By Neville de Silva* LONDON, (IDN) — Never in Sri Lanka’s 74-year post-independence history has a democratically elected leader been forced to flee the country, running away from the economic shambles and social disarray he was largely responsible for creating. Gotabaya Rajapaksa with 6.9 million votes under his belt was elected president at the butt […]
Land Lease System Threatens Sustainability of Cane Farming in Fiji
By Kalinga Seneviratne SUVA, Fiji (IDN) — Though sugar cane is thought to be indigenous to the islands of the South Pacific, it was the British who started to grow it as a cash crop in Fiji in the later part of the 19th century. In 37 years, beginning in 1879, they shipped some 60,000 […]
Pacific Leaders Endorse ‘2050 Strategy of the Blue Pacific’
Pledge to Promote “Accountable” Development By Sera Tikotikovatu-Sefeti SUVA, Fiji (IDN) — The leaders of the Pacific gathering for the first time in three years endorsed the 2050 Strategy for a Blue Pacific at the 51st Pacific Island Forum (PIF) from July 11 to July 14. “The success of this strategy is down to two […]
Bangladesh’s New Mega-Infrastructure to Impact Ruling Party’s Popularity
By Bahauddin Foizee DHAKA (IDN) — A historic infrastructure milestone for Bangladesh and now the longest bridge of the country, the newly-built Padma Multipurpose Bridge would now help grow Bangladesh’s GDP by 1.3% annually. The US$ 3.86 billion worth mega-infrastructure was inaugurated on June 25 and is forecast to increase jobs, service sector activity and […]
Sri Lanka Needs a Balanced Economic and Foreign Policy
Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake * COLOMBO (IDN) — A shortage of exorbitantly privileged American Dollars, the global reserve fiat currency, which is not backed by gold, silver, oil or drugs, is the purported reason for Sri Lanka’s compounding crisis and the international media narrative of ‘famine’ in the country. The financial crisis that has brought […]
Australian PM Slated for Secret Ukraine Visit Amid Floods Back Home
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) — Australia’s new Labour Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has been criticised on Twitter and some media for secretly making a trip to Ukraine to meet Volodymyr Zelensky and pledge $100 million of military aid. At the same time, thousands of families across Australia were being evacuated from rising flood waters, […]
A New Coalition Issues a Statement on the Crisis in Sri Lanka
Southern Voices to be Heeded: A Call for Debt Justice, Debt Jubilee and Debt Cancellation COLOMBO (IDN) — The Coalition for Economic Democracy in Sri Lanka (CEDSL) is a group of concerned academics, activists, agricultural, fisheries and industrial workers, students, businesspersons, trade unionists, and professionals based ‘in country’ and overseas, including the diaspora, who uphold […]
Asia Pacific Peace Groups Vow to Oppose US-Incited Impending War
By Devinder Kumar MANILA (IDN) — Peace advocates from Japan, Australia, India, South Korea, and the Philippines, gathered to manifest their unity to oppose all kinds of “imperialist aggression” in the region, have in a global press conference held in Manila on June 24, called for just peace as they sounded the alarm on the […]
Tourism in Asia Hard Hit by Three Factors
Ukraine War and Chinese Lockdowns Add Fuel to COVID’s Devastating Blow Analysis by Mohan Srilal COLOMBO (IDN) — The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a devastating blow to tourism across Asia that has been a driving force of economic growth, particularly in countries like Sri Lanka, Maldives, Thailand and Indonesia. Today there’s a trifecta of impacts on […]
Famine is a Policy Choice: The Afterlife of Covid, Institutional decay, and Privatization—Part 2
This is the second in a series of two articles. Click here for Part 1 COLOMBO (IDN) — What was never mentioned in connection with power cuts and soaring fuel and energy prices was the privatization of sale of the Yugadanavi power plant to an American New Fortress company in a corrupt mid-night deal in […]