{"id":149412,"date":"2025-05-06T08:36:42","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T15:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=149412"},"modified":"2025-05-06T08:36:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T15:36:42","slug":"how-an-import-media-in-sri-lanka-aggrandizes-the-colonial-export-trap-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/05\/06\/how-an-import-media-in-sri-lanka-aggrandizes-the-colonial-export-trap-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How an Import Media in Sri Lanka Aggrandizes the Colonial Export\u00a0Trap"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/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 27 April \u2013 03 May 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018This is why Harry Dexter White of the US Treasury<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

fought so hard at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

to have the 2 institutions headquartered in Washington<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

After the shutting down of USAID<\/strong> and the US withdrawal from the WHO<\/strong> (World Health Organization), there was much headlined chatter<\/strong> that the US government would move to shutter (or at least shut up) the IMF<\/strong> & World Bank<\/strong>. Well, there\u2019s no such fire to such pipe-dreams \u2013 just smoke. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has declared that the \u2018return on investment\u2019 from their terrible twins, is unparalleled. Unlike in the UN and other such multilateral institutions, the US government has \u2018effective veto power<\/strong>\u2018 over the WB & IMF, making them \u2018efficient tools of US foreign & economic policy\u2019, as Zambia\u2019s Grieve Chelwa<\/strong> highlights (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). And Bessent wants to ensure they keep promoting US interests \u2018at the expense of the rest of the world\u2019<\/strong>, with his boss Mr Trump cluck-cluck-clucking that we all pay even more for our own further entrapment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     As for those who believe all of this gushes from the brains of Bessent & his darling US President Don Trump, we now are told that Mr Trump\u2019s \u2018change of mind\u2019 on his tariffs \u2013 calling for a 90-day pause \u2013 was \u2018prompted\u2019 by the tweeting of Bill Ackman, CEO of hedgefund Pershing<\/strong> Square Capital Management. Ackman apparently moves markets with his statements<\/strong>\u2026 and rewrites politician\u2019s policy statements. We learn that US policy is made by such bankers as Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase), Ken Griffin (Citadel), and Ackman (see ee Quotes<\/em><\/strong>, Flattering Trump).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     These bankers are at least the more-public faces of those capitalists who decide economic shifts and shapes. They also own mega media conglomerates. Ackman owns Universal Music Group Inc, who for example wasted young people\u2019s time by promoting a \u2018feud\u2019 between rappers Kendrick & Drake \u2013 both of whom are owned by Universal Music. The same goes for \u2018feuding\u2019 politicians & parties? Maybe the NPP should have met Bill, Jamie & Ken, instead of wasting time hankering after Don, JD or Kristalina at last week\u2019s IMF & WB annual meeting in Washington? Instead, we\u2019re told the NPP delegation met with a Mormon missionary & a fake blonde Texan queer (see ee Who\u2019s Who<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     And speaking of \u2018feuds\u2019, see ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong> for an excerpt of Sena Thoradeniya\u2019s stalking of the itinerary of twisted sister Julie Chung, the US Envoy, as she sets about attempting to promote a highland Eelam aka Malayagam\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2022 All such fragmenting fissiparousness is being turbo-charged by a backward multinational-corporation-run economy. Perhaps the media in Sri Lanka should be renamed The Import-Export Daily News, The Import-Export Sunday Times, The Import-Export Island<\/em>, The I-E Morning<\/em>, The I-E MTV<\/em>\u2026 99.99% of economic commentary in the media promotes the export game. And this is not new. The colonial economy was\/is a classic import-export plantation economy, and see how it still runs, like the 3 Blind Mice of English rhyme. And even so-called \u2018local\u2019 companies should be prefixed with Import-Export: Import-Export Keells, Import-Export Hayleys, I-E Maharajah\u2019s<\/em> etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018Before the advent of the English, the economy of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the coastal districts & parts of the interior which<\/p>\n\n\n\n

had passed under European rule, had already lost to a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

great extent its old localized & self-sufficient character<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& had become linked through extensive external trade<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with European commercial capital.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 \u2018The Program for Ceylon\u2019, 1946<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2022 The world is divided into at least three parts: the imperialist countries of Europe, the settler states of the genocidal colonies \u2018of new settlement\u2019 (USA, Canada, Australia, etc), and such expatriate-dominated non-settler colonies as Sri Lanka, according to ee<\/em><\/strong>\u2018s muse, SBD de Silva (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). However, if you really wish to see the differences between countries, de Silva suggests, we should look at countries like South Africa & the Congo where there are\/were both settlers & expatriates<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018In South Africa, the expatriate investors were confined<\/p>\n\n\n\n

mainly to mining & foreign trade; but the shift to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

agriculture<\/strong> & manufacturing which was to transform<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the economy was brought about by the settlers<\/em><\/strong>.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Indeed, as de Silva eloquently asserted, \u2018The metropolitan-based commercial bourgeoisie<\/strong> were wholly export oriented<\/strong> and concerned with already existing markets, whereas the settlers relied on the home market<\/strong>. The stimulus to industrialization came largely from the settlers<\/strong>.\u2019 And now we are reminded again, why England\u2019s Unilever<\/strong> & the USA\u2019s Exxon & the Anglo-US CTC are still allowed to monopolize Sri Lanka\u2019s home market. And how they enable the news to hide how they actually keep stealing from us \u2013 contrary to the prompted ravings of Mr Trump\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2022 Ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance & Justice MUM Ali Sabry goes on & on in a prolix 5-part series in The Island<\/em> newspaper, on the USA\u2019s tariff hoopla. It is only at the very end that he struggles to say it is the US that is robbing Sri Lanka, not the other way around, but then only feebly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Take Sri Lanka, while it may appear to run a surplus<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in goods trade with the USA, that surplus is more than<\/p>\n\n\n\n

offset by: Payments for US-based tech & streaming<\/p>\n\n\n\n

services (Google, Netflix, Apple<\/strong>); Outbound tourism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

& overseas education costs<\/strong>; Interest payments on<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

sovereign debt owed to institutions like the IMF &<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

World Bank, whose returns flow back to major<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

shareholders, including the USA<\/strong>\u2026 Sri Lanka is<\/p>\n\n\n\n

taking part in a(n)\u2026 economic relationship that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is already tilted toward the US economy<\/strong>.\u2019 \u2013 Ali Sabry,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

see ee Economists<\/em><\/strong>, Trump tariffs, world trade, Parts I-V<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

     Malaysian economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram (see ee<\/em> Economists<\/em><\/strong>) is much more explicit than Sabry: Trump Wants the World to Subsidize US Empire<\/em><\/strong>. US President Trump\u2019s Council of Economic Advisers chairman Stephen Miran\u2019s A User\u2019s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System <\/em>told the Hudson Institute<\/strong>, a thinktank funded by media czar Rupert Murdoch who controls Fox News<\/em>, Wall Street Journal<\/em> etc:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018US military spending provides the world a \u2018security umbrella<\/strong>\u2019 that others should<\/p>\n\n\n\n

also pay for. Second, the US issues the dollar & Treasury bonds, the main reserve<\/p>\n\n\n\n

assets for the liquidity of the international monetary & financial system. Miran<\/p>\n\n\n\n

seems blissfully unaware of longstanding complaints of the USA\u2019s \u2018exorbitant<\/p>\n\n\n\n

privilege\u2019. The dollar\u2019s reserve currency status has provided seigniorage income<\/strong> to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the US while Treasury bond sales<\/strong> have long financed US debt at very low cost.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Indeed, Trump\u2019s Rumpelstiltskin fussing & stamping about is not new. The English Chancellor of the Exchequer (later PM) Benjamin Disraeli in 1852 declared: These wretched colonies\u2026 are a millstone round our necks.\u201d But he was referring to the North American settler colonies, who the English claimed should pay for wars, just as Trump now wants Europe & its settler colonies plus their non-settler colonies to do. But few explain as SBD de Silva has done that imperialist exploitation of our economies is much more pernicious than just taxes & terror:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The conglomerates can defend their interests abroad (without colonialism<\/p>\n\n\n\n

based on conquest of territory), for the reason that they can control activities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by their monopoly of technology & markets<\/strong>. First, a good portion of their<\/p>\n\n\n\n

income is in the form of technological rents<\/strong>, royalties<\/strong>, licensing rights<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

technical assistance fees<\/strong>, etc. The technology is rarely transferred<\/strong>, and its<\/p>\n\n\n\n

diffusion<\/strong> outside the orbit of such corporations is rigidly controlled<\/strong>. When<\/p>\n\n\n\n

deprived of this technology<\/strong> & marketing know-how<\/strong>, the natural resources &<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cheapened labour of the host countries become idle assets at least in the short run.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 SBD de Silva, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment<\/em>, 1982<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2022 With all this talk about corruption, we wonder why US-occupied Korea<\/strong> \u2018granted\u2019 US$8.5 million to \u2018automate Colombo municipality revenue systems<\/strong>\u2018 while the country is just about to hold local elections? Meanwhile, Japan too has funded a 137million-yen \u2018Project for Promoting Economic Governance through Anti-Corruption Policy Support\u2019. Will the Japanese yen (JP\u00a5) now investigate the Korean won (\u20a9)? Keep smoking! ee<\/em><\/strong> continues therefore examining the US model of \u2018the general prostitution of civic ideals\u2019, through Gustave Myers\u2019 1917 History of Tammany Hall<\/em>. This ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> records how by 1820, \u2018manhood suffrage<\/strong>\u2018 had dominated Tammany\u2019s political posturing. Another demand was the abolition of the law for imprisonment of debtors<\/strong>. Tammany claimed to represent \u2018the farmer, the independent blacksmith, the shoemaker with an apprentice or 2\u2019, who all had the vote if propertied, yet it remained an envious \u2018middle-class\u2019 institution. They coerced and bribed lawmakers into passing bank charters and franchises, even while publicly promoting the abolition of speculation and banks<\/strong>. See also how the bankers who had promoted the genocidal General Andrew Jackson (one of Mr Trump\u2019s idols) for President, the banks then arrayed the \u2018combined power of the propertied classes\u2019 against the \u2018laborers, mechanics, farmers & producing classes\u2019 to bring him down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2022 May is a month of memories<\/strong>. There was May Day, which contrary to the perennial media bad-mouthing, is still heartily celebrated (even if only permitted in some hearts) around the world (as Labor Day, it\u2019s a 5-day official holiday in China). May is indeed a month of action & memories. May 4th<\/sup> recalls the youth movement in China in 1919 against the imperialist decision to cede former German concessions in Shandong province to Japan, which led to the formation of the Communist Party of China (CPC). May 5th<\/sup> is the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of the victory of Vietnam over the US-led imperialists (France, Japan, Canada, etc., were also actively complicit). May 9th<\/sup> recalls the Soviet Union\u2019s victory over Nazi Germany (who was backed at first by England, USA, France, etc.) in World War II. And since the USA always relies on its standard shystering \u2018art of the deal<\/em>\u2019, threatening war, here & there & everywhere & all at once, we need to also recall the Communist Manifesto<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Bourgeois & Proletarians! \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class<\/p>\n\n\n\n

struggles. Freeman & slave, patrician & plebeian, lord & serf,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

guild-master & journeyman, in a word, oppressor & oppressed,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an<\/p>\n\n\n\n

uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution<\/strong> of society at large,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

or in the common ruin<\/strong> of the contending classes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Karl Marx & Fredrick Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party<\/em>, 1848<\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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How an Import Media in Sri Lanka Aggrandizes the Colonial Export Trap<\/a><\/blockquote>