I have a friend from Sri Lanka now in NY who makes no bones about being that global 1% KOCH BROTHER/CLINTON INTIATIVE/SOROS ----ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE pushing the idea that OPEN BORDERS is good for immigrants when in fact it is simply expanding a human capital distribution system that is enslaving.
My FB friend is no doubt a global banking player----2% maybe----or wannabe. Sri Lanka is that Asian Foreign Economic Zone nation like China for several decades being host to Foreign Economic Zone global factories providing the slave labor. Where China was heavy on technology global factories---Sri Lanka was heavily garment industry. As with all our US 1% thinking they need to be MERCHANTS OF VENICE with their new wealth instead of building local small business economies-----so too does Sri Lanka have that same new wealth 1% and 2%. Remember, those new rich are the ones going under the bus because---OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE do not need any new rich.
- Beyoncé’s sportswear line reportedly made in Sri Lankan ...pagesix.com/2016/05/...made-in-sri-lankan-sweatshop-report Beyoncé’s sportswear line reportedly made in Sri Lankan sweatshop. By Michael Hechtman. View author archive; Get author ... Mansion Global; New York Post; The ..
We will pick on a few nations overseas to see where MOVING FORWARD in US is going as well. Below we see an article that says Sri Lanka is now going to a global labor pool ---because its sovereign citizens have become tired of being sweat shop slave labor. So now citizens from Africa, South Pacific, Middle East, Latin America and yes OUR US CITIZENS ON THEIR WAY TO BEING THROWN INTO GLOBAL LABOR. My FB friend of KOCH Brothers et al global 1% says the same thing----
YOU ARE AGAINST GIVING JOBS TO THESE DEVELOPING NATIONS BY BRINGING THEM TO SRI LANKA? YOU DON'T LIKE IMMIGRANTS.
This is of course the same thing the far-right wing CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA are saying in the US trying to install OPEN BORDERS so they can bring Sri Lankans, Chinese, Malaysian, African citizens to US Foreign Economic Zones and global factories to enslave them here in US.
Also, notice United Nations International Labor Organization coordinating all this global human capital distribution system ---and who is now partnered with ILO---------our US labor union leaders. We must get rid of 5% to the 1% labor union leaders working to throw US citizens into this global labor pool.
Sri Lanka – Job Factory moving into global recruitment market
08 October 2013
Sri Lanka-based recruitment and outsourcing firm Job Factory, announced at a press conference that it is planning to launch into the overseas market as JobFactory-Global, reports prlog.org. JobFactory has already,been successful in obtaining an overseas recruitment license from the Foreign Employment Bureau in Sri Lanka.
Madhushan Raigamage, Chief Executive Officer of Job Factory (Private) Limited, said: “We are very positive about our move for foreign employment business. We do not have any idea of supplying unskilled labour to foreign clients, as we are very strong on the local market for skilled talents; especially in Information Technology, Accounting/Finance and also HR. Sri Lanka is popular for Accounting/Finance talents and also we know the fact that there is an excess supply of Accounts/Finance and also HR professionals. In these circumstances JobFactory-Global is geared to get in to overseas market with a highly positive mind set.”
“JobFactory-Global will mainly focus on Qatar, which is one of the fastest growing economies in the Middle East region. Few companies operating in Qatar have invited us to get in to their territory too. We are considering that request positively. Opening up a branch in Qatar is costly, but we may consider opening a virtual branch initially in Qatar, in fact we have reserved the web domain for Qatar already,” Mr Raigamage said.
Also speaking at the press conference, Ms Nirmala Dassanayaka, Head of Recruitment, said: “We understand the sensitivity of the process and therefore we don’t want to compromise our quality, which we have maintained in the local market. We have a fair number of top level contacts in Middle East companies. Undoubtedly JobFactory is capable of getting established in the overseas market without a much effort.”
She continued: “As a principle, we do not charge a single rupee from the candidate. That we maintain in the local market too. JobFactory will be partnering only with the clients who are in line with our values and norms.”
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Remember, our Asian nations have had for these few decades the same movement to extreme wealth extreme poverty with that 1% as here in US. They had a strong public education, public services, public agencies to government and they are now privatizing all that away just as CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA---THE KOCH BROS.
So, if Sri Lanka has a strong public school system why are these medical school students protesting? Well, they know the Sri Lankan 1% are MOVING FORWARD to eliminating pathways to higher education and indeed K-12 as is happening in US.
All of America's medical schools used to be public. That was so health care could be afforded by all. Where are most of our public and non-profit medical schools located? On campuses now global IVY LEAGUE which are no longer public---no longer non-profit ---and working hard to become predatory profit-driven health systems only accessible by those global 1% and their 2%.
These Sri Lankan medical students know this and that is why they are protesting. We have medical students and doctors here in US protesting Affordable Care Act and the private health systems leading to global profit-driven health systems-----
THAT IS WHY THESE MEDICAL STUDENTS IN SRI LANKA ARE PROTESTING.
'They are against the privatization of education and claim that opening private universities will drastically affect children from poor families’ access to education opportunities'.
These same medical students also know the move by Sri Lanka to GLOBAL LABOR POOL will take their future income earning away as well.
As this article indicates---Sri Lanka as India have not signed the Trans Pacific Trade Pact because they know it will kill their sovereignty----but as the we see Sri Lanka has a hefty export business to US that will be lost if it does not sign. These other Asian nations like Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea which signed on to TPP early thinking it would protect them from China's domination are seeing that is not going to happen. Sri Lanka moving to that UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL LABOR POOL system undermining their own citizens trying to get higher wages looks to be a move towards signing Trans Pacific Trade Pact......
THIS IS WHY SRI LANKAN STUDENTS ARE PROTESTING----AS WE SHOUT HERE IN US---THIS IS NOT ONLY ABOUT UNSKILLED WORKERS---IT TAKES PROFESSIONAL WORKERS LIKE DOCTORS DOWN WITH IT.
As left social progressives fight to get more people employed and to get that LIVING WAGE----ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE FAR-RIGHT 1% is fighting for that ONE WORLD WAGE----
Here is the difference in political philosophy stances. Left social capitalism is NOT SOCIALIST. IT IS NOT COMMUNIST. Fighting for citizens to climb income ladder IS WHAT CAPITALISM is about. What far-right wing global 1% call COMMUNIST-----is the rich trying to keep 99% of workers extremely poor. This is to where Sri Lankan 1% are moving and those medical students know this. Why are American medical students not protesting? They are now being recruited from the global 1% and their 2%.
It is not this ONE PRIVATE MEDICAL SCHOOL these protesters are shouting against---they KNOW MOVING FORWARD when they see it!
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Implications for Sri Lanka
Research Team Nov 18, 2015
Twelve Pacific Rim countries including USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Peru, and Vietnam finally saw light at the end of a long tunnel, last month. After five years of intense negotiations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was completed on 4th October in Atlanta, USA. TPP is the first of the ‘mega- regional’ agreements to be concluded, and is the most ambitious free trade agreement signed to date. It intends to ‘unlock opportunities’, ‘set high-standard trade rules’, and ‘addresses vital 21st century issues within the global economy’.
TPP covers 40% of the world trade and the 12 countries have a collective population of about 800 million. The Agreement includes a wide range of areas such as trade in goods, services, investment, labour, environment, E-commerce, intellectual property rights. However, the lawmakers in each of the countries are yet to ratify the agreement. It faces difficulties getting through a hostile US Congress and it has become a controversial issue in primary presidential campaigns.
A Cloud on the Horizon?
Supporters of TPP expect to reap significant benefits, and boost economic growth through tariff cuts and a common set of standards. The trade gains for participating countries seem sizable considering the concentration of trade among TPP members especially with the USA (Figure 1).
In addition to the economic benefits, the conclusion of the negotiations was seen as triumph for the US foreign policy, and Obama’s pivot to Asia which is an attempt to keep China in its place. However, the implications of TPP have been widely debated across the 12 countries. It is viewed as a cloud on the horizon given that not all industries and sectors will benefit. In fact Donald Trump, who is seeking the nomination of the Republican Party to run for US presidential election 2016, called ‘TPP a terrible deal’.
The Agreement has been criticized for lack of transparency, as the five year talks were shrouded in secrecy, and allegedly favoured large corporations. It was viewed to be trading away public health by granting of longer protection to pharmaceutical corporations for their drugs via patents. This will have serious implications on public welfare and affect the price of medicine, making them more expensive.
Those against the TPP also are skeptical about its economic benefits. They worry that governments could be sued by investors under controversial investor-state dispute settlement provisions. There is also the fear that the Agreement could result in job losses. Some in the US are worried that jobs will go to countries with lower wages and less strict labour laws. As such, the Agreement is perceived as a threat to an array of other interest groups ranging from Mexican auto workers to Canadian dairy farmers, and faces domestic resistances in all of the TPP countries.
Implications for Sri Lanka
So, what does the TPP mean for developing countries like Sri Lanka, excluded from the Arrangement?
The trade effects on excluded countries will depend on three factors. First, the geographical distribution of the country’s exports to TPP countries. Second, the similarity of export structures between the excluded and those included in the Agreement. Third, the tariff and non-tariff barriers currently applied amongst the TPP countries.
In 2014, TPP accounted for almost one-third of Sri Lanka’s exports (Figure 2). USA is Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner among these countries and the world; with a quarter of its total exports going to the USA (Figure 2). The country will be significantly be affected by the participation of its largest export market in the TPP. This problem is compounded by Sri Lanka competing with some TPP countries in the US market for similar products. For example, apparels (HS 61 & HS 62) are Sri Lanka’s major export to the world and the US; accounting for 44 and 73 per cent of Sri Lanka’s total exports to the world and the US, respectively. Sri Lanka competes with TPP partners like Vietnam, Mexico, Peru in these products in the US market. However, Mexico and Peru already enjoy duty free access to the US market under existing trade agreements. Thus, the main impact of the Agreement on Sri Lanka will come from increased competition from Vietnam, as tariffs are phased out under Agreement. Currently US applies a tariff rate of 10.8 and 14.4 per cent on HS 61 and 62, respectively from Sri Lanka and Vietnam. With the phase-out of tariffs under TPP, Sri Lankan apparel exports to the US might be forced out of the market or reduce the prices to remain competitive vis-à-vis Vietnam, which will enjoy a duty advantage equivalent to the MFN rate. There is also likely to be trade diversion to Vietnam and to a lesser extent to other TPP partner in other products (Figure 3). However, the extent to which Vietnam can make use of the duty reductions under the Agreement will depend on fulfilling certain rules and the tariff liberalization programme.
TPP also plans to liberalize trade in services and investment flows. For services, the impact on countries outside the TPP will depend on whether such liberalization is preferential or erga omnes. As in the case of services, the potential for investment diverting away from countries excluded from the Agreement depends on how the way will be implemented. Still, there might be some investment diversions to take advantage of a larger market under the Agreement. Vietnam is considered amongst the biggest winners of the Agreement, closely followed by Malaysia. For example, analysts predict the deal would boost Vietnam’s growth and exports by 11 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively, in the next 10 years.
To avoid exclusion from an agreement involving their competitors, some developing countries have indicated that they want to join the TPP. Countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Laos and Indonesia are among the countries that have already expressed an interest.
Sri Lanka’s Options
In the Economic Policy Statement, which was released on 5th November 2015, the need to address TPP was mentioned but short of suggesting how the government intends to do this. There have been calls by some academics for Sri Lanka to join the TPP, which would also trigger much needed but difficult reforms in the country. Others have suggested Sri Lanka to review its prevailing trade negotiations strategy and engage in bilateral deals with the US, and the EU to mitigate the negative effects of TPP. However, it is important to note that the TPP was designed primarily by developed countries with their own concerns in mind. While poorer countries may feel pressured to join to avoid being excluded from an agreement involving their competitors, we may not be ready to adopt many of the provisions in agreement. One may recall Sri Lanka’s own experience with negotiating a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India sometime back, which only covered trade in goods, services and investment. In the event the TPP becomes a reality, Sri Lanka must carefully assess the costs and benefits of joining the Agreement with due stakeholder consultations. Meanwhile, it is best that Sri Lanka urgently improves its export competitiveness by addressing constraints on multiple fronts, including supply side capacities and weaknesses in the business environment.
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If we follow here in the US the fight of Latino agricultural workers out west----we KNOW why our Latino immigrants are leaving---GLOBAL BIG AG in US has lowered the already slave wage of agriculture EVEN LOWER. So, our Latino citizens are saying----that's it. Since the current global labor pool workers are being directed to main stream employment to take down our US middle-class ----they are not bringing global labor pool from Asia to do US agriculture at that $1 a day----
The reason our CALIFORNIA global BIG AG dropped already enslaving wages even lower? THEY ARE GETTING READY TO ROBOTIZE AGRICULTURE----INCLUDING HARVESTING. California global Wall Street Clinton/Obama want Latino agricultural workers to leave to make room for robotic harvesting----THAT GLOBAL GREEN TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY-----
Of course all this is played in national media as a PLOT AGAINST IMMIGRANTS---THAT MEAN TRUMP VS THAT OPEN BORDER OBAMA-----and none of that is the REAL POLICY GOAL.
ROBOTIC HARVESTING COMBINED WITH GLOBAL BIG AG AND MONSANTO COMPLETELY REMOVES 99% OF CITIZENS FROM ALL FOOD PRODUCTION AND THAT IS VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY BAD.
Labor Shortage Leaves $13 Million in Crops to Rot in Fields
More Mexican Immigrants are Leaving the U.S. Than Arriving
Thursday, June 22, 2017
By Kelsey Brugger (Contact)
Last year marked the fifth consecutive year Santa Barbara County’s agriculture industry has struggled with labor shortages, which have ranged from 15 to 26 percent. Farmers, therefore, must leave crops to rot in the fields. An estimated $13 million of strawberries, broccoli, leafy greens, and other unharvested produce were plowed under last year, up from five years ago when losses amounted to an estimated $4.4 million, according to the region’s Grower-Shipper Association.
Central Coast growers do not receive government subsidies for mowing unpicked berries and veggies as Midwestern farmers do for destroying wheat or barley. Some area growers have insurance for losses from heat waves or pests but not for lack of workforce.
Five years ago, when Santa Ynez Valley grower Cindy Douglas put a call out for farmworkers on Spanish radio, she got flooded. Not anymore. Now, farmers might have a crew of five one day, and a crew of 20 the next.
Total, there are anywhere from 15,000 to 23,000 ag workers in Santa Barbara County, most of whom are from Mexico. The number fluctuates as most crops are picked multiple times a year. A field of strawberries can be harvested two to three times per week for roughly six months. The strawberry crop has grown by 20 percent in acreage in five years, and now it is the county’s number one commodity, according to the agriculture report released this week.
Strawberries are just one small piece of the labor shortage. In the last decade, according to the Pew Research Center, more Mexican immigrants have been leaving the United States than have been arriving. As Mexico’s economy improves and becomes less reliant on agriculture, Mexicans are having fewer children and “feeling less the push to migrate north,” said Lucas Zucker of CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy).
Security has also tightened along the southern border. The Obama administration deported about three million undocumented immigrants between 2009 and 2016, according to Pew, many more than the two million the Bush administration deported during the eight years prior.
“Part of that was his administration felt that to get Republicans to vote for immigration reform, they needed to show they were tough on immigration,” he said, adding Obama also advocated for deferred action for childhood arrivals (better known as the DACA program) and comprehensive reform.
Under the Trump administration, immigration arrests have surged by nearly 40 percent in three months compared to the same time frame last year, Homeland Security recently reported.
As a broader demographic shift, Mexican immigrants who have worked in the fields for decades are getting older, and their children, born in Mexico or the United States, are not as likely to go work in the fields. Ninety percent of the mothers and fathers who were part of the Bracero Program, which brought millions of Mexican guest workers to the U.S. in the mid-20th century, now have back problems, said Mike Stoker, Santa Barbara Republican and longtime spokesperson for the agriculture industry. Even though they earn on average $2 an hour more than minimum wage, which is $10.50 per hour, immigrants tend to move to other low-wage jobs such as the hotel or restaurant industries within about a decade, Zucker said. “In some ways, the most vulnerable immigrants” — who are from indigenous villages and speak little Spanish or English — “tend to work in the fields,” Zucker said.
Making up some of the labor shortage for about three years in Santa Barbara County is foreign guest workers coming in under the H2A program. In 2015, the most recent available data, 1,300 guest workers came to Santa Barbara County, which has the largest number in all of California. Many growers call for expanding the program, but they also complain it is expensive and cumbersome. The Trump administration appears poised to ramp up some kind of a guest worker program. Wilja Happé, a cut-flower grower in Carpinteria, lamented this is not an option in South County, as there is no available housing, a requirement of the program. To that end, major farmers are pumping money into automation, Stoker said, “as a potential option they wouldn’t have looked at 10 years ago.”
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Here is what the Sri Lankan 1% are now doing to those global factory workers daring to protest for wages higher than $3-6 a day-----they are now being shipped off as global labor pool and Sri Lanka will bring Middle-East global labor pool to their Foreign Economic Zone global factories. The Middle-East 1% trading slave labor.
This was last decade during BUSH ERA----what is happening with those medical school students is the same as is happening in US-----Sri Lanka will now push those white collar professional workers into this global labor pool and bring medical professionals from Middle East et al.
If we notice it is the global 99% of women suffering in these global human capital distribution systems as well as the children. It is the Hillary nasty corporate feminists working for that global 1% who could care less about those global 99% of women. Same thing now MOVING FORWARD for US women----thrown into the global labor pool to become those same enslaved workers.
THIS IS WHAT EQUITY MEANS TO UNITED NATIONS REGARDING WOMEN---THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO HIT THE ROAD INTO GLOBAL LABOR POOL JUST AS GLOBAL MEN.
Also, notice United Nations International Labor Organization coordinating all this global human capital distribution system ---and who is now partnered with ILO---------our US labor union leaders. We must get rid of 5% to the 1% labor union leaders working to throw US citizens into this global labor pool.
This is why we are shouting loudly that these two decades will be HORRIBLE FOR US WOMEN-----this is why global Wall Street CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA are putting women faces in all political races-----especially that FAKE FEELING THE BERN FAR-RIGHT LIBERTARIAN MARXIST AND GLOBAL GREEN CORPORATION PARTY groups.
Sri Lankan Migration to the Gulf: Female Breadwinners - Domestic Workers
By Michele Ruth Gamburd | Professor of Anthropology - Portland State University | Feb 2, 2010
International Labour Organization-Maiilard J
Several waves of Sri Lankan migration have taken place since the country gained independence in 1948. Beginning in the mid-1950s, wealthy, educated, English-speaking elites have migrated to Commonwealth countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom. In addition, since the upsurge in ethnic hostilities in the early 1980s, Tamil-speaking Hindu migrants have left the country, with many settling in Canada. In contrast with these permanent migrants, since 1976 a growing number of Sri Lankans have become migrant workers. The leading destination for this migrant labor force — the majority of whom are women — has been the Gulf.
The Scale and Composition of Sri Lankan Labor MigrantsIn 2003, the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), the main administrative body regulating labor migration, estimated that 1,003,600 Sri Lankans worked abroad.
[1]By 2008, this number had increased to 1,792,368, or 9% of the island’s 20 million people. From the late 1980s until as recently as 2007, women made up the majority of these labor migrants. They accounted for 75% of the migrant flow in the mid-1990s, and by 2008 declined to a little under 50%. Of the migrant women, 88% went to work as housemaids.[2]In much of the global North, such migrant transnational domestic workers meet the needs of the global “care deficit,” reflecting a global trend in outsourcing domestic labor to women from less developed countries. In contrast, transnational domestic servants in the Middle East free their sponsors for leisure, supporting a socially significant lifestyle.
In recent years, Sri Lankan officials have actively encouraged male migration. The male guest workers fill more diverse roles, with skilled and unskilled laborers making up roughly equal percentages of the male migrants (42% and 41% respectively in 2008).
Main Destination Countries
Most Sri Lankan migrants (92%), both male and female, journey to the Gulf, with four countries (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar) absorbing over 80% of Sri Lanka’s workers. In the Gulf, Sri Lankan women share the market for migrant domestic workers with women from Indonesia, the Philippines, and several other countries. Racial, ethnic, religious, and national stereotypes predetermine wages. For example, in the UAE in 2004, housemaids from the Philippines were paid more than those from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh, in that order.[3]
[L]abor laws cover male laborers but do not protect household workers.
Most Sri Lankan housemaids go abroad on two-year contracts and live in their employers’ residences. Live-in housemaids have less autonomy and lower salaries than women with part-time or live-out arrangements. The isolation of the work situation can lead to abuse and exploitation.
Domestic workers’ legal protections vary from country to country. In many Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, labor laws cover male laborers but do not protect household workers.[4]Labor regulations do apply to foreign domestic servants working in other areas in Asia, the European Union, and the United States, but may not be enforced against middle- and upper-class employers.[5]
Sri Lankan Sojourners as Temporary Migrants in the GulfGuest workers form a crucial aspect of local economies in the Gulf. Overall, foreigners make up an estimated 37-43% of the population of the GCC countries and constitute 70% of the workforce, with workforce numbers rising significantly higher in the UAE (90%), Kuwait (82%), and Qatar (90%).[6]Most GCC countries have a de facto dual economy, with well paid, non-strenuous public-sector jobs created for “nationals” and poorly paid, difficult, low-status, private sector jobs performed by foreigners.
The high percentage of guest workers worries government officials. Accordingly, governments have legislated to minimize the perceived threat. Restrictions on length of stay, strict regulations about changing jobs, hurdles imposed by the sponsorship system, difficult-to-meet criteria for bringing in family members, the inability to own land and businesses, the near-impossibility of obtaining citizenship, and the absence of legal rights all work to keep guest workers’ stays short, temporary, or informal.[7]Although Sri Lankans migrate to Australia, Canada, and the UK with plans to settle there, most sojourners in the Gulf do not hope to assimilate permanently into the host country.
Incentives for Sri Lankan Transnational Domestic MigrantsThere are both national-level and family-level incentives for Sri Lankans to migrate. On the national level, migrant laborers’ remittances contribute significantly to Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange earnings. In 2008, total remittances stood at SLR 316,118 million, or roughly $2.87 billion (converted at $1 = SLR 110). Nearly 60% of this total, SLR 189,039 million or $1.72 billion, came from the Gulf. In generating foreign earnings, private remittances (36%) come second after Sri Lanka’s large garment industry (40%). Clearly the country has a great financial stake in the remittances generated by migrant laborers, particularly those working in the Gulf.
Migration alleviates unemployment among the poorer segments of Sri Lanka’s population. Locally available jobs are mostly poorly paid and temporary, particularly for women. Although transnational domestic workers earn only an average of $100 a month while abroad, this is between two and five times what women could earn working in Sri Lanka, and equals or exceeds the wages earned by most village men. Migrant women consistently assert that families cannot make ends meet on their husbands’ salaries, and say that migration to the Middle East is their only available economic alternative. Family motives for migration usually include getting out of debt, buying land, and building a house. Women also state that they would like to support their family’s daily consumption needs, educate their children, and provide dowries for themselves or their daughters. Participants in the decision-making process (undergone repeatedly for migrants who return several times to the Gulf) weigh financial necessity and household improvements against separation, incursion of loans, and alternate arrangements for childcare.
Migrant women often become the sole or most significant breadwinners for their families. Several studies suggest that each migrant woman supports four to five members of her family; figures for migrant men are likely similar.[8]In 2003, the SLBFE estimated that migrant laborers made up 14% of the total number of employed Sri Lankans. By 2008, this figure had jumped to 25%. A significant and growing percentage of Sri Lankan families are thus directly dependent on Gulf remittances.
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Here we see global Wall Street selling Sri Lanka as hard as it can-----this only advances Sri Lanka's 1% ---it kills Sri Lanka's 99% of citizens. Global Wall Street is doing this sales job for Sri Lanka in order to capture all its economy to ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE----TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT. While that dastardly Sri Lankan 1% PLAYERS SHOW ME THE MONEY AND WE WILL DO ANYTHING WE ARE TOLD are taken from millionaire to billionaire ---they are selling our all Sri Lankan sovereign citizens.
At the same time global Wall Street is expanding Foreign Economic Zones in Sri Lanka they must make those 1% and their 2% of Sri Lankan citizens feel like MERCHANTS OF VENICE-----allowing them to bring Sri Lankan corporations to US CITIES DEEMED FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES and with those Sri Lankan businesses----that global 1% will bring that global labor pool----NO NEW JOBS FOR AMERICANS---MORE GLOBAL 99% NOW BEING BROUGHT TO US AS GLOBAL SLAVE LABOR.
What would be the next step in this SRI LANKAN/US FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE trade deal? Sending US citizens to be EX-PAT GLOBAL LABOR POOL workers to Sri Lanka---
THESE GLOBAL 2% AND DEVELOPING NATION 1% THINK THEY ARE REALLY BEING MERCHANTS OF VENICE WHEN INDEED THEY ARE BEING PLAYED JUST AS OUR US 5% TO THE 1%----THEY WILL BE UNDER THE BUS IN JUST A FEW DECADES.
Bringing Foreign Investment to Sri Lanka
10:48 PM EDT
July 29, 2015 Wall Street Journal
Sri Lanka Board of Investment Chairman Upul Jayasuriya discusses foreign investment in Sri Lanka, where the money is coming from and his outlook for FDI. He speaks to Bloomberg's Rishaad Salamat on "Trending Business." (Source: Bloomberg)
This is why we are sure Sri Lanka will indeed end up tied to the Asian trade pact and not Trans Pacific Trade Pact with US. What global Wall Street is doing today IS USING SRI LANKA as US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zone players to create societal disruptions in our US cities------what may be Sri Lankan 1% and their 2% in US cities these few decades will see those Sri Lankan business assets disappear -----this is why we call these MERCHANTS OF VENICE whether from US or other nations HEADING UNDER THE BUS---these are not real global businesses----
The new rich being made of these developing nations and our US 5% to the 1% are PLAYERS. They do not care if all these business transactions are temporary---they are living for today. This is why it is so critical to get rid of those pesky 5% to the 1% -----PLEDGED TO DO ANYTHING THEY ARE TOLD. When my FB friend from Sri Lanka thinks these stances are ANTI-IMMIGRANT----we are hoping he WAKES UP ---and kicks global corporations out of Sri Lanka to build a local economy and bring his Sri Lankan global slave trade citizens HOME TO BE SOVEREIGN CITIZENS. WE THE PEOPLE do not want more citizens with the values of global Wall Street---we will take all immigrants wanting to fight to keep AMERICA A STRONG AND FREE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.
China to build vast, controversial 'port city' in Sri Lanka
The $1.4bn plan had been suspended by president Maithripala Sirisena but is back on the table despite erosion fears
A container ship sails towards Colombo harbour, which would be redeveloped under the controversial Chinese plan. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/REUTERS
Agence France-Presse
Thursday 10 March 2016 19.42 EST Last modified on Thursday 17 March 2016 08.23 EDT
Sri Lanka has granted permission for China to build a vast “port city” in the island’s capital, despite concerns the ambitious project could be an environmental disaster.
President Maithripala Sirisena had suspended the contentious $1.4bn plan to build on reclaimed land next to Colombo’s main harbour shortly after taking power in January last year.
But the port city, initiated by Chinese president Xi Jinping in September 2014 and expected to include housing, a marina and a Formula One racetrack, was again given the green light on Thursday.
“The cabinet committee on economic management has recommended allowing resumption of the project subject to limitations and conditions stipulated in the EIA (environmental impact assessment),” the government said in a statement.
Sri Lanka's missing thousands: one woman's six-year fight to find her husband
It did not say what the conditions were, but official sources told AFP that Chinese investors were given permission to resume work on the project without any major modifications.
Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said reclaiming land next to the harbour could trigger erosion along the island’s western coastline and threaten its vital tourist industry.
The project, funded by Chinese state-owned company China Communications Construction, represents the biggest single foreign investment ever received by Sri Lanka.
It will add 233 hectares (575 acres) of new real estate in the congested capital.
Sirisena’s government had ordered a review of all big-ticket construction projects signed by his predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse, who is under investigation over allegations of corruption during his decade in power.
Rajapakse relied heavily on China to rebuild the country’s infrastructure after the end of the island’s decades-long ethnic war in May 2009.
China, the largest single lender to Sri Lanka, secured contracts to build roads, railways and ports under the Rajapakse regime.
Sri Lanka to set up a South Africa-style truth and reconciliation commission
However, the present administration has accused the previous government of agreeing to unfavourable terms for the Chinese loans.
Sirisena’s government is seeking an International Monetary Fund bail out of an unspecified amount of money to bolster the island’s foreign reserves.
Beijing has been accused of seeking to develop facilities around the Indian Ocean in a “string of pearls” strategy to counter the rise of rival India and secure its own economic interests.
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Here is of course to where ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE GLOBAL 1% ARE MOVING FORWARD and indeed Sri Lankan 1% will be under the bus with 99% of WE THE PEOPLE.
Greece has literally been bought and tied in ribbons handed to global banking. No doubt Greece's 1% are those ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE FREEMASONS.
We will take a day or two to remind our US citizens where MOVING FORWARD takes the US after this coming SOVEREIGN DEBT FRAUD AND ECONOMIC CRASH. Remember, the #1 policy issue in US HISTORY ----is that $20 trillion in national debt from US Treasury and state municipal bond fraud!
Here is Greece---a big-time victim of global banking fraud done while having a SOCIALIST LEADER in office----he was not really a socialist----Greece's 1% and their 2% of course off-shored all their wealth back in 2008-9 as Greece fell into bankruptcy from all the debt from those very 1%. Much of Greek public real estate is being handed to global 1% in a PERESTROIKA of Western nations. Greek citizens have lost everything=====pensions, middle-class assets, and they are now 99% indigent. This article tells us---
THERE IS NO MONEY TO BE FOUND IN GREECE.
Remember we have shouted these same conditions are MOVING FORWARD in US -----as that US national debt ---state and local debt from US Treasury and state municipal bond fraud puts the US in same position as Greece.
They are now telling us that since global Wall Street is so criminal taking tens of trillions of dollars from our government and personal assets that we really need to move away from MONEY----HARD CASH BILLS and trust everything to VIRTUAL BANKING-----
How Greece Became A Guinea Pig For A Cashless And Controlled Society
As Greece moves closer to becoming a cashless society, it is clear that the country’s attitude towards cash is reckless and dangerous. The supposed convenience of switching to a cash-free system comes with a great deal of risk, including needless overreach by the state.
By Michael Nevradakis @dialogosmedia | June 21, 2017
- GReece
ATHENS (Analysis)– Day by day, we’re moving towards a brave new world where every transaction is tracked, every purchase is recorded, the habits and preferences of everyone noted and analyzed. What I am describing is the “cashless society,” where plastic and electronic money are king, while banknotes and coins are abolished.
“Progress” is, after all, deemed to be a great thing. In a recent discussion, I observed on an online message board regarding gentrification in my former neighborhood of residence in Queens, New York, the closure of yet another longtime local business was met by one user with a virtual shrug: “Who needs stores when you have Amazon?”
This last quote is, of course, indicative of the brick-and-mortar store, at least in its familiar form. In December 2016, Amazon launched a checkout-free convenience store in Seattle—largely free of employees, but also free of cash transactions, as purchases are automatically charged to one’s Amazon account. “Progress” is therefore cast as the abolition of currency, and the elimination of even more jobs, all in the name of technological progress and the “convenience” of saving a few minutes of waiting at the checkout counter.
Still insist on being old-fashioned and stuck behind the times, preferring to visit brick-and-mortar stores and paying in cash? You may very well be a terrorist! Pay for your coffee or your visit to an internet cafe with cash? Potential terrorist, according to the FBI. Indeed, insisting on paying with cash is, according to the United States Department of Homeland Security, “suspicious and weird.”
The European Union, ever a force for positive change and progress, also seems to agree. The non-elected European Commission’s “Inception Impact Assessment” warns that the anonymity of cash transactions facilitates “money laundering” and “terrorist financing activities.” This point of view is shared by such economists as the thoroughly discredited proponent of austerity Kenneth Rogoff, Lawrence Summer (a famed deregulator, as well as eulogizer of the “godfather” of austerity Milton Friedman), and supposed anti-austerity crusader Joseph Stiglitz, who told fawning participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year that the United States should do away with all currency.
Logically, of course, the next step is to punish law-abiding citizens for the actions of a very small criminal population and for the failures of law enforcement to curb such activities. The EU plans to accomplish this through the exploration of upper limits on cash payments, while it has already taken the step of abolishing the 500-euro banknote.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which day after day is busy “saving” economically suffering countries such as Greece, also happens to agree with this brave new worldview. In a working paper titled “The Macroeconomics of De-Cashing,” which the IMF claims does not necessarily represent its official views, the fund nevertheless provides a blueprint with which governments around the world could begin to phase out cash. This process would commence with “initial and largely uncontested steps” (such as the phasing out of large-denomination bills or the placement of upper limits on cash transactions). This process would then be furthered largely by the private sector, providing cashless payment options for people’s “convenience,” rather than risk popular objections to policy-led decashing. The IMF, which certainly has a sterling track record of sticking up for the poor and vulnerable in society, comforts us by saying that these policies should be implemented in ways that would augment “economic and social benefits.”
The IMF’s Greek experiment in austerity
These suggestions, which of course the IMF does not necessarily officially agree with, have already begun to be implemented to a significant extent in the IMF debt colony known officially as Greece, where the IMF has been implementing “socially fair and just” austerity policies since 2010, which have resulted, during this period, in a GDP decline of over 25 percent, unemployment levels exceeding 28 percent, repeated cuts to what are now poverty-level salaries and pensions, and a “brain drain” of over 500,000 people—largely young and university-educated—migrating out of Greece.
Protesters against new austerity measures hold a placard depicting Labour Minister George Katrougalos as the movie character Edward Scissorhands during a protest outside Zappeion Hall in Athens, Friday, Sept. 16, 2016. The placard reads in Greek”Katrougalos Scissorhands”.
Indeed, it could be said that Greece is being used as a guinea pig not just for a grand neoliberal experiment in both austerity, but de-cashing as well. The examples are many, and they have found fertile ground in a country whose populace remains shell-shocked by eight years of economic depression. A new law that came into effect on January 1 incentivizes going cashless by setting a minimum threshold of spending at least 10 percent of one’s income via credit, debit, or prepaid card in order to attain a somewhat higher tax-free threshold.
Beginning July 27, dozens of categories of businesses in Greece will be required to install aptly-acronymized “POS” (point-of-sale) card readers and to accept payments by card. Businesses are also required to post a notice, typically by the entrance or point of sale, stating whether card payments are accepted or not. Another new piece of legislation, in effect as of June 1, requires salaries to be paid via direct electronic transfers to bank accounts. Furthermore, cash transactions of over 500 euros have been outlawed.
In Greece, where in the eyes of the state citizens are guilty even if proven innocent, capital controls have been implemented preventing ATM cash withdrawals of over 840 euros every two weeks. These capital controls, in varying forms, have been in place for two years with no end in sight, choking small businesses that are already suffering.
Citizens have, at various times, been asked to collect every last receipt of their expenditures, in order to prove their income and expenses—otherwise, tax evasion is assumed, just as ownership of a car (even if purchased a decade or two ago) or an apartment (even if inherited) is considered proof of wealth and a “hidden income” that is not being declared. The “heroic” former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis had previously proposed a cap of cash transactions at 50 or 70 euros on Greek islands that are popular tourist destinations, while also putting forth an asinine plan to hire tourists to work as “tax snitches,” reporting businesses that “evade taxes” by not providing receipts even for the smallest transactions.
All of these measures, of course, are for the Greeks’ own good and are in the best interest of the country and its economy, combating supposedly rampant “tax evasion” (while letting the biggest tax evaders off the hook), fighting the “black market” (over selling cheese pies without issuing a receipt, apparently), and of course, nipping “terrorism” in the bud.
As with the previous discussion I observed about Amazon being a satisfactory replacement for the endangered brick-and-mortar business, one learns a lot from observing everyday conversations amongst ordinary citizens. A recent conversation I personally overheard while paying a bill at a public utility revealed just how successful the initial and largely uncontested steps enacted in Greece have been.
In the line ahead of me, an elderly man announced that he was paying his water bill by debit card, “in order to build towards the tax-free threshold.” When it was suggested to him that the true purpose of encouraging cashless payments was to track every transaction, even for a stick of gum, and to transfer all money into the banking system, he and one other elderly gentleman threw a fit, claiming “there is no other way to combat tax evasion.”
The irony that they were paying by card to avoid taxation themselves was lost on them—as is the fact that the otherwise fiscally responsible Germany, whose government never misses an opportunity to lecture the “spendthrift” and “irresponsible” Greeks, has the largest black market in Europe (exceeding 100 billion euros annually), ranks first in Europe in financial fraud, is the eighth-largest tax haven worldwide, and one of the top tax-evading countries in Europe.
Also lost on these otherwise elderly gentlemen was a fact not included in the official propaganda campaign: Germans happen to love their cash, as evidenced by the fierce opposition that met a government plan to outlaw cash payments of 5,000 euros or more. In addition, about 80 percent of transactions in Germany are still conducted in cash. The German tabloid Bild went as far as to publish an op-ed titled “Hands off our cash” in response to the proposed measure.
Global powers jumping on cashless bandwagon
Nevertheless, a host of other countries across Europe and worldwide have shunned Germany’s example, instead siding with the IMF and Stiglitz. India, one of the most cash-reliant countries on earth, recently eliminated 86 percent of its currency practically overnight, with the claimed goal, of course, of targeting terrorism and the “black market.” The real objective of this secretly planned measure, however, was to starve the economy of cash and to drive citizens to electronic payments by default.
Indians stand in line to deposit discontinued notes in a bank in Jammu and Kashmir, India,, Dec. 30, 2016. India yanked most of its currency bills from circulation without warning on Nov. 8, delivering a jolt to the country’s high-performing economy and leaving countless citizens scrambling for cash. (AP/Channi Anand)
Iceland, a country that stands as an admirable example of standing up to the IMF-global banking cartel in terms of its response to the country’s financial meltdown of 2008, nevertheless has long embraced cashlessness. Practically all transactions, even the most minute, are conducted electronically, while “progressive” tourists extol the benefits of not being inconvenienced by the many seconds it would take to withdraw funds from an ATM or exchange currency upon arrival. Oddly enough, Iceland was already largely cashless prior to its financial collapse in 2008—proving that this move towards “progress” did nothing to prevent an economic meltdown or to stop its perpetrators: the very same banks being entrusted with nearly all of the money supply.
Other examples of cashlessness
abound in Europe. Cash transactions in Sweden represent just 3 percent of the national economy, and most banks no longer hold banknotes. Similarly, many Norwegian banks no longer issue cash, while the country’s largest bank, DNB, has called upon the public to cease using cash. Denmark has announced a goal of eliminating banknotes by 2030. Belgium has introduced a 3,000-euro limit on cash transactions and 93 percent of transactions are cashless. In France, the respective percentage is 92 percent, and cash transactions have been limited to 1,000 euros, just as in Spain. Outside of Europe, cash is being eliminated even in countries such as Somalia and Kenya, while South Korea—itself no stranger to IMF intervention in its economy—has, similarly to Greece, implemented preferential tax policies for consumers who make payments using cards.
Aside from policy changes, practical everyday examples also exist in abundance. Just try to purchase an airline ticket with cash, for instance. It remains possible—but is also said to raise red flags. In many cases, renting an automobile or booking a hotel room with cash is simply not possible. The aforementioned Department of Homeland Security manual considers any payment with cash to be “suspicious behavior”—as one clearly has something to hide if they do not wish to be tracked via electronic payment methods. Ownership of gold makes the list of suspicious activities as well.
Just as the irony of Germany being a largely cash-based society while pushing cashless policies in its Greek protectorate is lost on many Greeks, what is lost on seemingly almost everyone is this: something that is new doesn’t necessarily represent progress, nor does something different. Something that is seemingly easier, or more convenient, is not necessarily progress either. But for many, “technological progress,” just like “scientific innovation” in all its forms and without exception, has attained an aura of infallibility, revered with religious-like fervor.
People queue in front of a bank for an ATM as a man lies on the ground begging for change, in Athens. (AP/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Combating purported tax evasion is also treated with a religious-like fervor, even while ordinary citizens—such as the two aforementioned gentlemen in Greece—typically seek to minimize their outlays to the tax offices. Moreover, while such measures essentially enact a collective punishment regardless of guilt or innocence, corporations and oligarchs who utilize tax loopholes and offshore havens go unpunished and are wholly unaffected by a switch to a cashless economy in the supposed battle against tax evasion.
This is evident, for instance, in the case of “LuxLeaks,” which revealed the names of dozens of corporations benefiting from favorable tax rulings and tax avoidance schemes in Luxembourg, one of the original founding members of the EU. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, formerly the prime minister of Luxembourg, has faced repeated accusations of impeding EU investigations into corporate tax avoidance scandals during his 18-year term as prime minister. Juncker has defended Luxembourg’s tax arrangements as legal.
At the same time, Juncker has shown no qualms in criticizing Apple’s tax avoidance deal in Ireland as “illegal,” while having been accused himself of helping large multinationals such as Amazon and Pepsi avoid taxes. Moreover, he has openly claimed that Greece’s Ottoman roots are responsible for modern-day tax evasion in the country. He has not hesitated to unabashedly intervene in Greek electoral contests, calling on Greeks to avoid the “wrong outcome” in the January 2015 elections (where the supposedly anti-austerity SYRIZA, which has since proven to be boldly pro-austerity, were elected).
He also urged the Greek electorate to vote “yes” (in favor of more EU-proposed austerity) in the July 2015 referendum—where the overwhelming result in favor of “no” was itself overturned by SYRIZA within a matter of days. In the European Union today, if there’s something that can be counted on, it’s the blatant hypocrisy of its leaders. Nevertheless, proving that old habits of collaborationism die hard in Greece, the rector of the law school of the state-owned Aristotle University in Thessaloniki awarded Juncker with an honorary doctorate for his contribution to European political and legal values.
Cashless policies bode poorly for the future
Where does all this lead though? What does a cashless economy actually mean and why are global elites pushing so fervently for it? Consider the following: in a cashless economy without coins or banknotes, every transaction is tracked. Buying and spending habits are monitored, and it is not unheard of for credit card companies to cancel an individual’s credit or to lower their credit rating based on real or perceived risks ranging from shopping at discount stores to purchasing alcoholic beverages. Indeed, this is understood to be common practice. Other players are entering the game too: in late May, Google announced plans to track credit and debit card transactions.
More to the point though, a cashless economy doesn’t just mean that financial institutions, large corporations, or the state itself can monitor all transactions that are occurring. It also means that the entirety of the money supply—itself now existing only in “virtual” form—will belong to the banking system. Not one cent will exist outside of the banking system, as physical currency will simply not be in circulation. The banking system—and others—will be aware not just of every transaction, but will be in possession of all of our society’s money supply, and will even have the ability to receive a percentage of every transaction that is taking place.
So what happens if your spending habits or your choice of travel destinations raises “red flags”? What happens if you run into hard times economically and miss a few payments? What happens if you are deemed to be a political dissident or liability – perhaps an “enemy of the state”? Freezing a bank account or confiscating funds from accounts can take place almost instantaneously. Users of eBay and PayPal, for instance, are quite aware of the ease with which PayPal can confiscate funds from a user’s account based simply on a claim filed against that individual.
Simply forgetting one’s password to an online account can set off an aggravating flurry of calls in order to prove that your money is your own—and that’s without considering the risks of phishing and of online databases being compromised. Many responsible credit card holders found that their credit cards were suddenly canceled in the aftermath of the “Great Recession” simply due to perceived risk. And if you happen to be an individual deemed to be “dangerous,” you can be effectively and easily frozen out of the economy.
Those thinking that the “cashless revolution” will also herald the return of old-style bartering and other communal economic schemes might also wish to reconsider that line of thinking. In the United States, for instance, bartering transactions are considered taxable by the Internal Revenue Service. As more and more economic activity of all sorts takes place online, the tax collector will have an easier time detecting such activity. Thinking of teaching your child to be responsible with finances? That too will have a cost, as even lemonade stands have been targeted for “operating without a permit.” It’s not far-fetched to imagine that particularly overzealous government authorities could also target such activity for “tax evasion.”
In Greece, while oligarchs get to shift their money to offshore tax havens without repercussion and former Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis has been acquitted for failure to submit a declaration of assets, where major television and radio stations operate with impunity without a valid license while no new players can enter the marketplace and where ordinary households and small businesses are literally being taxed to death, police in August 2016 arrested a father of three with an unemployed spouse for selling donuts without a license and fined him 5,000 euros. In another incident, an elderly man selling roasted chestnuts in Thessaloniki was surrounded by 15 police officers and arrested for operating without a license.
Amidst this blatant hypocrisy, governments and financial institutions love electronic money for another reason, aside from the sheer control that it affords them. Studies, including one conducted by the American Psychological Association, have shown that paying with plastic (or, by extension, other non-physical forms of payment) encourage greater spending, as the psychological sensation of a loss when making a payment is disconnected from the actual act of purchasing or conducting a transaction.
But ultimately, the elephant in the room is whether the banking system even should be entrusted with the entirety of the monetary supply. The past decade has seen the financial collapse of 2008, the crumbling of financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers in the United States and a continent-wide banking crisis in Europe, which was the true objective behind the “bailouts” of countries such as Greece—saving European and American banks exposed to “toxic” bonds from these nations. Italy’s banking system is currently teetering on dangerous ground, while the Greek banking system, already recapitalized three times since the onset of the country’s economic crisis, may need yet another taxpayer-funded recapitalization. Even the virtual elimination of cash in Iceland did not prevent the country’s banking meltdown in 2008.
Should we entrust the entirety of the money supply to these institutions? What happens if the banking system experiences another systemic failure? Who do you trust more: yourself or institutions that have proven to be wholly irresponsible and unaccountable in their actions? The answer to that question should help guide the debate as to whether society should go cashless.