Tag: demonstration

No More Street Cred

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Protestors in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, demand the reinstatement of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his United National Party government, in October 2018.

• 200mm • f/5.6 • 1/400 • ISO200 • 600D & EF-S18-200/3.5-5.6 • polariser •

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When it All Began #2

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Before it became the ‘Aragalaya’. Before it became a bandwagon for the JVP. Before the antharé and the political speeches and the Gotagogama. Just regular Sri Lankan people, desperate and angry and demanding change. Green Path, Colombo. 4th April 2022.

• 70mm • f/11 • 1/500 • ISO800 •

When it All Began

David BlackerLeave a comment
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Before it became the ‘Aragalaya’. Before it became a bandwagon for the JVP. Before the antharé and the street performers and the Gotagogama. Just regular Sri Lankan people, desperate and angry and demanding change. Green Path, Colombo. 4th April 2022.

• 120mm • f/5.6 • 1/400 • ISO400 •

Sustaining the Revolution

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A street food vendor sells fresh rotti and vadai at Gotagogama, the ad hoc village of tents, shacks, and portable toilets that have sprung up on Galle Face Green, in downtown Colombo. Set up almost a month ago, the village is home to a core of protestors calling for the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government, who’s corruption and ineptitude have been blamed for creating the worst economic crisis in the country’s modern history. In addition to the resident dissidents, Gotagogama sees a constant ebb and flow of protestors from all over the city and its suburbs, driven by widespread shortages of electricity, fuel, cooking gas, and medicine, to join in the strident call for the government to step down. Sri Lanka, May 2022.

• 18mm • f/3.5 • 1/100 • ISO3200 •

One More Messiah

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With an image of the Buddha tattooed on his forehead, this monk assured me he would one day be the leader of Sri Lanka; just as soon as Gota went home. He also told me he could drive any vehicle on land or sea, and knew how to use everything from a 9mm pistol to a T56 to an RPG. He said he’d lived in Jaffna throughout the war and that the ‘Koti’ had taught him everything he knew. ‘Gotagogama’, the ad hoc protest village of tents, shacks, and portable lavatories set up on Galle Face Green, in early April, attracts all sorts; from communist student bodies to local ladies’ book clubs; all united in wanting Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government to step down, accused of corruption and ineptitude, and the creation of the worst economic crisis in the country’s modern history. Colombo, May 2022.

• 60mm • f/5 • 1/50 • ISO6400 •

Church, Temple, and that Old Red Line

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Anglican and Roman Catholic nuns calling for Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government to step down, protest against the backdrop of the Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapakse Theatre, a stark reminder of the wasteful policies of a regime that has brought the country to economic ruin. Colombo, April 2022.

• 18mm • f/3.5 • 1/800 • ISO800 •

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Where were You, Dad, When We Sent the Tyrants Home?

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Protestors atop the barricades at the Sri Lankan Presidential Secretariat, at Galle face, Colombo, call for President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government to resign; accused of corruption and ineptitude that has created the worst economic crisis in the country’s modern history. The Galle Face demonstration, which began on 9th April 2022, is now in its fourth week, dubbed ‘Gotagogama’, after the protestors’ primary demand — “Gota, Go Home!” The protests have seen Sri Lankans turn out in hundreds of thousands, mostly middle and working classes, of all ages and ethnicities, united in suffering, and a hope of turning things around before it’s too late. An acute shortage of foreign exchange reserves has seen Sri Lanka unable to import essential fuel, causing widespread electricity cuts, some as long as thirteen hours a day, and forcing millions to stand in interminably long queues for petrol, diesel, and cooking gas. President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his Prime Minister, and older brother, Mahinda Rajapakse, have refused to resign in spite of the protests, prolonging the crisis. Vital medicines and essential supplies are running out, and the government has already indicated that it will default on its $51 billion foreign debt repayments due in June. With the country on the verge of bankruptcy, any recovery depends on a prompt replacement of the current administration, as the protestors are demanding.

• 170mm • f/5.6 • 1/250 • ISO100 •

The Left of the Line

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While Sri Lanka is yet to see the widespread strike action expected to be launched by communist opposition parties like the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) — the National Liberation Front — trade unions have been visible from the very beginning of the Galle Face protests; presenting an older voice to what is often seen as a youth-led effort, calling for President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government to resign. Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis in modern history, and a large part of the blame for it has been apportioned to corruption and ineptitude within the Rajapakse government, studded with the president’s brothers and other relatives. The crisis, triggered by a lack of foreign currency reserves, has seen widespread shortages of fuel, cooking gas, and medicine, skyrocketing inflation, and electricity cuts as long as thirteen hours; the latter sparking the first protests in March, this year. While youth have been the visible face of the Colombo demonstrations, protests outside the city have often taken a harder edge; angry, older men, many of them fathers desperate to feed their families, clashing with police who have responded with tear gas, water cannon, rubber bullets and, on one occasion, with live ammunition, killing a protestor a week ago, in Rambukkana, less than 100km from the capital.
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Who will Blink First?

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A Sri Lankan family takes a break from protesting to have an afternoon snack under the wary gaze of soldiers guarding the Presidential Secretariat at Galle Face, in Colombo. April 2022. Sporadic demonstrations that began in March, demanding President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government resign, have solidified into a large rally in downtown Colombo that is now in its eighteenth consecutive day. Blamed for creating Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis in modern history, the president, and his brother and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, have refused to step down in the face of widespread accusations of corruption, ineptitude, and nepotism, choosing to wait out the protestors, while the country teeters on the verge of bankruptcy.

• 18mm • f/3.5 • 1/1250 • ISO100 •

My Country, May She Ever be Right…

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…But right or wrong, my country.* Ethnic minorities have been visibly present in the widespread protests calling for Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government to resign; none more so than the country’s Muslim community, typically distinguished by their conspicuous garb. Long an undeserved target of the chauvinistic politics that has plagued the country since independence in 1948, the Muslims have been especially marked for persecution in the decade following the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009. Announcing his run for the presidency days after the Easter Sunday bombings of 2019, Gotabhaya Rajapakse blamed the Muslims for the act of terrorism, accusing them of killing hundreds, and vowing to stamp out Islamic extremism and restore national security. Borne aloft on a wave of fear and nationalism, he won a landslide victory seven months later, but today stands charged with having engineered the bombings himself as a ploy to gain power. The country’s majority Sinhalese Buddhists, similarly making up the bulk of the protestors accusing the government of corruption and ineptitude, have welcomed minority participation; presenting, for now at least, a united voice for change. Colombo, April 2022.

• 50mm • f/4.5 • 1/1250 • ISO400 •

*An oft-used misquote of American Commodore Stephen Decatur’s ““Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong!” after victory over the Barbary pirates in 1816.