As a Sri Lankan, watching international news coverage of my country’s economic and political collapse is like attending your own funeral, with everyone speculating on how you died.
Western media accuse China lure us into a debt trap. Tucker Carlson says environmental, social and corporate governance programs have killed us. Everyone blames RajapaksasThe corrupt political dynasty ruled us until massive protests by angry Sri Lankans kick them out last month.
But from where I am, the ultimate responsibility lies with the neoliberal system dominated by the West that is keeping developing countries in debt colonization. The system is in crisis, its shaky foundations exposed by dominoes during the Ukraine war, leading to food and fuel shortages, pandemics, insolvency and famine. ripples around the world.
Sri Lanka is Exhibition A. We were once an economic hope, with an educated population and the highest median income in South Asia. But that is an illusion. After 450 years of colonization, 40 years of neoliberalism, and four years of utter failure by our politicians, Sri Lanka and its people have been begging.
Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has deepened our debt problem, but the economy is still structurally unstable between administrations. We simply import too much, export too little, and cover the difference with debt. This unsustainable economy always fall.
But we are just canaries in a coal mine. The whole world is being installed into this failed system and the pain will spread.
This is the feeling of the past few months.
I have a car, which has now turned into a giant paperweight. Sri Lanka literally ran out of gas, so my kids asked if they could play in it. That’s all it’s good for. Fuel requirement waiting for many days in the mental crushing queue. I quit. I traveled by bus or bicycle. Most of the economy stopped moving. Now the fuel has been allocated, but absurdity. Wealthy people have enough fuel for gas-guzzling SUVs while commuters don’t have enough and tractor owners struggle to make ends meet.
The rupee has lost almost half its value since March and many commodities have run out. You learn to react at the first sign of trouble: When the power went out a few months ago, my wife and I bought an expensive rechargeable fan; The next day, they were sold out. When the fuel cuts became severe, we immediately bought the bikes, and the next day their prices went up. Staples such as rice, vegetables, fish and chicken have increased in price.
Many Sri Lankans are eating one meal a day; some are starving. Every week brings to my door a new class of people who have reduced begging to survive.
I earn in dollars as an online writer so when the rupee depreciated and depreciated, I effectively got a raise. We can afford solar and battery backup to keep the power going. But many others are in a state of blackout. People can’t work when factories and other workplaces are closed and children can’t sleep in the heat. The first major protests began in March after one such night, when it seemed that the whole country was asleep and extremely angry.
Last month, the protesters trespassing on the president’s residence and the prime minister’s office, and that’s a good feeling. Along with thousands of ordinary Sri Lankans, I got to see the insides of these colonial forts for the first time. It is spontaneous, safe and respectful. Couples went on dates there, parents brought their children. I saw people singing in the presidential house, a mother dancing with her toddler, people swimming in the pool. I walked around a hall lined with placards bearing the names of the British colonists, which seamlessly became the names of our presidents.
At the prime minister’s office, someone played the piano and a topless man wearing a Sri Lankan flag slept on a couch. Four boys have set up a game carrom and is spinning the discs around. A child happily rides a wheelchair on the lawn outside, and a community kitchen serves rice to anyone hungry. It’s a beautiful sight in a space where elites previously gnawed canapes, surrounded by armed guards. It feels hopeful.
But what was briefly like true democracy did not last. Parliament only replaced President Rajapaksa with one of his close friends, Ranil Wickremesinghewho was prime minister a number of times but lost his parliamentary seat in 2020. He was move troops to protesters and Protesters and trade unionists were arrested. All are “constitutional”, undermining faith in the entire liberal democratic system.
Sri Lanka – like many other countries struggling with solvency – remains a colony whose management is outsourced to the International Monetary Fund. We still export cheap labor and resources, and import expensive finished goods – the basic colonial model. The country remains divided and conquered by local elites, while real economic control is held abroad. IMF has extended loans to Sri Lanka 16 times, always with strict conditions. They just continued to restructure us to get further exploited by our creditors.
And as much as the West blames China’s predatory lending, just turn around 10 to 20 percent Sri Lanka’s foreign debt is owed to China. The majority debt to American and European financial institutions, or to Western allies such as Japan. We have died in a Western debt trap.
But major economies are also being affected. Europe must face uncertain energyAmericans are struggling to fill their tanks, USA may have been in recessionthat is asset bubble threat to pop and British families dealing with food anxiety.
It will get worse: IMF just warned that the possibility of a global recession is increasing. As economies collapse, Western loans will not be repaid and poor countries will exit the Western lifestyle dollar system. Then even Americans won’t be able to print money their way out of trouble. It started. Sri Lanka has begun settlement of loans in Indian rupees while India is buy Russian oil in rubles. China can buy Saudi oil in yuan.
The uprising in Sri Lanka that destroyed our leaders is called Aragalaya. It means “struggle.” It will be a long time, and it is spreading all over the world.
