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- TylerE 4y agoNeeds a (Sri Lanka) tag or something.
- mdp2021 4y agoThe domain name specified next to the title has a '.lk' TLD.
- ziddoap 4y agoProtonmail, a Swiss company, uses a Montenegro TLD. TLD isn't a good geolocator.
- mdp2021 4y ago> TLD isn't a good geolocator Yes. ...In general. Specifically, this one is a title that comes from a news company with TLD consistent to it. Had it been reported by The Guardian or the NYT, they would have titled it differently.
- TylerE 4y agoWhich I would bet most to the HN audience isn't familiar with.
- NackerHughes 4y agoWe're all part of today's lucky 10,000!
- mdp2021 4y ago> HN audience The audience that by definition would go "What is that? Mh! Nice to know!".
- uoaei 4y agoTechnically true and also unhelpful.
- HidyBush 4y agoah yes, '.lk' for 'sri LanKa"
- beebeepka 4y agoI wonder if there's a "wk" and what it stands for
- bennyp101 4y agoYea I had to read it first to figure it out, so now I know and I’m informed about another nation… Edit: urgh I know it’s a shit comment, but frankly I’m so disheartened with seeing another country go down it’s just depressing
- mdp2021 4y agoTo the best of my past information, the immediately preceding government seeked raising consensus through suicidal tax cuts. Given the widespread trend in """live-for-the-day""" politics, another example but little new (dramatically or farcically). Edit: it is one case in which the following appears exceptionally justifiable: https://thediplomat.com/2022/06/sri-lanka-sends-2-ministers-to-russia-to-negotiate-for-oil/ https://thediplomat.com/2022/06/sri-lanka-sends-2-ministers-... > Sri Lanka is sending two government ministers to Russia to negotiate for fuel - one of the necessities nearly exhausted amid the Indian Ocean island nation’s economic collapse. // The development comes as Washington and its allies aim to cut off energy imports from Russia in line with sanctions over its war on Ukraine. Since the invasion in late February, global oil prices have skyrocketed, sparking a number of countries to seek out Russian crude, which is being offered at a steep discount
- benj111 4y agoAh yes lk== Sri Lanka. Obviously.
- mdp2021 4y agoFor that matter it cannot be obvious that 'Colombo' is the name of the capital (again, of /one/ capital) or that 'Ceylon' was used for the place and/or that it still is. It's notions, like so much the rest. Things you meet and catch up with.
- msla 4y agoAnd we know all ccTLDs are accurate, like how .tv always means the site is owned by people from Tuvalu.
- mdp2021 4y agoVery not relevant to the case in question, in which the TLD follows the norm: it is the title of a local paper.
- msla 4y agoThe person I'm replying to said that people here ought to know what country a site is relevant to based on the ccTLD. My point is that ccTLDs get used for all kinds of reasons, most of them quite irrelevant to the country they've ostensibly been assigned to.
- mdp2021 4y ago> said No, that is not what I said. I said (there implicitly and concisely, then explicitly nearby) that in this occasion and context - national news website issuing a title that implies "in this Country" - the TLD was revealing and will probably in general be revealing. This reasoning is of course not valid in general for other cases. In Bayesian terms, had the TLD been '.tv' the chances of the subject being Tuvalu would have increased only slightly, yet with other multipliers set as high given such a title.
- hardstyle 4y agoI’d say the same for other countries as well
- ricardobeat 4y agoSome context: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/06/26/asia/sri-lanka-fuel-supplies-struggles-intl/index.html https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/06/26/asia/sri-lanka-fuel-suppl... The country is already $700M in debt, has no cash reserves to pay for imports, credit by national banks being refused.
- 015a 4y agoI think its interesting, and maybe valuable, to see that actual number. From another front page post today: its roughly the same amount of debt Voyager issued to Three Arrow Capital, who just defaulted. That's kind of the scale we're talking about, and the context that's necessary when the top comment on this page is someone linking an article titled "the end of the world is just beginning"; that yes, it sucks for Sri Lanka, and yes, there are some serious global issues right now that we need to continue to work toward remediating, but also: its very possible most people reading this comment had no idea what I was talking about when I said "three arrow capital and voyager". The scale between a million dollar problem and a global problem is incomprehensible, and that scale is important to consider before jumping straight to doom and gloom. It does suck for Sri Lanka. But; we can't solve every problem, and thus worrying about them wastes valuable time and energy that is better spent solving our problems. Secure your oxygen mask before helping others. Similarly, I think its negligent and borderline misinformation that the title of this post doesn't include the location.
- H8crilA 4y agoNow let's just wait for the African food crisis caused by Putin's naval blockade and the Russian army PGMs falling on grain storage. It will be an interesting year.
- astrange 4y agoSri Lanka is already having a food crisis, basically because they elected a government of hippies who decided to convert the country to organic farming by banning fertilizer use, so all their crops failed.
- tomjen3 4y agoThey did that, but others have pointed out that it wasn't so much to be green as it was to be curb imports. I actually think the strategy could have worked much better, but it would have had to be phased in over a long time and not in the middle of the planting season.
- robocat 4y agoBefore banning fertilizers, they were already importing 7% of their rice needs. https://srilankabrief.org/what-sri-lanka-needs-is-not-banning-chemical-fertilisers-but-a-second-green-revolution-w-a-wijewardena/ https://srilankabrief.org/what-sri-lanka-needs-is-not-bannin...
- jdasdf 4y agoPutin is happy to sell grain (even ukrainian grain) to african countries. You don't get to simultaneously claim it's putin causing the lack of grain, while complaining about him selling grain.
- fasteddie31003 4y agoI've been reading The End of The World is Just the Beginning https://www.amazon.com/End-World-Just-Beginning-Globalization/dp/006323047X https://www.amazon.com/End-World-Just-Beginning-Globalizatio... I hope he is wrong about globalization falling apart, but articles like this are right out of his book.
- tommiegannert 4y agoI didn't have the patience to finish The Fourth Turning [1], but it's arguing that the US has been working on 80 year major cycles for a long time. I like "end of a cycle" better than "end of the world." :) I'd be interested to know if there are related studies outside the US. Something I didn't learn about until recently [2] was Glocalization. Wikipedia [3] says it's been around since the 80s. Perhaps now's a good time to bring it out again. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generatio... 2. https://drpippa.substack.com/p/glocalization https://drpippa.substack.com/p/glocalization 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glocalization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glocalization
- yucky 4y agoI read that and found it fascinating. Everything doesn't fit as neatly into the 80 year cycles as they might like, but I think they acknowledge that.
- Litost 4y agoI'm not that familiar with the Fourth Turning and this also originates from the US, but I did find it quite helpful when considering where things are, have been and might be going and how the US is in a cycle along with other nations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xguam0TKMw8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xguam0TKMw8 I'd also not heard of Glocalization, but it reminds me of a couple of topics that are covered in Fritjof Capra's Systems View of Life book (also a course), around emergent behaviour in complex systems and how this competes with top down command and control ideas (or in organisations as the formal and informal networks).
- causi 4y ago
- rootsudo 4y agoOn the other side, what opportunities exist for investors to invest in the situation in Sri Lanka? Is there any easy way, or just boots on ground? What about humanitarian or green-vesting?
- tomjen3 4y agoIt is an old British colony with no money, so cheap outsourcing, especially if you are willing/able to pay in USD.
- pkaye 4y agoThere are a lot of issues that led to the failure. I don't think investors can make a difference until they get better leaders to make the necessary changes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5zxYDHwf-Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5zxYDHwf-Y
- tomjen3 4y agoThis is for the country of Sri Lanka. The headline should (IMHO) have reflected this, because it is otherwise click bait. I am aware there is a .lk domain, but there are thousands of domains out there and I don't think most people would know it of hand.
- JoiDegn 4y agoWe just moved our little family of four from Sri Lanka where we planned to make a home. My wife is Sri Lankan but has not lived there in the last 10 years. It was a rough decision because her family is still there. The situation on the ground is "stable" but food, medicines and of course fuel are becoming scarce. The crazy part is that the government seems to have no real plan but refuses to step down even though the public clearly wants them to.
- pkaye 4y agoDidn't the previous government step down?
- sbarre 4y agoJust curious, is there another party or group waiting in the wings that does have a plan - and the ability - to fix this? I've seen op-eds and articles in western media, and a few in EMEA media, that all talk about sweeping changes and reforms but they all seem like the usual hand-waving or 'easier said than done' articles, and not really a plan for how to get there. My (very limited) understanding is that the current government has been in power less than a year(?), and so must have inherited a lot of these issues. Anyone seen any other articles on this that have more concrete information?
- throwaway4C4B 4y agoThe current government is pretty much the same faces that has been in power for over a decade. The current president "Gotabaya Rajapaksha" is the Brother of "Mahinda Rajapaksha" who was the president before him. When Mahinda Rajapaksha was in power, Gotabaya was the defence minister. When Gotabaya was recently elected the president, Mahainda was the Prime-minister. In Sri Lanka it doesn't matter which party you elect as the government, ministers jump from one party to the other always, they fight and throw chairs at each other in the parliament and on stages, but the very same day they will all meet and have a party with each-other. (I wish I was exaggerating) there was a different government before Gotabaya was president and After Mahinda was president. But, it was basically the same old culprits.
- danielvf 4y agoIt is so sad to watch a nation slow walk down such a well worn and tragic path. Bad government policies, and over spending creating inflation and high prices for goods, with a response of price controls to control the prices, which results in even fewer goods available, then government rationing because the goods aren't available, further reducing ability to produce anything of value... And it doesn't have to be this way! At each stage, you could just not do the next step in the spiral. Thing would be bad for a bit, but you wouldn't bring the nation to poverty.
- RC_ITR 4y ago
- jdasdf 4y ago
- 88840-8855 4y agoAnd before that it was the declining fishing exports. This county basically has nothing else than fishing and tourism. And on top: terrible policies, populism and too many government positions that had to be paid by printed money. The IMF bailed them out over 15 times already. At some point we much realize that reforms failed.
- antonvs 4y agoHere's an article about the tax cuts, which happened in 2019: https://www.outlookindia.com/business/sri-lanka-lost-around-10-lakh-taxpayers-since-2019-tax-cuts-finance-minister-sabry-news-195205 https://www.outlookindia.com/business/sri-lanka-lost-around-... Excerpts: > [Finance Minister] Sabry told Parliament on Thursday that Sri Lanka lost about 500,000 taxpayers each in 2020 and 2021 after the ill-timed tax cuts were delivered. > However, even before these tax cuts, Sri Lanka was a country with one of the lowest revenue-to-GDP ratios in the world, and the 2019 tax cuts drove Sri Lanka closer to the bottom of this list, the report said. > Sabry on Wednesday had called the 2019 tax cuts a “historic mistake.” It seems you would at least need to take this into account in any analysis of the causes of the current situation.
- jfim 4y agoThere's a good video from Polymatter on YouTube that explains how that situation came to be: https://youtu.be/W5zxYDHwf-Y https://youtu.be/W5zxYDHwf-Y
- 1sembiyan 4y agoThis is great, my thanks!
- johanzm1 4y ago
- throwaway4C4B 4y agoWhile what's happening elsewhere in the world is definitely impacting the country, the majority of the blame should be placed on one family and those around it. The Rajapaksha family helped end a 30 year civil war, it was a bloody horrific war, however as this was the most important issue for most Sri Lankans at the time, helping end this meant the Rajapaksha's were seen as the saviors,they were at the time considered kings, people used to cry in joy when they see them, they were that loved and celebrated within the country. This gave them a lot of power and popularity, anyone with a Rajapaksha name ran for all types of government positions, and most of them actually won, people accepted them with open arms. At the same time with the power the Rajapaksha's had they were able to promote their family members, some of them who didn't even have a highschool degree in to high ranking positions within government institutions. So, half of the family was elected by the people, the rest was promoted due to nepotism. What happened was a decade worth of corruption, a family that didn't have much, some of whom worked as gas pump operators in the US (the current president) suddenly became billionaires. One of the main culprits was an animal named Basil Rajapaksha, he was so corrupt people called him "Mr 10%" because if any construction or any type of project were to start, you have to allocate 10% of the profits and the initial investment to Basil rajapaksha. If I were to write all the corruption, human rights violations and the day light robberies committed by the rajapuksha family we would be here all day. Sri Lanka is a majority Buddhist country, in Buddhism we are taught of Karma, and how what you do to others will one day return back to you. And as a Sri Lankan this is what I feel is happening to us now. The sinhalese majority of Sri lanka, killed, looted and raped Tamil people which led to the 30+ year civil war, and we encouraged and looked the otherway when the rajapaksha family & co killed, raped and looted the Tamil population in the name of stopping the war. We looked the other way when they destroyed someone else's future because it was easier than finding a sustainable solution. If I manage to survive this and one day have children, this is all I would tell them, "If you see an injustice, speak up, do something about it, because otherwise, they will come for you and you will be all alone".
- 1sembiyan 4y agoIs there a good write up of how Sri Lanka got to here? I wonder what the non-obvious lessons here are..
- rohanm1 4y agoHow is this country able to host Cricket series while all of this is happening?