How The Rich Are Doing In Sri Lanka’s Collapse
I’m rich in Sri Lanka. Indirectly, but it’s one household. What I will detail here is honestly embarrassing and goes unspoken in polite company, but you should know how rich people are doing at this time of terrible suffering. We’re mostly fine, and it’s a crime.
For a brief period, the collapse hit everyone and the suffering was—if not equal—at least shared. Everyone got power cuts, everyone lost money, everyone struggled to get fuel and food. We had most of our money in fixed deposits, and that got obliterated probably 50% by inflation and the exchange rate collapsing. We lost power with everyone else and sweated it out. We also waited in queues, and protested.
Then the unelected Ranil Wickremsinghe became Prime Minister, unelected billionaires like Dhammika Perera become Members of Parliament, and the country became an almost pure oligarchy, backed by foreign powers. Then things started getting better for the rich, while everyone else got even more fucked.
Ranil stabilized things for us and bought us time to regroup and consolidate our privileges once again. His appointment took the momentum out of the protests and gave the government cover to start rounding thousands of protestors up. Now the country has troops on every corner and is arresting people…
