{"id":152836,"date":"2025-11-02T17:40:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T00:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=152836"},"modified":"2025-11-02T17:40:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T00:40:30","slug":"why-is-the-us-eu-in-a-mighty-hurry-to-digitally-map-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/11\/02\/why-is-the-us-eu-in-a-mighty-hurry-to-digitally-map-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is The US & EU in a Mighty Hurry to Digitally Map Sri\u00a0Lanka?"},"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 26 October \u2013 01 November 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018Who<\/strong> will own<\/em> the data<\/em>? Who<\/strong> will own the infrastructure<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who<\/strong> will regulate & govern? &, who<\/strong> has the technological<\/p>\n\n\n\n

capabilities to define<\/strong> the development of this technology?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

The US & EU governments seem to be in an awful hurry to digitally scan Sri Lanka. The US-funded economic thinktank Verit\u00e9\u2019s Sri Lanka Economic Policy Group<\/em> member Mick Moore is insisting on maps that \u2018uniquely identify all properties using aerial imagery\u2026 Geographic Information Systems (GISs) [that] collect standardised external data & photographs without entering buildings.\u2019 Moore\u2019s pretext is the \u2018weak\u2019 collection of \u2018Property Taxes in Sri Lanka\u2019, <\/em>with such mapping offeringa \u2018More Effective ValuationMethod\u2019(see ee Quotes<\/em><\/strong>). Moore is apparently an expert on tax evasion<\/em><\/strong>, including by multinational corporations (MNCs). But he is yet to map how England\u2019s Unilever<\/strong>, or Ceylon Tobacco Co<\/strong> or ICI-CIC<\/strong> have evaded their duties to Sri Lanka\u2019s treasury<\/strong> for over 100 years, right here. Moore was anointed an \u2018Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE)<\/strong> for his services to international development<\/strong>\u2019. As we deduced before, \u2018development\u2019<\/em> is a euphemism to replace \u2018colonialism<\/strong>\u2019 concocted by one of Unilever\u2019s many Public Relations (PR) agencies \u2013 so we can well imagine who Officer Moore\u2019s tax expertise is designed to serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Meanwhile, the pretext for the European Union (EU) to demand the mapping of Sri Lanka is that the new EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)<\/strong>, \u2018prohibits the import & export of goods produced from deforested land\u2019. Really?<\/em> So, how have all these plantations been set up? By conserving immaculately virgin growth! The EU claims it is funding a Sri Lanka Ministry of Plantations<\/strong>\u2019 \u2018national program to survey & map<\/strong> all smallholder rubber lands across Sri Lanka\u2019. Here, the pretext for digital mapping is that \u2018all rubber & related products<\/strong> entering the European market must be certified as deforestation-free\u2019 (see ee Quotes<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Two weeks ago, Sri Lanka\u2019s Supreme Court dismissed 2 fundamental rights petitions filed by former Minister Wimal Weerawansa and others, to annul the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with India on a controversial digital identity card<\/strong> project. India\u2019s National Institute for Smart Government<\/strong> is about to implement Sri Lanka\u2019s national digital identification system<\/strong>. \u2018The bidding for this project was restricted to Indian firms\u2019, observes Shiran Illanperuma & Vijay Prashad (I&P)<\/strong> in their incisive investigation into \u2018AI & Digital Sovereignty<\/strong>\u2019 (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). Raising concerns \u2018over the security of data<\/strong> as well as the neglect of local talent<\/strong> and capabilities,\u2019 they ask, \u2018Should local firms be given priority<\/strong> when developing digital infrastructure? If they lack experience or expertise, how best can policy be shaped to address these deficiencies<\/strong>?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     I&P also point to Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink<\/em><\/strong> being granted a license to operate internet services by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)<\/strong>. Even President AK Dissanayake has \u2018raised national security concerns that local authorities have no access to Starlink\u2019s data system<\/strong>\u2019. While the capitalist mass media has fabricated Musk as a brilliant individual entrepreneur, I&P point to his links to military intelligence spooks<\/strong> in the USA (not to mention England & still white-dominated South Africa), and how Starlink \u2018operates without authorisation<\/strong> in countries such as Cuba<\/strong> & Venezuela<\/strong>\u2019, which the US keeps threatening to imminently invade. Myanmar<\/strong>\u2019s military recently freed more than 2,000 workers held in \u2018scam camps\u2019 near Thailand\u2019s border, and confiscated 30 Starlink terminals. Musk\u2019s SpaceX<\/em><\/strong> then belatedly claimed that it cut satellite communication links to more than 2,500 devices \u2018illegally being used in Myanmar\u2019. Really! So, someone bought, smuggled & deployed 2,500 devices in Myanmar without Starlink\u2019s prior knowledge? Then how perceptive are they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Tech companies like Google, Amazon & OpenAI<\/p>\n\n\n\n

are pouring billions into nuclear start-ups like<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kairos Power, X-Energy & Oklo to help power<\/p>\n\n\n\n

their data centers for artificial intelligence.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 see ee Security<\/em><\/strong>, How China Raced Ahead<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

And, lo and behold, Artificial Intelligence (AI)<\/strong> turns out to be not that \u2018artificial\u2019 at all, says I&P. There would \u2018No AI!\u2019 without the labour (\u2018blood, flesh & bone\u2019) of millions of workers in Africa, who mine the requisite minerals<\/strong> and label the data of the Large Language Models (LLMs)<\/strong> at minimal wages, and make OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT<\/em> & Google\u2019s Gemini <\/em>possible. I&P point to the \u20183 Global North companies \u2013 SubCom<\/strong>, Alcatel Submarine Networks<\/strong>, Nippon Electric Co<\/strong> \u2013 [that] produce 87% of the undersea cables<\/strong> through which the internet operates.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     They also point to the 3 US<\/strong> companies <\/strong>\u2013 AWS<\/strong>, Azure<\/strong>, Google Cloud<\/strong> \u2013 [that] own 68%<\/strong> of the world\u2019s cloud infrastructure.\u2019 <\/strong>In October, Sri Lanka\u2019s Government Cloud (LGC)<\/strong> services were \u2018disrupted\u2019, midst a plethora of expensive conferences and resulting media on cybersecurity. Meanwhile, we are yet to learn how and why the \u2018disruption\u2019 really occurred. <\/strong>The LGC services include, \u2018the Police Clearance System of the Department of Police\u2019. <\/strong>The vital question, I&P ask, remains: \u2018Who<\/strong> will own <\/strong>the technology, how<\/strong> will it be used, and in whose interests<\/strong>?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     <\/em>The cloud disruption in Sri Lanka occurred midst the US administration issuing another travel warning to tourists visiting Sri Lanka, of an imminent threat of violence, terrorism, & landmines<\/strong>! Landmines, supposedly cleared just months earlier, were then suddenly uncovered in Jaffna (as ee<\/em><\/strong> noted, 18 Oct 2025). Many of the cloud services being provided in Sri Lanka are linked to US and their subordinate colonial pitbulls like England and Israel, etc. So, what\u2019s the hurry to map Sri Lanka? Is it in case they wish to reproduce their attempted annihilation of occupied Palestine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     It is then no surprise to learn from I&P that the 68-page long draft report by the 2024 Committee to Formulate an Artificial Intelligence Strategy (CFSAI) for Sri Lanka<\/strong>, does not dare even mention the words \u2018sovereign<\/strong>\u2019 or \u2018sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>\u2019! I&P declare that, \u2018apart from China, the Global South does not have the capital or the technology<\/strong> to develop a sovereign, or even semi-sovereign, digital infrastructure<\/strong>\u2019, and calls for the \u2018Global South\u2019 (which ee<\/em><\/strong> sees as yet another imprecise misnomer like \u2018Third World\u2019 & \u2018Western\u2019) to develop a united technological response to this clear and crying necessity. They then detail certain steps that have to be taken by Asian and African and no-Anglo-American organizations to counter this almost monopoly power (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

This ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> also looks at some curious market research by the Indian company 6Wresearch<\/strong> that forecasts Sri Lanka\u2019s industrial machinery & equipment market<\/strong>, for 2025-31. They claim that the dominant players<\/strong> in this market in Sri Lanka are led by the USA <\/strong>and their colonial satrapies Japan<\/strong> & Germany<\/strong>. These include \u2018international brands\u2019 like: the USA\u2019s Caterpillar<\/strong> Inc and Deere<\/strong> & Co, Japan\u2019s Komatsu<\/strong> and Hitachi<\/strong> Construction Machinery Co, and Germany\u2019s Liebherr<\/strong>-International AG. The USA\u2019s Caterpillar Inc holds the largest share in the Sri Lankan market. \u2018These companies are investing in R&D to produce innovative & efficient machinery & equipment to expand their reach within the market<\/strong>.\u2019 And the 6Wresearch<\/strong> report promises \u2018actionable intelligence<\/strong> & reliable forecasts<\/strong> tailored to emerging regional needs<\/strong>\u2019 (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). Of course, this research makes no mention of the private vehicles (by Tata<\/strong> & Toyota<\/strong>) imported at great cost to the economy, which have little impact on our productive capabilities. Our question remains: why Sri Lanka cannot demand that these companies \u2018make\u2019 these industrial goods here? Instead, we accumulate vast debts (much of which we will have to pay back in 2028 \u2013 our moment of reckoning it seems, see ee Quotes<\/em><\/strong>), so we need to continue to echo SBD\u2019s lament about a ruling class that refuses to make even a pin: \u2018How long can this keep going on?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     <\/em><\/strong>6wResearch shows that Sri Lanka\u2019s core industry has been hijacked. ee<\/em><\/strong> has led the way in Sri Lanka in pointing out that our national priority has to be about formulating a plan & program to develop modern<\/em> industrialization. This can only be achieved by a strong socialist state led by peasants & workers; the private corporations who monopolize the nation\u2019s resources, simply refuse to develop the country. We have also pointed out, in line with Karl Marx\u2019s determinations, that modern capitalism has long (since the 1860s!) been about making machines that make machines<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018The economic doctrine [that] no manufacturing industries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

should be developed in the colonies<\/strong>, has undoubtedly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

continued to influence [the world] division of labour<\/p>\n\n\n\n

even after the colonies became independent.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 SBD de Silva<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ee<\/em><\/strong> continues Chapter 3 of SBD de Silva\u2019s classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment<\/em>. Last ee<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s SBD excerpt pointed to the popularized canard that Sri Lanka\u2019s home market<\/strong> is too small<\/em> to develop industrialization. He observed that the settler colonies started out with even smaller markets<\/strong> than Sri Lanka has. In this ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>, SBD contradicts the widespread notion that European industrialization was a consequence of colonialism. SBD tracked how our countries became providers of raw materials to those countries, but he insisted that certain industries had been developed in Europe long before the Europeans began such large-scale draining of natural resources from our countries. He declared, \u2018It is technological developments <\/strong>in the metropolitan countries which created<\/em> <\/strong>the demand for primary products.\u2019 Their further industrialization then caused a technological disparity with much of Asia & Africa, which SBD believed could only be overcome by a \u2018Tokugawa solution\u2019. Tokugawa refers to the ruling shogunate in Japan (1603-1867), during which an industrial bourgeoisie arose in that Asian country, by blocking the entry of foreign merchants and their goods. Yet SBD de Silva also prioritized the changes in the internal social structures that enabled Japan\u2019s accumulation of capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Once the European and their settler colonial governments took a technological lead, policies such as shipping policy & freight rates <\/strong>strengthened the disparities between countries (freight rates were set not just by distance, but also due to monopoly or collusion<\/strong>, navigation laws<\/strong>, differential inward & outward cargoes<\/strong>). He then noted the crucial role that tariffs<\/strong> play in protecting their processing industries, and why, for instance, it became cheaper to export copra<\/strong> rather than coconut oil<\/strong>. Finally, he explained how it is the location<\/em> of the investor<\/strong> that promotes industrialization. While there is constant call for FDIs (foreign direct investments), SBD would always ask, \u2018Investment for what?<\/em>\u2019 Sri Lanka\u2019s main problem is that it is controlled by absentee investors<\/strong>, who want quick returns and have no interest in the long-term development of the country. He then showed the type of accounting frauds that companies such as England\u2019s Lipton\u2019s were able to practice in Sri Lanka. He also noted, how, due to the labour-intensive nature of the plantation system, even a slight wage increase in the plantations results in a major reduction of profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018A garment sector worker in the US earns approximately<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$15.5\/ hour<\/strong> (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2023),<\/p>\n\n\n\n

whereas a worker in Sri Lanka performing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the same task would receive $0.73\/hour<\/strong>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Dhanusha Pathirana<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wages paid in the labour-intensive clothing trade<\/strong> in Sri Lanka provide a \u2018stark & concrete\u2019<\/strong> illustration of unequal exchange<\/strong> in the world, writes Dhanusha Pathirana in this ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>. He points out how the sustained prosperity of the imperialist world is \u2018predicated on the vast systematic appropriation of labour & resources from the Global South\u2019. While, economists like to talk about theories about \u2018comparative advantage\u2019 and getting better prices for our products, he squarely locates this suppurating \u2018drain\u2019 of surplus through the unequal wages paid to workers in our world. Unlike many analysts, he seeks to provide a \u2018path\u2019 to break dependency by targeting certain sectors like the garment trade. While Pathirana ignores SBD de Silva\u2019s declaration that, even if the \u2018drain\u2019 is blocked and the surplus is retained in Sri Lanka, there is no class in Sri Lanka dedicated to accumulation<\/strong>; even while being optimistic that this \u2018government placed into power by the masses against the established political & economic order\u2019 is \u2018uniquely positioned\u2019 to gather a regional coalition to pursue justice<\/em> for the Global South, harnessing its rising economic power. But what would justice <\/em><\/strong>entail? Equal exploitation?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018The CIABOC (Commission to Investigate Allegations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of Bribery or Corruption)\u2026 is mulling over a proposal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by some of those arraigned, or to be arraigned before<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it on charges of bribery or corruption, that they simply<\/p>\n\n\n\n

pay back the pocketed loot and carry on.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Sunday Times Editorial<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ee<\/em><\/strong> found a curious editorial in last week\u2019s Sunday Times<\/em> of how the \u2018pay & commute\u2019 system that exists for traffic fines, relate to corrupt practices inherited from England\u2019s colonial Establishment Code<\/em><\/strong>, where its FR (Financial Regulations) provide for certain public servants to pay their way through serious offences. There is also no benefit, apparently, only expense, for the state to prosecute certain criminal practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Talking about the \u2018corruption\u2019 of politicians alone is a big \u2018beeg<\/em>\u2019 business for media and for envoys of certain countries. Not a week goes by without a lecture from the US or German or EU gaggle about how corrupt & black we are, and how pure & green & white they are. Corruption is apparently pigmented. Not a week goes by without them threatening some Asian or African or non-Anglo-American country, or the whole world, with annihilation. How green & carbon-conscious & eco-friendly are their wars? Or how clean<\/em>, the continued underdevelopment & impoverishment of our countries? They feel they do not need to tell us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> therefore continues Gustavus Myers\u2019 1917 History of Tammany Hall. <\/em><\/strong>This excerpt describes the workings of the USA\u2019s main municipality, where a city boss had the direct power to appoint and supervise many departments with expenditures of many millions of dollars annually. Myers described the rise of the \u2018procurement\u2019 business, where supplies were purchased without tender, contracts inflated by fictitious valuations, documents falsified, and payrolls padded with \u2018names\u2019 who never do any work, nor are qualified to do so, and, where despite the proving of \u2018maladministration, remissness and grave abuses\u2019, politicians kept being reinstalled and re-elected. Defective supplies and streets and transportation lines were laid on irregular routes to profit real-estate schemes, blocking court trials, with criminal officials declared incompetent rather than corrupt. Despite officials being declared \u2018reformers\u2019, amidst miles of headlines about the evils of corruption, no high officials were ever indicted and convicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Yet, as the Canadian Communist Stanley Brehaut Ryerson noted: Myers\u2019 major problem was his empiricist focus on corruption (naming names & the crimes behind their fortunes) as the root of all evil, to the exclusion of deeper analyses, of the \u2018collective capitalist\u2019. \u2018Corruption and the suborning of the state for the private enrichment of elites has been the constant corollary of \u2018free enterprise\u2019 since its inception.\u2019 It is not only the who & where<\/em> but how<\/em><\/strong> the nation\u2019s wealth is produced socially by millions and hijacked for private enrichment<\/strong> through public misery. To maintain their private power, capitalists have to concentrate & centralize their monopolies, not only in \u2018transport but also production itself enables an alliance between government and the stock-exchange,\u2019 which formed the \u2018basis for the state monopoly capitalism that was to emerge\u2019 in the 20th<\/sup> century. Ryerson concluded: \u2018Myers\u2019s handling of the workings of this process is marked by both the enthralling \u2018detective-story\u2019 quality of the exposures \u2013 & a theoretical weakness. Capitalism is not corruption alone\u2026\u2019 (see ee<\/em><\/strong> 17 May 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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Why is The US & EU in a Mighty Hurry to Digitally Map Sri Lanka?<\/a><\/blockquote>