Sri Lanka has been in dire straits ever since the previous country’s leader decided to stop using chemical fertilizers. Before, Sri Lanka was food independent and capable of providing everything they needed for their citizens, at least food-wise. The misguided attempt to move to only organic fertilizers to make Sri Lanka completely sustainable led to economic fallout, which is still plaguing the population today. The country only has one day of gasoline left and is hoping and praying it finds medicines running out quickly.
Without food, medicine, petrol and with power outages up to 15 hours a day. In Sri Lanka, the police are unable to contain the anger of the starving people. Politicians are beaten and their homes and cars set on fire or thrown into rivers. Coming soon to Europe. pic.twitter.com/5Y8k3G2dBz
— RadioGenova (@RadioGenova) May 17, 2022
Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed last week to the government and gave his first address to the nation, stating that he was concerned about the shortage of particular anti-rabies vaccinations for which there is no treatment other than vaccination. He explained to the populace that the makers of medicine and equipment and food hadn’t been paid for four months and that the next couple of months would be the most difficult the nation had faced in modern times. He prepared his people to make sacrifices, although they had already made severe sacrifices. They warned of continued long gasoline lines and the possibility of power outages lasting 15 hours per day.
He continued to state that they needed $75 million and foreign money within the next few days if they were going to get these essential imports to the country. He continued to state that there was a meager amount of dollars within the country, although the new prime minister said he had found a way to obtain the money to avert a crisis. He explained that electricity was primarily generated through oil, and those power outages would be necessary. He acknowledged that oil, kerosene, and other petrol products were essential for the population.
Your 40k salary in Sri Lanka is 110 USD. Imagine spending a year working for a company for $1320: an amount people wont work for a month in most other countries: still, paying the highest prices for the shittiest quality goods.
— Thanuj Gunawardana (@thanujgune) May 17, 2022
The good news for the population is that some gasoline and oil shipments are on the way. Two loads of oil are on the way using Indian credit lines provided, but this won’t help with the medication shortages. It may not even make a dent in the long lines everyone’s been waiting in for gasoline. Many people that need gasoline wait for six to seven hours in line. Sometimes they’ll wait all day to get to the station, which has run out of fuel.
In Sri Lanka, Anger over the cost of living the public threw politicians’ cars into the waters.
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_Imposter_
(@Imposter_Edits) May 11, 2022
The government is weighing whether or not to privatize the Sri Lankan airlines. It’s saying that it has been a waste of money and many infrastructure projects over the past few years. On the other hand, many in the business see Sri Lanka should be in survival mode and that leaders need to get the nation going again. The complaint, in particular, is that they are printing money to pay salaries for an airline when they need the money to buy resources for the population. In addition, the country is on the brink of bankruptcy and needs to make cuts quickly to free up money to pay for resources for its people.
Sri Lanka out of petrol + state on the verge of collapse. Food riots in Iran. 50%+ inflation in food prices in multiple African countries. The global cost of living crisis is getting bad fast.
— Sam Freedman (@Samfr) May 16, 2022
This story syndicated with permission from For the Love of News