{"id":142914,"date":"2024-07-07T16:34:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-07T23:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=142914"},"modified":"2024-07-07T16:34:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T23:34:00","slug":"unnamed-sri-lankan-officer-held-hostage-in-baltimore-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/07\/07\/unnamed-sri-lankan-officer-held-hostage-in-baltimore-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"UnNamed Sri Lankan Officer Held Hostage in Baltimore,\u00a0USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
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blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 30 June \u2013 06 July 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An unnamed Sri Lankan<\/strong> is being held hostage in Baltimore by the US government. His name has not been released, and neither has the media been allowed to name the other 10 \u2018high-ranking officers\u2019 from India being held with him. Media and so-called \u2018international\u2019 unions for seafarers are not asking too many questions out loud. The crash took place midst heightened tensions between the US, Canada and India trading accusations of promoting terrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The hostages are part of the crew of the Dali<\/em>, the Maersk-chartered container ship that hit and demolished the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on 26 March. It is now over 3 months, and that port is cleared, but it remains uncertain how long they will be detained. The \u2018narrative\u2019 is now being crafted by the shipping insurance companies will nail the ship\u2019s crew as the fall guys. 10 other seafarers were returned to India, on condition they return when demanded. The crash gave another opportunity for media to unleash further tirades against \u2018foreign workers\u2019, even as their economies are now even more based on igniting wars and manufacturing refugees to undermine worker power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The capitalist media in Sri Lanka and India act act sunnily blas\u00e9 about the hurricanes brewing off the Atlantic, let alone off Kollupitiya, against our workers. They are eager to promote their import-heavy \u2018exports\u2019! This includes trafficking workers \u2013 for they have no plan to skilfully employ them with dignity to build the country. This ee <\/em><\/strong>also looks at how a panel of chief economists from the biggest Canadian banks<\/strong> insisted, in January, \u2018Too many temporary foreign workers & international students<\/em><\/strong> are driving up prices, taking up housing & causing productivity to collapse.<\/strong>\u2019 They are blaming a \u2018botched\u2019 immigration plan, which they (& other NATO governments) hatched to discipline a \u2018tight\u2019 labor market, with workers demanding higher wages. What the big bankers are ultimately demanding, as usual, to fix their inflation, is unemployment\u2026 and war\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Suspected of carrying toxic waste & weapons to Sri Lanka, the Danish Maersk-chartered ship Dali<\/em>, which crashed that Baltimore bridge in March, returned to Virginia, US, this week, and secretly unloaded 1,500 containers there<\/strong>. Media again gives no details of what was in those containers. The Dali<\/em>, shipping 4,700 containers, had originally gone to Baltimore from Norfolk, Virginia, which also houses the largest US navy base. (see ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Also, this week, the US Virginia Ports Authority (VPA)<\/strong> signed an agreement with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) to exchange \u2018expertise & technical collaboration\u2019. This was follow-up to SLPA grandees being buttered there on a jaunt in May 2024. Just as coincidental was this week\u2019s rather nettling headline, \u2018Sri Lanka receives US$5Mn aid to <\/em>tackle incompetence<\/em><\/strong> in <\/em>chemical imports.<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 The $5Million is from Washington-based Global Environment Facility<\/strong>. And what a global environment, Washington facilitates! But, \u2018incompetence<\/em>\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201880% of global trade is concentrated within Global Value Chains (GVCs),<\/p>\n\n\n\n

particularly through<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the intra-firm trade of a handful of transnational companies<\/strong> (TNCs)\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Shiran Illanperuma (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest chemical importers in Sri Lanka<\/strong> involve the major US & EU multinationals \u2013 Exxon-Chevron, Unilever, International Chemical CIC-ICI, BAT\u2019s Ceylon Tobacco Co, etc. Indeed, another coincidental headline this week: \u2018Medical expert attributes increases in kidney diseases to widespread use of substandard whitening creams.<\/strong><\/em>\u2019  What then is the higher-standard bleach? And how & why do these chemicals enter the country? Unilever\u2019s \u2018Fair&Ugly<\/em>\u2019 occupies a major segment of the wannabe vadakaha sudhiya market, in their attack on the nation\u2019s melanin reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 The week\u2019s \u2018good news\u2019 ended with the National Bankers Association <\/strong>gathering at the Galle Face Hotel, Colombo, on Friday. There is no sunlight about what these suited bankers spat into each other\u2019s bushy ears. Or into the ears of the state. The US-embassy news outlet EconomyNext<\/em> under the headline \u2018Foreign investment is essential for the banks to thrive<\/em>,\u2019 helpfully informs us: \u2018the event was attended by various individuals from the banking sector\u2019, adding only that the President said, \u2018neither I nor the Sinhalese nation is<\/em> beggars.<\/strong>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The week began with the US government\u2019s latest throw of loaded dice to \u2018restructure<\/em>\u2019 even-more-impossible-to-pay-back debts<\/strong>. Refashion debts incurred from this so-called \u2018foreign investment\u2019, that has refused to invest long term. Media also refuse to discuss why, as China asks, the IMF\/World Bank & other \u2018multilaterals\u2019 are untouchable when it comes to this \u2018restructuring\u2019? They don\u2019t cut their hairs! Ex-Central-Bank Governor & erstwhile democrat & house-kneegrow, Indrajit Coomaraswamy dutifully declared that the 15 recommendations of the \u2018IMF Governance Diagnostic\u2019 should apply to any party that takes office<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Do these reforms augment Sri Lanka\u2019s productive capabilities<\/strong> & secure her sovereignty<\/strong> in a technologically competitive<\/strong> world?\u2019, responds Illanperuma (ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>) He surveys the possibilities for an industrial renaissance midst the tightening hugs of the clinking chains of the multinational corporations (MNCs)<\/strong>, of local \u2018bankers\u2019 who refuse to invest in modern production for they are too busy greasing imports of \u2018luxuries & other machined joys\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In Sri Lanka, \u201883% of industrial exports are by companies registered with the Board of Investment, most of which are foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs)<\/strong>. Domestic value-added remains fairly low<\/strong>, due to the lack of a local supply chain\u2019.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018One thing leads to another\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, was indeed one of SBD de Silva\u2019s favorite quotes<\/strong>, to describe what real industrialization is all about. He said it so often, we thought it would be apt title for a biography about him. He was also quite aware of who would ensure: one thing leads to nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 All this week\u2019s reported foofaraw at the port took place midst righteous teeth-grinding by \u2018all the Chambers\u2019 \u2013 including the American Chamber of Commerce <\/strong>& European Chamber of Commerce \u2013 <\/strong>about a sick-note campaign by Custom officials: \u2018Shippers condemn corrupt trade union action at Customs.\u2019 \u2018It was grossly immoral\u2026for officials of the department to hold the people of the country and industries at ransom\u2019, said the Colombo port mafia\u2019s fronts led by Shippers\u2019 Council<\/strong> Chairman Sean Van Dort, Joint Apparel Association Forum<\/strong> Secretary General Yohan Lawrence & Rohan Masakorala of Hub Operators Association<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Their media suggests this was an attempt by greedy workers to grab their slice of the renewed profits at the Suez-challenged docks of Colombo, which have been controlled by England\u2019s P&O<\/strong> for over almost 200 years. Meanwhile, after months of media rigmarole about the Indian workers lodged in the hills being restless, and container-loads of kerfuffle about what constitutes decent terms & conditions, an \u2018independent\u2019 & \u2018unbiased\u2019 Supreme Court has struck down a \u2018generous\u2019 President\u2019s plan to increase their wages. Everybody, including the Indian kanganies who control labor, win \u2013 except the workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Dangerous are the times for Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the importing of rice stops, we would have nothing to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If importing of materials stops from abroad, we would have nothing to wear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it was not for the vehicles imported from other countries,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we would have no means of travelling. In essence, without<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the accommodation from abroad, we will not be able to do anything\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Kumaratunga Munidasa (1877-1944)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ee<\/em><\/strong> looks once more at the studiously suppressed demand, from over 100 years ago now, for an industrially developed independent country, made by such leaders as Anagarika Dharmapala & Kumaratunga Munidasa. BD Witharane asks, why \u2018the emerging bourgeoisie, the new rich, who while representing different castes also shared common class interests\u2019, did not \u2018respond favourably to the call for an industrially developed Ceylon?\u2019 Why did their demand not \u2018evolve to be a mature plan<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 leading ultimately to the establishment of a Sri Lankan developmental nation? He also asks why if any such \u2018plan\u2019 had \u2018escaped the gaze of historians for some reason?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018In the classical approach to the social sciences, economics<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& what are now regarded as its border disciplines \u2013 especially<\/p>\n\n\n\n

politics, sociology & history \u2013 were entwined. The first to incorporate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

political economy<\/em><\/strong> in their writings were the 18th<\/sup>-century Scottish moralists,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

including Joseph Hume, who were concerned with the effects of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the development of commerce & wealth on political power as well as on human happiness.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 SBD de Silva, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the commencement year, 1960, the total numbers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

admitted to the university were divided roughly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

equally into English & Svabhas\u05b4\u0101 media\u2026 In a few years\u2019 time,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the numbers in the English medium came down to a mere trickle\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 WD Lakshman (ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ee<\/em><\/strong> continues with WD Lakshman\u2019s look into the \u2018Beginnings of Economics Teaching at University Level\u2019. WDL highlights some of the traumas of the transition from English to Svabh\u0101s\u05b4\u0101 medium in university education \u2013 \u2018a challenging and difficult process for teachers as well as students\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018No courses with Economics in course-titles are offered<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

in Wayamba & Uva Wellassa Universities<\/strong> where, however,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

there are Faculties of Business & Management.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 WD Lakshman (ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the expansion of the menu, amply funded at first by untouchable multilaterals like the World Bank to suit the imperialist flavours of the hour, it turns out only a few dishes have been properly cooked, with diminishing supplies of agriculture & industry to keep the kitchen going\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 All the news stories mentioned here may be found in our news compendium. ee<\/em> sincerely believes this compendium to be a true work of modern art. An endless installation on info, misinfo & disinfo. A monument to MNCs like Unilever, which dominate the media through their advertising budgets. It shows that the principal town crier, especially about corruption<\/em>, is the epitome of corruption itself. Even if we have no idea what Marshall McLuhan meant by \u2018the media is the message\u2019\u2026 we do know the media \u2013 that trumpet, is the most corrupt<\/strong>. Because most of what the media calls corruption<\/em> is diversion from the real challenges we as a country & the world need to overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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_________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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UnNamed Sri Lankan Officer Held Hostage in Baltimore, USA<\/a><\/blockquote>