Malinda Seneviratne, in ……………………………………….. https://malindawords.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-brink-and-beyond.html where the title reads “The Brink and Beyond”
A line has been crossed. That’s the title of a note doing the rounds referring to the ongoing protests and specifically to the fatal shooting of a protester in Rambukkana.
Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, …. with black highlighting being her work and RED the intervention of The Editor, Thuppahi
In Cherry Blossom lined Washington DC in the glare of global media last week Sri Lanka became the poster child of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF), Spring Meetings. The strategic Indian Ocean island’s pathetic plight featured on major media and television channels that craft the global narrative, with images of people in queues amid food, fuel, and medicine shortages due to its crashing currency, soaring cost of living and ‘Arab Spring’ style protests.
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News Item in Channel News Asia, 7 April 2022, where the title is “Maldives shelters sanctioned Russian billionaires’ yachts”
A day after coal and fertiliser billionaire Andrey Melnichenko was placed on the European Union’s sanctions list on Mar 9, his superyacht the Motor Yacht A stopped broadcasting its location while in Maldives’ waters, maritime data shows.
In Italy, four days later, authorities seized another of Melnichenko’s vessels – the world’s largest sailing yacht, estimated by Italian financial police to be worth US$578 million.
A Pacific Island Pal
ONE: There is a very good analysis of the IMF by Paul Masson in “The IMF: Victim of its own success or institutional failures?” published in International Journal, Autumn 2007. Its focus is on how to reform the IMF and the problems involved, which recognises the need to reform the IMF. How successful that has been is open to debate.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, IMF, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, life stories, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, world events & processes
News Item, 15 April 2022, entitled “British captive who fought in Mariupol describes ‘reality’,” https://www.rt.com/russia/553933-british-captive-mariupol-ukraine-reality/
The situation in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol is “catastrophic,” and the Ukrainian forces are largely to blame for it, a UK citizen identified as Aiden Aslin, who reportedly fought in the city, said in a video obtained by RT.
Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake
Necessity is the mother of invention: Protests are mounting by people from all walks of life in all parts of Sri Lanka against the soaring cost of living, food and fuel shortages, black outs, lockdowns, forced Covid injections, and the sale of national assets by the ruling dual US citizen Rajapakse led regime in Colombo.
Filed under accountability, export issues, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, modernity & modernization, patriotism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, trauma, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Dr Nihal D Amerasekera, in The Island, 14 April 2022, where the title is Ïn a desert Island”
We’ve had a turbulent couple of years with Covid-19 and its variants. Lockdowns and its inescapable incarcerations were a trial on how to cope with loneliness. Solitude is also an opportunity to think rationally. I was shut out from the outside world for long periods. The mind then began to concentrate on what is important in life and what I can do without. It was an interesting exercise to think of the bare minimum required to maintain my sanity and survive until I was able to join the rest of the world. Money cannot buy happiness. Happiness is a state of mind which is difficult to define and often hard to achieve even if we have everything we need.
Chandrasena Maliyadde
Sri Lanka was a model economy at the time of gaining independence 75 years back. It was ahead of many of its peers and neighbours on many fronts. Today it has become an import-led, debt-ridden, faltering economy. It is far behind all its neighbours. Intellectuals have sought to explain the reasons behind this pathetic state. Maliyadde, who was in public service for nearly 50 years and spent most of his career in the Ministry of Planning and Plan Implementation, takes a view different to that pressed by the majority. His views are presented in an interview with HIGH TV.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgzGmvpHLpHdbTFqDspxGnvPkwvbV?projector=1
….. Jamila Husain with Maliyadde & Indika Sakalasooriya
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Accidental Likeness
This cartoon captures Imran Khan’s situation recently ….. and could easily be extended metaphorically to depict Sri Lanka’s parlous situation — see TRUTHSEEKER’s revealing analysis – https://thuppahis.com/2022/04/11/sri-lankas-financial-crisis/#more-60661
thuppahi
