Are floating cities a viable idea for the forseeable future?

Life on a floating city, Oceanix. Source: OCEANIX/BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group via The Conversation

3 Jun 2019

HUMANS have a long history of living on water.

Our water homes span the fishing villages in Southeast Asia, Peru and Bolivia to modern floating homes in Vancouver and Amsterdam. As our cities grapple with overcrowding and undesirable living situations, the ocean remains a potential frontier for sophisticated water-based communities.

The United Nations has expressed support for further research into floating cities in response to rising sea levels and to house climate refugees. A speculative proposal, Oceanix City, was unveiled in April at the first Round Table on Sustainable Floating Cities at UN headquarters in New York.

SEE ALSO: Indonesia is not the only country planning new cities

The former tourism minister of French Polynesia, Marc Collins Chen, and architecture studio BIG advanced the proposal. Chen is involved with the Seasteading Institute, which is seeking to develop autonomous city-states floating in the shallow waters of “host nations”.

While this latest proposal has gained UN attention, it is an old idea we have repeatedly returned to over the past 70 years with little success. In fact, the Oceanix City proposal has not reached the same level of technical sophistication as previous models.

A brief history of floating cities

The architecture community was fascinated with marine utopias between the 1950s and ’70s.

The technological optimism of this period led architects to consider whether we could build settlements in inhospitable places like the polar regions, the deserts and on the sea.

Plan for Tokyo Bay by Kenzo Tange, 1960. Source: Wikimedia

The Japanese Metabolists put forward incredible projects such as Kenzo Tange’s 1960 Tokyo Bay Plan and the marine city proposals of Kikutake and Kurokawa.

In the West, Buckminster Fuller proposed Triton City, which would be connected to the mainland via bridges. Archigram, a neofuturistic architectural group, proposed underwater sea farms.

These proposals were directed at solving the impending urban crises of overpopulation and pressures on land-based resources. Many were even sophisticated enough to be patented.

The arc of this global architectural discussion was captured during the first UN Habitat conference (“Habitat I”) in Vancouver in 1976. In many ways, the UN has returned to the Vancouver Declaration from Habitat I to “[adopt] bold, meaningful and effective human settlement policies and spatial planning strategies” and to treat “human settlements as an instrument and object of development”.

We are seeing a pivoting that began in 2008 with Vincent Callebaut’s “Lilypad” – a “floating ecopolis for ecological refugees”.

Where floating cities were once dismissed as too far-fetched, the concept has been repackaged and is re-emerging into public consciousness. This time in a more politically viable state – as a means of addressing the climate emergency.

SEE ALSO: Data cities: How satellite data can transform urban landscapes

The technology and types of floating city structures

No floating settlements have ever been created on the high seas. Current offshore engineering is concerned with how cities can locate infrastructure, such as airports, nuclear power stations, bridges, oil storage facilities and stadiums, in shallow coastal environments rather than in deep international waters.

Two main types of very large floating structures (VLFS) technology can be used to carry the weight of a floating settlement.

The first, pontoon structures, are flat slabs suitable for floating in sheltered waters close to shore.

The second, semi-submersible structures (such as oil rigs), comprise platforms that are elevated on columns off the water surface. These can be located in deep waters. Potentially, oil rigs could be repurposed for such floating cities in international waters.

Transforming oil rigs into liveable structures. Ku Yee Kee and Hor Sue-Wern’s entry in the 2011 eVolo Skyscraper Competition. Source: Ku Yee Kee & Hor Sue-Wern/ eVolo, CC BY

Oceanix City is based on the pontoon structure. This would restrict it to shallower waters with breakwaters to limit the impacts of waves. This sort of structure could serve as an extension of a coastal city, as a life raft for island communities inundated by rising waters, or to provide mobile essential services to residents of flood-prone slums.

Sovereign floating cities and micronations

While some early marine utopian proposals were responses to emerging urban issues, many proposals conceptualised “seaborne leisure colonies”. These communities would be independent city-states allowing inhabitants to circumvent tax laws or restrictions on medical research in their own countries.

This sort of floating city was conceived of as a micronation with sovereignty and ability to provide citizenship to its occupants. The example was set by the Principality of Sealand, off the coast of Britain.

The Principality of Sealand is a micronation situated on Roughs Tower, a platform off the coast of Britain. Source: Ryan Lackey/Flickr, CC BY

None of these proposals have succeeded. Even modern attempts such as the Freedom Ship and the Seasteading Institute’s plans for an autonomous floating settlement under French Polynesian jurisdiction have stalled. A recent attempt at creating a sovereign micronation (seastead) off Thailand led to its proponents becoming fugitives, potentially facing the death penalty.

A viable project?

Technology is not a barrier to floating cities in international waters. Advances in technology enable us to create structures for habitation in deep sea waters. These schemes have never really taken off because of political and commercial barriers.

While this time round proponents are packaging floating cities in a more politically viable concept as a life raft for climate refugees, commercial barriers remain. Apart from the UN, few organisation have the economic and political influence or reason to deliver a satellite floating city in the ocean.

In my view, the future of ocean cities is in technology campuses and in tourism. Given the significant risk of a community in extreme isolation in international waters, the solution to bringing people together in mid-ocean requires us to think about what connects us: technology, work and play. In these three elements we see, perhaps, the two lowest-hanging fruits (or the most buoyant of possibilities) for ocean cities.

SEE ALSO: Here are the top 3 most & least sustainable cities in Asia

The first is in floating tech campuses where large technology companies set up floating data centres and campuses in international waters. Situated outside national jurisdictions, these campuses could circumvent increasingly onerous privacy regimes or offer innovative technological services without having to negotiate regulatory barriers.

The second prospect is a return to the seaborne leisure colonies of the past. Companies like Disney could expand on their cruise offerings to build floating theme parks. These resorts could be sited in international waters or hosted by coastal cities.

Given our fascination with living on water, even if Oceanix City does not suceed, it won’t be long before we see another floating city proposal. And if we get the mix of social, political and commercial drivers right, we might just find ourselves living on one.

By Brydon T. Wang, Research Assistant and PhD Candidate, Queensland University of Technology

Five ethical questions for how we choose to use the Moon

Author: Evie Kendal -6/2/2019 5:27:36 PM

(MENAFN - The Conversation) The Moonhas always served as an inspiration for humanity, and there are many potential benefits for further exploration of our planet's rocky satellite.

But we need to establish guidelines to prevent unethical behaviour on the Moon, particularly regarding the use of natural resources and off-planet labour.

How humans should interact with space and celestial objects is central to the emerging field of space ethics. It's something I've been involved with since 2015, when I taught my first class on consent for the use of celestial objects at Yale University's Summer Bioethics Institute.

Read more:
The moon is still geologically active, study suggests 

As we prepare to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, here are five things we need to reflect on regarding ethical considerations for various future uses of the Moon.

1. Human settlement on the Moon

Some peoplebelieve establishing human settlements on the Moon – and other bodies – may help lessen the environmental burden of overpopulation on Earth.

While the practical issues of survival and maintainingcommunicationreceive a lot of attention in discussions of Moon settlements, the ethical considerations are often overlooked.

These include whether Moon-based humans would have the same legal and human rights as their counterparts on Earth. Would children born on the Moon even share the citizenship of their parents, or would they be stateless on Earth?

And would they have a different physiology to Earth-born humans due to the reduced gravity on the Moon? A new breed of Moonians? Moonlings?

We need to consider the complexities of establishing independent governance of a Moon base to promote the development of a fair society for those living there. TheMoon Village Association , a non-governmental organisation, is one body focused on exploring the possibilities of Moon settlement.

2. Mining the Moon

The Moon is alreadybeing consideredas amining site , or a base of operations forasteroid mining .

As with all mining projects on Earth, there areconcernsabout environmental sustainability and whether it is appropriate for mining corporations to profit from the commercialisation of natural resources in space.

Read more:
We should work together in the race to mine the solar system 

Then there is the concern over worker safety regulations and how these could be enforced at such a distance from Earth. Miners may be exploited, as it would be difficult to leave in search of better working conditions.

The1967 UN Outer Space Treatyrejects the idea that anyone can own a celestial object, so one ethical question is whether mining resources violates this non-ownership principle?

Also, how will countries that havenot ratifiedthe treaty be regulated? What about transnational private corporations?

It could be argued that the Moon's resources should not be used for the benefit of people living on Earth, especially once there are settlements on the Moon itself.

3. Medical research on the Moon

There is talk of the potential to3D print organs in zero gravity on board the International Space Station .

3D printing organs on the Moon, where gravity is one-sixth that on Earth, could be the next step in addressing the shortage of organs available for transplant. Then there's the possibility of other medical research on the Moon.

There are strict regulations for medical research in most countries on Earth, and experiments on the ISS are done under the watch of thestation's partners . But there is no global system in place to review whether proposed medical studies on the Moon are ethically acceptable.

Read more:
How realistic are China's plans to build a research station on the Moon? 

Given that thehistoryof medical research involves manyviolationsof people on Earth, there is significant grounds for concern when considering what kind of research could go ahead off-planet, where monitoring will be more difficult.

The UN space treaty dictates that the use of space should benefit all of humanity, not just countries or organisations wealthy enough to conduct research in space.

From an ethical perspective, this recognises that many of the benefits associated with human interactions with space have the potential to affect all people on Earth, but this is also true for potential harms. One example is biosecurity, the risk of contaminants being transported to Earth from space, with the potential of causing disease.

4. Tourism on the Moon

The private interest in the space industry means space tourism is likely to become a lucrative business. Tourism trips around the Moon arealready being planned , and landing missions will no doubt follow.

A tourist trip to the Moon by 2023?

This carries the same concerns regarding sustainability and ownership as mining, but it also introduces consumer health and safety issues.

While astronauts must be in peak physical condition before serving on a mission, it is unclear what restrictions might be applied to tourists wishing to visit the Moon.

Australia's space archaeologistAlice Gorman wants to knowhow the lunar landscape can be culturally preserved in the face of tourism, especially the sites of the Apollo landing missions.

Some things need protecting from tourists: An astronaut's bootprint from the Apollo 11 mission, the first to land people on the Moon.
NASA 

5. Moon based planetary defence

The Czech-based political scientistNikola Schmidtand his team advocate for the development of laser defence systems on the far side of the Moon. This should have the capability to destroy various asteroids and comets on an impact trajectory with Earth.

But there are ethical questions that need to be answered regarding such planetary defence systems. We would need to establish who would decide on the best course of action in an impact emergency.

For example, if an asteroid could only be partially diverted, who decides which areas of the planet are protected from any impact? Most importantly, how could we regulate who could control the planetary defence technology to ensure they are not used as weapons in warfare?

The far side of the Moon could be home to a planetary defence base.
NASA 

These are just five areas I raise as a concern, questions that need to be answered soon. While the area of space law is rapidly expanding, space ethics needs to catch up to ensure human interactions in space are safe, fair and benefit all of humanity.

Climate crisis seriously damaging human health, report finds

National academies say effects include spread of diseases and worse mental health
The report anticipates the spread of infectious diseases in Europe as temperatures rise and increase the range of mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever. Photograph: Ricardo Mazalan/AP

Damian Carrington @dpcarrington-Mon 3 Jun 2019 

A report by experts from 27 national science academies has set out the widespread damage global heating is already causing to people’s health and the increasingly serious impacts expected in future.
Scorching heatwaves and floods will claim more victims as extreme weather increases but there are serious indirect effects too, from spreading mosquito-borne diseases to worsening mental health.

“There are impacts occurring now [and], over the coming century, climate change has to be ranked as one of the most serious threats to health,” said Prof Sir Andrew Haines, a co-chair of the report for the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (Easac).

However, there were also great benefits from action to cut carbon emissions, the report found, most notably cutting the 350,000 early deaths from air pollution every year in Europe caused by burning fossil fuels. “The economic benefits of action to address the current and prospective health effects of climate change are likely to be substantial,” the report concluded.

The World Health Organization director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned in November that climate breakdown was already a health crisis. “We cannot delay action on climate change,” he said. “We cannot sleepwalk through this health emergency any longer.” In December, a WHO report said tackling the climate crisis would save at least a million lives a year, making it a moral imperative to act.

 A Serbian farmer Radovan Krstic shows his damaged corn crop. Photograph: Darko Vojinovic/AP

The new Easeac report, The Imperative of Climate Action to Protect Human Health in Europe, assessed the scientific evidence of the effects of global heating on health. Extreme weather such as heatwaves, floods and droughts have direct short-term impacts but also affect people in the longer term. “Mental health effects include post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, substance abuse and depression,” the report said.

The scientists were also concerned by the effect of extreme weather on food production, with studies showing a 5-25% cut in staple crop yields across the Mediterranean region in coming decades. But the report said even small cuts in meat eating could lead to significant cuts in carbon emissions, as well as benefits to health.

The report anticipates the spread of infectious diseases in Europe as temperatures rise and increase the range of mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever and ticks that cause Lyme disease. Food poisoning could also rise, as salmonella bacteria thrived in warmer conditions, the report said. It even found research suggesting antibiotic resistance in E coli increases in hotter conditions.

“We are exposing the whole of the world population to changes in climate, and this is clearly very concerning as we are moving to some extent into uncharted territory,” said Haines, professor of environmental change and public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“We are subjecting young people and future generations to these increasing [health] risks for many hundreds of years to come, if not millennia,” he said. “We have to try to minimise the effects and move towards a low-carbon economy.

“We think reframing climate change as a health issue can help to engage the public because most people are not just concerned about their own health, but about the health of their nearest and dearest and their descendants.

“We think this is a way of mobilising the public and raising concern in a constructive way and increasing the momentum for change.”

Global carbon emissions are still rising but scientists say rapid and deep cuts are needed to limit temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels and avoid the worst impacts.

Scientists edit chicken genes to make them resistant to bird flu

Health officers in protective clothing cull poultry at a wholesale market, as trade in live poultry suspended after a spot check at a local street market revealed the presence of H7N9 bird flu virus, in Hong Kong June 7, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/Files

Kate Kelland-JUNE 3, 2019

LONDON, (Reuters) - Scientists in Britain have used gene-editing techniques to stop bird flu spreading in chicken cells grown in a lab - a key step towards making genetically-altered chickens that could halt a human flu pandemic.

Bird flu viruses currently spread swiftly in wild birds and poultry, and can at times jump into humans. Global health and infectious disease specialists cite as one of their greatest concerns the threat of a human flu pandemic caused by a bird flu strain that makes such a jump and mutates into a deadly and airborne form that can pass easily between people.

In the latest study, by editing out a section of chicken DNA inside the lab-grown cells, researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute prevented the bird flu virus from taking hold in the cells and replicating.

The next step will be to try to produce chickens with the same genetic change, said Mike McGrew of the Roslin Institute, who co-led the research. The findings were due to be published in the scientific journal eLife on June 4.

“This is an important advance that suggests we may be able to use gene-editing techniques to produce chickens that are resistant to bird flu,” McGrew said in a statement.

 

“We haven’t produced any birds yet and we need to check if the DNA change has any other effects on the bird cells before we can take this next step.”

BLOCKING THE VIRUS

In the further work, the team hopes to use the gene editing technology, known as CRISPR, to remove a section of the birds’ DNA responsible for producing a protein called ANP32, on which all flu viruses depend to infect a host.

Lab tests of cells engineered to lack the gene showed they resist the flu virus - blocking its entry and halting its replication and spread.

The death toll in the last flu pandemic in 2009/10 - caused by the H1N1 strain and considered to be relatively mild - was around half a million people worldwide. The historic 1918 Spanish flu killed around 50 million people.

 

Wendy Barclay, professor and chair in influenza virology at Imperial who worked with McGrew, says the idea behind developing gene-edited flu-resistant chickens is to be able “to stop the next flu pandemic at its source”.

And she said work so far was showing promise: “We have identified the smallest possible genetic change we can make to chickens that can help to stop the virus taking hold.”

Editing by Gareth Jones

FDA to make it easier for doctors to get unapproved cancer drugs for patients

Agency will work closely with physicians seeking treatments through its “expanded access” program.

(Andrew Harnik/AP)

By Laurie McGinley-June 3 at 9:00 AM

 

The Food and Drug Administration plans to provide “concierge service” to doctors seeking access to unapproved drugs for cancer patients who have no other treatment options, the agency announced Monday.

The goal is to remove any “perceived hurdles” for physicians who want to use the agency’s “expanded access” program, said Richard Pazdur, director of the agency’s Oncology Center for Excellence.

The pilot program will include Project Facilitate, a new call center run by the agency’s oncology staff to provide a single point of contact for doctors submitting requests to the program. Although the agency has streamlined its expanded-access program in recent years, the process still may seem confusing to doctors who have little experience with it, Pazdur said.

The FDA’s expanded access program, sometimes called “compassionate use,” is designed to help patients with immediate life-threatening or serious illnesses who don’t qualify for clinical trials and have no other treatment options. Typically, a doctor first asks a drug company to provide the experimental treatment. If the firm agrees, the physician submits a protocol to an institutional review board (IRB) — which makes sure the patient is properly informed about the treatment. The FDA then decides whether to approve the request — and almost always does.

Under the new plan, FDA staffers will help the doctor from the start on paperwork and finding an IRB and appropriate contacts in drug companies. If the pharmaceutical firm rejects the doctor’s request, the FDA will ask why. If it doesn’t, the FDA will ask the doctor whether the patient was helped and whether there were any side effects.

The FDA cannot require drug manufacturers to provide unapproved drugs to patients, and many companies are reluctant to do so because of the cost or limited supplies. Because of that, said Alison Bateman-House, a medical ethicist at the New York University School of Medicine, it isn’t clear whether the FDA plan will result in “any real difference” in the number of patients who receive unapproved therapies. Still, she praised the FDA effort as a “a well-intentioned initiative.” 

Last year, Congress passed a “right to try” law allowing doctors and patients to bypass the FDA and IRBs in seeking unapproved medications from pharmaceutical companies. But the law does not require drug companies to agree to provide the therapies. Bateman-House said she believes only two patients have used the law to get treatments.

            

The FDA’s new pilot project was announced at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

He Jiankui: Baby gene experiment 'foolish and dangerous'

 By James Gallagher-3 June 2019

 The first people to be gene-edited - a pair of baby twin girls - may have been mutated in a way that shortens life expectancy, research suggests.

Prof He Jiankui shocked the world when he genetically altered the twins to try to give them protection against HIV.

But a study in Nature Medicine shows people who naturally have the mutation he was trying to recreate were significantly more likely to die young.

Experts said Prof He's actions were "very dangerous" and "foolish".

What was Prof He trying to do?

Prof He was targeting a gene called CCR5.

It is a set of genetic instructions that are important for how the immune system functions.

However, they are also the doorway that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) walks through to infect cells.

Mutations to CCR5 essentially lock the door and give people resistance to HIV.

So, Prof He made embryos in an IVF clinic and then used gene-editing technologies on them to alter the CCR5 gene.

The resulting girls - known as Lulu and Nana - were born last year.

The human immunodeficiency virus uses CCR5 to gain entry into cells

What does this have to do with life expectancy?

The problem is CCR5 has a bigger role in the body than just making people vulnerable to HIV.

It is active in the brain and in fighting off other infections, particularly flu.

The study, at the University of California, Berkeley, looked at nearly 410,000 people in the UK.

It showed those who had only the mutated version of CCR5 were 20% more likely to die before they turned 78.

• Listen: Inside Science - Gene-edited babies

"In this case, it is probably not a mutation that most people would want to have," said Prof Rasmus Nielsen, from UC Berkeley.

"You are actually, on average, worse off having it."

Fellow researcher Dr Xinzhu Wei said the gene-editing technology, known as Crispr, was still too risky to be using on children.

"The Crispr technology is far too dangerous to use right now for germ-line editing," she said.

What does this mean for the twins?

The implications for Lulu and Nana are still unclear.

"It is impossible to predict if the mutations carried by the twin girls will have any effect," said Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, from the Francis Crick Institute.

Not everyone who carried the mutations in the study died young but it was more likely.

And life expectancy depends on a complex mix of the DNA you are born with and the world you live in.

To further complicate things, Prof He mutated CCR5 in a similar rather than identical way to people who have HIV resistance.

Prof Lovell-Badge said the study "shows once more that He Jiankui was foolish to choose CCR5 to mutate".

What was the reaction to Prof He doing this?

There was universal condemnation by scientists when Prof He made the announcement in November.

Some described the experiment as "monstrous".

And he was criticised for experimenting when the risks to otherwise healthy children were unclear and for acting against Chinese law.

There was also anger because HIV can be treated and there was barely any risk of it being passed from the HIV-positive father to his children.

The Chinese authorities investigated and concluded that Prof He had acted illegally in pursuit of "fame and fortune".

Prof He has always defended his experiments and at a summit in Hong Kong said he was "proud" of his gene-editing work.

Follow James on Twitter.

Assassinated Tamil journalist remembered in North-East

190531 Nadesan memorial Batticaloa.JPG

 02 June 2019

Aiyathurai Nadesan was remembered by journalists and media workers at commemorative events in the North-East on the fifteenth anniversary of his assassination.

Nadesan, a senior journalist with the Virakesari for over 20 years, was shot dead in Batticaloa on May 31, 2004.

In the months leading up to his killing, Nadesan had been threatened and harassed by military personnel. On June 7, 2001, he was summoned by the army for an inquiry where he was warned to cease reporting on human rights abuses.

Vigils were held in his memory in Batticaloa and Jaffna on Friday.

Related Articles: 

19 March 2019 : Killings, torture and sexual abuse highlighted in US report on Sri Lanka

20 April 2019 : Tamil Guardian Mullaitivu correspondent arrested and charged

19 April 2019 : Tamil Guardian correspondent summoned by Sri Lankan police

Mega land-grab imminent?

Beware of rushed laws and agreements:

 

By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya-June 2, 2019, 7:01 pm

After Narendra Modi took oaths on Thursday for a second time as India’s Prime Minister, having steered the BJP-led coalition to a landslide election victory, there was a string of announcements relating to diplomatic engagements involving Sri Lanka, India, China and the United States. Modi will visit Sri Lanka on 9th June, President Maithripala Sirisena told a press conference in Delhi, where he attended the Indian leader’s inauguration ceremony. Before that Modi will visit the Maldives, his first overseas trip as prime minister. The Indian media anticipates that the Indian PM will have bilateral meetings with the US and Chinese leaders in September and October, respectively.

Discussions on what the US calls its ‘Indo Pacific Strategy’ are to figure at meetings of senior US officials in Singapore for the Shangri La Dialogue, and in India – a ‘major US defence partner.’ US Assistant Secretary for Political Affairs Clarke Cooper is on a tour of Singapore, India and Sri Lanka from 29th to 6th June.

Against this backdrop, an unusual statement appeared on Friday titled "Indo-Lanka relations under the second term of Modi - In the backdrop of Chinese foothold in SL and US proposed SOFA," on the President’s Media Division (PMD) website. It is in the nature of a commentary on Sri Lanka’s relationship with India which, it asserts, is ‘at a high now.’ The gist of it was to reassure Delhi regarding Colombo’s foreign policy moves.

Worrying about India’s possible reactions to controversial defence pacts with the US, it said "… Sri Lanka will have to be very careful not to antagonize India while shifting foreign policy decisions or entering into a new pact to replace Acquisition and Cross Services Agreement (ACSA) with the United States. … Now, the US proposes to replace ACSA with a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA)."

Repeating the US’s misleading assurances in relation to the SOFA – that there is no need to fear the establishment of a US military base, that Sri Lanka ‘will retain all its sovereign rights’, etc. - the article asserts that "Currently, there is an acknowledgement in Washington with regard to India’s regional supremacy and its role in regional security and stability" and that "there is an understanding of the need for cooperation between India and the US to check rapidly expanding Chinese influence in this region." Inexplicably, it adds: "Hence, it is essential to keep India informed about Sri Lanka’s intended military cooperation with any outside country, especially with a superpower such as the US."

External pressure

Could the uncharacteristic comment posted on the PMD website be interpreted as an indirect admission that Sri Lanka has in fact agreed to sign up on the SOFA (which, till now, officials have been at pains to say, is still only ‘under discussion’)? Or is this an indirect (if somewhat clumsy) attempt to reassure India – timed to coincide with the president’s visit to Delhi for the Indian president’s oath-taking ceremony? Whatever the purpose, the sub-text of the essay suggests that political leaders are more interested in appeasing external forces and bowing to pressure from diverse quarters, than guiding policy in a manner that serves the national interest. There appears to be much external pressure being exerted to finalise this pact that gives carte blanche to US defence personnel entering the country, and threatens Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

The SOFA is not the only agreement that the US has been pushing to conclude in Sri Lanka. The country’s pro-US-prime minister led government is working hard to conclude or implement a number of other pieces of legislation and policy at the behest of its Western patrons, against all odds. If there is a sense of urgency in these efforts, it is because time is running out. With a presidential election only six months away, and the government showing a dismal report card on its performance in most areas, its Western backers know that its days are numbered. Hence the pressure is turned up, to fast-track the desired laws and agreements. It is the US-friendly UNP leadership that will be instrumental in this process. The public will need to be on alert because once these laws are passed there is no possibility of judicial review, under the constitution.

One example is the proposed Counter Terrorism Act (CTA). From the moment the Easter Sunday attacks took place Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been vigorously arguing that a new law is needed to curb terrorism. This is despite multiple arguments that have been made showing that there is ample provision in the country’s existing legislation, to deal with terrorism. It has been pointed out that amendments to the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) would suffice. It is an open secret that the eagerness to have the CTA passed, stems from pressure to comply with the demands of the US-led UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka, which calls for repeal of the PTA.

Land reform and MCC

Parallel to the defence-related agreements and arrangements sought by Western powers, such as the SOFA, a number of laws have been drafted and/or passed relating to the economy as well. Reforms that would bring the economy in line with the Western neo-liberal model, represent the ‘other side of the coin,’ of the defence agreements that advance US hegemony on the military front. Among them are the Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC), new laws that will radically transform patterns of land use and ownership such as the proposed Land Bank Act and already-gazetted State Land (Special Provisions) Bill and, according to some, the revised National Physical Plan 2050 (NPP).

The Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC) is said to be a US grant for development purposes. The MCC was developed in secrecy by a team located in the Sri Lanka prime minister’s office. A government minister in parliament even denied its existence. There has been no public discussion on it. The MCC’s approval of the $480 grant for Sri Lanka was announced by government just days after the Easter Sunday attacks – when one would imagine that Sri Lanka’s investment credentials were at an all-time low. The secrecy, the odd timing of the announcement and other aspects would suggest that the MCC is being imposed by the US for its own purposes, rather than for the benefit of Sri Lankans.

From the little that is known, the MCC relates to two projects, on Transport and Land. The goal of the Land project is said to be to ‘increase land market activity’ and the ‘tradability of land’ through ‘policy and legal reforms.’ Eighty percent of Sri Lanka’s land is owned by the state. Making such land a ‘tradable commodity’ or creating a ‘land market’ as the MCC aims to do, has long been advocated by the World Bank to bring about what it calls ‘market based land consolidation’ for the benefit of private (including foreign) investors.

Dispossession of farmers

Environmental groups and land rights activists who are aware of details of the MCC, are strongly opposed to the project. Smallholder farmers cultivate land on the basis of state grants or other forms of tenure short of outright ownership. Since farmers are chronically indebted, the reforms underway will in all likelihood lead them to sell their plots, activists have pointed out. The end result will be mass dispossession of farmers and other rural populations engaged in animal husbandry, fishing etc. These groups whose livelihoods will be destroyed, are the source of food sovereignty, says Sajeewa Chamikara from MONLAR, a grassroots land-rights organization.

The government’s moves to remove the bar on foreigners owning land, the removal of the 50-acres limit on individual ownership, the proposed ‘Land Bank’ (that will bring publicly owned land under a single hub and make it available for private investors), are inter-related.

"You need to look at all the factors to see the final outcome" explained Chamikara. One needs to ask, if the government is genuinely interested in addressing the land-related and other multiple problems faced by farmers, why doesn’t it address these issues directly, in consultation with the farmer organisations – rather than bowing to pressure from foreign ‘advisors’ who may have their own agendas?

The State Land (Special Provisions) Bill was gazetted on 27.03.19, and the National Physical Plan 2050 was recently reported to have got presidential approval. Both were strongly opposed by the president, during the November-December 2018 constitutional crisis. The land laws which he, at the time, described as ‘anti-national,’ were among reasons he cited for his move to sack the prime minister. What pressure was brought to bear on the president to make him give his assent to them later? Why did he give in? It would seem that the instability caused by in-fighting between president and prime minister has made the country particularly vulnerable at this time.

The State Land (Special Provisions) Bill, gazetted by the UNP’s Minister of Lands (and not the president), will need to be passed in parliament. Its purpose is "to grant absolute title to state lands held by citizens who are holders of grants or instruments of disposition." Its validity is for seven years. So it would appear the government seeks to dispose of large tracts of land in a short time, to make them quickly available for investors. This again will accelerate the dispossession of smallholders.

Drastic changes

The revised National Physical Plan 2050, prepared by the National Physical Planning Department of the Megapolis and Western Development ministry, is yet to be made public, although it is said to be ‘completed.’ The NPP seeks to concentrate economic activity in four ‘Economic Corridors’ of which the Colombo–Trincomalee corridor will be its showpiece. Attracting private investment is a key objective. According to a draft summary seen by this writer, the NPP’s medium term goals include the ‘transformation of the economy from conventional industries to high tech and innovation based Industries,’ increased international trade and increased ‘attraction for investment and trade.’ The NPP expects to transform land use patterns and bring about movements of population, to achieve a ‘reversal of the rural-urban population ratio’ in 30 years. This gives a clue to the drastic nature of envisaged changes. The NPP however will not be required to be passed in parliament. According to NPP Director General Dr Jagath Munasinghe "it is a policy document, not a Bill" and so it only needs to be gazetted.

It has been observed that the districts covered in the NPP more or less overlap with those coming under the MCC. From the little available information it would appear the goals of the two projects broadly dovetail. It is unlikely that this is coincidental, they both come within the economic thrust of the UNP government that seeks to put the country’s land and other resources at the service of foreign capital. Whatever the merits of these projects, it is unconscionable that plans to bring about such far-reaching social and economic change, are not made available for public debate. The secrecy surrounding them shows that the government knows they will be unpopular. The overarching question is. whether the present government is more interested in pleasing its Western backers, than the constituencies in Sri Lanka, millions of voters, to whom it is answerable.