{"id":143354,"date":"2024-08-04T15:45:14","date_gmt":"2024-08-04T22:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=143354"},"modified":"2024-08-04T15:45:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-04T22:45:14","slug":"us-envoys-gunboat-democracy-as-us-indian-warships-slip-into-colombo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/08\/04\/us-envoys-gunboat-democracy-as-us-indian-warships-slip-into-colombo\/","title":{"rendered":"US Envoy\u2019s Gunboat Democracy as US & Indian Warships Slip into\u00a0Colombo"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-New<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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 28 July \u2013 03 August 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018There is no part of this earth\u2019s surface<\/strong> perhaps about which more<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

has been written than about the island of Ceylon<\/strong><\/em>.\u2019 \u2013 JA Ferguson, 1898<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

US Warship Michael Murphy<\/em><\/strong> (sounds like Irish blasphemy, but is part of the \u2018US Destroyer Squadron 31 of Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific\u2019) enters Colombo last week and departs after a \u2018formal visit\u2019. Then a sulky Indian Naval Submarine (INS) Shalki<\/em> skulks in . The US envoy then welcomes Sri Lanka\u2019s \u2018announcement\u2019 of yet another expensive (most of the expenses are for media, and the \u2018returns\u2019 on \u2018investing\u2019 in candidates) Presidential Election, while lauding our \u2018longstanding commitment to democracy\u2019. Miss Julie, the gunboat diplomat<\/em><\/strong>, must mean gunboat democracy<\/em>. After all, they should know: after financing terrorist wars in the 1980s, assassinations in the 1950s and coups in the 1960s, economic sabotage in the 1970s, sabotaging the creation of a Central Bank that avoided investment in modern industry, setting up and manipulating failed IMF panaceas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This ee<\/em><\/strong> therefore looks at the year 1898<\/strong>, in Sri Lanka and the world. 1898 dates the rise of the latest phase of capitalism \u2013 Imperialism<\/em><\/strong>. 1998 is the year an upstart USA<\/strong> blew up its own warship<\/strong> in Havana harbor, to take over some Spanish colonies, invading Cuba & the Philippines<\/strong> in Asia, unleashing the genocidal expertise of the veterans of their Indian Wars of the late 19th<\/sup> century<\/strong> on the North American Plains & Southwest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     US politics<\/strong> over its almost 250-year existence has been explained as a conflict between 2 wings of the ruling Capitalist Party of the USA, between slave importer & slave breeder<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 between 2 robber-siblings of settler <\/strong>vintage, the elder brother who says they have robbed enough, and the younger sister who says they are yet to fully secure their loot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This contradiction is evident in the setup in 1898 of the American Anti-Imperialist League (AAL)<\/strong> tied to a wing of the US Democratic Party & its presidential campaign. AIA was supported by US Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie (who worried for his steel monopoly) & famous author Mark Twain<\/strong>. The opposing gunboaters supported William McKinley who claimed god told him to invade Asia (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). McKinley<\/strong> is US presidential candidate Donald Trump\u2019s current favorite presidential forebear<\/strong>, who he claims was the \u2018King of Tariffs\u2019<\/em><\/strong> (see ee <\/em><\/strong>27 July 2024)! McKinley was later assassinated to pave the way for roughrider Theodore Roosevelt (whose foreign policy was: Walk Softly & Carry a Big Stick<\/em>. Roosevelt\u2019s name now also adorns an aircraft carrier parked in the Persian Gulf with 6 destroyers). Trump\u2019s previous model was US President Andrew Jackson, who genocided the South to set up enslaved cotton plantations there. We do not wish to be partisan. Trump & Harris-of-color are both part of the set menu<\/em><\/strong>\u2026 The more immediate origins of gunboat diplomacy are found in the US demanding \u2018equal opportunity\u2019 with other imperialists to impose the opium trade on China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Miss Julie\u2019s gunboat democracy<\/em><\/strong> is most evident of course in the US policy of roiling their \u2018Mexican backyard\u2019: \u2018The US Government Selects New President for Venezuela\u2019<\/em>! So runs a German headline this week (see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>). The US State Department\u2019s coy mouth organ, the Washington Post<\/em><\/strong> shamelessly insists yet again \u2018Maduro lost Venezuelan election\u2019. Elections are now more openly announced and decided by the US State Department, through their capitalist media foghorns, regardless\u2026 Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro this week, noted how the US Pentagon have funded and produced Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. Facebook was initially a Pentagon project called LifeLog<\/strong>; Google Earth used to be the CIA\u2019s EarthViewer<\/strong>\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Comrade Joseph Stalin concluded, \u2018In capitalist elections, it is the not the voting that counts, but the counting<\/em><\/strong>.\u2019 And now it turns out, it is who announces the count. This is recently evident in Murdoch\u2019s Fox declaring Biden the President, despite their fan Trump\u2019s demurral in that last contested election\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2022 Then again, real literacy is based on numeracy. And the counting<\/em><\/strong> depends on the accounting<\/strong>. And England\u2019s Ceylon Tobacco Co salaryman Suresh Shah, the man put in charge of selling off the motherland\u2019s jewels (who ee<\/em><\/strong> calls SoERU Suresh<\/em><\/strong>), told us this week, that the plans to sell off Sri Lanka Telecom, etc, have been authenticated by the likes of such scandal-ridden tax-magicians as USA\u2019s Price Waterhouse & England\u2019s Delloite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Their political arithmetik derives from that numbering that calculates how, after over 500 years of colonial plunder, the whites have accumulated so much moral capital<\/em><\/strong> (as well), <\/em>we somehow still owe them!<\/em><\/strong>. They therefore decide how much we owe them, and consequently, what words mean<\/em><\/strong>. Let\u2019s look at this so-called \u2018settlement\u2019 of the ruling oligarchy\u2019s debts<\/strong>, which we can never ever pay back, a deal that sets us up for yet another default:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018A senior executive of Rothschild<\/strong> (the largest ISB <\/strong>creditor of Sri Lanka)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

moved to Lazard<\/strong> (SL\u2019s financial advisory firm for the ISB restructure)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to manage debt restructuring. It could well be that the proposals that were<\/p>\n\n\n\n

on the negotiation table, including Macro-Linked Bonds (MLBs),<\/p>\n\n\n\n

was \u2018a joint proposal\u2019 of the creditor & the financial advisor of the debtor!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Samson Ekanayake, ee Economists<\/em><\/strong>, SL international bond deal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

This 17th<\/sup> IMF deal<\/strong> aims to ensure the country\u2019s underdevelopment until 2048<\/strong> at least. The greatest guarantee of \u2018perpetual debt\u2019<\/em> amidst \u2018forever wars\u2019<\/em><\/strong> is to prevent our economic, particularly energy & industrial, self-sufficiency & security. They aim to sustain the inferiority complex that we are an \u2018island\u2019, \u2018poor\u2019, \u2018backward\u2019 & \u2018bankrupt\u2019, etc.  We were told this week, \u2018Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, many of our mineral deposits are present in or near ecologically sensitive areas\u2019 (see ee Industry<\/em><\/strong>, Jathika Jana). The US warship entry, despite the purported ban on military visits, is meant to prevent our alliance with those who only have a true interest in assisting our modern industrialization, in freeing Lanka & its seas from over 500 years of piracy. Meanwhile, the US & their English & EU poodles are busy hijacking the International Seabed Authority (ISBA<\/strong>) leadership in Jamaica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018The International Seabed Authority <\/strong>does not have the authority<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to permit India to explore the Afanasy Nikitin Seamount\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s claim to this area, established in 2009, should be upheld\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the Afanasy Nikitin Seamount<\/strong> had been uncovered by Soviet<\/strong> researchers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in 1959 during the International Indian Ocean Expedition. This large-scale,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

multinational hydrographic survey of the Indian Ocean ran from<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sept 1, 1959, to Dec 31, 1965, and was aimed at understanding<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the fundamental features of the ocean. If a country discovers something<\/p>\n\n\n\n

while exploring the ocean floor, it has the right to name it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Soviets chose to name the seamount after a Russian explorer who<\/p>\n\n\n\n

was one of the first Europeans to travel to & document his visit to India.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Rear Admiral (ret\u2019d) YN Jayarathna, former Chief Hydrographer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Navy (see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

July 2024 also saw, and overheard, the closest the USA has come to admitting it sabotages the industrial economic policies of our countries<\/strong>. This was revealed at the Aspen Security Forum. The Aspen Institute is funded by such corporate tax-shelters as the Carnegie Corporation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Gates, Lumina & Ford Foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018The country that leads in technology tends to lead the world \u2013 Roman roads, Chinese<\/p>\n\n\n\n

gunpowder, English steamships & so on & so forth. The USA & our friends &<\/p>\n\n\n\n

allies have been the undisputed technology leaders for decades and now we have<\/p>\n\n\n\n

someone who\u2019s running the race & running really fast<\/strong> \u2013 and that\u2019s China. So, the goal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

here should be for the USA & our friends & allies to run faster in this race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s 2 ways to win a race: One you hobble the other guy<\/em><\/strong> and Allan [F Estevez,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undersecretary of Industry & Security<\/strong>, US Dept of Commerce] & team are<\/p>\n\n\n\n

working on that. There\u2019s another way to do it which is to run faster ourselves & this<\/p>\n\n\n\n

gets to what our companies are doing \u2013 we need to be, remain, the fastest & best innovation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

country in the world that used to be undisputed, but there\u2019s more that we can do.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Anja Manuel, Executive Director of Aspen Security Forum, 16 July 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

If the US is openly using this \u2018Tonya Harding strategy\u2019 (the US Olympian who hired a gangster to beat up a fellow athlete) on China, after all this nattering about \u2018free trade\u2019, go figure what they have done to Sri Lanka!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     At this Aspen meeting, Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google<\/em> & currently on a US Department of War advisory board) congratulates Estevez (US Undersecretary of Industry & Security<\/strong>), telling him the \u2018genius of your strategy [to ban semiconductors to China] is that you found a monopoly that exists in one company in the world that we had control over, which is ASML.\u2019 ASML<\/strong>, the world\u2019s \u2018most valuable tech company\u2019, is supposedly a Dutch company, that makes the machines that make chip-making machines. Its origins are traced to the Philips Co<\/strong> and the stealing of Karl Marx\u2019s mother\u2019s inheritance! (see ee<\/em><\/strong> 11 Nov 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Our economists & intellectuals are paid to shy away from such planned industrial \u2018security\u2019. England banned the emigration of machines & mechanics in 1695<\/em><\/strong>, they also banned the import of textiles from India etc <\/strong>to protect their nascent industry. US machine memorialists like to claim that an Englishman (Samuel Slater) defied that ban and sailed to the US, and from memory built the first machines that formed the basis of the US\u2019 textile industry. Within such miasma & mythmaking & diversion is industrial policy befogged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The banning & banishment of an industrial culture has diverted us from a common-sense view of life, which should be our daily prayer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018The materialist conception of history<\/strong> starts from the proposition<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that the production of the means to support human life<\/strong> and, next<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to production, the exchange of things<\/strong> produced, is the basis of all<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

social structure<\/strong>; that in every society that has appeared in history,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the manner in which wealth is distributed<\/strong> & society divided into classes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

or orders is dependent upon what is produced, how it is produced, & how<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the products are exchanged<\/strong>. From this point of view, the final causes of all<\/p>\n\n\n\n

social changes & political revolutions are to be sought, not in men\u2019s brains,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

not in men\u2019s better insights into eternal truth & justice, but in changes in the<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

modes of production & exchange<\/strong>. They are to be sought, not in the philosophy,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but in the economics<\/strong> of each particular epoch.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Frederick Engels, Socialism: Utopian & Scientific<\/em>, 1880<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Part of the blame for our ignorance may be laid at the failure of our fake \u2018philosophers of praxis\u2019 to elucidate the real machinery gearing modern capitalism. This also explains the proliferation of political 3wheeler parties & academics, claiming to be \u2018Leftists\u2019, \u2018Socialists\u2019, \u2018Communists\u2019, \u2018Marxists\u2019, etc, while promoting \u2018anarchism\u2019, \u2018nihilism\u2019 & \u2018Trotskyism\u2019. And then we have the example of the latest Scottish Pretender (the Scots are still pretending), a King\u2019s knight, Sir Keir Starmer, who claims to lead a \u2019Labour\u2019 party:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018The dialectics of history<\/strong> were such that the theoretical victory of Marxism<\/p>\n\n\n\n

compelled its enemies to disguise themselves as Marxists. Liberalism<\/em><\/strong>, rotten<\/p>\n\n\n\n

within, tried to revive itself in the form of socialist opportunism<\/strong>. They<\/p>\n\n\n\n

interpreted the period of preparing the forces for great battles as renunciation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of these battles. Improvement of the conditions of the slaves to fight against<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wage slavery they took to mean the sale by the slaves of their right to liberty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for a few pence. They cravenly preached social peace\u201d (ie, peace with<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the slave-owners), renunciation of the class struggle, etc. They had very<\/p>\n\n\n\n

many adherents among socialist members of parliament<\/strong>, various officials<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of the working-class movement, and the sympathizing\u201d intelligentsia.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 VI Lenin, The Historical Destiny of the Doctrine of Karl Marx<\/em>, 1913<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

It is the duty of the capitalist media to promote a fake socialism that is unable to single out the role and significance of each class in capitalist society. They conceal the capitalist strictures of democratic reforms, with their incessant slogan-mongering about the people\u201d, \u2018justice\u2019, \u2018rights\u2019 etc., while pushing US Amnesia about great historical crimes\u2026 <\/em>Despite all that\u2019s been written: \u2018about the island of Ceylon\u2026.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

_____________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\n
US Envoy\u2019s Gunboat Democracy as US & Indian Warships Slip into Colombo<\/a><\/blockquote>