{"id":129999,"date":"2022-11-17T17:17:55","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T00:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=129999"},"modified":"2022-11-17T17:17:55","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T00:17:55","slug":"attack-of-the-ekonomik-killers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/11\/17\/attack-of-the-ekonomik-killers\/","title":{"rendered":"Attack of the Ekonomik\u00a0Killers!"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

A \u2018Chinese<\/strong>\u2019 & an \u2018African<\/strong>\u2019 meet in \u2018Europe\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Chinese\u2019<\/em>: Xi Hong is my name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018African\u2019<\/em>: Delighted, my name is Emmanuel No\u00ebl de Souza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Chinese\u2019: So you\u2019re not African but Franco-Brazilian?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018African\u2019<\/em>: Yes, I am African<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Chinese\u2019: And your name is Emmanuel No\u00ebl De Souza?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018African\u2019<\/em>: Yes, I owe my parents this pretty name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Chinese\u2019<\/em>: Even simple names that don\u2019t require any technique, any technology,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

you can\u2019t produce them at home? Do you have to import them or have them donated to you?\u00a0………….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This \u2018African\u2019 could easily well be a \u2018Sri Lankan\u2019. Besides, it\u2019s not that Asians & Africans do not \u2018know\u2019 about the vital indispensability of modern \u2018machine-making\u2019 industry. Ask Japan, China, India, Korea. Ask Zimbabwe. South Africa. Congo. It is just that such ideas and practices are murderously penalized, and creatively sabotaged. Besides, \u2018our\u2019 media and schools also simply will not tell! Then again, \u2018our\u2019 editors and professors themselves do not know what the culture of modern production entails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note the regular paeans to fake local manufacture<\/strong> or assembly parading as industry, announcing Made-in-Sri Lanka<\/strong>. Note the obtuse references, that pop out regularly, comparing Sri Lanka to an Africa, which serves as an imagined benchmark for \u2018system failure\u2019. And yet, such references end up being far more revealing about our own studied ignorance about the real world and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This week, it was \u2018award-winning\u2019 Professor Rohan Pethiyagoda addressing the 48th<\/sup>\u00a0Convocation of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura at the BMICH in Colombo:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Story<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Attack of the Ekonomik Killers!<\/a><\/blockquote>