Category Archives: citizen journalism

Propaganda Battles re Sri Lanka: Russia & The West

Fair Dinkum

As further evidence that the West are still pushing the China debt trap narrative and that it did not stop in 2017, but has continued with even greater vigour than before, and is not being pushed by a few interests, but is part of a major Western propaganda campaign that stretches across the globe, here is another great example.

The item is of particular interest because it shows how the US uses back channels, in this case a purported academic in India, to push the China debt narrative on Russian television. This item aired on RT on 30 May 2022, so it is very recent. [RT = Russian Television …. https://www.rt.com/] Here, RT brought in Suvrokamal Dutta (described by RT as a “Political and Foreign Policy Expert ” but who knows nothing about Sri Lanka) to talk about the causes of the crisis in Sri Lanka.

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Bhavani Fonseka & Sumanthiran in Q and A with Indian Media Outfit

THE PRINT: Jothi Malhotra in Q and A with Bhavani fonseka & MA Sumanthiran …………..  “Why Gotabaya Rajpaksa fled & next steps for Sri Lanka : MA Sumanthiran and Bhavani Fonseka”

#SriLankaCrisis #GotabayaRajpaksa In this edition of #ThePrintDebates, ThePrint’s Senior Consulting Editor Jyoti Malhotra spoke to M. A. Sumanthiran, MP from Jaffna district in Sri Lanka and a member of the Tamil National Alliance and Bhavani Fonseka, a human rights lawyer and political analyst on the volatile situation in Sri Lanka, the flight of Gotabaya Rajpaksa to the Maldives, the future of the country and whether the people are relieved. Watch #ThePrintDebates

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USA Machinations Behind Aragalaya?

ANI Video Revelation

Evidence is emerging that at least some segments of the ongoing protests in Sri Lanka are funded and backed by the US, serving US interests. A “digital strategist” […. viz Chameera Dedduwage ….. ] given credit by the Western media for the successful toppling of the Sri Lankan government was a “volunteer” at a US National Endowment for Democracy-funded “election” organization. His group’s involvement in the current protests are a carbon copy of events that unfolded during the 2011 US-engineered “Arab Spring.”

 

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Western Deception re Sri Lanka: Many Agencies

Orcadian’s NOTES in response to Benjamin Norton’s Revelatory Essay on the Sources of Debt faced by Sri Lanka 

A = NORTON’S article needs to be tattooed on the brains of every mindless Western  journalist, every Western academic, everyone at the BBC, over the brains of Mike Pompeo, over Abe’s tombstone, over Morrison and Turnbull’s brain and over the Sri Lankans who repeatedly lie or fail to acknowledge that the vast majority of debt Sri Lanka owes is to the West, not to China.  There was NEVER a China debt trap. That was a false narrative propagated by Western interests to disguise the true picture about the vast US and Western debt trap.”

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Colossal Deception: Gross Lies about Sources of Sri Lanka’s Debt Burden foisted on the World by Western Agencies

Benjamin Norton, in Multipolarista, July 12 July 2022 where the title reads thusReal debt trap: Sri Lanka owes vast majority to West, not China” ... with highlighting emphasis in colours imposde by the Editor, Thuppahi

Sri Lanka owes 81% of its external debt to US and European financial institutions and Western allies Japan and India. China owns just 10%. But Washington blames imaginary “Chinese debt traps” for the nation’s crisis, as it considers a 17th IMF structural adjustment program.

  A protest in Sri Lanka in April 2022

 

 

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Political Demonstrations surrounding the Test Cricket at Galle, 9/10 July 2022

Andrew Fidel Fernando, in ESPNcricinfo, 9/10 July 2022, with this title “When Sri Lanka came to the cricket to fight for the country’s future”

Thousands gathered in Galle to protest the government which has led them into economic chaos. …. [SCENE OUTSIDE the northern entrance to the cricket grounds …. Pix from AFP]

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Sri Lankan Crisis: A Call for Debt Cancellation

STATEMENT ON THE CRISIS IN SRI LANKA. Southern Voices to be Heeded: A Call for Debt Justice, Debt Jubilee and Debt Cancellation  

The Coalition for Economic Democracy in Sri Lanka (CEDSL) is a group of concerned academics, activists, agricultural, fisheries and industrial workers, students, business persons, trade unionists, and professionals based ‘in country’ and overseas, including the diaspora, who uphold the values of economic rights and justice in public policy making.

 

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SLCAC Battle for Lanka in Canada

Link to case CV 21 00663853 and CV 21 00668250 hearing – May 25th

Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition (SLCAC) …. Nepean, Canada, 25 MAY 2022 —

Ayubowan !

We had a great hearing day yesterday where Cambridge LLP representing Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition and Sri Lanka Canada Association of Brampton along with Mr. Hasaka Rathnamalala representing Dr. Neville Hewage making successful hearing in front of Justice Akbaralli of the Ontario Superior Court.

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Outback Australia: Eye-Catching, Searing, Unique, Startling Pictures

Julie Fletcher

Here is depicted an inspiring story of a woman who quit her toxic relationship and city life, to move to a remote town, in Outback Australia, which has but one Pub.

Now she takes some of the most magical photographs of Australia you’ll ever see. She’s done what many people can only dream of, ditching her mundane office job to travel long-term around Australia with just a Camera for company.

 

First Light: Julie Fletcher captured this photograph of Uluru, which is a bright red colour, showing off blue hues.

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Female Leaders at the Grassroots in a COVID-19 World

Samanthi Gunawardana & Nedha De Silva, at https://lens.monash.edu/@celebrating-influential-women/2021/03/08/1382925/listening-to-women-in-grassroots-leadership-in-a-covid-19-world  …………. “It is a virus, we can get it anywhere, [but] we have a responsibility, and if we let go of workers now when they need us the most, what is the point?” – Chandra Devanarayana, Revolutionary Existence for Human Development, Sri Lanka

Long before COVID-19 hit Sri Lanka’s shores, grassroots women’s organisations fought poverty pay, long hours, and unsafe working conditions in the country’s garment manufacturing districts.

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