The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has organised a Buddhist tourist train covering 9 places across India and Nepal that impacted Buddha, helping tourists experience his self-disciplined and legendary life, Indian media reported.
To facilitate people to embark on the path of enlightenment, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation’s (IRCTC) Buddhist Circuit Tourist train on the Bharat Gaurav Trains concept has commenced its spiritual journey.
In the Mahaparinirvana sutra, the Buddha tells his followers that they can attain merit and a noble rebirth by going on pilgrimage to the places where he was born- Lumbini, gained enlightenment- Bodhgaya, first taught- Sarnath, and attained Nirvana- Kushinagar.
The Buddhist tourist train takes people to these destinations and helps them experience first-hand the self-disciplined and legendary life of Lord Buddha.
India, the country where Buddhism originated has rich memories of the Buddhist legacy. As part of its drive towards austerity, the only kind of art and architecture that it supported were Stupas (stone-cased moulds that commemorated relics of Buddha), Chaityas (prayer halls) and Viharas (cells for the monks). Buddhist Train India will help you visit all these places up close for a truly religious experience.
The seven nights and eight days tour started on March 11 from Delhi Safdarjung Railway Station. This is the first departure of the tourist train post-COVID-19 pandemic. The tour will conclude on March 18 at Delhi Safdarjung Railway Station.
During the journey, the rail tour will cover nine places across India and Nepal, which had a significant impact on Buddha’s life and teachings. The Buddhist tourist train takes tourists to these places and helps them to experience the self-disciplined and legendary life of Lord Buddha.
The train has two types of classes – AC 1st Class, and AC 2nd Class. A total of 96 guests can accommodate the First AC while 60 guests are allowed in the Second AC class, reported Financial Express.
The train starts from Delhi on Day one and traverses to Bodhgaya on Day two, which is the place where Buddhism began. All pilgrims and Buddhism followers are fond of this place and the legend attached to it. They usually visit here on the Bodhgaya tour also known as the Buddha Gaya tour. Lord Buddha was wandering near the banks of the Falgu river seeking answers when he sat under the Bodhi Tree. Three days and three nights of meditation helped him attain enlightenment and gather insight into humanity and being in general. On Day three, it will take people to Nalanda, which is situated 72 km off Patna and is part of the Buddhist Circuit, which also includes Rajgir and Bodhgaya.
It is famous for Surya Mandir and Hieun Tsang Memorial Hall, both popular destinations in Nalanda Buddhist tourism. Surya Mandir has a 5 feet tall statue of Goddess Parvati which is the main attraction among devotees. The temple comes alive during Chatt Puja which is held here twice a year.
On Day four, IRCTC Buddha Varanasi Travel Train takes you to the holy city of Varanasi which also goes by the name Banaras and Kashi. According to Legend Buddha set the wheel of dharma in motion here by giving his first sermon. The city has been patronized by many emperors supporting different doctrines and cultures including Adi Shankar who worshipped Shiva, and Akbar who built two big temples dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu.
On Day five it will enter Lumbini in Nepal. Lumbini is the birthplace of Lord Buddha. Lumbini is located very close to the Border of India, a few kilometres from Kathmandu. The nearest airport is in Bhairahawa, which one can reach by road. The site now is developed as a Buddhist Pilgrimage centre where archaeological remains of Lord Buddha are still there.
Kushinagar is next on the list of travel. On Day six, it will reach Kushinagar. It is a pilgrimage centre nestled in the beautiful state of Uttar Pradesh. It is situated in Northern India, a few kilometres from Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh). This place is famous because The Great Lord Buddha attained Nirvana here. It is one of the top four famous Buddhist Pilgrimages.
Next on Day seven, the train stops at Shravasti. It is a town in Uttar Pradesh. It was the capital of the ancient Indian kingdom of Kosala and the place where the Buddha lived most after his enlightenment. It is near the Rapti river in the northeastern part of Uttar Pradesh India, close to the Nepalese border.
Finally, on Day 8, the train will take people to Agra, On the banks of Yamuna lies one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh, Agra. It is a major tourist destination because of many UNESCO World Heritage Sites like the Taj Mahal, Agra, Fort and Fatehpur Sikri.
The President’s Secretary has reportedly agreed to provide a conclusive solution to the issues concerning the recent revision of the Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) tax.
This was stated by the Professionals’ Trade Union Alliance (PTUA), who claimed that the President’s Secretary had agreed to provide a certain extent of relief to those disadvantaged by the increase in taxes.
Accordingly, a conclusive solution in this regard is due to be reached at the meeting the PTUA is scheduled to have with the President.
The PTUA stated that this was conveyed to them during a meeting with the President’s Secretary this afternoon (17 March).
A 24-hour token strike was launched across the island on 15 March by the PTUA, against the recent tax revision, electricity tariff hike and other unpopular decisions taken by the incumbent government.
Trade unions affiliated with several sectors including health, ports, electricity, railway, postal, banking, and education joined the one-day strike.
Western Province Senior DIG Deshabandu Thennakoon is likely to be appointed as the Inspector General of Police following the retirement of the current IGP C.D Wickramaratne, the Daily Mirror learns.
It was reported that the President had recommended to the Constitutional Council the appointment of Senior DIG Tennakoon as the 36th IGP of the Sri Lanka Police.
IGP Wickramaratne is scheduled to retire on March 25.
Tennakoon, studied at Nalanda College in Colombo, joined the Police Service as an apprentice Assistant Superintendent of Police in 1998. He was promoted to the position of Superintendent of Police in 2006. He was later appointed as Deputy Inspector General of Police in 2015.
He was appointed Senior DIG in 2019 and functioning as the Senior DIG in charge of the Western Province for more than three years now.
In a report covering covid-19 period from March 2020 to March 2021 OXFAM’s research bring home some hard facts that are camouflaged by words & terms. IMF Fiscal consolidation is nothing but austerity upon low-income & middle class populations while IMF reforms means cutting social welfare & subsidies. OXFAM says that these measures which cover taxing, wage bill cuts or freezes, pension cuts, subsidy elimination, cuts to public spending have over period of time brought countries to great difficulty as they have to continue taking loans & paying back taken loans with interest while people suffer consequences of IMF recommendations. OXFAM claims IMF austerity increases income of the wealthiest 10% at the expense of the bottom 80% which include the middle class who face the most burdens.
IMF Consolidation = austerity
IMF reforms = elimination of subsidies/cuts/freezes etc.
How does the wealthiest 10% increase their income.
IMF while recommending to slash state subsidies to the people, also promote privatization & when state entities are privatized while state increases prices/taxes which have to be borne by the poor – the private owners naturally gain more income as they hold most avenues of revenue.
Within 9 months in 2020, 1000 billionaires wealth had increased by $3.9trillion but workers had lost $3.7trillion in labor income. This showed the gap between top 10% & bottom 80% widening.
When the covid-pandemic struck, Governments had no choice but to impose lockdown which impacted every sphere of society. OXFAM says that neglected health, education by the State as a result of IMF agreed initiatives, countries were ill-prepared to deal with the pandemic & their self-sustainence apparatus had been compromised.
According to OXFAM only 1 in 6 countries were spending enough on health, only 1/3 the global workforce had adequate social protection and 1 in 3 workers across 100 countries had no labor protection.
OXFAM accuses IMF of not promoting people centred just & equal recovery to fight inequality not fuel it”. IMF should encourage governments to increase social spending not cut it. Then only quality of the people improve. OXFAM asks why IMF doesn’t focus on people-centred recovery through policy that redistributes free quality universal – healthcare, education & social protection.
OXFAM says that IMF is well aware of the burden of austerity unevenly distributed across society, globally.
OXFAM says that IMF is also aware that imposing austerity will only worsen the pre-pandemic situation of low income families. IMF loan interest may be cheaper, but look at the cost to the people burdened by IMF conditions.
Why does IMF always targets the poorer segments of society & never the corrupt rich, the corrupt corporates or the corrupt politicians.
Why doesn’t IMF impose wealth tax, capital gains tax, removal of tax exemptions that favor rich, demanding governments tackle illicit financial flows (tax evasion).
OXFAM research covered 1 March 2020 – 15 March 2021
85% IMF’s 107 loans with 85 governments involved austerity demands (as per loan documents of 73 of the 85 countries)
IMF conditions targets low income/middle classes only
IMF imposed VAT introduction/increases on 41 countries
IMF imposed wage bills cuts/wage freezes on 31 countries
IMF imposed subsidy cuts on 11 countries
IMF imposed pension cuts on 6 countries
IMF imposed reduction to public spending on 55 countries
IMF imposed targeted social protection programs on 8 countries (this meant that only a segment was covered while others who were also vulnerable was omitted)
26 governments in Africa & Latin America /Caribbean planned to resume fiscal consolidation in 2020 & 2021as per IMF requirements.
107 IMF loans with 85 countries between 1 March 2020 & 15 March 2021 worth $107billion.
Austerity Measures in IMF Loans During and in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia
Asia and Pacific
Latin America & Caribbean
Europe
When IMF was aware of the impact of covid, why did IMF impose conditions to covid-19 loans while also demanding countries adopt austerity after pandemic?
Why does IMF demand countries that face high deficits & debt to adopt fiscal consolidation (austerity) knowing the dire outcome? IMF’s own research reveals this outcome.
OXFAM refers to 500 organizations issuing a letter to IMF regarding conditions imposed by IMF for pandemic-hit countries. OXFAM says IMF should be promoting redistribution policies to make society more equal & shield people from severe economic hardships, instead of fueling inequality with IMF conditions.
IMF’s argument is that fiscal adjustments(austerity) reduces budget deficits & sovereignt debt. But what has this cost the people who have to face the austerity measures? IMF influences govts through lending, technical assistance & surveillance to adopt austerity measures but the same IMF teams do not offer any solutions when inequality & poverty prevails which developing nations have to face but cannot because IMF will be blowing hot & cold.
IMF forces countries to
Cut wages/freeze wages
Impose consumption taxes (VAT) without taxing rich/corporates
Increase prices of essential goods & services
Cut public spending/ration social welfare
Cut subsidies
Slash pensions
Countries impacted with IMF austerity have seen rise in unemployment, job cuts, youth depression, HIV infections soaring, high suicide rates & a very angry general public. Thus, these IMF austerity are all counter-productive because the middle class & poor have to survive with what they have but are unable to survive because what they have cannot meet the price hikes & tax increases. There is no growth in a country. A country will only witness inequality, anger & social calamity.
Eventually the State has nothing left to tax or gain revenue to even repay debts because IMF forces countries to sell their resources & assets and with people in dire straits without jobs, income & in poverty, how can a government provide relief when it has to pay IMF loans, while taking more loans to live but having no assets to generate income/revenue as these have all been privatized or sold off. When there is no internal growth wagon under the state, the state cannot function. What happens then?
IMF requires countries to scale down on social welfare to its citizens, sudden pandemic situation like covid-19 has shown the adverse effects of neglecting health making people vulnerable & the outcome is nothing countries can be proud of.
OXFAM accuses IMF of contributing to cutting down on a states health investment which affected covid pandemic & highlights the importance of govts supporting social structures. OXFAM criticizes IMF’s proposal of targeted social assistance programs” as they only cover low-income and excludes middle-income earners who also require assistance as given by universal healthcare.
IMF will refuse to take accountability
Similarly, IMF has also required countries to scale down on improving public sector productivity and this has resulted in a lethargic yet ballooning politicized workforce. The scenario is used by IMF to demand wage cuts/job freezes none of which overall help improve/increase the productivity of a country & impedes the growth apparatus. With job cuts the result is unemployment, social ills, public outrage & social disorder – all of which further impedes growth & every time such happens, governments have no choice but to take more debt which IMF is happy to give by making more demands that ultimately hit the people. IMF loans are only creating, widening the inequality gap.This vicious cycle needs to stop.
OXFAM recommends
IMF helps countries restructure debt & cancels all middle-low-income debt payments owed during pandemic & after pandemic
IMF must work with donors to maximize aid flows & secure balance payments
IMF should encourage & support countries to increase social spending as a permanent measure & create basis for securing quality, universal free public services.
IMF should support countries to create necessary fiscal space through $650b Special Drawing Rights allocation & transfer SDRs from reserve accounts & channeling SDRs from rich countries to middle & low income countries
In addition to the OXFAM critique of IMF, the Boston University Global Development Policy Centre looks at IMF from 2001-2018 & key findings are
IMF has not departed from austerity inspite of 2008/2009 financial crisis
To face less austerity measures, countries have to align to Western European trade/diplomatic goals.
IMF austerity results in increasing income share of top 10% at the expense of bottom 80%
Research reveal that IMF-austerity was not evenly distributed to borrowers or those facing similar economic issues. IMF’s decisions were based on foreign, economic & diplomatic relationships. In short, IMF had no equal stand applied for loans.
IMF austerity specifically targets a nations poorest & the biggest losers are the middle class earners
It is unfortunate that learned” think tanks & economists” are busy promoting IMF loans & even IMF conditionalities & they are blind to the ground realities that prevail.
Though sometimes stressed during the 1973 Oil Embargo and in the aftermath of the 9/11 Attacks, the relationship remained our most important in the Arab World, being responsible for the rise of the Petrodollar and the maintenance of our own greenback as the world’s reserve currency. With America’s industrial base having been reduced to a mere shadow of its once global dominance and our country plagued by horrendous annual budget deficits and accumulated debt, much of our national prosperity and current standard of living probably today depends upon that maintaining that status.
Meanwhile, during the four decades since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, no country in the region has been a greater object of American hostility than Iran. As recently as January 2020, we assassinated Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s greatest military commander, who had been considered a likely presidential candidate in their 2021 elections.
There are obviously many long-term factors behind this apparent diplomatic revolution, notably including China’s economic rise and its position as the leading purchaser of Middle Eastern oil. Over a decade ago, I had described these powerful trends, which have now become obvious to the entire world.
However, I think that the colossal arrogance of our own country, and the extent to which we have increasingly abused and victimized our own allies and vassals over the years must surely have been a huge contributing factor. One problem with relying too heavily upon the power of your dishonest propaganda is that you may continue to believe in it yourself even after most of the intended targets of your deception have stopped doing so.
In late September, a series of massive underwater explosions severely damaged the Russian-German Nord Stream pipelines, perhaps Europe’s most important civilian energy infrastructure, a particularly devastating blow at a time when Europe was suffering its worst energy crisis in generations.
The enormous scale and extreme difficulty of these deep water demolitions led German investigators to quickly declare that a state actor had likely been responsible. Yet strangely enough, this huge event received minimal coverage in the American mainstream media. After briefly quoting anonymous government officials who absurdly suggested that the Russians had destroyed their own pipelines, our press immediately lost interest in the story, which soon disappeared with almost no follow-up or investigation. A gigantic environmental disaster seemed to draw negligible media interest from the legions of normally hair-trigger environmentalists.
The obvious reason for this strange lack of curiosity and the resulting blanket of silence was the likely identity of the perpetrators, which had grave political implications. Top American leaders had issued numerous public threats against those pipelines and seemed to rejoice in their successful destruction, so there seemed an overwhelming likelihood that our own country had played a central role in the illegal attacks, among the worst peacetime examples of industrial terrorism in world history. If enough Europeans began to suspect that their American allies had destroyed energy infrastructure so vital to Germany and the rest of the continent, our NATO alliance would be dealt a devastating blow and might be set on the road to dissolution.
One of America’s most powerful international weapons is its overwhelming control over the global news ecosystem, and a complete blanket of media silence was soon enforced, causing that huge event to quickly fade from public consciousness. When someone such as Prof. Jeffrey Sachs mentioned what had probably happened on Bloomberg TV, he was quickly yanked off the air.
Most ordinary Westerners live their lives trapped within the cocoon of our controlled media, and only a small minority of them may have recognized the magnitude of this historic event, with only a sliver blaming anyone other than the demonized Russian enemy.
But I doubt that this blindness applied to political leaders worldwide, who certainly understood what had probably happened. If America’s reckless and criminal government had wantonly destroyed the vital civilian infrastructure of its closest NATO allies, potentially crippling Europe’s economy, how could it ever be trusted to respect the lives and property of other countries? Surely the leadership of Saudi Arabia and many other important nations began asking themselves such questions.
Then a month ago, any remaining doubts vanished, as the exact details of America’s attack against Germany’s energy infrastructure were revealed in a bombshell expose by Seymour Hersh, who had spent a half-century as one of America’s most renowned investigative journalists.
Although Hersh’s story was totally boycotted by the mainstream press, within 24 hours over a million people had read it worldwide on Substack. His subsequent interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! was viewed over two million times on Youtube, with various other interviews adding many hundreds of thousands of additional views.
Hersh’s revelations prompted Russia to call a special session of the UN Security Council to discuss the pipeline attacks, and this drew important testimony from Prof. Sachs and former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern. These developments finally forced the Washington Post to grudgingly mention Hersh’s blockbuster weeks after it had first been published, finally breaking the mainstream media blockade.
With the ripples of Hersh’s reporting beginning to spread, the German government and its Chancellor Olaf Scholz faced a very difficult dilemma.
During late 2021, Scholz had been standing next to President Joseph Biden at a press conference when the latter publicly threatened to eliminate the pipelines, so German voters might reasonably suspect their own leader’s complicity after that threat was carried out. Attention had to be diverted in a different direction.
Last week, Scholz took a sudden, unscheduled trip to privately meet with Biden in DC, and a couple of days later stories suddenly appeared in the New York Times and Germany’s Die Zeit weekly blaming the pipeline attacks upon an unspecified group of pro-Ukraine activists. The articles cited anonymous government sources, with most of the details being both vague and risible.
Deploying a ton of powerful military explosives in deep water was obviously a very challenging covert operation, requiring highly-specialized diving equipment and skilled demolitions experts, but according to German sources it had been carried out by a handful of unknown activists on a rented sailboat, a total absurdity. The Times account was more vague if hardly more persuasive, pointing to mysterious Ukrainian activists as the culprits and only acknowledging the very detailed expose of Hersh, one of its former star reporters, in the 26th paragraph. The German claims of a sailboat-based attack was soon discussed in the Wall Street Journal, though the skeptical reporters emphasized how extremely difficult it would have been to carry out such a major undersea operation in such limited circumstances.
A German who blogs at the Moon of Alabama website had been heavily following the pipeline attacks from the beginning. He reasonably described these sudden anonymous media stories as merely constituting journalistic chaff, aimed at obscuring the very detailed account of the attack already provided by Hersh and perhaps diverting attention from some of the follow-up stories the Pulitzer Prize winner might plan to release.
The hosts of the Grayzone podcast showed photos of the sailboat allegedly used in the massive military attack and ridiculed the absurd cover-story that our government had concocted.
Indeed, when Hersh was informed what his former newspaper had published, he was stunned, saying that he couldn’t believe that they would have ever written anything so stupid.
A few days later, Hersh was interviewed on Chinese television, and he explained his personal sources of information. A half-century earlier many of the young GIs serving in Vietnam had been deeply impressed by his honest war reporting, and during the decades that followed some had risen very high within our military and intelligence establishments. These individuals swore an oath to the American Constitution rather than to any particular American president, and many of them were appalled at the idiocy of the Biden Administration’s decision to destroy Europe’s energy pipelines, providing Hersh with the detailed account that he published.
In that interview, Hersh understandably ridiculed the absurd claims that a shadowy group of Ukrainian activists on a sailboat could have carried out any operation as obviously massive and complex as the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines. His Chinese interlocutor objected that there was a historical precedent, which seemed to puzzle the journalist until she explained she was referring to the 9/11 Attacks, officially blamed upon a small group of Islamic fanatics. Based upon his memoirs, Hersh seems a deeply conventional thinker on all such controversial topics and living within the bubble of the Western mainstream media, he may never have questioned the official 9/11 narrative or considered that obvious analogy with the pipeline attacks. But the attitude of his interviewer demonstrated that deep suspicions about what had actually happened on 9/11 are probably widespread across China and most of the non-Western world.
Just before the twentieth anniversary, I published a lengthy reconstruction of those seminal events, and I would recommend it to those so interested.
I suspect that most world leaders reacted with total disbelief to the story of the Ukrainian activists on a rented sailboat, shocked not that the Western governments and their subservient media outlets would lie, but that their lies would be so utterly ridiculous. So not only had the Biden Administration illegally destroyed the crucial energy pipelines of its European vassals, but it had apparently made no effort to even prepare a plausible cover-story to camouflage its criminal attacks. What independent-minded national leader would want to align himself with a hegemonic power so arrogant and incompetent? The American government had demonstrated the total bankruptcy of its strategic thinking, exactly what we might expect to see in the late stages of a decaying empire.
A few days ago, Prof. Sachs was interviewed by a podcaster in Germany, and he was absolutely scathing in his description of the total irrationality and recklessness of the Neocon-dominated American government.
Although I assume that all these facts have certainly become known to the ruling elites of most non-Western countries, I think they may increasingly be reaching a much broader audience as well, despite America’s stranglehold over the traditional electronic media.
Our own website is a small one, and only about a dozen of our articles have ever broken 100,000 views. But almost exactly a year ago, just prior to the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Mike Whitney published a piece entitled The Crisis in Ukraine Is Not About Ukraine. It’s About Germany,” arguing that the primary motive for the looming conflict was America’s effort to disrupt growing economic ties between Germany and Russia, with the Nord Stream pipelines being the most important example of this. Strong German-Russian cooperation would be very beneficial for both countries but might greatly diminish America’s European influence, so we were fomenting a war to prevent such Eurasian integration, though the result might be the destruction of Ukraine and severe economic damage to both Germany and Russia.
This article quickly attracted enormous global readership and has now reached nearly a million views, with the bulk of that traffic coming from WhatsApp users on the Indian subcontinent. Assuming many of those individuals at least glanced at the contents, their perspective on American policy may have become much more realistic, recognizing that our government was ruthlessly impoverishing its European vassals in order to maintain its own power, with the elected leaders of those countries regularly betraying the interests of the citizens they claimed to serve. The worldwide dissemination of such contrary ideas from alternative Western Internet sources may increasingly undercut the dishonest narrative long promoted by Hollywood and CNN.
Most credulous Westerners may fail to accept the reality of any factual information unless it has been endorsed by their own maintream media, but others around the world may have a different perspective. Over the last year, the Western global media has portrayed Russia’s Ukraine war as an outrageous, unprovoked act of naked aggression, unleashing a propaganda-barrage more intense than anything I can remember and demonizing Russian President Vladimir Putin to an unprecedented extent. Putin quickly denounced these attacks as coming from an empire of lies,” but they were widely expected to result in Russia’s international isolation, leading to severe economic stress.
However, the reality has been entirely different. Although Americans and other Westerners apparently absorbed most of this propaganda, the impact elsewhere has been minimal, with 60-70% of the world’s population residing in countries still maintaining good relations with Russia despite our enormous pressure to the contrary. So in some respects, it is America and the rest of the West that has actually become isolated. In real terms, China’s industrial output is larger than the combined total for America and the European Union, and our erratic and increasingly provocative behavior has moved China much closer to Russia than it has ever previously been. I had emphasized these trends six months ago, and they have only become more obvious since then.
Meanwhile, many years of arrogant and oppressive American behavior towards so many other major countries has produced a powerful backlash of support for Russia. According to news reports, the Iranians have provided the Russians with large numbers of their advanced drones, which have been effectively deployed against the Ukrainians. Since World War II, our alliance with Saudi Arabia has been a linchpin of our Middle Eastern policy, but the Saudis have now repeatedly sided with the Russians on oil production issues, completely ignoring America’s demands despite threats of retaliation from Congress. Turkey has NATO’s largest military, but it is closely cooperating with Russia on natural gas shipments. India has also moved closer to Russia on crucial issues, ignoring the sanctions we have imposed on Russian oil. Except for our political vassal states, most major world powers seem to be lining up on Russia’s side.
Since World War II one of the central pillars of global American dominance has been the status of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency and our associated control over the international banking system. Until recently we always presented our role as neutral and administrative, but we have increasingly begun weaponizing that power, using our position to punish those states we disliked, and this is naturally forcing other countries to seek alternatives. Perhaps the world could tolerate our freezing the financial assets of relatively small countries such as Venezuela or Afghanistan, but our seizure of Russia’s $300 billion in foreign reserves obviously tipped the balance, and major countries are increasingly seeking to shift their transactions away from the dollar and the banking network that we control. Although the economic decline of the EU has caused a corresponding fall in the Euro and driven up the dollar by default, the longer-term prospects for our continued currency hegemony hardly seem good. And given our horrendous budget and trade deficits, a flight from the dollar might easily collapse the US economy.
Soon after the outbreak of the Ukraine War, the eminent historian Alfred McCoy argued that we were witnessing the geopolitical birth of a new world order, one built around a Russia-China alliance that would dominate the Eurasian landmass.
Although probably only a small fraction of Westerners are yet aware that America destroyed Europe’s energy pipelines, many others around the world are much less ignorant, and the same may also be true of even more consequential matters. As mentioned above, mainstream Chinese broadcast journalists apparently have a very different view of the 9/11 Attacks than the one universally presented by the American media, and I think this is also the case with regard to the global Covid epidemic.
Just over six months ago, I published an article pointing out that both the Russian and Iranian governments have publicly accused America of releasing the Covid virus in a deliberate biowarfare attack, and the Chinese government has implied the same thing, with such speculation reportedly being widespread across Chinese social media.
Twenty million people including well over a million Americans have died from this global epidemic and the lives of many billions have been disrupted. Just as the basic facts of the Nord Stream pipeline attacks soon suggested likely American culpability, the same was also true with regard to the Covid outbreak. For nearly three years I have been publishing a long series of articles pointing to the strong perhaps overwhelming evidence that the global disaster was the result of blowback from a botched American biowarfare attack against China (and Iran), a possibility utterly unimaginable to anyone in America’s political class.
In several of his numerous interviews, Hersh has joked that his lengthy expose had only amounted to explicating the obvious, merely providing the exact details of something that had been almost immediately apparent, and I think that much the same is also true of the Covid epidemic. For those who wish to understand why Russian, Iranian, and Chinese officials have been making these charges, I would recommend my long series of articles, also provided in a freely downloadable ebook.
For twelve months, I’ve been regularly promoting several of my podcast interviews, which effectively summarize the crucial information and have been available on Rumble. But since Youtube is so much more widely used, I’ve now also uploaded them to a newly created Youtube channel:
A discussion was held between Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and the Governors at Temple Trees on 14.03.2023 regarding the future activities and maintenance of 340 Local Government Institutions as the term of office of those institutions ends on March 19th midnight.
Governors Tikiri Kobbekaduwa (Sabaragamuwa), Wasantha Karnagoda (North West), M.J.M. Musammil (Uwa), Mahipala Herath (North Central), Willy Gamage (Southern), Lalith U. Gamage (Central), Anuradha Yahampath (Eastern) Roshan Gunathilake (Western), Jeevan Thyagaraja (Northern), Secretary to the Prime Minister Anura Dissanayake, Public Administration Secretary Neil Hapuhinna and Prime Minister’s Legal Adviser Dr. Jayatissa de Costa participated in the discussion.
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said that he did not believe that the governments should control media. However, media should ensure ethical standards, he said while addressing the gathering at the felicitation of Mr. Kumar Nadesan for conferring Pravasi Bharatiya award – the highest recognition given to a non-Indian by the Government of India.
Folowing are the excerpts from the speech of the Prime Minister;
I am delighted to be present at this occasion when we felicitate a Son of Sri Lanka, who has been awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (Overseas Indian Honour).
It has been conferred on our good friend Kumar Nadesan by no lesser person than Indian President Her Excellency Droupadi Murmu herself.
Pra-Vasi describes as a citizen living abroad. Pravasi Bharatiya is an expatriate Bharatiya. Bharat is not something unfamiliar to the people in our subcontinent. Bharat originates from the Sanskrit word “Bharata”. Bharat was one of India’s famous emperors, the son of Dushyant and Shakuntala.
Pravasi Bharatiya Award is conferred for outstanding contribution for several services from better understanding India to social and humanitarian causes and Eminence in one’s field or outstanding work.
When I read the list of services, I found our Sri Lankan recipient of this award this year, Mr Kumar Nadesan could be credited with most of those contributions or services.
His silent service in the campaign to eradicate drug menace when he was president of the Sri Lanka Anti-Narcotics Association is tremendous.
Worthiness of giving this prestigious award to Mr. Nadesan become all the more clear when one reads the award criteria which says, the award is conferred on those who work for Better understanding of India and for Social and humanitarian causes in India or abroad.
I remember Mr Kumar Nadesan, while introducing me to the audience at Sri Lanka – India Society last year, mentioned about the political achievements of my father and mother and expressed confidence that I would attain higher position in the political hierarchy. Then I was a minister and now the Prime Minister. I wonder whether Mr Nadesan has forecasting skills in addition to the qualities listed before his name.
Mr. Kumar Nadesan is doing a yeomen service as Chairman of the Sri Lanka Press Institute and represents the Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka. In addition, he serves as a Chairman of the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka. His services to enhance professionalism in Sri Lankan media is highly praiseworthy.
Mr Nadesan now heads Virakesari, one of the leading Tamil daily newspapers in Sri Lanka. Founded on August 6, 1930, it is the oldest and the largest circulated Tamil Newspaper in Sri Lanka. Virakesari is owned by Express Newspapers Limited, a leading print and web media organization in Sri Lanka.
Today there is much talk about social media and its lack of ethics and professionalism. I do not believe the governments should control media. However, media should ensure ethical standards. Yesterday, I met a group of South Asian media personalities who attended Regional ConferenceonFake News, Dis-Information and Propaganda in International Relations in Colombo. These media experts of the region were unanimous in their opinion that that fake news and disinformation cause havoc in the society. They said it is the responsibility of media to educate people how to recognize false news stories. People should be curious and actively investigate what you read and hear. To verify the authenticity of news, they can use news sources that are accountable for their content and follow journalistic ethics and standards. They must also take care to verify the news before sharing news content with others on social media. Media, while providing information to the people, has a responsibility to educate them to identify and reject fake news. It is a part of their social responsibilities of media.
The prestige of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman can be gauged from the list of its early recipients that include late Mauritius Prime Minister Anirud Jagnaut, former Singapore President S R Nathan, and former Commonwealth Secretary General Sridath Ramphal.
When Her Excellency the President Murmu awarded Mr. Nadesan at a special convention, the keynote address was delivered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi the leader of not only our friend and neighbor Bharath Desh, but also the current chair of the top global group G20.
This August Forum, India Sri Lanka Society is doing a yeomen service to foster friendship and cooperation between our two countries – two nations totally committed to democracy and adult franchise – India being the world’s biggest democracy and Sri Lanka with a proud record of universal franchise for 90 years.
Thank you Mr Nadesan, for your relentless efforts to enhance relations between our two nations and congratulations once again for bringing prestige to the country as a Sri Lanka puthra. The Prime Minster concluded.
Peru became a key piece of the U.S. military deployment in the region, with the installation of bases in the jungle of that country and the Regional Emergency Operations Centers.
The United States has close to 800 military bases throughout the world, of which more than 75 are in Latin America. Photo: Mission Truth Photo: Granma
The United States has close to 800 military bases throughout the world, of which more than 75 are in Latin America. Among the best known are 12 in Panama, an equal number in Puerto Rico, nine in Colombia and eight in Peru, with the largest number concentrated in Central America and the Caribbean.
The “pioneer” extraterritorial base of the United States in the continent, imposed against the will of the Cuban government and people, is located in Guantanamo Bay. It was part of the theory formulated by Nicholas Spykman, which was the basis for U.S. military aggression in different regions of the world.
These bases are not only military, although all of them are in their essence. There are bases that function as centers for media warfare and cyberwarfare.
They fall into three categories: “operational bases” that are larger than ten acres and have more than 200 active duty military personnel; “small”, or “Lily Pad”, and “funded”, which are facilities belonging to the host country in which U.S. operational personnel may have full or partial access. Most of those in Latin America fall into this category and serve as military operations and training centers.
There are others that are of a confidential nature, not “confirmed”. They are military centers with the presence of U.S. troops that have not been officially declared.
Among the largest military bases on the continent are Tolemaida, in Colombia, and Palmerola, in Honduras, both of which fall into the category of “funded,” responsible, among other things, for the training of death squads and other paramilitary groups.
Palmerola is an air base where the Honduran Air Force and the U.S. military mission Joint Task Force Bravo of the U.S. Southern Command operate.
The Department of Defense branches its military operations into six geographically organized commands, with delimited fields of action: Northern Command (Northcom), Southern Command (Southcom), Africa Command (Africom), European Command (Eucom), Central Command (Centcom), and Indo-Pacific Command (Indopacom). It also has five others in charge of different areas of action, such as the Space Command, the Cyber Command, the Special Operations Command, the Strategic Command and the Transportation Command.
For Latin America, Southcom is responsible for managing and overseeing U.S. military activities in the region.
Interestingly, in the last ten years, Peru has become a key player in U.S. military deployment in the region, with the installation of bases in the jungle of that country and the Regional Emergency Operations Centers, rivaling Colombia in strategic importance, which sheds light on the latest developments in that country.
Colombia and Peru emerge as important targets for the Biden administration, from a strategic point of view.
The installation of a U.S. “humanitarian aid” military base in Neuquén, Argentina, provides an enlightening fact: in 2011, the YPF company found a mega oil and gas field in Neuquén, not to mention the rich reserves of drinking water in the region.
According to the terms used by Washington, it is an Emergency Operation and Coordination Center, which aims to help the inhabitants of the province in case of natural disasters.
Recently, Laura Richardson, the chief general of the U.S. Southern Command, without a drop of blush, in a conversation with the Atlantic Council think tank, in the old Monroe Doctrine style, acknowledged that Washington’s main interest in Latin America is in its natural resources, of which it considers itself the owner.
The Southern Command head has spoken of the rich resources and rare earth elements present in the continent, the lithium triangle – Argentina, Chile and Bolivia – with 60 % of the lithium in the world, She also spoke of the largest oil reserves, including light, sweet crude discovered off Guyana more than a year ago, And Venezuela’s resources such as oil, copper, gold.
She also spoke of Latin America having 31% of the world’s fresh water. It is noteworthy how she spoke of all these resources as if the all belonged to the United States.
To top it all off, the modern reincarnation of the Roman proconsuls put the classic “cap on the knob” by affirmed that the United States “has a lot left to do” and that “this region matters”. We know what for.
Bolivar’s prophetic phrase seems to acquire today more value than ever: “The United States seems destined by providence to plague America with miseries in the name of freedom.”
COLOMBO :Sri Lanka will introduce new central bank legislation aimed at bolstering the bank’s independence, accountability and also price stability in the country via a new inflation target, its governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said on Thursday.
Sri Lanka is waiting for a $2.9 billion bailout programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be finalised on March 20, and establishing a fully independent central bank is one of the key criteria for receiving the aid package.
Economic mismanagement coupled with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic left Sri Lanka severely short of dollars for essential imports at the start of last year, tipping the country into its worst financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.
The new legislation will prioritise controlling inflation and introduce an inflation target, Weerasinghe said, adding that the finance minister and the central bank would together agree on what that target should be.
A separate governing board, consisting of six members and the governor, will be formed in addition to the monetary policy board, he added.
“The main point of this legislation is to empower the central bank to make the right decisions, not popular decisions,” Weerasinghe said in a public speech on the new bill.
“With this new law a central bank governor can work independently and make decisions that cannot be changed according to the whims of the government in power.”
The central bank will be required to issue an inflation report every six months and will need to provide explanations to a parliamentary committee on its performance as and when necessary, Weerasinghe said.
The central bank will also be released from the mandatory buying of unsold treasury bills at primary auctions, which will reduce the amount of money it prints, the central bank chief noted.
Sri Lanka will also eventually set up a separate entity to raise funds to settle its sovereign debt, removing that responsibility from the central bank, once the new legislation is passed, Weerasinghe said.
South Asian media experts stress need to educate people to check with reliable media sources before sharing fake news:
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena at the ceremony held by India-Sri Lanka Society to felicitate Kumar Nadesan, President of Sri Lanka Press Institute, who was awarded Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (Overseas Indian Honour). Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay is also in the picture.
The people of Sri Lanka, with more mobile telephones than the number of citizens, are increasingly dependent on social media to get news and information. Since information and communication technology is so central to their lives nowadays, young people are particularly vulnerable to propaganda, misinformation and fake news.
Propaganda, misinformation and fake news have the potential to polarise public opinion, to promote violent extremism and hate speech and, ultimately, to undermine democracies and reduce trust in the democratic processes.
The danger of fake news is that sometimes those stories may be propaganda that is intentionally designed to mislead the reader, listener or viewer. It is important to acknowledge that fake news is a more complex problem and the term itself has become politicized, and is widely used to discredit any opposing viewpoint. Some people use it to cast doubt on their opponents, controversial issues or the credibility of some media organisations.
The advent of social media has enabled fake news stories to proliferate quickly and easily as people share more and more information online. Increasingly, we rely on online information to understand what is happening in our world.
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, commenting on the media, said today there is much talk about social media and its lack of ethics and professionalism. I do not believe the Governments should control media. However, media should ensure ethical standards,” he said.
Speaking at the ceremony held by India-Sri Lanka Society to felicitate Kumar Nadesan, President of Sri Lanka Press Institute who was awarded Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (Overseas Indian Honour), Prime Minister Gunawardena praised Mr. Nadesan for the efforts made to enhance professionalism in media in Sri Lanka.
On Tuesday (March 14), I met a group of South Asian media personalities who attended a Regional Conference on Fake News, Dis-Information and Propaganda in International Relations in Colombo. These media experts of the region were unanimous in their opinion that that fake news and disinformation cause havoc in the society. They said it is the responsibility of media to educate people how to recognize false news stories,” he said.
As the recent controversy involving Fox News of the United States showed, fake news can emanate not only in social media but also from prestigious media platforms known for reliability. The White House said last week that Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson is not credible,” after the right-wing commentator showed footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol that portrayed rioters as peaceful.
We agree with the chief of the Capitol Police and the wide range of bipartisan lawmakers who have condemned this false depiction of the unprecedented, violent attack on our Constitution and the rule of law – which cost police officers their lives,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.
People should be curious and actively investigate what you read and hear. To verify the authenticity of news, they can use news sources that are accountable for their content and follow journalistic ethics and standards. They must also take care to verify the news before sharing news content with others on social media.
The Media, while providing information to the people, has a responsibility to educate them to identify and reject fake news. It is a part of their social responsibilities of media,” the Prime Minister said.
South Asian media experts who attended a Regional Conference on Fake News, Dis-Information and Propaganda in International Relations discussed in detail about the need to make school children aware of ways and means of identifying fake news. Their opinion was that children should learn to recognize false news stories. Young people spend a significant amount of their time watching television, playing online games, chatting, blogging, listening to music, posting photos of themselves and searching for other people with whom to communicate online.
They rely heavily on information circulated online for their knowledge of the world and how they perceive reality. Many parents do not have sufficient technical competence to keep up with their children’s online activity, or educate them about the risks they might be facing. Schools, therefore, have a duty to provide young people with the critical and information skills which they cannot access at home. It is vital for schools to provide students with a solid education on media and information literacy as part of the curriculum.
Teachers must be well-trained in the subject to empower students with the necessary competences to critically understand and assess information reported by all forms of media.
Global Initiative for Excellence in Journalism Education”, of UNESCO which has taken the initiative, seeks to engage with teaching, practising and researching of journalism from a global perspective, including sharing international good practices. Accordingly, the current UNESCO handbook seeks to serve as an internationally-relevant model curriculum, open to adoption or adaptation, which responds to the emerging global problem of disinformation that confronts societies in general, and journalism in particular. It avoids assuming that the term ‘fake news’ has a straightforward or commonly understood meaning.
UNESCO points out that news means verifiable information in the public interest, and information that does not meet these standards does not deserve the label of news. In this sense then, ‘fake news’ is an oxymoron which lends itself to undermining the credibility of information which does indeed meet the threshold of verifiability and public interest – i.e. real news,” it says.
The media experts identified that disinformation is generally used to refer to deliberate attempts to confuse or manipulate people through delivering dishonest information to them. Misinformation is generally used to refer to misleading information created or disseminated without manipulative or malicious intent.
As Prime Minister Gunawardena told the South Asian media experts, both misinformation and disinformation are problems for society. Fake news and disinformation are particularly dangerous because it is frequently organised, well resourced and reinforced by automated technology.
The roadmap of activities was expanded in 2022 and adopted by the member countries – India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius – with Bangladesh and Seychelles participating as observer countries.
Commander Coast Guard Region (North-East) Inspector General Iqbal Singh addresses the Colombo Security Conclave in Kolkata, Wednesday. PTI
THE INDIAN Coast Guard on Wednesday organised a tabletop exercise under the aegis of the Colombo Security Conclave in Kolkata, a statement said. Apart from senior officers of the Indian Coast Guard, delegates from Bangladesh, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and national stakeholders in the maritime domain participated in the fourth edition of the exercise, it added.
The Colombo Security Conclave was formed in 2011 as a trilateral maritime security grouping of India, Sri Lanka and Maldives. The roadmap of activities was expanded in 2022 and adopted by the member countries – India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius – with Bangladesh and Seychelles participating as observer countries.
The Conclave underlines regional cooperation and shared security objectives concerning all littoral nations in the Indian Ocean Region, said the statement.
On Wednesday, apart from presentations, discussions were held on several topics pertaining to challenges in the maritime domain such as tackling threats, marine pollution response, search and rescue and damage control at sea. A tabletop exercise was conducted subsequently involving all stakeholders, the statement said.
It [Conclave] aims to make maritime security, marine pollution response and maritime search and rescue priorities for the region. The coming together of the six Indian Ocean region countries indicate the development of sub-regionalism on a common maritime and security platform and is significant in a wider global context as well. Coordination and collaboration amongst the maritime neighbours holds the key for maritime safety and security in the Indian Ocean Region,” said the statement.
Legal, political and administrative objections pose a challenge to the bill which has to be passed to get the IMF bailout
As part of the 15 measures needed to be taken to get the IMF’s bailout package of US$ 2.9 billion, the Sri Lankan government has introduced the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Bill. The idea is to get the CBSL to manage the country’s monetary policy and debt in an independent and rational manner and as per international practice.
There are legal, political and administrative objections that pose a challenge to the passing of the bill in parliament. But supporters of the bill say that the objections can be overcome. Even the opponents know in their heart of hearts that an independent SBSL is in the country’s best interest and that without it, the IMF might wash its hands off Sri Lanka leaving it in the lurch.
According to the Bill, the autonomy of the Central Bank shall be respected at all times, and no person or entity shall cause any influence on the Governor of the Bank or other members of the Governing Board and Monetary Policy Board or employees of the Central Bank in the exercise, performance and discharge of their powers, duties and functions under this Act or interfere with the activities of the Central Bank. The Bill says that the primary object of the Central Bank shall be to achieve and maintain domestic price stability (control inflation).
A ‘Board of Governors’ will be established to supervise the administration and management of the affairs of the Central Bank and to decide the general policies of the Central Bank other than monetary policy. Its chairman shall be the Governor of the Central Bank. Six members with expertise” will be appointed to it.
Petition in Supreme Court
But the bill has been challenged in the Supreme Court by a few. One of them is Ms. Jehan Hameed, an entrepreneur and a member of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). Hameed has challenged it on constitutional grounds but there is a political angle to it also. Forces eager to keep political control over the CBSL argue that the bill abridges the constitutional power of parliament over public finance and is therefore a violation of the constitution.
The bill empowers the Central Bank with administrative and financial autonomy. It empowers the CBSL to deal with international sovereign bonds without the sanction of the Parliament, petitioner Hameed says.
By making the Central Bank an autonomous body with wide discretionary powers to determine and implement monetary policy with a secondary duty” to support the Government economic policy, the bill aims to remove the power of parliament to have full control over public finance as provided by Article 148 of the Constitution,” the petitioner argues.
Further, the new bill would deprive parliament of its authority to determine and manage the Consolidated Fund as provided by Articles 149 and 150 of the Constitution.
The Bill entrusts the Central Bank with powers to control exchange policy, manage official international reserves and issue and manage the currency of Sri Lanka with independence. It will also enable the bank to cooperate with public international organizations, such as the Asian Development Bank and International Monetary Fund, without the sanction of parliament.
The bill allows the Governing Board to release Deputy Governors to serve in an office or position of international financial institutions or non-financial institutions. There is a provision for releasing officers of the Central Bank to serve in public international financial institutions and other entities. Autonomy to do so could compromise national interests, it is argued.
The bill authorizes the Central Bank to open and maintain cash, precious metals and securities accounts on the books of foreign banks and international organizations including public international financial institutions, without the sanction of the Minister or Parliament. The bank can act as an agent or correspondent of foreign entities at its discretion. In its capacity as financial advisor to the government, the bank can invite advice from foreign elements.
The bank will also acquire wide discretionary powers to act in cooperation with foreign regulatory, supervisory or monetary authorities or public international financial institutions.
Further, the bill limits the accountability of the Central Bank to parliament with discretion to decide in offering its support the economic policy of the government.
According to petitioner Hameed, the bill is inconsistent with Articles 3, 4, 12(1), 27, 28, 43, 44, 75,148, 149, 150, 151, and 154 of the Constitution. The bill should either be struck down or be ordered to be passed by two-thirds of the whole number of the Members of Parliament and approved by the people at a Referendum, she pleaded.
Hameed’s petition casts doubt about the SLPP’s support for the bill in parliament as that party is the main prop of President Ranil Wickremesinghe who wants the bill to get passed so that the IMF loosens its purse strings and pull Sri Lanka out of the financial woods. But those close to Wickremesinghe, like former MP and diplomat R. Yogarajan say that when it comes to the crunch everyone will fall in line because all know that IMF’s help is vital for survival.
Internal Objections
Meanwhile, there is a rift in the CBSL itself. The Executive Officers Union of the CBSL has written to the Speaker of Parliament about their own reservation about the Bill. The petition says that bill gives power to the Minister of Finance to determine the number of Deputy Governors and to appoint them with the concurrence of the Governing Board. This, it is pointed out, could result in direct political interference with the management of the bank. The Executive Officers have called for appointments to be made by the Governing Board and not the Minister.
The law provides for the appointment of members of the Governing Board to be six years. But it does not include the Governor, which would mean that the Governor holds office perpetually, until death, removal or resignation,” the union pointed out. It recommended a predetermined term for the post of Governor.
In Defense
In defense of the Bill, it is said that it does not affect the power of parliament over public finance because revenue and expenditure policies will continue to be in the hands of parliament. It is only monetary policy that will be in the hands of the CBSL as it has been.
Traditionally, central banks are meant to stabilize inflation. Only independent central banks without political masters breathing down their necks will be able to commit to a clear monetary policy, anchor expectations, and better control inflation, economists say. In countries such as Argentina, Turkey, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe, the erosion of central bank independence due to constant political interference had led to sustained periods of relatively high inflation, the World Bank has said.
However, the central bank’s typical response to an inflationary development is to significantly raise the interest rate, making it more costly for the government to finance its deficit. This could lead to some friction between the bank and the parliament/government, the World Bank added.
A central bank under a qualified, independent and bold Governor could prevent the government from going in for inflationary deficit financing and also reckless foreign borrowings and a reckless and/or unprincipled Governor could also take the country on the wrong monetary policy path.
Therefore, there is a dire need for checks and balances said Dr.Muthukrishna Sarvananthan, head of the Point Pedro Institute of Development, Sri Lanka.
There has also to be a constant dialogue between the Central Bank and the government. It is necessary for a Governor to know the politics of the country,” Dr.Raghuram Rajan former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India once said. He pointed out that the chief of the US Federal Reserve System meets the US President regularly, indicating the need for close cooperation between a government which is answerable to the people, and an independent” Central Bank which controls monetary policy so that dysfunctional disagreements are avoided.
Though there are legal and formidable political challenges, supporters of the bill like former MP and diplomat R.Yogarajan think that there is a realization across the political board that Sri Lanka has no option but to go by the conditions of the IMF.
P. K. Balachandran
P. K. Balachandran is a senior Indian journalist working in Sri Lanka for local and international media and has been writing on South Asian issues for the past 21 years.
Failure to submit audited statements of accounts for the year 2021 within 14 days will result in the termination of the right to be treated as a recognized political party, the Election Commission informed political parties today.
Commissioner General of Elections Saman Ratnayake said that political parties have been notified to submit their statements of accounts on several occasions. However, certain political parties have failed to submit their statements of accounts.
We have decided to inform under registered cover the political parties that have not to date (2023-03-16) submitted their statements of accounts for the year 2021 to submit the same within 14 days from Thursday and to terminate the right to be treated as recognized political parties under Section 9(3) of the aforesaid Act, of the parties that fail to comply with the said order,” he said.
The decision was taken when the members of the Election Commission met today.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has decided to conduct a discussion on next Thursday (23) with the secretaries of recognized political parties that contest the 2023 local government election.
The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) claims that the 2023 Local Government (LG) polls are unlikely to be held on 25 April, in light of the current situation.
Speaking in this regard, the Executive Director of PAFFREL, Rohana Hettiarachchi, accused the government of acting in a manner that was inconsiderate of the court’s orders.
Hettiarachchi further stated that the question of concern as of now is whether the government accepts that holding elections at ‘the right time’ is a democratic right of the people.
If the government does not give people the opportunity to express their opinion, then they (the government) must also accept responsibility for the adverse consequences that arise when people exercise their rights outside of the democratic framework”, he said in this regard.
The Chairman of the Election Commission, Nimal Punchihewa stated that a response to the letter sent by the Election Commission to the Minister of Finance asking for funds for the local government elections has not yet been received.
In an inquiry made by our news team, he said that he continues to believe that the allocation of funds related to the election will be received from the government.
On the 12th, the Election Commission again sent a letter to the Minister of Finance asking him to release the funds required for the polls.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Finance had informed the Election Commission that it is not possible to take direct decisions for the issuance of allocations related to the local government polls and for that the approval of the Minister of Finance must be obtained.
Due to the lack of funds, the local government polls that were scheduled to be held on the 9th of this month were postponed to the 25th of April.
The government has decided to re-implement the Colombo Fort – Malabe light rail project as a solution to the severe traffic congestion in and around Colombo.
Urban Development and Housing Minister Prasanna Ranatunga had recently submitted a Cabinet paper to obtain alternative proposals for this.Minister Ranatunga said that since thousands of public servants work in Colombo, Malabe and other suburbs, they will be able to save time and money with this train service.
This project was slated to commence in 2020 after land acquisition, and completed by mid-2024.
The financial and technical support for this railway project is to be provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The Japanese government had agreed to provide a loan of US dollars 1,850 million for this.
The Japanese government has agreed to recommence the light rail project, which was cancelled then, as a result of bilateral discussions held during the official visit of President Ranil Wickremesinghe to Japan.
It will be possible to travel from Malabe to Colombo Fort in 30 minutes once this train service is constructed within a length of 16 kilometers and 16 stations. The train service is scheduled to run every four minutes during peak hours and every 10 minutes during normal hours.
First Capital says that they believe that attaining the required financial assurances and entering into an IMF program is key for Sri Lanka’s revival while a well planned reform program will ensure acceleration in the recovery trajectory.
At this juncture, Sri Lanka stands with a high level of hope with Sri Lanka so far moving on track of a possible RESURGENCE in the economy!”
The improvement in the tourist arrivals and worker remittances are key criteria that positively impact the Balance of Payments while potential debt inflows are expected from IMF and multilateral agencies. Further we also expect significant inflows from foreigners in both equity and debt capital markets while sale of state owned enterprises With the significant support we expect foreign reserves to reach USD 3.0Bn by Jun-23 and USD 3.5Bn by Dec -23 while Sri Lanka is likely to reach a comfortable level by end 2024E possibly surpassing USD 4.0Bn even after starting to settle foreign debt.
*With the IMF requirement to market price utilities, the Government implemented another electricity hike potentially resulting in a higher impact on the nonfood segment. However, in spite of the hike inflation may continue to die down.
We maintain our GDP growth expectations from our Sep.-22 Report (Mid-Year Outlook). Despite a gradual recovery from 2H2023 onwards, a positive GDP growth supported by private sector consumption is likely only by 4Q2023. Sri Lanka’s budget deficit is estimated to be at 11.0% of GDP which is comparatively at a significantly high level. However, the slow improvement in revenue is expected to reduce the budget deficit to 8.0% of GDP while the sale of assets and recovery in GDP may further reduce the deficit to 5.1% of GDP.
Though the Local Government elections have no bearing on the Parliament or the President, the results of the election may create policy uncertainty. There is a tendency that election results may be mixed with no party obtaining a clear majority. The ruling party obtaining a weaker voter base is sufficient to create uncertainty on the political front.
However, there is a high probability that the Government and the President may desire to govern for their full term instead of going for elections which may create some amount of stability, provided the Government can retain the relevant no. of MPs intact. Presidential election is next in line in just over 18 months (in Nov. 2024)”
Worker Remittances to cross USD 5Bn
First Capital correctly forecasted a total USD 3.8 billion from worker Remittances for 2022. The stability of the exchange rate and confidence in achieving the IMF Board resulted in stronger inflows in terms of worker remittances from December 2022 onwards where worker remittances crossed the USD 400Mn mark for the month.
Workers’ Remittances are expected to continue throughout 2023 year end potentially reaching USD 5.4 billion while it is estimated to reach USD 6.2 billion by 2024 year end. First Capital Research anticipates around 1.2 million tourism arrivals for 2023 end resulting in potential tourism earnings of USD 1.9Bn in 2023 end.
British High Commissioner Sarah Hulton OBE and Trade Ministry officials.
The UK Government launched its new Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) replacing the UK Generalised Scheme of Preferences system (GSP) was launched and under the scheme, Sri Lanka is eligible for zero tariffs on 92% of products. Over 150 additional products will be brought into scope of the new scheme, including milled grains, pet food products and dairy products.
Speaking at an event at the Commerce Ministry yesterday, British High Commissioner Sarah Hulton OBE said: The UK’s new Developing Countries Trading Scheme provides Sri Lankan and UK businesses with a fresh opportunity to diversify and deepen supply chains and reduce the cost of exporting to the UK.
We hope businesses will take advantage of the great opportunities we have highlighted through our events this week.” While Sri Lanka exports numerous high value products to the UK including textiles, tea and rubber, there has been a steady decline in trade volumes between Sri Lanka and the UK since 2018. Under UK trade preferences, Sri Lankan exports will benefit from generous tariff cuts and new products will be brought into scope, facilitating access to the UK market for Sri Lankan businesses across a wide range of industries.
UK officials showcased high potential value chains and products that can benefit from the new scheme. This was based on research into UK retailers’ and consumers’ buying considerations, as well as insights from Sri Lankan producers, trade programmes and policymakers. It was also pointed out that there are huge untapped areas in exporting pet food, tea in value added form healthy food products and also boat building too could be promoted.
UK Minister of State at the Department for Business and Trade, Nigel Huddleston said: The Developing Countries Trading Scheme will support businesses by giving them the tools to export duty-free to the UK, opening up markets and boosting consumer choice.”
We want to go bigger and further with our global trade links and the DCTS enables the UK to achieve this with developing countries.” The new scheme has been designed to grow free and fair trade with 65 countries, including Sri Lanka, thereby creating jobs and boosting their economies. The DCTS offers one of the most generous sets of trading preferences in the world and demonstrates the UK’s commitment to building long term, mutually beneficial relationships with countries like Sri Lanka.
During the visit to Colombo, DCTS officials also met the Minister of Trade, Commerce, and Food Security, Nalin Fernando. It was also disclosed that the annual bilateral trade among the two countries is around 1.4 billion British pounds. Over 99% of goods exported from Sri Lanka are eligible for duty-free access to the UK. (SS)
The Cabinet nod has been granted to install two floating solar plants as a pilot project with 6.83 billion Korean Won funding from the South Korean government.
The Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera on Monday sought the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers to sign the discussion paper with the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology and the Department of External Resources to start and implement the pilot project.
Under the Framework Convention on Grant Aid signed between the Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka in 2009, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy of the Republic of Korea has agreed to provide a grant amounting 6.83 billion Korean Won for the implementation of a pilot project to install floating solar panel power plants with 1 MW capacity on the surface of Kiriibban Wewa reservoir and Chandrika Wewa reservoirs in the Ratnapura District.
Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology is acting as the monitoring agency for the pilot project on behalf of the South Korean government.
The Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR) has depreciated against the US Dollar (USD) today for the third consecutive day, according to the Central Bank.
Accordingly, today’s buying rate of USD is Rs. 327.59 while the selling rate is Rs. 344.66.
The Rupee has been appreciating against the USD and other major currencies since earlier this month, but the Rupee continue to depreciate against the USD since last Friday.
Yesterday’s buying rate of USD was Rs. 319.84 while the selling rate was Rs. 335.68
Police HQ calls up riot control reserves to the Capitol
The Police Department, on Tuesday (14), instructed the relevant officers from regional commands to send the surplus anti-riot equipment kept in storage which are allocated to Police divisions in other districts, to the Police Field Force Headquarters (HQ) in Colombo.
The order, issued recently, is in anticipation that a wave of protests by trade and university student unions may escalate in the coming days.
Speaking to The Daily Morning, Police Media Spokesman, Senior Superintendent of Police and Attorney-at-Law, Nihal Thalduwa said: There is a surplus of anti-riot equipment in regional Police stations as there is less need for such in those areas. As most of the protests are being held in Colombo, the Police has instructed the relevant officers to hand over their excess equipment to the Police Field Force Headquarters. That is because the equipment should be available in the areas in which they are most needed.”
Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) – Support Service, Sajeewa Medawatte had issued a circular dated 14 March, in this regard, to the SDIGs of the North Central, Eastern, Southern, North Western, and Central Provinces, and the Officers-In-Charge (OICs) of the Anuradhapura, Batticaloa, Elpitiya, Kurunegala, Matale, Polonnaruwa, Tangalle, Kandy, Kantale, Nuwara Eliya, Puttalam, and Trincomalee Police Divisions. Through the circular, which was seen by The Daily Morning, the relevant officers had been instructed to hand over the anti-riot equipment including gas masks, riot shields, riot helmets and rubber batons available in the respective Police divisions to the Police Field Force Headquarters before 10 p.m. on the same day.
The requested equipment included 575 gas masks, 525 riot shields, 505 riot helmets and 1,050 rubber batons. It is notable that the relevant Police officers have been instructed to hand over the anti-riot equipment belonging to the Police divisions outside the Western Province to the Police Field Force Headquarters in Colombo before 10 p.m., ahead of the series of trade union actions including strikes and other forms of protests which were launched by trade unions representing several categories of professionals, demanding solutions to the prevailing issues, and against the newly introduced tax policies.
Sri Lanka has seen a series of protests over the course of last year (2022), during which the demand for the resignation of then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Government led by him, saw an elected Executive President resign. Last year, the argalaya” (people’s struggle) protest movement reached their climax when hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Colombo, and occupied several State owned buildings including the Presidential Secretariat, the President’s House and the Temple Trees (the Prime Minister’s official residence), which in turn resulted in Rajapaksa’s resignation. Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was elected as the President in a Parliamentary vote in July 2022, following Rajapaksa’s resignation, has since been seen directing the security forces, mainly the Police, to take strict actions against protest movements, which he claims disrupt the economic recovery efforts that are underway.
Says inadequate intervention to obtain funds for ballot printing
Government Printer Gangani Liyanage said that since there is no point in participating in discussions with the Election Commission (EC) in a context where the latter does not intervene enough to obtain the necessary funds for the printing of the ballot papers for the Local Government (LG) elections, even if the EC were to call her in the future, she would not attend any such meeting.
The Daily Morning queried Liyanage as to whether she expects to have a discussion with the EC and inform that the Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies Ministry is yet to release the necessary funds for the printing of the ballot papers, to which she said: I have no need to go there, and I will not go there even if they call me.”
When queried as to why she would not attend the EC, she said: I asked the EC to intervene to obtain funds and Police security, and informed that ballot papers could be printed within about one week if those requirements are met. Then, the EC asked me to write to the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury (Mahinda Siriwardana) and obtain funds. I did that, but there was no response from the Treasury. If the EC does not do what we ask for, there is no point in having further discussions. Even on 7 March, both the Finance Ministry and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) did not attend the meeting with the EC. IGP (Chandana D. Wickramaratne) had instead sent a representative. If I go there again, I have to make the same request again, so I will not go.”
Meanwhile, in response to a query as to whether she had received any response from the Department of Treasury Operations under the Ministry of Finance to her requests to release at least Rs. 200 million for the printing of ballot papers, Liyanage said that she had not received any response as of last evening (15).
All they say is that they have forwarded my requests to the Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies Minister (President Ranil Wickremesinghe).”
Liyanage, who was to inform the EC in writing that the general Treasury is yet to provide the necessary funds for printing ballot papers for the LG elections, instead sent another letter to the Department of Treasury Operations on Tuesday (14), reminding of her earlier request to release the funds in question. She told The Daily Morning on the same day that she would request a sum of Rs. 200 million through the letter.
Multiple attempts to contact the State Ministers of Finance Shehan Semasinghe and Ranjith Siyambalapitiya to inquire about the problematic situation which has arisen with regard to the release of funds for the LG elections, proved futile.
While the Supreme Court, considering a fundamental rights application filed by Samagi Jana Balawegaya General Secretary and Opposition Parliamentarian Ranjith Madduma Bandara, has issued an interim order preventing Siriwardana from withholding the funds allocated for election related purposes through the 2023 Budget, the Treasury is yet to take steps to release the required funds, and instead forwarded the recent related requests made by the EC and the Government Printer to Wickremesinghe.
Colombo (AFP) – Sri Lanka deployed armed troops as trade unions crippled hospitals, ports and banks Wednesday to protest against high income taxes imposed as a precondition for a crucial IMF bailout.
Schools cancelled term tests and outpatient departments at hospitals closed due to the work stoppage that involved more than 40 trade unions. Fewer vehicles were seen on roads.
Dockers at the main sea port in Colombo stayed away while air traffic controllers joined the combined industrial action to carry out “go slow” for two hours affecting at least 14 international flights.
“All considered, our work-to-rule was for two hours, but we will consider a full-blown strike if the government does not roll back the new tax rates,” Rajitha Seneviratne, secretary of the air traffic controllers’ association, told AFP.
Armed soldiers were deployed at railway stations as well as the port as the government attempted tried to restore minimum services. Dock workers had a tense standoff with the military inside the port, but there were no reports of clashes.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said 20 trains operated to bring office workers to the capital, but unions said it was less than five percent of the daily services.
State-run buses were also operating, the president’s office said, but only a few of them were seen on the roads while attendance in schools, offices and factories had dropped sharply on Wednesday.
The strike came despite a ban imposed by Wickremesinghe last month, and warnings that violators could lose their jobs.
Trade union spokesman Haritha Aluthge said talks with the authorities overnight ended inconclusively forcing them to go ahead with Wednesday’s work stoppage.
Professionals have also joined the trade unions in protesting against the sharp increase in income taxes since January.
“Anyone who violates the essential services order will face the full force of the law,” cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardana had warned ahead of the nationwide action.
Unions say the strike duration will depend on the government’s response to their demand to reverse the new taxes, which were among the measures taken to qualify for a $2.9 billion rescue package from the International Monetary Fund.
Bail-out expected next week
The Washington-based lender’s executive board is due to decide on Sri Lanka on March 20 and is widely expected to release the first instalment of a nine-tranche $2.9 billion loan spread over four years.
Officials involved in the negotiations said the IMF was closely monitoring the protests and social unrest since the tax reforms.
“Sri Lanka is one of the countries with the lowest tax revenues in the world. Unless state revenue is increased, there is no solution to the country’s economic crisis,” a Sri Lankan official told AFP.
Sri Lanka formally sought IMF help on March 18 last year after defaulting on its $46 billion foreign government debt in mid-April.
Colombo received assurances last week from Beijing, its largest single bilateral creditor, that it was willing to restructure its loans to the South Asian nation and clear the final hurdle for the IMF rescue.
In an open letter to Sri Lanka’s creditors, Wickremesinghe on Tuesday night stressed that all creditors would be treated equally following concerns that China may get a better deal.
“We reiterate our commitment to a comparable treatment of all our external creditors, with a view to ensuring all-round equitable burden sharing for all restructured debts,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s unprecedented economic crisis since late 2021 has caused severe shortages of food, fuel and medicines. It led to months of protests that toppled president Gotabaya Rajapaksa in July last year.
COLOMBO (Reuters) — Sri Lanka’s economy shrank 7.8% in 2022 from the previous year, government data showed on Wednesday, as the country struggled with its worst financial crisis in more than seven decades.
The island’s fourth-quarter GDP contracted 12.4%, according to the figures.
Sri Lanka’s growth is expected to shrink by 3% this year, Moody’s Investors Service said on Monday but growth is expected to rebound in 2024.
Economic mismanagement coupled with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic left Sri Lanka severely short of dollars for essential imports at the start of last year tipping the country into the worst financial crisis since Independence from the British in 1948.
Sri Lanka is waiting for a $2.9 billion bailout program from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be finalised on March 20.
These numbers are broadly in line with expectations. In the last three months of 2022 Sri Lanka was hit by very high inflation, fuel shortages and high interest rates,” said Sanjeewa Fernando, Senior Vice President Research at Asia Securities.
For the rest of this year, with IMF funds expected, the central bank should be able to keep the currency strengthened, eventually reduce interest rates, and continue to see inflation ease.”
The state-run Census and Statistics Department said that the agriculture sector shrank 4.6%, while industries contracted 16%, and services dropped 2%, from a year earlier.
Sri Lanka’s economy shrank 11.8% in the July-September quarter from a year ago, the second-worst quarterly contraction ever for the country.
Sri Lanka aims to announce a debt-restructuring strategy in April and step up talks with commercial creditors ahead of an IMF review of a bailout package in six months, its central bank governor told Reuters last Thursday.
The process of SRVAs started last year in the month of July when the RBI issued detailed guidelines on cross-border trade transactions in the Indian rupees (INR)
Several nations express interest to facilitate international trade in Indian rupee. Representational Image/PTI.
New Delhi: Indian rupee is edging closer to becoming an international currency with more and more countries working to de-dollarise global trade. Several nations have expressed interest in facilitating international trade in INR and to make the process smooth, India’s central bank – RBI- has given approval for opening 60 special rupee vostro accounts in 18 countries including Russia and Sri Lanka.
India’s Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad informed parliament that as per records, India’s central bank – Reserve Bank of India (RBI) – had granted approval to domestic and foreign AD (Authorised Dealer) banks in 60 cases for opening SRVAs of banks from 18 nations” for settling payments in Indian rupees.
The minister further said, out of the 18 countries, Russia has been vocal in facilitating trade in local currency for the overall process of de-dollarisation”. He went on to say that India, however, has been supporting the idea of trade in local currency majorly to boost exports.
18 countries allowed to trade in Indian rupees
The 18 countries that have been allowed to trade in Indian rupees are:
1 – Russia
2 – Singapore
3 – Sri Lanka
4 – Botswana
5 – Fiji
6 – Germany
7 – Guyana
8 – Israel
9 – Kenya
10 – Malaysia
11 – Mauritius
12 – Myanmar
13 – New Zealand
14 – Oman
15 – Seychelles
16 – Tanzania
17 – Uganda
18 – United Kingdom.
The numbers clearly indicate a significant progress in the development of mechanism to settle international trade in Indian rupees.
What is Special Rupee Vostro Account or SRVA?
The process of SRVAs started last year in the month of July when the RBI issued detailed guidelines on cross-border trade transactions in the Indian rupees (INR).
It has been decided to put in place an additional arrangement for invoicing, payment, and settlement of exports/imports in INR,” the India’s central bank said.
To settle trade as per the new mechanism, authorised banks in India need to open and maintain SRVAs of the partner trading country’s banks.
These accounts keep the foreign entity’s holding in the Indian bank in INR. When an Indian importer make a payment to a foreign trader in rupees, the amount gets credited to this vostro account.
Similarly, when an Indian exporter has to be paid for goods and services in rupees, amount from this vostro account will be deducted and credited to the exporter’s regular account.
The SRVAs holders are allowed to invest surplus balance in Indian government securities. This facility is being provided by the RBI to help popularise the new arrangement.
Indian importers undertaking imports through this mechanism shall make payment in INR (Indian Rupee), which shall be credited into the special vostro account of the correspondent bank of the partner country, against the invoices for the supply of goods or services from the overseas seller/supplier,” the Indian central bank had said.
India has been trying to promote the use of INR for trade settlement with other countries after the West and European nations imposed sanctions following the launch special military operation” by Russian President Vladimir Putin against Ukraine on 24 February, 2022.
Nanyadasana was born in 1959 as Ioannis Tselios in Serres, northern Greece. Credit: theravada.gr
The Greek Buddhist monk Nyanadassana has been a senior monk of the ancient Buddhist Theravada tradition for 37 years in Sri Lanka.
Nanyadasana was born in 1959 as Ioannis Tselios in Serres, northern Greece. At the age of 64, after an unusual life, he has become an important Buddhist monk and scholar with many books to his credit, international acclaim and deep experience in meditation.
He is called Bhante”, a respectful title used to address Buddhist monks and superiors. No other modern Greek has a similar long course in traditional Buddhist monasticism.
The Sinhalese feel great pride when a foreigner is interested in becoming a Buddhist monk in their own country. They really appreciate it. There are currently about 100 foreign Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka.
As far as I know from the relevant records and other information, there is no other Greek Buddhist monk before me in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand or any other country with Theravada Buddhism,” he tells the Athens-Macedonia News Agency (AMNA).
He finished secondary school in Thessaloniki and studied sociology at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.
As a teenager in Thessaloniki, he was an excellent student with a penchant for physics and mathematics, especially atomic-nuclear physics. He devoured” relevant books and dreamed of working for the American Space Agency (NASA).
But along the way, he discovered psychology and then sociology. So he studied sociology at the Goethe University in Frankfurt for two years, but found his studies disappointing and did not complete them.
At the same time, he declared himself an atheist. How is it possible,” he wondered, that the all-good and all-powerful God allows the evil that is so common in the world? How can something so pure come out of something so evil?”, he recalled, speaking to AMNA.
The Greek man follows steps to become a Buddhist monk
It was the late 1970s and early 1980s, and Tselios, with long hair and a beard, lived like many other restless youths in Europe, read books voraciously, traveled adventurously to several European countries and searched for the meaning of life.
In 1981, aged 22, a trip to India was the turning point in his life: while looking at a tourist brochure, he read this memorable Buddha quote: This is my last birth. I have crossed the ocean of existence.”
I arrived in New Delhi carrying only a bag of books and a sleeping bag. I found it disgusting that everyone, even the gurus, smoked hashish. I didn’t find anything substantial there, something spiritual,” he tells AMNA. For many months he traveled alone from the Himalayas in the north to the south, often on the roofs of trains, among Western hippies and local religious fanatics.
Heading to Sri Lanka Buddhist monasteries
He visited Kusinara, the place where the Buddha reached his final rest. It was there that, under the guidance of an older Indian Buddhist monk who was the Director of the Museum of Kusinara, Ioannis Tselios was not only trained in meditation, but he also read about Buddhism. More interested than ever, he decided to look for the original and authentic teachings of Buddha, thus traveling to Sri Lanka.
At one point,” he says, I had bought a return ticket to Greece, to find a quiet place to meditate. But finally, I burned the ticket and decided to stay in Sri Lanka and become a monk. No one influenced me to become a monk,” he tells AMNA.
In Buddhism, you have to knock on their door and then they will give you information. They themselves do not come to tell you ‘you must become a Buddhist’. I never met a convert to Buddhism. Even the teachers were telling me how to learn to meditate, not how to become a Buddhist,” he adds.
In 1982, aged 23, he was ordained by Kaḑavedduve Shrī Jinavaṃsa Mahāthera, a scholar recognized by the state as a teacher-inspector, and he embraced the monastic life in order to study and practice.
The monastery at Nissaraṇa Vanaya, Sri Lanka. Credit: Nissarana
He practiced for four years at the renowned meditation monastery Nissaraṇa Vanaya in Sri Lanka.
In 1986, he received the higher ordination as a teacher inspector. He then studied the ancient Indian language Pali and the Three Baskets of Sacred Buddhist Texts, along with the Explanations and Commentaries, at the monastery Gnānārāma Dharmāyatanaya, where he stayed for 16 years.
In 1997, following a written and oral exam, he received the title of Vinayācariya (Professor of Monastic Education).
Encouraged by his teacher, he began teaching while writing over ten books. From 2003 to 2007, he trained in meditation at the meditation centre in Myanmar before returning to Sri Lanka. He has been repeatedly invited to Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan to give lectures and courses on the Teachings of Buddha and meditation.
Greek Buddhist monk returns to Athens
He is a writer and translator of more than ten Buddhist books in German, English, Sinhalese and Pali, and he has a lot of experience in giving lectures in English and Sinhalese (the official language of Sri Lanka).
In April 2019, he returned to Greece, where he is teaching Buddhism at the cultural association of Sri Lanka (which covers the needs of the approximately 850 Sinhalese in Greece).
When I came to Greece, I didn’t know what I would find,” he says. However, I saw that there is interest in Buddhism and meditation. The Greeks always talked about ‘know thyself’, but they didn’t know a method for it,” he tells AMNA.
Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Heraclitus had dealt with such issues, so Buddhism, which teaches how to analyze yourself, overcome your emotions and concentrate your mind, is not something foreign,” he adds.
What Buddhism can offer a modern Greek is self-awareness, knowledge of the workings of the mind, to turn inward and not outward. The goal of Buddhism is to understand our passions, drives, fantasies, delusions and how much we suffer because of them, how self-created our pain is. The Buddha gives the instructions for an inward journey,” Nyanadassana or Ioannis Tselios says.
By Engr. Kanthar BalanathanDipEE (UK), GradCert (RelEng-Monash), DipBus&Adm (Finance-Massey), C.Eng., MIEE, Former Director of Power Engineering Solutions Pty Ltd, Consulting Electrical Engineers
Political Activism
Sri Lanka (Ceylon) was infected with awry politics with no understanding of financial sustenance and resources, except the glory of power and wealth. It started with SJV Chelvanayagam demanding separate administration for the North & East. Somehow the politicking infiltrated the illiterates’ hands except for a few O” level guys. The writer wishes to analyse and propagate his views of who is competent to talk politics, if not the people will be faced with dangerous facets of attacks.
People who want to talk politics should have a perceptual ability and wide knowledge of a social environment and forward planning in terms of economics and the administrative sphere.
Quote Ref: The perception process has three stages: sensory stimulation and selection, organization, and interpretation. Although we are rarely conscious of going through these stages distinctly, they nonetheless determine how we develop images of the world around us.
Quote Ref: There are seven elements on to base the perception:
The seventeen LTTE guys were ambushed and killed at sea.
There were so many VVT guys who were in the LTTE group.
LTTE occupied the entire houses in the 12th cross street in Indra Nagar. Tamil Nadu gave asylum to the LTTE and other groups.
The key issue is that these guys in the LTTE group had no vision but engaged in killing only. There were more than 25 groups, and all groups were against the LTTE and made allies with the GOSL.
Most of the VVT guys were smugglers and they have no perceptual abilities to clearly think and act.
LTTE engaged in the manufacture of heavy weapons in Mullivaykal. Did they have a plan when most of the developed countries were against the LTTE? What happened to the heavy weapon operators who may have been trained? They may have left Mullivaykal when the military commenced assault.
The result is a total failure.
The result is the loss of human life and billions of Rupees to the people and asset damage.
This is a clear indication that people should be fit to talk and take up politics.
A key example is Hon DD, who left anti-SL acts and joined the Sri Lankan administration to help the people and develop the N&E which he is carrying on until now. Prabakaran attempted to assassinate Hon DD several times but failed.
The only honourable politician from VVT was Thurairatnam former MP for Point Pedro.
Nedumaran has a distorted neural set-up to talk about Prabakaran. The citizens in the N&E may assassinate Prabakaran if he enters the zone.
Anyone from VVT who enters the political arena with a terrorist mind should be eliminated.
Let Tamil Nadu not use the Sri Lankan Tamils for their own political ambitions and success. We cannot believe the Tamil Nadu guys because they love money only. An example is Nedumaran and Seeman.
Let Sri Lankan politicians not play party politics using Tamils as the Trump card /scapegoat.
No Tamil from VVT shall engage in leading politics for the Tamils in Sri Lanka. They shall restrict the practice of their politics within the VVT Urban area.
Commander Coast Guard Region (North-East) Inspector General Iqbal Singh addresses the Colombo Security Conclave in Kolkata, Wednesday. PTI
