Category Archives: economic processes

September 28, 2016 · 1:02 pm

Placing Sri Lanka’s Woes in the International Context: Critical Comments on the Marga Readings

Jean Pierre-Page, an original essay in a friendly critique of the Marga Think Tank’s Review of the UNPoE and International Order’s Interventions over Sri Lanka — specifically the booklet entitled Issues of Truth and Accountability. The Last Stages of the War in Sri Lanka (2014) …. with the title of this presentation and the highlighting in blue being liberties imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi.

jean-pierre-page    aamarga

I would like to share with you a few ideas in relation to the 3rd narrative of the last stage of the war in Sri Lanka. I will try to make myself as clear as possible! I don’t believe in this notion that it is the influence of the Tamil Diaspora that determines Washington’s foreign policy and that of its Western allies! And I think it is very wrong and dangerous to put all the Tamil Diaspora in one basket. Most Tamils I know outside this country do not support a separate State. They are not separatists, and they are not Terrorists.[i] If Sri Lanka is to formulate an offensive strategy rather than a defensive one, it should take my reflections here  into consideration!

Of course, the Tamil separatist forces outside do have relations with Washington and its allies, but these relations are determined by the national and geostrategic objectives of the US and its allies, as we have seen in Afghanistan, or now in Iraq, Syria and the Ukraine. For the West, when it suits their objectives, they are good Tamil Tigers and when it doesn’t, they are bad Tamil Tigers, like the good jihadists and bad jihadists. It all depends on the circumstances. Today, the LTTE has been defeated, but tomorrow it can become useful again![ii] Continue reading →

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September 27, 2016 · 3:36 am

Smart Power International Machinations from the Hilary Clinton Camp

Diana Johnstone, for the Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity, 26 September 2016, where the title reads “The Hillary Clinton Presidency Has Already Begun As Lame Ducks Promote Her War“

If the British Empire was built on the playing fields of Eton, United States world hegemony gets its training in Hollywood studios and advertising agencies. Selling your product, or yourself, by looking sincere is a cultivated American art. Current top US leaders are expert practitioners.  In the space of a few days, Samantha Power, John Kerry, and Barack Obama all turned in war-winning performances. 

aapower-plusSamantha Power on extreme left  with Obama and .Susan Rice Continue reading →

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September 27, 2016 · 2:49 am

Techno-Suits to boost Aussie Soldier Capacities

Rebecca Puddy in Adelaide, for The Australian, 27 September 2016, where the title is “‘Iron Man’ ­exoskeletons to give Diggers superhuman strength

Australian troops are set to gain superhero strength, with trials of the latest powered titanium ­exoskeletons likely to take place next year. Australian Defence Apparel chief executive Matthew Graham said the technology, which is being developed with the US Army’s elite special operations command, could then be rolled out to the general army in 2018. The custom-made titanium suit clips around the body, with its spine taking the weight of a soldier’s pack.

aa-exoskeleton Victoria Cross recipient Dan Keighran with Australian Defence Apparel CEO Matt Graham in Melbourne. Picture: Aaron Francis

“Version one is not powered but we are currently working on a powered version for the US,” he said. “In the US, it’s called the Iron Man Project.” The powered suits sense ­muscle reflexes and activate to take the weight of the soldier’s movement. While the company featured its exoskeleton at a major gathering of military and defence industries in Adelaide this month, it could not be photographed, Mr Graham said. Australian war hero and winner of the Victoria Cross Dan ­Keighran said soldiers bore long-term physical damage from carrying packs that sometimes weighed more than their body weight. “Your knees and joints do suffer,” he said. “This technology doesn’t take away from any danger and as a soldier you’re still vulnerable. But where this will help is getting casualties out of hot zones, letting us do our job faster and being used for rehabilitation.”

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September 24, 2016 · 2:01 pm

Bedfellows: Kerry, Vikramabahu and Mangala pleased with the Situation in Sri Lanka Today

ONE. Saman Indrajith in New York: “Kerry showers praise on national unity govt,” http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=152566

US Secretary of State John Kerry told President Maithripala Sirisena that they highly appreciated and admired the direction of the new government of Sri Lanka and would extend every possible assistance thereto. He said so when he called on President Sirisena on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly sessions, being held in UN Headquarters in New York  on Sep. 21.

President Sirisena said that the current government of Sri Lanka continued on the path towards economic progress and reconciliation. He told the US Secretary of State that the government was facing a lot of challenges from the destabilising forces in the North as well as the South, who wanted to deter the reconciliation process. “For example, a small minority of the people in the North refused to go back to their lands due to pressure from extremist groups”, he said.

ms-33ms-and-ban

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September 21, 2016 · 1:19 pm

A Tea Plantation in Island South Carolina … The Only One in USA

dushy-123Dushy Perera, 20 September 2016, … http://www.ethicalteapartnership.org/inspirational-visit-north-americas-tea-plantation/

I am far away from home, in Southern Carolina, USA, visiting the only tea planation in North America. It’s co-owned by the Bigelow Tea Company, one of our important North American members and I am here at the invitation of Cindy Bigelow of Bigelow Teas. Whilst on a visit to Sri Lanka and enthralled by the beauty of our island nation, Cindy spoke to me about their own southern gem, The Charleston Tea Plantation, which is situated on Wadmalaw Island in South Carolina. Although the Charleston Tea Plantation was only founded in 1987, tea had been grown there previously for a number of years, mainly for research purposes. A third generation tea specialist William Barclay Hall is the man on site and shows me around. He tells me that I’m 9,395 miles away from home in Sri Lanka.

dushy-11

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September 12, 2016 · 2:10 pm

Reflections on Sri Lanka’s Suicide Rate

Tom Widger

widger-22ABSTRACT of Article entitled ” Reading Sri Lanka’s Suicide Rate” in Modern Asian Studies 48/3 pp. 791-825. : By the final decade of the twentieth century, rates of suicide in Sri Lanka ranked among the highest in the world. However, in 1996 the suicide rate began to fall and was soon at its lowest level in almost 30 years. This decline poses problems for classic sociological theories of suicide and forces us to question some fundamental assumptions underlying social scientific approaches to the suicide rate. Drawing from sociological, medical epidemiological, historical, and anthropological secondary sources as well as 21 months of original ethnographic research into suicide in Sri Lanka, I argue that there are four possible readings of the country’s suicide rate. While the first three readings provide windows onto parts of the story, the fourth—a composite view—provides a new way of thinking about suicide, not just in Sri Lanka but also cross-culturally. In so doing the paper poses questions for how the relationship between suicide and society might be imagined. Continue reading →

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September 10, 2016 · 2:57 pm

USA as World Power Player over the Years

Jonathan Power,  courtesy of International Press Syndicate where the title reads “U.S. invested trillions in wars, China in development” …  with highlighting as embellishments from The Editor Thuppahi

 jonathan-power

– The French ambassador to the U.S. from 1902 to 1924, Jean-Jules Jusserand, observed that distant powers could not easily threaten the U.S. because “On the north, she has a weak neighbour; on the south, another weak neighbour; on the east fish and on the west, fish”. The coming of the submarine-based nuclear missile has not changed that. Apart from the fact that no enemy would dare use them for fear of retaliation, and that there is no country in the world that feels that hostile to America (accept North Korea), the fact is America is too big and too far away to be invaded and dominated. There could not be a blitzkrieg by a foreign army across the mid-west or a Vichy America.

The real tragedy of 9/11 is just as a majority of the U.S. electorate had settled into a post-Cold War comfort zone with the new president, George W. Bush, not being overly pushy or confrontational in foreign affairs, America was jolted so badly that a large proportion of its electorate – maybe half – has been paranoid ever since. Enemies are once again seen under the bed. Enough of the electorate have persuaded themselves that they are insecure – and not just because of growing terrorism – and they have made sure via the Republican majority in Congress that President Barack Obama has had his hands tied on everything from emptying Guantanamo to gun control to pursuing more cuts in nuclear weapons with Russia.
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September 6, 2016 · 1:32 pm

Institutionalizing Democracy in Lanka: The Basic Foundations

Izeth Hussain,  in The Island, 6 September 2016, where the title is “Democracy, not devolution, the only solution for the ethnic problem”

1364002696fea9-4In the contemporary world of multi-ethnic nation states democracy has to be regarded as incomplete and flawed unless it includes measures for the safeguarding of ethnic minority interests, measures regarded not as supplementary but as integral to the democratic order. This applies to the vast majority of nation states today as there are only four, according to other reckonings not more than twelve, states that are mono-ethnic. The reason why a new conceptualization of democracy is called for is that the aspirations of ethnic minorities towards a better life have been growing all over the world: hence the growing salience of identity politics. Unless those aspirations, to the extent that they are recognized as legitimate aspirations, are reasonably accommodated, it can be held that there is no democracy or that it is deeply flawed. The reason is that democracy upholds as its secular trinity Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, the ideal of fair and equal treatment for all. By that criterion Sri Lankan democracy has certainly been deeply flawed.

AA=2016 Continue reading →

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September 6, 2016 · 1:41 am

Tigress Rathika Pathmanathan’s Turbulent Journey, 2006-16

Zahrah Imtiaz,  in Daily News, 16 August 2016, where the title is “Rathika–A  Succcess Story”

At 23, Rathika Pathmanathan has borne many names; orphan, LTTE combatant, Ex-LTTE combatant, call centre girl and finally writer and activist. Her journey has been long and arduous and as she stood in a crowded auditorium at the OPA, for the launch of her maiden book of narrative stories and poems in Tamil, ‘There is a darkness called light and I grope for myself in the thick of it’ (with Sinhala and English translations), last week, she stood as a testament to what successful rehabilitation needed to be.

AA-rathika 22 Rathika Pathmanathan

“This book is an honest declaration of my feelings and thoughts during and after the war. It bears the scars of that time,”she said and added that it was a project undertaken to record the sufferings of the people who went through the war. “I am surprised at the courage I have gained to be able to speak before a large gathering today. A few years ago, I did not know a word of Sinhala, we didn’t know what ‘Kauda’ (who are you?) meant. I was depressed and had no one to talk to and as I lay in hospital in Colombo, I started to write poetry.

“As I kept writing, I felt more relieved and empowered, so I kept writing. The writing calmed me down. This book helped me get out of depression and learn to live a better life,” she explained. Continue reading →

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September 3, 2016 · 2:54 pm

The Missing in Lanka: An Old Bibliography … Further Supplemented

The passage of the Office of Missing Persons Bill in the Sri Lankan Parliament and the highlighting of this issue in Groundviews makes it imperative for serious analysts to scour the literature and take note of the problems in pursuing the topic in circumstances beset with continuing propaganda associated with a deadly war where agit-prop tactics were central to the activities of all sides. The “sides” include liberals, radicals and humanists whose ideological commitments sometimes clouded judgment and ability to assess ground realities.

No one is free of subjectivity. So all subjectivities and readings have to be put to the test. This includes the claims — whether related quietly or histrionically — by grieving relatives. Their power of conviction and force of telling — just study some of the pictures — does not gaurantee truth of tale. They could have been misled or been primed by agit-prop stories that have been imbibed, absorbed and are now, today, retailed powerfully and with truth effect. The point here is that GRIEF can distort interpretation and that sympathetic hearts can be misled. A clinical approach must adhere to pragmatism in due measure.

disappearances --Pic WSWS 04-alternative2013-01-30 19.34.38 ++ Continue reading →

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