- People
& Events
An
International economist
His theories were
labelled heretical, going against current trends.
For instance, to him a country's development was
measurable by the quality of life of its people,
not by increase in national income. He devised a
measure for gauging development alternative to
GNP. He called it the human development index,
which measured the attainment of a nation as per
its people's living condition and lives rather
than the country's trade balance et al. His index
reflects life expectancy, education, welfare
measures and wealth. Thus the emergence of Canada
as the most developed country in the world,
according to the reckoning of the Human
Development Report, pushing the USA, the richest,
to second place. Canadian live longer, are judged
to be better educated and benefit from wide
social security measures. (full text)
- The
consumer benefits most from privatisation
When I read so
much uninformed criticism of Privatisation I feel
compelled to make some comment on it.
The first thing that everybody should realise is
that regardless of who loses by privatisation,
one group always gains. And that is the consumer.
Consumers, who constitute the majority in any
country, must gain from the increased competition
and change of management that every properly
implemented privatisation ensures.I say 'properly implemented' because
there could be a privatisation where all that
happens is that a public sector monopoly is
converted into a private sector monopoly. I shall
touch on this later. Meanwhile it cannot be
gainsaid that in the vast majority of
privatisations, consumers must benefit from lower
prices and/or better products and services. (full text)
- Animated
animators - can they help tackle poverty?
The Samurdhi Animators,the
personnel re-cruited by the People's Alliance
government, to guide those in the depths of
poverty to get out of the poverty trap, has let
the cat out of the bag declaring themselves as
political animals.
During their recent
protest campaigns and demonstrations demanding
perma-nency in their jobs, they threatened not to
help the PA election campaigns in the future.
Thus proving they were political appointees and
not recruited on merit or suitability.
It is in this respect we feel
that the so-called Samurdhi Poverty Alleviation
programme which replaced the previous
Government's Janasaviya Programme, was
fundamentally flawed from the start. (full text)
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- Vedda
Burials
Following the opening
of colonisation schemes their burials changed
when they dug graves of about 4-5 feet in depth
and left the body wrapped in some cloth and
covered with leaves and earth.The Veddas also scooped the trunks of
the Gadumba tree and laid the body between the
scopped out wood planks held together and then
buried.
At the head of the grave were
kept three open coconuts and a small bundle of
wood, while at its foot were kept an opened
coconut and an untouched coconut.
Certain plants of the cactus
species (pathok) were planted at the head of the
grave, the middle and the foot their personal
possessions like the bow and arrow, betel pouch,
were also buried. This practice varied according
to the different communities of the aboriginal
settlements. (full text)
- Illicit
trafficking affects both the stability of States
and the safety of their populations
Curbing
illicit trafficking in small arms and sensitive
technologies
There is a real need
today to address the issue of illicit trafficking
in small arms and sensitive technologies, taking
into consideration their interrelationship and
implications for other areas of social and State
security.The
international community must agree on a new
agenda to fight illicit trafficking.
Long-term actions should be
pre-emptive, that is, they should anticipate the
flow of illicit traffic, stopping attempts before
they are made. (full text)
- Sri Lanka lost
billions of rupees on a wrong geuda
decision
Not only did the Thais
make billions on the geudas but they got
experience in knowing how the different geudas
reacted to heat treatment. With the large sums of
money made on the heat treated sapphires and
their experience they held the monopoly on geudas
in Sri Lanka and large numbers were present here
and due to their financial strength, our
merchants and treaters could not compete.The Thais at that time were so
entrenched in the trade that when a young Chinese
Thai wanted to set up a joint venture in Sri
Lanka back home in Bangkok, they threatened to
bomb his father's establishment. (full text)
- Simple Sir
Razik Fareed
- Alhaj A. H. G. Ameen
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