Category Archives: growth pole

December 17, 2015 · 12:32 pm

USA in Praise of Sri Lanka: Under-Secretary of State Thomas Shannon’s Address

Remarks at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies, 16 December 2015

Good morning, and to all of you Ayubowan, Vanakkam. Thank you for being here. It’s a tremendous honor and a great pleasure to be here today.

sSHANNON SPEAKINGThank you, Mr. Minister, for your very kind introduction.  To be at this respected institute, named in honor of the late and great Lakshman Kadirgamar, and an institute dedicated to the study of Sri Lanka’s strategic interests, is the right place to be today to talk to all of you, about the partnership between the United States and Sri Lanka. Few understood the strategic interests of Sri Lanka better than Kadirgamar, who was an accomplished international civil servant, and an unparalleled expert on foreign affairs – appointed three times as foreign minister.  It has been nearly 10 years since his assassination, but his vision of a united, inclusive, and peaceful Sri Lanka is becoming more real by the day. Continue reading →

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October 7, 2015 · 1:19 pm

An Assessment of the Rajapaksa Regime in late 2009: Brickbats and Plaudits

Michael Roberts, presented originally in Groundviews on 17th December 2009, http://groundviews.org/2009/12/17/the-rajapakse-regime-brickbats-plaudits/ … where the comments were enlightening and well-informed –rather in contrast with the acerbic carping directed at my more recent articles in that venue [so that some selections will soon be reproduced below, while a new section  at the end adds a limited bibliography that extends to the present day]

This is a disjointed exercise that does not claim comprehensiveness. That is impossible in a short essay, the more so because I write without ethnographic exposure to the experiential subjectivities of either the Tamil people in Sri Lanka or the poor people from every community struggling with the cost of living.

MR king 1 -www.youtubecom Pic from http://www.youtubecom

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse addresses to supporters as he attends an election rally in the Colombo suburb of Piliyandala on January 5, 2015. Gunmen shot and wounded three opposition activists who were preparing a stage for President Mahinda Rajapakse's chief rival on the final day of campaigning in Sri Lanka's election, police said. The men were hit in a drive-by shooting as they erected a podium for Maithripala Sirisena to address a rally in the southern town of Kahawatte, around 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the capital Colombo. AFP PHOTO / LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI

AFP PHOTO / LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI

Terrible Record: In a recent essay I have briefly annotated the government’s failure to prevent a series of killings and intimidations directed against media personnel and the widespread belief that elements in its sprawling establishment had a hand in many of these acts of injustice.[1]

In step with this record the Rajapaksa Regime has consolidated the long tradition of overcentralised decision-making and authoritarianism at the top that has been a feature of Sri Lanka’s so-called democratic institutions for many decades.[2] It is not surprising, therefore, that little or nothing has been done to initiate a genuine devolution of power in ways that would give the Tamil and Muslim peoples a goodly glass of political hope. All they have received so far is sweet words. Continue reading →

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October 7, 2015 · 2:05 am

Hambantota Port takes off?


Description: Inline image 2From Daily Mirror Item dec 2014

I. “Thoughts” – by Michael Roberts

This is actually from an old news item in the Daily Mirror in late 2014 –perhaps one that was buried in the course of election fever during the Presidential contest. There is an ironic twist here: the astrological wisdom that led His Lordship, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to call an early election stands in contrast with the unknown functionaries and Presidential diktat (guided in part by his cultivation of his own patch –a “wrong reason”) that saw one of the world’s unique inland harbours being built at Hambantota. Continue reading →

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Open Ports! The Boat People Australia wants

nude BOAT PEOPLE

A Flourishing Bibliographical Tree: Tamil Migration, Asylum-Seekers and Australia

ALEX on TVAlex Kuhendrarajah of Merak notoriety –courtesy of Australian  courtesy of aus.com.au Continue reading →

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July 1, 2015 · 10:02 am
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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January 5, 2015 · 3:07 am

Engaging Razeen Sally’s Review of Sri Lanka’s Economic and Political Scenario

Michael Roberts

razeen sallyRazeen Sally is an acquaintance and a reputed scholar attached to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. When I spotted his review of the Sri Lankan economy and its political setting in the prestigious Wall Street Journal in mid-December, I immediately inserted it in THUPPAHI with a feisty title of my own coinage. This was in part because I had reservations about some of his evaluations. These thoughts arose in part from some of the economic indicators emphasised by one Jon Springer of the prestigious Forbes agency in USA.

In part my queries arose from my readings of the political economy of Sri Lanka in spatio-economic terms on the basis of my historical and political researches. Several themes associated with this peculiar respective had already been presented in my review of the issues surrounding the construction of a cricket stadium at Sooriyawewa as one pillar in the Rajapaksa family’s “cultivation” of their “home garden,” viz., Hambantota District — an essay that had earned me a reprimand (private email) from a good friend in Jayantha Dhanapala and attracted sarcastic comments in transcurrents. Continue reading →

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December 8, 2014 · 11:40 am

Advertising Sri Lanka’s Airports

Suresh Perera, in The Island, 7 December 2014 where the title is “Fifth consecutive ‘Airport Christmas Shopping Festival’ launched”

Sri Lanka is now negotiating with many international carriers, including Etihad and Oman Air, which have earmarked the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) at Mattala as a proposed alternate destination in Sri Lanka, a top aviation industry official said last week. “Discussions are continuing with many airlines and we are optimistic of a positive outcome as MRIA has an A380 facilitated runway”, says Prasanna Wickramasuriya, Chairman, Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Limited.

AIRPORT LAUNCH

Prasanna Wickramasuriya, Chairman, AASL, with Aravinda de Silva and other senior officials view the brand new Chery J3 car offered as the grand prize, at last week’s launch of the ‘Airport Christmas Shopping Festival’ at the BIA. (Pic by Sujatha Jayarathna)

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September 13, 2014 · 1:23 pm

A Bloomberg Boost for Sri Lanka

Influential global media house to add Sri Lanka to its international release of Economic  Forecasts

Sri Lanka’s profile for business and investment will get a big boost shortly when the world famous and influential premier source for business and financial market news, Bloomberg includes the country into its global service providing economic forecast.

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April 21, 2014 · 11:58 am

Hambantota Port: An Occasional Traveller’s Benign View

Susiri Weerasekera

Just yesterday 20th April 2014, we visited the Hambantota harbor. Photo shows the rows of cars- metallic or white to be transshipped  due next day. Can count about 400 vehicles for reshipment. The other vehicles loosely parked further to the left are for the locals. DSC02489 Many hundreds of ships have come in so far transhipping. A ship can load or down load about 500 vehicles in half a day and leave. Some ships with up to 5000 thousand may need to remain around three days. There is a body of permanent driver staff that are kept busy off loading and loading vehicles on to the next ship. So far thousands of vehicles have been transhipped in over a couple of hundred or more ships. A far lesser number down loaded are for the local market, Colombo port being more central and economical for that. Continue reading →

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October 27, 2013 · 2:54 am

The OLD and the NEW: VOC set against Katunayake Expressway

VOC clean up VOC coat of arms at Galle Fort being cleaned up–Pic by Sunday Times Continue reading →

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