e-Con e-News

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‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’

e-Con e-News 20-26 October 2024

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‘During our last talks with the Government in London,

when certain proposals were made for a settlement –

which, unfortunately, we could not consider –

we were offered that Jews should have more rights

than others. And certain examples were given us of certain

English colonies, in Ceylon & other places. And we declared

emphatically to the Government that we will not accept,

we will fight any privilege accorded to a Jew because he is a Jew.

What we want to have, is more Jews in Palestine, but not more

privileges for the Jews.’ – David Ben Gurion, at the Hearing

of Representatives of the Jewish Agency, UN Special Committee

on Palestine, 7 July 1947 (see ee Sovereignty)

What exactly did the English promise David Ben Gurion, the ‘father of Israel’ in 1947? Were they offering Sri Lanka as the ‘promised land’ (of mi kiri & pani) to the Jews? Were the Sinhala to suffer the fate of the Palestinians? After all, it is the Sinhala who have led the resistance to over 500 years of European despotism in Sri Lanka. And while it is common for liberals to make artificial comparisons between the settler-colonial state of Israel & the non-settler colonial state of Sri Lanka, it is the Sinhala who bear the most historical resemblance, to the Palestinian people .

     Or, were the English in 1947 offering the Jews the privileges they have provided to the other non-settler colonial merchant & moneylender sects in Sri Lanka? These ‘minority’ importer sects still help subjugate the country to foreign caprice.

The United Nations, on 1947 November 29, recommended the partition of Palestine, which led to the Naqba, the continuing genocide of Palestinians, who were the majority……

     In Ceylon, England’s Soulbury Constitution imposed a House of Representatives as the lower chamber of the Parliament. The first election was held over a month (August-Sept) and Parliament first met on 1947 October 14. The first House of Representatives consisted of elected & appointed ‘Members of Parliament’ (MPs). The appointed members were to represent ‘important interests which were not represented or inadequately represented in the House’: European, Burgher, Indian Tamils, & Muslim (Moors or Malays), as well as Sinhala and Tamil ‘caste groups’ – all feted & fashioned under colonialism. Many of these ‘interests’ (European & Burgher planters, Northern & Southern ‘Ruling-Castes’) were involved in inflicting violence on voters. These ‘interests’ have indeed been afforded privileges in exchange for pushing imperial dictat. In the Senate, as the upper chamber of the Parliament of Ceylon, half the members were elected by the lower chamber, the rest were appointed by the colonial Governor-General.

     The English plan was to short-circuit the law-making body with all the trip switches possible to prevent Sri Lanka’s escape from the clutches of its colonial import-export plantation economy. Important legislation like the Paddy Lands Act was vetoed, and treasonable conspirators were pardoned by London long after 1948. The JVP in 1971 had to be charged with overthrowing England’s Queen Elizabeth. The bicameral Parliament & Senate were accordingly abolished in 1971, prior to adopting a new Republican Constitution of Sri Lanka on 22 May 1972. The imperial plan, unrelenting since then, has been to restore the colonial status quo by hook or by crook.

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There is also an ulterior motive for the World Bank & great powers

to promote tourism as a solution to Sri Lanka’s economic woes.

Tourism depends on the goodwill of powerful countries, who

can just as easily close the tap of tourist flows

if Sri Lanka diverges from their geopolitical interests.

– Ahilan Kadirgamar, World Bank’s Development Trap (ee Economists)

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The Jewish Question continues to stalk & mug us. The media inadvertently divulged that the strategic East coast especially Arugam Bay et al are being used as ‘rest & recreation’ (R&R) bases for Israeli soldiers on leave from their ongoing genocide in Palestine. It has also been suggested that the Israelis are being used as a ‘forward force’ to establish US R&R in Sri Lanka, like the USA used Thailand & Singapore during the US wars on Southeast Asia, 1950-70s.

     Indeed the R&R revelation (‘It’s more S&S, Sex & Stimulation’, quipped one wag) came about through a series of sensationalist headlines about purported threats to tourists:

US warns of attack threat in Sri Lanka

surf haven popular with Israeli tourists

After Sri Lanka decided to sign a letter against Israel at the UN, the US embassy on October 23 decided to issue a warning ‘about a potential attack targeting Arugambay’. Israel’s National Security Council then advised its citizens to leave, ‘suggesting that all of Sri Lanka was unsafe for Israelis’. Over 50% of tourists in Arugam Bay are from Israel, many visiting after military service, though its currently off-season due to the northeast monsoon there. However, England amplified also the US advisory, implying that all of Sri Lanka is dangerous, stating: ‘Terrorists are very likely to attempt attacks in Sri Lanka.’ England was of course followed by Australia & further negative international media.

     Meanwhile, the Acting Chief of Police claimed that information on a possible attack was received by the GoSL on the 7th of October, and was discussed at multiple security council meetings, investigated, and precautions taken. Opposition forces immediately responded by asking if the Government did have information before the statement from the US embassy went out, why didn’t the officials tighten security before?

     Indian Signals – A Daily Mirror columnist finds eerie parallels between the Israeli revelation & the 2019 April terror attacks: ‘The warnings, as seems to be an alarming pattern, come from India, raising serious questions about Sri Lanka’s intelligence service’s capabilities to know what is happening on its home turf.’

     The travel advisories are being seen as an attempt to derail ‘economic recovery’, and furthermore tighten the possible burning tire around the JVP. ‘A hit on tourism revenue’ would force the new government ‘to shift resources towards security & tourism instead of economic reforms & corruption-busting measures’. Corruption, again. What is corruption? In a merchant & moneylender ruled economy, among thieves, it is the most honorable of occupations in such a mode of production.

     Tourism operators are worried about ‘the reckless actions of those with megaphones’ & the impact on ‘what looked to be a promising winter tourism season’; and wonder out loud, if this is ‘some kind of cruel joke being played on Sri Lanka & its vital tourism industry, crucial to economic recovery, by a group of foreign Embassies’? Apparently, ‘in countries like Sri Lanka, where international tourism communication is virtually nonexistent, advisories play a disproportionate role in misleading travellers’. But then, the very same commentator claims: the ‘tourism sector… plays a critical role in uplifting millions in rural communities still recovering from recent serious economic setbacks’.

     Now this is patently untrue. As SBD de Silva always said: tourism is an absolute curse on Sri Lanka, providing no advanced skills & using few goods made in Sri Lanka. As are the tea plantations. If the country were turned into one giant hotel or plantation, we would not need schools or universities!

     Further, the US & their killer poodles are escalating war on West Asia, which will put an end to easy movement, and promises to soar oil prices from $100 to $500!

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• 2024 marks the 100^th death anniversary of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov aka Lenin:

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‘In the electricity sector, he saw the future of industrialization

& agriculture in the Soviet Union. So much so that he declared

that the Soviets & electrification equaled socialism.’

– see ee Industry, Electricity, Logic & Science

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     2024 is also the 100^th anniversary of the launching of the Aberdeen-Laxapana Scheme, which was engineer DJ Wimalasurendra’s dream to locally produce inexpensive hydroelectricity to replace the costly coal, diesel & gas used at the time. Wimalasurendra’s plan would however continue to be blocked, as it had been for the 20 years before 1924. Construction work started in 1924 but was stopped in 1927. Wimalasurendra named powerful ‘big business’ like England’s Whitehall Securities Corporation (later Pearson, now claiming a monopoly in textbooks & examinations, so you can see where all these ‘O/Level leakages’ are heading!) linked to Shell Oil, and Boustead Brothers in Singapore. Work on the Aberdeen-Laxapana Hydroelectric Scheme recommenced in 1945 and only entered into operation in 1950, 2 years after ‘independence’…by then we had lost a major advantage, while the new Central Bank of Ceylon under a US governor prevented investment in industry.

     We recall Wimalasurendra because the English High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Andrew Patrick, this week proudly proclaimed: Sri Lanka is now ‘England’s 2^nd largest partner in transnational education‘. Considering the population size of Sri Lanka, ‘that’s an extraordinary statistic’, Patrick said. Guess what? He was speaking at Pearson BTEC Higher Education Forum 2024 held in Colombo on Oct 23. It also turns out: ‘In Pakistan, Sri Lanka & Malaysia, for example, many members of the judiciary have law degrees from the University of London.’

     So this is why, comrades, sisters & brothers, we do not have justice or lights! Mr Patrick should weep blood. But we won’t hold our breath.

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• Meanwhile, the IMF is apparently holding talks on ‘stolen asset recovery’. The UN also wishes to examine our record on violence. But how far back do they wish to go? Will they recover our assets from Portugal, Holland, & England? Will they measure how much we lost by allowing a US Treasury agent to formulate & govern the Central Bank? Will they measure how much we are going to lose by continuing to prevent modern industrialization?

     This week saw the English at that tired Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet, allowing their former slaves to bring up the promise to provide reparations for the Transatlantic Slave Trade (smooooth! not calling it the European slave trade!). This week also saw people demanding the shutdown of the World Bank & the IMF, on the 80^th anniversary of those ‘Bretton Woods’ institutions. It also witnessed Russia hosting the XVI BRICS Summit in Kazan. Many people hope BRICS could quickly take us out of the abyss, and replace, not just the useless & misnamed Commonwealth, but also the IMF. But this is still a long way off, especially as our countries remained divided & deluded.

     As far as the imperialists are concerned, public investment is merely to encourage the private sector to take up the task of investment & development, ignoring the role of state investment & planning.

     The English news is all about us owing them – debt, debt, debt– because we still don’t seem to understand English even if we elocute it well. If we are going to play their ‘reparations’ game (the Uva Provincial Council demanded reparations for the 19th century genocides in the southeast) with Europe & the USA, we should demand a share of the Bank of England (& the Bank of Portugal, & the Bank of Holland, and whichever US bank will pay for their capture & diversion of our Central Bank) & set up a modern industrial investment bank. In 1833, the English claimed to abolish African chattel slavery (in order to raise the price of slaves). The Bank of England only compensated the slave owners, with a loan from the Rothschild bankers. The slave owners then set up Barclays Bank, while English capital moved east, escalating the opium & indentured ‘coolie’ trade, de-industrializing Lanka, India & China…

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• The Most Corrupt Nations Corrupt the Most Corrupt Media – Having prevented the skilled employment of our citizens inside the country, we find out this week that Germany’s Federal Office & the Goethe Institute sponsored senior journalists – 7 from India, and 1 each from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka & Nepal – on a ‘familiarization tour to promote migration to Germany for students & professionals’, because German women are ‘having fewer babies’. ‘Thousands of job opportunities for Sri Lankans’ swooned the Sunday Times’ Feizal Samath, who writes under the overworked pseudonym of Kussi Amma Sera (who fights with one Perera but loves his/her sauer-kraut). As if to reinforce this robbery, an EU Delegation including Felix Neumann, Ambassador of Germany; Damiano Francovigh, Ambassador of Italy; Steluta Arhire, Ambassador of Romania; Chargé d’Affaires Marie-Noelle Duris of France, and Iwams Rutjens of the Netherlands, met the Sri Lanka President, to rehearse their tired gospel of ‘expanding market access, employment opportunities’.

    This is the EU, that is one moment talking high ideals, and the next second promoting war on Russia & West, Southeast & East Asia – calling the rest of a world a ‘jungle’ that must be invaded before we invade the ‘garden’ of Europe. And for those dreaming about ‘rule of law’, the US genocide in West Asia follows the pattern of the US settler colonial invasions of the Americas – that media success story of the ‘New World’…

    This ee Focus, therefore, continues the excerpts on the USSR’s take on the need for a socialist path to industrialization, as imperialist countries have no interest in our advance, and their path is wasteful and destructive. We also continue the lessons China learned from the USSR, the first socialist country in the world.

    This ee also includes a conversation an ee correspondent had with USA’s supposedly ‘private’ information agency, ChatGPT+ about what they would divulge about ee, and if e-con e-news is run by the military like the US & EU media?!

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Since its first report on the country, the World Bank has

sought to divert the attention of local policymakers away

from large-scale industry and towards various cul-de-sacs,

including peasant colonisation, services, & micro-entrepreneurship.

As if any country has been able to develop along these lines.

During the negotiations for the 1955 Non-Aligned Meeting in Bandung, England sought to use Sri Lanka against the rest of Asia. How much has changed? This ee Focus starts on a more hopeful note with an examination of this week’s 16^th BRICS Summit. Shiran Illanperuma’s ‘Out of the Abyss and into BRICS’ notes:

BRICS is still very much work in progress.

Its outcome is not written in stone. In the spirit of Bandung,

Sri Lanka should be playing an active role in shaping

the outcome of BRICS and taking its rightful place in world history

(see ee Focus)

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Contents:

Did England offer Sri Lanka to the Jews in 1947? Is the USA now Dangling R&R Bases Too?