Features
The Rising Sun comes with bombs on Easter Sunday
by Capt. Elmo Jayawardena
I am no aviation historian, just an aeroplane driver who spent a long time in the sky. The Japanese bombing of Sri Lanka in 1942 is mainly information that passed from people to people as the years rolled. Some subtracted the truth and some others exaggerated the myths. I want to share with readers what little I found out and perhaps shed a little more light on events that took place a long time ago on an Easter Sunday morning.
Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall arrived in Ceylon on April 3, 1942. His flight was from Karachi to Koggala where an RAF base was operational. Birchall was from the 413 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force. They, at that time, had a joint operation with RAF to conduct reconnaissance flights over the southern coast of Ceylon. The aeroplanes used were Catalina flying boats, cumbersome giants who had very long endurance that was needed for the extended range of surveillance over water.
The next day, Saturday April 4, Birchall and his crew of nine were on patrol. Prior to them, another Catalina had gone out on a similar mission and never returned. Reasons became a little clear later when the incident repeated.
Birchall crew spotted stick-like images on the calm sea below. It was at 1600 Saturday afternoon, and they flew lower and closer for better identification. The Catalina was 400 miles south of Koggala at that time, according to the calculations of the navigator. What Birchall spotted was the Japanese fleet of Admiral Chuichi Nagumo. He was sailing on course to Ceylon with six aircraft carriers, four battle ships, three cruisers, three destroyers and a total of 300 carrier based aeroplanes.
Birchall ordered alert messages to be sent to Colombo. The laid out procedure was to repeat the Morse coded transmission three times. As the second message was completed, the aeroplane rocked with machine gun fire from six Zero fighters that had taken off from the carrier Hiryu after spotting Birchall’s Catalina.
The radio officer was injured, the radio equipment shattered, and the bullets ripped the entire aircraft and damaged the fuel tanks.
With great difficulty Birchall managed to land his crippled aeroplane in the sea. The fighters continued to strafe and killed three of Birchall’s crew members floating in the water. The remaining six were taken prisoner and interrogated as to whether any alert message was sent to Colombo. They vehemently denied. For their luck, the Japanese intercepted a transmission from Colombo asking the Catalina to repeat the twice received message as it was not very clear.
The logical conclusion is that Colombo never read Birchall’s warning correctly. It was all in Morse code, and the possibility is always there for a misread. When the Japanese fighter bombers flew overhead Colombo the next day, people were in church; it was Easter Sunday. The RADAR station was closed for maintenance, as it was the normal practice on Sundays. The two fighter squadrons, one in Ratmalana, and one in the Colombo Race Course were on the ground and went into full alert only when they saw a sky-full of Japanese aeroplanes all over Colombo.
It certainly was a surprise attack, exactly like what happened at Pearl Harbour.
To accept logically that Birchall’s message alerted Colombo is difficult. A lot had been written about how he saved Ceylon. Maybe true, maybe not, he certainly initiated the warning.
Had Colombo been on high alert, I wonder how many would have left their homes and attended church to celebrate Easter? Or for that matter, the RADAR station most certainly would have been operational and not closed for routine maintenance.
Then the question is did Birchall really save Sri Lanka? I leave you to logically deduce. As in most matters of history, opinions could differ.The Japanese aeroplanes led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida flew into Colombo on April 5, 1942, at 7.30 am on Easter Sunday. There were 36 fighters, 54 dive bombers and 90 level bombers flying in formation. Commander Fuchida was a very well-known name in the war annals, as it was he who led the attack on Pearl Harbour and also an attack on the city of Darwin. (featured prominently in the movie Tora Tora Tora )
The Japanese mission was to seek and destroy the British fleet in harbour. They came from the south west. Seeing the Japanese fighters all over the sky, the Hurricanes scrambled from Ratmalana. The squadron stationed at the Race Course grounds too started engines, threw chocks off and roared out to the sky to meet the enemy.
Dog fights took place in the Sri Lankan Sky. People on ground heard and saw the aerial battle and climbed roofs to get a better view. The main attack was at the Colombo Harbour. Whilst dive bombers screamed down to release bombs, the Zero fighter escort flew their aeroplanes to their fuel limits, battling against the RAF Hurricanes. Japanese aeroplanes were shot down, Hurricanes were shot down, parachutes drifted in the sky, pilots jumping out of burning wreckages. Ground batteries too opened fire on the attacking planes.
A Japanese pilot by mistake bombed the home for the mentally-challenged patients in Angoda and 20 inmates died. Around 37 was the total count of the dead on ground that fateful morning. The number of aeroplanes lost is very ambiguous, varying figures keep cropping up at each turn of a page. One states seven Japanese planes were shot down and the RAF lost 27; not possible, unless some of the Hurricanes were destroyed before they even got airborne.
It is believed that Japanese aeroplanes crashed in the following sites. Near St. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, Bellanwila, Pita Kotte, Horana, Galle Face green and on the Colombo Race Course grounds.
A few days before the Japanese attack, most of the British fleet had been moved out to the Addu Atoll of the Maldives, South West of Colombo. This was in response to some intercepted massages received in the previous week about a possible invasion.
“People knew of a likelihood of a Japanese attack. As a precaution, my father took the family to Bandarawela by train on April 1.” So said the son of the then President of the Colombo Aero Club.
The Japanese managed to sink the cruiser Hector and the destroyer Tenedos in the harbour itself. Then they located the Cornwall and the Dorsetshire 200 miles southwest of Colombo and sank them too. Some 424 sailors were killed and a 1,000 plus that survived were saved after hours in the water.
Four days later, the Japanese attacked China Bay. This time they sank HMS Vampire and HMS Holyhock killing approximately 700 people. They hunted down the HMS Hermes and sank her near Batticaloa. The death toll on the doomed aircraft carrier was around 307 sailors.
During the attack on China bay, pilot Shigenori Watanabe operating a Japanese fighter bomber circled around a huge oil tank near the harbour. He had two others in the crew with him, Tokya Goto and Sutumu Toshira. They then power-dived their plane aimed at the tank in Kamikaze fashion. The aeroplane exploded on impact, instantly killed the pilots and completely destroyed the installation.
The Sri Lankan sky saw for the first time suicide bombers killing themselves for their country. Similar actions were repeated many times in another war, in another place. Friend or foe, the sadness is the same, they died for causes they believed in, and they were young.
Commander Fuchida’s raid on Colombo was planned on the same strategy as what he did at Pearl Harbour. Had the British fleet been there on April 5, they certainly would have all been sunk.
The Japanese were not interested in destroying Colombo or any other place in Ceylon. They could have easily done so, if that was the intent. They had so many aeroplanes and complete supremacy of the sky during that Easter morning.
Ceylon was saved, from whom and how? If the Japanese were planning on an invasion, it is logical to think they could have bombed Ceylon and devastated everything. The first wave of aeroplanes was a total of 180, and there would have been another 120 waiting in the carriers. The Japanese planes sank every ship that was visible in the water.
Perhaps that was their plan, perhaps not. I wonder whether the answers will ever be known. Why did Admiral Nagumo take his winning fleet and move away without coming to Ceylon? He may have had his reasons or may have had his orders. The fact is Ceylon was saved, and that is what mattered.
Some stories came up of the people who played different roles when Japan invaded Ceylon on that Easter Sunday. Logically, they are all acceptable. Some have written evidence too. Each one merits mention.
‘Rathu Palliya’ is a little church somewhere in Kelaniya. There had been a small cemetery behind the church. People say they remember an unmarked grave there, swollen earth and a small white grave stone with no words to say who was buried. People also said that a Japanese pilot was buried there. He flew in on the Easter Sunday raid and was shot down and crashed and died.
Someone buried him, and marked his grave, no name.The cemetery is no more. New constructions are in place. There is no trace of the unmarked grave and the place and the people of the area had obviously forgotten the unknown Japanese fighter pilot.
Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall spent the war years as a POW in Japan. After the war, he returned home to Canada and visited Ceylon on a later date. His aeroplane was the first known to be shot down in the Sri Lankan sky, and his three crew members, the first to die.
The Catalina that flew out before Birchall’s fateful patrol, there never was any trace of it. It is logical to think that they were spotted by the Japanese fleet and some fighters would have shot them down. There is no record except they were termed missing in action, the first to be recorded so in Sri Lanka.
A young Japanese man came in 1939 to learn to fly in Ratmalana. He became a member of the Aero Club. He was attached to some Japanese mission. Though he came to learn, he had known how to fly, and that too very well, though he pretended he was a student pilot. That was what the instructors whispered to each other in ‘hangar small talk.’
The Japanese trainee pilot did many solo flights over and around Colombo and Ratmalana.Maybe he wasn’t learning to fly, but gathering information on what he saw from the sky.It was also said he simply vanished after some time.
Star pilot Commander Mitsuo Fuchida became a defeated man after the war and started working as a farmer to feed his family. In 1950, he embraced Christianity and became an evangelist preaching salvation and converting people to the faith.
His book “From Pearl Harbour to Golgotha” was widely accepted in America and he toured the USA as an ambassador of peace, preaching the gospel.Like Birchall, Fuchida too came to Ceylon in later years. Not firing a machine gun from a fighter aeroplane, but carrying a Bible.
Commander Mitsuo Fuchida led the attack on Pearl Harbour, the one on Darwin and on Colombo. He was also present at Midway when the famous air battle took place. Fuchida died in 1976 at the age of 73.So ends the story most of my vintage heard from parents who lived during that time. I have tried vainly to find out why Admiral Nagumo turned back without invading Ceylon. Was it an order or precaution?
Who knows?
Elmojay1@gmail.com.
by Dr Gotabhya Ranasinghe
Senior Consultant Cardiologist
National Hospital Sri Lanka
When we sought a meeting with Hon Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, Minister of Health, he graciously cleared his busy schedule to accommodate us. Renowned for his attentive listening and deep understanding, Minister Pathirana is dedicated to advancing the health sector. His openness and transparency exemplify the qualities of an exemplary politician and minister.
Dr. Palitha Mahipala, the current Health Secretary, demonstrates both commendable enthusiasm and unwavering support. This combination of attributes makes him a highly compatible colleague for the esteemed Minister of Health.
Our discussion centered on a project that has been in the works for the past 30 years, one that no other minister had managed to advance.
Minister Pathirana, however, recognized the project’s significance and its potential to revolutionize care for heart patients.
The project involves the construction of a state-of-the-art facility at the premises of the National Hospital Colombo. The project’s location within the premises of the National Hospital underscores its importance and relevance to the healthcare infrastructure of the nation.
This facility will include a cardiology building and a tertiary care center, equipped with the latest technology to handle and treat all types of heart-related conditions and surgeries.
Securing funding was a major milestone for this initiative. Minister Pathirana successfully obtained approval for a $40 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank. With the funding in place, the foundation stone is scheduled to be laid in September this year, and construction will begin in January 2025.
This project guarantees a consistent and uninterrupted supply of stents and related medications for heart patients. As a result, patients will have timely access to essential medical supplies during their treatment and recovery. By securing these critical resources, the project aims to enhance patient outcomes, minimize treatment delays, and maintain the highest standards of cardiac care.
Upon its fruition, this monumental building will serve as a beacon of hope and healing, symbolizing the unwavering dedication to improving patient outcomes and fostering a healthier society.We anticipate a future marked by significant progress and positive outcomes in Sri Lanka’s cardiovascular treatment landscape within the foreseeable timeframe.
by Fr. Emmanuel Fernando, OMI
Jesuit Fr. Aloysius Pieris (affectionately called Fr. Aloy) celebrated his 90th birthday on April 9, 2024 and I, as the editor of our Oblate Journal, THE MISSIONARY OBLATE had gone to press by that time. Immediately I decided to publish an article, appreciating the untiring selfless services he continues to offer for inter-Faith dialogue, the renewal of the Catholic Church, his concern for the poor and the suffering Sri Lankan masses and to me, the present writer.
It was in 1988, when I was appointed Director of the Oblate Scholastics at Ampitiya by the then Oblate Provincial Fr. Anselm Silva, that I came to know Fr. Aloy more closely. Knowing well his expertise in matters spiritual, theological, Indological and pastoral, and with the collaborative spirit of my companion-formators, our Oblate Scholastics were sent to Tulana, the Research and Encounter Centre, Kelaniya, of which he is the Founder-Director, for ‘exposure-programmes’ on matters spiritual, biblical, theological and pastoral. Some of these dimensions according to my view and that of my companion-formators, were not available at the National Seminary, Ampitiya.
Ever since that time, our Oblate formators/ accompaniers at the Oblate Scholasticate, Ampitiya , have continued to send our Oblate Scholastics to Tulana Centre for deepening their insights and convictions regarding matters needed to serve the people in today’s context. Fr. Aloy also had tried very enthusiastically with the Oblate team headed by Frs. Oswald Firth and Clement Waidyasekara to begin a Theologate, directed by the Religious Congregations in Sri Lanka, for the contextual formation/ accompaniment of their members. It should very well be a desired goal of the Leaders / Provincials of the Religious Congregations.
Besides being a formator/accompanier at the Oblate Scholasticate, I was entrusted also with the task of editing and publishing our Oblate journal, ‘The Missionary Oblate’. To maintain the quality of the journal I continue to depend on Fr. Aloy for his thought-provoking and stimulating articles on Biblical Spirituality, Biblical Theology and Ecclesiology. I am very grateful to him for his generous assistance. Of late, his writings on renewal of the Church, initiated by Pope St. John XX111 and continued by Pope Francis through the Synodal path, published in our Oblate journal, enable our readers to focus their attention also on the needed renewal in the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. Fr. Aloy appreciated very much the Synodal path adopted by the Jesuit Pope Francis for the renewal of the Church, rooted very much on prayerful discernment. In my Religious and presbyteral life, Fr.Aloy continues to be my spiritual animator / guide and ongoing formator / acccompanier.
Fr. Aloysius Pieris, BA Hons (Lond), LPh (SHC, India), STL (PFT, Naples), PhD (SLU/VC), ThD (Tilburg), D.Ltt (KU), has been one of the eminent Asian theologians well recognized internationally and one who has lectured and held visiting chairs in many universities both in the West and in the East. Many members of Religious Congregations from Asian countries have benefited from his lectures and guidance in the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) in Manila, Philippines. He had been a Theologian consulted by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences for many years. During his professorship at the Gregorian University in Rome, he was called to be a member of a special group of advisers on other religions consulted by Pope Paul VI.
Fr. Aloy is the author of more than 30 books and well over 500 Research Papers. Some of his books and articles have been translated and published in several countries. Among those books, one can find the following: 1) The Genesis of an Asian Theology of Liberation (An Autobiographical Excursus on the Art of Theologising in Asia, 2) An Asian Theology of Liberation, 3) Providential Timeliness of Vatican 11 (a long-overdue halt to a scandalous millennium, 4) Give Vatican 11 a chance, 5) Leadership in the Church, 6) Relishing our faith in working for justice (Themes for study and discussion), 7) A Message meant mainly, not exclusively for Jesuits (Background information necessary for helping Francis renew the Church), 8) Lent in Lanka (Reflections and Resolutions, 9) Love meets wisdom (A Christian Experience of Buddhism, 10) Fire and Water 11) God’s Reign for God’s poor, 12) Our Unhiddden Agenda (How we Jesuits work, pray and form our men). He is also the Editor of two journals, Vagdevi, Journal of Religious Reflection and Dialogue, New Series.
Fr. Aloy has a BA in Pali and Sanskrit from the University of London and a Ph.D in Buddhist Philosophy from the University of Sri Lankan, Vidyodaya Campus. On Nov. 23, 2019, he was awarded the prestigious honorary Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt) by the Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya, the Most Venerable Welamitiyawe Dharmakirthi Sri Kusala Dhamma Thera.
Fr. Aloy continues to be a promoter of Gospel values and virtues. Justice as a constitutive dimension of love and social concern for the downtrodden masses are very much noted in his life and work. He had very much appreciated the commitment of the late Fr. Joseph (Joe) Fernando, the National Director of the Social and Economic Centre (SEDEC) for the poor.
In Sri Lanka, a few religious Congregations – the Good Shepherd Sisters, the Christian Brothers, the Marist Brothers and the Oblates – have invited him to animate their members especially during their Provincial Congresses, Chapters and International Conferences. The mainline Christian Churches also have sought his advice and followed his seminars. I, for one, regret very much, that the Sri Lankan authorities of the Catholic Church –today’s Hierarchy—- have not sought Fr.
Aloy’s expertise for the renewal of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka and thus have not benefited from the immense store of wisdom and insight that he can offer to our local Church while the Sri Lankan bishops who governed the Catholic church in the immediate aftermath of the Second Vatican Council (Edmund Fernando OMI, Anthony de Saram, Leo Nanayakkara OSB, Frank Marcus Fernando, Paul Perera,) visited him and consulted him on many matters. Among the Tamil Bishops, Bishop Rayappu Joseph was keeping close contact with him and Bishop J. Deogupillai hosted him and his team visiting him after the horrible Black July massacre of Tamils.
Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
By Gomi Senadhira
senadhiragomi@gmail.com
“You might tell fairy tales, but the progress of a country cannot be achieved through such narratives. A country cannot be developed by making false promises. The country moved backward because of the electoral promises made by political parties throughout time. We have witnessed that the ultimate result of this is the country becoming bankrupt. Unfortunately, many segments of the population have not come to realize this yet.” – President Ranil Wickremesinghe, 2024 Budget speech
Any Sri Lankan would agree with the above words of President Wickremesinghe on the false promises our politicians and officials make and the fairy tales they narrate which bankrupted this country. So, to understand this, let’s look at one such fairy tale with lots of false promises; Ranil Wickremesinghe’s greatest achievement in the area of international trade and investment promotion during the Yahapalana period, Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA).
It is appropriate and timely to do it now as Finance Minister Wickremesinghe has just presented to parliament a bill on the National Policy on Economic Transformation which includes the establishment of an Office for International Trade and the Sri Lanka Institute of Economics and International Trade.
Was SLSFTA a “Cleverly negotiated Free Trade Agreement” as stated by the (former) Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama during the Parliamentary Debate on the SLSFTA in July 2018, or a colossal blunder covered up with lies, false promises, and fairy tales? After SLSFTA was signed there were a number of fairy tales published on this agreement by the Ministry of Development Strategies and International, Institute of Policy Studies, and others.
However, for this article, I would like to limit my comments to the speech by Minister Samarawickrama during the Parliamentary Debate, and the two most important areas in the agreement which were covered up with lies, fairy tales, and false promises, namely: revenue loss for Sri Lanka and Investment from Singapore. On the other important area, “Waste products dumping” I do not want to comment here as I have written extensively on the issue.
1. The revenue loss
During the Parliamentary Debate in July 2018, Minister Samarawickrama stated “…. let me reiterate that this FTA with Singapore has been very cleverly negotiated by us…. The liberalisation programme under this FTA has been carefully designed to have the least impact on domestic industry and revenue collection. We have included all revenue sensitive items in the negative list of items which will not be subject to removal of tariff. Therefore, 97.8% revenue from Customs duty is protected. Our tariff liberalisation will take place over a period of 12-15 years! In fact, the revenue earned through tariffs on goods imported from Singapore last year was Rs. 35 billion.
The revenue loss for over the next 15 years due to the FTA is only Rs. 733 million– which when annualised, on average, is just Rs. 51 million. That is just 0.14% per year! So anyone who claims the Singapore FTA causes revenue loss to the Government cannot do basic arithmetic! Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I call on my fellow members of this House – don’t mislead the public with baseless criticism that is not grounded in facts. Don’t look at petty politics and use these issues for your own political survival.”
I was surprised to read the minister’s speech because an article published in January 2018 in “The Straits Times“, based on information released by the Singaporean Negotiators stated, “…. With the FTA, tariff savings for Singapore exports are estimated to hit $10 million annually“.
As the annual tariff savings (that is the revenue loss for Sri Lanka) calculated by the Singaporean Negotiators, Singaporean $ 10 million (Sri Lankan rupees 1,200 million in 2018) was way above the rupees’ 733 million revenue loss for 15 years estimated by the Sri Lankan negotiators, it was clear to any observer that one of the parties to the agreement had not done the basic arithmetic!
Six years later, according to a report published by “The Morning” newspaper, speaking at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) on 7th May 2024, Mr Samarawickrama’s chief trade negotiator K.J. Weerasinghehad had admitted “…. that forecasted revenue loss for the Government of Sri Lanka through the Singapore FTA is Rs. 450 million in 2023 and Rs. 1.3 billion in 2024.”
If these numbers are correct, as tariff liberalisation under the SLSFTA has just started, we will pass Rs 2 billion very soon. Then, the question is how Sri Lanka’s trade negotiators made such a colossal blunder. Didn’t they do their basic arithmetic? If they didn’t know how to do basic arithmetic they should have at least done their basic readings. For example, the headline of the article published in The Straits Times in January 2018 was “Singapore, Sri Lanka sign FTA, annual savings of $10m expected”.
Anyway, as Sri Lanka’s chief negotiator reiterated at the COPF meeting that “…. since 99% of the tariffs in Singapore have zero rates of duty, Sri Lanka has agreed on 80% tariff liberalisation over a period of 15 years while expecting Singapore investments to address the imbalance in trade,” let’s turn towards investment.
Investment from Singapore
In July 2018, speaking during the Parliamentary Debate on the FTA this is what Minister Malik Samarawickrama stated on investment from Singapore, “Already, thanks to this FTA, in just the past two-and-a-half months since the agreement came into effect we have received a proposal from Singapore for investment amounting to $ 14.8 billion in an oil refinery for export of petroleum products. In addition, we have proposals for a steel manufacturing plant for exports ($ 1 billion investment), flour milling plant ($ 50 million), sugar refinery ($ 200 million). This adds up to more than $ 16.05 billion in the pipeline on these projects alone.
And all of these projects will create thousands of more jobs for our people. In principle approval has already been granted by the BOI and the investors are awaiting the release of land the environmental approvals to commence the project.
I request the Opposition and those with vested interests to change their narrow-minded thinking and join us to develop our country. We must always look at what is best for the whole community, not just the few who may oppose. We owe it to our people to courageously take decisions that will change their lives for the better.”
According to the media report I quoted earlier, speaking at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) Chief Negotiator Weerasinghe has admitted that Sri Lanka was not happy with overall Singapore investments that have come in the past few years in return for the trade liberalisation under the Singapore-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement. He has added that between 2021 and 2023 the total investment from Singapore had been around $162 million!
What happened to those projects worth $16 billion negotiated, thanks to the SLSFTA, in just the two-and-a-half months after the agreement came into effect and approved by the BOI? I do not know about the steel manufacturing plant for exports ($ 1 billion investment), flour milling plant ($ 50 million) and sugar refinery ($ 200 million).
However, story of the multibillion-dollar investment in the Petroleum Refinery unfolded in a manner that would qualify it as the best fairy tale with false promises presented by our politicians and the officials, prior to 2019 elections.
Though many Sri Lankans got to know, through the media which repeatedly highlighted a plethora of issues surrounding the project and the questionable credentials of the Singaporean investor, the construction work on the Mirrijiwela Oil Refinery along with the cement factory began on the24th of March 2019 with a bang and Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his ministers along with the foreign and local dignitaries laid the foundation stones.
That was few months before the 2019 Presidential elections. Inaugurating the construction work Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the projects will create thousands of job opportunities in the area and surrounding districts.
The oil refinery, which was to be built over 200 acres of land, with the capacity to refine 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day, was to generate US$7 billion of exports and create 1,500 direct and 3,000 indirect jobs. The construction of the refinery was to be completed in 44 months. Four years later, in August 2023 the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to cancel the agreement with the investors of the refinery as the project has not been implemented! Can they explain to the country how much money was wasted to produce that fairy tale?
It is obvious that the President, ministers, and officials had made huge blunders and had deliberately misled the public and the parliament on the revenue loss and potential investment from SLSFTA with fairy tales and false promises.
As the president himself said, a country cannot be developed by making false promises or with fairy tales and these false promises and fairy tales had bankrupted the country. “Unfortunately, many segments of the population have not come to realize this yet”.
(The writer, a specialist and an activist on trade and development issues . )
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