In Gaza’s ruins, “we will think of those we lost”

The al-Ejla family sits in front the rubble of their destroyed home in Shujaiya, east of Gaza City, as they break their Ramadan fast earlier this summer.

Charlotte Silver and Ezz Zanoun- 28 July 2015

In Gaza, one year after Israel’s devastating assault, rubble is swept into piles and destroyed buildings are left half-standing. Gaza has been allowed only impossibly scant means for reconstruction, exacerbating the depredations wrought by eight years of siege.

In Gaza’s Ruins, “We Will Think of Those We Lost” by Thavam Ratna

Outrage at Israeli plan to build on historic Muslim cemetery 

Hundreds of graves threatened with ‘desecration’ as Jerusalem officials approve scheme for new homes, shops and hotel 

A partial view of Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem (Yoninah/Wikimedia Commons) 

Jonathan Cook-Tuesday 28 July 2015

JERUSALEM - Officials here have approved a massive construction project, including plans for housing, shops and a hotel, on one of the largest and most historically important Islamic cemeteries in the Middle East.

A previous project to build a courthouse at the site, part of Mamilla Cemetery, was scrapped two years ago after it provoked a storm of protest.

The graveyard, just outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls, is said to be the final resting place of the Prophet Mohammed’s companions as well as thousands of Saladin’s warriors who helped expel the Crusaders from the Holy Land nearly 1,000 years ago.

It also served as a cemetery for leading Palestinian families in Jerusalem until the city’s division in 1948, when Mamilla fell just within the borders of the newly established state of Israel.

Jerusalem City Hall triggered huge controversy seven years ago when it approved a Museum of Tolerance over another section of the cemetery, requiring the hurried disinterment of as many as 1,500 remains.

Zaki Aghbaria, a spokesman for the northern Islamic Movement in Israel, said the new project was effectively an extension of the Museum of Tolerance development and would lead to further “desecration” of the site.

“Israel is determined to intensify its Judaisation of this area and of the whole of Jerusalem. It has given no thought to how important the cemetery is not only to Palestinians but to the whole Muslim world,” he told Middle East Eye.

He added that the project should be seen in the context of Israel’s “continuing efforts to seize control of Jerusalem’s Islamic holy sites”, including the highly sensitive Al-Aqsa Mosque compound close by.

Dangerous developments

The plan to develop the Mamilla Cemetery comes as the Arab League announced that it would hold an emergency meeting next week to discuss what Palestinian officials have called “dangerous developments” at the mosque site.

Some 19 Palestinians were reported to have been injured in the Al-Aqsa compound last Sunday after Israeli police stormed the area to allow Jewish worshippers, including an Israeli government minister, to enter.

The new construction plan, approved this month by Jerusalem’s local planning committee, requires building nearly 200 houses, as well as a 480-room hotel, shops and parking over the graveyard.

Gideon Suleimani, an Israeli archeologist who worked on the Museum of Tolerance excavations but has since become a critic of the work, said the new plan continued a long-term process.

“The policy is to dismantle what is left of Islamic heritage in Jerusalem piece by piece, to clear the area and make it Jewish,” he said.

Meir Margalit, a researcher at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem and a former city councillor, said the next and final stage of approval – by the regional planning committee – was all but a foregone conclusion.

“There seems to be nothing now to stop the project going ahead,” he told MEE. “Building work is almost certain to begin next year.”

He added that the city council had been seeking ways to develop the site after its original plan, for a courthouse, was overruled by the then-president of the Supreme Court, Dorit Beinisch.

Margalit said that behind the scenes she had come under great pressure from European jurists, who wrote to her to protest building on such a sensitive site.

The switch to a commercial project at the same spot, he added, meant it would be much harder to pressure developers to withdraw.

Part of the development site is currently occupied by a school built in the 1970s. Much of the rest of the cemetery now lies under Independence Park, established to celebrate Israel’s victory in the 1948 war.

Work on the Museum of Tolerance began in 2011, despite vocal opposition from Islamic groups, dissident Israeli archeologists and Palestinian families.

‘Erasure of Muslim past’

When the courthouse project was proposed five years ago, the Antiquities Authority – Israel’s national archeological body – conducted six preliminary excavations in the school grounds to determine whether there were graves.

In five of the six digs, graves and bones were identified. Margalit said archeologists and the municipality had tried to hush up the findings at the time.

In the earlier work on the Museum of Tolerance, the Supreme Court approved the construction after officials promised that only “a few dozen graves” would be found at the entire site.

However, an investigation by the daily Haaretz newspaper revealed that, amid great secrecy, some 1,500 graves were in disinterred with little proper oversight. Workers told the paper that the dig was done so quickly that skulls and bones disintegrated and other remains were stuffed into cardboard boxes.

Rafi Greenberg, a professor of archeology at Tel Aviv University, said time pressures meant it was likely the new excavations at the school site would be conducted in a similar manner and almost certainly lead to hundreds more graves being destroyed.

“The problem here is that no one in an official position appears concerned about the rights and dignity of the dead,” he told MEE.

“The Jerusalem municipality knows it is easier to get past religious objections when it affects a Muslim graveyard because the Muslim population [in Jerusalem] hold a far weaker political position.

“If this was being done properly, all the stakeholders would have a say in what happens. Can we imagine a Jewish graveyard being dug up in Europe without there first being a very serious discussion with the local Jewish community?”

The Jerusalem municipality told MEE that, if the development went ahead, “the private contractor who wins the bid to develop the site will be obliged to take any sensitivities into account". 

False claims

Fears have nonetheless been heightened by a report published this month by Israel’s National Academy of Sciences that accuses Israeli officials of making false claims about archeological sites. It suggests that Israeli archeologists have conspired to advance political agendas, especially in Jerusalem where they have worked closely with settler organisations.

The report, written by one of Israel’s leading archeologists, Yoram Tsafrir, also highlights Israel’s double standards in archeology. There are severe restrictions on carrying out excavations if they threaten to unearth Jewish remains.

Aghbaria said there were few hopes of challenging the new plan after the northern Islamic Movement and others failed to persuade the Supreme Court to block the construction of the Museum of Tolerance in 2008.

“Now our only hope is by protesting and trying to bring international pressure to bear on Israel,” he said.

He added that the Islamic Movement was currently considering its response.

Efforts to stop development at the Mamilla Cemetery have largely fallen to the Islamic Movement, because since 2000 Israel has cracked down on most organised political activity in the city by Palestinian organisations.

Israel has expelled Hamas leaders from the city and barred any activities connected to the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, a report by the Washington-based think-tank the International Crisis Group noted.

However, the Islamic Movement too has struggled to maintain a presence in Jerusalem, with restrictions placed on many of its top officials.

The movement’s leader, Sheikh Raed Salah, has been repeatedly banned from the city, and jailed for his activities there. In March he was sentenced to 11 months for incitement over a sermon he delivered in Jerusalem.

According to Meron Benvenisti, a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, many Islamic sites in Jerusalem have over the years been “turned into garbage dumps, parking lots, roads and construction sites”.

Rami Nasrallah, head of the International Peace and Cooperation Centre, a Palestinian organisation in Jerusalem, said the city suffered from “extreme partisan planning”.

“The policy for 48 years now has been designed to erase Jerusalem’s Palestinian identity and replace it with a Jewish identity,” he said. “The challenge for us is how to stop such a policy when it is enforced by the state and endorsed by the courts.”

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/outrage-israeli-plan-build-historic-muslim-cemetery-18396073#sthash.Azd6zeqP.dpuf

India set to become world's most populous country by 2022 - U.N.

Passengers travel on an overcrowded train at Loni town in Uttar Pradesh July 8, 2014.

REUTERS/ANINDITO MUKHERJEE/FILES

Wed Jul 29, 2015

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India is set to overtake China and become the world's most populous country in less than a decade - six years sooner than previously forecast, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Fast-growing Nigeria is on course to outstrip the United States by about 2050 to become the country with the third largest population, the United Nations predicted.

The current global population of 7.3 billion is forecast to reach 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100, slightly above the last set of U.N. projections.

Most growth will happen in developing regions, particularly Africa, according to the report World Population Prospects.

The demographic forecasts are crucial for designing and implementing the new global development goals being launched later this year to replace the Millennium Development Goals.

John Wilmoth, head of the U.N. population division, said the concentration of growth in the poorest countries would make it harder to eradicate poverty, combat hunger and expand schooling and health systems.

The world's two largest nations, China and India, have well over 1 billion people each and are likely to switch places by 2022 - six years earlier than previously forecast.

Experts predict Africa will account for more than half the world's population growth in the next 35 years.

Ten African countries - Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Somalia, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia - are projected to increase their populations five-fold or more by 2100.

Future population growth is highly dependent on the path of future fertility, as relatively small changes in fertility can, projected over decades, generate large differences in total population, the report said.

In recent years, fertility has declined in almost all parts of the world, while life expectancy has increased significantly in the poorest countries, rising from 56 to 62 since the beginning of the century.

Declining fertility and rising life expectancy mean the world is getting greyer, and most regions will have an ageing population, starting with Europe where one third of the population is projected to be over 60 by 2050, the report said.

Globally, the number of people aged 80 or over - currently 125 million - is projected to more than triple by 2050 and to increase more than seven times by 2100.

But populations in many regions are still young. In Africa, children under 15 account for two fifths of the population.

"The large number of young people (in Africa) who will reach adulthood in the coming years and have children of their own, ensures that the region will play a central role in shaping the size and distribution of the world's population over the coming decades," the report said.

(Editing by Tim Pearce; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)

China's crusade to remove crosses from churches 'is for safety concerns'

Government official defends ‘anti-church’ campaign during which 1,200 places of worship have lost their crosses

A woman prays at a Catholic church in Tianjin. More than 1,200 Chinese churches have had crosses stripped from their roofs in recent months. Photograph: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images

Tom Phillips in Beijing-Wednesday 29 July 2015 

A Communist party campaign during which crosses have been stripped from the roofs of more than 1,200 Chinese churches is being conducted “for the sake of safety and beauty”, a government official has claimed.

Human rights activists accuse authorities in Zhejiang province in eastern China of using the protracted campaign to slow Christianity’s growth in what is one of the country’s most churchgoing regions.

By some estimates, China is nowhome to 100 million Christians, compared with the Communist party’s 88 million members.

Since the government campaign began in late 2013, hundreds of places of worship have had bright red crosses removed. Some churches have been completely demolished, while civil servants have been banned from practising religion. Some observers suspect the campaign has the backing of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and could be a “pilot project” before a nationwide crackdown.

However, an official from Zhejiang’s ethnic and religious affairs bureau told the state-run Global Times newspaper the government had “merely relocated the crosses out of safety concerns”. 

“Generally speaking, the church staff and people are very supportive [of the removals],” the official added.

In fact, there is growing anger among China’s rapidly growing Christian community over the campaign, which has affected both Catholic and Protestant congregations. Last Friday, a group of Catholic clergy – including an 89-year-old bishop – took to the streets to protest. “What they are doing feels like something from the Cultural Revolution era,” complained one religious leader from Zhejiang.

This week, Catholic leaders in Wenzhou, a city known as China’s Jerusalem because of its large Christian population, circulated an open letter claiming the removals had got “completely out of control”.

“Our diocese has been patient and reasonable – again and again we have shown tolerance, prayed, communicated and observed, hoping that the haze would clear,” it said. “But they have not stopped. Rather, they have escalated the campaign and have rushed to attack the cross, the symbol of peace and love.”

Addressing China’s Christian population, the letter concluded: “Let us speak out.”

Removals and demolitions have gathered pace in recent weeks despite such protests. A five-storey church in the city of Wenling was demolished “voluntarily”, the government-controlled Zhejiang Daily newspaper announced on Sunday. The newspaper claimed the church had expanded without going through the proper approval process. “It not only affected city planning but also posed a severe threat to road safety,” the report said.

The “anti-church” campaign took an unusual turn this week after claims that officials had deployed groups of incense-burning Buddhist monks to “provoke” Christians who were trying to defend their cross.

“We are Protestant Christians, so by sending monks to chant sutras they were trying to get us riled up,” a member of one Zhejiang church told Radio Free Asia, a US-funded news website.

The Christian added: “They were trying to make us angry so that we would retaliate against them. They think that anyone who opposes the government is a traitor, or someone trying to overturn the Communist party.”

Additional reporting Luna Lin

WATCH: Land dispute sparks massive armed brawl in China

By Asian Correspondent Staff Jul 29, 2015
Video footage has emerged of a massive armed battle in Shandong, China sparked by a disagreement over land expropriation issues. Local police confirmed about 100 people were involved in the July 24 brawl.

The footage clearly shows those involved wielding a variety of weapons, including shovels and sticks. Some of them even hurl bricks at each other. Several people were taken to hospital with serious head injuries.

Villagers told local media that the brawl was started by a mob trying to expropriate their land. Police arrested six people and say they are investigating the incident.

Incidents like this are not uncommon in China, where mobs are often hired to force villagers to agree to land deals.

Do Not Eat This “Cheese” By Any Means!

January 15, 2015

Are you a parent and you making sandwiches for your children with those processed, unnatural great “cheese” slices? Or they use it themselves to make a toast? Then you simply have to see this video.

It is logical that real cheese should melt and drip on an open fire due to heat, right? Of course, but this video has proven just the opposite.

While this so-called cheese was on fire, it did not even melt, but remained stiff and started turning black – like burning a piece of plastic !!!

This is a wakeup call! What are they feeding us? What kind of garbage we put in our bodies and even worse, in the gentle body of our children?

Watch the video and see for yourself what it is – rubber, plastic, nylon bags with cheese flavor?

Sri Lanka continues 'multifaceted assault of terror' on Tamils under new government
Location of a secret torture camp in Trincomalee - International Truth and Justice Project Sri Lanka report

28 July 2015 Abductions, torture and sexual abuse of Tamils by Sri Lanka's security forces continue under the new government of President Maithripala Sirisena, according to a new report released on Tuesday, which calls on the UN to refer its reports to the International Criminal Court for further action against those responsible for the crimes. See here for full report and here for annex.

Sri Lanka Continues 'Multifaceted Assault of Terror' on Tamils Under New Government by Thavam Ratna

Stop Torture Annexes I II by Thavam Ratna

Sri Lanka justice: leaked UN document casts doubts

TUESDAY 28 JULY 2015

A leaked UN document raises concerns over the prospects for genuine justice for the Sri Lankan victims of alleged war crimes.

A leaked UN document raises concerns over the prospects for genuine justice for the Sri Lankan victims of alleged war crimes.
Channel 4 News has been supplied with the leaked document which critics claim could pre-empt and undermine September's Human Rights Council discussion on a UN's long-awaited investigation into crimes committed at the end of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war.

Sri Lanka Justice Leaked UN Document Casts Doubts by Thavam Ratna

Is The Chief Minister Of The NPC Ethically & Morally Fit To Govern?

By Muttukrishna Sarvananthan –July 28, 2015

Dr. Muttukrishna Sarvananthan

The Chief Minister of the Northern Province Mr. Canagasabapathy Viswalingam Wigneswaran made a “private visit” to India in November 2014. It was reported that he was invited to deliver a memorial lecture in Chennai to commemorate a civil liberties activist Mr. K.G. Kannapiran, who is a person from the legal fraternity. Later Mr. Wigneswaran also attended a World Congress of Buddhism and Hinduism in New Delhi which was graced by Dalai Lama, among others.

At the World Congress of Buddhism and Hinduism Mr. Wigneswaran had complained to the Dalai Lama about attacks on and destruction of Hindu temples in Sri Lanka. It is true that, during the time of the previous Rajapaksa regime, places of worship of minority religions came under frequent attack by religious bigots who had the tacit patronage of the ruling coterie. As a matter of fact many more Churches and Mosques were attacked than Hindu temples; in this circumstance, the Chief Minster complaining about the attacks on Hindu temples only smacks of parochial partisanship.

It was unbecoming of the Chief Minister of a multi-religious province to highlight the attacks on Hindu temples only to the Dalai Lama. The Chief Minister should be aware that the population of Christian faith comprises twenty percent and the population of Islamic faith three percent of the total population of the Northern Province according to the Census 2012.

It was also reported that Mr. Wigneswaran had also paid two other visits in India which are ethically and morally reprehensible.

One was to an ashram of late Swami (sic) Premananda in Trichy in Tamilnadu. Premananda was born in Matale (Sri Lanka) but moved to Trichy (India) after the 1983 riots and set-up an ashram there. He was arrested by the police on charges of rape and murder of few female disciples within the ashram, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment in the 1990s. He died in prison on 21 February 2011.

Read More

SRI LANKA: Replacing the primitive 1978 Constitution with a modern one

July 27, 2015

The Prime Minister’s announcement for the need of a new constitution, one that will be in keeping with those found in developed countries, is quite welcome. The 1978 Sri Lankan Constitution is primitive. It is a shame on the nation. And, a change is certainly needed.

However, a reminder is in order. The making of a constitution is the sole prerogative of the people. Both the 1972 and 1978 constructions were attempts by the respective governments to usurp this fundamental prerogative of the people. Naturally, both these constitutions brought much misery to the people; they virtually made constitutionalism an alien concept in Sri Lanka.

In India, however, when Indira Gandhi tried to do the same, the Indian Supreme Court stopped her, stating that the elected legislature only has legislative power and the making of constitutions does not fall within that power. That power belongs to the people.

The famous Keshavanda Bharathi v. State of Kerala, decided 40 years ago, has been celebrated as the case that saved the Indian democracy. It is in this case that the Supreme Court formulated the basic structure doctrine, which meant that the basic structure of the Constitution cannot be amended by the legislature. The doctrine of the supremacy of the constitution was thus firmly recognized.

If a new constitution is to be introduced in terms of the constitutional traditions of developed countries, such a construction must, most importantly and finally, settle something critical: what is the basic structure of the Sri Lankan Constitution?

The Soulbery Constitution had a basic structure, which was the structure of a liberal democracy. That structure is also found in all the constitutions of the developed democracies. The core element of that basic structure is the duty of the State to recognise and protect the liberties of all individuals. Both the 1972 and 1978 Constitutions were attempts to reject or undermine this fundamental duty of the State – to recognise and to protect the liberties of all the individuals.

Under the guise of the supremacy of Parliament, the 1972 Constitution attacked the notion of liberties of individuals. The 1978 Constitution, by incorporating national security laws into the Constitution itself, dealt a deadly blow to the very notion of the liberties of individuals. It was through this formula – making national security laws part and parcel of the Constitution – that J.R. Jayawardene armed himself to attack trade unions, political parties, and the minorities. The Executive President thus became capable of even authorizing enforced disappearances by merely using emergency laws. Blatant abuse of State property, in its most extreme forms, 

such as what took place under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s watch, became possible only due to 1978 Constitution.

Unlike the Indian Supreme Court, Sri Lankan courts, have not proven to be capable of defending the basic structure of a liberal democracy in Sri Lanka. Thus, a new constitution, in keeping with the best traditions of developed countries, would also require a change in the mentality of judges. This is so their failure to defend the basic structure of the Constitution would not cause a suicide of democracy.

The task of making of a new constitution is a necessary and a serious task. The Sri Lankan people do not need one more constitution made in a fast food style. Now is the time for people to take the initiative to bring the issue of their liberties to the forefront of their deliberations.

 

UK-based WorldRemit launches mobile money transfer in Sri Lanka 

By ANI | 27 Jul, 2015 

LONDON: London-based money transfer business WorldRemit has launched instant mobile money transfers to Sri Lanka for the first time.

The eZ Cash service is currently available to Dialog, Etisalat and Hutch subscribers, totaling 14 million people, according to a compnay media release.

WorldRemit will enable customers to send instant, low-cost money transfers direct to the mobiles of family and friends in Sri Lanka, the press release stated further.

The eZ Cash facility can also be used to transfer funds to friends, pay water and electricity bills, shop for goods at physical merchants and online, and even pay health or life insurance premiums.

WorldRemit noted that there are an estimated three million Sri Lankans living abroad and their remittances contributed USD 7.036 billion to the Sri Lankan economy in 2014, nearly 10 per cent of total GDP, according to the World Bank.

"We already offer mobile-to-mobile money transfers for countries as far flung as Ghana, Indonesia and Fiji," the Colombo Page web site quoted Alix Murphy, a senior mobile analyst at WorldRemit, as saying.

WorldRemit operates across Africa, Asia and Oceania, and consumers in 50 countries can now transfer funds directly to eZ Cash mobile wallets.

Can worshipping become this cursed ? ..Thief worshipping his chief of the same ilk

(Lanka-e-news- 27.July.2015,11.00PM) It is the general consensus that   ex president Mahinda Rajapakse’s eccentricity is becoming increasingly manifest following  his insane utterances such as ‘ I am the best thieving State leader’ -  himself confirming that he is a thief while  also trying to ease his guilt ridden conscience at the same time.  Regrettably , it is in this atmosphere of his insanity , another low bred political scoundrel  by the name of Janaka Bandara Tennekoon of Dambulla of the same ilk  deemed it fit to  kneel down before this deposed people discarded ex president  and worship him thereby degrading  the entire male race , let alone disgracing himself. Never did anyone make worshipping  this cursed as Janaka Bandara Tennekoon!

Janaka Bandara who mounted the stage at the rally at Naula general playground fell at the feet of this ‘ best thieving leader ‘ and held his feet as though he was  ready even to serve as an inanimate spittoon for Mahinda casting aside his own politico son’s dignity into the garbage bin. This toadying and ‘feet licking ‘ Janaka Bandara stooped so low that he not only disgraced himself but even poured scorn on  the whole male race by his most disdainful  degrading conduct. This vacuous unworthy political ‘animal’ who would even strip nude to please the ‘best thieving leader ‘ said , he will not speak because his servile  worshipping  alone , most contemptible though is demonstrative  enough.

It is worthy of note it  is the same Janaka  Bandara Tennekoon who nursed an inveterate grudge against  his political  enemy Matale ethanol Lakshman Perera because Mahinda was favoring Lakshman.

This is the same  Janaka Bandara who was griping and grumbling citing the ground that despite the fact that he was the most senior SLFP er since the time of Bandaranaikes , he is being sidelined and marginalized , and Lakshman Perera the illicit ethanol dealer was being pampered . Incidentally , Lakshman was of course given preferential treatment because he was paying Rs. 3000 million monthly to the ‘best thieving leader ‘ Mahinda Rajapakse  out of his ethanol earnings.

It is the same Janaka Bandara who solemnly promised to cross over to the common opposition front while saying he  cannot bear to see the destruction Mahinda Rajapakse is wreaking on the SLFP.

It is this same turncoat Janaka Bandara the most unscrupulous , opportunistic and  shameless  politico who after  Maithripala Sirisena confirmed he is leaving the  government at that time , said , ‘ I am coming too Maithri , my heart is there.’

Yet , when he received many millions of rupees in cash from Basil and Thiru Nadesan  , and after his bank debt  in millions was agreed to be wiped off  , and for  a brand new BMW car , this  same Janaka Bandara the political renegade did a disgraceful sordid U turn , to speak well of Mahinda and  Ethanol Lakshman .

In the circumstances , it is only Janaka Bandara who will know how many more millions  he collected to fall at the feet of Mahinda in public in this instance at so much cost to his pride ( whether  two legged ‘manimals’ like Janaka Bandara that defecate and literally bootlick  in public have any  pride is another question ?) even after being fully aware that it is the same Mahinda who is rejected by the whole world as a Machiavellian and because of his outrageous corrupt and criminal activities , his period of reign was dubbed ‘curse of the shawl’ locally and internationally.

When Janaka Bandara is worshipping, automatically  ethanol Lakshman is deified (photograph)

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by     (2015-07-27 17:52:53)

Will Applause Turn To Votes?

By Sarath de Alwis –July 28, 2015

Sarath de Alwis

“It is not the consciousness of men that determine their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.” – Karl Marx

Anura Kumara Dissanayake received several rounds of applause from the Business Community gathered in the ‘Rainbow hall’ of the Grand Oriental Hotel on Monday 27th July. Having retired from the humdrum of Business and Commerce eighteen years ago, this writer cannot comment on the quality of the composition of the audience – whether they were captains or lieutenants of our private sector. The presence of two brothers s who converted a family business in to dynamic blue chip conglomerate under Post JR neo liberal economic order was confirmation that comrade Anura Kumara and the JVP has a respectable resonance in the world of private enterprise. He did not actually use the Latin adage “Ex scientia pecuniae libertas. Out of knowledge of money comes freedom.”

That is what he promised the business community. But the money had to be redistributed. He ruled out vertical redistribution. We don’t wish to take from the rich and give to the poor. In a succinct presentation of the economics of a caring state he explained that substantially high investments in education, health, transport and related spheres would ensure horizontal redistribution and social justice. The next incisive observation was that the private sector was now investing by instinct and not by informed decision. “Now you sniff for opportunities and gamble with your seed capital”. A JVP government will identify opportunities within the larger frame of national priorities, conduct the initial studies and allow the private sector to work out the rest.

He cited an example of how the JVP during its brief stint in office launched a national drive to increase milk production and also found productive employment for more than four hundred graduates in Veterinary Science who were in search of employment.                              Read More