Removing Russian oil from the market would make energy prices skyrocket to over $300 per barrel of oil, Russia’s deputy prime minister, Aleksandr Novak, said on Monday, adding that Russia is not dependent on the West and can reroute” its supplies elsewhere.
The European officials are once again seeking to put all the blame for their own recent energy policy shortfalls on Russia,” Novak told journalists, adding that Russia has nothing to do with the current price hike on market volatility.”
Russia has been a reliable partner” for Europe for many decades, Novak said, adding that Moscow has been supplying the European nations with roughly 40% of their gas needs. The deputy prime minister made his comments after gas prices in Europe hit record highs of almost $3,900 per 1,000 cubic meters while the price of Brent crude oil surpassed $130 per barrel for the first time in a decade.READ MORE: US plotting unilateral ban on Russian oil imports – media
The deputy prime minister also slammed Germany’s decision to freeze certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project and argued that Moscow has a full right” to stop supplying gas via Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which has not been targeted by Western sanctions. Russia is not that dependent on the West and knows where to reroute” its supplies if needed. Still, Moscow will not take reciprocal measures against Europe in this case, he added.
Earlier on Monday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz admitted that his nation would not be able to replace Russian gas supplies any time soon and expressed his opposition to any sanctions targeting Russia’s essential” oil and gas industry. Following his statements, the gas price reduced to $2,700 per cubic meter.
Russia’s energy giant Gazprom has confirmed it will be sticking to its commitments under the contracts and deals with foreign customers and also said that it still uses Ukrainian gas transit system as normal” despite a conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
Colombo, March 7: The United States struts about the global stage portraying itself as an ideal democracy and as a gladiator for human rights everywhere. But it doesn’t appear to have an exemplary rights record to back its claims. The World Report for 2022 of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), had this to say: The Biden administration has made some big-picture pronouncements on key issues like racial and gender equity with little evidence so far that the words will translate into real impact for people whose rights have been systematically and historically ignored or trampled.”
Backing this up, Nicole Austin-Hillery, US Program Executive Director at HRW, said: Black people in the United States still suffer from significant economic disparities stemming from systemic racism that have impacts across generations; and border policies have shredded the right to seek asylum, while officials subject migrants to violent, abusive treatment.” Anc according to Executive Director Kenneth Roth: Black people are killed by police at a per capita rate that is three times the rate of White people. Black people still make up almost 42% of the current death row population despite being only 12.4% of the US population.”
The Biden administration has also kept in place the harmful Title 42 border policy, under which it expels asylum seekers to unsafe conditions in Mexico or their home countries on specious public health grounds, HRW says. The Department of Homeland Security documents showed over 160 internal reports of physical and other abuses of asylum seekers as well as violations of their due process rights.
Reviewing the Trump Administration’s human rights record in 2020, Amnesty International noted that the Trump administration’s record was dismal”. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated long-standing inequalities in the USA. Inadequate and uneven government responses to the pandemic had a disproportionate and discriminatory impact on many people based on their race, socioeconomic situations and other characteristics. Additionally, racially discriminatory political speeches and violence increased the number of hate crimes, the report said.
At least 1,000 people were reportedly killed by police using firearms. Black people are disproportionately impacted by police use of lethal force. In numerous incidents, human rights defenders – including protest organizers, media representatives, legal observers and street medics – were specifically targeted with chemical irritants and kinetic impact projectiles, Amnesty said.
Gun Culture
The ongoing failure to protect individuals from persistent gun violence continued to violate their human rights. Unfettered access to firearms, a lack of comprehensive gun laws and a failure to invest in adequate gun violence prevention and intervention programs continued to perpetuate gun violence. In 2018, 39,740 persons died from gunshot injuries while tens of thousands more sustained gunshot injuries.
As of 2020, expansive Stand Your Ground” and Castle Doctrine” laws, both of which provide for private individuals to use lethal force in self-defense against others when in their homes or feeling threatened, existed in 34 US states. These laws escalate gun violence. The federal government carried out more than three times the number of executions in 2020 than it had between 1977 and 2019 combined. Since judicial killing resumed in the USA under revised statutes in 1977, a total of 1,529 people have been executed.
Amnesty said that the authorities unlawfully detained and expelled” over 330,000 migrants and asylum-seekers between March and November – including over 13,000 unaccompanied children.
Under its flawed global war on terror” project the US repeatedly resorted to lethal force in countries around the world, including using armed drones, in violation of its obligations under international human rights law and, where applicable, international humanitarian law, ignoring calls by the UN for clarifications. Since January 2018, the US has not responded to communications from Special Procedures or accepted their requests for invitations to carry out official visits.
Following announcements that the ICC would investigate violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of Afghanistan since May 1, 2003, the Trump administration issued an Executive Order which declared a national emergency” and authorized asset freezes and family entry bans against certain ICC officials.
In July, the US Department of State released a report by its advisory panel called the Commission on Unalienable Rights”. That report unilaterally redefined what human rights mean, rejecting the interpretive authority of UN and other international human rights bodies, Amnesty said.
The February 2022 Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021 issued by the State Council Information Office of China quotes NBC News of Sept. 1, 2021 to say that since March 2021, the US had thrown away at least 15 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, that was significantly more than many poor countries had prepared for their whole populations.But the US itself has the world’s highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, with 34.51 million confirmed cases and 480,000 fatalities, which far surpassed the numbers in 2020. Average life expectancy in the US fell by 1.13 years, during the pandemic, the biggest drop since World War II.
The public security situation in the United States deteriorated. There were 693 mass shootings in 2021, up 10.1% from 2020. More than 44,000 people were killed in gun violence. The United States is the country with the largest number of privately owned guns in the world. The Small Arms Survey (SAS) researchers estimate that Americans own 393 million of the 857 million civilian guns available, which is around 46% of the world’s civilian gun cache.
There are 120 guns for every 100 Americans, according to the SAS. No other nation has more civilian guns than people. Every town for Gun Safety reported on Dec. 21, 2021 that over 15 million guns were sold through October. According to statistics released on Jan. 5, 2022 by the Gun Violence Archive website, the number of fatalities from shootings in the US rose from 39,558 in 2019 to 43,643 in 2020, and further to 44,816 in 2021. CNN reported on Nov. 26, 2021 that Jason R. Silva, an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at William Paterson University, said that the United States is the only developed country where mass shootings have happened every single year for the past 20 years. According to an April 2021 Pew Research Center survey, 48 percent of Americans see gun violence as a very big problem in the country today.
According to data compiled by Mapping PoliceViolence, at least 1,124 people died in 2021 due to U.S. police violence. The USA TODAY website reported on June 21, 2021 that police in the United States fatally shoot about 1,000 people a year..
Around 81% Asian American adults said violence against Asian communities is rising. Hate crimes against Asians in the New York City jumped 361% from 2020. 59% of Americans said ethnic minority groups do not have equal job opportunities. The hate against Asian Americans has followed Washington’s confrontation with Beijing.
Prisoners held in U.S. private prisons are at risk of being abused. The UN News reported on Feb. 4, 2021 that in 2019, there were about 116,000 U.S. prisoners held in privately operated facilities, representing about 7% of all state prisoners and 16% of , quoting data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. The United States still held 39 detainees at the Guantanamo prison.
Fernand de Varennes, a special rapporteur on minority issues of the United Nations, said the US legal system of human rights protection is incomplete and outdated, which has led to growing inequality. More than 420 bills with provisions that restrict voting access have been introduced in 49 US States.
The number of the homeless in the US is staggering, the Chinese report said. The Washington Post reported on Dec. 7, 2021 that homelessness is one of the United States’ greatest current challenges, no matter the region.”
Stephen Walt, Professor of International Relations at Harvard University, said: Americans must first fix what has gone wrong at home and rethink how they deal with the rest of the world.”
COLOMBO, March 7 (Reuters) – Nearly 1,000 bakeries have closed in Sri Lanka due to a severe shortage of cooking gas, an industry association said on Monday, as the impact of dwindling foreign exchange reserves ricochets through the country’s economy.
The island nation is facing its worst financial crisis in a decade with foreign exchange reserves shrinking 70% to $2.36 billion in January, leaving the government struggling to pay for imports including food, medicine and fuel.
People are lining up at fuel pumps across the country and a shutdown of multiple power plants has led to rolling power cuts, sometimes lasting more than seven hours a day.
The cooking gas shortage has almost doubled bread prices to about 150 rupees ($0.75) in some urban areas, N.K. Jayawardena, chairman of the Ceylon Bakery Owners Association, said.
“If this situation lasts for one more week, 90% of bakeries will have to close. Many bakers have taken out loans, they will not be able to repay them,” said Jayawardena, whose association, the largest in the sector in the country, represents some 7,000 members. “The government must find a solution urgently.”
Two government spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment on the bakeries but ministers have said they are working to normalise fuel distribution.
While bread products are not such a vital staple as rice, nearly every village and town would have at least one bakery supplying breads for curries and snacks to families and workers.
The gas shortage is also hitting small restaurants and households, with dozens of cooking gas retailers forced to suspend business due to lack of supplies.
“Normally we get about 100 gas canisters every two days. Since last Monday we haven’t got any,” cooking gas retail outlet owner Danusha Gunewardene told Reuters. “I had a delivery boy but now he also has no work and no way to make a living.”
A senior official at Laugfs Gas, one of Sri Lanka’s two gas suppliers, said imports were stalled because banks were declining to open letters of credit. The company typically sources about 15,000 tonnes of gas from Qatar and Oman a month worth $50 million.
“We usually issue 40,000-50,000 cylinders to retailers per month but that has now reduced to less than 2,000. Since last Friday no supplies have been released,” the official, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation.
Spokespeople for Laugfs and the other main supplier, state-owned Litro Gas, declined to comment.
Sri Lanka is due to receive two diesel shipments on Monday and another later this week, which is expected to partly ease the fuel shortage, Energy Ministry Secretary K.D.R Olga said.
“A 30,000 tonne shipment of furnace fuel has also docked and will be offloaded from tomorrow to supply thermal power plants,” Olga said.
CB Governor says Road Map presented last Oct. has borne fruits and SL has no need of an IMF programme
Says SL doesn’t have a problem in its foreign currency inflows, but a significant increase in outflows
Says no request made to China to restructure Yuan denominated debt
Believes current exchange rate suitable given the ramifications should the rupee was devalued
The Central Bank is still disinclined to recommend to the government to seek International Monetary Fund (IMF) support for a rescue package and foreign currency debt restructuring even amid the country in a deeper foreign exchange crisis, which has resulted in unending fuel shortages and power cuts.
However, the Central Bank raised policy interest rates by 100 basis points on Friday, delivering the highest rate hike in more than a dozen years and proposed a number of policy adjustments, which more or less mirrored the policy cures IMF prescribed for Sri Lanka in the same week after the conclusion of the Article IV consolations, to help overcome the current crisis. However, their implementation is contingent on the government’s willingness. Except for the proposal for discouraging non-essential and non-urgent imports, everything else must be implemented to avert further economic calamity, complemented by gradual floating of the currency, according to economic analysts.
Speaking at a post-monetary policy presser held on Friday, Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said they remain on course of the Road Map presented in October despite certain delays, and hence the country doesn’t need to seek IMF support or restructure debt under an IMF-backed programme.
According to Cabraal, Sri Lanka doesn’t have a problem in its foreign currency inflows, but a significant increase in outflows, which has resulted in the current predicament in the foreign exchange market.
Merchandise imports to Sri Lanka reached just under US$ 22 billion last year, hitting the highest in three years despite the languishing economy.
However, with or without the IMF, Sri Lanka will have to resolve its foreign exchange crisis soon to avert life and business-crippling fuel shortages and power cuts.
Getting the forex crisis behind them soon is also in the best interest of the government as the crisis has already made cracks in the coalition government with eleven connected parties threatening to pull out.
Meanwhile, in response to a question on the progress of the request made to China for Yuan denominated debt restructuring, Cabraal denied making such a request.
While the Monetary Board had paid attention to make some changes to the exchange rate, Cabraal said the Board deemed the current exchange rate is suitable given the ramifications should the rupee was devalued.
Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) says it is of the view that forex transactions would take place at levels that are not more than Rs. 230 per US dollar.
In a statement, the Central Bank noted that it would continue to closely monitor the developments in the domestic foreign exchange market and make appropriate policy adjustments accordingly.
Taking the severity of the external shocks and recent developments in the domestic front into consideration, the Monetary Board of the Central Bank announced a comprehensive policy package on 04 March with the view to counter such economic headwinds.
The Central Bank also indicated that it would continue to closely monitor the emerging macroeconomic and financial market developments, both globally and domestically, and would stand ready to take further measures as appropriate, with the aim of achieving stability in the fronts of inflation, the external sector, the financial sector, and real economic activity.
In that context, greater flexibility in the exchange rate will be allowed to the markets with immediate effect, the Central Bank said in its statement.
Greater flexibility has been allowed in the exchange #rate. @CBSL is of the view that the rate won’t exceed Rs.230 per USD. (විනිමය අනුපාතය වඩාත් නම්යශීලී කොට ඇත. එය ඇ.ඩො.යට රු. 230 නොඉක්මවනු ඇතැයි මහ බැංකුව අපේක්ෂා කරයි). #SriLanka#GoSL#lka#USDpic.twitter.com/ce8Qe2vW5L— Ajith Nivard Cabraal (@an_cabraal) March 7, 2022
The Health Ministry says another 662 persons have tested positive for the novel coronavirus today (07).
Accordingly, the total number of Covid-19 cases registered in the country climbs to 650,802 with this while 16,201 patients infected with the virus are currently undergoing treatment.
The Director General of Health Services has confirmed another eight coronavirus related deaths for March 06, increasing the country’s death toll due to the pandemic to 16,339.
Five of the victims are males while the other three are female patients while one of the deceased is a youth below the age of 30 years.
One patient is between the ages 30-59 years while the other six are in the age group of 60 years and above.
Meanwhile the Health Ministry reports that another 121 coronavirus patients have completed their recovery and have been discharged within the last 24 hours.
This brings the total number of Covid-19 recoveries in the country to 618,262 while approximately 15,547 infected patients are currently undergoing treatment island-wide.
The Russian MoD stated that foreign journalists arrived in Kharkov on Sunday in advance to record the consequences of the Ukrainian radicals’ provocation, in order to accuse Russia of creating an ecological catastrophe.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), along with the Azov neo-nazi militants, are preparing a provocation with possible radioactive contamination of the area near the city of Kharkov, eastern Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.
According to the ministry, the Ukrainian nationalists mined a reactor at an experimental nuclear facility at the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology. The SBU and Azov battalion militants are planning to blow up the reactor and accuse the Russian military of a missile attack on the experimental nuclear facility.”
The SBU and the militants of the Azov battalion are planning to blow up the reactor and accuse the Russian Armed Forces of allegedly launching a missile attack on the experimental nuclear facility,” the ministry said.
On Friday, Kiev attempted a provocation at the Zaporizhzhya NPP in the country’s south, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, accusing Moscow of developing a source of radioactive contamination at the plant.
The Russian military emphasized that a group of Russian soldiers was patrolling the area close to the station when a Ukrainian sabotage unit started firing from the windows of several stories of an educational and training complex located outside the NPP. As a result of the shootout, the Ukrainian saboteurs were forced to retreat, setting the building on fire before that.The fire was eventually put out, and the radiation level was determined to be normal.
On Sunday, in a phone call with his French counterpart, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian military “continue to ensure” the normal operation of the NPP together with “the Ukrainian security unit and personnel.””The physical and nuclear safety of the plant is reliably protected,” the Kremlin said upon the conversation.
The Russian forces are also controlling the Chernobyl nuclear site to prevent Ukrainian radicals from conducting sabotage at the nuclear facility.”All of this is being done to rule out the prospect of Ukrainian neo-Nazis or terrorists staging provocations with potentially disastrous results,” the statement read.
Russia launched its military operation in the Eastern European country on February 24 after the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics requested assistance in defending themselves against Ukrainian forces. The goal of Russia’s special operation is to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, with only military assets being targeted, according to Russian authorities.Moscow has made it clear that it has no intention of occupying Ukraine. The purpose, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is to protect the people of Donbass, who have “who have been subjected to abuse, genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.”
I suggest Sri Lanka call for an urgent meeting of the Finance Ministers of the SAARK countries immediately to be held in Colombo to discuss how they can help Sri Lana to get out of its present economic crisis in the country and build up a new tradition of region corporation and also find out who our good Samaritans are, as well. This I think is a more welcome departure from the normal going round the world with the begging bowl undermining one’s own self- respect.
I am making this proposal in the wake of India’s imposing tough conditions for US$ 1 billion loan requested by Sri Lanka, trying to impose its hegemony on the peripheral nations of the Indian sub- continent giving priority to for its own self-interest, blatantly ignoring the high principles of the SAARC Charter. This could also be a good opportunity to test the effectiveness of the SAARC Charter for Regional corporation and it could be a very good opportunity to find out who our true friends are, as well. Also let us see how each country can contribute for regional corporation within the SAARC region and together they can build up as a strong regional economic power within the emerging strategic Indo Pacific region.
The last summit of the eight-nation grouping was held in Nepal in November 2014. This shows the inactivity of this organization that have killed mutual corporation within the region due to self- interest on the part of some members.
Over to you the Government of Sri Lanka , if there is one?
The proposed meeting could also be a golden opportunity to give a new life and a new meaning to the objectives of the SAARC Charter.
This statement is questionable. The dispute in Donbass has lasted for 8 years, the West was unconcerned.
Putin insisted that Minsk Accord must be implemented. But, the West did not take him seriously.
Putin repeatedly stated to the world leaders (western) that his main concern is that Ukraine was trying to join NATO. Given the strong animosity that has emerged between Russia and Ukraine since 2014, Putin feared that with NATO’s help Ukraine will re-acquire nuclear weapons. For him, it amounts to planting nuclear weapons in his own (Russia’s) backyard.
Also, in the last 8 years about 14,000 people had died in Donbass region (Donetsk and Luhansk). They are Russian speaking Ukrainian people. Unlike the people in the west of Ukraine, these people live in 3rd world type conditions. According to the British Vlogger Bald and Bankrupt ‘they are desolate areas’.
Russia shares borders with Finland (land) and Sweden (maritime). They are highly developed, modern nations. But they do not have a desire to join NATO. Because Russia is a nuclear country, these two countries have realised the importance of remaining neutral.
But since 2014, Ukraine (Europe’s 2nd largest country after Russia) has shown a great desire to move away from Russia and join EU.
Thus, it is reasonable to argue that Putin has strong concerns about the security of his country. Basically, he has the right to protect his country.
A smart, rational man – Putin always thinks ahead. He was thinking about Russia’s future. He knows that NATO loves to expand. This means pushing him to an extreme corner. Putin does not want his head (Russia) to hit a brick wall.
On 21 February 2022 Putin recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as Independent People’s Republics. It was first believed that he will send his military only to those two regions, to strengthen them.
But, on 24 February 2022, surprisingly Russia began a full scale attack on Ukraine. He sent military with the intention of capturing the whole of Ukraine, including Kiev. It is believed that the invasion is the largest conventional military attack in Europe since end of the World War 2.
Putin may have believed that such an invasion was necessary to capture the Russian speaking parts of Eastern Ukraine.
If Eastern Ukraine is in his hands, it will be a fine buffer for Russia.
It is obvious that Putin wants to capture the port cities in the Balkans (eg: Mariupol, Kherson), so that Crimea could be strengthened. He seems wanting Kharkiv (Ukraine’s 2nd largest city) also. It is in North Eastern Ukraine.
Is Putin justified in starting an attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022? The writer states No.
The writer states it was a disproportionate response on Russia’s part to the problems at hand. In Sinhala we have a saying ‘ඉවසලා ඉවසලා බැරිම තැන, එතනයි ඉවසිය යුතුම තැන’.
In his inner circle, there was nobody bold enough to tell Putin that he was embarking on a stupid, most dangerous course of action. The saying: ‘It is very lonely at the top’.
We live in the 21st century, not the 18th or 19th. Conventional warfare should not be the way to resolve conflicts (the writer notes the Iraq, Libyan and other similar wars).
The writer is happy if all nuclear arsenal are abolished and banned from the world.
Given that Russia is a big nuclear power country, the writer believes that it has a greater responsibility to avert a war of this magnitude.
Where and when will this end, nobody knows. Is this the beginning of the World War 3. Let us hope not.
One thing is certain – after the end of the war, Russia’s problems with Ukraine will be more than they were before.
The western leaders – especially France and Germany should have done more to avert this situation (Russia attacking Ukraine).
This is why on 3 March 2022 Sergei Lavrov stated ‘they heard us but did not listen’.
An observation –
In the 2020 Belarus presidential election, Lukashenko won again with official results giving him 80% of the vote, leading to mass protests. Numerous countries did not recognize the result and the EU imposed sanctions on Belarus.
Thanks to Russia, Lukashenko was able to resist the Revolution. He is very secure now.
Why did not Putin offer the same support to Yanukovych in 2014? He passively allowed Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution to proceed undeterred. This may be due to the fact that the Moscow Winter Olympics was happening at the same time (February 2014). Putin knew if he intervened in Ukraine at that time, western nations would have boycotted the Olympics. Then, it will be a tremendous blow to Russia’s image and prestige. Is Putin regretting now that he did not intervene in 2014?
(In 2012/13 the Sri Lankan government had a golden opportunity to scrap all the 9 provincial councils (scrap the 13th Amendment) by holding an island-wide referendum. The provincial councils are not only a white elephant, they are serious threat to the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. But Sri Lanka was keener to hold the CHOGM conference. It feared that if a referendum was held at that time the western nations would boycott CHOGM.
Sri Lanka is well served under a strong central government. Sri Lanka is not India, we are tiny (Tamilnadu has a population more than 3 times of Sri Lanka). And Tamil people (majority of them are good) understand that Sri Lanka does not need this type of an additional administrative layer. Such mechanisms are artificial; also very expensive to maintain. There are some Tamil political leaders who make unreasonable demands. They do not love Sri Lanka).
True, later Putin went ahead and annexed Crimea. It was like teaching the West a lesson. But his actions boomeranged on him. Russia was subjected to strict economic sanctions and was isolated by the western world and their allies. Russia was excluded from G8. The political forum name reverted to G7.
After Trump came to power Russia somewhat recovered and despite the sanctions became prosperous again. Unfortunately with this latest action, Russia will be very badly economically hit. Such a fine country, it is now viewed as a pariah state by majority of the world. This is a sad and unfortunate development.
Let us hope that this vicious war will end very soon.
The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) has approved the request made by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to have rotational power shedding for over seven hours on Monday (07) despite an earlier statement saying there would be no power cuts from March 05.
The PUCSL granted permission for seven and half hours power cut (5 hours from 8am to 6pm. and 2 and half hours from 6pm. to 11pm.) for Monday for areas of E & F while three hours power cut ( 2 hours from 9am. to 5pm. and one hour from 5pm. to 9pm.) for areas of PQRSTUV and W.
However, during a meeting with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa last week, officials of the Ministries of Power and Energy said that there would be no power cuts from March 05.(DSB)
Public protests continued on Sunday evening as several people gathered with candles in Kohuwala and Rajagiriya to protest against the severe day to day hardships caused by the economic failure of the government.
Citizens lined up on the streets holding placards calling on the government to go home and urging politicians to stop playing with the lives of the people.
One protestor said that it was pure mismanagement by the government that had led to the economic crisis while another said that the public urgently needed some relief.
The protestor’s said they were not affiliated to any political party and were on the streets due to the hardships caused by the politicians.
The Health Ministry says that another 508 persons have tested positive for Covid-19 today (March 06).
This brings the tally of Coronavirus cases registered in the country thus far to 650,140.
Approximately 15,688 patients infected with the virus are currently undergoing treatment while total recoveries stands at 618,141.
The Director General of Health Services has confirmed another 10 coronavirus related deaths for March 05, pushing the country’s Covid-19 death toll to 16,331.
This figure includes 07 males and 03 females, according to the Department of Government Information.
Three of the deceased patients are between the ages 30-59 years while the rest are in the age group of 60 years and above.
The Ukraine conflict has been ‘westsplained’ enough. On Gravitas Plus, Palki Sharma tells you how Western arrogance & NATO’s expansionism are also to blame, how their actions precipitated the crisis in Ukraine.
The war is over. Some wounds are yet to heal. It’s time we engage ourselves in the healing process with open arms. I want to showcase stories woven around courage, compassion, and forgiveness. This is the launching of a series of short documentaries.
March 04, 2021 marked the 50 years of Bangladesh-Sri Lanka bilateral ties. On the eve of Bangladesh’s independence, on March 4, 1972, Sri Lanka officially recognized Bangladesh. The early recognition by Sri Lanka provided the newly emergent country with much-valued support. Since then, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have been enjoying cordial bonds of friendship based on our historical linkages, mutual respect, multiple commonalities and spirit of good neighbourliness.
Sri Lanka has been a popular name in world politics since the post-colonial period. Despite the huge potential, educated and hardworking manpower, some internal problems have repeatedly stumbled upon the country.
At present, the country with a population of 21.8 million has a GDP of 60 billion, an annual growth rate of 7.5 percent and a per capita income of 3,852 (2019) dollars. Growth is expected to recover to 3.4 percent in 2021. After the end of years of bloody civil war in 2009, the country’s policymakers are focusing on economic and infrastructural development. Sri Lanka is on track with two of Asia’s emerging economies, China and India.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa came to Dhaka as an invited guest on the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence and the centenary of the great founder of Bangladesh’s independence Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on behalf of the country’s people in March 2021. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are important members of SAARC, BIMSTEC and the Commonwealth. Now is the time to strengthen bilateral relations in the new geopolitical realities of South Asia.
However, the priority sectors for cooperation between the two countries are agriculture, tourism, trade, investment, banking, information technology and education. Bangladesh is currently negotiating a ‘Preferential Trade Agreement’ (PTA) with Sri Lanka.
Bhutan has also a ‘Preferential Trade Agreement’ (PTA) with Bangladesh. Bhutan and Bangladesh signed the ‘Preferential Trade Agreement’ in December 06. People of Bangladesh and Bhutan are benefitting from it. Now huge of Bangladeshi products are open in Bhutan. Bangladesh apparel, medicine, goods are being exported and Bhutanese fresh foods are being imported now. The door opens up.
The signing of the FTA with Sri Lanka will boost trade relations between the two countries and will be part of history. About 25,000 Sri Lankans are working in Bangladesh. Most of them work in the readymade garments sector. The two countries can work together to create mid-level skilled officers in the readymade garments sector. Sri Lanka’s Textile and Apparel Institute already has an agreement with Bangladesh’s BGME Fashion Institute in Chittagong.
Sri Lanka has also achieved world-class technological advancement in the banking and the stock market. Bangladesh has a trade deficit with Sri Lanka. Bangladesh has a demand for medicines, paper and cement in Sri Lanka. 45 Sri Lankan companies have invested 300 million (in the garment sector) in Bangladesh. On the other hand, Bangladeshis have invested only 20 million in the Sri Lankan pharmaceutical sector.
The higher education sector can be one of the most important sectors of cooperation between the two countries. Sri Lanka’s higher education is world-class. They have increased the reliance on technology in education. They are successful in establishing Vocational College. Sri Lanka is also very successful in job-based technology education. There is talk of increasing cooperation among foreign service academics. A joint study on Indian Ocean security strategy could be conducted between the Bandaranaike Center for International Studies and the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies.
In addition, the two countries will benefit from the consensus on the issue of climate change as well as joint research in the production of agricultural seeds suitable for the changing climate. The two countries can work together to meet the ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets by 2030. Now Bangladesh is going to be a full member of the Colombo Security Conclave. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other regional countries can work closely to ensure maritime cooperation.
Incumbent Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is an influential Sri Lankan politician. He had earlier visited Bangladesh in 2011 as President. World politics is gradually shifting to the Asia-Pacific region. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have joined the BRE project proposed by China. Although Sri Lanka is debating China’s debt, Bangladesh is taking a balance. The India-Japan-Australia quad has been set up against China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project. This is the message that South Asia is going to be the background for the domination of the superpowers in the coming days.
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh both saw the incidents of the Easter Church attack in 2019 and the Holy Artisan attack in 2016 respectively. Bangladesh is now considered a role model of counter-terrorism around the whole world. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka both can work in this regard because this is a threat to sustainable development. Tourism and tackling covid-19 can be the common sectors to serve the mutual interest.
Recently, the President of Maldives said that Bangladesh and Maldives can work together to establish a peaceful and trade-friendly Indian Ocean region. Sri Lanka could also be an important partner in this regard. In these circumstances, Bangladesh will need the experience, support and consensus of countries like Sri Lanka to remain steadfast in its separate foreign policy in the spirit of ‘friendship to all, malice to none anyone’ (Principle of Bangladesh’s foreign policy).
Bangladesh faces and bears the burden of Rohingya refugees who are the citizens of Myanmar. They were displaced by their own government in 2017. Bangladesh has sheltered them temporarily. Now it is high time to repatriate them to their homeland Rakhine in Myanmar. The Sri Lanka government can support Bangladesh in this regard. Sri Lank can support Bangladesh at every common international form to pressurize Myanmar in favor of repatriation.
Sri Lanka was one of the initiators of the non-aligned bloc that took place in world politics in the middle of the last century through the Bandung Conference, outside the US and Soviet domination. Neutral alliances of smaller countries are once again becoming important in the tug of war between the major superpowers in the region. Therefore, there is no alternative to building a sustainable bilateral relationship between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to meet the challenges of future world politics. This bilateral relationship could lead to future alliance neutrality in the region.
Softlogic Holdings PLC is in talks with Agora to acquire the full operation of Bangladesh’s oldest supermarket chain, said the Sri Lankan conglomerate and people familiar with the matter.
A subsidiary, Softlogic Retail Holdings (private), inked an agreement on Friday to acquire Agora, said the group in a disclosure at Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE).
Softlogic, which has interests in ICT, healthcare, retail and financial services, said the deal would take place through “a series of transactions, subject to terms and conditions set out therein and receipt of regulatory approvals”.
An official in Dhaka with knowledge of the matter confirmed the development but did not share the takeover amount under negotiation.
Agora began discussions with the Sri Lankan conglomerate after its talks with Gemcon Group, owner of Meena Bazar, another leading supermarket chain in the country, fell through by the end of last year.
Agora and Softlogic have been in discussions for the past couple of months, according to the official.
With some 72.5 per cent owned by Frontier Fund-managed Swedish hedge fund Brummer & Partners and the rest by Rahimafrooz, Agora started its journey in 2001 as the country’s first supermarket chain.
Known for its automotive batteries, Rahimafrooz opened its first Agora supermarket outlet to attract shoppers with the convenience of an alternative to unorganised wet markets for purchasing groceries and other daily essentials.
In 2009, Brummer & Partners formed a joint venture with Rahimafrooz to grow its footprint and improve services.
Now Agora has 17 outlets — 14 in Dhaka and the rest in Chattogram and Sylhet.
With Agora’s ones, there are around 300 superstore outlets, including 208 of Shwapno, the largest retail chain in the country, said sector insiders.
Overall, supermarket chains register around Tk 3,000 crore in annual turnover, which is still insignificant considering the fact that wholesale and retail trade account for just 15 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, according to operators.
Industry insiders said the sector would grow fast if a flat rate of value added tax (VAT) was imposed across the retail trade.
Currently customers have to pay a 5 per cent VAT on purchases from supermarket and large stores.
But they do not need to pay it when buying groceries from kitchen markets or neighbourhood stores, a discrepancy that keeps many customers away from superstores.
Softlogic says it encompasses a multi-brand, multi-channel strategy.
Its operations in Sri Lanka include branded apparel, consumer electronics, mobile handset retails and distribution, supermarkets and quick service restaurants, according to its disclosure at the CSE.
The group employs over 11,000 people in Sri Lanka and Australia and operates an asset base of over $750 million to generate an annual turnover of more than $420 million, it said in its website.
This alleged ‘unreliability of solar and wind energy’ is a matter brought up repeatedly by the CEB, and was also brought up by even knowledgeable commentators, like Dr. Kumar David, a professor of electrical engineering. The unreliability exists if you rely on the sun shining on one or two large installations.
But, if you have a system consisting of many solar energy installations scattered all over the country, one can be sure that even if the sun is not shining in Mannar, it may be shining in Moneragala or Hambantota or somewhere else. If they are all connected to the grid, the electricity produced at Mannar or Moneragala is available almost instantly, and everywhere, as electricity flows nearly at the speed of light.
The average daylight fluctuations can be determined by looking at daylight data, which Priyantha Hettige must also address.
The most detailed data sets on daylight in Sri Lanka are (unsurprisingly) ‘not’ available in Sri Lanka, but are available at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado, USA. The data is collected by US satellites and is updated every 10 minutes or so. The data is accessible to external scientists.
Dr. Dave Renner, head of one of the Renewable Energy Departments at NREL, and his team, have also studied solar energy viability for Sri Lanka and the Maldives and concluded that there is excellent potential. I have studied their report and extracted from it for one of my replies to Dr. Kumar David on the so-called ‘unreliability’ of solar energy.
Moreover, Dr. Renner and his team designed the computer software for Hawaii, a tropical island where solar energy fluctuations are in many ways similar to that of Sri Lanka. The software is used for computer control of load-shedding and load-mounting required to deal with any fluctuations when incorporating solar energy into the grid. Hawaii is smaller than Sri Lanka, and hence even a distributed system is not scattered widely enough and consequently, such software is crucial to distributing solar energy on the grid.
The CEB does not have significant IT or AI capability and still uses hand-written schedules like those fit for a ‘baas-unnaehe’. The last time there was a blackout, the CEB had to admit that their technicians did not even have a written down operating protocol, let alone computer control, which is now standard in almost every part of the world.
It is imperative that the CEB be advised by a research arm that could instruct it on frontier technical matters, for example like the tea industry is advised by the Tea Research Institute. Now, after almost eight decades of power generation, the CEB does not have enough in-house competency to analyse even its own blackouts, and has to hire consultants from Canada and elsewhere!
Hawaii is rapidly integrating its solar installations with its main grid using such software, unlike in Sri Lanka where we try to find reasons not to use solar energy claiming that it is ‘not viable’, and go for ready-made but extremely costly solutions, like buying LNG, or pursue red herrings, such as dreaming about atomic energy.
However, the Central Bank raised policy interest rates by 100 basis points on Friday, delivering the highest rate hike in more than a dozen years and proposed a number of policy adjustments, which more or less mirrored the policy cures IMF prescribed for Sri Lanka in the same week after the conclusion of the Article IV consolations, to help overcome the current crisis. However, their implementation is contingent on the government’s willingness. 
