From the Streets of Sri Lanka
Disclaimer:
25th of August, 2022: The Sri Lankan government has launched a large-scale investigation into the protests that took place, and is determined to prosecute those who took part. Names of the interviewees/demonstrators who spoke to Political Pandora have been changed due to concerns for their safety.
Living in an area close to a petrol station in a school district, there was always minimal traffic on the roads as far as Mara could see from her house in Colombo. However, in December, she started noticing masses of long queues along the petrol station. January onwards, the roads would often get blocked as queues began extending into the main road. This was an occurrence across the country.
“Late December, [early] January is when we started realizing that there were a lot of problems in terms of everyday things — milk packets were difficult to buy, the prices of rice, everyday food, eggs and all went up. My parents also mentioned that the price of fertilizers was increasing by about 300%,” Mara (she/her), a 19-year-old high school graduate, said in an interview with Political Pandora. Her parents weren’t entirely wrong.
The prices of fertilizers had gone up 250% in the last 14 months prior to April, affecting an already impoverished and vulnerable sector of the population. As the farmers argue, expensive fertilizers make for expensive food. According to the World Food Programme, food inflation reached a drastic 80%. Sri Lanka’s economy took a nosedive, announcing bankruptcy, while facing fuel shortages, rolling electricity blackouts, uncopable inflation and varying levels of impact across the island nation. Its people woke up to the discrimination, corruption and weak administration of the Rajapaksas’ governance. Then, the people decided to take action.
Continue reading here: https://www.politicalpandora.in/post/sri-lanka.