Opinion
An Economic Round Table – a farce in a fallen economy?
It is indeed amusing to read this debate published in The Island about an “economic roundtable towards a consensus”, presumably to help Sri Lanka’s politicians to get the country out of the abyss it has fallen into. Could these writers be practising a genre of writing bordering on farce, and understated amusement?
They realise that what is needed in the first instance is a tribunal and a guillotine set up in the Galle Face Green, to execute the crooks who have amassed personal fortunes by various scams and “jaavaram”? Scams could be at the august level of a Prime Minister and a Governor of the Central Bank working in collusion, with a Minister who did not know who paid the rent for his luxury flat, or at the ignominious level of a secretary to the President who exchanged sacks of money in a dark parking lot, or in the shadow of changing the price of sugar or of nano-nitrogen to fill desired pockets.
However, once the crooks are got rid of, and their ill-gotten wealth nationalised and repatriated, the economists could be called in to give consensual advice?
Hema Senanayake, who thinks that a round table of economists will square the circle, may have heard of Bernard Shaw’s remark that if you ask 10 economists to point to the North, they will point in 11 different directions and yet miss the North!
Hema Senanayake says, perhaps with unstated irony that “In chemistry, there is no middle path, just known truth prevails. So is physics. In brief all subjects of natural sciences there are scientific truths. Why not in economics?” The simple answer is that Economics is NOT a science. According to Dr. Nalin de Silva, even science is a chronic Western lie – only revealed truth is “truth”.
Senanayake may be secretly thinking of the address given by von Hayek on receiving the Nobel Prize for Economics, entitled “On pretence of knowledge”. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1974/hayek/lecture/
Von Hayek says that most economic advice is just pretence to knowledge, when no such knowledge exists. In regard to the analogy with the physical sciences, he says:
“Economic Science marks a significant step in the process by which, in the opinion of the general public, economics has conceded some of the dignity and prestige of the physical sciences. On the other hand, the economists are at this moment called upon to say how to extricate the free world from the serious threat of accelerating inflation which, it must be admitted, has been brought about by policies which the majority of economists recommended and even urged governments to pursue. We have indeed at the moment little cause for pride: as a profession we have made a mess of things.
It seems to me that this failure of the economists to guide policy more successfully is closely connected with their propensity to imitate as closely as possible the procedures of the brilliantly successful physical sciences – an attempt which in our field may lead to outright error.”
Senanayake is carrying his irony too far when he says “Therefore, I would unite with Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke to call for an Economic Round table and let’s begin with economic axioms. Our people would be relieved from economic suffering within months.”
In Months, WOW! After all, we have heard of Euclid’s axioms, or the axioms set down by Whitehead and Russell in their abortive bid to unify logic and mathematics. But what are these axioms of Economics? The pretence that there are such axioms has been expunged long ago by von Hayek in his Nobel-prize speech.
So what about Sri Lanka’s economy? Surely, if the old soldier had not shot himself in the foot by listening to the likes of Venerable Rathana, Dr. Padeniya, or Dr. Jayasumana to clean the country of toxins, he would not have banned agrochemicals last April. There would have been less of a crisis.
AGRICULTURE- the leading leg of the nation.
What we need now are not economic axioms, but rapid-result agriculture.
Mrs. Bandaranaike, having destroyed Dudley Senanayake’s gains in agriculture, realised in 1971-72 that a possible recourse was to grow Manioc, Millet etc., i.e., crops that need very little agrochemicals! Manioc leaves contain a form of cyanide, and even caterpillars or cattle avoid it. However, if the leaves are pounded and left for an hour, the cyanide is released and makes an excellent “Maellum” (cooked salad) rich in protein.
The government has not only shot one foot (agriculture), but also its other foot (energy sector), and is unable to stand erect. It is on its four limbs; its only capacity is to beg. But DISASTER CAPITALISM is here. The main question for the round-table economists is, who should buy up the disaster – the US, Chinese or Indian capitalists? But, even if the economists come to some agreement, they cannot achieve much, unless they can invite the likes of Goldman Sachs, Mukesh Ambani or Ma Huateng to the talks. That is the only valid axiom!
If the agricultural catastrophe can be weathered for a year by resorting to Manioc and other fallback foods (while the upper classes eat their organic food and drink Evian water), at least one leg of the economy becomes viable. How about the other leg – the power sector?
THE POWER SECTOR- the left leg of the nation
: Already, the local populace has re-discovered firewood. This is bio-energy. Quick growing plants requiring little or no fertiliser and resistant to pests, fit the bill. While exploiting quick-growing plants like Giricidia, my choice for a high-payoff plant for the power sector is Castor, “Erandu” in swabhasha. The oil can be used in a diesel engine without further treatment! It grows fast on the poorest of soils, untouched by even a very hungry goat or gnat. The whole plant, seeds, shells can be burnt to produce high-pressure steam and electric power.
Ipil Ipil, used in coconut plantations as it is a nitrogen-fixing plant, grows to 20-30 feet in a couple of years, and can also be used for firewood or for power generation.
Ifham Nizam’s report in The Island (1st January 2022) says that “Hydro Power capacity has dropped to 70 percent from nearly 95 percent during the recent rains.” When the rains stop, the water levels in the reservoirs fall as the water flows down the sluices, turbines and into irrigation canals. But what is not appreciated is that one third of this water (that could generate 95% during rains) gets lost by EVAPORATION occurring day and night, especially from water areas covered by Salvinia and other aquatic plants.
One might imagine that aquatic plants cover the water and prevent evaporation. Far from it. They act like wicks, and bring up water through their underwater roots and to the air more efficiently. So, REMOVE the aquatic plants, and put floating covers on the windswept part of the water. You immediately get 1/3 MORE electricity by extending the effect of the rains.
Putting floats on water surfaces to partially cover them is a locally available, rapidly deployable technology. However, these floats can carry solar panels. Then, a good additional amount of solar energy, besides the 1/3 extra electricity obtained by cutting evaporation, can be obtained. This solar electricity can be used during the day; a corresponding amount of water can be saved by shutting off a few turbines.
Deploying floating covers to prevent evaporation (with or without solar panels) cleans up the aquatic surfaces. The Salvinia, “Japan Jabara” (water hyacinth) etc., suck up the dissolved oxygen in the water and asphyxiate aquatic organisms, and create unhealthy aquatic bodies. The aquatic weeds thrive in excess phosphates carried down to reservoirs from agricultural areas. So, clearing up these aquatic surfaces, and covering them partially using solar panels will IMPROVE the aquatic ecosystem beyond measure.
In summary, falling back to fast-growing primordial diets based on manioc, millets and yams to weather over the immediate shock of the collapse of the conventional agriculture sector, can steady one leg of the economy. The other leg, i. e., the power sector, may have to fall back on fire wood, Gliricidia, Castor and such bio-energy sources, while taking steps to prevent loss of hydro-power due to water evaporation.
However, an efficient organisational structure is needed to achieve these objectives. The Ministry of Agriculture has had five secretaries in a short length of time. It is like a demoralised army languishing under a succession of mad men, who ordered firing even into its own ranks.
CHANDRE
DHARMAWARDANA
chandre.dharma@yahoo.ca