Girls To Prostitution Rings And Boys To Slavery by Colombo Telegraph, September 13, 2013 “The children are sold into slavery, usually boys to work camps and girls to prostitution rings, through EPDP’s networks in India and Malaysia. Sunthararaj maintains that children are often smuggled out of the country with the help of a corrupt Customs and Immigration… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Economy
Is the IMF Setting Sri Lanka Up for a 2nd Car Crash?
by Theo Maret and Brad Setser, FinancialTimes, London, September 5, 20024 Theo Maret is a research analyst at Global Sovereign Advisory and writes a sovereign debt newsletter. Brad Setser is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Treasury Department official. Sri Lanka is bankrupt and restructuring its debts. But there’s a high… Read more »
The China Hangover Is Here
by Michael Beckley, The New York Times, August 19, 2024 Opinion | Once the Global Economy’s Savior, China Is Now Its Biggest Threat – The New York Times (nytimes.com) In the 2000s, former President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela bet his country’s economic future on a rising China, securing tens of billions of dollars in investments and loans-for-oil… Read more »
CPA: The Intersectional Trends of Land Conflicts in Sri Lanka
by Centre for Policy Analysis, Colombo, August 20, 2024 The-Intersectional-Trends-of-Land-Conflicts-in-Sri-Lanka.pdf (cpalanka.org) 15 years after the end of the Civil War, Sri Lanka continues to experience deep ethnic divisions and has failed to address the root causes of the conflict that halt moving to a post-conflict society. Unfortunately, the decades-long problem of land has continued in… Read more »
Thousands Still Living without Land Deeds in Mannar
by Tamil Guardian, London, August 7, 2024 The issues faced by the people in Mannar due to the occupation of land has left thousands feeling helpless, said Fr. S. Marcus, President of the Mannar Citizens Committee. “For the last five years, there has been much effort by various private companies to lay claim for a… Read more »
Building Entrepreneurship: Nation Building
by Nillanthan Maha, June 22, 2024 [Translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate with some corrections by the Editor.] On the 16th in Jaffna, an award ceremony was held at a tourist hotel located at Pungakulam Junction. It was the event for the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards of the Tamil Nadu’s Virudhu Nagar Rotary… Read more »
Assessing Shortcomings in the State Dept.’s Foreign Assistance Grants Process
Money is Policy by U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Oversight & Accountability, Washington, DC, June 4, 2024 Money is Policy: Assessing Shortcomings in the State Department’s Foreign Assistance Grants Process Statement of Robert A. Destro, Former Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) and Special… Read more »
Australian Company’s Multibillion Sandmining Project Mired in Mannar Protests
by Mimi Alphonsus and S. Rubatheesan, The Sunday Times, Colombo, June 16, 2024 Protests hinder progress towards mining licence Residents allege large-scale land robberies involving brokers working for company Environmentalists fear existential threats such as soil losing fertility and contamination of water sources Company representative downplays impacts of the project on people’s livelihood For over… Read more »
$29 Trillion Debt
That’s how much debt emerging nations are facing A decades-long crisis is getting worse, and now dozens of nations are spending more on interest payments than on health care or education. by Patricia Cohen, The New York Times, June 14, 2024 The Vatican’s meeting on the global debt crisis last week was not quite as celebrity-studded as… Read more »
Tribunal: ‘Horrified’ by Plight of SL’s Plantation Workers
Their wages remain far below the living wage required in the context of Sri Lanka’s current costs of living, following hyperinflation during the crisis, a recent study found by Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu, Chennai, June 12, 2024 An international tribunal of former judges from the region said it was “horrified by the stark realities” of… Read more »
India’s Modi, Humbled by Voters, Faces Potent Economic Struggles
With his grip on political power weakened, the Indian prime minister is confronting the same formidable challenge — how to generate hundreds of millions of jobs. byPeter S. Goodman, The New York Times, June 7, 2024 Before the Indian election results emerged this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was widely viewed as a charismatic and popular strongman… Read more »
The Burden of War Widows
Gendered consequences of war and peace-building in Sri Lanka by Karen Brounéus, Erika Forsberg, Kristine Höglund, Kate Lonergan, Third World Quarterly, Pages 458-474, Received 26 Aug 2022, Accepted 16 Aug 2023, Published online: 09 Sep 2023 Burden of War Widows Third World Quarterly Sept 2023 Abstract Research shows that war affects various groups of survivors… Read more »
Uduvil Remembers Its Founder Principal
In its bicentennial year by Shiranee Mills, Sunday Times, Colombo, April 7, 2024 In the bicentennial year of Uduvil Girls’ College, especially during the month of April, our thoughts dwell closely on the founder principal of the school, Harriet Wadsworth Winslow (née Lathrop), whose birthday falls on April 9. Born in 1796, in Norwich, Connecticut, in… Read more »
CPA: Understanding Interconnections between Human Rights and Economic Crimes
in Sri Lanka: Exploring Issues and Potential Ways Forward by Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo, March 2024 Economic-Crimes-Advocacy-Report.pdf (cpalanka.org) Summary In Sri Lanka, economic crimes perpetrated by Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) have received critical attention at present, where there have been discussions on plausible interventions to address the culture of impunity and the human rights… Read more »
CPA: 32 Viharas for Kuchchaveli
by Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo, March 29, 2024 Over 2,500 acres of private land in Kuchchaveli allegedly seized for building 32 Buddhist temples in the region. #LandRights pic.twitter.com/h3BQ7oU5qf — Centre for Policy Alternatives Sri Lanka (@CPASL) March 29, 2024
The India Factor in Sri Lanka’s Renewable Energy Sector
by Rathindra Kuruwita, The Island, Colombo, March 7, 2024 A recent India-Sri Lanka agreement for constructing renewable energy systems in three islands off the Jaffna coast reaffirms India’s domination of the sector. On March 1, the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority, the Government of Sri Lanka, and U-Solar Clean Energy Solutions from India signed an… Read more »
Roots of Ethnic Contestation in the Eastern Province
As in the past, the contestation is over title to the land by PK Balachandran, Daily Mirror, Colombo, October 10, 2023 Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province is again becoming a contested region between ethnic groups. This time round it is more between the Tamils and Sinhalese, with the Muslims in the periphery. This is because of the… Read more »
Uduvil Girls College’s Bicentenary
by Dr. Thayalan Ambalavanar, Jaffna, February 7, 2024 Report Tuesday morning (6th February) saw the inaugural function of the Bicentennial celebrations of Uduvil Girls’ College in their college hall. The program was titled ‘Anthizo’ which in Greek means blossom. It was 200 years ago that a young American missionary, Harriet Winslow, started this school which… Read more »
President in the North, Governor in the East
by A. Nillanthan, January 13, 2024 [Translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate with improvements by the Sangam editor.] At the same time as the President visited the North to celebrate the New Year, his Governor in the East staged a huge cultural festival. The President met various people in the North: entrepreneurs, university… Read more »
Elections Cast a Shadow of Uncertainty
Over Sri Lanka’s economic recovery by Dushni Weerakoon, IPS posted in East Asia Forum, January 16, 2024 Nearly two years after announcing a debt default in the middle of a severe social and political crisis, the Sri Lankan economy is showing the first signs of recovery. Year-on-year inflation dropped sharply to a low of 1.5… Read more »