Sri Lanka - President Flees Residence, runs for the docks, PM resigns, mob sets it on fire

Overheal

Swarming of the Residence: https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/vux9cv/sri_lankan_presidents_office_overtaken_by/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Running for the Dock: https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/vv3arp/sri_lanka_president_running_away/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Residence overrun: https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/vv2den/sri_lankan_protestors_overran_their_dictators/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/vuyxaf/sri_lankan_protestors_having_a_swim_in_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

https://twitter.com/ShivAroor/status/1545693026705719296?s=20&t=kK53gUy4zvZIkricETDTgg

And then they set the residence ablaze:

https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1545801163013926914?s=20&t=8BXKzLD247lXx1fVUOpauw

This follows the collapse of the Sri Lankan economy which had been reported on in the last couple weeks:

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/gas-lines-scuffles-sri-lanka-faces-humanitarian-crisis-86524511

https://apnews.com/article/asia-economy-south-sri-lanka-cfcf9c973d63a7c6f76e10ada8bf1591

PM Ranil Wickremesinghe has offered his resignation:

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/sri-lanka-police-fire-tear-gas-anti-government-protesters-2022-07-09/

Mad stuff.

Wanderer78

ah shur im sure a good dose of austerity will solve it all!!!

growleaves

Repeat of January 6th?

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119314340#Comment_119314340

I think it would be unfair to have to gatekeep all future revolutions through the lens of january 6, and that would be very yankeecentric

I don't think it's fairly comparable here either, the protestors were not trying to coup the government while it was ministrating into power the next government. There were no official proceedings happening at the residence. And, Jan 6 was an autocoup attempt by the current government (eg. Hitler rose to power through self-coup), coups are overthrows by a revolutionary group running counter to the sitting government.

TheValeyard

This has been brewing for a long time now. Been huge problems in Sri Lanka for a while now. Probably going to need an IMF bailout but some of the problems are quite deep. It's been importing food for about a decade now which is stated as a reason it cannot buy petrol with foreign currencies.

It's quite a mess. They need to restructure a lot of debt to a few countries. Crop failures, business failures, fuel crises, work from home orders, difficult puzzle to solve. You'd have hoped since the end of the Civil War in 2009, they'd have been able to use that military funding no longer needed to make economic gains.

conorhal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119314360#Comment_119314360

Mike 'Goodwin' would like a word... 🙄

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119314893#Comment_119314893

There was an attempt to feign offense at hitler being mentioned when discussing self-coups and the history of modern coup d’êtaits and revolutions.

*Its Godwin.

y0ssar1an22

is this an uprising of the civil war that only ended like 10 years ago?

0ph0rce0

Gotta hand it to them. If you watch the video in the third link the guy was sweeping up. At least they cleaned the placed before burning it down.

Yurt2

First big victim of Chinese debt trap diplomacy. The rest of South Asia should take note - don't allow yourself to become a debtor to Beijing for the sake of white elephant projects that are designed to enrich CCP flunkie construction firms.

xxxxxxl

More like Green policy banning chemical fertilizers 🤔

y0ssar1an22

does anyone really care about sri lanka?

bb12

the government banned fertilisers last year and forced the whole country into organic farming...lo and behold crops failed or reduced yields dramatically...and they wonder why the people went hungry?

bb12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119315539#Comment_119315539

everyone should care a lot because its the first country in a long line of dominoes about to collapse

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119315526#Comment_119315526

Partly, but there are many things feeding into the crisis besides that. The big-ticket item is their levels of debt to China and the terms of that debt - shorter maturity terms, at higher interest rates than other sovereign lenders like Japan (0.7 interest rates for Japanese debt vs 3.3% for Chinese). The Chinese loans come with strings attached like having corrupt CCP linked firms in charge of construction. Billions of arms sales to Chinese weapons firms. They built a ridiculous airport in the middle of nowhere, cricket stadiums that weren't needed. Basically projects that didn't improve national productivity and siphoned money away from the day-to-day running of the country.

Remittances from workers in the Gulf dried up over covid and the dominos began to fall from there. Nepal could be the next victim of this phenomenon.

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119315561#Comment_119315561

True but Generally people don't care about national debt. Food will have been way up on their list to do this. Not affording the latest tech if the country defaulted vs feeding yourself. even in the worst of times feeding yourself is the minimum people will expect.

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119315571#Comment_119315571

Again true. But the fertilizer ban was one-part bonheaded agricultural policy, one-part the fact their foreign currency reserves were being chewed up servicing onerous Chinese debt obligations for stupid projects that enriched Chinese firms. The dwindling foreign reserves was cited at the time as a reason for the ban.

Article from 2016:

 Sri Lanka provides an ideal case study for examining the projected growth in domestic rice supply, how this compares to future national demand, and what the associated impacts from water and fertilizer demands may be. Using national rice statistics and estimates of intensification, this study finds that improvements in rice production can feed 25.3 million Sri Lankans (compared to a projected population of 23.8 million people) by 2050. However, to achieve this growth, consumptive water use and nitrogen fertilizer application may need to increase by as much as 69 and 23 %, respectively.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4815756/

Going "organic" and reducing/banning some fertilizers is a massive factor in this. Other factors do also apply

Harvests down 40 to 50% in some cases https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/spiraling-food-crisis-looms-as-sri-lankan-farmers-abandon-fields-122061700270_1.html

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/fertiliser-ban-decimates-sri-lankan-crops-government-popularity-ebbs-2022-03-03/

Seeing what is going on in the Netherlands is interesting when you think about the world population projected to near 10 billion in the coming decades. 8.5 billion by 2030.

https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/population#:~:text=The%20world%20population%20is%20projected,and%2011.2%20billion%20by%202100.

this is the clash of population versus environment that nobody points out anymore.

Meanwhile places like Canada ponder trying to hit a population of 100 million https://www.centuryinitiative.ca/why-100m

Australia is looking like going down the "big Australia " route

Here in Ireland an all island population of 10 million was mentioned by our own green minister without any reference to sustainability, co2 associated primary production i.e farming/mining footprints. Do we say good bye to the Amazon rainforest and trade it for farmland so that we don't farm as intensively in Europe?

With that all in mind, what does the future look like? Seems to be some very contradictory policies.

salonfire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119314074#Comment_119314074

You're right, austerity is needed and needed yesterday. Then, they wouldn't be in so much debt to the Chinese.

riclad

China now owns the port, for 100 years, they are still in debt, China also do this in African country's. The government was extreme right wing but liking borrowing money from China, its a total screw up. There were userless projects built by Chinese company's to increase the debt the problem is increased populations are making the planet even hotter . Some parts of the UK over 95 degrees this week most offices in the UK do not have air con

And of course Australia is having worse wildfires hot temps

bb12

yeah that really worked out well for the WEF. funny how this article has gone "missing" from their website