Sri Lanka, known as the pearl of the Indian Ocean, is a tourist destination that most people yearn for and a good place to retire.
In Xuanzang's "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" Volume 11, a "Lion Country" is mentioned, saying that it has " fertile soil and warm and hot weather". And this lion country is today’s Sri Lanka.
However, such an economic island country, is now facing the largest economic crisis in history.
Not only Sri Lanka, other small countries, including Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, etc., are also dying on the edge of economic collapse.
Fuel is running out, natural gas is exhausted, there is a serious shortage of electricity, medicine, and food. Even foreign exchange is almost exhausted, leaving only a pitiful reserve of 50 million US dollars.
Faced with a foreign debt of US$51 billion, Sri Lanka is on the verge of collapse.
Since they were unable to solve the problems faced by the country, 26 top cabinet officials in Sri Lanka resigned one after another.
Even Prime Minister Mahinda. Rajapaksa announced his resignation on May 9.
Suddenly, the whole country was in an uproar!
People demonstrated one after another and tried to block the door of the Prime Minister's house. They tried their best to grasp the last straw, but to no avail.
It was not until the new Prime Minister took office that he announced: " Sri Lanka's economy has completely collapsed. "
The people did not wake up from their dream.
Fuel is running out
Starting from June 27, the Sri Lankan Cabinet stated: "Stop the sale of fuel to ordinary people, only allow the provision of fuel for basic services such as medical and health care, trains, buses and vehicles transporting food, and stop the supply of fuel to non-essential vehicles. In order to cope with the serious shortage of fuel. "
At this time, all private cars are stopped, and even public transportation sometimes breaks down at any time because there is no fuel on the way. This scene can only be described with the word "bitter".
Even the buses used to go to school were forced to stop.
You may have seen students taking buses to go to school, but you have never seen students catching a train to go to school.
In Sri Lanka, traveling by train is a kind of enjoyment, but for teenage Asaya, it is simply a kind of torture.
Asaya studied in a famous girls' school in Colombo . Her home is nearly 100 kilometers away from Colombo.
She used to take the bus to school, but due to fuel shortages, long-distance buses and school buses were out of service, the only guarantee she could go to school was to take the train.
She told reporters: "In order to ensure that she can get to school on time, she gets up on time at 3:40 every morning and arrives at the train station before 4:30."
"My mother has a harder time. She gets up at two o'clock to prepare breakfast and lunch. I have breakfast at four o'clock and then rush to the train station 7 kilometers away. Because I get up too early, I often fall asleep on the train. But this is life, we have no choice.”
Indeed, this is the real life of Sri Lankans at present, and they have no choice.
Power shortage
Due to fuel shortage, Sri Lanka's power supply exceeds demand, with power outages lasting up to 13 hours a day, seriously affecting people's lives. This influence has penetrated into all aspects of study and work.
A lawyer who lives in the community said:
"Our community currently has power outages 2 to 3 times a day, 2 hours each in the morning and afternoon, and sometimes 1 hour at night.
My daily work will generally be based on the official power outages. Arrange the timetable and complete desk and Internet-related work when there is power. "
Only high-end hotels, high-end apartments, office buildings, and large shopping malls will activate emergency backup generators during power outages, provided they have prepared sufficient power. fuel.
But since the country announced that it was running out of fuel, it has become increasingly difficult.
Without gas, we can use kerosene, without kerosene, we can also use firewood, but without money, all this becomes out of reach. It is pushing the poor people to the brink of despair step by step at a silent speed.
The wave of immigration is rising
Since June, a group of Sri Lankans have gone to the General Administration of Immigration to prepare visas for immigration and urgently leave this dire country.
The visa queue for immigrants is huge, winding for dozens of kilometers, and they queue for days and nights, just to get this passport and leave this country with no hope and a sluggish economy.
Most of them are wealthy people, while a small number are poor people who want to make a living outside their home.
According to government data, Sri Lanka issued 288,645 passports in the first five months of 2022, compared with only 91,331 in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of more than 2 times.
Lenora, a 33-year-old garment worker, decided to apply for a job as a maid in Kuwait after her husband was laid off from a small restaurant where he was a chef.
"My husband has lost his job because there is no cooking gas and the cost of food has skyrocketed. It is difficult to find work and the wages are low, Lenora said she earns about 2,500 Sri Lankan rupees (US$6.80) per day."
"With two children, this is impossible."
Last week, this woman took a change of clothes and boarded a train from Nuwara Eliya, a town in the central mountains of Sri Lanka, to the commercial capital Colombo, 170 kilometers away. (105 miles) to hand over documents for her first passport.
In order to make ends meet, the people had to shorten their meals from three meals a day to two meals a day, and from eating fish and meat every day to only eating once every few days.
Because of this, more and more children are suffering from malnutrition, and more and more people are suffering from hunger, so we can tide over the difficulties together.
This is simply hell on earth!
However, the bad things are far more than that. Food shortages, medical shortages, rupee depreciation, and soaring prices are killing Sri Lankans.
html In May, Sri Lanka's official inflation data was 45.3%, but the actual inflation rate has reached 128%, making it the country with the highest inflation rate in the world except Zimbabwe.
Some food inflation prices
In addition, because 80% of the country’s supplies rely on overseas imports, the tourism industry, the only economic lifeline, has been unable to bring huge revenue to the country due to the impact of the epidemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine. The only economic pillar of
suddenly collapsed! This means that the country does not have more money to purchase the needed supplies.
Where is the future of Sri Lanka?
The national government finally couldn't stand it anymore and took the risk of breaking its promise to offer support to China and India. It is hoped that China and India can lend a helping hand to help them tide over the difficulties.
So, just last month, the Chinese government announced that it would provide emergency humanitarian assistance of 500 million yuan to Sri Lanka. This is also the largest assistance Sri Lanka has received since the crisis broke out.
html On June 30, the first batch of grain shipped from China to Sri Lanka successfully arrived at the Colombo pier.
China will provide Sri Lanka with 10,000 tons of rice, which can provide six months of student meal support for 1.1 million students in 9 provinces, 7,900 schools across the country.
At the same time, the government also appeals to Sri Lankans overseas to donate money and materials to the motherland. Although this is only a drop in the bucket, it can also solve the country's urgent needs to a certain extent.
In addition, the government also sought loan support from the International Monetary Fund .
But for Sri Lanka, which has a high level of debt, this is too difficult. Even if there is assistance, it will have to wait until several months later.
I hope that small countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka can overcome the crisis as soon as possible, find light in the darkness, and create miracles with faith and strength.
About the author
Bailing, a freelance writer born after 1985, the founder of Bailing Reading Club, talks about hot topics, looks at people's livelihood, appreciates stories, and shows you the different ways of the world.
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