Okay I was simply scrolling because Sri Lanka is fucking trending but as usual international media is exoticizing our struggles and focusing on the “people swimming in the president’s pool” instead of informing the world about why an entire fucking country (amidst an economic collapse) stormed to Colombo and asked the president to step down.
First things first. Know the context.
There is an economic crisis going on in Sri Lanka. We have declared bankruptcy.
I’ve already made a post about what this means for the country. This means high inflation. No electricity. Prices are sky rocketing.
No fuel. I repeat. No fuel. People are fucking dying in queues.
But even without fuel, people came to Colombo. People fucking walked to Colombo for miles and miles to join the protest.
There were attempts to stop the protest. We have the right for assembly. We have the right to freedom of expression. But no. The government stopped fuel dispense (as if we had fuel lol) to stop people. They imposed an unconstitutional “police curfew” to stop the protest. Why is no one talking about this shit??
But people still came. I don’t see the international media reporting about the effort and energy and passion that went into this.
We built a city. Do you fucking know that? We built a city called “GotaGoGama” (loosely translates to: Gota-Go-Home-Ville). We built a city months ago since the country collapsed.
Recap of May 09th when GotaGoGama was attacked by Mahinda Rajapaksha (then PM) and his goons.
I repeat. The protest on 09th July is not the first.
We’ve been asked the president to step down so more competent people can take over and do something to help us. This protest yesterday was not new. It’s not random. It’s an act of people giving up. The storming of the presidential palace is not anger. It’s taking back of power.
As for the swimming pools? And People making fun of the protestors for working out in the president’s gym, eating the food in his kitchen and swimming in his pool?
What about this?
For people making fun of the youth who are taking a dip at the swimming pool or playing the piano at the president’s house…For those are the condemning the ‘protestors’ who set the PM’s house on fire (we still have no visual proof this happened) - all I have to say is this:
THIS -
These leaders we asked to step down today (who still haven’t btw. No. Not yet. Nothing official yet), they are corrupt beyond compare. The president had “said” he “will” step down not he 13th. But we don’t know anything yet.
These are people who not only brought the country to economic collapse. But the Rajapaskhas are responsible for millions of lives that were lost during the civil war. These are people who have taken from my country until there is nothing more for us to give.
I’m really grateful that you are all finally “talking about us”. I’m glad the international media and the whole world is finally watching. But your view is narrow. It is is short sighted.
International media. People of the world.
Do better.
Do fucking better.
Because we, Sri Lankans, are doing our fucking best right now.
