Okay I was simply scrolling because Sri Lanka is fucking trending but as usual international media is exoticizing our struggles and focusing on the “people swimming in the president’s pool” instead of informing the world about why an entire fucking country (amidst an economic collapse) stormed to Colombo and asked the president to step down.
First things first. Know the context.
There is an economic crisis going on in Sri Lanka. We have declared bankruptcy.
I’ve already made a post about what this means for the country. This means high inflation. No electricity. Princes are sky rocketing.
No fuel. I repeat. No fuel. People are fucking dying in queues.
But even without fuel, people came to Colombo. People fucking walked to Colombo for miles and miles to join the protest.
There were attempts to stop the protest. We have the right for assembly. We have the right to freedom of expression. But no. The government stopped fuel dispense (as if we had fuel lol) to stop people. They imposed an unconstitutional “police curfew” to stop the protest. Why is no one talking about this shit??
But people still came. I don’t see the international media reporting about the effort and energy and passion that went into this.
We built a city. Do you fucking know that? We built a city called “GotaGoGama (loosely translates to: Gota-Go-Home-Ville). We built a city months ago since the country collapsed.
Recap of May 09th when GotaGoGama was attacked by Mahinda Rajapaksha (then PM) and his goons.
I repeat. The protest on 09th July is not the first.
We’ve been asked the president to step down so more competent people can take over and do something to help us. This protest yesterday was not new. It’s not random. It’s an act of people giving up. The storming of the presidential palace is not anger. It’s taking back of power.
As for the swimming pools? And People making fun of the protestors for working out in the president’s gym, eating the food in his kitchen and swimming in his pool?
What about this?
For people making fun of the youth who are taking a dip at the swimming pool or playing the piano at the president’s house…For those are the condemning the protestors who set the PM’s house on fire (we still have no visual proof this happened) - all I have to say is this:
THIS -
These leaders we asked to step down today (who still haven’t btw. No. Not yet. Nothing official yet), they are corrupt beyond compare. The president had “said” he “will” step down not he 13th. But we don’t know anything yet.
These are people who not only brought the country to economic collapse. But the Rajapaskhas are responsible for millions of lives that were lost during the civil war. These are people who have taken from my country until there is nothing more for us to give.
I’m really grateful that you are all finally “talking about us”. I’m glad the international media and the whole world is finally watching. But your view is narrow. Your sight is short sighted.
International media. People of the world.
Do better.
Do fucking better.
Because we, Sri Lankans, are doing our fucking best right now.
The warning is for those who claimed offense at the following observation, made in this space a few days back: “What Americans have lost — to be painfully accurate, what Republicans have trashed in pursuit of power — is the willingness and ability to share a common national identity.” It would seem to be self-evident truth. But not everyone agrees.
“Constantly blaming Republicans,” griped one respondent.
“You ONLY blame the Republicans,” complained another.
Well, there’s a reason the Republicans get the blame for destroying any sense of common American narrative. It’s because — pay close attention here — they deserve the blame for destroying any sense of common American narrative.
Sorry, but Hunter Biden’s laptop didn’t do that. Black Lives Matter didn’t do that. Whatever thing Fox “News” last told its audience to fear did not do that.
The Republican Party did it by a campaign of demonizing dissent, shredding norms and boundaries, embracing a politics of white resentment and fear and, perhaps most corrosively, delegitimizing the very idea of knowable fact, so that an ordinary birth certificate becomes an object of suspicion, an ordinary election a seedbed of distrust and the sacking of the U.S. Capitol an innocent visit by tourists.
The concepts of NSFW is being cleared of the Internet under the false pretense of children’s safety when it’s really about the people in power sanitising for advertisers and pushing evangelical narratives AND that not enough is done to keep legitimately harmful content off of spaces that minors have access to are ideas that can coexist
can adults have their own fucking space?
a lot of people are misunderstanding this post. minors arent taking away your spaces. the internet is not being made safer for children, it is being sanitised for advertisers.
And also: minors’ spaces are being taken away.
When I was a kid, “barbie.com” looked like this
But now, if you type “Barbie.com” you’re taken immediately to Mattel’s online shop, surrounded by nothing but “shop now” links and toy collections.
Disney channel’s website is now “Disneynow.com” which still has games and shows appropriate for kids, but is aimed towards a younger audience as it combines Disney Jr and Disney Channel properties, and the look of the entire site is very juvenile and not very appealing to kids in the tween and young teen demographics.
Nick.com has been similarly streamlined and is focused primarily on streaming its shows, and the only games still left are 10 apps that can’t be played on browser.
Kid-friendly sites like icarly.com, Poptropica, Club Penguin, Neopets, Webkinz etc used to be insanely relevant and popular spaces built for kids and tweens.
Now, kids are being funneled into less moderated, more exploitative, and more public spaces like Roblox (its dangerous and exploitative nature exposed in these videos from People Make Games: (x)(x)), Fortnite (known for its gambling and microtransaction issues), and social media sites like TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter.
My elementary aged cousins spend their time on Roblox, YouTube, and some less than reputable game sites that are full of ads and stolen/reposted/reskinned games. My sister was on Musically/Tiktok and Twitter in middle school. They don’t have the same options for having fun online that I did when I was a kid, especially not when they get too old for nickjr and disneynow.
The internet has been condensed into about 5 popular sites that are full of ads, and it’s not fair to anyone.
