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| Sunday, 7 August 2005 |
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Solemn Thoughts by Wendell Solomons Engines of progress mystery For current economic science, 'Engines of progress' come in different sizes. In the incident of April 27th, 2005 in Sri Lanka, it was a overloaded bus with 120 persons. The bus conductor was urging the driver to inch the heavy bus through a railway crossing using the free wings of the crossing that had no wooden beam dropped as barrier. To get to the crossing the bus had ignored and driven past a line of cars that had halted for the train. According to reports recorded later, the bus driver and conductor had primed themselves for the day's highway feat in the 70-seater bus with alcohol drunk at breakfast. The train for which the level crossing beams had been dropped came around the bend. The locomotive driver spotted the bus midway across the steel tracks. The driver engaged the train's hydraulic brakes. The crash however occurred and the bus was carried 250 metres onwards on the tracks, wrapped around the train's front end. The diesel tank of the bus burst into flames with passengers trapped inside. 37 lives were lost and more than 50 persons sustained severe injuries. None of the passengers of the ill-fated bus realised they were the ultimate victims of the vanity trap used for 28 years of unprecedented experiment by the World Bank and the IMF in countries such as Sri Lanka. In the neoliberal 'Free to Choose' formula, every entrepreneur, and as we have witnessed from news headlines during 28 years, even any individual making money at community expense, becomes a vaunted 'engine of progress! When things go wrong Traffic Police Chief Lakshman Peiris said, "Bus owners encourage their crew to drive nasty and hasty. When things go wrong they try to put the blame on the drivers and conductors and wash their hands off." The 'nothing matters' activity of such opportunists is not only hazardous on the road. Everywhere in the economy wedges are being driven in by 'engines of progress' to fragment society and become the basis for a firmament of nastiness. Suspicion must follow as consequence and it imparts teamwork and synergy in a country. That country must increase its dependence on loans from globalist lenders and cough up interest. It was recently estimated for Africa that for every US$1 of aid, foreign commercial profit of US$4 leaves Africa. A country's minuscule nouveau riche become still more bloated and cockeyed. It casts its hands about to get more juice while the rest of the population seem as if flung to the walls of a spin dryer by centrifugal force. From a Sinhala song popular on the airwaves, we could try to translate briefly: "The people in that land are stark raving mad. They all wear watches on their hands, But, claiming they'll come at 8 o'clock. They turn up at 9." Besides transport, many consumer services and utilities present the employed with the hurdle of risky, unaffordable high prices. The worth of the Rupee declined from Rs 8 to the US dollar to Rs. 100 during the Open Economy period - from 1977 - and thus heavily limits choices for the home budget. The city dweller is constrained by the worry of getting to work, fit and on time, and bringing up children on a deeply dented, gnawing home budget. The suicidal opportunism massaged by the World Bank and IMF has got by, as distinguished journalist Ajith Samaranayake spelt out in the light "of a kind of mindless moral idiocy which can hold out danger" for Sri Lankan society (Sunday Observer, April 24, 2005, editorial page.) Social values under challenge What holds Sri Lanka from joining in progress like in neighbouring India? It is the fragmenting of society by the neo-pagan cult of selfishness induced by the loan salesmen of the World Bank and IMF. The fact of the neo-pagan cult superimposed on all values is gradually becoming visible. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga noted at a Kandy ceremony that Buddhist values have come under challenge through the influence of the Open Economy and its type of globalisation (front paged by the Sunday Observer of February 24th, 2005.) Selvam Canagaratna's useful account, 'Unethical Conversion to World Bank's false Gods - Globalisation et al' is at the website mentioned below. Achieving Independence, India had embarked on a policy of Swadeshi. The aim of the policy, greatly associated with Mahatma Gandhi, was to develop internal resources by nurturing domestic industry. Sri Lanka too adopted the policy in the mid-1950s. This saw the assembly of Skoda, Fiat, Mitsubishi and Mazda cars before Malaysia or Korea, now famed for automobiles, began placing home-assembled vehicles on the road. Swadeshi and development of internal resources It was historic fulfilment that the country sought. In 1919 the Ceylon National Congress had adopted the following five principles: 1. Simple rites and rituals at weddings and funerals; 2. Simple dress habits; 3. Avoidance of gambling; 4. Getting rid of intoxicating products; 5. Using domestic products. Swadeshi in India and Sri Lanka resembled the policy that Abraham Lincoln chose to set off rapid development whereby the United States overtook Britain in industrial output in 50 years. Abraham Lincoln's policy, adopted from Henry Carey, included the use of high Customs duties for the protection of domestic industry. Several barriers remain in force protecting US industry. Liberalism for Lincoln also meant protecting fledgling business unlike neoliberalism's favouring of the rich, monopoly illusionist that has unleashed the round of corporate scandals started with Enron. In the latter case, 20,000 employees who had bought the firm's shares, lost their life's savings. Sri Lanka can greatly benefit by an additional criterion that Abraham Lincoln used. To simplify creating a cohesive national effort, Lincoln focused on developing railroads. The linkages of developing railroad industry would support the development of machine building, metallurgy, mining and of transcontinental transport. We could complete this discussion by looking at a suggestion that was made before an audience of Sri Lanka's Central bankers. This suggestion was for Sri Lanka to focus on utilisation of the resources of its maritime economic zone. You can view the cardinal report at the Sunday Observer website or at http://www.geocities.com/worldcityessays/worldcityessays_best.htm http://www.geocities.com/worldcityessays/worldcityessays_best.htm. |
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