‘beautiful’ ceremony attended by US State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs Office of Weapons Removal & Abatement Program Officer David Macdonald; Hazardous Area Life-support Organization (HALO) Program Manager Peter Hugh Scott Baker, & Canadian High Commission’s Director of Cooperation Lynda Dearing, leading a host of other resident, hosanna-singing US ‘state-department coolies’, such as Strengthening Human Rights & Peace Education (SHAPE) Secretariat’s Marisa de Silva, et al (see ee 21 June 2025).

     The US issues travel advisories against Sri Lanka, whenever their attempts to fully control the country go awry. Last time was in October 2024, after Sri Lanka made some mild criticisms of Israel, and then the Israeli embassy issued a travel advisory, followed by USA also claiming that US (sorry, Israeli) tourists were supposedly under threat in surf-ridden Arugam Bay – all aimed at hitting the persnickety tourist business.

     The latest travel advisory lands like a bunker-buster just as a 23-member (some media reported 17 members!) US delegation of ‘investors’ arrive. Surely, they must have felt very safe to come a-calling. Did they aerially survey all the chaos they have created from Africa (Congo, Sudan) to West Asia (Iran, Palestine, Yemen), or did they fly ‘Indo-Pacific’ over US-occupied East Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan)? The delegation included such luminaries of hyper capitalism as the Crow family (the largest real estate operators in the US), the Hudson Institute, American Enterprise Institute, and ‘executives representing technology & human capital development sectors’. Such institutes’ gospels are intimately mimicked by such thinktanks as Advocata & Verite, and such online rags as EconomyNext (which tags the country’s name Sri Lanka to every headline to keep reminding themselves that their universal libertarian ‘free trade’ dogma needs local anchoring).

     The delegates arrived just 2 weeks after another US government ‘advisory’ to investors about Reds hiding under the ruling NPP bedpans. The latest ‘travel advisory’ swoops down midst another attempt by the US to stall any industrialization in Hambantota, via China’s Sinopec refinery (see ee Focus, US Envoy’s Anti-Sinopec Move Collapses). The immaculate coordination between the US Embassy & their Jaffna stipendiaries unearthing incendiaries, indicates that their efforts at conserving all species of wildlife can pay dollared dividends when called upon… Indeed, it is a not-so-sudsy soap opera, a clumsy choreography involving the labelling of countries as terrorist, communist, staging expensive UN charades, striped quadrupeds and sundry explosions, etc. A carnival, nay, a concert of whiteness.

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‘The white man made us many promises, more than I

can remember, but they never kept but one;

they promised to take our land, & they took it.’

– Makhpiya-luta (aka Red Cloud), 29 December 1890

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‘At the turn of the century a newspaper as ‘respectable’ as the

New York Times (18 May 1899) could editorially threaten that

those peoples who opposed the new world capitalist order

would ‘be extinguished like the North American Indian’.’

– J Sakai, White Settlers

12 October 2025 was the 533^rd anniversary of the invasion of the Americas, with Cristoforo Colombo (aka Columbus) landing on the land they called Hispaniola, a part of which is now Haiti, in 1492. An Italian (House of Borgia!) Pope then divided the world into two (the first G2 conference!), between Spain & Portugal, sending the Lisboans our way, and inspiring the Protestants (who protested such papal bulls) to follow on their booted heels.

     533 years may be a long time to take to graduate from the college of historical reality, but apparently, we – and certainly the merchant media that calls themselves ‘free’ – have yet to learn any lessons. The story of the Americas is a tale yet to be heard, let alone listened to and interpreted for local consumption. Then again, we do not know our own history, a history divided into various heavily funded ‘ethnic’ studies, etc. A history, which like all the arts, is magically – alchemically – separated from science, ie, separated from our own interests & desires. A history separated from economics. And how can we know any story, if we do not know the right words, or how to name things are they are, as they are becoming – assigning such words their apropos weightage…

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‘The government must discontinue the practice of allowing the UNHRC

to ram resolutions down its throat. Otherwise, there will be no end

to resolutions the UNHRC moves against Sri Lanka, according to

the whims & fancies of the western powers swayed by influential

lobbying groups sympathetic to the LTTE.’ – Island Editorial

ee Sovereignty, Geneva: Claims & ounterclaims

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• This week, saw diverse media commentators, including those of the ‘Left,’ hailing the US government’s supposed peace deal in the Middle East (what West Asia is still miscalled). Here is what one Sunday Island columnist (supposedly an LSSPer from Jaffna, now resident in Toronto, & a fanboy of ‘deplorable’ Hilary Clinton) said: ‘Netanyahu’s fatal mistake was his failed attempt to kill the Hamas leadership in Doha on 9 September. Trump was furious.’ Really? Trump can fake furious one minute, and funny, the next second, whatever face his donors & handlers demand. Doha in the monarchy of Qatar, sites one the largest US bases in the world, as well as hosting Al Jazeera, which humorously parades as a monarchic expert on democracy. And so, the US, with all its ubiquitous eyeballs, intrusive cutleries and murderous machineries, didn’t know? Really? Aney! Aney! The lack of any knowledge of USA’s ‘white-settler’ history, other than the Hollywood & Disney caricatures, becomes apparent in this latest US imposition of a ‘peace of the graveyard’ in West Asia, with the pitbull&poodle media singing chorus. By pitbulls, we mean English & European vassals, and by poodle we mean the so-called Islamic (minus Iran & Yemen) & Arab states and Japan & occupied-Korea. Apparently, ‘Muslim’ & ‘Arab’ is a ‘unity’ only to be deployed when it suits their purpose, such as against the rule of Sinhala people in this country. Meanwhile, some nationalists think we should ally with the MAGA-tiks in the USA & the neo-fascists in Europe, apparently unaware that there is cross-party consensus in the US and Europe when it comes to imperialist needs (see ee Random Notes, Bhadrakumar). Or, as Malcolm X reminded: ‘When they hear the word ‘nigger’, they – Jew & Gentile, Catholic & Protestant – all run in the same direction.’ Remember, remember, we said it here first: The white man may love Jews & hate Muslims today, and go back to hating Jews & loving Muslims tomorrow. It all depends on what their latest printed holy bible says.

     The merchant media have no need to heed the Oglala Sioux leader Makhpiya-luta’s words about the white man’s promissory notes. First of all, the media are paid to camouflage that the wars in West Asia & Africa & Myanmar & Eastern Europe, are US-led white wars! And as for American (not just the US, Canada too, etc) history, the threat by the USA to deploy nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles in the Ukraine against Russia, reminds us that ‘Tomahawk’ is an Ojibwa Algonquian word from the early 17^th century, when Spain, Portugal, France, England & Holland were warring on the original people, and between themselves, to dominate the Americas. They soon resolved to make peace among themselves to rob the world, in the 19^th century, post-1815, through a ‘Concert of Europe’, led by England. But this concert did not last, with the mass-slaughters of their World Wars 1&2. Now we have a post-1945 ‘Concert of Whiteness’ led & conducted by the USA aka United Settlers of the Amerikas. This concert wishes various diasporas to take the bullet and the blame: Wall Street Jews for Zionist policy in Israel, Miami Cuban mafia for white (in truth: imperialist) policy in Cuba, or East Coast Irish gangsters for US policy in Ireland, or Midwest East European fascists for such policy in Europe, or Khalistani Sikhs for separatist policy in India, or Eelamist Tamils for such fissiparous policies in Sri Lanka. Well, these diasporas may help point the US missiles more accurately, but the codes for fingers to press the buttons are firmly clenched by the ruling capitalists.

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‘Multinational corporations like Coca-Cola & Unilever,

supported by chambers of commerce, are trying to water

down Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) by calling

it consumer responsibility. This is unacceptable… For over

20 years, we’ve been stuck in endless discussions because of

political & corporate resistance.’ – Hemantha Withanage,

– ee Agriculture, Lanka must make plastic polluters pay

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• This week, saw the tea mafia (Planters’ Association, Tea Board, etc) claim that the French were helping protect the ‘Ceylon Tea’ brand worldwide. Yet it is England’s multinational corporation (MNC) Unilever that is threatening to tamper & dilute (aka ‘sophisticate’) Ceylon Tea. Many MNCs are richer than most countries, and their control over the media & politics in a country are heavily camouflaged. ee has recorded how the League of Multinational Corporations (LMNC) in Sri Lanka, including Baur & Co, Ceylon Tobacco Co, HSBC, Indian Oil Co, Mastercard, led by Unilever, cried out in 2019, ‘everything needs to be fixed in the context of international standards, in terms of human rights & labor law too’. They then went quiet, having cued their quisling economists to take up their cry. (see ee Quotes, Rigid Labor Laws)

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‘As in early elections, the communal cry was once again raised

against Keuneman & he had to fight the Tammany Hall tactics

at which Goonesinha was past-master. But with a devoted band

of Party & election workers, Keuneman was able to overcome

this & win a seat, thus creating history by being the first Burgher

ever to be elected to the supreme legislature – & from a constituency

in which Burghers were less than 1% of the registered.’

– Pieter Keuneman: a Profile by Basil Perera

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‘Police & thieves in the street (Oh, yeah)

Fighting the nation with their guns & ammunitions

…All the crimes committed, day by day

No one tries to stop it in any way

All the peace makers turned war officers

Hear what I say, hey, hey, hey, hey-hey…’

– Junior Murvin, ‘Police & Thieves’, 1976

• This week’s media diversion involved a much-headlined ‘breaking news’ altercation between lawyers & police. The merchant media – which along with the US and other imperialist pitbull&poodle embassies have declared themselves whiter-than-white arbiters of ‘transparency’ – have declared the police to be the most corrupt institution in Sri Lanka. They tactically avoid shaming the blackcoats, and conveniently avoid naming themselves or the import-export plantation merchants they have always served so well. SBD de Silva’s classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment has many a reference to the subservient role played by the judiciary in deference to the colonial plantation system, where many English ‘planters’ presided as magistrates and judges, even as they robbed and tortured workers, reinforcing the umbilical link in private property law between merchants & the police. This ee Focus continues Gustavus Myers’ History of Tammany Hall, that New York ‘charity’ that was a front for the political machinations of the US’ foremost metropolis & municipality. Here Myers notes how ‘reform’ administrations would come & go, but shows how they were unable to break the nexus between police & crime. The Tammany machine, with the larger monopoly capitalists hiding behind them, turned ‘corruption’ of smaller actors into a religion.

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‘One of Sri Lanka’s biggest missed opportunities was the failure

to make Trincomalee the ‘oil hub of Asia’ long before Singapore’

• Where are the Engineers?! – The ongoing economic and political debacle in Sri Lanka (which did not begin in 2022 or in 1948) is a ‘heavy indictment on the economists at the Central Bank & officials of the Ministry of Finance’, records Sunil Abhayawardhana. What we need, he insists, are not economists but engineers! These economists (dollared economic hitmen, really!) just keep repeating the old & insane merchant (he calls them ‘neoliberal’) mantras that ‘got us into this quagmire in the first place’. Abhayawardhana claims what we lack, is ‘a proper plan & thought process’. Funds to invest in ‘an integrated steel mill’ and ‘shipbuilding industry’ were available in 1948. He tends to emphasize the ‘export’ business, but at least he refreshingly emphasizes that exports are needed only after an initial phase of import substitution & protection of our home market. He points out that the countries that now advise us against import substitution, themselves only advanced through such policies, directed by the state. The export stage is only needed at the end in order to make us ‘competitive’ (see ee Focus).

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• The first phase in the investment pattern of the settler colonies was ‘inwardly orientated’, wrote SBD de Silva, as ee Focus continues Chapter 2 of his classic, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. Inward refers to protecting and promoting their home market. SBD noted the important role that tariffs & protectionism played in those settler colonies creating completive structures. He shows how ‘farming enterprises had a high degree of self-sufficiency based on a union of agriculture and manufactures’. SBD made a most vital point how these ‘small enterprises’ later became major industries in the towns, developing an industrial bourgeoisie. We often wonder if the EU & USA’s constant stress on SMEs (small & medium enterprises) is not to allow the SMEs to expand, but to keep them at a rudimentary level, of cooking cutlis, handicraft, etc.

     For, secondly, SBD noted, even as the settler economies were also like the non-settler economies at first, dependent on exporting a few ‘staples’, such as cod, lumber, minerals, tobacco, etc, the ‘satellite’ relationship was soon ‘disturbed’, by investment in machinery. SBD de Silva recalled the Canadian historian & economist HA Innes’s famous theory of ‘staple base dynamism’ (which ee notes mimic SBD’s initials!). This dynamism (SBD! SBD!) was related to the permanent domicile of the investors in the settler countries, and their economic autonomy from the imperial centres.

     In fact, competition from London and Paris, etc, only encouraged the faster development of local industries. This staple dynamism turned flour into bread and a variety of foods, as well as alcohol, etc, developing huge mills. More importantly, rural investment in industry developed a huge urban base, due to transportation needs, railways etc, and manufacture soon dominated the investment pattern. The low level of mechanization in non-settler colonies such as Sri Lanka, only encouraged the extractive nature of the economy. In the settler colonies, however, secondary industries arose; ‘butter and cheese canneries, meat-packing and refrigeration plants, flour mills, vineries, and wood-working complexes in the vicinity of the primary resources’. Most importantly, the settlers forced the state to play a central role in developing modern industries. ‘The high level of wages and interest rates and the general level of prices’ then ‘induced technological improvements.’ (see ee Focus)

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• In the Land of Abhayagiri – This week saw the Sri Lankan government note that less than one-third of the students who scramble through the GCE A/Level exams & qualify for university, get to enter a local university. Meanwhile, the Australian government is demanding their universities to reduce their dependence on foreign Chinese students. Foreign students paying exorbitant foreign exchange have been keeping distant universities (& economies!) afloat in white countries. Almost half the university students in Australia are ‘foreign’, and 50% of these students are from China. Of course, many of these students are ‘fake’, in that they end up working at low-paying jobs, which the whites refuse – instead of study. The ‘foreign student’ scam is seen as a ‘backdoor’ immigration policy, even as their media wink and promote anti-migrant (read: anti-Black) propaganda to keep such workers in their place. Very few media in Sri Lanka or elsewhere point out that it is the prevention of modern industrialization that has curtailed the upskilled employment of workers. The US & other white countries tame the demands of their proletarians assembled in large factories & workshops, by resorting to outsourcing (to smaller plants) and offshoring. Such profundity is not for our so-called ‘free’ media, or for our funded scholars. Oh…and Abhayagiri is that famous monastic university of ancient times, still left to marinate in its ruins…

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• ‘The specter of 1988-89 is quietly re-emerging within the political sphere casting a shadow over the current political landscape’, so asserts the novelist Sena Thoradeniya, most ominously. He insists he is deploying Marxist-Leninist tools to analyse political pronouncements (see ee Quotes). Will the political police, largely run by imperialism, once again, manipulate such a scenario, once again, pitting comrade against comrade, brother against brother, sister against sister, socialist against socialist, to inspire mass slaughter, to maintain this import-export plantation fraud? The whites are flagrantly exhibiting such bloodlusting propensities in West Asia, and NorthEast & Central Africa. Thoradeniya points to the alleged pronouncements of a suburban mayor affiliated to the JVP, who reportedly claimed that they are capable of ‘eliminating at least 10 million’ individuals here. In this age of AI fabrications, it is possible to realistically portray anybody saying anything. A largely colonial media plays its part by spreading false binaries and concoctions to confuse and divert. This is their job. A counter-media, that does not depend on the white man’s tools, like so-called social media included, is sorely the need of the hour. Life beyond google & facebook etc? Is there such a thing? Of course, there is! & it is up to builders of the new ‘roads’, to obvert the old colonial ‘trunks’, and construct such real alternatives.

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Contents:

Landmines Miraculously Unearthed in Jaffna After USA Issues Travel Advisory