Tremors Welcome

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Tremors Welcome

SRI LANKA

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is often portrayed as a Marxist who helped organize protests that led to the ousting in 2022 of the country’s former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, part of the family that has long run the country.

As the Associated Press reported, after winning groundbreaking elections in late September in an upset, Dissanayake called snap parliamentary elections for Nov. 14 to help solidify the control of his National People’s Power (NPP) alliance and his political party, the People’s Liberation Front (PLF), a Marxist group that launched two failed socialist revolutions in the South Asian island country in the 1970s and 1980s.

Writers at the World Socialist Web Site disagreed about the Marxist tag, however, arguing that Dissanayake was never a leftist radical. Now 55, he came of age, for example, when the PLF supported the Sinhalese-dominated central government’s brutal campaign against now-defeated ethnic Tamil militants, ending the 25-year-long Sri Lankan civil war in 2009.

The distinction is important because Dissanayake, who overcame Sri Lanka’s traditional ruling families to win September’s election, has major decisions to make about his country’s economy and its relations abroad.

On the campaign trail, for example, Dissanayake pledged to dole out more state aid to the poor and relief to Sri Lankans suffering under the austerity policies that Sri Lanka has been obligated to enact under a $2.9 billion bailout program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These measures included higher income taxes and electricity prices that especially hammered the poor, Al Jazeera reported.

And by the way, it was the economic hardships faced by ordinary Sri Lankans, and the rampant corruption in the country, that led to the 2022 street protests that led to the Rajapaksa family’s downfall.

Now, as GIS Reports explained, Dissanayake must implement IMF austerity commitments while also making good on his promises to improve the economy and public services.

The president has called on easing the tax burden for the poorest Sri Lankans, cracking down on government corruption and increasing transparency while renegotiating the IMF bailout terms, the United States Institute of Peace noted. He has also argued for allowing more direct foreign investment into the country to grow jobs.

And in the first month of office, the average Sri Lankan is satisfied with the steps the NPP government has taken so far, which include farmers and fishermen receiving fuel and fertilizer subsidies and pensioners getting a modest pay rise.

Now, the president clearly hopes the NPP alliance will win a majority as a mandate for his reform-minded policies, Reuters wrote. Gaining those allies in the legislature will give him significant flexibility in answering to the IMF and his constituents while inking new trade rules.

Meanwhile, critics say he is likely to “pursue protectionist measures, including efforts to spearhead more domestic production while favoring small and medium enterprises,” added Foreign Policy, illustrating local fear of the president’s Marxist credentials. Even so, the magazine adds that despite his anti-corruption stance, “he is not a traditional populist, either: He supports free trade and assistance from international financial institutions.”

On the diplomatic front, Dissanayake is navigating Sri Lanka’s financial and political commitments to India, the US and especially China: Sri Lanka owes billions of dollars for infrastructure projects to China but defaulted in 2022. While historically he and his People’s Liberation Front have leaned toward communist China, the new president has not made many foreign overtures since he’s been in office.

After he was elected, the new president faced an uphill battle to implement the mandate he was given by voters for a fresh start, say analysts. Part of that roadblock is parliament, which is still dominated by the party of the Rajapaksa family – Dissanayake’s party only holds three seats.

So it’s no surprise, added the Diplomat, that one of his first moves after taking the helm of the country was to call elections to change that. Now it’s up to voters. And they are expected to give Dissanayake’s party a huge mandate.

After all, as Sri Lankan social scientist B. Skanthakumar noted, it’s all part and parcel of Sri Lanka’s fresh start. Because after all, “Sri Lanka is experiencing a political earthquake.”

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

Too Little, Too Late

UNITED KINGDOM

The United Kingdom’s Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned this week following a report that criticized his failure to adequately address sexual abuse allegations within the Church of England, the latest fallout in a decades-long scandal involving widespread abuse by British lawyer John Smyth, CBS News reported.

Smyth, who held leadership roles at Christian summer camps, is accused of abusing more than 100 boys and young men in the UK and Africa over a span of five decades.

Last week, an independent Church of England investigation – known as the Makin Review – detailed the scope of Smyth’s actions, which included inflicting physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual trauma to his victims.

The report also found that church officials, including Welby, had failed to effectively handle complaints about Smyth, saying their responses “were wholly ineffective and amounted to a coverup.”

In his resignation announcement Tuesday, Welby claimed that he only learned of the abuse in 2013, the year he became archbishop.

He had assumed police were informed, but added that “he believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.”

Smyth died in 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa, while he was still under investigation by British authorities.

The outgoing archbishop expressed “shame” over the Church’s failures, admitting he could have done more to prevent “re-traumatizing” survivors.

“The Makin Review has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuse of John Smyth,” he noted.

He pledged to meet with victims and delegated his safeguarding responsibilities pending a risk assessment.

His resignation follows mounting pressure from within the Church, including a petition signed by more than 1,500 members calling for his departure.

Church leaders reacted to Welby’s resignation with a mix of support and calls for reform, Sky News wrote.

The Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell said Welby’s decision was “right and honorable,” The Bishop of London Sarah Mullally emphasized the need for immediate changes to safeguard against future abuse.

Meanwhile, victims expressed relief at the resignation, calling for other bishops who allegedly knew of Smyth’s abuse to resign.

The Toxic Shroud

INDIA & PAKISTAN

Cities in India and Pakistan saw unprecedented levels of thick, toxic smog this week, leading officials to close schools, keep workers home and request residents wear masks, CNN reported.

The Air Quality Index has surpassed 1,000 in Lahore, Pakistan and reached the 500 mark in Delhi, India. Anything above 301 on the index is considered hazardous and causes serious health effects such as heart and lung conditions and eye and throat irritation.

“This is a critical situation,” said Marriyum Aurangzeb, a senior minister in Punjab, adding that the smog could linger for another 10 days.

Thousands of people have been admitted to hospitals because of respiratory issues in the past week in Punjab, many of them children.

The pollution in the region has been so pronounced that it can be seen from space. Earlier this week, NASA satellite images showed a blanket of smog engulfing parts of northern India and neighboring Pakistan.

Most years, crop burning in northern India and Pakistan contributes to poor air quality in October and November, along with other human activities such as vehicle emissions, industry, and cooking fires.

Responding to the crisis, authorities in Pakistan also banned the use of outdoor grills that use wood or coal, impounded vehicles, and ordered motorized rickshaws off the roads. In Lahore, the authorities have ordered half of all workers to stay home.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government enacted its Graded Response Action Plan that bans all activities that involve the use of coal, diesel generators, and firewood. They urged residents to stay indoors and use public transport to reduce vehicle emissions, reported BBC News.

Still, 81 percent of families reported at least one member suffering from health issues due to pollution in the last week, according to a survey on an online community platform.

Analysts have attributed the rising pollution levels to rapid industrialization and weak enforcement of environmental laws, and argued that the governments must find long-term solutions.

Watching the Watchers

SPAIN

Spain arrested the former top law enforcement officer in charge of the unit investigating fraud and corruption after discovering around $22 million hidden in the walls of his house, the Guardian reported this week.

Óscar Sánchez Gil, the former head of the fraud and anti-money laundering division of Spain’s national police force, was arrested last week along with 15 other people, including his girlfriend, also a police officer in the Madrid region.

During the raid on his home, police found the cash hidden in the walls and ceilings of the couple’s home near the Spanish capital.

Officers also found more than $1 million in his office.

The couple has been charged with drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and membership of a criminal organization and have been jailed until trial.

Spanish media said the arrests were linked to the seizure last month of 13 tons of cocaine that arrived in the southern port of Algeciras from Ecuador, the largest-ever haul of cocaine in Spain and “one of the largest seizures in the world.”

Police operations uncovered links between the importer of the drugs and Sánchez Gil.

He was already under suspicion by his colleagues who had tapped his phone, the newspaper El Mundo reported. He is suspected of having worked for the drug traffickers for “at least five years,” providing information on the surveillance of containers in Spanish ports, which enabled them to avoid checks, Agence France-Presse wrote.

Spain is a main entry point for drugs into Europe because of its close ties with former colonies in Latin America such as major cocaine producers Colombia and Peru, and its proximity to Morocco, a top cannabis producer.

DISCOVERIES

Decoding Well Man

The 800-year-old Norse text “Sverris Saga” tells the story of King Sverre Sigurdsson, who ruled medieval Norway from 1184 until his death in 1202 CE, and recounts a battle in 1197 at Sverresborg Castle in Trondheim, Norway, where Sverre’s enemies threw a corpse into its well to contaminate the water supply.

While it appeared to be a simple throwaway line, scientists recently discovered that the “Well Man” was actually a real person, according to Science Alert.

In 1938, archeologists uncovered human bones at the bottom of this well, but without modern analysis, researchers couldn’t identify or learn much about the individual.

Now, a new study using radiocarbon dating, gene sequencing, and isotope analysis allowed a research team to uncover more details about the man’s identity.

“This is the first time that a person described in these historical texts has actually been found,” co-author Michael D. Martin said in a statement. “There are a lot of these medieval and ancient remains all around Europe, and they’re increasingly being studied using genomic methods.”

Radiocarbon dating and isotope analysis confirmed that the skeletal remains were around 900 years old, which aligned them with the 1197 raid.

Meanwhile, the genetic analysis showed that the Well Man had blue eyes, blonde or light brown hair and his ancestry traced back to Vest-Agder in southern Norway – hundreds of miles from Trondheim.

Still, there’s much that the researchers don’t know, such as the man’s name or how he was killed – the medieval text says he was already dead when he was thrown into the well.

According to the saga, Sverre’s Roman Catholic opponents – known as Baglers, or Bagal – launched a stealth attack at the castle while the king was elsewhere.

“The Bagals seized all the property in the castle, and then they burnt every building of it,” read the text. “They took a dead man and cast him into the well, and then filled it up with stones.”

The story goes on to suggest that they spared the locals, although archeologist Anna Petersén, another author of the study, noted that “the reality is much more complex than the text.”

The authors believe that the study can serve as a model for integrating historical records with genomic analysis, and could help illuminate more information about other historical figures.

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