Tag: politics

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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No 13A in Tamil Town

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A busy Friday evening in Pettah, Colombo’s main shopping and market district. January 2023. Interestingly, while the city of Colombo is mostly Tamil-speaking (over 60% of the residents are Tamil or Tamil-speaking Moors), the sign in the foreground prohibiting parking is only in Sinhalese (the majority language of Sri Lanka), reflecting decades of Sinhalese-dominated governance that many believe has contributed to ethnic conflict. The controversial 13th Amendment to the Constitution, passed by Parliament in 1987, legislated that, amongst other things, Tamil be elevated to the status of an official language, alongside Sinhalese, and that all official communications be in both languages. However, more than thirty-five years later, many clauses of the amendment remain unenforced, despite Tamil demands for equal treatment.

• 35mm • f/4 • 1/100 • ISO2000 • Canon R6 & RF14-35/4L •

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 •

Gota’s Gone. Now What?

David BlackerLeave a comment
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Police barricades smashed aside by protestors on 9th July 2022, lie by the side of a street leading to Temple Trees, the official residence of the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, one of several government buildings stormed and sacked by angry mobs demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapakse. By the end of that fateful day, Rajapakse, accused of corruption and ineptness, and blamed for creating an economic crisis unparalleled in Sri Lanka’s history, would announce his resignation, and flee the country four days later. A full month down the road, Sri Lanka remains in crisis; led by a caretaker president picked as a successor by Rajapakse himself, and with a cabinet full of ministers who legislated the very policies that crushed the economy they’re now tasked with repairing. Much to the chagrin of large segments of the population, no charges of corruption have been brought to bear on Gotabaya Rajapakse, now living in self-imposed exile in Singapore, or on his brothers and nephew, powerful cabinet ministers in his government, and still members of Parliament. Instead, the authorities have focused on dismantling protests and targeting individual protestors with petty — though punitive — charges of trespassing, vandalism, and theft. While the past month has seen some easing of fuel shortages, mostly through much delayed rationing, Sri Lanka still hasn’t seen any of the economic measures necessary to begin the long process of recovery.

• 18mm • f/3.5 • 1/125 • ISO1600 •

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

David BlackerLeave a comment
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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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