If you read my previous blog entry on the
question of the Australian policy with regard to boat people, I pointed out what a
benefit both illegal and legal immigrants are to the host country and what a
service we do to that country.
The Australians in their reply merely say
that they will give some assistance to the Education sector, and will return
the Boat people within 72 hours, that after my blog entry that clearly said
that it was the only way to reduce the problem or eliminate it forever. I am
sure the Australian Foreign Minister did not read my blog entry, but it was
obvious to any thinking person that it was the only solution to this seemingly
intractable problem, that puts Sri Lanka in bad light when its citizens seek to
leave its shores illegally!
Anyway I did point out that with the point
system of Immigration, Australia, ONLY wants those who are the MOST suitable to
enter that country. They are in simple terms the best people in all respects
for any host country to receive.
Sadly life is such that human beings always
want what is best for them. Who can deny them that right? So when Australia a
more developed and seemingly wealthy country wishes to pick and choose our most
highly educated and productive labor, who can have a better quality of life
there, they ARE in fact giving AID to Australia for that value.
Sri Lanka HAS RAISED THEM, PROVIDED HELATH
CARE AT STATE EXPENSE INCLUDING THEIR ANTE NATAL, POST NATAL COSTS, EDUCATED
THEM, TRAINED THEM, GIVEN THEM EXPERIENCE both at the cost to the state and to
their families.
I have valued it at about US$500M per
annum. So if we seem thankful that they are giving us US$40M over many years,
we are rather foolish if slavish to these gifts! I propose we ask the
Australians to give us a sum per person they accept. Then they will think twice
about wanting them, when they have to pay for them.
Only when you pay for something do you
understand how much someone is worth.
When you get them free, and they even have
to pay for their travel to Australia, who DO NOT appreciate their worth in
public, whilst in private you are laughing all the way to the bank. So
Australian Foreign Minister PLEASE don’t take us for fools, and realize that we
are supporting your country and have done so worth Billions of US$s especially
over the past 40 years when our best have gone there!
15 comments:
Now this is one of the most insightful things i've seen on this blog. How does a country develop when it has no good human resources? Not by taking on more debt and grants to build things that locals have no capacity to operate effectively because they've (the skilled workers) all left for australia!
I hope you are not being sarcastic, but if this is the most insightful thing you believe I have written in this blog, then I am not a happy camper. Most of my writings are in vain!!!
Anyway at the rate we are producing skilled human resource we must be paid for it, and can be the biggest business we have for which we receive nothing.
Don't worry we are training new resources, and the more we train, the more other countries benefit, as we cannot retain them at the price others are willing to pay, that simple.
The problem is in an international market place people are free to move to where they can pay most, and until we can offer them similar living conditions here and as long as they want the resources, we will continue to be a factory of human resources.
We are now in a declining population situation and inevitably wages will rise when productivity increases, and labor shortages become a huge issue, but that will take a while.
I take offense to your commentary that people owe the country something for educating and providing healthcare to them. These are basic rights that any human being will receive in any civilized country. In fact, in most civilized societies, the citizenry gives far more benefits to those who are born into it.
In fact, being born, educated, trained in Sri Lanka is a HUGE disadvantage to someone who is competing in the global marketplace.
These people who leave SL for greener pastures do so IN SPITE OF being born into a repressive and failed state.
I take grave offense at your comment these are basic rights of civilized countries, as the United States does not even provide some of what we do to their poorest sections, as our ante natal and post natal care is better than the ghettos of America.
Receiving/Giving benefits has nothing to do with the level of how civilized a country is! In that sense the US is probably the most uncivilized country on earth on that criteria. After all education is not equal there, it depends on the School District you happen to live in due to how much you can pay to live there!
Bearing in mind the level of development of the Country, the social services provided including food, education, and health care is not bettered by any country, even Cuba.
So in an equal setting there are movements of people from countries for opportunities. In the instance of unequal movement from a poor to a rich country, there is an imbalance and I am not asking the freedom of movement to stop but the recipient country that benefits, to compensate that's all.
There is NOWHERE that I have said that the people owe the country that provided these benefits!!
Having said all that we should be able to make our services more efficient and more productive and divert some wasteful spending towards these. More important we must provide the opportunities to retain the talent not spend the country's limited resources to only see them leave the shores never to return.
People who leave SL for greener pastures (permanently) do so NOT INSPITE OF, but BECAUSE we are now in a temporary repressive and failed state.
Those who leave temporarily do so to earn sufficient amount so that they can improve their quality of life when they return, and that is good for both the Economy and Growth internally with this capital infusion.
the capital infusion from the temporary migrant workers is only useful if it goes to productive uses and not towards consumer goods and unused land. if the capital is used to buy korean tvs, japanese washing machines, and chinese everything else, it is no use to SL and only causes inflation which makes it more difficult for locals to afford these things. i believe land prices are so high in colombo because of the permanent migrants pumping in foreign money making it virtually impossible for someone that has lived in SL for all of their lives to afford a place to stay!!! are locals buying apartments in the Monarch tower or houses in Colombo 7 or the Galle Fort? kalpanakaranna
with regard to public services, the state is very generous in providing such public goods as free education and health care, and is much better than most developed countries in this regard. It comes at a tremendous cost to the state which is supposed to be recouped by having and educated and healthy workforce that can be more efficient and productive if they are uneducated and unhealthy (how productive are America's inner cities?). That said, as incomes rise, it may be wise for SL to cut back on the socialzed state spending to save some money as people are generally able to afford more.
it is very simply much easier to go from a nobody to somebody in Sri Lanka than in most other developing countries. that is due to the free education system. the problem is that australia and others take our "somebodies" and leave us with our nobodies that can't move the country forward as quickly as if our somebodies had hung aroud
it's so easy to see examples of sri lankans making $10,000+ salaries internationally after coming from nothing in Sri Lanka thanks to their free education which they are then using to develop these international organizations in Western societies.
... being paid in salary what the hosting country did not invest in their education and upbringing.
another interesting aspect to all of this is how unappreciative the sri lankans seem to be about their situation which furthers your point about not appreciating something when it comes for free
Regarding the fact that workers in Sri Lanka cannot afford to ever buy a place within Colombo City limits, I say this.
In the UK very few British can afford to live in Kensington and Chelsea and most of the properties are purchased by rich foreigners bringing their money to the UK
So it is good for Sri Lanka that this money is coming in for this to keep those prices high.
We should gradually move out of the Capital Centric attraction an develop main towns in the Provinces and move some Ministries and Jobs out. It will gradually happen once the Colombo Circular Road is built and many businesses and factories move to areas around there, which are now also becoming pricey not by money from expats, but migrant workers and by Colombo being overpriced.
In an economy, it is NOT GOOD to discourage money coming in for whatever legitimate purpose it may be. We must just use that opportunity to the maximum in providing profitable investment opportunities instead, that will help raise wages, retain skills and move up to a fully developed state.
It is all part of the path I have mapped, just hope one day I will have a chance to implement it in a practical way!!!
i trust that you would do a great job governing sri lanka, however i think that the economy should be made to work for the people of SL rather than just working for its own sake.
if the influx of money is driving up prices of consumer goods and land, they only choice people living in sri lanka have is to migrate, lest they are sunken in the tide of ever-increasing prices fueled by the influx of migrant money! there is no good solution for those that want to stay in sri lanka -- they are effectively being pushed out of the country to be able to survive in the country.
as you have pointed out, investment is the key. how can the incoming funds be used towards investments that give people jobs, raise the skill levels, gradually increase wages, lead to further income of productive capital, etc.? put the incoming money to work rather than buying a new washing machine or a plot of land to pass down to your grandchildren.
I don't know why people are still going there. If they use things here our country would have developed long time ago.
In reality the money that is coming into Sri Lanka, around US$9B in 2012 goes for all manner of items.
Whilst a portion goes for consumer goods, that are imported including cars, motor cycles and three wheelers, the enterprising returnees parlay it into a building a sustainable business, that can grow his investment in leaps and bounds.
The lazy just put it into the bank and live off the interest never having to work again( you could call it the real beneficiaries!)
However it is spent, it multiplies within the economy, that helps those remaining also get jobs, in the building trade in all manner of areas from masons, to plumbers and electricians when building factories and homes and home extensions.
It is a misconception that it leads to inflation. Possibly on land inflation only not to others. I am waiting for it to include wage inflation so people who live here get a living wage, without all the profits from these ventures going into the hands of a few only.
If the new industries are more productive, then we should see real growth. It then is a question of how to deal with the minority who are marginalized and who have not benefited from this growth to a $3000 per capita income country now.
The only other class that suffers is the one who has a high income locally, but not high enough to buy or pay a mortgage on a car and house, and do not have inherited wealth. They work very hard earn a lot, but still find it difficult to manage because of the housing cost being too high. Only if they go overseas and have sufficient to put down on a house will they have some relief in the circle of life.
Now the majority of Sri Lankans are likely to inherit a home as the population has stabilized and so prospects for a high standard of living is good. It is only those who have nothing and those who are not satisfied with what they have who will be dissatisfied.
investment v. consumption is critical to distinguish.
if people are investing those inflows, either through their own efforts or by putting it into the bank which hopefully then lends it to entrepreneurs to expand their businesses, it's very useful for sri lanka. People get productive jobs, more tax revenue is locally kept, local skills are upgraded, etc.
if people are consuming imported things, like, as you said cars and motorbikes, but also home improvements, more food, appliances, etc. there is much less use for the economy because the funds are leaving the country and the extra demand created for these goods causes prices to increase. An example could be found in the Micro sedan which is sold for around USD $25,000 in Sri Lanka. That same car is being exported to Nepal for $10,000. Why so expensive in SL? It is partly due to taxes but I would also say it is partly because the demand, which is generated from outside sources of funding largely because locals won't pay so much for a car when they're earning $300 per month. It is good for Micro, which is a locally invested operation, because it expands their profits and they can expand their business locally, but for those products that are imported the benefits are sent abroad to the burden of higher prices in SL.
I emphatically disagree with the statement that increased demand for imported consumer goods increases their prices.
There is unlimited supply, and only the demand determines what is stocked. IF we are able to import in larger quantities, we can actually reduce prices, by buying in quantity.
The micro car issue is a non issue, as the high duties help Micro make more profits. There is no demand related price rises as Sri Lanka now has a glut of unsold cars that they wish to re - export due to lack of demand at the high prices.
The prices are determined ONLY by duty and cost NOT by demand as any amount of motor vehicles can be imported if people are prepared to pay the going rate, which is almost fixed.
over time equilibrium will be reached as importers adjust to the increased demand by finding more supply globally, but frankly once they raise their prices for the near term demand, do you think they'll lower them once they find more supply? prices seem to only go up and up in SL.
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