Private sector speaks up before Budget 2015

Private sector speaks up before Budget 2015
Published : 12:05 am  October 13, 2014
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18 business leaders share priority recommendations with Finance Ministry officials at Daily FT-Colombo Uni MBA Alumni Forum

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam

A top group of business leaders on Friday presented key insights and suggestions for Finance Ministry consideration at a unique forum organised by the Daily FT and Colombo University MBA Alumni Association.

Eighteen leaders drawn from different economic sectors and businesses shared what they view as the most critical issues that the Government must address in Budget 2015, to be presented by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 24 October.

The annual forum with breakfast, which was held for the fourth year running and sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank, featured Finance Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera as the Chief Guest along with senior officials from the Ministry of Finance including heads of Budget, Fiscal Policy, Trade and Tariff, Legal, Import Controller, Inland Revenue Department and Sri Lanka Customs.

The business leaders who spoke were John Keells Holdings Deputy Chairman Ajit Gunewardene, Brandix Lanka CEO Ashroff Omar, Aitken Spence Plc Deputy Chairman Rajan Brito, Hemas Holdings Plc Chairman Husein Esufally, Hayleys Plc Chairman Mohan Pandithage, Expolanka Holdings Plc Group MD Hanif Yusoof, Access Engineering Plc Chairman Sumal Perera, Royal Ceramics Plc Managing Director Nimal Perera, DSI Group MD Kulathunga Rajapakse, Akbar Brothers Director Azgi Akbarally, Laugfs Gas Plc Chairman W.K.H. Wegapitiya, Indian CEOs Forum Director and Lanka IOC Managing Director Subodh Dakwale, 99X Technologies Managing Director Mano Sekaram, Cornucopia Lanka Managing Director Dinesh Weerakkody, Emirates Area Manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives Chandana De Silva, Grant McCann Erickson Sri Lanka Chairperson Neela Marrikar, Lanka Confectionery Manufacturers Association Chairman 

Sylvester Perera and Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce Consultant Azmi Thassim.
Their suggestions ranged from macro as well as industry specific as they were requested to present the three most important expectations from Budget 2015 from a sector and corporate perspective.

Most of the ideas were to further the Government’s aspirations to develop Sri Lanka as a hub for commercial/tourism, maritime, aviation, energy and knowledge as well as reach the per capita goals set by 2016 and 2020.

Taxation consistency as well as reductions or reforms where needed were emphasised. Favourable taxation was suggested to help new industries as well as SMEs and support outward investments. To promote local industry, effective taxation and levies was called for as well, whilst another suggestion was favourable taxation to reduce cost of raw materials. There was also a suggestion to recognise holding company structure in taxation.

Changes to the proposed Land Bill by introducing a deemed tax on foreign acquisitions was recommended whilst another suggestion was that the BOI and listed companies should be kept out of its provisions.

Levelling the playing field in tourism by absorbing those in the informal sector into taxation, a taskforce with an action plan that will allow the industry to achieve its maximum potential was also suggested. The mandate of the taskforce must include ensuring that the uniqueness of the country is protected while achieving rapid growth. Introduction of minimum rates for peak and off peak season to keep Sri Lanka competitive was another recommendation.

In the agriculture sector, better and urgent utilisation of the tea promotion CESS fund and subsidies for replanting for tea smallholders were recommended. For the rubber sector, the need to support smallholders on replanting as well as incentivise tappers was suggested to boost production. Another was removal of the ban on plantations diversifying into palm oil.

Several local industries called for implementation of anti-dumping and counter-veiling legislation to promote local production of tiles, discouraging of loopholes for under-invoicing on imported ceramic and sanitary ware products, reforms in public sector procurement and encouraging the sourcing of locally-made products.

In the case of footwear, a more effective import levy on imports was suggested to promote local manufacturers since importers were bringing down footwear in two parts to avoid the CESS.
Encouraging the mining of clay in tanks with a better tax regime was proposed rather than discouraging this more environmentally-friendly practice.

Also suggested was a one-stop-shop to issue both investment approvals and environmental licence for new industries, for industrial zones to be equipped with waste disposal and waste water treatment facilities, a one-stop place for quarantine approvals for floriculture and extension of triple taxation relief on research and development to in-house efforts to promote new product developments.

Other proposals included removal of 10% mark-up on the CIF value of imports, thereby reducing the cost of raw material, and levelling the playing field in relation to taxation on import of cement irrespective of whether own, chartered or third party ships are used.

In the aviation sector, suggestions included a more transparent jet fuel policy and a proper open sky policy.

Under maritime and aviation, proposals called for greater public private partnerships to better leverage the logistics, aviation and maritime hub goals, faster adaption to e-documentation and extending the lower 12% corporate income tax enjoyed by shipping to the logistics industry as well. The continuity of 2014 Budget measures on Terminal Handling Charge (THC) was also suggested.
Aggressive promotion of the hub strategy and incentives provided was another key recommendation, in addition to further support for investments in ship repairs and ship building.

In the energy sector, calls were made for an automatic pricing formula for fuel to ensure long-term investment, further development and planning and favourable taxation to boost bunkering as part of maritime hub aspirations and earn higher foreign exchange.

Encouragement of greater investment by supporting development of energy infrastructure and security to serve both local and regional needs was another key suggestion.

A favourable tax rate to promote fully electric vehicles and concessions to set up solar harness electric discharging stations was also recommended.

With regard to human resources and skills development, a fresh round of labour laws and education sector reforms and setting up a public-private skills development council like in Singapore bringing all skills and training infrastructure

under one entity to ensure alignment with country’s development goals as well as restructuring the Skills Development Fund to better cater to demands of new sectors such as apparel, financial services, retail, BPO, etc. were proposed,

while another suggestion was effective measures and incentives to draw back skilled and professional Sri Lankan talent currently abroad, in addition to support for automation given the shortage of labour.
In the marketing arena, favourable taxation to stimulate the advertising industry and the development of local brands were suggested. Another recommendation was better country marketing and branding globally, given the considerable

post-war development. Avoidance of excessive legislation that adds cost to FMCG business with the safety sticker issue was cited as an example.

In the financial services sector, a key suggestion was encouraging banks to focus on the housing mortgage market, with the twin objective of encouraging long-term lending and housing for all policies of the Government with multiplier effects on several other sectors. Further support to develop long term savings/pension products was also highlighted.

In the IT/BPO sector, support to promote venture capital and foster start-ups with private-public partnerships, incentivise development of industry-ready human resource for the IT/BPO sector and further support to fully harness the knowledge hub aspirations of the Government were among the suggestions shared.

At provincial level, proposals revolved around higher investments in education, health, training and tertiary education as well tourism infrastructure, support for SMEs, favourable taxation, extension of lower interest rate currently given to livelihood projects to women entrepreneurs and tax relief for district chambers of commerce to support entrepreneurship.

Dr. Jayasundera, in his response, welcomed business leaders’ suggestions and said new ones would be considered as some were already being implemented. He was also happy that the list of private sector recommendations wasn’t long as last year.

He said that in an era of greater free trade globally and with the country forging new free trade deals with China and Japan in addition to existing ones with India and Pakistan, restrictions on imports as well as protectionist measures would be challenging. “Somebody’s input is another’s output,” he added.

It was emphasised that local producers need to focus on improving efficiencies and productivity as well as branding.

The Finance Secretary also warned that labour would continue to be expensive and lacking as the country’s economy moves up in the prosperity and development scale, apart from greater mobility and wider choices.

It was also emphasised that tax revenue was critical as the country is seeing rapid infrastructure development, which is key. He also said the Government’s move towards lower fiscal deficit was a bigger benefit for the private sector along with sound macro fundamentals.

The need for private sector to consolidate itself, partner where necessary as well as work in collaboration with the Government was emphasised as well.

FDI growth nearly 50%

FDI growth nearly 50% 

October 13, 2014 2:00 am

By Mario Andree

Ceylon Finance Today: After receiving more than US$ 1.36 billion during the first three quarters through Foreign Direct Investment, the government now needs US$ 640 million more to achieve this year's revised FDI target of US$ 2 billion.

Minister of Investment Promotion Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena recently told journalists that the country received US$ 1.36 billion during the three quarters ended 30 September, which was a nearly 50% increase over the FDI received during the same period last year.

According to him, now the country required only US$ 640 million to achieve this year's FDI goal of US$ 2 billion. The government considering the country's failure to attract the anticipated Foreign Direct investment during the last...two years revised this year's target to US$ 2 billion from US$ 2.5 billion announced early this year.

The country failed to achieve the FDI targets for the last two years, falling short by US$ 160 million in 2012 and US$ 610 million in 2013 to achieve US$ 1.5 billion and US$ 2 billion respectively.

Abeywardena said that the Ministry and the country's investment promotion agency were pushing to achieve this year's FDI goal, and there were a few inflows which were guaranteed to arrive.
Further, the BOI would also open two counters at the Bandaranaike International Airport to facilitate investors, through a specialized privilege card scheme to minimize hassle.

Many businessmen and experts while highlighting the importance of FDI, warned that foreign investors were deterred due to issues pertaining to rule of law, governance and transparency, currently prevailing in the country.

The government is expecting more than US$ 4.5 billion by 2016 for the country to reach US$ 100 billion GDP by that year. The minister confidently said the Board of Investment would continue to push for mixed and strategic development to attract more inflows, while smaller projects would help cover the balance.

The BOI has planned to introduce several tax concessions through the budget, expected to be presented in Parliament in November.

Further, to facilitate investors, the Board of Investment also has decided to introduce an exit route through Sri Lanka's capital market.

பொது வேட்பாளர் நானே: ஜனாதிபதி

பொது வேட்பாளர் நானே: ஜனாதிபதி

சனிக்கிழமை, 11 ஒக்டோபர் 2014 16:52

அடுத்த வருடம் நடைபெறவுள்ள ஜனாதிபதி தேர்தலின் பொது வேட்பாளர் நானே என்று ஜனாதிபதி மஹிந்த ராஜபக்ஷ தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

பொல்காவெவை பிரதேசத்தில் இடம்பெற்ற நிகழ்வொன்றில் கலந்துகொண்டு உரையாற்றும் போதே ஜனாதிபதி மேற்கண்டவாறு தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

கட்சிகள் மாத்திரமன்றி பொதுமக்களும் என்னுடன் இணைந்தே உள்ளனர். இவ்வாறானதொரு நிலையில், பொது வேட்பாளர் நானே தவிர வேறு யாரும் அல்ல. இந்த தேர்தலில் போட்டியிடும் ஏனைய வேட்பாளர்கன் தனி வேட்பாளர்களே ஆவர் என்றும் ஜனாதிபதி இதன்போது சுட்டிக்காட்டியுள்ளார்.
===============

Presidential election likely before Jan. 13

Minister Rambukwella

Presidential election likely before Jan. 13 
– Minister Rambukwella

The next Presidential election was likely to be  held  before Jan. 13 2015 the government said on Friday night.

Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, who is also the Cabinet Spokesman, when asked    for a tentative date for the Presidential Poll amidst various time frames  ranging  between January to March being mentioned by members within the ruling UPFA , told The Island that  it might be held  around mid January 2015.

Queried if the election  would be conducted before or after Pope Francis’s visit to Sri Lanka, which is due to take place from January 13 to 15, the Minister replied  "I think it will be before his arrival."

Iraqi city falls to ISIL as army withdraws

ENB: File Photo

Iraqi city falls to ISIL as army withdraws

ISIL "100 percent control" Hit in Anbar, says police colonel, after troops are relocated to reinforce nearby airbase.

Last updated: 13 Oct 2014 14:49 AJ



The Iraqi army has withdrawn from its last base in the city of Hit in Anbar province following weeks of fighting with the ISIL, leaving the group in full control, security sources have said.

Hundreds of troops were pulled out of the base and relocated to help protect the Asad air base, the AFP news agency quoted a police colonel in the provincial capital of Ramadi as saying.

 "Our military leaders argued that instead of leaving those forces exposed to attacks by ISIL, they would be best used to shore up the defence of Asad air base," he said.

"Hit is now 100 percent under ISIL control."

Asad, northwest of Hit, is one of the last still under government control in the western province. It is surrounded by desert and a tougher target for ISIL fighters.

Other security officials said military aircraft picked up senior officers from the Hit base, and the rest of the force drove in a convoy to Asad.

An Iraqi officer and Sunni militia fighters told the Reuters news agency that ISIL looted three armoured vehicles and at least five tanks, and then set the camp ablaze.

Government forces have suffered a series of setbacks in Anbar in recent weeks, and officials have warned that their grip on the capital Ramadi was increasingly tenuous.

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from the Iraqi capital Baghdad, said that ISIL's takeover put nearby towns including Amiri under threat.

"Amiri is a very key town, that is where the main supply line from Anbar province into Baghdad and the rest of the south of the country goes from," he said.

Up to 180,000 people have been displaced by fighting in and around Hit, the UN office for humanitarian affairs said on Monday.

The city had been home to 100,000 people who had fled other areas of Iraq which had fallen to ISIL, it said.

During a visit to Baghdad on Monday, the British foreign minister Phillip Hammond said ISIL would only be defeated by "heavy work on the ground" by Iraqi forces.

''We've always understood that the air campaign alone was not going to be decisive in turning the tide against ISIL but it has halted the ISIL advance ... and it is degrading their military capabilities and their economic strength," he said.

"The heavy work on the ground is going to have been done by Iraqi forces and it is going to have been done by the Sunni communities in the areas that ISIL occupies.''

PKK Assail Turkish inaction on ISIS as Peril to Peace Talks

EUROPE

Cemil Bayik, a founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., 
which has been fighting a guerrilla war against Turkey for three decades. 
Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times

Kurdish Rebels Assail Turkish Inaction on ISIS as Peril to Peace Talks
By KIRK SEMPLE and TIM ARANGO OCT. 12, 2014 NYT

ENDZA, Iraq — As jihadist fighters of the Islamic State lay siege to the Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria, the implications of the battle have resonated deeply among residents in this part of the Qandil Mountains in northeastern Iraq, hundreds of miles and a country away.

In this region, beneath craggy peaks near the Iranian border, is the headquarters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., which has been fighting a guerrilla war against the Turkish state for three decades, a fight that has claimed more than 30,000 lives. Members of the group, along with fighters from an offshoot rebel army in Syria, have been at the heart of the Kurdish resistance in Kobani.

“Negotiations cannot go on in an environment where they want to create a massacre in Kobani,” Cemil Bayik, a founder and leader of the P.K.K., said in a recent interview in a secret location in this area of the Qandil range. “We cannot bargain for settlement on the blood of Kobani.”

“We will mobilize the guerrillas,” he vowed.

Despite increased pressure from the United States and pleas from outgunned Kurdish fighters in Kobani, Turkey has refused to deploy its military against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, or to open the border to allow reinforcements, weapons and supplies to reach the embattled town.

On Sunday, Kurdish officials said their fighters in Kobani had been able to fend off a two-day assault by Islamic State fighters on the center of town. Coalition airstrikes had destroyed a convoy on its way to support the jihadist fighters, according to Idris Nassan, a spokesman for the Kobani resistance, who said the Kurds had been able to “manage” the latest assault. But without more extensive airstrikes and supplies of weapons and ammunition, he added, “Maybe tomorrow the situation will change again.”

Turkey’s reluctance stems in part from its desire not to do anything that might strengthen the Kurdish populist movement in the region. The defense of Kobani is being led by the People’s Protection Units, or Y.P.G., an affiliate of the P.K.K., which is officially listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. In addition, Syrian Kurds have been trying to establish an autonomous region on the border, which Turkey wants to prevent.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has insisted that fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria should take precedence over fighting the Islamic State. And he holds the P.K.K. in such contempt that he recently equated the rebel group with the Islamic State.

“The P.K.K. and ISIS are the same for Turkey,” he told reporters. “It is wrong to view them differently. We need to deal with them jointly.”

According to analysts, Mr. Erdogan is calculating that if the Islamic State fighters overrun Kobani, the Kurdish defeat will not scuttle Turkey’s peace process with the P.K.K. But to the commanders of the P.K.K., Turkey’s refusal to act amounts to complicity with the Islamic State.

Turkey, Mr. Bayik said, “wants to use ISIL in order to inflict some blows on the Kurdish movement and to prevent the Kurdish people in Syrian Kurdistan to gain their rights.” He sat at a plastic table in an olive-drab tent beneath the boughs of a towering walnut tree that provided cover from surveillance drones as well as the sun.

“Turkey wants to victimize the Kurds,” he said. P.K.K. officials requested that the precise location of the interview not be revealed.

Turkey’s posture has spurred violent protests across Turkey that have left more than 30 people dead.

“The peace process is over,” a Kurdish protester said during a demonstration in Istanbul last week. He refused to give his name out of fear of being persecuted by the authorities. Standing near burning barricades and tires, and engulfed in clouds of tear gas, he said, “There can be no peace while ignoring Kobani.”

Mr. Erdogan’s strategy also carries considerable risks both to his domestic political standing and his legacy.

He owes his rise to power in part to the support of Kurds, which he has cultivated by taking a more conciliatory approach to Kurdish nationalism, developing closer ties with Iraq’s Kurdistan regional government and helping to secure more rights for Kurds, including laws that allowed the use of the Kurdish language in schools and the media and the use of Kurdish names for certain towns.

“It seemed they were making historic progress,” said Francis J. Ricciardone Jr., who until recently was the United States ambassador to Turkey and is now the director of the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. The progress in Kurdish cultural and language rights, he said, “were things I never expected to see in my lifetime.”

Mr. Erdogan, who was prime minister from 2003 to 2014 and became president in August, is now seeking to alter the Constitution to gain more executive powers, an effort that analysts say will require the support of Kurdish parties.

Yet his position on Kobani is quickly costing him Kurdish backing, analysts say, while also helping to unify the Kurdish population around the world.

“Kobani became one battle for everybody,” said Hiwa Osman, a Kurdish political analyst who was an adviser to Jalal Talabani, the former president of Iraq. “This is a matter between good versus evil. For Turkey to be on the other side, by omission, positions all the Kurds in one camp. And this camp will not be friendly to Turkey.”

On Sunday, leaders of the two main political parties in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan region said at a news conference that they had sent weapons and humanitarian aid to Kobani.

They did not say when the shipments were sent or whether they had arrived safely, but officials in Kobani said they never received any weapons or ammunition from the Kurdistan authorities.

In late September, however, a convoy of at least 15 trucks with posters indicating that they had come from Kurdistan crossed the border from Suruc, Turkey, into Kobani. Kurdish activists from Kobani said at the time that the trucks contained aid for refugees in Turkey and Syria.

While Mr. Erdogan’s standing has plunged among Kurds, the Kurdish fighters’ reputation has soared. In the Kurdistan region, the P.K.K. has enjoyed remarkably broad public support in recent months in light of its battlefield successes against the Islamic State militants.

In the initial months of the Islamic State assault on northern Iraq this summer, the P.K.K.’s performance stood in contrast to that of the Iraqi military, which wilted in the face of the Islamic State sweep, and of the pesh merga, Iraqi Kurdistan’s army, which suffered demoralizing setbacks before regaining its footing with the support of American airstrikes.

P.K.K. units are widely credited with engineering the rescue of thousands of Yazidis who were trapped on Mount Sinjar and facing annihilation. P.K.K. fighters established an evacuation corridor leading from the summit of the mountain, where the Yazidis had languished for days. The P.K.K. also rushed to the aid of the pesh merga after the Islamic State fighters threatened the Kurdish capital, Erbil, by overrunning Makhmur, a nearby Kurdish town.

“Had we not intervened, there would’ve been a great massacre,” Mr. Bayik said. The Kurdish government, he said, “would’ve lost face.”

Many Kurds have called on the United States and the European Union to reassess their classification of the P.K.K. as a terrorist organization — a rebuke of Mr. Erdogan and Turkey.

“Officially they are on the terrorist list,” Brig. Gen. Helgurd Hikmet Mela Ali, a spokesman for the pesh merga, said in a recent interview. “But if you want my personal opinion, not official: It’s clear now and it’s very obvious who the terrorists are. ISIS or P.K.K.?”

After the successful counterattack that recaptured Makhmur, Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan regional government, whose political party has had a bitter relationship with the P.K.K., rewarded its fighters with a visit.

“We have the same destiny,” Mr. Barzani told the guerrillas.

Kirk Semple reported from Endza, and Tim Arango from Istanbul. Kareem Fahim contributed reporting from Caykara, Turkey, Ceylan Yeginsu from London, and Kamil Kakol from Sulaimaniya, Iraq.

U.S. Troops to Use Bases in Turkey

EUROPE

U.S. Troops to Use Bases in Turkey

By ERIC SCHMITT and KIRK SEMPLE OCT. 12, 2014

WASHINGTON — Turkey will allow American and coalition troops to use its bases, including a key installation within 100 miles of the Syrian border, for operations against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, Defense Department officials said Sunday.

Obama administration officials have urged the Turkish government to play a more significant role in fighting the extremists who have seized large parts of Iraq and Syria and driven refugees into Turkey.

An American military team will arrive in Turkey this week to work out details of the training program and discuss what kind of missions can be flown from the Turkish bases, administration officials said.

The initial breakthrough with Turkey came as three suicide bombers attacked a government center in Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad, killing 60 people and wounding more than 120, officials said. Many of the victims were people who had sought refuge in the district, Qara Taba, after fleeing violence elsewhere in the country, officials said. They had gathered at the government center to collect subsidies for displaced people.

Earlier in the day, the police chief of Anbar Province in western Iraq was killed when two bombs planted along a rural road were detonated as his convoy drove by, officials said. Anbar officials said the death of the chief, Maj. Gen. Ahmed Saddag, was a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi security forces to wrest full control of the province from the jihadist insurgency called the Islamic State.

Iraqi forces have been struggling to push the Islamic State fighters from territory they captured this year. The group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, first made inroads in Iraq at the beginning of the year when it swept from Syria into Anbar Province and quickly seized control of territory throughout the Euphrates River valley, from the Syrian border to the rural western suburbs of the Baghdad area.

In June, another wave of fighters poured across the Syrian border into northern Iraq, quickly overwhelming Iraqi security forces in the city of Mosul. They have since expanded their control across areas of northern and central Iraq.

Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, President Obama’s top military adviser, said Sunday that no circumstances had yet arisen that warranted recommending the limited use of American ground troops as advisers in combat conditions. But, during an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” he added, “There will be circumstances when the answer to that question will likely be yes.”

He went on to suggest that a counterattack to retake Mosul in the north might require such “a different kind of advising and assisting.”

The three-pronged attack Sunday in Qara Taba, northeast of Baquba near the Iranian border, targeted the mayor’s office, a building used by the internal security service of the Kurdistan regional government and an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the main Kurdish political parties, according to Rudaw, a Kurdish news agency.

The first of three bombers set off his explosives at the compound’s gates. He was quickly followed by two other attackers driving cars loaded with explosives, which were detonated at the compound’s entrance, officials said. Qara Taba is close to Jalawla, where Islamic State fighters have been battling Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters. Among the dead were 15 Kurdish fighters, Rudaw reported.

The attack that killed General Saddag in Anbar occurred in Albu Risha, west of Ramadi, the provincial capital. Three of General Saddag’s bodyguards were also killed, said a staff member of a provincial council member, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.

Eric Schmitt reported from Washington, and Kirk Semple from Baghdad. Reporting was contributed by Brian Knowlton from Washington, Ali Hamza from Baghdad, and employees of The New York Times from Baquba and Anbar Province, Iraq.

Alfred Nobel: controversial man, controversial awards

File Photo:Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel: controversial man, controversial awards
By Ivan Simic

The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. The Prize was established from Alfred Bernhard Nobel's will on 27 November 1895.

Every year, since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for outstanding contributions in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize.

All prizes are presented on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. Each prize consists of a medal, personal diploma, and cash award (over 1 million Euros). For the past few decades, the Nobel Prize is considered to be the most prestigious prize in the world.

Alfred Nobel was the Swedish inventor of dynamite, also, founder of the Nobel Prize, chemist, scientist, inventor, engineer, entrepreneur, author, weapons manufacturer, and pacifist. Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1866 in Krummel,

Germany, and patented it later in 1876. After his death he left 31 million Swedish Kronor (103,931,888.00 USD in 2007) to fund the prizes.

Alfred Nobel was a pacifist, which is highly contradictory, since he invented dynamite which had enormous use in many wars, but also in industry. Furthermore, he owned a company named Bofos, which was a major weapons manufacturer. Bofos was founded in 1873, but it originates from the iron and steel mill called Boofors, established in 1646.

From the first Nobel Prize awarding in 1901, this prize had many criticisms and controversies in the proceedings, nominations, awardees and exclusions. Many individuals who really had conferred the greatest benefit on mankind did not win the Prize, for Instance:

Thomas Edison, American inventor and businessmen who developed many devices such as the phonograph and light bulb. He was the first one to apply principles of mass production to the process of invention.

Nikola Tesla, Serbian inventor, physicist, electrical and mechanical engineer. He invented things that marked the modern era; he is called "the man who invented the 20th century" and "the man out of his time". He is most known for alternating current (AC), induction motor, rotating magnetic field, wireless technology, among many others.

Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev, Russian chemist and inventor. He was the originator of the periodic table of the elements.

Oswald Theodore Avery, an American physicist who is known for the discovery (along with his co-workers) that DNA is the material of which genes and chromosomes are made.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian Independence Movement. He is well-known to the world for non-violence and truth advocacy. His birthday October 2 is a national holiday in India and is the International Day of Non-Violence. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize, but never got it.

Here are a few individuals who won the Nobel Prize that many believe to be controversial:

Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard, Hungarian-German physicist. He is the winner of the Prize in physics for his research on cathode rays. Later he was adviser to Adolf Hitler, Chief of Aryan Physics and active proponent of Nazi ideology.

Alexander Fleming, Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He is the winner of the Prize (shared prize) in medicine for his discovery of penicillin. Many oppose the fact that he was the first to discover penicillin.

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. American President and the first American who received the Nobel Prize. He is the winner of the Peace Prize in 1905. During his presidency he played an important role in the suppression of a revolt in the Philippines.

Henry Alfred Kissinger (Heinz Alfred Kissinger), the US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser. He is the winner of the Peace Prize along with Le Duc Tho, however, Tho declined the award. There is evidence that he was involved in the secret campaign of bombing against infiltrating NVA in Cambodia and Operation Condor. He also supported the invasion of Cyprus. Kissinger is wanted for questioning by officials in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France and Spain for war crimes that he might have committed.

Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (Yasser Arafat), Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin are winners of the Peace Prize for the negotiations in Oslo. Arafat was accused of being associated with many violent acts. On the other hand, Rabin was an Israeli Military General who ordered the expulsion of Arabs from areas captured by Israel during the war in 1948.

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr., Vice President of the United States from 1993-2001. He is the winner of the Peace Prize (shared) "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change". During his service in the office under President Clinton, the US was involved in many military operations. Operations in which many people lost their lives and which had great impact on climate change, pollution, illness, among others. For instance: NATO bombing of Bosnian Serbs, US led bombing of Iraq, US led bombing of Serbia. Al Gore is a fine actor, in fact, Academy awarded actor, and for his role in "The Inconvenient Truth" he won the Oscar.

There are people among us who dedicated their lives to make a valuable contribution to mankind in areas of physics, economics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace, and it is expected for these individuals to win the Prize, however, many never got it, nor will get it. On the other side, many of those with suspicious backgrounds, and those who gave just a few months of their lives for some cause won the Prize.

If this trend continues, then in the next five years we will see George W. Bush (present US President) as a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his noble efforts to bring peace to all mankind by creating new wars in order to prevent wars and terrorism. And maybe as a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, for his efforts in making the highest ever oil price per barrel in history, and making war industry wealthier than ever, and for his contribution in creating a devastating financial situation in the United States, and promising recessions.

Ivan Simic
Belgrade, Serbia

Ebola: Manufactured disease by U.S. Federal Government.

Ebola: Manufactured disease by U.S. Federal Government
08.10.2014

By Lord Howard Hurts 

Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation if Islam wrote this a few days ago, "Another method is disease infection through bio-weapons such as Ebola and AIDS, which are race targeting weapons. There is a weapon that can be put in a room where there are Black and White people, and it will kill only the Black and spare the White, because it is a genotype weapon that is designed for your genes, for your race, for your kind." In essence Mr. Farrakhan said that the U.S. Federal Government is behind the Ebola virus outbreak. Mr. Farrakhan is incorrect, as his usual, in many respects dealing with the issue of the Ebola virus, but he is correct about Ebola being a 'manufactured' disease by the U.S. Federal Government. Here is the true story about the Ebola virus.

 There are three types of internal hemorrhaging viruses in the world today. The main one, and it impacts more than 500,000 African's in Central, and sub-Sahara Africa, is the Lassa fever virus. This virus is responsible for death in about 20% of those who are infected, and it was 'discovered in 1969 when two missionary nurses died from this disease. This disease had been around for many years, but it was not defined as a specific type of virus as the world did not care about 'fever deaths' in the African population. This virus, Lassa, is transmitted by way of rat urine or feces, and once in the human body it can be further be transmitted by bodily fluids which also complicates the situation because then it can become an air born disease (so far it seems that it can not be transmitted by insect bites, but this is not confirmed).

The second internal hemorrhaging virus is called the Marburg virus. It was first recognized in 1967, when strangely enough there were simultaneously outbreaks at research laboratories in Marburg, and Frankfurt, Germany. This virus was thought to be brought to these laboratories by way of monkeys from Uganda. This outbreak of the virus was contained and not heard about again until sometime in 1974.

Strangely enough, that is if you believe that the world is flat, in 1976, and after the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) build a bio weapons laboratory in Kenema, Sierra Leona, Africa, the Ebola virus suddenly came into being. This 'newly discovered' internal hemorrhaging virus was the 'bomb'. It was developed with the covert aid of Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. The USAMRIID is always looking for some type of weaponry with which to inflict death and destruction on an enemy, and this new Ebola virus seemed the perfect weapon of war. Then as often happens with that type of research, and development, the virus 'escaped' and suddenly was a threat to an unsuspecting African population, and ultimately to the populations of the world.

The world is now told that this Ebola virus is a 'natural mutation' when in fact it is a completely manufactured mutation of the Lassa fever virus. The world is also told that there is no current cure for this virus when in fact there is a quite inexpensive treatment available, but it is not some patented drug owned by a big pharmaceutical company. And because this treatment is not something that a big pharmaceutical company can use to 'rake in' excessive profits, this cure is relegated to the 'back pages' of the Internet. So let me give you the information that you might need should this Ebola virus outbreak not be controlled and you become infected.

Vitamin C is a proven killer of all known viruses. Vitamin C is cheap and makes little money for big pharmaceutical companies. Thus these companies do no research on this lowly vitamin. Now please do not misunderstand me. If one is inflicted by the Ebola virus taking a few vitamin C tablets at home will not help. It takes massive doses of this vitamin, and it must be administered and watched by professional health providers. The dose must be so large as to be on the edge of giving the patient diarrhea.... a condition that would make the patient worse. The amount of vitamin C must be closely regulated and this takes responsible professional health providers. All of the internal hemorrhaging viruses, Lassa fever, Marburg, and Ebola are  mutations of the common disease named Scurvy.

Scurvy is something that plagued sailors in times past as they traveled on long voyages without foods that provided the body with vitamin C. Scurvy 'works' by devouring the bodies vitamin C supply, and vitamin C is needed for blood clotting. Scurvy and these hemorrhaging diseases are effective killers because vitamin C is water soluble and must be replaced in the human body each day. And this is the reason Scurvy and these internal hemorrhaging viruses need massive amounts of vitamin C for the patient to make a recovery. It must also be noted that only humans and non human primates need a daily intake of vitamin C because almost all other mammals produce their own supply of vitamin C internally. And it was physician James Lind who discovered the relationship between citrus fruits, vitamin C, and brought the demise of this common sailors disease, Scurvy, in 1747 while a surgeon aboard a British naval ship (thus the reason that even today British sailors are refereed to as Limeys).

Vitamin C has been proved to kill every virus known to man. It does this by way of the formation of hydrogen peroxide in the body that not only arrests viruses, but kills them along with any bacteria found in the blood. Now this being said it seems to me that a more direct route for recovery from an internal hemorrhaging disease would be intravenous injections of Food Grade hydrogen peroxide into the plagued body. Of course such an inexpensive solution is not something that big pharmaceuticals are interested in, and our Federal Government is so corrupted that such an inexpensive solution would curtail their bribes and bull shit, and lessen their gaining monetary handouts from big pharmaceutical companies for their next election to public office.

So now, unfortunately, the worlds populations must suffer from a disease that was created to kill and sicken in time of war by the USAMRIID (Fort Detrick, Maryland), and Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, when there is no declared war, or need for this wanton death and destruction.

Lord Howard Hurts
http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/08-10-2014/128746-ebola_virus-0/

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'Hayat' NGO: Main donor is the government!

A soft approach to returning British fighters
ISIL combatants seeking an 'exit strategy' from Mideast conflict need positive reinforcement back home, analysts say.

Samira Shackle Last updated: 12 Oct 2014 13:40 AJ

London, United Kingdom - What do you do when you don't want to be an extremist anymore? This is a question many foreign fighters in Syria - and their home governments - are wrangling with.

About 500 British citizens are thought to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the group calling itself Islamic State (ISIL) and other rebel groups since the Syrian civil war began in 2011. The figure increased drastically after ISIL declared a new caliphate on land it controls along the Iraq-Syria border.

But some British fighters are losing faith and want to come back and reintegrate in Britain.

In recent months, Prime Minister David Cameron gave police additional powers to confiscate passports and place travel restrictions on those suspected of planning to join the fight. He has also announced moves to ban British citizens who pose a threat to national security from returning to the United Kingdom.

London's Mayor Boris Johnson has suggested that returnees from Iraq and Syria should be presumed guilty of terrorism offences unless they can prove their innocence.

We know that there are people in Syria right now who are not happy to be there and who regret having become involved in the first place. - Peter Neumann, King's College London


It appears that public opinion is behind such punitive measures. A recent poll by YouGov found that three quarters of Londoners believe anyone who has fought with groups in Iraq or Syria should be banned from returning to the UK. But analysts warn that focusing only on crackdowns is an over-simplistic strategy that could exacerbate the problem.

"Foreign fighters are not a monolithic group," says Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King's College London.

"We know that there are people in Syria right now who are not happy to be there and who regret having become involved in the first place. If you don't give people an option to return, the idea of these fighters in Syria becoming dangerous international terrorists becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."

(Part of the AJ Article) (FULL)