Budget 2017:Prez gets more: Education and defence less

 

By Saman Indrajith-October 20, 2016, 9:59 pm 

The government yesterday presented to Parliament its estimated expenditure for the next year in which the expenses of the President’s office rose by three times while defence allocation has been pruned down.

The appropriation bill presented to Parliament by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake has estimated the total government expenditure of over Rs 1,819 billion (Rs 1,819,544,000,000). The amount is a decrease when compared with the government expenditure in 2016 of Rs. 1,941 billion.

The limit on borrowings for 2017 has been set at Rs 1,489 billion (Rs 1,489,205,436,000).

The allocation to the President’s Office which was Rs 2.3 billion in 2016, has been increased to around Rs 6.4 billion (6,452,679,000) in the next financial year, indicating a three-fold increase. Of this amount, around Rs 1.9 billion will go towards Recurrent Expenditure, while the rest will be for Operational and Development activities under the President’s Office.

Defence Ministry Allocations for 2017 have taken a dip from the previous year, along with allocations made to the Ministry of Education.  The Defence Ministry allocation for 2017 is around Rs 284 billion (284,044,344,000), of which, around Rs 251 billion will go towards Recurrent Expenditure and around Rs 32.2 billion towards Capital Expenditure. In 2016, Defence allocation stood at more than Rs 306 billion, of which more than Rs 257.6 billion went towards Recurrent Expenditure,while Capital Expenditure was around Rs 48.9 billion. The Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment also coming under the purview of the President has been given a sum of Rs 57.6 billion (57,623,465,000).  In the appropriation bill for the year 2016, that ministry had been given Rs 69,495,807,000.

Allocation for the Ministry of Education, which saw a four-fold increase in the previous year’s appropriation bill with an amount around Rs 185.9 billion has been reduced drastically in the appropriation bill for the next year. The Ministry of Education has been allocated Rs 76.9 billion (76,943,719,000). Ministry of Higher Education has been allocated Rs 163.4 billion (163,404,738,000). In 2016’s allocation of that ministry was Rs 171.4 billion. Allocation made for the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine stands around Rs 160.9 billion (160,971,829,000). It is a decrease of around Rs 14 billion when compared to the allocation made in 2016 which gave the same ministry a sum of Rs 174,077,998,000.

The other big allocations are for the Ministries of Finance (Rs 242,806,451,000), Public Administration and Management (Rs 165,204,474,000), and Provincial Councils and Local Government (214,223,449,000).

The expenditure of the Prime Minister for the next year has been envisaged at Rs 1,255,271,000.

The least allocation has been made to Dr Sarath Amunugama’s Ministry of Special Assignment. It is Rs 118,254,000. Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka’s Ministry of Regional Development has been allocated only Rs 621,641,000 while Champika Ranawaka’s Megapolis and Western Development Ministry has been given Rs 15,805,629,000)

Among other allocations are Ministries of Buddha Sasana (Rs 1,869,974,000), National Policies and Economic Affairs (Rs 12,543,197,000), Disaster Management (Rs 4,611,893,000), Posts, Postal Services and Muslim Religious Affairs (12,550,159,000), Justice (Rs 10,230895,000), Foreign Affairs (Rs 9,689,139,000), Transport and Civil Aviation (51,299,087,000), Agriculture (Rs 21,394,174,000), Power and Renewable energy (Rs 1,048,757,000), Women and Child Affairs (Rs 2,698,667,000),  Home Affairs (Rs 44,542,850,000), Parliamentary Reforms and Mass Media (Rs 5,734,569,000), Housing and Construction (Rs 3,267,806,000), Social Empowerment and Welfare (Rs 16,249,622,000), Sports ( Rs 4,484,372,000), Industry and Commerce (Rs 9,921,384,000), Petroleum Resources Development (Rs 311,726,000), Lands (Rs 9,536,947,000), Rural Economic Affairs (Rs 8,330,200,000), National Dialogue (Rs 676,593,000),Public Enterprise Development (Rs 432,292,000), Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs (Rs 855,032,000), Sustainable Development and Wildlife (3,500,381,000), Internal Affairs, Wayamba Development and Cultural Affairs (7,928,456,000),  Ports and Shipping (Rs 2,362,955,000), Foreign Employment (Rs 695,022,000), Law and Order and Southern Development (Rs 68,394,883,000), Science, Technology and Research (Rs 4,276,935,000), Skills Development and Vocational Training (Rs 9,590,577,000), Primary Industries (Rs 3,161,135,000), Plantations Industries (Rs 7,220,522,000), Hill Country, New Villages Infrastructure and Community Development (Rs 3,367,286,000), Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs (Rs 17,441,414,000), Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development (Rs 4,670,970,000),  Irrigation and Water Resources Management (Rs 20,038,750,000), National Integration and Reconciliation (Rs 1,836,355,000), City Planning and Water Supply (Rs 22,846,206,000), Labour and Trade Union Relations (Rs 5,728,591,000), Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure (Rs 2,453,670,000), and Development Strategy and International Trade (Rs 955,310,000).

Yesterday’s presentation is considered as the first reading of the Appropriation Bill. Its second reading is scheduled to commence with Finance Minister Karunanayake presenting budget proposals to the House on November 10. The budget debate is tentatively scheduled to continue till Dec 10.

President to spend over Rs.10 million per day, reduced allocation for education

October 20, 2016

The total expenditure of the government for 2017 according to the Appropriation Bill presented to the Parliament today will be over Rs.1819.5 billion (Rs 1,819,544,000,000).

The total expenditure for 2016 was Rs.1941.4 billion and it is a Rs.21.9 billion reduction when compared to last year.

The budget allocated for president’s expenses has increased to the tune of Rs.6.45 billion. It was limited to Rs.2.3 billion in 2016. Therefore, fund allocated for expenses of the president would exceeded Rs.10 million per a day, Ada Derana learns.

The total expenditure allocated for the Prime Minister is Rs.1.25 billion. However, Rs.0.4 billion was allocated for the Prime Minister through the last year’s Appropriation Bill.

The Defence Ministry allocation for 2017 is around Rs 284 billion, however, in 2016, Defence allocation stood at more than Rs.306 billion.

Allocation for the Ministry of Education for 2017 is Rs.76.9 billion. However, for 2016, this amount was Rs.185.9 billion.

dilrukshi resigns

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Comes in the wake of President’s remarks

Ranjan sad

Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) Director General Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe tendered her resignation to the President yesterday, CIABOC sources said.

The resignation comes in the wake of strong criticism levelled against CIABOC by President Maithripala Sirisena.

The President in a speech last week said Independent Commissions should be aware of the scope of their subject and that he would take action if the CID, FCID or Bribery Commission is working according to a political agenda.

“These organisations cannot work according to a political agenda,” the President said expressing his displeasure over the questioning of former military leaders and the former Defence Secretary.

Additional Solicitor General and President’s Counsel Wickramasinghe assumed duties as the new Director General of CIABOC on February 12, 2015.

Social Empowerment and Welfare Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake speaking to the Daily News said he was saddened to hear of the Commissioner’s exit.

“We have seen how Jagath de S. Balapatabendi and Jayantha Wickremeratne ran things, so when Wickramasinghe was appointed last year, for the first time, politicians were being held accountable. Independent Commissions were appointed and empowered to take action and we didn’t expect this to happen when things were going well. Public officials have to expect praise as well as censure for their work and they have to have the strength to take both equally well. She didn’t have to resign because of one remark. I also ask that the director of the FCID and CID to be strong and work for the people regardless of pressure,” he added.

Ramanayake stressed that members of Independent Commissions should also keep the President informed of what is happening.

“He [President] did not say he objected to their actions, he just didn’t want to be kept in the dark,” the deputy minister said.

Meanwhile, Minister S.B. Dissanayake said no letter of resignation has been sent to the Presidential Secretariat so far and that the SLFP ministers had nothing to comment on it.

Wickramasinghe joined the Attorney General’s Department as a State Counsel in June 1987 and was initially attached to the Criminal Division and conducted prosecutions in the High Courts. She also served as a Senior State Counsel and Deputy Solicitor General.

By March 2014, following her elevation to the rank of Additional Solicitor General, she was appointed a President’s Counsel and was called to the Inner Bar. She has served as a Judge of the High Court of the Republic of Fiji and also served as the Chief Legal Officer of the Sri Lanka Air Force.

Wickramasinghe has contributed towards the development of various legislation such as the Electronic Transactions Act, the Computer Crimes Act and Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Bill.

All three members of the Bribery Commission including its chairman were contemplating sending their resignations to the authorities, but however last minute intervention by the chairman of the constitutional council had delayed this move.

The three members of the commission are former Supreme Court Judge Justice T.B Weerasuriya Chairman, former Court of Appeal Judge Justice W. Lal Ranjith Silva, Commissioner and former Deputy Inspector General of Police C. Neville Guruge.

The members of the other independent commissions too are having discussions whether they should remain in their positions following the verbal outburst by the President. Meanwhile, a senior minister of the unity government who had been interrogated by the Bribery Commission was to be charged before courts, but that too had been shelved.

COPE: UNP MPs try their best to take Mahendra off the hook

By Saman Indrajith-October 20, 2016, 10:00 pm 

The UNP team within the Parliamentary watchdog committee COPE fought a losing battle for seven hours yesterday against the JVP and the SLFP over the report on former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran’s involvement in the treasury bond scams.

The UNPers, from 11.00 am to 6.00 pm yesterday, tried their level best to absolve Mahendran’s of wrongdoing, but failed to change the content of the COPE Chairman’s report, according to a senior COPE member.

The UNP team of MPs attacked the very foundation of the COPE report being prepared with the intention of presenting to Parliament on Oct 25. Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe ably assisted by Ajith Perera led their attack while their colleague Dr Harsha de Silva tried to bolster those arguments theoretically. They sought to justify the method Mahendran had adopted to auction the treasury bonds.

Hence, they argued, Mahendran could not be accused of any wrongdoing and held accountable for the subsequent loss.

 Arguing on those lines the UNP MPs demanded certain amendments to the report. The argument was in progress while the COPE members deliberated on the report page by page. Dr de Silva, who had been against Mahendran, chose to support his party members to get Mahendran’s name cleared from the report, according to sources.

 The senior COPE members said adding the JVP together with both Maithree and Mahinda factions of the SLFP had argued cogently and forcefully and demolished the points made by their UNP counterparts.

TNA MPs of the COPE did not attend the meeting.

The COPE is to meet against today at 9 am at the Parliament complex.

Searching Welgama’s garden for bulletproof vehicles immature: President

2016-10-20 

President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday told the Lankadeepa that searching UPFA MP Kumar Welgama’s garden for illegally keeping bulletproof vehicles was an immature act.

The President said the government was inconvenienced due to such immature acts.

“Whatever people say, I should say that it is an immature act,” he said.

President Sirisena said if police received information about keeping government vehicles illegally, there were ample methods and technical apparatus to search for them without engaging in immature acts.

He said such technical apparatus were available at the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau.

The President said he was not aware if it was done by the CID or the FCID and added that whoever did it, police came to disrepute for doing so.

He said what would happen at the end is people would just laugh at such acts.(Ajantha Kumara Agalakada)

Interpol red notice on Udayanga Weeratunga

October 20, 2016

The Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court today granted approval to a request from police seeking to issue an arrest warrant for Sri Lanka’s former Ambassador to Russia, Udayanga Weeratunga.

Police requested the court to issue a warrant through Interpol for the ex-diplomat’s arrest as a statement was required from him in connection with the controversial USD 10 million deal to buy four MiG-27 fighter jets in 2006.

The court instructed police to proceed with further investigations into the incident. 

Multiple requests made by police previously seeking the issuance of an Interpol ‘Red Notice’ on Weeratunga had been turned down by the court on the grounds that former Ambassador had not been named as a suspect in the case. 

The Sri Lankan Air Force had signed an agreement with Ukrainian firm Ukrinmash to buy four MiG fighters at a cost of USD 2.462 million each as well as overhauling four existing SLAF MiG-27 aircraft.

Israeli army shoots 15-year-old dead for throwing stones in Hebron

Boy's death comes as authorities face criticism after video appears to show officers shooting Palestinian woman on the ground

Israeli security forces crowd around the scene on Wednesday after Raheeq Shajeyeh Youssef was shot dead in an alleged stabbing attempt (AFP)

Thursday 20 October 2016

Israeli troops fatally shot a Palestinian teenager on Thursday after he threw rocks at a military convoy in the occupied West Bank.

Bahr Khalid Ahmed Bahr, 15, was killed in the Beit Ummar region close to the West Bank city of Hebron, an army statement said.

"Rocks were hurled at the soldiers, wounding one of them lightly," an Israeli spokeswoman told the AFP news agency, adding that the soldiers first fired warning shots "and then (fired) toward the suspect resulting in his death".

Mohammed Ayad Aoud, a media activist who was at the scene, told local news website Maan that Israeli troops prevented medical teams from treating the boy and did not allow bystanders to approach him.

Images circulated by Palestinian news websites showed the boy's body, his face covered in blood, on the ground surrounded by heavily armed Israeli troops. The Palestinian Health Ministry later confirmed that the teenager died.

Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli army defended police officers who shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian woman on Wednesday after she had allegedly tried to stab them. Later, video footage emerged appearing to show them fire at her while she was on the ground.

In the incident at the Tapuah junction, a tense area in the north of the occupied West Bank, Israeli police said the woman, named as Raheeq Shajeyeh Youssef, approached border police, ignored orders to stop and then pulled a knife. The officers then opened fire.

Also known as Zaatara junction, the scene is close to Israeli settlements and has been the site of a number of violent incidents.

The footage appears to show officers open fire on Youssef after she was already on the ground. Four officers can be seen in the video. "Who fired," a voice can be heard asking. "The four of us," someone responds.

Police said a fatal-incident inquiry has been initiated but defended the officers. "The video shows a partial picture of the event," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. "It is not possible to see the terrorist moving towards the officers while handling the knife and endangering their lives.

"From the recording of the event it is possible to see that immediately after the danger was neutralised and had passed, the officers stopped firing, closed the area and proceeded to do the follow-ups on the incident."

However, the Palestinian foreign ministry harshly criticised Youssef's shooting, saying that "the recording shows the soldiers continued to shoot her despite her falling to the ground and not representing any threat".

It added that her death was one of "dozens" of similar cases.

Israeli security forces have been accused of using disproportionate force in a number of instances over the past year.

One Israeli soldier is on trial for manslaughter after video emerged last March showing him shooting a wounded Palestinian alledged attacker in the head when he was already on the ground without seeming to pose any further threat.

Police were also criticised for the shooting of a teenaged Palestinian girl involved in an attack with scissors in November 2015. Once more, footage appeared to show an officer shoot the girl as she was already on the ground.

Has Ireland enabled Israel’s war crimes?

Demonstrators have held regular marches to protest the use of Shannon Airport by the US military. (Shannonwatch)

Ciaran Tierney-20 October 2016

Ireland’s Shannon Airport provides regular support to US imperialism. Since the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, it has served as a refueling stop for warplanes. Approximately 2.5 million armed US troops areestimated to have passed through this nominally civilian facility in the past 15 years.

Eager to shield the US from scrutiny, leading Irish politicians have concealed the truth about what is happening and tried to mislead the public, sometimes in a contradictory manner.

Then leader of Ireland’s Labour Party, Eamon Gilmore complained in 2007 that Shannon was accommodatingCIA flights on which prisoners were being “ferreted away for the purpose of torture.”

Gilmore was in opposition at that time; he took a different line in 2012, when he was Ireland’s foreign minister. In that capacity, he claimed there was no evidence of Shannon being used for torture flights.

Despite the official secrecy, some information about Shannon has been unearthed by anti-war activists. Much of the evidence is inconclusive but it raises vital questions.

Here is one such question: Has Ireland enabled Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians?

Excuses

In 2006, the Irish Independent reported that a cargo plane carrying three Apache helicopters had landed in Shannon earlier that year before flying to Israel.

Ireland’s transport ministry claimed to the newspaper that the plane had meant to fly via Iceland but had touched down in Shannon after encountering some technical problems. Such excuses were threadbare. 

The ministry had admitted that the plane had been authorized to land in Shannon on the return leg of its journey, meaning that Ireland was facilitating the delivery of US weapons to Israel.

Apache helicopters had been extensively used by Israel in its bombing raids on Gaza as it attempted to crush a Palestinian uprising — or intifada — during the first few years of this century.

For example, Israel used Apache helicopters to bomb a taxi that was driving a few hundred meters from a hospital in the Rafah area of southern Gaza in June 2002. Two of the Palestinians who died in the attack were wanted by Israel. Four other people were also killed.

During Operation Cast Lead, a major Israeli assault on Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009, Irish anti-war activists became suspicious about a US plane that spent several days in Shannon.

Research by the activists revealed that the plane — a C-130 Hercules — was normally stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. That base is located near the headquarters of Pine Bluff Arsenal, a supplier of white phosphorous munitions to the US military.

A few days before the plane landed in Shannon, the news agency Reuters published photos of the Israeli military handling projectiles whose markings indicate that they were made at Pine Bluff in the 1990s. Human Rights Watch has documented how US-provided white phosphorous, a weapon known to cause horrific burns, was used extensively by Israel during Operation Cast Lead.

Activists with Shannonwatch, an anti-war group, requested in January 2009 that the Irish police investigate whether a banned chemical weapon was transported via Shannon.

Weapons used by Israel have been routed through Shannon even before the airport became a refueling stop for the US military.

In May 2001, Ireland’s foreign ministry asked three other government departments — defense, transport and justice — if they would have any objection to a plane carrying US-made Patriot missiles landing in Shannon. No objection was raised.

And so, the flight in question took off from Tel Aviv in June. After touching down in Shannon, it continued to the US.

The foreign ministry’s letter did not explain why the missiles were being transported to the US from Israel. Edward Horgan, a Shannonwatch activist who obtained a copy of the letter, said the missiles “were probably going to be modified” in the US and then returned to the Israeli military.

Annoying the powerful

Horgan, a retired soldier, took legal action against the Irish state in 2003. In the case, he argued that the US military’s use of Shannon violated Ireland’s status as a neutral country.

The case was assessed by Ireland’s high court. The court acknowledged that the Irish government had contravened customary law on neutrality by allowing US troops through Shannon at a time of war. However, it ruled against Horgan on a number of other key issues.

Horgan is continuing to protest against Shannon’s use by the US military. Demonstrations are held at the airport each month, he said, in order to “annoy those in power.”

Horgan has recently returned from a trip to the occupied West Bank, which he has been visiting since the 1970s. The visit underscored for him the importance of the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctionsmovement in challenging Israel’s military occupation.

“We did learn in our visit to the West Bank that BDS is the one thing that is giving Palestinians hope,” he said. “It is the one thing which is having a huge impact on Israel. Every Palestinian group we met encouraged us to promote the BDS movement.”

With US military aid to Israel reaching its highest ever levels, there is a strong likelihood that weapons deliveries will continue to be routed through Shannon.

In 2014, the Irish government authorized 272 flights bringing weapons or explosives through Shannon. Most were destined for the Middle East.

Campaigners who have taken direct action against Shannon’s role in aiding war crimes and human rights abuses have been arrested.

Margaretta D’Arcy, now aged 82, has twice been jailed for staging a protest on the airport’s runway in 2013.

Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, both members of Ireland’s parliament, the Oireachtas, were briefly imprisonedlast year. They were arrested as they attempted to inspect a US warplane at the airport in 2014.

That same year, Ireland’s then justice minister Alan Shatter defended the jailing of Margaretta D’Arcy by arguing that “no one is above the rule of law no matter what their age.”

His words were replete with irony. By transforming Shannon into a military base, Ireland has allowed the US to disregard international law.

Ciaran Tierney is a journalist based in Galway, Ireland. Website: ciarantierney.com.

Phillippine President Breaks Ties With US, Realigns With China and Russia

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in Beijing during a four-day visit to China, Oct. 20, 2016. (Wu Hong-Pool/Getty Images)

A Filipino fisherman is seen past the US Navy amphibious transport ship in Apr. 2015, during Philippine-US joint maneuvers some 220 kilometres east of the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. On Thursday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced he would break from a long-standing alliance with the United States and align his country with China. (TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images)

By Shar Adams-October 20, 2016

Controversial Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has been criticized for his violent campaign against crime, but it is the former mayor’s foreign policy overhaul that is shifting tides in the South China Sea.

On Thursday, Duterte made explicit a threat he has been brandishing for months: that he would break a historical alliance with the United States and align his country with China and Russia. 

Ties with the United States became strained after Duterte unleashed a bloodbath in the Philippines by encouraging police to kill drug dealers. The campaign drew criticism from the Western world—which Duterte met with defiance and a pledge to turn towards Russia and China.

During his first 100 days in office, Duterte halted joint U.S.–Philippines patrols, demanded that U.S. Special Forces leave the region, and threatened to end a decades-old alliance with the United States.

He has also dared the United States and the European Union to stop providing aid and said he would go to Russia and China for arms and development funds. Duterte surprised observers Wednesday by pleading for aid in a rash of interviews with Chinese state-owned media during his trip.   

Speaking in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday, Duterte made his position official.

“I announce my separation from the United States,” Duterte told an audience of Chinese and Philippine business people that included Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.

“I’ve realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to [President Vladimir] Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world—China, Philippines, and Russia. It’s the only way,” Duterte said, according to Reuters.

The announcement was a culmination of a trip to China that saw the hosts giving a warm welcome, while Duterte made a concerted plea for support. China had previously voiced support for Duterte’s war on drugs.

Since Duterte’s election in May, over 3,000 alleged drug dealers have been killed with over 1,500 of them dying in guns battles with police, according to Time. Duterte has encouraged a shoot-to-kill policy and said he would be happy if police killed as many as three million drug addicts, likening his campaign to the Holocaust.

The extrajudicial killings have been condemned by international rights groups and Western countries, including the United States. Duterte, dubbed “the Punisher,” responded by using profane language when referring to U.S. President Barack Obama and saying Obama could “go to hell.”

Closer Ties with Russia, China

The United States has been a key supplier of aid and arms to Philippines for decades but Duterte has said he can get weapons elsewhere.

“I sent the generals to Russia and Russia said ‘do not worry, we have everything you need, we’ll give it to you,'” he said on October 5.

“And as for China, they said ‘just come over and sign and everything will be delivered.'”

While the bluster and cowboy swagger may have populist appeal domestically, analysts say Duterte is in way in over his head in dealing with China.

“It’s very clear that the Chinese are going to exploit this to the hilt,” said Dr. Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). “They will play him like a violin.”

“They will get all they can from him and that could completely undermine Western strategic posture and policy in regards to the South China Sea,” he said.

South China Sea

The stakes are high in the South China Sea. In a landmark decision in July, aninternational tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines and against Beijing in a territorial dispute over the West Philippines Sea region of the South China Sea. Chinese officials have refused to acknowledge the decision and continue to prevent Filipino fishermen from accessing Scarborough Shoal, an area in Philippine territory.

Duterte told media he would not be raising the tribunal ruling during his current trip and has been deferential while in China, saying he would not even raise fisherman access unless Chinese leader raised it first.

“I have to be courteous, I have to wait for your president to mention it in passing for me to respond,” he told reporters there on Wednesday.

(screenshot/Google maps)

On Thursday, he said the two countries would work together to resolve the issues.

Depending on how that is done, Duterte could run afoul of his country’s highest court. On the eve of his trip, a Filipino Supreme Court judge warned Duterte that he could be impeached if he ceded any Filipino territory in his meetings with Chinese authorities.

“He is correct. I would be impeached,” Duterte told reporters at the Davao international airport on Oct. 16.

But Duterte told local Filipino officials on Oct. 10 that he can do little to defend Philippine territory against China.

“Let’s not dwell on Scarborough Shoal because we don’t have the capabilities,” he said. “Even if we express anger, it will just amount to nothing. We can’t back it up.”

Military Might

Historically, the United States and the Philippines have strong economic and military ties. According to InsideGov, the U.S. gave just shy of $200 million in 2012 with the largest amount, $31 million, going to military assistance.

The Philippines is also party to a Mutual Defense Treaty through which its armed forces get equipment and intelligence from the United States.

Since Duterte seems to have passed the point of no return in his pivot away from the United States and towards Russia and China—as said in September he would do—this history will be abruptly irrelevant.

“If that relationship goes then the military is cut adrift. All that goes out the window,” Davis said.

Adapting to Chinese or Russian weaponry will be unappealing for the Philippine military and Duterte plays a dangerous game if he rattles them too much. The Philippines has a long history of military coups, though the previous government of former president Corazon Aquino created relative stability.

Strategic Nightmare

Davis believes Duterte’s kowtow to China is like “a bad poker player with a bad hand…He is going to lose.”

While there may be arms deals, it is unlikely China will be interested in contributing any more than it has to help to with any insurgent movements in the south, Davis said.

“I don’t think the Chinese want to bear any costs to claim the prize, they just want to claim the prize,” he said.

With the Chinese so focused on gaining strategic control in the South China Sea and driving a wedge between the United States and its allies, Duterte is playing right into their hands, he said.

“They are taking him for everything he’s got.”

Pakistan to block Indian content on TV, radio as tension simmers

Bollywood movies are seen on display at a video store in Islamabad, Pakistan October 20, 2016. REUTERS/Caren Firouz

By Syed Raza Hassan-Thu Oct 20, 2016

Pakistan will ban all Indian content on television and radio channels from Friday, its media regulator said, stepping up media tit-for-tat bans that followed a spike in tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

The blanket ban drew immediate criticism from viewers and cable operators in Pakistan, a nation of 190 million people where Indian soap operas and Bollywood's elaborate song-and-dance sequences are wildly popular.

Despite being bitter foes, Pakistan and India have deep cultural similarities dating back to before their separation at the end of British colonial rule in 1947.

Tension has been high since an Indian security force crackdown on protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir began in July, following the killing of a young Muslim separatist leader by security forces.

Relations worsened in September, when militants attacked an army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir and killed 18 soldiers, a raid India blamed on Pakistan.

Islamabad denied involvement, but the diplomatic fallout and New Delhi's efforts to isolate Pakistan internationally, prompted calls in India for a ban on Pakistani actors and actresses in the country's giant Bollywood film industry.

Pakistani cinemas responded by banning Bollywood films and as the rhetoric against Pakistani actors in Bollywood surged, Pakistan responded by enforcing bans on Indian channels.

The complete ban will start on Friday at 3 p.m. (1000 GMT), Muhammad Tahir, spokesman for the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), told Reuters.

The measure goes further than the regulator's crackdown on India media announced this month, which saw some channels such as Star World and Star Sports taken down as PEMRA vowed to enforce an existing law that limits channels to air Indian content for just 86 minutes each day.

The law was often flouted by entertainment channels and cable operators airing Indian films and soap operas.

The sale of Indian direct-to-home service is also forbidden, yet common, in Pakistan.

'IN GRIEF'

The removal of the Indian channels has not gone down well.

"My wife is in grief ever since the ban has come into effect," said Saleem Ahmed, 55, an art gallery curator in Karachi.

Many women in conservative Pakistan face restrictions on how they can act or what they can wear in public, while in rural areas many women spend much of their time cooped-up inside their homes.

"What entertainment do we have apart from watching Indian dramas?" asked Rubina Jan Muhammad, a 30-year-old maid.

"We cannot go out of our homes, our males family members don't like us going out apart from for work."

Pakistani programmes have in recent years also grown in popularity across the border, where Indian Hindi-language speakers can understand Urdu, and vice versa.

Pakistani cable operators fear the severing of cultural ties between the neighbours will hurt profits as some viewers have already threatened to stop paying subscriptions.

"The public are yelling at us," said Khalid Arain, chairman of the Cable Operators Association of Pakistan. "Subscribers are not concerned about the origin of content."

Arain's association estimates there are up to 4 million direct-to-home satellite devices in Pakistani homes receiving signals directly from India.

"How can they be eliminated?,” he asked?

PEMRA spokesman Tahir said the latest measure would override a 2006 decree by former President Pervez Musharraf that allowed Indian TV channels to proliferate.

Pakistan was created as a home for the subcontinent's Muslims at the end of British colonial rule in 1947.

Though the partition was bloody, and the neighbours have fought three wars since, two of them over mostly Muslim Kashmir, their people share numerous cultural links.

(Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel)

Constructive Non Conformity & Rebel Talent at The Workplace

by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne

Organizations don’t change; but people do 

( October 19, 2016, Montreal, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Harvard Business Reviewpromises to incorporate during the month of October a series of interviews, opinions and views of   Francesca Gino, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, who has: “conducted ground breaking research and found that whether consciously or unconsciously, organizations pressure employees, including leaders, to save their real, authentic, nonconforming selves for outside of work”.  Her research concludes that there are benefits to encouraging “constructive nonconformity.”  The fundamental question is how one could deviate from the dogmatic, restrictive and undue curbing of a worker’s creativity at the workplace by the imposition of authoritarian rules that prohibit the publication of original and creative research that would in fact help the workplace. The Harvard Business Review observes: “most of us learn to conform throughout our careers-to fit into the status quo, to align with the opinions and behaviors of others, and to seek out information that supports our views. This pressure to conform can have a significant negative impact on our engagement, productivity, and ability to innovate. In turn, our organizations suffer”.

The curbing of creativity, original thinking and innovation is personified by what is calledThe Mushroom Theory where a penetrating mind in the workplace is considered in analogy to a mushroom in a mushroom farm where “they keep you in the dark, cover you with bullshit and if you grow too much, they cut your head off”.  Constructive non conformity is encouraged at face value by many employers including international organizations.  The personnel instructions of one such organization provides: “outside activities may, of course, be beneficial both to staff members and to the Organization. [The Organization] should allow, encourage and facilitate the participation of international civil servants in professional activities that foster contacts with private and public bodies and thus serve to maintain and enhance their professional and technical competencies”.  This turns out to be mere hogwash as elsewhere in its staff rules this same organization gives the antithesis of constructive non conformity by stating peremptorily that lectures shall not be given by a staff member, nor articles and books written by staff on the subjects dealt with by that organization, except with the permission or agreement of his supervisors.

On the face of it, this requirement seems fair – that a supervisor with superior knowledge could embellish an article or even infuse it with diplomacy and impartiality.  The problem is that the supervisor is often less qualified than the writer and in most cases oblivious to the subject matter.  It is often the case that appointments are mere opportunities given to one through political influence or patronage, frequently with complete disregard to merit. Publications, on the other hand and lectures delivered are achievements and this distinction is deliberately blurred as a result of ineptitude or pure jealousy, as a result of which, an article submitted to a supervisor gets buried under a pile of obsolete files on the supervisor’s desk and never sees the light of day.

Creativity should be generated in the workplace.  Michael Poh, in his article 6 Ways to Unleash Creativity in the Workplace says: “Some of you may think that creativity is an inborn trait rather than something that can be learned and developed. This may be so, but without a conducive environment for creativity to be expressed, how can we expect to see ideas arising from creative employees”? Poh suggests that creativity should be supported and rewarded, not punished and subverted.  Barbara Dyer in her article: “Why Creativity is Absolutely Crucial in the Workplace” published in the Fortune Magazine says: “all organizations have creative people and they should be encouraged. But there is an important distinction between welcoming the occasional out-of-the-box idea and cultivating creativity as an approach to doing business. Promoting a culture of creativity requires honing the skills observation and invention”.  Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Foundation in her article Why Do Organizations Absolutely Need Creative People” writes toFortune: “However, creative thinking holds little value if people don’t feel free to share their thoughts. It’s important to foster a culture of open and ongoing communication. If you have an idea, we want to hear about it and explore its potential. Likewise, if you have a question, you should not hesitate to ask it. Whether it’s a one-on-one meeting with your manager, a department-level meeting or an organization-wide conference, people should feel free to say what’s on their mind. That’s the only way to solve problems and develop solutions”.

Another factor which stultifies creativity in the workplace is that creativity is perceived as threatening the status quo. Such an approach is the antithesis of the fundamental truth that organizations are made of people and it is their minds that would ultimately contribute to the progress of that organization.    Michael Sloane, in this article Does Encouraging Creativity in the Workplace Improve Innovation ? quotes Teresa Amabile who says in her 1988 book,A model of Creativity and Innovation in Organisations that there are  seven factors for facilitating creativity in  the workplace: Organizational motivation which is based on four items: the level of the firm’s forward facing strategy towards the future, the extent that the firm follows opportunities rather than maintaining the status quo, the extent that the firm encourages its employees toward creative attitude, and the level of flexibility in the management systems to accommodate the desired behavior: Resources which include all resources necessary for achieving innovation.  Here five items are measured: availability of time to explore new ideas, expertise of employees to handle problems creatively, availability of material and information resources, and training opportunities: the need to challenge by measuring the extent to which employees are emotionally involved in their tasks. The goal is to measure how well employees’ capabilities match with task requirements so that employees feel intellectually challenged; Freedom which relates to the freedom of employees to plan their work and choose their own means to accomplish an assigned task; idea support which   indicates how supportive and constructive the management is for idea generation and development. It also measures how much support the firm receives from its employees for the initiatives taken to assess the dynamism in the firm; proactiveness which refers to the attitude of the firm towards risks and opportunities in contrast to conservatism; how experimental and tolerant towards ambiguity the firm is, and how fast decisions are made to avoid missing opportunities; and finally, idea time which refers to the extent to which employees use time provided as a resource to work on new ideas, test spontaneous new opportunities, and deal with a heavy and complex workload. The variable captures the actual usage of time rather than the availability (availability is measured in the resources variable).

If staff rules prohibiting creativity do not work, some organizations take other measures of discouragement, such as demolishing the library which has served the workplace for decades; refusing to promote a person with constructive non conformity to a higher grade even if the person who is so endowed is entitled to a promotion by merit and his superior credentials; humiliating the staff member by locating him away from the branch office he works in; and, if none of the above affects him, by generally ignoring him.

In the above context the Harvard Business Review initiative for October 2016 should open the eyes of those who promote a myopic status quo to appease external influences that could be determinative factors in their own interests.

The author is former Senior Legal Officer at the International Civil Aviation 
Organization.  He currently heads is own aviation consultancy company in Montreal and   teaches  aviation law and policy at McGill University.  He is the author of 32 books and over 400 journal articles on international law which have been published in  law journals worldwide.

Theresa May gets 15 minutes on Brexit

Theresa May gets 15 minutes on Brexit

Thursday 20 Oct 2016

For the avoidance of doubt, European Council President Donald Tusk reminded EU leaders on his arrival, through the media, that he really didn’t want this summit to be about Brexit. He’s allowed Theresa May 15 minutes later on towards the end of dinner to introduce herself and her view of Brexit to the other leaders.

He’s heavily discouraging anyone else from wading in at this point and reminded Mrs May that she shouldn’t try to fish for negotiating positions. The focus of the summit is on Russia, Migration and Trade.

On her way in to the European Council Theresa May tried to keep on Mr Tusk’s good side by brushing over Brexit and speaking to the agenda. She called for unity over the EU approach to Russia. That might appear rich from a country that is walking  out of the EU.

Theresa May claimed it was Britain that had put Russia on the agenda and that the UK would continue to play an active role in the EU until it leaves.

In an overnight briefing it emerged that Theresa May intends to tell EU leaders that  the UK is not trying to wreck the EU project. This obviously runs counter to some Leave campaigners’ rhetoric in the EU referendum in which figures like Michael Gove said they hoped they could trigger a democratic revolution in Europe and bring down the entire project.

Mrs May is also expected to say that success for the UK’s Brexit does not spell disaster for the EU. Brexit success wouldn’t mean other countries trying to follow Britain out of the EU, she’s expected to say.

President Hollande gave the sharpest words of the day on Brexit. The French President said: ” I have said it very clearly; Madame Theresa May wants a hard Brexit, then talks will be hard too.”

We looked in on the gathering of European Liberal parties which, like other groupings, tend to meet up just before the European Council.

I spoke to the Belgian Foreign Minister, Didier Reynards, as he arrived for the meeting:
Q If the British get a really good deal that’ll be bad for Europe won’t it? It’ll make other people want to leave won’t it?

A Yes – but for the moment we will start the process and we are waiting for real notification from London.
I also spoke to the Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Andrej Babis:

Q – Do you think some people in your own country might be tempted to leave the EU if it works for Britain?

A – Yes, of course. I mean Europe is a fantastic project but we didn’t achieve the base, I mean the security, the immigration, if you compare it with the United States or Canada.

Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel says that neither side wins from Brexit. He described this as a “divorce” that would for everyone be “a lose/lose situation: it’s not good for the UK and it’s not good for us.”

At the European Council meeting, as the leaders mingle, at one point Chancellor Merkel appears to draw attention to Theresa May’s bright red shoes. There’s laughter and a bonding moment David Cameron probably never managed.

For Justice and Home Affairs Councils in Brussels, Theresa May will have been in the room with 2 or 3 officials. Today, in the traditions of the European Council, she is in the room without official support.
David Cameron used to tap away at his Blackberry busily through meetings, relaying bits of the meeting to his team and occasionally seeking advice. Officials will be staring at their phone screens to see if Theresa May has similar habits.