Sri Lanka’s central government long term debt, excluding the debt of government entities, amounts to $84 billion as of 2023. About half of it is foreign debt and the other is domestic debt. After months of negotiations, foreign debt holders agreed to debt restructure. However, holders of domestic debt are dragging their feet on restructuring their debt! Worse still, they have turned it in to a political football and hired SJB and JVP politicians to disrupt the process. This is shameful and shows how greedy they are and how unreasonable.
The government simply cannot repay their debt at this stage. A five-year reprieve is needed. The economy has been shrinking for the past 3 years in a row and priority must be given to economic turnaround so that there is some hope of repaying debt and their interest. If this process is disrupted, no debt (other than foreign bilateral debt) can be repaid as there is no money.
There is no connection between a domestic debt restructure and the collapse of the banking sector. In fact, restructuring domestic debt will have a positive impact on banks in the long run as bank returns would be higher than investing in government bonds and bills. However, if depositors are terrorized with concocted horror stories, that can disrupt the banking industry. Holding the banking industry to hostage over domestic debt restructure by greedy local debt holders and their paid political lackeys is shameful especially when the average man on the street has sacrificed so much to turnaround the economy. They deserve no more than a default.
COLOMBO, June 29 — The World Bank approved US$700 million (RM3.27 billion) in budgetary and welfare support for Sri Lanka today, the biggest funding tranche for the crisis-hit island nation since an International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal in March.
About US$500 million of the funds will be allocated for budgetary support while the remaining US$200 million will be for welfare support earmarked for those worst hit by the crisis.
Through a phased approach, the World Bank Group strategy focuses on early economic stabilization, structural reforms, and protection of the poor and vulnerable,” the World Bank’s country director for Sri Lanka, Faris Hadad-Zervos, said in a statement.
If sustained, these reforms can put the country back on the path towards a green, resilient and inclusive development,” Zervos said.
Sri Lanka is struggling with the worst financial crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948 after the country’s foreign exchange hit record lows and triggered its first foreign debt default last year.
The IMF approved a bailout of nearly US$3 billion in March, which Sri Lanka expects will bring additional funding of up to US$4 billion from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other multilateral agencies.
The island nation will release a domestic debt restructuring program this week to push forward reworking its debt with bondholders and bilateral creditors including China, Japan and India. — Reuters
Sri Lanka’s crippling debt crisis and the long wait it had to endure until receiving a bailout from international creditors forced emerging markets to re-evaluate the existing global financial structure, according to economists and diplomats at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday.
They also noted that the world needs a more efficient financial architecture, where China can play a more prominent role in terms of solving emergencies and amplifying the voices of developing countries.
Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry said that since negotiations started in September 2021, it took almost eight months to receive assurances from creditors before the South Asian nation eventually received the first payment as part of the US$3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April.
By that time, countries are under real stress, and countries could fall apart. So it’s important that something ready-made has to be there,” Sabry told a panel on the second day of the World Economic Forum’s 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.
Despite a US$600 million loan from the World Bank in April last year, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt for the first time in its history in May 2022, eventually becoming the first country in the post-coronavirus era to declare bankruptcy in July.
The coronavirus pandemic pushed world debt to over an unprecedented level of US$300 trillion in 2022, according to the Institute of International Finance, with developing countries particularly vulnerable due to the large amounts accumulated, as well as depreciating currencies and interest rate increases.
However, the fundamental problems in the IMF and other international financial institutions remain, according to Jin Keyu, a professor of economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The issues include a mismatch of credit cycles, as well as the insufficient global emergency liquidity for developing countries, which has left a gaping hole to be filled, Jin told Wednesday’s panel.
The international global credit cycle is pretty much based on US monetary policy. But US monetary policy is designed to serve US domestic conditions, not the international arena,” she said.
So I think this is a place where China can play a role … [with] China being the second largest economy and not synchronised credit cycles with the US and often a big provider to emerging market liquidity.”
As the developing world’s single largest creditor after the World Bank, China has lent huge amounts of capital to fund projects via its Belt and Road Initiative – Beijing’s strategy to link more than 60 countries into a China-centred trade network, largely through investments and infrastructure projects.
In August, China announced plans to cancel a series of interest-free loans to 17 African countries amid a growing rivalry with the West and accusations that it is creating debt traps” on the continent.
China also said it would also rechannel US$10 billion of its IMF special drawing rights – an international reserve asset managed by the international financial institution – to African countries to help with the recovery from Covid-19 pandemic and the debt crisis.
It is time that [different types of creditors and economies] pull their resources together and come out with some sort of an architecture, which immediately addresses this kind of an emergency to prevent a cascading effect on many of the economies and ultimately leading into a global slowdown,” Sri Lanka’s Sabry added.
China and the United States also have to coordinate better among their central banks and be real global financial anchors, Jin added.
But the current problem is that the domestic challenges in China are also great, it would like to do more international lending, but it has to be substantially cut back because of the domestic debt issues and because the economy, pretty much everywhere around the world, is doing very poorly,” she said.
But Jin stressed that despite China’s role as a substantial creditor to lower income countries, around 60 per cent of the debt flows are from the private sector, while a significant portion originates from financial institutions.
The current issue is really a global shock and global structural problems like demographics that are pressing down on these issues. And it’s not up to China alone to resolve it,” she added.
Jin also pointed to a better design of international financial architecture, a greater representation of emerging markets voices in the coordinating process, and a greater role for China’s central bank and yuan denominated lending as crucial elements.
Global economic growth is universally slowing down, which will affect the repayment ability of relevant countries and China’s lending ability,” said Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform, a think tank connected to the provincial government.
Large-scale projects may be put on hold. In particular, the geopolitical environment is uncertain, and domestic recovery is weak. It is wise to slow down the pace of development.”
Education Minister Susil Premajayantha held a discussion with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Deputy Assistant Administrator Ms. Anjalie Kaur and its executive officials in Washington DC, on the development and collaboration requirements of Sri Lanka’s education sector.
The Minister pointed out that plans are being made to expand the teaching of educational technology, science and technology and English language, in order to carry out a structural and qualitative transformation of education.
Furthermore, during the discussion, the progress of USAID assistance to Sri Lanka was reviewed and new approaches were explored to enhance the existing mutual cooperation.
Moreover, since USAID, a long-term development partner of Sri Lanka, provides support for sustainable development activities in Sri Lanka, this discussion has effectively contributed to the education sector in Sri Lanka, especially for the continuation of the school mid-day meal programme.
Minister Premajayantha participated in this discussion while on his way to participate in the 40th meeting of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth of Learning.
Minister Premajayantha was selected to represent the Asian region on the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth of Learning in April this year. During the meeting, he expects to gain support for many reforms in the education sector in Sri Lanka, including distance education, IT subject and curriculum development. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)
The Central Bank on Wednesday presented possible domestic debt restructuring scenarios to the Cabinet of Ministers, which indicated that restructuring/optimization will apply only to Treasury bills held by the Central Bank and the bonds held by superannuation funds.
Interestingly, it appears that banks have been excluded in the process.
However, the details of the DDR/DDO plan approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on Wednesday are yet to be disclosed.
Under indicative terms of DDO, the Central Bank proposed to convert T-bills held by the Central Bank to T-bonds with no haircut but with a step-down coupon profile from 12.4 percent to 5 percent.
On the T-bonds held by superannuation funds, exchange against longer term maturity T-bonds is proposed, again with no haircut but with a step-down coupon profile from 12 to 9 percent.
After the special cabinet meeting held on Wednesday afternoon, MP Gamini Lokuge told reporters that despite DDR, returns paid to Employees’ Provident Fund members will not fall below 9 percent.
It has also been proposed to increase income tax to 30 percent from the current special treatment at 14 percent for superannuation funds that do not meet the minimum DDR participation requirement.
The Cabinet of Ministers have approved the domestic debt restructuring programme.
Accordingly, the proposed restructuring of the country’s local debts was approved at the special Cabinet meeting which concluded a short while ago.
All Government MPs were notified a short while ago at the Presidential Secretariat, the Presidnet’s Media Division (PMD) reported, adding that the proposal will now be submitted at the next Parliament session for discussion.
Meanwhile, Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena issued a Gazette Extraordinary on Tuesday (27 June), convening the parliament on Saturday (01 July).
During this special parliamentary session, which will commence at 9.30 a.m. on Saturday, at the request of Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, the proposal for domestic debt restructuring will be presented for adoption.
Meanwhile, the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) in Parliament today summoned officials of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), the Ministry of Finance and the Auditor General for the first session of discussions on proposed domestic debt restructuring process.
In a tweet, COPF chairman Dr. Harsha de Silva said that the commercial banks, the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and other relevant institutions have been summoned for the second session tomorrow (29 June).
He added that they will meet on Friday (30 June) once again to resolve outstanding issues. The COPF chairman said he was looking forward to constructive sessions.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe is also expected to meet with the Members of Parliament representing the ruling party this evening, following the special Cabinet meeting.
Political sources revealed that the ruling party MPs have been notified to remain in Colombo by cancelling all other visits outside Colombo including overseas travels, since the debt restructuring proposal is scheduled to be tabled in the parliament.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry has stated that it is ‘good to have’ multiple ‘big players’ in the world, as opposed to a single monopoly-like player, and has called for the West to come to terms with this.
During an interview with CGTN reporter Zhou Yiqiu in Beijing about China’s role in global economic growth, Sabry said people are getting tired of only one big player in the world.
The West should come to terms that the unipolar world has come to an end, and now this is the multipolar world. In that, people should get used to it, it’s good to have two or three big players in the world rather than one player, people are tired of it”, he said.
Speaking on China’s role in the recovering economy, Sabry expressed his confidence that China will step up to the plate, and successfully play the integral role he anticipates they will have in the relevant process.
I think China has a great role to play, and China will play that role”, he emphasised.
Sabry, is currently in China to participate in the World Economic Forum being held in Tianjin from 27 to 29 June.
During his visit, Sabry met had also met with the Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gan, the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of China and China’s Finance Minister.
It is quite by accident that I came to know that my dear friend and colleague Shyamon ( Jayasinghe –stage name Saparamadu) had passed away in Melbourne recently. In recent times Shyamon has figured more as a regular Facebook –YouTube commentator than anything else and the appreciations and public comments too seem to be coloured by such ‘political’ rather than sustentative considerations.
To me and my contemporaries at Peradeniya campus and in the public service Shyamon was a stage artist incomparable, a compassionate public servant of the highest integrity and above all a lovable friend.
Shyamon entered my life and career in mid -1956 with the Maname rehearsals at Dr. Sarachchandra’s residence on Sanghamittha Hill Peradeniya University Campus. He was one year my junior and read a combination related to Western Philosophy. By the time I joined the Maname crew Shyamon was already selected for the unique and unchartered role of Potheguru in the new experimental drama which later proved to be the breakthrough in the history of Sri Lankan theatre.
For Maname as an art form , similar to opera, human voice that could reach the other end of the hall was crucial and the artists were selected on voice criteria, We had three powerful voices that made Maname unique and successful; Ben Sirimanne as Prince Maname, Trillicia Abeykoon as Princess and Edmund Wijesinghe as Veddah King; and then there was Shyamon as Potheguru, whose role by all accounts was a more subdued and formal one as distinct from those of the main actors. Hence it was not defined or guided strictly by the dramatist who focused more on the key roles. Shyamon was not very fluent in Sinhala – reading or delivery either. From nearby Ramanathan Hall apart from Shyamon and me , we had quite a crop in the Maname crew;Ben Sirimanne, Kithsiri Amaratunga M B Adikaram, Sathischandra, Pastor Peiris, Nawagamuwa, Wimal Diyasena, Hemapala and L B Dissanayake all led by Arthur Silva
It was only on the opening evening of 3 November 1956 that to everyone’s pleasant surprise that the character Potheguru” came alive and became a legend. To my mind it was largely on account of Shyamon’s own unique talent, rich voice and interpretation of the role as he got on to the stage and faced the audience in full regalia that the character blossomed and turned out to be legendary.. From then on, although there were many successors in that role, it is accepted that Shyamon was the quintessential Pothegura and stands out unrivalled to this day and in to the future.
In one of the reviews Shyamon himself has clarified how he got the inspiration to design and interpret his role, while on his feet as he faced the audience under the flood lights inside a dark auditorium at the Lionel Wendt Theatre. As Shyamon himself recounted, There was something in the air that night”. Reggie Siriwardana in his opening review of Maname highly commended Shyamon’s histrionic talenst and his imaginative contribution.
Off-stage like most of us, Shyamon was the easy-going rebel undergraduate of the 50’s and for the next few years we had memorable events and occasions to savour everything good innocent and pleasant on the many Maname tours in all parts of Sri Lanka where we were welcomed by audiences and by patrons of theatre.. And the Potheguru was a star attraction. AS Gunasena Galappatthy quipped later on there was a ‘Niyama Jollythwayak’
My association with Shyamon continued long into the public service where he upheld the highest standards of service and probity and went on to hold the highest possible positions before he migrated to Australia.
Our last event together, was at the first Maname Re-union held at my house in mid – 1993(3 decades to the day) with Dr Sarachchandra participating and where we as veterans re-enacted Maname with Trillicia present but sans Ben and Edmund; Lionel Fernando and I had to apologetically stand in for them.
Today and in to the future n our collective memory of Shyamon lives on as a creative and inoffensive soul mate.
This is true not only of English Cricket but also of ICC.
Senaka Weeraratna is the inventor of DRS. Google and Wikipedia recognize him as there is no other challenger. ICC, however, is always in a state of denial when it comes to attributing due credit to the inventiveness of non-white authors.
Money talks and ICC has shut the mouth of all affiliated bodies particularly in Sri Lanka and the Indian subcontinent and the Black African and Caribbean cricketing countries from raising the issue of authorship of DRS. It would not be wrong to say that the ICC has contempt for claims of high intellectual achievement beyond the boundary of people from non-white countries.
These attitudes are rooted in a pathological condition.
Cricket commentators talk about every aspect of DRS in their commentaries except the origin of DRS. It is a taboo subject. ICC does not want its hirelings in the commentary box to mention the name of Senaka Weeraratna even as a contender despite worldwide recognition. The reason is obvious.
Senaka Weeraratna has revolutionized the game of cricket with his conception of ‘ Player Referral’ which is the substratum of DRS.
The ICC lacks integrity and intellectual honesty, and moreover lacks cogent evidence admissible in a Court of Law, to establish authorship of DRS. It is working on a pure bluff in the hope that the true author of DRS, Senaka Weeraratna, will get fed up and withdraw from further engagement in a ‘ David and Goliath’ contest in a scenario where the ‘ Spirit of Cricket’ is markedly absent.
Shame on ICC
see also
Why do Most Indians believe ONLY Blue-eyed Whites Can be inventors?
Kurundi Vihara, situated in Mullativu district, is today at the centre of a battle for supremacy between the crafty Tamil Separatist Movement and the sleepy, lethargic Buddhist lobby. The Tamil Separatist Movement is objecting to any extension of the Kurundi Vihara forest reserve. Tamil Separatists have been objecting to Kurundi since 2018, but work is going on at Kurundi and soon the boundaries will be set and Kurundi declared a huge archaeological reserve. Therefore, in June 2023, Tamil Separatist Movement asked the President to intervene in the matter and put a stop to Kurundi expansion.
President Ranil Wickremasinghe convened a meeting with the Archaeology Department authorities and gave them orders, with the TNA MPs listening. He said some inacceptable things, including howlers and the debate went viral. The Director of Archaeology promptly resigned in retort and that went viral too. Kurundi vihara’s future has now gone public. The Buddhists have been rudely woken up to what is happening in the north to the Buddhist viharas there. It is not pretty.
Kurundi vihara belongs to the Anuradhapura period of Ceylon’s history. The vihara was originally Kurundavashoka Viharaya or Kurundashoka Viharaya. Kurundawashoka was a shortened form of Kurundavapi Ashoka, which means that the monastery was built near the Kurundu wewa or tank, said Ellawala Medhananda.
Kurundi temple is mentioned in the Mahavamsa. According to Mahavamsa, the Kurundavashoka Monastery has been built by king Kallatanaga (109-104 BC) and received donations by king Aggabodhi I (575-608) and king Vijayabahu I (1070-1110). Agbo I had set out a coconut plantation ‘thun gawwa’ in extent and had appointed 100 employees to the vihara. Mahinda III (801-4) had visited to settle a problem in the area.
Three British officials have recorded their observations of Kurundi vihara. Henry Parker, an irrigation engineer, speaks of Kurundi in Irrigation in the Northern Province: Mullativu and Vilankulam” (1886). J.P. Lewis, Government agent, Northern Province, wrote about Kurundi in his Manual of the Vanni districts (Vavuniya and Mullaitivu), of the Northern Province, Ceylon” (1895). H.C.P. Bell, Commissioner of Archaeology has described the Kurundi site in the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon, Northern Province” (1905).
Kurundi has been the largest monastery in Mullaitivu. The ruins indicate that hundreds of Buddhist monks had lived in the monastery. J.P. Lewis said in 1895 that the most extensive ruins in the whole Province are those at Kuruntanurmalai. Bell said in 1905 that Kurundumale had the most extensive ruins in the Province. Ellawala Medhananda said the same thing in 2003. Medhananda said that Kurundammalai was the place where he saw the most ruins. I have not seen so many ruins in any other place I have gone to, he said.
Kurundi has been an important monastery in the Anuradhapura network of monasteries. It has had close scholarly links with Anuradhapura. Kurundi Attakatha was written in Kurundi vihara. Kurundi Attakatha are now lost but there are many references in the literature to Kurundi Attakatha. Pussamitta thera is mentioned in Manorathapurani as Kurundaka Wasi, which means he was a resident monk of the Kurundi temple.
Kurundi was an active monastery. Lewis had found an Inscription by Mahinda III (937-1013), who visited the tank with his mother and daughter in the eighth year of his reign. He had come there to settle a dispute relating to the use of use of water in Kurandagama Reservoir.
It is on a large slab, and is one of the largest inscriptions in the Island. It is chiefly a series of rules like those on the Mihintale tablets, to be observed by the monks who were stationed here, but a few references of more general interest are included in it, and allusion is made to Tannirmurippu Lake, said Lewis.
It appears that the king himself had carved the inscription. That is probably another first for Kurundi. The king appears to have had some doubts regarding his rock carving ability, observed Lewis. He commands that the rules given in the inscription shall continue in force, and not be upset or reconstructed if letters are missing in the inscription . However, Lewis said the letters on it are very fairly and evenly cut, each one separated by horizontal lines cut as straight as if they had been done with a ruler, and there is a raised border round the stone.
Kurundi had been populated in the early ancient period. The black and red ware of the early historical period has been found. In 1905, Bell said Kurundi area was the largest settlement he had seen in the province. He estimated it to be about 100 acres. The ruins showed that there was a huge settlement at Kurundi in the middle Anuradhapura period, said Ellawala Medhananda.. There was a town, Kurundagama. The area has been prosperous, he said.
Kurundi was not simply the site of an important monastery, it was also an industrial zone. A Rajarata-Peradeniya research team had explored the area over a period of two years. They stated in a video presentation on July 2022, that there had been an industrial zone of around 1000 square meters, south of Kurundi wewa. This has been a metal manufacturing zone. [1]
This industrial zone had been destroyed by the Tamil Separatist Movement when they enlarged the wewa, bulldozed the forest and converted the area into paddy fields. The soil from this cleared area has been piled up against the tank bund. This soil provides clear evidence that there was metal manufacture in the area.
In 1905 HCP Bell gave a detailed report on the layout of Kurundi monastery .Many of the ruins lie within a quadrilateral space perhaps 200 acres in extent, which is surrounded on three sides by a bund that was topped by a wall of stone blocks, the fourth being the bund of the tank, said Bell.
The top of the hill covering about 20 acres is filled with ruins of ancient buildings. There has been a kabok wall encircling the top of the hill and remains of this wall are still seen at some places. Below the hill, on the south-west, stretched the thousands of acres of the tank called Tannimurrippu.
North, south, east, and west lies a fertile country of tanks and rice fields innumerable, .But in place of the great tank and the pleasant fields there is only forest, which reaches the horizon on all sides but the east, dark and unbroken. By climbing the dagoba, and thus rising above the jungle, one can gain a beautiful prospect even now. Far to the east lay the pale blue waters of the shallow Nayaru lagoon and beyond it the bright line of the sea, said Bell.
Bell reported that the buildings are placed approximately one in each corner, as follows. The Dagoba in the north-east, the Vihare in the north-west, the Wata-da-ge in the south-east, and a large building of good finish in the south-west. This last is probably a Pilima-ge. Bell had also I found a long deep pokuna about 80 ft. by 60 ft. From the edge of the terrace a grand flight of 100 steps, cut out of stone, each 17 ft. by 1 ft. 4½ in. by 6½ in., descends the hill unbroken into the forest below , said Bell.
I have never at any place seen so many large fragments of pottery. They stick out of the banks and bed of the stream everywhere. One very nearly complete pot I picked up was of very thick heavy make, and measured 8 inches across ; another fragment had a design of flowers stamped on it, concluded Bell.
The present day investigators said much the same thing. They confirmed that Kurundi monastery is located on a hill, and its building follow the Pabbata Vihara pattern. There are also buildings on the sides of the hill, around it and below. 12 buildings were found in the second level.There is a large pokuna, with lots of viharas by the pokuna..
There were cells for monks, and a long flight of steps going down to the Kurundi wewa. Each step is about 14 feet in length said the present archaeology team. It will look a lovely flight of steps when conserved. Three inscriptions were found on a stone bridge, one was dated to the 9th century .
Archaeologists found an exquisitely carved octagonal Yupa Gala, at Kurundi, but broken with some parts missing.The Yupa Gala was part of the central pillar in the early stupas. They also found a vajrasanaya, which was used to depict the Buddha through symbols, in the days when they did not depict Buddha in human form. These two elements indicate that Kurundi was built in very ancient times.
But several bodhisattva heads were also found at least one was Avalokiteshvara.This shows that Kurundi had later became a Mahayana monastery. It would have been part of the chain of Mahayana temples on the East coast. This means a continuous history for Kurundi monastery from Anuradhapura to the medieval period.
Architecturally too, Kurundi is special. The Kurundi stupa, 75 feet tall, is in the Padmakara style (lotus flower). This is a rare style. Kurundi is said to be the only monastery which is built fully out of Kabok. All buildings, including dagoba and aramaya were built of kabok. The pond also had kabok wall. The kabok blocks were about 10 in. by 12 in. by 4 1/2. The only source of kabok available at Kurundi was in the forest reserve and therefore could not be used. Present day kabok blocks are nowhere near the old ones, they break easily, said the conservationists , they appear reluctant to use brick .
The Pilimage delighted the archaeology team. Almost all the pillars were available and it would be possible to do a complete reconstruction of the building, including the roof, they said . The pillars showed that it was a wooden roof. Some pillars, which were not load bearing, were filled with shells inside. These shells could be seen inside the broken pillars.
Kurundi showed exceptional skill in sculpture. The few pieces of the broken Buddha image that they were able to recover showed that the whole statue would have been very special in style and execution.A beautifully carved door lintel was found. One wall had a frieze of elephants at the bottom.
Earlier, Bell had found a fallen lintel with a double row of carved ganas quite unlike the ordinary ganas of the Sinhalese carvings, and have what appears to be high brimless hats on their heads. The archaeology team found terra cotta heads similar to these. They could be seen in the Youtube clip on the Bauddhaloka Foundation seminar (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSdj7YRjbDM). They look like the dwarfs in the Disney film Snow White.
The excavation team said that they had found a lot of small items at Kurundi, some were in metal and one in marble. The marble plaque carving is in a style that has not been seen before. ( Continued)
by A. Abdul Aziz, Press SecretaryAhmadiyya Muslim Jama’at – Sri Lanka.
In a grievous violation of basic human rights and religious freedom, circulars by the Lahore Bar Association and the Gojra Bar Association instruct local police forces to take pre-emptive and preventive” measures to ensure Ahmadi Muslims neither participate in Qurbani (animal sacrifice ritual carried out by Muslims the world over on the occasion of Eid) nor congregate for prayer on this special day for the Islamic world.
The Lahore Bar Association says such violations” would necessitate taking strict, iron-handed and preventative” measures.
State institutions like these were once thought of as the unbiased and open minded final resort for the oppressed and standard bearers of justice, working for the people regardless of caste, race or religious belief. Other messages have been circulated across the country urging people to report Ahmadi Muslims caught carrying out animal sacrifice to the police. Eid celebrations and animal sacrifice on this occasion is a long-standing tradition of Muslims the world over since the inception of Islam. Ahmadi Muslims have always been part of this tradition.
This is the latest in a long series of restrictions and oppression by state authorities in Pakistan against the marginalized and persecuted Ahmadi Muslim Community.
The plight of Ahmadi Muslims has caught global attention. In recent days U.S. congressman Michael McCaul tweeted: We continue to be alarmed by the uptick in violence against Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan. An Ahmadi man was reportedly arrested for having a Muslim name, & his lawyers were beaten in open court. Such brazen persecution must cease. Ahmadi prisoners of conscience should be released.”
The United Nations and global human rights groups have long expressed serious concern over the poor treatment of Ahmadis in Pakistan which continues unabated. In view of such hate-filled propaganda, there is a likelihood that Ahmadis would be deprived of fulfilling this fundamental practice associated with this event and many would have to face criminal prosecution just because of practicing their faith.
The Eid ul Azha Festival is going to be celebrated in Pakistan in the end of June 2023 and, as the situation of Ahmadis living in Pakistan is precarious and Mullahs as well as police are trying to persecute them only because of performing their religious rituals, hence, once again we plead to the International Community to take urgent action to urge the Government of Pakistan to safeguard the civil and religious freedoms of Ahmadis and provide them with the safety and security in order to observe and practise their faith.
We once again urge the international community to pressure the Government of Pakistan to honor its responsibility to provide protection to all its citizens, ensure freedom of religious practice to Ahmadis, and bring perpetrators of such vicious attacks to justice. The Government of Pakistan must also bring its laws and practices in conformity with international standards as ordained by Article 2, 18 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Article 25, 26.
Source: International Human Rights Committee, U.K.
Mr President and the Minister in charge of Internal Security, please see the following incident where an ethnic extremist politician in the hill country, who is also not a legitimate Bhummiputra of this Island nation has taken the law into his hand and intimidated and obstructed the police officers who were only carrying out their duties on behalf of the state
Please take immediate action to sack him from the Cabinet and charge him for unlawful assembly. intimidation and obstructing the police that was carrying out its legitimate duties of maintaining law and order. Also, charge him for abuse of political power against the very government where he is supposed to be a Minister. Maybe the post of Minister is too heavy for him.
This is not the first time these Tamil politicians behaved like this. I remember how once his father also sat on the table of the OIC of a police station threatening him over some issue.. Had the then government taken action against him and put him in his place his son would never have behaved like this.
It is high time that these politicians of the plantation sector realize that this is not Taminadu. Even there if he had behaved like this he would have been behind bars by now. These politicians whether they are Sinhala,Tamil or Muslim they should know that, as the lawmakers of the country they are the first people who should cooperate with the law enforcing officers.But isn’t it shameless and ridiculous for them to take the lead as thugs to break the very law they are supposed to have made.
Kudos to SP Hatton and the police officers who stuck to the law
I wish the IGP commend the Hatton SP and other officers who have resisted a mad politician and stood by the law.
Minister Thonda confronts police over arrest of suspect, demands transfer of officers
Island on 2023/06/26
Minister Thondaman with the police at Bogawanthalawa on Saturday (pic courtesy Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development Ministry)
By Nalaka Ratnayake and Norman Palihawadana
Police and Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development Minister Jeevan Thondaman have traded accusations over the latter’s intervention with the Bogawanthalawa Police, following the arrest of a 28-year-old person involved in a dispute with the manager of a state bank in the area. The police arrested the suspect in Bogawantalawa town on 22 June, hours after the bank manager lodged a complaint.
Police said Minister Thondaman and a group of supporters had arrived at Bogawantalawa on 24 June in the late afternoon and berated police officers for taking the suspect, named Kalaichelvam, into custody. Hatton District Judge and Magistrate M Farookdeen has remanded the suspect till 27 June, pending investigations.
When The Island raised the issue with Minister Thondaman’s Office, a spokesperson said that the Minister had called for an impartial inquiry as the police had allegedly assaulted the suspect when he was taken into custody. The Minister had taken up the issue because the police had allegedly committed an excess, he said.
Jeevan Thondaman successfully contested the Nuwara Eliya District at the last general election on the SLPP ticket. The CWC MP was accommodated in the Cabinet in January this year by President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Sources said that Minister Thondaman had summoned the OIC of the Bogawanthalawa Police Station Chief Inspector Sampath Bandara and three police officers who carried out the arrest.
The Minister has demanded the immediate transfer of the three policemen out of the Bogawantalawa Police Station and to assign one of them to the CWC main office at Kotagala.
Minister Thondaman has threatened to discontinue water supply to the Bogawantalawa Police Station, unless his demands are met.Hatton SP H.N. M. Dehigama, who arrived at the scene, had told Minister Thondaman that the officers couldn’t be transferred until the conclusion of an internal investigation. The senior officer said that the investigation was based on video footage of the arrest now on social media platforms.
Sources said that the suspect had inquired about the bank balance of another person and an argument had erupted when bank workers declined to grant his request, pointing out that it was illegal to release such information to a third party.
Written and compiled by Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge- Associate Professor
Educational underachievement is a major problem among children. Many children struggle in school with learning difficulties. Some learning difficulties relate to neurobiological factors and alter brain functioning.
The term” learning difficulties” is used to cover a wide range of problems. Children who have difficulty with handwriting or in learning to read and spell often manifest problems such as memory recall blocks, attention deficit, speech delay, clumsiness, poor coordination, and other health problems. Each child’s difficulties are unique, and these difficulties are a combination of auditory, visual, muscular, chemical, emotional, and neurological imbalances.
According to Dr Thiloka Sundari Kariyawasam a renowned Educational Psychologist, nearly 30% of Sri Lankan children show learning difficulties. Learning difficulties are sometimes considered a form of infirmity that needs therapy. Many children with learning difficulties continue to struggle with learning in the classroom, from isolation or withdrawal to clowning or acting out.
Children who struggle with learning are especially vulnerable. Their difficulties may be hard for them to understand and may go unrecognized by others. Many soon experience the embarrassment, confusion, and humiliation that go hand in hand with falling behind their peers in school.
Often learning difficulties are frequently not recognized early. The following signs may also be clues that an individual is experiencing difficulties with learning:
· Having difficulty paying attention
· Hiding, losing, or avoiding schoolwork or homework
· Being especially sensitive to criticism, mistakes, or poor grades
· Giving up easily, appearing poorly motivated
· Showing anger and frustration when engaged in schoolwork,
· Having attendance problems, becoming school phobic
· Avoiding schoolwork through over-involvement in other activities
· Becoming withdrawn, shy, anxious, helpless, hopeless, or depressed
· Lowering personal expectations for performance
· Demonstrating lowered self-esteem, difficulty taking risks, devalued sense of personal worth
Slow Learners
According to the International Literacy Association, children with an IQ level of 70 to 85 are considered slow learners. A child can be described as a slow learner if his or her thinking skills develop at a notably slower rate than that of his or her peers. These children need more resources from their teachers to grasp new academic concepts.
Slow learners tend to be left behind because they are expected to learn at the same rate as the average student. Pressure from time limits can hinder their thinking capacity. Parents tend to get overly stressed about their children being slow learners and sometimes they are being subjected to excessive punishments. Slow learners must be dealt with with patience, empathy, and understanding. It’s important to maintain a positive attitude and consistently support slow-learning children. Sometimes oral learning over visual learning can be helpful to these kids. It is important to set small targets that are achievable with them.
Learning is accomplished through complex and interrelated processes, one of which is vision. Vision and learning are closely related. Visual problems are contributing to learning problems. Determining the relationships between vision and learning involves more than evaluating eye health and clarity of sight. Problems in identifying and treating children with learning-related vision problems arise when such a limited definition of vision is employed. Children with undetected vision problems complain of headaches when they try to read, and they often avoid reading exercises.
Learning Difficulties andHearing Problems
Listening is the most basic skill required for verbal communication and a weakness in listening ability may hinder the development of a strong language base. Some children with learning difficulties are having impaired hearing, The potential for hearing impairment should be investigated in children with learning difficulties. Due to hearing impairments, children can have poor language development and lower educational achievements. A child who can’t hear well will struggle to keep up, may get restless and act out in class, or disengage from lessons. Assessment of a child with suspected hearing impairments should be carried out by an ENT specialist.
Malnutrition and Learning Difficulties
There are links between malnutrition and learning difficulties. Maternal malnutrition can affect the development of the fetus, cause intra-uterine growth delay, and increase the risk of the infant developing impairments. Young children who are malnourished as defined by underweight (low weight-for-age) and stunting (low height-for-age) are also more likely to screen positive for learning difficulties. These children have nutrition-related health problems as well. Malnutrition can result in long-term neural issues in the brain, which can impact a child’s emotional responses, reactions to stress, learning disabilities, and other medical complications.Vitamin andnutrient deficiency can affect a child’s ability to learn, concentrate, and vision.
Anxiety and Learning Difficulties
Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. It’s marked with anticipation of a future concern and avoidance behavior. Also, involves persistent and excessive worry. The ongoing worry and tension may be accompanied by physical symptoms, such as restlessness, feeling on edge, or easily fatigued.
Children can be prone to anxiety. The child’s ongoing anxiety can impact the learning process. Following anxiety children have difficulty learning, remembering, and recalling new information. Students with excessive anxiety may have difficulty paying attention. Also, the information is not processed, and Information is not stored appropriately. On the other hand, children with learning difficulties are significantly more likely to have challenges with anxiety. It is important to know that there is a strong connection between anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Depression and Learning Difficulties
Childhood depression can cause learning difficulties. Furthermore, Children with learning difficulties are prone to chronic depression. Children tend to exhibit non-verbal clues and express their emotional struggles more by their behavior than by talking These children can show alienation, agitation sometimes aggressive behavior. Their low self-esteem is observable, and it is frequently expressed through self-deprecating and negative talk. Their ongoing depression can interfere with academic, family, and social functioning.
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disabilities experienced by children. Dyslexia was originally called word blindness” and was thought to be a visual problem. The neuropsychologists indicate that dyslexia is characterized by dysfunction of the normal left hemisphere language network and also implicates abnormal white matter development. Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by slow and inaccurate word recognition. It has been reported in every culture. However, Dyslexia is not due to problems with intelligence, hearing, or vision. When dyslexia goes undiagnosed and untreated, childhood reading difficulties continue into adulthood.
Dyscalculia is a learning disorder that affects a person’s ability to understand number-based information and math. The symptoms of this disorder usually appear in childhood, especially when children learn how to do basic math. Experts estimate it affects between 3% and 7% of people worldwide. Individuals with dyscalculia have difficulties with all areas of mathematics — problems not explained by a lack of proper education, intellectual disabilities, or other conditions.
Learning Difficulties in Children with Epilepsy
Epilepsy is one of the commonest neurological disorders in childhood. Approximately 50 percent of children with epilepsy have some form of learning difficulty. Epilepsy in childhood can impair cognitive functions. Often these children are having attention problems, learning disabilities, and other cognitive weaknesses, such as difficulty with memory or problem-solving skills it is important to note that children with seizures are at increased risk for mental health, developmental, and physical comorbidities, increasing needs for care coordination and specialized services.
Conduct Disorders and Learning Difficulties
Conduct disorder is a serious behavioral and emotional disorder that can occur in children and teens. A child with this disorder may display a pattern of disruptive and violent behavior. They have a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior that involves a violation of the basic rights of others and of the major age-appropriate social norms. The conduct problems are evident at school at home, within the community, and with peers. A common feature of conduct disorder is physical verbal aggression, damage to the property, stealing, lying, and cheating. Children with conduct disorders, often initiate physical fights, intimidate, or insult others. There are some case studies that indicate involvement in sexual activities. Many children with conduct disorders have learning difficulties. They need counseling, psychotherapy, and medical interventions.
Treating Learning Difficulties
Children with learning disorders often need extra help and guidance. Wide-ranging treatment is essential when dealing with learning difficulties. Childhood depression and anxiety can negatively affect the learning process in children. Emotional trauma especially parental derivation, and child abuse can cause diminished learning abilities in children. Treatment interventions are crucial for a child’s mental health Apart from psychological therapies drug therapies are also needed. Medication can improve their ability to focus and concentrate.
Counseling helps to build trust, self-esteem, and confidence in children. Bottled-up emotions often get dispersed after successful counseling sessions and children feel more positive in the classroom. Similarly, the cognitive mode of therapy helps to improve brainpower and concentration. Psychotherapy helps to deal with emotional issues and develop coping skills. Some children need speech and language therapy.
Children with learning difficulties are benefited from special education services and they need Individualized education programs. Intensive teaching techniques, like one-on-one instruction help to curb their difficulties. Multi-modal teaching is important.
Parent behavior training is important, and it teaches parents to use positive reinforcement methods to improve the behavior of children with learning difficulties. Home-based support is essential. Using motivators like goals, encouragement, and positive reinforcement is effective.
Many children face obstacles at school. The teachers should help the children to handle these obstacles without becoming discouraged or overwhelmed. It is essential to focus on strengths, not just weaknesses. Every child is equipped with a unique set of strengths and weaknesses. The children have their own unique learning styles. Some slow learners show improvements in later years. These children need love, encouragement, and support. The teachers and parents should uplift their sense of self-worth and confidence.
Written and compiled by Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge- Associate Professor
Funding would be biggest infusion for crisis-hit nation since IMF deal
COLOMBO (Reuters) — Sri Lanka will enter into an agreement with the World Bank for $500 million in budgetary support after the cabinet approved it on Tuesday, the biggest funding tranche for the crisis-hit nation since an International Monetary Fund deal in March.
The island nation of 22 million is emerging out of its worst economic crisis in seven decades and its economy is expected to shrink 2% this year before returning to growth next year, following last year’s record contraction of 7.8%.
Reuters reported last week that the World Bank is likely to approve $700 million in budgetary and welfare support for Sri Lanka at its board meeting on June 28, out of which $200 million will be for welfare programs.
The government said on Tuesday that funding from the lender will come in two tranches.
The Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka, the Mahavamsa”, has been listed among the 64 new items of documentary heritage inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Memory of the World (MoW) International Register in 2023.
It is one of the world’s longest unbroken historical accounts, and the first of its kind in South Asia, initiating a mature historiographic tradition, presenting Sri Lanka’s history in chronological order from the 6th Century Before the Common Era (BCE) to 1815 CE. The authenticity of the facts provided in the document has been confirmed through archaeological research conducted in Sri Lanka and India. It is an important historical source in South Asia containing crucial information about the lifetime of the Buddha, the emperor Asoka, and the rise of Buddhism as a world religion. The document played a significant role in popularising Buddhism in South East Asia and contributed singularly to the identity of Asoka in Indian history. The existence of a number of manuscripts of the Mahavamsa in several countries as well as the transliteration and translation of the text to several South East Asian and European languages stand testimony to its immense historical, cultural, literal, linguistic, and scholarly values.
The Memory of the World Register lists documentary heritage that has been recommended by the International Advisory Committee and endorsed by the Director General of UNESCO as corresponding to the selection criteria regarding world significance and outstanding universal valu
President Ranil Wickremesinghe assured that the restructuring of domestic debt will have no impact on the membership balance of any public funds, including the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF). He emphasized that the rate of return for superannuation funds will not be affected in any way.
Furthermore, the President stated that the restructuring of domestic debt will not pose any threat to the stability of the country’s banking system, whether it be public or private banks. He specifically mentioned that the deposits of more than 50 million bank depositors will remain unaffected, and there will be no changes to the current interest rates paid on bank deposits.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe also announced that proposals for restructuring both foreign and domestic debt will be presented to the Cabinet tomorrow (28). The President made these statements while inaugurating the Gampaha District Secretariat Administrative Complex, ‘Laksiyane Mandiraya,’ which has been constructed with the aim of providing efficient and regular government services to the people of the Gampaha district. The complex, with an expenditure of nearly Rs. 4 billion, stands at seven stories tall.
It was highlighted that Sri Lanka’s total public debt, comprising both domestic and foreign debt, amounted to $83,700 million by the end of 2022, representing 128.3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Of this amount, the foreign debt totalled $41,500 million, accounting for 63.6% of the GDP. The President also noted that the domestic debt at that time stood at $42,100 million, which constituted 64.6% of the GDP.
The President highlighted the urgency of restructuring the country’s debt, stating that without such measures, the public debt would exceed 100% of the GDP by 2035. He emphasized that foreign creditors have already expressed their agreement to participate in the debt restructuring process.
To ensure debt sustainability in Sri Lanka, the President emphasized the need for restructuring both external and domestic debt.
Acknowledging the significant burden carried by foreign creditors, he mentioned that the country is set to receive 17 billion US dollars from them in the next five years. The President emphasized the importance of local creditors also contributing to this effort.
The proposed debt restructuring plan has been designed with the primary objective of safeguarding the public’s bank deposits. The President underlined the responsibility of protecting the depositors of all banks regulated by the Central Bank.
He assured that the proposed domestic debt restructuring method poses no harm to bank depositors and will not lead to a collapse of the banking system. On the contrary, it will pave the way for a restructuring process that can rebuild the economy.
The President further stated that the country’s economic recovery, reduction in interest rates, the government’s ability to provide subsidies easily, and the reduction of both domestic and foreign debt burden in the next decade will yield positive results benefiting the people of the country.
During his official visit to France, the President engaged in discussions with Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, Netherlands Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag, American Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi regarding foreign debt restructuring. The President highlighted the progress being made in Sri Lanka’s financial sector during these discussions. He expressed satisfaction that they were all eager to assist in reversing the crisis in Sri Lanka and affirmed their commitment to contribute significantly to the country’s economic recovery.
The President also said that during a recent telephone conversation with the Indian Finance Minister, Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman, she had expressed her country’s intention to positively contribute to Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring and economic stability. The President said that he would hold detailed discussions on the matter during his upcoming visit to India.
The President also mentioned that Foreign Minister Ali Sabri, who is currently on an official visit to China, has agreed to enhance bilateral relations and strengthen economic ties between the two countries. Minister Sabri held fruitful discussions with China’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Qin Gang, sharing their views on deepening cooperation.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe further revealed that, during a meeting with the Chinese Finance Minister, Liu Kun, in Beijing, he was briefed on the economic stabilization and progress plan of the country. Minister Ali Sabri expressed gratitude for China’s special contribution during the previous crisis.
During the visit, the President held discussions with the Chairman of the Chinese Exim Bank, Wu Fulin, and other Chinese officials appointed for the purpose of restructuring Sri Lanka’s foreign debt. They assured their commitment to contribute to the debt restructuring process in the best possible manner.
The event was attended by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Ministers Prasanna Ranatunga, Nalin Fernando, State Ministers Shehan Semasinghe, Prasanna Ranaweera, Sisira Jayakodi, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Janaka Wakkambura, Gampaha District Development Committee Chairman and Members of Parliament Sahan Pradeep, Nimal Lanza, Sudarshanee Fernandopulle, Milan Jayathilaka, President’s Senior Adviser on Climate Change Ruwan Wijewardena, Western Province Governor Roshan Gunathilaka, and other dignitaries.
Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry has called for a ‘global debt restructuring architecture’, in a bid to prevent smaller countries and emerging economies from ‘embroiling in controversy forever’.
Speaking to CNBC during his visit to China, Sabry spoke of several matters of concern, including the potential ways in which China could aid Sri Lanka’s propelled growth.
The foreign minister, who is in China to participate in the World Economic Forum being held in Tianjin from 27 – 29 June, met with his counterpart and Chinese State Councilor Qin Gang, the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of China and China’s Finance Minister, and deemed all discussions held with these individuals as ‘very fruitful and cordial’.
All those discussions were very very fruitful and very cordial and they have given us the undertaking that they will continue to support Sri Lanka’s next space of development”, he said.
Speaking further on Zambia’s recent deal with China to restructure USD 6.3 billion in loans, Sabry emphasised that the deal in question gave Sri Lanka a lot of ‘optimism and hope’, adding that it was time for a global debt restructuring architecture.
I think it’s time that we need to have a global debt restructuring architecture’ which would help smaller countries, emerging economies and frontier countries so that they could quickly get out of the trouble and get into the next space without being embroiled in controversy forever”, he said in this regard.
Commenting on Sri Lanka’s current economic situation, Sabry acknowledged that while the country has made moderate gains over the last 10 months, there is a still a ‘long way to go’.
Things are looking better compared to what it used to be, but we have a long way to go”, he said.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs also noted that discussions are underway with several parties including bilateral, multilateral and local creditors and bond holders, including private and commercial creditors, in order to restructure Sri Lanka’s debt, as part of working in accordance with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) debt sustainability analysis, in order to obtain he agreed Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of USD 2.4 billion.
Vladimir Putin said blackmail attempts” were doomed to failure” in an angry address after an aborted mutiny by Wagner mercenary fighters over the weekend.
The Russian President claimed the mutineers wanted Russians to fight each other” but had badly miscalculated” as he thanked those who had stood down to avoid bloodshed.
Mr Putin said he would honour his promise to allow Wagner fighters to relocate to Belarus if they wanted, or to sign a contract with the Defence Ministry or simply return to their families.
He made no mention of mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led the mutiny.
The address to the nation had been heavily trailed by the Kremlin, which earlier said the speech would determine the fate of Russia”.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s chief spokesman, said the Russian president would make a series of important statements”.
He added: These statements, without exaggeration, will determine the fate of Russia.”
In his speech, which lasted around five minutes, Mr Putin did not reference any potential prosecution for Mr Prigozhin or his future at all but he sought to portray his fighters as victims.
We do know that the overwhelming majority of the Wagner group are also operators of Russia. They proved it by their courage on the battlefield. They were being used,” he said.
I thank those soldiers who prevented bloodshed, who stopped at the final line: Now you have a chance to continue your service to Russia by signing a contract with the Ministry of Defence or any law enforcement agencies or go back to your families. Those who wish to will be able to go to Belarus. I will keep my promise.”
The aim of the mutiny was to avoid the destruction of the Wagner group of mercenaries, which Mr Prigozhin said was going to be terminated on July 1.
The Vallipuram Inscription or Vallipuram Gold Plate is an important ancient artifact that busted fake homeland claims of a certain ethnic group found. It was unearthed as part of archeological excavations carried out during the British era. It states that the Sinhala Buddhist temple in the area now known as Vallipuram (Veli Pura or Veheli Pura in the past) and the area were directly under the rule of the Sinhala King Vasabha in the first century AD which he governed through a governor he appointed which is the normal practice. It also symbolizes state patronage of Sinhala Buddhist shrines in the past.
Sadly, these facts became unpalatable for tribal-minded separatists. They distorted the inscription with changes made to the letters on the inscription. Tamil Nadu language letters were introduced into the inscription which were not there in the original.
Thankfully Most Venerable Walpola Sri Rahula Thero took a photograph of the original inscription and preserved it. Decades later the inscription was recovered by the government of Sri Lanka and is now preserved at the museum. However, that has been distorted maliciously.
The fifth letter of the top row has been changed to a Tamil Nadu language letter which was not there in the inscription. The seventh letter in the second row and the third last letter of the last row have also been distorted to Tamil Nadu language letters.
A comparison of the two is displayed in the following picture. Credits to the owners of these images which is acknowledged along with the images.
Human beings are curious. Their curiosity prompts them to explore the unknown, venture into unmapped territory and test their own capacities to endure. They climb, they sail and they dive to depths never reached before.
Exploration itself is a challenge. Explorers encounter the unknown which could take the form of species and peoples never seen before as well as territories and environmental vagaries they are ill-equipped to handle. So there are costs, monetary and otherwise. Some pay with their lives.
Discovery is a happy byproduct of exploration. We get to know things we never knew before and in the process we, as a species, learn something more about ourselves. Science invariably keeps pace. Those who climb Everest today are far better equipped technologically than was Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary. The discovery of the Titanic wreck in 1985 a joint French-US expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel and Robert Ballard in 1985 spurred others to think of further exploration and even commercial ‘visits.’ Scientists and engineers were commissioned by interested investors to develop vessels that could reach those depths and navigate any and every anomaly that could scuttle such efforts.
Obviously there are risks involved. There were at least 14 attempts to ascend Everest before Norgay and Hillary finally succeeded in 1953. Seven Sherpas were killed in an avalanche during an attempt led by Brigadier-General Charles Bruce in 1922. In 1924 George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared. The former’s body was discovered only 75 years later.
These tragedies/failures didn’t dissuade other explorers. Since Norgay and Hillary, more than 6,000 people have reached the summit of Mount Everest. And who can tell how many tried and failed and how many actually reached the summit long before it became ‘a project’ that was recorded?
We don’t know if all the determined people who attempted what had never been achieved before Norgay and Hillary were cautioned by friends, family and experts. It’s safe to say that some of them may have been told, ‘it has never been done before, so it cannot be done.’ A bit like ‘THE Revolution.’ Never been done therefore impossible, some would say.
Just the other day we had James Cameron, director of the 1997 blockbuster ‘Titanic,’ drawing parallels between the wreck of the ship and the implosion of the submersible ‘Titan’ a few days ago. The Titanic had been warned about ice; the Titan was warned that since the vessel did not meet voluntary industrial standards there was the possibility of ‘minor to catastrophic’ outcomes.
The end? No. Tragedy is taken as a challenge by some people. There will be others convinced they could do better. There will be other investors who will commission other engineers and other experts to build a better submersible and they will no doubt learn from the mistakes of those who designed the Titan.
There were Sherpas, many of them in fact, and explorers who used their expertise to ascend Everest. The experience of the likes of Bruce, Mallory and Irvine would certainly have been invaluable to Norgay and Hillary. Every scientist who came up with an invention that has made life easier for all of humanity, stood on the shoulders of giants who came before, learnt from his or her numerous failures. Therefore, in a sense, those who designed and those who died on Titan have not really failed. They were ‘crazy,’ one could argue, but then again anyone who attempts or envisions that which has never been done before is invariably dismissed or vilified. Crazy, stupid, frivolous, unreasonable etc etc. They all earn such tags.
They inspire, nevertheless.
The Titanic was not the last ship, passenger liner or otherwise, British or otherwise, to venture into the North Atlantic Ocean. It is unlikely that the Titan would be the last commercial submersible to attempt a Titanic wreck look-see. The need to design a better vessel will probably generate technological innovation that could be used in other situations as well, some good and, invariably, some bad. That’s how it goes.
So, even as we are sad about the fate of the Titan’s passengers and appalled by media preferences that result in far worse tragedies being ignored, let us spare a moment at least to meditate on the fact that their efforts, dreams, adventurous spirit and, yes, even frivolous insanity may not be in vain. Let us spare a moment to be appreciative of those who attempted and failed to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Let us spare a moment for the unnamed and unknown who were crazy, creative and absolutely courageous and thereby added value to the human spirit.
At around 11.30 pm, Sri Lanka time, on Monday the 19th of June, a submersible vessel, the Titan, at the other end of the world, set off with five persons on board and a 96-hour oxygen supply to explore the wreck of the ill-fated British passenger liner, the Titanic, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912. The wreck lay at the bottom of the sea around 640 km away from Newfoundland.
An hour and forty five minutes later the vessel lost contact with its operator, OceanGate Expeditions. Four days later a robotic diving vehicle found major fragments of the sub on the seafloor about 480m from the Titanic shipwreck. At present it is believed that the Titan had imploded, instantly killing all five passengers.
The resources deployed in search/rescue operations were phenomenal. It dominated the news channels for four full days. I happened to check BBC around midnight that Sunday and continued to check on the progress of the rescue efforts. There were frequent updates. We were offered details of the passengers, their names, vocations etc. We knew which countries, which agencies, which vessels and what kind of technology were involved. And we were given a countdown, almost, of how many hours worth of oxygen remained, in the event that the Titan was lying somewhere and unable to communicate for whatever reason.
As the deadline for oxygen running out neared, I found myself imagining what it must be like in the Titan, assuming the sub was still intact. How would those people deal with the knowledge that each would be competing with the other four for life breath, literally, I asked myself. Among them was a father and his son. All kinds of scenarios ran through my mind. At one point I found myself thinking, ‘it would be best if the Titan had imploded,’ a possibility according to more than one scientist. Instant death would have been preferable to slow, tortuous and inevitable asphyxiation, I reckoned.
Others may have also wondered along the same lines and come to their own conclusions about preferable ways of dying. At least there’s closure now. Most of all for the families and loved ones.
For four days, I had found myself checking the BBC updates. It was there, right on top. For four days. I hadn’t checked the BBC website for about a week before the Titan went missing, but I had totally missed another tragedy.
Less than a week before the Titan tragedy, a fishing boat had sunk about 80 kilometres off the southern Greek town of Pylos. Seventy eight (78) have been confirmed dead. A total of 104 survivors, mostly from Syria, Egypt and Pakistan, have been brought ashore. It is believed that there were up to 100 children in the ship’s hold and that as many as 500 are missing.
It is claimed that the Greek authorities hadn’t reacted fast enough. Greece have rejected these accusations. One this is undisputed. The media coverage was nothing like what it was with regard to the Titan’s disappearance. Indeed, I got to know about it only because there was some play in social media, comparing the two tragedies.
There are obvious differences of course. Those who died in the Titan were enormously wealthy and probably very influential. They were, in other words, known. They had names. Those who died off the Greek coast were refugees. While there have been people visiting the wreck of the Titanic after it was discovered in September 1985, this was probably the first high profile (and highly expensive) tour with passengers having to pocket out hundreds of thousands of pounds for the trip. In contrast, thousands of refugees have died at sea.
In 2022, over 3,000 had died trying to cross the Mediterranean. In the early part of 2023, over 400 had perished at sea. Refugees. No names.
There are more sobering numbers. There are 35.3 million refugees under the UNHCR’s mandate and 5.0 million Palestine refugees under the UNRWA. There are 62.5 million internally displaced persons and 5.4 million asylum seekers. That’s more than a 100m displaced people. In a sense, 5 is media-manageable, so to speak; 108.4 mullion is obviously not.
I remember Rauff Hakeem, commenting on the LTTE’s political chief, S P Thamilchelvan, being killed, quoting John Donne: ‘Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.’
Are we ‘diminished’ equally by each death, though? We don’t know the names of the 3,000 odd (yes, ‘odd,’ means, ‘unspecified’ or ‘unable to specify’) refugees who died crossing the Mediterranean last year, do we? Their loved ones alone know. But we know who died in the Titan. We can google the question and the answer will pop up immediately: Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Reminded me of King Lear from the Shakespearean tragedy. Lear’s story is sad but no less tragic than countless others who suffered similar fates. Lear is collectively mourned. The others? Well, by their loved ones, at best.
Not all deaths can diminish us equally because those who died weren’t equal in the first place.
Someday, someone might make a movie based on the Titan story. There are probably movies made of refugees dying at sea but we would need hundreds of thousands of scripts to do justice to the stories of each and every victim. They will not be fleshed out.
The world is not flat. Lives are not equal. And death is variously valued. It’s as simple as that. It is as atrocious as that.
Jubeda Chowdhury , freelance columnist, researcher in Dhaka city
Economic sanctions, Visa restrictions, political embargo are the part of US coercive diplomacy. These are not a modern development. These first recorded use was in ancient Greece. But despite all the evidence since then showing they are generally ineffective and often counterproductive; the United States has developed a penchant for imposing sanctions on countries as they enable it to act aggressively on the cheap.
For a long time, the United States will do everything possible to coerce other countries, and the United States has a very disgraceful “dark history” in coercive diplomacy. Today, coercive diplomacy is a standard instrument in the US foreign policy toolbox, and containment and suppression in political, economic, cultural and other fields have been used to conduct coercive diplomacy around the world for pure US self-interest. Countries around the world have suffered, with developing countries bearing the brunt of it, and even US’ allies and partners have not been spared.
Now time to evaluate the evil deeds of US coercive diplomacy in the world and make the international community better understand the hegemonic and bullying nature of US diplomacy, and the serious damages caused by US actions to the development of all countries, regional stability and world peace
In the past half century, the US has never stopped engaging in coercive diplomacy in spite of great changes in the international structure. From economic sanctions to technical blockade, and from political isolation to threat of force, the US has demonstrated what coercive diplomacy is to the world with its own actions.
The developing countries are the “worst-hit areas” of America’s coercive diplomacy. In 1962, the United States imposed an economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba which continues to this day. The US-Cuba diplomatic relations were restored in 2015, but the US did not fully lift its blockade against Cuba. In 2017, the Trump administration tightened sanctions on Cuba again. In 2021, the Biden administration twice extended the “Trading with the Enemy Act,” which has served as the legal basis for the blockade and embargo against Cuba. The 61-year-old embargo has brought enormous economic losses and grave humanitarian disasters to Cuba. The US sanctions and blockade on Cuba cover almost everything from fuel, food and daily necessities to medicine, leaving the island facing a chronic and severe shortage of supplies.
Since 2006, the US has imposed sanctions on Venezuela, preventing Venezuela from entering the US financial system.
Twice kicking Iran out of the SWIFT system and disrupting the international financial order. The United States first imposed economic sanctions against Iran in 1979, when it froze $1.2 billion worth of Iranian assets abroad and eventually expanding to a full trade embargo. In 2019, Jake Sullivan, who is now national security advisor to President Joe Biden, wrote an article criticizing the Trump administration’s policy toward Iran, saying that it has nothing but coercion and no diplomacy. No positive outcome of the US coercive diplomacy.
In 1993, the United States announced sanctions against Sudan. Years of US sanctions have led to a severe humanitarian crisis in Sudan, with a large number of children across the country dying of malnutrition, according to a report released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan. In addition, the United States has imposed targeted sanctions against individuals and organizations in African countries such as Burundi, the Central African Republic, Somalia and Zimbabwe.
All-round sanctions on Russia. In 2014 and 2018 the USA has imposed sanctions on Russia in a massive row. During the ongoing Ukraine war, this sanction has affected the world dangerously. The coercive diplomacy was very ineffective. Moreover, Sanctions couldn’t stop Russia. Southeast Asia’s Myanmar is another example. The more US and western sanction closed to the Myanmar, Myanmar edged close to China and Russia more.
Violating the principle of fair trade and imposing tariffs on China. In July 2018, the US launched a trade war with China. The USA has been imposing sanctions time to time.
The US imposed sanctions on Mumbai-based petrochemical trading company Tibalaji Petrochem in October 2022, which marks the first time that US imposed sanctions on an Indian company for engaging in oil trade with Iran.
Now, USA targets Bangladesh for serving its own geo-strategic interest in the guise of promotor of human rights, democracy, all we know.
In addition to the economic and financial sanctions, the US is also good at interfering, either directly or indirectly, in the internal affairs of other countries by promotion of human rights, democracy. etc., to counter “disobedient” countries and regions. Since the 20th century, under the banner of “democracy” and “freedom,” the United States has promoted the “Neo-Monroe Doctrine” in Latin America, provoked “color revolutions” in Eurasia, and planned the “Arab Spring” in West Asia and North Africa, engaging in “peaceful evolution” in various parts of the world, wantonly engaging in hegemonic bullying and sending out a clear message that whoever follows it will survive and whoever defies it shall perish.
The United States has many means of coercive diplomacy
The hegemony of US dollar is an important foundation for US economic coercion. The promotion of the so-called democracy and human rights is a common trick of the US to carry out political coercion and interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. The United States has long promoted “American values” worldwide, played up “democracy versus authoritarianism,” wantonly interfered in the internal affairs of other countries, and attempted to shape other countries and world order with its own values and political system. They even interfere with and subvert the legitimate government of other countries in order to weaken rivals, pass on crisis, create chaos, and undermine stability.
The targets of US political coercion are all-encompassing. Be it an adversary or an ally, a developed or a developing country, a large corporation or a small organization, coercion is always the option for the US, as long as the US considers it profitable and the targets won’t bend to the will of the US. The US, under the banner of “promoting democracy,” carried out the “Neo-Monroe Doctrine” in Latin America, provoked the “color revolution” in Eurasia, and planned the “Arab Spring” in West Asia and North Africa.
The US frequently uses military force to initiate or participate in wars and conflicts of all sizes and forms. After World War II, major wars initiated or launched by the US include the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Kosovo War, the Afghan War, the Iraq War, the Libyan War and the Syrian War. Proxy wars are a common form of US military interventions, with countries such as Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Pakistan and Yemen suffering.
Distorting the underlying theme of our times of peace and development. Peace and development, as the theme of our times, are the common cause for people of all countries around the world. The US coercive diplomacy has cast a shadow over the cause of global peace and development by instigating “color revolutions” in the world, pouring oil over fire and seeking interests from geopolitical struggles.
The US economic coercion has not only undermined global supply chains and industrial chains based on factor endowments and comparative advantages, reducing labor productivity, but also raised regional and even global production costs and hindered the process of regional economic integration.
Intensifying division and antagonism in the international community. In order to maintain its global hegemony and contain the development of other countries, the US is keen to force other countries to join the “democratic alliance” by means of drawing ideological lines and imposing tariffs.
Shrugging off the fact that the US itself has engaged in coercive diplomacy everywhere, the US, out of political self-interest, readily tags some countries with the label of promotor of human rights those who engage in coercion, sanctions, bullying, suppressing other countries and bringing chaos to the world, will eventually hurt themselves. The United States should address its old habit of wanton coercive diplomacy and return a just and rational international order to the world.
Before you study the economics, study the economists!’
e-Con e-News June 2023 Part 4
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‘Among the Indians it goes by the name of Sielediba,
but the Pagans call it Taprobane…
As its position is central, the land is a great resort
of ships from all parts of India, and from Persia & Ethiopia,
and in like manner it despatches many of its own to foreign ports.’
(6th Century African traveller Cosmas Indicopleustes
quoted in Changing Patterns of Navigation in the Indian Ocean
& their Impact on Pre-colonial Sri Lanka, RALH Gunawardana)
Sri Lanka was building some of the largest ships in the Indian Ocean by the 7th centuryAD. The English finally destroyed this shipbuilding network in the early 19th century. English ships and boats had not been able compete with an intrepid Sinhala industry. The English sabotaged the sector by deploying such devices as denial of ‘insurance’ etc to disqualify the eligibility of local shipping to carry goods (just like they’re using ‘green standards’ now to undermine local production).
The destruction of shipbuilding also damaged the local iron, lumber and woodworking industries. The English in the 19th century also destroyed other supply industries such as cotton (for clothes & sails, et., recall what misty Kuveni was spinning back in the BCs) as well as the ingenious irrigation infrastructure of the purana gam – all such tales, ancient and modern, yet to be demystified and narrated.
Today India is modernizing their ports, some which could divert traffic away from Sri Lanka’s ports. With ever larger container ships being launched, Sri Lanka will be challenged as the ‘the only deepwater commercial port in South Asia, and the only hub port between Singapore and Dubai that can accommodate the new generation of large vessels’ (see ee Random Notes).
Sri Lanka was an ancient ‘mediatrix’ in the ocean – indeed another ‘Mediterranean’, a ‘Zhongguo’ (as China’s own name calls itself) – a centre of the world. Sinhalé not only provided oceanic intelligence and seamanship. Yet we can never forget that we once also manufactured local goods, not just oceanic goods as a centre of shipbuilding industries. There are numerous fake front companies for other countries’ multinational corporations (MNCs), some claiming to build boats in Sri Lanka – calling assembly, production, eg Japan’s Colombo Dockyards, etc. Then there are those who use us as a front to ‘penetrate’ other Asian and African economies.
In such a tenor, ee notes again the pitiful yet recurrent attempts by the media (& the importers, politicians & officials they perform lip services for) to headline ‘local industrial production’. This week we had to endure the most shiny glossy photos of luxury cars purportedly ‘made’ here. Could such rare products and primitive (yes, industrially primitive!) methods of production capture the home market from Toyota, Suzuki, Tata-Leyland & Bajaj, let alone transform local industry? – hah!
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A parade of locally assembled vehicles –
A ‘National Vehicle Parade’ with over 150 locally assembled vehicles
in line with the Industry 2023 – National Industry Exhibition,
jointly organized by the Ministry of Industries
& the Industrial Development Board
(ee Industry, Parade)
The Quad could beg USAID to sponsor a new version of the Mahavamsa, portraying Vijaya as a Vanga (Bangla) exporter bringing machine parts for Kuveni’s spinning wheel, then bedding the importer before replacing they/them with an Indian sales agent!
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‘Dealers said the demand for Dollars rose
due to further relaxation of 300 imported items
& in particular from importers of bathroom fittings & tiles.’
(ee Economy, Dollar gains vs Rupee)
Meanwhile, it seems a major job requirement of our envoys abroad – when they are not pimping exploitable workers and other natural resources – is to act as import agents. This week Sri Lanka’s envoy in India demanded Sri Lanka end restrictions on imports, and quickly fulfil the rest of the IMF’s demands. This of course is another false whine, cos most of almost everything is imported (ee Random Notes, Moragoda).
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‘In 1956, the major creditor countries set up the Paris Club
to renegotiate Argentina’s debts…
The Paris Club went on to conclude 433 agreements
with 90 different debtor countries…
In 1976, private bankers set up the London Club
to renegotiate Zaire’s debts.
They then continued to renegotiate the claims
of private foreign creditors on other countries.
(ee 12 Feb 2022, A Quicky World History of Fake Debt, Default & Destruction).
• We hear little to nothing about the London Club and the great private banks from our even greater economists (see ee Economists, Developing Debt Disaster). But this week, ‘President Ranil Wickremesinghe met the Paris Club on foreign debt restructuring’. Many English speakers, particularly roués – up on the latest sex, drugs & rock’n’roll – may associate a Paris Club with the cabaret & can-can of Moulin Rouge. But the Paris Club that detains us here, and the President there, is the Paris Club that is the united imperialist front for the major national shylocks of this world.
Our dearly unelected President also met the IMF’s boss, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. These personages meet, they prattle platitudes, their stenographers get them printed. What exactly of Sri Lanka’s future is he selling off on the slave block in Paris? We are not told. It cannot be his neck. What about other of his body parts? This ee reproduces analysis of how Canadian companies robbed all of Zambia’s main mineral resources (copper, gold) by demanding them as payment for this mythical debt default business. The English media then blamed China for Zambia’s debt (ee Focus, Canadian Looting of Zambian Resources Led to Debt Crisis)
This ee also recalls how Germany had to hand over all its timber and coal to pay for defaulting on reparations for WW1. What World War has Sri Lanka waged and lost, we wonder? (see ee Quotes).
It’s no coincidence that the merchant Suresh Kumar Shah placed in charge of fulfilling the IMF’s demand to rob state resources is the chair of London’s Ceylon Tobacco Company, and intimately linked to several other grand importers. A bagman for the ruling Selvanathan families, Shah this week also affected a rush to fling – profitable or not – all the state’s ‘enterprises’ onto the roulette table… err… stock market (ee Random Notes, SK Shah). Or should we say, prop our corpulent mercantile Humpty Dumpty high up on that murunga attha called Wall Street, while furtively exposing its flirty ISBs – international sovereign bonds as delectable.
Ironically, or not coincidentally, Sri Lanka’s dearly unelected President, much loved in the butt-freezing North Atlantic, was in gay Paree while the French government was concurrently holding a conference on international finance (see ee Economists, French Ambassador wants to work together for a more inclusive global financial system; also, Developing Debt Disaster).
It may be recalled, when now-convicted Nicholas Sarkozy was France’s President, he paid capitalist reformers Joe Sitglitz & Amartya Sen (nee Rothschild) to come up with an alternative index to GDP, in the wake of the destruction caused by the financial meltdown of 2007-8: Mismeasuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesn’t Add Up! Wonder where that effort ended up? GDP is still all the rage.
France appears to be taking over Canada’s old role as a supposed ‘neutral’, being mildly critical of the US hegemon (perhaps affecting the demurrals of that old Gallic General de Gaulle regarding NATO) and avidly attempting to cosy up to the BRICs countries etc. Canada, meanwhile, is stepping up to growl as another pitbull of the US empire, which more and more is using the UN as camouflage for its destabilization of our countries (see ee Focus, UNDP).
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• Yet another corporate whine this week – another corporate press release posing as a news item – this time from the drug importers. Denying that their members have imposed 400% price increases, admitting that since the Dollar exchange rate had gone down, they should have decreased prices, while at the same time demanding increased prices when the Dollar appreciates. In other words, they wish for ‘market’ pricing – even as we all know the pharma ‘market’ is dominated by a few MNCs, of which these local ‘Pharmaceutical Industries’ are but importers:*
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• The Dutch government has ‘revealed’ their multi-million$ colonial profits. They are even willing to return artifacts taken (note the story doesn’t say, ‘stolen’) during the Dutch period (note the story doesn’t say, ‘invasion’, period! – see ee Sovereignty). However, our first reaction (suspicion?) is to suggest they keep their loot and their accounts. We don’t want their variable guilders or euros either. Why don’t they instead share intellectual property rights, patents, etc, blueprints and access to ASML Holding, the Dutch MNC that specializes in the development and manufacturing of photolithography machines used to produce computer chips. It would be a start on the journey towards real justice. They could tuition their Boer settler cousins in Zud Afrika, what real truth & reconciliation (and reparations) mean. We’ll take the bling back later.
