An Observer at World’s End**
Interesting to see former President and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in St Petersburg yesterday (18/6), attending the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
I am not sure what the true purpose of his visit to Russia is but he said it was his first time there ….. in orderto attend the St Petersburg forum, that he was very impressed by the range of people and countries at the forum, the issues of global significance being discussed, and that it was very important for countries outside of the West to meet at such a forum for cooperation and to discuss how best to deal with the great challenges, and to make progress for a better future.
There are over 200,000 attendees at the forum, with 140 countries represented and politicians from around 50 nations, including the President of Indonesia and other heads of state. Global South countries are highly represented from the Caribbean to Asia and Africa.
Countries not represented at the forum include the US, UK, EU countries, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. When compared to the G7 the forum in St Petersburg which includes member states from BRICS, the SCO and the BRI, are about inclusiveness, while the G7, by comparison, is an exclusive club of 7 leaders, all from the West except for Japan, but strangely always includes Ursula von der Leyen from the EU, which is trying to control the world with rules that suit them but have nothing to do with international law and the UN Charter.
Of course, there is not a mention in the Western media about the forum in St Petersburg, and if they did mention it, they would smear it with caricatures riddled with straw man fallacies.
&&&&&
** EDITOR’S NOTE= “World’s End” is a remarkable spot in the hillcountry in Sri Lanka from where one can see the jungles and plains of eastern and southeastern Lanka. It is therefore a way of marking this remarkable set of observations: for this writer has secured highly pertinent information on a political forum that has not received notice in the Western news media in Australia. … where the Western SLANT on events in the Middle East are dominating the front pages.
ADDENDUM from the Observer at World’s End, two days later
See also this snippet of an interview with Ranil by RT India in St Petersburg which explains Ranil’s interest in taking Sri Lanka into BRICS and why he applied when he was President of SL
https://x.com/RT_India_news/
You have totally lost it if you think this sort of an event, in a country whose economy is totally controlled by the executive, is of intellectual or political significance.
https://forumspb.com/en/ – ““Shared Values: The Foundation of Growth in a Multipolar World”. Ha.
Are real decisions made at this meeing? Are real debates, with a range of politically significant differences, allowed? Hardly. Sure, the G7 is itself a non-democratic institution that aims to manage a deeply unequal, unfair, and destructive economic system – but its outcomes aren’t scripted in advance by an absolute ruler.
Wake up, man. Western powers have blood on their hands and are overseeing increasingly unstable and undemocratic domestic and global systems – but this hardly requires us to misrepresent the despotic and brutal nature of the west’s global antagonists, Russia and China and their smaller authoritarian friends.
Real democrats, real believers in free thinking and rights for all, see through the lies and fight against the brutality and oppresssion of ALL regimes, everywhere.
Leaders run the world and have done for 10000 years. It could be AKD, Ranil,Trump, Putin or Xi. People of all the nations (apart from NK) have no say. The people get bombed,injured etc. by the armies controlled by the leaders. Ranil is clearly a “leader”. He knows that when AKD becomes unpopular, Ranil is in as position to take over