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Please do not say this is old hat and 80 years ago. That’s true. But to me during this very dire time, any glimmer of hope or shining example of generosity is a blessing. A war continues in Ukraine; the world faces a recession; and we in Sri Lanka are in crisis as never before. The worst is that our situation has been caused by a government led by the Rajapaksas with a sycophantic Cabinet and an apparently incompetent as Governor of the Central Bank. We have never had it so bad, even during WWII when Ceylon was involved as headquarters of the South East Asia Command; or during our 29 years of civil war. People in the North suffered even more than us now and armed forces personnel, especially soldiers, made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives. But though there were countries/persons who caused the war – Nazi Germany and Prabhakaran in our case, never did rulers lead us to such travails.

So here is my edited story from an article sent me from History Today June 2022 by Emily Putzke.

In 1939 at the very start of WW II the Jews were segregated in Poland and other countries. Laws were immediately promulgated circumscribing their lives. Among them were laws limiting access to books. Lending libraries were closed in the Jewish quarter and they were forbidden using public libraries. A ghetto was established in Warsaw in the autumn of 1940, enclosing half a million Jews to a small section of the city, surrounding it with a ten foot brick wall. Daily meagre rations were given them grudgingly. As many as 83,000 died from starvation in less than two years and hundreds of thousands were deported to Treblinka extermination camp during that summer.

Basia Berman was one of the few Jews to be employed by the Warsaw Public Library before the war. Even before segregation of Jews in the ghetto had begun, she was a one-woman-walking librarian with her ‘wandering library’ in her valise, delivery books to the homeless. When the Warsaw Ghetto was sealed in November 1940, a part of the Warsaw Public Library came within its boundaries. Berman managed to get permission to use this part of the building within the Ghetto and named it CENTOS, a children’s welfare organisation but covertly establishing an underground children’s library within. She got donations of banned books from closed libraries and made them available in spite of reading being banned to inmates of the ghetto and more so Yiddish and Polish books. The library was under a room deceptively decorated with pictures and cut-outs. Discussions and Yiddish book reading sessions were held to keep alive their Jewish traditions and culture. The kids were also taught Hebrew.

‘The thirst for knowledge that the children showed in those terrible times was truly wondrous’, Berman commented in her memoir, City Within a City (2012). ‘The book became a vital need, almost like bread.’ A survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto recalled how a boy continued immersed in the book he was reading while his home was destroyed and entire family bundled in for deportation to a camp. “But the 12-year boy was lost and swept in his newly discovered worlds, not hearing or seeing what was happening around him.”

Berman and her husband Adolf escaped from the ghetto in September 1942 and sought a safe haven in the ‘Aryan side’ of Warsaw and became leaders of the Jewish underground movement. As writer Emily Putzke wrote, “Berman helped to lead the Jewish community in a subtle, yet defiant form of resistance. Books were a source of life and sustenance for the human spirit, a way to preserve one’s humanity amid a dehumanising reality.”

Those who make special efforts to do more

I am personally rather tired of prophets of doom who keep harping on the troubles still to beset us. Of course we need to know the truth; most certainly we want to have stark realities made known, but please, not all the time. Scatter us some glimmers of hope, Prime Minister, and Dr Harsha de S too even if you have to seek diligently for them like the proverbial needle in a haystack. We hardly listen to other VVIPs and mea culpas, and thankful smiley cawing of crows; boasts of jogging lanes being built on ancient wewa bunds; and bon homie from one side of the mustachio-ed mouth and vituperation of the evilest sort from the other are ended now, kaput, thanks mostly to the Aragalaya youth who also taught the wonder of non-racial, non-religious togetherness.

We, the discerning public, are even more sick and tired of shouting, screaming, grousing in long queues of our people. Of course this situ is deplorable and the government needs to take positive, alleviating steps and not merely wait for donated or loaned-at-high-interest-rate ‘gifts’ from overseas. Lankans in the southern regions of the island are adept at grousing and vituperating and seem to enjoy the time spent in queues. Or to be charitable, stay in queues with no alternative. But it now looks as if when petrol stations are closed too, the queues of standing people continues. Maybe they wait in anticipation of being featured in a TV news clip!

I asked a young woman from Jaffna how it is over there. No queues. They know how to manage with what they have, since they have had to go through worse times. “Most houses have a compound to make an open fireplace and plenty of tinder is available” They do not waste time but are ever industrious in their cultivation mostly. So the spectre of shortage of food and soaring prices are also met to a certain extent.

Another breed, detestable as self interested politicians are, are the hoarders. Rice is not sold anywhere in her hamlet a weekly help said. Hoarded to sell when prices escalate.

Going out of their way to help

In this gloomy doom that shrouds us came sharp rays of light to gladden my heart. I heard tales of how people are going out that extra step or two to help others. We have communities self helping; villagers assisting each other. During the height of the civil war, I remember a young man from just south of Vavuniya saying that no racial bias was with them. Tamil farmers helped Sinhala and Muslim paddy workers to harvest their fields and they in turn helped the others.

We now help more the underprivileged. The three wheeler charioteers who help me say they spend at least two to three hours getting petrol pumped into their vehicles to run on hires the next day. So it’s paying double or treble their fare in appreciation.

I heard paediatrician Dr Priyani Pethiyagoda giving sensible, practical advice to parents to include as much nutrition as possible in a child’s meals; for example a handful of dried sprats in the vegetable curry. To me, the greater significance of what she said was how she said it. She spoke one to one as a mother and house manager, with conviction and obvious sincerity.

I have heard how difficult it was for the staff of Lady Ridgeway Hospital when Covid 19 attacked children. The doctors and nurses worked around the clock, giving of themselves with no thought of fatigue or danger. I personally know of last minute excuses offered by a paediatrician excusing herself from a lunch due to a child in her ward being direly ill and needing her attention. “I cannot leave the kid to others to manage.” It was a laborious process of dressing and then returning home late – six days of the week – shedding all that protective covering and clothes outside the home, bathing, and then coming together with husband and kids.

Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children is one among many where staff working in them have contributed money to better equip the hospital. For example at Lady Ridgeway, the staff have contributed to procure expensive medical equipment such as oxygen regulators, ventilators, infusion pumps and much more, Also trolleys, folding beds, and of course food and beverage items. We need to remember that often mothers or guardians caring for their children in the wards are also given food, clothes, money too by staff members. It is typical of Sri Lankans that poor though they be, they help each other. This the person I know at Lady Ridgeway told me that patients’ elders help poorer persons whose children are warded.

VIP doctors also procure donations from organisations; one instance, the Colombo Branch of the OGA of Girls High School, Kandy, donated a very expensive piece of equipment to Lady Ridgeway Hospital after one of their very successful fund raisers, which now raise millions.

There is so much good in the people of Sri Lanka. It lightens the mind and makes happy in the heart to hear of people helping each other. In the instance I write about, these medical specialists: specialist paediatricians , house officers, nursing staff, all give of their expertise, time and effort tirelessly and then help more by giving some of their hard earned money to help the less able.

With such, Sri Lanka has to overcome all evil political bloodsuckers and heal herself to become whole, beautiful and peaceful again.

A CHEF IN SINGAPORE & A TOURIST IN MALAYSIA – Part 54

DON WHO TOUCHED LIFE AT MANY POINTS

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The Sinhalese population of Sri Lanka is approximately 16.5 million. Yet sadly, generations of children in this tiny, tiny proportion of the global population have little or no global contact. They speak no global link language despite having had an excellent language system in place at the time of Independence. Many of that 16.5 million people barely speak English and the majority certainly cannot read or write it despite English being taught (appallingly badly) in all schools.

When we achieved Independence, English should have been encouraged and kept in place so that the outstations and backward schools were brought up to the existing standards of the better developed schools without totally lowering them to accommodate the ambitions of politicians who sang the Sinhala-Buddhist song to lull ignorant voters to sleep. That egregious quota system was brought in as a temporary law but has since never been repealed. Standards of English deteriorated so fast it was pathetic.

Those who understood that the oncoming divisive language policies would end in tragedy were called an unpatriotic or a privileged elite. Chauvinism and bogus Nationalism ruled the day. The University authorities even wondered whether they should separate the Halls of Residence in Peradeniya racially. My appalled mother, Deshabandu Clara Motwani, was among those educationists who objected strenuously enough to scuttle that idiotic scheme.

At long last Kumar David has voiced what many Sri Lankans believe is vital for the people of Sri Lanka to reach the former levels of education. A return to the English Medium of instruction in schools is desperately needed.

The world is in turmoil and Sri Lanka is one of the worst hit. It is a time for change and this is a perfect moment (in our constantly down-sliding history) to TOTALLY revise our educational policy which a series of dishearteningly inept Ministers of Education have reduced to its present state

At long last there is a feeling of unity among all of us in this lovely island. Let us forget the ‘Sinhala Only’ policies that have been so divisive in the past and switch the medium of instruction to English. Let us forget chauvinistic and outworn nationalistic ideas and begin to take steps into a new unified world. Let us remember that ‘He who opens a school door closes a prison.’ A proper education is one of the most powerful weapons in the hands of any Government. It is absolutely criminal if it is used for political advantage.

No one suggests that Sinhala or Tamil be ignored. It must be taught compulsorily, but English must be given top priority so that our youngsters can begin to compete and operate fully in an English speaking, Internet and Cyber world. Foolish Nationalism is not patriotism.

At this point PLEASE do not say, “Look at the Scandinavians with small populations, which manage perfectly well without English”. Of course they do . Here are a few reasons why.

2. They have superb second language teaching methods in place.

3. They have the technology AND THE MONEY to back up such methods.

4. They have trained teachers with Master’s Degrees in almost every subject. (Finland )

5. They all use the same script.

6. European countries populations mix frequently with each other economically, socially and politically.

7. Geographical proximity ensures that they speak several languages fluently.

8. Forward thinking countries are aware that English is now a global necessity. All inventions, discoveries, and new ideas are rushed into print in English as the educated world reads English above other languages. English is given great importance

9. Small, rich nations can afford translations to the benefit of their citizens.

Due to the defunct British empire about 50 nations use English as their official language. Others do so in semi official ways. Sri Lanka makes a big noise about teaching English but the methods of doing so are archaic. I quote from a WhatApp message I received from a former maid now in Kuwait.. She writes, “yers madam iam gud,” in response to my query , “are you well?” She has an OL pass in English. This would be funny if it were not so pathetic.

The language policies of Sri Lanka are stupidly backward while the example of India stands before us as the success of a highly patriotic nation in which the English standards achieved are amazingly high. Their writers of English are among the best in the world.

Sri Lanka had such men in the past. There are just a handful left today. Even our career diplomat’s English standards leave much to be desired. Good English speech in Sri Lanka is confined to very few of the country. Most of Sri Lanka’s population prefers to interact in Sinhala. Not that this matters but let us remember that only 16.5 million in the world speak it. Without a well taught and island-wide knowledge of a global link language Sri Lanka is doomed to second if not third rate status, Will a few more Kumar Davids please make their voices heard.

Let us take a look at the position of English apart from that of the old Empire territories.. Twenty four countries in Africa list English as their official language. The Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Kenya, Jamaica, Trinidad and MANY others use English as their OFFICIAL means of communication internally and internationally.

Europeans speak it as a matter of course although Europeans speak each other’s languages fluently almost from birth. But here WE are the only Sinhala speaking nation in the world, comprising ONLY 16.2 million Sinhalese people, struggling to keep pace with nations who were earlier considered positively backward. Truly we have been cursed with stupid Governments from the start.

Says Alvin Teffler,”The illiterates of the future will not be the people who cannot read but it will the people who do not know how to learn.” The Sri Lankans are those people. They keep perpetuating the same errors endlessly. The SAME OLD methods of teaching continue.

The same old text book material is churned out. The non-serving quota system continues. The same old University system produces graduates who know less and less in a fast expanding world of knowledge. I must ask ‘DO OUR MINISTERS OF EDUCATION KNOW WHAT THEY ARE ABOUT?”

While standards plummet our Government remains in denial. There is no money in the country so fortunately the education pundits are silent about expanding the appalling system of education further.

The best jobs in international organizations go to those people who use an international language and at the moment it is English. The Indians dominate in high finance and business in the UK and the USA. In areas where Sri Lankans once led they now lag behind. Remember the likes of Shirley Amerasinghe, Gamini Corea, Neville Canekeratne and other Sri Lankans who held high office because of their prowess in English which they spoke so brilliantly?

The new ‘Virtual Empire’ of the internet makes English vital. Job seekers are interviewed by companies on the other side of the world. Indeed the link between globalization and English is tangible. Sri Lanka can no longer afford to be foolishly sentimental and force its children to study in a language spoken by less than a quarter percent of the world’s population.

My views would normally not be tolerated by the vociferous chauvinists who unfortunately use Sinhala as political weapon. But now there is a new feeling of unity in the air. Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Indians are all stating their feeling of oneness with the majority Sinhalese. The Sinhalese on their part (forget the diehard Sinhala Buddhists) are feeling likewise. If English can help to unite Sri Lankans as one people our future leaders should cement this unity instantly.

Sri Lanka was known as the ‘Resplendent Island’ by the Brahmins of yore. It can surely be possible for this country to become resplendent again? How COULD such an intelligent population have made these tragic, tragic mistakes.

The National State Assembly (as Parliament was known under the 1972 Constitution) was dissolved on May 18, 1977 and a General Election fixed for July 21, 1977 with June 6 as Nomination Day.

The Trincomalee district had three constituencies namely, Trincomalee, Mutur and Seruvila. The TULF picked R. Sampanthan, a leading lawyer practising in Trincomalee courts in preference to the sitting member B.Neminathan for the Trincomalee seat.

While we were making arrangements for Nomination Day fixed for June 6, it came to be known that the late TULF leader Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam’s ashes were to be brought to Trincomalee for public veneration. They were to be brought by air to China Bay and thereafter to Trinco town in procession on June 3.

The next afternoon (June 4), the ashes were to be brought in procession to the large playground opposite Fort Frederick known as the Big Maidan. The SP had given permission for both these events in the absence of any ‘intelligence’ to the effect that there was going to be any sort of trouble on account of them.

The day the ashes were brought from China Bay to Trincomalee town there had been a few minor skirmishes involving some Tamil cyclists accompanying the motorcade and some Sinhalese onlookers who were residents of the area through which it was passing. The Police had however prevented anything serious from happening, and the ashes had reached where they were to be safely kept for the night.

I was at the Residency on the night of June 3 reviewing Nomination Day procedures when at about 9 p.m. news reached me that there was trouble down town with some Sinhalese people being beaten up by Tamil mobs apparently as retribution for the slogan shouting that took place when the motorcade passed through their area on its way to the town earlier in the afternoon.

When I got in touch with the ASP in-charge in the absence of the SP who had gone for the opening of a new police station in the Polonnaruwa district (which too came within his purview), he told me that he had already moved his men out to the trouble spots. Information kept flowing in, however, that a number of Sinhalese people were being brought to the hospital with injuries, some of which were of a grievous nature.

The SP was expected to return to Trinco in the night, and I left word for him to meet me as soon as he returned, which he did past midnight. After discussions with me, he passed down necessary instructions to his staff for preventing the incidents from escalating. By the 4th morning however about 10-12 people – all of them Sinhalese – had been admitted to hospital and one of them succumbed to his injuries.

Just as I was trying to get in touch with the Defence Secretary (Mr. W.T.Jayasinghe), he phoned me having read a few police messages that had come his way which referred to the above incidents. I briefed him about the developments and requested him to ask the Service Commanders to instruct their local units to be in readiness to come out and assist the Police if needed.

I followed this up with a meeting with the SP and the local Service Heads to discuss the steps that had to be taken to prevent an escalation of violence. Almost immediately, the officer commanding the local army unit took steps to move his men out to assist the police in their duties. The SP, in the meantime, took steps to withdraw the permission he had earlier given for both the meeting and the procession that were due to be held that afternoon.

There were no incidents during the day on the June 4 and I was able to hold my nomination rehearsals in the afternoon, without any disturbance. After dusk, however, reports started coming in about attacks on Tamil people by the Sinhalese at various places in and outside Trinco town.

It became evident that they were trying to outdo what the Tamils had done the previous night; and the situation got worse by about 10 p.m. despite all the patrolling the police and the army who had been deployed to support them were doing.

There was not much time to be lost if we were to prevent the situation getting totally out of control, and even spreading outside the district putting the General Elections due to be held in a few weeks’ time at risk.

According to reports that reached us two Tamils had already lost their lives and 15 more injured. We had to not only act fast but also make our intent clear to drive fear into the minds of potential trouble makers, and back up our resolve with a visible show of strength.

Since I found the police and the army to be badly short of both men and vehicles I asked them to put down their requirements on paper so that L could get in touch with Colombo with the least possible delay. That clearly was not enough and there was a need to get down as much military hardware as was possible to be able to frighten away the miscreants, whoever they may be.

This meant that the final list had to include even armoured cars for static duty as well as for moving armed personnel around, in addition to the normal jeeps and other vehicles used for patrolling.

With the lists in my hand I telephoned Mr. Jayasinghe, gave a full brief about developments and read out our list of requirements to be able to bring the situation under control with the least possible delay.

The list included additional police strength, a riot squad, armoured cars and more jeeps to provide additional mobility to police and service personnel. I stressed as best as I could the need for these to arrive in Trincomalee by early morning, preferably before day-break. It did not take much effort for me to convince him of these, as he had sufficient confidence in my being able to assess the gravity of the situation and the steps that had to be taken.

While I was still on the phone he got in touch with the Service Commanders and the IGP on the ‘hot line’, and agreed to send everything that I asked for. I was able to convince him of the importance of the riot squad and the armoured cars arriving in Trinco before daybreak on June 5 to get the message across to potential trouble makers that we meant business.

He assured me that the police riot squad would leave Colombo by midnight and that the armoured cars would be sent from the army camp in Anuradhapura. He also said that additional police strength would be sent from Colombo and the jeeps asked for from Colombo or other districts.

Having agreed to all my requests the Secretary told me that he would himself be arriving in Trinco with the Army Commander the next morning for an on-the-spot assessment. This, I welcomed, as they would then be able to make their own assessment of how well or badly we were dealing with the situation.

The armoured cars arrived by morning and soon made their presence felt in the readiness while the police (aided by the other services) were able to do their mobile patrolling better with the help of the additional vehicles they received. While potential trouble-makers, whether they be Sinhalese or Tamil, got the message that was intended to be given, peace-loving people of Trinco felt safe and secure.

Although calm was thus restored, we did not want to take any chances on nomination day having seen instances when one stray incident was enough to change the whole equation. I therefore took steps to let it be known that, though regretfully, we would have to impose certain restrictions in the streets of Trinco and even in and around the Town Hall where Nominations were to be taken.

The riot squad of the police had also arrived and stood on alert on Nomination Day to prevent anything from happening that would disrupt the proceedings, and our main objective was achieved.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 2022 (IPS) – As one of the world’s foremost international humanitarian organizations, the United Nations has pledged to provide food and medicines to cash-strapped Sri Lanka –a country suffering from a major financial crisis.

As of last week, a UN team, led by the Resident Coordinator in Colombo, Hanaa Singer-Hamdy has appealed to international donors for more than $47 million in “life-saving assistance” to 1.7 million people in a country with a population of over 22 million.

This stands in contrast to the staggering $5.0 billion the government is seeking for the island’s economic survival during the next six months—primarily for food, fuel and fertilizer.

Last month, the UN announced that with a $1.5 million donation from the Government of Japan, the UN’s children’s agency UNICEF will procure medicines for over 1.2 million people, among them 53,000 pregnant mothers and nearly 122,000 children with immediate medical needs.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is expected to receive about $1.5 million from Japan to provide food assistance to children and families in need of support.

In addition, Australia has made available the equivalent of nearly $5 million for food security, essential medicines for women’s health, nutrition data collection and analysis with UN agencies working together, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN Children’s Fund.

Currently, some of the UN’s biggest aid recipients are either countries embroiled in military conflicts such as Ukraine, Afghanistan and Yemen – or the 46 member states categorized as Least Developed Countries (LDCs), “the poorest of the world’s poor”.

The majority of LDCs are from Africa, including Angola, Rwanda, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Somalia and the Central African Republic, while the LDCs from Asia include Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Afghanistan.

https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/least-developed-country-category/ldcs-at-a-glance.html

According to published reports, Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves have hit a low of $1.9 billion, equivalent to funds that could finance less than one month’s imports while its debt service repayments amount to about $6.9 billion. Last month, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt repayments for the first time in history.

An editorial in the Sri Lanka Sunday Times put the problem in its right perspective: “Once called the ‘Granary of the East’, Sri Lanka is also considering tapping the SAARC Food Bank – from the buffer stocks of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The country is not only financially bankrupt, it is facing a famine in a few months”.

“From a middle-income country not long ago, it has come to this”, said the editorial. “What an inglorious comedown for the country and humiliating stigma for its people no better personified by the presence of its Foreign Minister and chairman of the ruling party accepting a container of food aid from abroad at the Colombo harbour”.

“Brought about by stupendously irresponsible agricultural policy decision-making at the highest levels of Government, it is now humble-pie that is left to be eaten as Sri Lanka appeals to the world for food in the midst of a global economy facing recession, inflation, and a hurricane of shortages of oil, gas and wheat.”

Should Sri Lanka, long designated by the UN as a “middle-income country,” be heading towards the ranks of the 46 LDCs?

In an interview with IPS, Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Permanent Representative of Bangladesh and the first Under-Secretary-General and UN High Representative for LDCs, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, responded to questions on the benefits and privileges of being an LDC.

“LDCs benefit from exclusive international support measures (ISMs) in the areas of trade, development cooperation and participation in international organizations and processes.”

Such measures in the area of trade, he pointed out, include preferential market access for goods and services; special treatment under World Trade Organization rules and certain regional trade agreements; and technical assistance and capacity building.

A range of financial and technical assistance provided by multilateral and bilateral partners, such as special programmes and budget allocations at the UN, including the Technology Bank for LDCs and Fund for LDCs, established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Support for debt cancellation and/or debt rescheduling are also available for LDCs, he added.Other support measures help LDCs participate in international forums, such as caps and discounts on contributions to the budget of the United Nations and financial support for representatives of LDCs to travel to General Assembly and other meetings, said Ambassador Chowdhury, who was also Senior Special Adviser to UN General Assembly President (2011-2012).

Q: Do you think that Sri Lanka, which has appealed for humanitarian assistance from the UN, may end up being an international basket case?

A: It is not conceivable that Sri Lanka would become an international basket case. But it needs to steer away from the man-made, to say more directly, the current corruption-driven economy, in the right direction to return to its steady developing socio-economic development of yesteryears.

Among the eight members of SAARC only three are not LDCs, but among the other five LDCs, the Maldives have already “graduated” out of the LDC category and Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh are scheduled to graduate by 2026 (as their economies improve).

Being the victim of a catastrophic economic mismanagement should not prompt Sri Lanka to think of seeking an LDC status. The United Nations defines LDCs as countries that have low levels of income and face severe structural impediments to sustainable development.

Q: If the situation continues to deteriorate, what are our chances of joining the 46 LDCs?

A: Joining the LDCs group involve a long process and requires fulfillment of all three criteria to be eligible. According to the UN, those three are:

1. Income: Countries must have an average per capita income (GNI) of below USD$1,018 for inclusion, and above USD$1,222for graduation.[The Gross Domestic Product per capita in Sri Lanka was last recorded at 4052.75 US dollars in 2020.]2. Human Assets: Countries must also have a low score on the Human Assets Index (HAI), a tool that measures health and education outcomes, including under-five mortality rate, maternal mortality, adult literacy rate and gender parity for secondary school enrolment. [Sri Lanka is much above the “60 or below” threshold.]3. Economic and Environmental Vulnerability: Countries must score high on the Economic and Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI), which measures factors like remoteness, dependence on agriculture and vulnerability to natural disasters.[ Sri Lanka is below “36 or above” threshold. The current economic downturn and challenges faced by Sri Lanka may not fully fit the country’s EVI threshold]

IPS – How does this work? Does Sri Lanka have to apply to the UN for LDC status?

A: The Committee for Development Policy (CDP) reviews the list of LDCs and makes recommendations for inclusion in and graduation from the category every three years.

According to UN guidelines, the time frame of the eligibility procedure includes preliminary finding that the country satisfies inclusion criteria; notifies the country of its findings; prepares a country assessment note; provides a draft to the country; finds the country eligible and formally notifies the country of eligibility conclusion; and the General Assembly finally takes note of the CDP recommendation.

Q: What’s the downside of being an LDC?

A: In reality, there is no downside except the psychological perception of being categorized as one of the poorest countries. Some say that foreign direct investment (FDI) is not forthcoming.

If there is a downside, how come six countries have “graduated” from LDCs over the years since the category was established by the General Assembly in 1971 and ten more are in the pipeline for graduation by 2026.

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