Shortages hit hard in Sri Lanka as citizens protest and the government seeks IMF bailout

"The people want better from their leaders"

Written byRezwan

Posted 23 March 2022 

A Ceylon Petroleum fuel truck. Image from Flickr by Dhammika Heenpella. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

On March 18, 2022, the authorities announced that the final term examinations of schools in the Western Province of Sri Lanka would be delayed due to a shortage of paper and other materials required to prepare the examination papers. The printers of examination papers were unable to secure foreign currency to import the paper and ink they needed.

Twitter user @SriLankaTweet informs that the paper shortage has affected other things:

This is not the only predicament Sri Lanka is facing. Widespread shortages, such as fuel, gas, medicines, or even car parts, triggered by higher prices and foreign exchange shortages are making everyday life miserable in the country. On August 30, 2021, the country declared an economic emergency to control  soaring food prices amid the foreign exchange crisis. Food inflation rose above 25 percent in February 2022.

The country is reeling from its worst financial crisis since independence in 1948 — its usable foreign currency reserves plunged below $1 billion in 2022. Sri Lanka may soon face a sovereign debt default and it has requested an IMF bailout.

An unprecedented crisis

Over the past five decades, Sri Lanka undertook several infrastructure development projects, which were financed through foreign loans. By 1989, Sri Lanka’s public debt (domestic and foreign) amounted to 109 percent of its GDP, but the country could manage it with the support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as these were concessionary loans with low-interest rates — not market rates — and longer payback periods. So the government did not have to pay a huge amount of money as foreign debt repayments each year.

After the end of the 30 year-long civil war in 2009, the country needed infrastructural development and it did not generate sufficient revenue to meet its expenditure in the following decade. So it increased reliance on loans provided by export-import (exim) banks, especially from the Exim Bank of China. These loans were commercial with a shorter repayment period, and, by the end of 2020, more than half of Sri Lanka’s foreign loans were commercial, non-concessionary loans. That means the country has to repay the loan instalments within a short time or will face default. During the pandemic, the debt situation worsened and, in 2022 alone, the country has accrued a debt obligation of USD 7 billion.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka devalued its currency on March 9, 2022, causing the currency value to dip by over 30 percent.

The fuel crisis and the dominoes falling

Though the signs were there in earlier months, in early March, Sri Lanka fell into a severe fuel shortage as it did not have sufficient foreign currency to import and replenish stock. The market price of fuel rose more than 12 percent immediately. Public transport services were crippled as many buses were shut down and taxi drivers had to wait hours in queues to buy fuel as some filling stations capped the sale to a maximum of ten litres per customer. On March 20, two elderly people died while waiting for fuel.

Journalist and writer Kavinthan tweeted:

Scheduled power outages had started in February due to fuel shortage and, from March 2, power cuts were scheduled for over 7 hours in some areas. Sri Lankans on social media started reacting to the crisis.

Twitter user Rehana quipped:

Adilah Ismail, a writer based in Colombo, shared some photos:

By the first week of March 2022, approximately 1,000 bakeries had to close because of a severe shortage of cooking gas.

Storyteller and creative director Brandon Ingram tweeted:

Protests

On March 15, 2022, tens of thousands of protesters gathered outside the president's office, led by supporters of the opposition alliance the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (United People's Force) demanding that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign.

Marianne David, the deputy editor of The Sunday Morning tweeted:

Citizens in different places in Sri Lanka, even in small numbers, are holding independent vigils and protests to show their anger against the government over the current crisis.

Writer Amalini talks about a protest in the Wattala suburb of the capital Colombo (read the whole thread).

Journalist Vajira Sumedha reported:

Twitter user Avanthi Ratnayake commented:

On March 22, Sri Lanka deployed soldiers at hundreds of petrol stations across the country to help distribute fuel and manage protests.

More loans required for the bailout

Last week, the Sri Lankan government formally requested the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a favourable support program to help the country.

On March 9, 2022, Sri Lanka imposed import restrictions on 367 non-essential items such as fruits, milk products and fish in a bid to tackle the foreign exchange shortage. On March 17, they signed a line of credit of USD 1 billion with neighbour India and a currency swap of USD 400 million was added to the deal.

The Sri Lankan government is currently negotiating with China for additional funding of USD 2.5 billion. Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, China has provided USD 2.8 billion financial assistance to Sri Lanka, including a USD 1.5 billion currency swap.

Not just the U.S.: Residente portrays all of America in ‘This is Not America’

The song is the blistering cry of a continent

Written byMelissa Vida

Posted 23 March 2022 

Screen capture from Residente's “This is Not America” music video on Youtube.

Popular Puerto Rican rapper René Pérez, best known as Residente, recently released “This is Not America,” a track that puts the spotlight on Latin America's struggles for peace and justice. By incorporating bold symbolic images of state repression, racism, and exploitation, the video already gathered more than 9 million views on Youtube and counting.

Throughout the song, Residente externalizes a familiar exasperation that many Latin Americans feel when the word “America” is used to define the United States and not the continent ranging from Argentina to Canada. In an interview with the BBC, Residente said: “From the U.S. point of view, everything that happens in the video is not America.”

Elements of the title, lyrics, and video are a direct reference to Childish Gambino's “This is America,” which had vividly denounced racism against Black people in the United States back in 2018.

Accompanied by Ibeyi, an Afro-French Cuban musical duo, Residente denounces a list of ailments plaguing the continent on strong drum beats, such as colonization and extraction of natural resources, police violence, the killings of journalists, and forced migration.

Residente also hails Indigenous contributions, such as the Mayan calendar and Túpac Amaru, an Indigenous leader from Peru who gave rise to the “Great Rebellion” against the Spanish crown in 1780. Residente draws a parallel between the 18th-century Indigenous leader and famous California-born rapper Tupac Shakur (2Pac).

• Translation
 
• Original Quote

Tupac is named after Tupac Amaru of Peru.
America is not only the U.S., man

The music video is also very striking and tells a story of Latin America through a multitude of cultural, sociopolitical, and historical references.

It opens with a scene portraying the historical figure of Lolita Lebrón, a leader in Puerto Rico's independence movement, who attacked the U.S. Capitol in 1954 in an attempt to give full sovereignty to the island, followed by symbolic images of a vibrant culture surviving amidst social protests and the extermination of Indigenous peoples. The image of the Indigenous man pulled by four police officers refers to when the Spanish colonizers attempted to dismember Tupac Amaru with horses in 1781.

Forced migration of families towards the United States is also referenced in the video, with a mother breastfeeding her child who has been separated from her due to U.S. immigration policy. Central Americans fleeing gang violence — represented by people with tattoos — are also seen on Mexico's side of the U.S. border wall in Tijuana. The fresh twist is that gang members are shown as victims, refugees, and fervent Catholics rather than through their reputation of being “animals,” a dehumanizing term.

The women wearing black hoods over their faces represent the Indigenous Zapatista political movement in Mexico. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN for its acronym in Spanish) took control of southern parts of Mexico, in Chiapas, to install an Indigenous-led libertarian socialist government. For many, the Zapatistas have become an example of the Indigenous and peasant struggle for self-determination as these groups have been the most historically marginalized on the continent.

A large segment is dedicated to the juxtaposition of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro eating a steak and wiping his mouth on the Brazilian flag while an Amazonian Indigenous child watches him. In Brazil, Indigenous peoples have denounced Bolsonaro for committing genocide against their populations by encouraging the accelerated deforestation of the Amazon forest for industrial crops and pastures to raise cows for meat consumption. 

There is also a significant critique of U.S. companies throughout the video, particularly making reference to megacorporations like Starbucks, Amazon, and McDonald's. Indigenous children in traditional attire interact with Western companies — such as the Amazonian child throwing away boxes of what looks like Jeff Bezos’ Amazon company. Another child is filmed eating a burger. Western fast-food companies have “aggressively expanded” in Latin America, “contributing to obesity and health problems,” according to the New York Times.

The scene where the soldier shoots the musician refers to the torture and killing of Chilean singer Víctor Jara at the national stadium at the hands of state forces after the U.S.-supported 1973 coup against Salvador Allende. Numerous shots show the frequent repression of student protests throughout the region, such as the 2014 Ayotzinapa abduction and disappearance of 43 students.

Above all, the song is a tribute to Indigenous, student, peasant, and Afrodescendant resistance to state repression and extraction of resources. For example, Residente makes a reference to Latin America's economic dependence on sugar production — which drives “killings, land loss, displacement, denial of free, prior and informed consent,” according to human rights reports — by stating that campesino workers can rebel.

• Translation
 
• Original Quote

The machete is not only for cutting cane,
It's also for cutting heads

On Twitter, where the response to the song was overwhelmingly positive, users were quick to analyze more references from the video in Twitter threads such as this one:

The visual references I was able to identify in Residente's video:

Lolita Lebron

An underground comic book displays the zeitgeist of Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia

Streets and sewers are main locations of this comix social commentary

Written byFilip Stojanovski

Posted 25 March 2022 5:55 GMT 

Macedonian edition of the book “Streetdog and Rat” (Џукела и Пацоф) by Matej Bogdanovski. 

Photo by Filip Stojanovski, CC BY 3.0.

The comic book “Streetdog and Rat” (“Džukela i Pacof” in Macedonian) was published in October 2021. The author Matej Bogdanovski has given Global Voices  permission to publish several pages translated from Macedonian into English.

The satirical comics “Streetdog and Rat” comments on life in Skopje during the decade of  the 2010s. It consists of 40 short stories, one page each, presenting anecdotes from the life and times of two pals, Streetdog and Rat, and a host of other anthropomorphic animals (Crow, Bat, Kitty, Poodle, Frog).

It can be considered underground both stylistically and literally, as it takes place on the city streets, and below them in its sewers.

The main characters Streetdog and Rat live on the margins of society, barely making ends meet, akin to these two kinds of animals that live in cities, adapting to all the cruelty the urban environment. At the same time, the city protects them from dangers they would encounter in nature.

In a conversation published by the online magazine Okno.mk, the writer Rumena Bužarovska asked Bogdanovski whether there's any optimism in the characters of Streetdog and Rat, whom she described as “cute losers, both heroes and villains at the same time.” He replied:

• Translation
 
• Original Quote

The two of them are not even villains. They might be considered some sort of antiheroes, but they don't have bad intentions, which would make them villains. They are apathetic and opportunistic; at the same time, lazy and passive. While its not all the same to them when their interests are endangered, their reactions are passive aggressive. For instance in one story they complain about the efficacy of the public garbage disposal service that empty the dumpsters on time, because that deprives them of food. Or when Rat starts a protest against the increase of salaries, because he thinks that, as an unemployed person, he would suffer from the ensuing increase of prices.

Streetdog and Rat episode 2 by Matej Bogdanovski. Used with permission.

While the author didn't conceive of the comics as overtly political, it still refers to some general conditions related to politics that affect everyday life. For instance, the fourth mini story deals with the widespread practice among populist political parties in the Balkans of boosting the number of attendees of their public events with people who are both coerced and bribed with food, such as sandwiches and ice cream.

Streetdog and Rat episode 4 by Matej Bogdanovski. Used with permission.

One of the characters is the corrupt local politician Crow, who uses buzzwords such as “The Green Agenda” that became popular among politicians who think that nationalist narratives have become ineffective or spent, while trying to appear fancy, worldly and modern.

Streetdog and Rat episode 7 by Matej Bogdanovski. Used with permission.

Bogdanovski explained that, in order to convey various layers of  contradictory feelings that denizens of Skopje express about their city, at times he used the diminutive term of endearment “Skopjence” that can be translated as “our little Skopje.”

• Translation
 
• Original Quote

Skopje. A city thorn between the desire to be a metropolis and the quiet life in small neighborhoods. A city destroyed by irresponsible policies and boorish defilement by the urbanistic/construction mafia run by thugs trying to compensate for their lack of constructive experiences. A city tired of changes, in which several generations each have their own Old Skopje. A city which changes loudly, but rebels quietly. A city which lost its authenticity by trying to look like some other cities. A city whose citizens express all their passivity and city's failings through one word: “Skopjence.”

Streetdog and Rat episode 27 by Matej Bogdanovski. Used with permission.

Bogdanovski doesn't consider himself a socially engaged artist. He simply considers himself a visual artist and, above all, a painter. It is by continuing the tradition of other painters from the past who had also commented on society that he reacts to developments in society through his work, expressing his position or dissatisfaction.

Streetdog and Rat episode 33 by Matej Bogdanovski. Used with permission.

Matej Bogdanovski was born in 1979 in Skopje, and has graduated and finished masters studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Skopje. Alongside with his primary job as a painter, he is also the author of comics and books, including collections of illustrated short stories and coloring books, as well as book based on memes related to the Skopje 2014 project titled “Skopje rados ti ke bidesh” (Skopje happiness you'll be).

His other comic books include “KŠŠC” (2010), a tale about Skopje night life and rock and roll subculture; “Patentalia and Tentelina” (Perfect Ten) (2016) a fantasy parody mixing folklore and fairytale motives with modern issues like copyright, piracy and body image on social media; “Street” (2020), an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Slavko Janevski; and the educational comics for kids “The Skopje Aqueduct” (2021).

More of Matej Bogdanovski's art is publicly available via his Facebook profile.

Threatened with deportation in Thailand, a Lao activist seeks asylum in Canada

He was arrested in January for violating his Thailand visa

Written byMong Palatino
Posted 25 March 2022 


A Lao activist Khoukham Keomanivong (Photo Credit; RFA Asia), Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

Lao activist Khoukham Keomanivong arrived in Canada on March 11, 2022, seeking asylum almost two months after he was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, and threatened with deportation.

Khoukham is among the founders of Free Laos, a network of Lao workers in Thailand pushing for human rights in their home country. He was detained by Thai authorities on January 29 for allegedly violating his visa rules, but he was released on bail three days later through the legal assistance of a human rights lawyer.

His arrest was widely condemned by civil society groups across Asia because he is officially recognized as an asylum seeker by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Khoukham’s story and his refugee status were widely shared on social media to pressure Thai authorities to stop the deportation procedures. Travel restrictions were imposed on Khoukham despite his release on February 1.

Khoukham insisted that he has not participated in any political activity in the past two years, as required by the UNHCR when he received his refugee card. He thinks someone maliciously reported him to Thai authorities by reposting his previous posts on social media that tackled human rights issues. The prospect of being deported terrifies him and his supporters because it could lead to a long prison sentence as the Laos government is known for handing out harsh punishment to dissidents.

News about Khoukham’s safe arrival in Vancouver was welcomed by human rights advocates.

In an interview with Radio Free Asia a few days after arriving in Canada, Khoukham shared his relief on being able to talk and move freely again.

…the most important thing is that I’m in a safe place and in a free country now. I think nobody will restrict my freedoms anymore.

He added that he may soon resume speaking out about the human rights situation in Laos:

Deep in my heart, I’m still the same person, and in whatever country I live — free or not — I’ll continue to speak out and express myself about my native country. I think that is a basic human right. I might come out one day and be just as critical as I was before, because here in Canada I don’t have to be afraid of anyone anymore. It’s our right to speak out.

Khoukham was not the first Lao refugee and activist to be detained in Thailand. Some even mysteriously disappeared while waiting to be resettled into another country. Human rights groups have expressed concern about the rising cases of arrested and disappeared dissidents who sought refuge in Thailand. These political refugees are from neighboring Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Thailand’s military-backed government, which came to power in 2014, has been accused of cooperating with its Southeast Asian neighbors to deport activists and refugees. Thailand is able to deport asylum seekers as illegal immigrants because it is not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Khoukham has had a difficult journey which brought him from Laos to Thailand and now in Canada. But he is still fortunate since he was able to evade the fate of his fellow dissidents who had gone missing either in Thailand or Laos. His journey and pursuit of justice continues in Canada.


Written byMong Palatino

Israeli Settlers attack Palestinians, seize land around Nablus

The hills around Nablus have become a primary target for new settlements for many years, dispossessing Palestinians of their land in the occupied West Bank

2021 saw the highest number of settler attacks on Palestinians in more than a decade - with no signs of the trend abating [Getty]

Israeli settlers have set up several caravans on Palestinian-owned land in the village of Qusra to the south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian News Agency Wafa on Sunday.

Ghassan Daghlas, a local Palestinian official in charge of monitoring Israeli settlement activity, told Wafa that a group of Israeli settlers from the illegal outpost settlement of Magdalim installed the caravans with the aim of expanding on Palestinian land.

Israeli settlers also attacked Palestinian-owned commercial structures and caused damages to a Palestinian vehicle at the entrance of the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus on the same day, according to Daghlas.

The city of Nablus has become encircled by settlements and unofficial outposts in the last decade, leading to a ten-year peak in violence against Palestinians by settlers in 2021, according to the UN.

Attacks take place across Areas A, B and C - with Palestinians living in Area C, under the control of Israeli Occupying Forces most at risk of violence and dispossession by new settlement projects.

Israel has occupied the West Bank illegally since 1967, and commits various abuses against Palestinian civilians, human rights groups say.

More than 600,000 Jewish Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, in constructions considered illegal under international law.

Elsewhere in occupied Palestinian territories, Israel has on Sunday approved five new settlements in the eastern part of the Negev (also called Naqab in Arabic), amid mounting tensions between local Jewish and Palestinian Bedouin communities over land ownership, Israeli media reported on Sunday.

Israel approves five new settlements in the Negev

The newly approved settlements include four for Jewish settlers.

The New Arab Staff
27 March, 2022

Protests against Israeli land grabs have rocked the Negev since

 the beginning of the year [AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty]

Israel has on Sunday approved five new settlements in the eastern part of the Negev (also called Naqab in Arabic), amid mounting tensions between local Jewish and Palestinian Bedouin communities over land ownership, Israeli media reported on Sunday.

Four of the approved settlements will be for Jewish settlers, including one kibbutz (agricultural cooperative community), after the cabinet approved it in a committee session that descended into a screaming match following strong opposition from left-wing ministers.

The cabinet decision also authorised the establishment of a Palestinian Bedouin village, an extremely rare provision given that the Israeli government generally denies building permits to members of the local Palestinian communities.

The Negev desert is home to over 300,000 Palestinian Bedouins, who are extremely marginalised and constitute Israel's poorest minority.

Israel has long pursued a policy to sedentarise and concentrate this community in a handful of state-built cities.

While many Bedouins have agreed to live in these cities, others continue to live in their historic villages and cultivate their ancestral lands - much of which is considered by Israel as state property, since Bedouin communities were expropriated at the time of Israel's creation or they failed to register their deeds with the new authorities.

These villages are "unrecognised" by the Israeli government and lack basic services - be it road, electricity, water or schools.

The provision to establish a recognised Bedouin village in the Negev brings Israel's ruling coalition one step closer to fulfilling long-awaited concessions promised to Ra'am, the first Palestinian party to be part of a ruling coalition in Israel.

The Negev is a key base of the party, who promised to push for the recognition of unrecognised Bedouin villages by the Israeli government.

The concession could also be a mean to appease tensions with the Bedouins, which have reached new heights recently over a tree-planting initiative launched by Israeli authorities and targeting several 'unrecognised' Bedouin villages.

A further five Jewish settlements in the southern Negev are also in the early planning stages.