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March 28, 2024, 01:28:56 PM

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Sri Lanka == Fucked!

Started by Blumf, June 23, 2022, 04:53:16 PM

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Blumf

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/23/sri-lanka-prime-minister-economy-completely-collapsed
QuoteSri Lanka's prime minister says economy has 'completely collapsed'

Sri Lanka's debt-laden economy has "collapsed" after months of shortages of food, fuel and electricity, the prime minister told lawmakers in comments that underscored the country's dire situation as it seeks help from international lenders.

Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament the South Asian nation faces "a far more serious situation" than the shortages alone, and he warned of "a possible fall to rock bottom."

"Our economy has completely collapsed," he said on Wednesday.

Don't worry, the IMF are there for a spot of neo-lib carpetbagging, so I'm sure there'll be nothing left for Sri Lanka to collapse on soon enough.

QuoteWickremesinghe said IMF assistance seems to be the country's only option now. Officials from the agency are visiting Sri Lanka to discuss the idea. A staff-level agreement is likely to be reached by the end of July.

"We have concluded the initial discussions, and we have exchanged ideas on various sectors," Wickremesighe said.

Representatives of financial and legal advisers to the government on debt restructuring are also visiting the island, and a team from the US Treasury will arrive next week, he said.

This can only end well for the people of the country, I'm sure.

Buelligan

Weird, isn't it?  You know, the country's still there.  The houses, crops, people, still real but somehow notional numbers and tokens make all of that void.

bgmnts

Fair play mind that takes a sort of bottle.

Imagine waking up to hearing your leader saying your economy has collapsed, you'd shit your pants.

Buelligan

I dunno.  The leaders, the moneygrinders, never stop doing and saying unimaginably awful things.  They literally pour this shit into our heads 24/7.  But the sun still rises.

I think there's a lot to be said for completely ignoring these cunts.

bgmnts

Can you imagine cunt Boris actually coming out and saying that? I think it'd be impossible for him.

Buelligan

He'd be fighting for the mic if it wasn't him in charge though.  Politics is all about S&M for many.  And ego, of course.

Video Game Fan 2000

Quote from: Buelligan on June 23, 2022, 04:55:37 PMWeird, isn't it?  You know, the country's still there.  The houses, crops, people, still real but somehow notional numbers and tokens make all of that void.

their crops are fucked and they're dependent on imports for food. and probably energy too

Buelligan

Yeah, my point is, the government (of anywhere) can say you have nothing.  But that doesn't disappear the tomatoes (or whatever) in your garden, it doesn't disappear the roof over you or the bed under it. 

I'm not trying to say Sri Lanka has no problems.  I'm saying that what a bank decides or all the banks decide, isn't the whole story.

Video Game Fan 2000

oh shit, they've gardens and tomatos. someone tell them

Dex Sawash


Crenners

They got eggs, flour, sugar, vanilla, icing sugar, jam, whipped cream right? Let them eat cake.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: Buelligan on June 23, 2022, 06:17:15 PMI'm saying that what a bank decides or all the banks decide, isn't the whole story.

It's macro economics, innit? If they were America they could just start the printers but they're not America. They need the natural resources. I'm sure the IMF will help them with no strings attached.

frajer

Quote from: Dex Sawash on June 23, 2022, 06:22:58 PMDeer ate my tomatoes :(

Now my deer big.

Seriously though, what a horrendous mess. Can't afford or even source the fuel they need to farm, so crop yield heading even further down and food prices even further up. Fucking hell.

shoulders

Is an Argentina style debt restructuring possible? To avoid the infamous IMF shock doctrine?

shoulders

I suppose we would do well to consider how much worse things would be if Sri Lanka had a Labour government.

Captain Z

Could they maybe marry another country like Madagascar then put their economy in its name?

Buelligan

I'm pretty sure Madagascar's not over France yet.  In fact, that's a pretty insensitive suggestion.

Crenners

My friend went there on honeymoon and he said the people are really nice, which makes this even sadder.

shoulders

Would be cracking open a cold one if they were a bunch of cunts, seems not, fair play

Mister Six

Quote from: Buelligan on June 23, 2022, 06:17:15 PMYeah, my point is, the government (of anywhere) can say you have nothing.  But that doesn't disappear the tomatoes (or whatever) in your garden, it doesn't disappear the roof over you or the bed under it. 

What if you don't have tomatoes in your garden, but several fields of grain crops or similar that are not immediately edible but can be processed into food, except you don't have any fuel to run your combined harvester or any way to pay the people who would usually help you bring the harvest in? And nobody would have any money (or food) to exchange for the grains even if they did.

What if you're one of those guys who brings in the harvest, but doesn't have a garden, much less tomatoes to go in it?

What if your landlord is going to kick you out from that roof over your head because you don't have any money to pay the rent?

I admire your utopian vision, but there's a Grand Canyon-sized gulf between there and here, and visions of a reversion to some imagined bucolic past of allotments and local craftsmen that will spring up out of the ground with immediate effect won't get us there.

bgmnts

It's just weird because it's all just made up.

And it's all made up ostensibly to improve our lives but it just seems it's all made up to keep a select few in power indefinitely. It's just tribal chiefs hoarding all the gold and having his harem and eating all the best food, always.

The amount of concepts and systems we've invented to keep this up is pretty astounding.

Mister Six

I don't disagree, but the abstract concepts are directly linked to systems that are directly linked to physical resources, and saying "Why don't the Sri Lankans just stop pretending money exists?" isn't going to magically teleport imported goods into their territory or redistribute what is already there.

It's a fine thought, but in threads like this, which are discussing actual, real world problems, it sounds facile and almost insulting.

There was a similar comment in one of the Ukraine threads, along the lines of - let's all just say no to war and turn our tanks into tractors. Which is a laudable idea, but does anyone seriously think Putin is going to join in, or that - in the event of every other country in the world tossing out its weapons - he wouldn't immediately go and take over a swathe of the world?

PlanktonSideburns

Quote from: Mister Six on June 24, 2022, 12:49:35 AMWhat if you don't have tomatoes in your garden, but several fields of grain crops or similar that are not immediately edible but can be processed into food, except you don't have any fuel to run your combined harvester or any way to pay the people who would usually help you bring the harvest in? And nobody would have any money (or food) to exchange for the grains even if they did.

What if you're one of those guys who brings in the harvest, but doesn't have a garden, much less tomatoes to go in it?

What if your landlord is going to kick you out from that roof over your head because you don't have any money to pay the rent?

I admire your utopian vision, but there's a Grand Canyon-sized gulf between there and here, and visions of a reversion to some imagined bucolic past of allotments and local craftsmen that will spring up out of the ground with immediate effect won't get us there.

What's the harvester combined with? Does it double up as a dump truck or something

Mr_Rich

Quote from: Mister Six on June 24, 2022, 05:17:41 AMI don't disagree, but the abstract concepts are directly linked to systems that are directly linked to physical resources, and saying "Why don't the Sri Lankans just stop pretending money exists?" isn't going to magically teleport imported goods into their territory or redistribute what is already there.

It's a fine thought, but in threads like this, which are discussing actual, real world problems, it sounds facile and almost insulting.

There was a similar comment in one of the Ukraine threads, along the lines of - let's all just say no to war and turn our tanks into tractors. Which is a laudable idea, but does anyone seriously think Putin is going to join in, or that - in the event of every other country in the world tossing out its weapons - he wouldn't immediately go and take over a swathe of the world?

It does seem some people genuinely think that.

I'm sure one or two of the comments in here are made with the best intentions but they seem to boil down to 'let the country burn, it's better than the IMF'. Missing the point that things have to be paid for if you don't produce enough of your own. It would be lovely if the IMF just gave them dollars for nothing, but no one is going to do that so it's better than everyone starving.

Buelligan

Quote from: Mister Six on June 24, 2022, 12:49:35 AMWhat if you don't have tomatoes in your garden, but several fields of grain crops or similar that are not immediately edible but can be processed into food, except you don't have any fuel to run your combined harvester or any way to pay the people who would usually help you bring the harvest in? And nobody would have any money (or food) to exchange for the grains even if they did.

What if you're one of those guys who brings in the harvest, but doesn't have a garden, much less tomatoes to go in it?

What if your landlord is going to kick you out from that roof over your head because you don't have any money to pay the rent?

I admire your utopian vision, but there's a Grand Canyon-sized gulf between there and here, and visions of a reversion to some imagined bucolic past of allotments and local craftsmen that will spring up out of the ground with immediate effect won't get us there.

Dear sweet jesus.  My point, if you read it, was that bankers, their ideas, rules, controls (that are laid on us, tolerated by us, by consent, more than that, our own, if they're comfortable, offer active acquiescence) are the ones doing this (as bgmnts so clearly says). 

If you read some of my 41,000+ posts here, does that not come across at all?  Do you not intuit from them that I, in my small but long and bitter lived experience and my heartfelt political alliegiances, know very well the feeling of being slowly crushed between the grindstones of pitiless capital?  And what my response to that crushing is.

My point is, whether the capitalist cunts tell you they own the flesh you stand up in or no, whilst there's breath in your body, there is hope and the opportunity to resist these fucks.  Rise up like lions, as it were. 

But lecture me if it helps.

Buelligan

Just to add, I am one of those guys [sic] that brings in the harvest.  On less than minimum wage. Exactly that.

Their cricket team just beat the Aussies in a series for the first time in 30 odd years.

Martin Van Buren Stan

Fascinating and heart breaking article about the situation here that opens with an anecdote about the very real effect of "abstract concepts" like the economy disappearing. Medicine shortages, 5 million Sri Lankans skipping meals and 56,000 severely malnourished children. Oh well, the economy is just made up numbers on a screen!

QuoteLast Sunday, when a new mother began suffering dangerous bleeding at a major Colombo hospital, an urgent call went out to one of its main consultant anaesthetists.

The mother needed to be rushed to surgery but the specialist was three kilometres away, stuck in an hours-long line at a petrol station without enough fuel to drive to the hospital.

"She started looking for tuk-tuks but couldn't find one and even asked the police for help to get to the hospital," Yasuni Manikkage, another doctor at the hospital, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Fortunately, the anaesthetist eventually was able to get there after a vehicle from the hospital was sent to pick her up. The mother was able to go into emergency surgery and after further treatment in the intensive-care unit, she is now recovering.

The incident, however, illustrates just how deeply and alarmingly the tentacles of Sri Lanka's economic crisis extend
.


https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/with-sri-lanka-in-freefall-this-is-what-a-collapsed-economy-looks-like-20220623-p5aw1c.html

Fambo Number Mive

Sri Lanka is being sued by Hamilton Reserve Bank Ltd after defaulting on its debt. Not sure what this means for Sri Lanka or what happens if Hamilton Reserve Bank Ltd wins the suit,.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/6/22/bondholder-sues-sri-lanka-in-us-court

bgmnts

The british are just obsessed with fucking over south asia aren't they? Good on them.

Wonder how this will affect the garment industry? Don't all these big cunt brands earning billions exploit the fuck out of countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to make all the clothes?