US Ambassador Alaina B Teplitz speaks as though Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans cannot think for themselves. Just check the headline quote from an interview published in the Daily Mirror: ‘Sri Lanka should engage with China in ways that protect its sovereignty’ — Alaina B Teplitz.
The gumption!
The Ambassador starts off by mentioning business: a) The USA is Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner (accounting for 3% of Sri Lanka’s GDP), b) Sri Lanka’s exports to the US provide employment to 180,000 people, and c) US grant assistance amounts to US $ 2 billion, followed by a list of ‘stuff we’ve done.’
Then she mutters some nonsense about the MCC Compact, claiming that it was a request by Sri Lanka. Well, it was, technically, but one that the USA got its pals in the then Government to make, even funding the research that produced (important word here) the data for what she calls a data-driven proposal.
Let’s return to China. Is Teplitz saying that Sri Lanka doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘sovereignty’? Does she think that we need her to tell us how to protect our sovereignty? And doesn’t she know that the US does not give two hoots for anyone’s sovereignty? The US is about US interests. Fine. US interests will bomb sovereignty to a point where the letters can’t be put together again. And of course the people who were supposed to be sovereign in a land where territorial integrity had some relevance.
She wants Sri Lanka not to be vulnerable in its relationships. Well, the USA not just goes out of the way to make countries vulnerable, but in the name of sorting vulnerability and championing democracy, fosters terrorism, funds and orchestrates coups and even invades them!
She is dismayed that Chinese companies are contracted for China-funded projects. The lady needs to read up on the political economy of underdevelopment and how ‘aid’ really works. Pittance for the receiver, profits for the giver along with a greater footprint in the internal political and economic affairs of the country.
Sri Lanka should have worried about the USA and Europe and should continue to worry about the powerful nations in that part of the world. Sri Lanka should worry about China.
Let us do our worrying, Teplitz
The Pepper Spray Club
Source: gammiris.lk