The latest Click a picture to enhance it. Blue text = a clickable link.On Wednesday 20 July Sri Lanka legislators elected a new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe but not with any enthusiasm from the protestors who have been featuring in the news over the last week or more. In their mind Wickremesinghe is old guard, an aherent to the deposed Rajapaksa family dynasty. He is already announcing repressive actions to curb what he calls 'the fascists'. And I've just heard on the Friday midday news that police have used force to break up the main camp of protesters outside the presidential secretarial in Colombo. PessimismAccording to the World Food Programme (WFP) ‘Sri Lanka is experiencing its worst economic crisis since it gained independence in 1948. It comes on the heels of successive waves of COVID-19 threatening to undo years of development progress, severely undermining the country’s ability to achieve the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. 'An estimated 4.9 million people – 22 percent of the population – are currently food-insecure and require humanitarian assistance. 'Reduced domestic agricultural production, scarcity of foreign exchange reserves and depreciation of the local currency have caused food shortages and a spike in the cost of living, which is limiting people’s access to healthy and affordable meals. 'The economic crisis will push families into hunger and poverty – some for the first time – adding to the half a million people who the World Bank estimates have fallen below the poverty line because of the pandemic.' WFP finishes this sobering section by stating that it 'is scaling up its operations to support 3 million people between June and December 2022 whose food security, nutrition and livelihoods are at risk.' OptimismNone the less I've noticed that the Sri Lankan internet newpaper Colombo Page is optimisticly reporting that the: 'Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe says the Central Bank is currently implementing a clear program and ready to make strong decisions to recover from the current economic crisis within a short time.' It also happily reports that: 'according to Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, The International Monetary Fund says it hopes to conclude the negotiations with Sri Lanka “as quickly as possible."' Reality on the groundWhat I've so far written sets the scene. Now I'm turning to an email I received on Wednesday from Christian World Service (CWS). I've talked before about this Christian aid agency. The last time was in March this year; a post headed Fasting for Ukraine. This time we are on the other side of the world, in another country in crisis, but not caused by an external oppressor. Sri Lanka is crippled by internal strife and ecomomic morass. Linked to the email is a CWS website story called 'Sometimes We Starve'. It's about Premalatha, the person sitting at the front of this photograph.
Covid hit hard
If you wish to donateCWS is collecting money to help relieve the food situation in Sri Lanka. A click here accesses the donation page. WFP is also accepting donations. Just click this link . UnityOne of the difficulties the governers of Sri Lanka, whoever they are, have to overcome is the lack of unity between the Sinhalese Buddhist majority and the Hindu and Muslim Tamil minorities. History has not been kind to the Tamils. That difference and that history are issues that the Women's Centre, with which Premalatha and her co-workers are involved, talks about and tries to overcome. Can that happen throughoutout the country? I'll be listening to and watching the news programmes. □ John McInnes Friday 22 July 2022 Photo credits: All pics from Church World Service/Women's Centre: used with permission. ##########
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