Category Archives: economic processes

May 2, 2015 · 5:54 pm

Verite Research advocate ban on bottom trawling as one step in resolution of Indo-Lanka Friction

PK Balachandran,  courtesy of the Indian Express, 2 May 2015 where the title reads “Lankan Ban On Bottom Trawling Key To Ending Fishing Row: Expert”

The only way in which Sri Lanka can stop the destructive  bottom trawling being done by Indian poachers in Lankan waters  is to impose a legal ban on bottom trawling, says Lankan researcher Vidya Nathaniel of the Colombo-based Verite Research. Lanka has not banned bottom trawling, the lawyer-turned academic points out in her Working Paper entitled: “Why a ban on bottom trawling in Sri Lanka is necessary to comply with its international obligations.” Nathaniel is of the view that it will be futile to try stopping Indians from bottom trawling in Lankan waters without Lanka first imposing a ban on this kind of fishing, irrespective of the nationality of the bottom trawler.

Fishing boats

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April 1, 2015 · 11:34 am

Science Nay-Sayers in the West and their Cultural Counterparts in Sri Lanka

Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada

Galileo nearly got burnt at the stake for heresy when he claimed that the Earth orbited around the sun instead of being the fixed center of the God-created Universe. At that time most people were science Nay-Sayers. A century before Galileo, when Christopher Columbus defiantly sailed  West seeking Eastern India, most people  believed that the Earth was flat, as was evident to the eye. This view was common to almost all cultures, be it Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese or Hebrew. Today many of us happily believe that people are well informed in this age of the internet and Google.

flat_earth motis.blogspot.com

Amazingly, the very opposite  is also true. Rich counties like the USA  or the Oil Kingdoms are not educated societies. Fundamentalist religions remain powerful and science Nay-Sayers are well funded and articulate. While the Western nations spend billions on scientific research, the average citizen prefers to use the fruits of science (i.e., technology) while refusing to come to terms with  what he/she finds incomprehensible, counter-intuitive and often going against traditional beliefs and practices. Instead of expecting to build an improved world using science, Science Nay-Sayers take a very distopian view of   modern knowledge.  They, like their counterparts during Galileo’s times,  seek  to find solace in returning to “traditional ways”, even though Humpty-Dumpty cannot be be put back, with some 22  million new people ( population of Sri Lanka!) added to the global population every two months! Continue reading →

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March 31, 2015 · 1:47 pm

Chinese Interests in the Indian Ocean–A Sober Evaluation in 2013

From The Economist, 8 June 2013, where title is “China’s growing empire of ports abroad is mainly about trade, not aggression”

FROM the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away. But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip

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March 31, 2015 · 1:05 pm

An Indian Twist to China-Lanka Relations

 Debasish Roy Chowdhury , in the South China Morning Post, where the title is “Passive investor to partner in crime: How China lost the plot in Sri Lanka”
Chinese investments got sucked into the vortex of Sri Lanka’s local politics and were left high and dry when a friendly regime was swept away (Lanka-e-News- 30.March.2015, 11.30PM) The sprightly 30-something engineer at Hambantota port reels off the benefits of this port-industrial complex on the southeastern tip of Sri Lanka about 240km from the capital Colombo. “There’s massive demand for transshipment of vehicles and it’s increasing by the day. Once companies set up their production lines here, we’ll get much more ships,” gushes Chaminda as he gives a tour of the port. Hambantota could use more ships, there are none in sight. The port, which started operations in 2010 and was supposed to challenge Singapore, received all of six ships in 2011 and 18 in 2012. The government finally had to ask ships carrying vehicles to offload their wares in Hambantota rather than Colombo. Continue reading →

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March 31, 2015 · 12:35 pm

The New Government’s Vendettas & Misguided Measures are Squandering Sri Lanka’s Future Prospects

NEIL KARUNeil Karunaratne, courtesy of the Daily Mirror, 30 March 2015, where the title is “Holding Back Development.” 

Ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa in a message read in a political rally held in Ratnapura, last week alleged that the current administration has stalled
development in the country. I cannot help, but agree, though grudgingly. This government has held back the country’s development. That is already
reflected in the projected growth numbers: The Asian Development Bank now says that the country’s economic growth would dip to 7 per cent this year,
from 7.4 per cent, last year. As recently as two months back, the ADB projected 8 per cent growth for 2015 and 2016. It however assures that the economy would rebound in 2016 to 7.4 per cent, still short of previous estimates. Continue reading →

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March 29, 2015 · 1:22 pm

Forging New Paths in Sri Lankan and Colonial History

NIRA W-picNira Wickramasinghe’s  Metallic Modern. Everyday Machines in Colonial Lanka, Oxford/New York, Berghahn Books, 2014 ISBN 9781782382423… 192 pages, 20 illus., bibliog., index

ISBN  978-1-78238-242-3 $70.00/£44.00 Hb Published (January 2014) ….  ISBN 978-1-78238-243-0 eBook

“This is a most engaging book from a well-known author… a timely contribution concerning an important subject that is attracting renewed and sustained interest from historians of late….” · Crispin Bates, University of Edinburgh

“This book is academically rich, analytically sophisticated and full of insightful interpretations that make it a valuable sourcefor scholars and students from multiple disciplines. It will also be a pleasant read for those who are simply curious about the dusty machines that sacredly and majestically occupy a small corner of their grandparents’ homes, still covered with a cloth.” · The International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter … SEE IIAS-review-Metallic Modern for full version of review by  Shyamika Jayasundera  Continue reading →

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March 21, 2015 · 2:19 pm

The Exile of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, the Last King of Kandy, … amidst other Banished Potentates

Robert Aldrich, University of Sydney

In 1815, in completing their conquest of Ceylon, the British deposed, captured and exiled the last king of Kandy, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, banishing the king, members of his family and servants to Vellore, India, where he spent the remainder of his life.  I am currently doing research on the circumstances of the king’s deposition and exile, the fate of the former sovereign and his entourage in exile, and the place of the king and the Kandyan dynasty in Sri Lankan memory, history-writing and commemoration.  Of interest, too, is the exile of leaders of the 1817-1818 resistance movement against the British to Mauritius.

capture pf Sri Vikrama Capture of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha Continue reading →

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March 19, 2015 · 1:17 pm

A Rich History! Richmond College, Galle

Forgotten History of Richmond College by Ananda Dias Jayasinha is now available ….

Richmond HISTORY COVER

I. A Review by Ananda Ariyaratne

Social enlightenment is a natural reflection of level of the intellectual capacity of any society. It in turn was always dependent on the civilizations both local as well as those interacted. Sri Lanka is a land that can boast about her own unique civilization that had evolved in an environment that was always open to outside influence while providing the opportunity to progress in a kind of isolation that affected its identity which is in several ways similar to all the island civilizations of the world. Sri Lanka is such an island civilization that clearly shows that external influence coming from another land thousands of miles away.

Although, Sri Lanka was affected by all the seafaring nations that had their people crisscrossing the vast Indian Ocean, the most outstanding and inseparable features had been left behind by the British. Two other European nations had a foothold in the coastal regions but were unable to penetrate deep into the hinterland like the British who took the complete control of this land in 1815 after controlling the coastal lands from 1796, within a very short period like nineteen years. Continue reading →

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March 11, 2015 · 2:38 pm

Gota grounded because of Avant Garde Weaponry & Circuit of Rumours

Amanda Hodge in The Australian, 11 March 2015, where the title reads “Sri Lanka grounds ex-president’s brother over impounded arsenal”

SRI Lanka’s once-powerful defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has been grounded and his passport seized while police investigate a floating armoury of 3000 weapons linked to the former president’s brother. The boatload of weapons, ­including machineguns, was registered to the Avant-Garde Security Service, a company that entered into a joint venture with the Defence Ministry in 2011 to provide private security to merchant ships. The passports of three others, including two retired high-ranking military officers, have also been seized.

AMANDA HODGE ““Sri Lankan asylum-seekers moored at Indonesia’s Merak port in October 2009 after they were stopped by local authorities on their way to Australia” — Source: News Corp Australia ++ see COMMENT BELOW

The arsenal was impounded soon after Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated in January 8 presidential polls by former health minister Maithripala Sirisena and a coalition of about 40 parties. Continue reading →

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March 6, 2015 · 4:27 am

The Ceylonese Origins of Sri Lankan Cricket

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Himal Southasian where it appeared in Vol. 20, No. 7 in 2007

Modernity took firm root in Ceylon under the imperial aegis of Britain. British rule ushered a considerable transformation in the political economy of the island, a revolution in the communication system, the administrative unification of the country and the emergence of new (capitalist) class forces. English became the administrative language, leading to the development of an indigenous socio-political elite – referred to locally as the “middle class” – whose mode of domination included a facility in both the English language and lifestyle.

palm frond cricket 22 … Pic from John Ferguson, Ceylon in 1903, between pp. 132 & 133 

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