Wednesday, July 2, 2014

A follow up on inequality, bogus statistics, and poverty in Sri Lanka

My blog entry on 30th June was about the increasing inequality in Sri Lanka and compared that with increasing inequality in the US due to some Govt. decisions there. It was however clear that due to the Wild West mentality in Sri Lanka, and the Dog eat Dog concept, and today, it is Govt. and Govt. sponsored dogs, along with their enablers in the Security Forces who are decimating the livelihoods of the rural poor.

There was an interesting article by Rohantha Athukorala, in the FT of 1st July 2014, about the inequitable pace of growth, showing poverty in excess of 20% in the Moneragala District, when Sri Lanka is now showing a growth rate of 7.5%

In fact the article is a must read for the student who wishes to understand head or tails of the real situation in Sri Lanka vis are vis statistics. May I remind the reader that a respected ex-Central Banker, Dr Anila Bandaranayake specifically stated that the statistics are cooked by the Govt. and further, we learned later that the Dept of Census and Statistics was to be taken under the wing of the Treasury, thereby enabling this whitewash to continue to spew out hogwash in the Media.

I would like to draw the reader’s attention further to an article in the Lankadeepa of 1st July 2014, page 4, where Professor Aminda Methsila Perera of Wyamba University, Faculty of Business Studies and Finance, who goes on to point out that with 42% of the Country receiving Samurdhi Benefits (Welfare) by their own statistics as being poor and on the other hand the Govt. trumpeting the fact that SL has the second highest growth rates in the world (China and NO 1), and rising to next year to be the highest! There is a clear INCOMPATIBILITY here of the Govt. own statistics being at odds with itself!

This fact contrasts with Ajith Nivaard Cabral saying on the following day (2nd July 2014) in the same paper in the equivalent section, that it is just that people’s expectations rise when a country develops and grows, and therefore it is this insufficiency that is manifested in the people’s minds, and this DOES NOT bear any truth in fact, saying that in 1960s 75% of household expenditure was on food, whereas now it is vastly different.


Of course he is talking like Marie Antoinette! tell it to the real poor who have lost their crops to the drought and have NOT had any relief. These farmers are now spending 75% of their cash on food, when in 1960 they were spending 25%!   

Need i say it, that the Governor of the Central Bank is completely out of touch with the reality, and living and working in an Ivory Tower, does not help him hone in his senses. 

Cargills Bank was left loitering around for 4 years before they could start operations due directly to the procrastination of the Central Bank, was it due to the right amount of bribe not being paid to the right individual at the right time or that the Bribe got bigger after the granting of the original license I still do not know. It was therefore beyond ironic that the procrastinator in chief was a VVIP at the opening delivering his pontificature knowing the correct palms were adequately greased in that respect.

Time for him to gracefully resign having served longer than is deemed seemly in such a position in this day and age, just like his patron.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always thought it was odd that the Central Bank took so long in giving permission to operate after giving the initial go ahead years ago.

It was certainly NOT Cargills fault as so who will tell us the real story of the Jonah who delayed it!

Anonymous said...

Everything this administration does is fictitious and those who subscribe to this fiction, are the sycophants of the administration who don't know the difference of their rear end from the front!

PLEASE DON'T FOOL THE PEOPLE ANYMORE

Anonymous said...

speaking of sri lankan profiteering, there is a 5 star branded hotel being built in the south by a man made rich by skimming millions from the construction work of the Mahaweli public works under gamini dissanayaka (UNP), with his approval and consent, who now has supposedly obtained loan funding for the local hotel company (his own) from the United States Government and is implementing the construction of the project using his own construction company. If he makes money on the hotel or not, he'll have skimmed millions from the U.S. Government loan, and the taxpayers of the United States will have made him millions!! huge conflict of interest overlooked by american bureaucrats unaware of the wiles of our people. kalpanakaranna!!