{"id":141415,"date":"2024-04-14T16:03:35","date_gmt":"2024-04-14T23:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=141415"},"modified":"2024-04-14T16:03:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T23:03:35","slug":"in-the-sinhala-new-year-let-us-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/04\/14\/in-the-sinhala-new-year-let-us-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Sinhala New Year Let us hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garvin Karunaratne<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

My We alleviate poverty that afflicts over half of us<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mind you By the Sixties we had alleviated poverty<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did control our economy then, made things.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We imported only what we could not make<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1977 we embraced the IMF\u2019s Structural Adjustment<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sent all development workers to the barracks<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

yet we pay them fat salaries!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once in the Fifties, I remember, we even grew cotton and<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the air was filled with pollen. Now we import.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once in the Sixties under Dudley we were self sufficient<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

in Paddy, while giving a ration of rice free to everyone<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorry, Premadasa promoted all Agrl Overseers to do<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

deskwork as Niladharis and till today no trained officer at the Grassroots.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We even import Paratha, Cakes, Biscuits, Fruit Juice and everything<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can set up industries to make them in twenty four hours.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is easier to pay in dollars (on loan) than roll up sleeves and work.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1971 as Matara GA I set up Coop Crayon in three months<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coop Crayon was sold islandwide<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister Illangaratne banned all imports of crayons.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is that not yet the way ahead.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our leaders should visit Bangladesh To see the Youth Self Employment Programs<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

which I designed and set up in 1982<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is yet going strong- being implemented by those I trained.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has guided over three million to employment and production.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could that not be the motto this New Year.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let our leaders shoulder the wheel to set up industries,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Importing is not the way ahead.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only our leaders dare, I will be there to shoulder<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and assure success<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

garvin_karunaratne@hotmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Garvin Karunaratne My We alleviate poverty that afflicts over half of us Mind you By the Sixties we had alleviated poverty We did control our economy then, made things. We imported only what we could not make In 1977 we embraced the IMF\u2019s Structural Adjustment Sent all development workers to the barracks yet we pay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}