Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Gotagogama

May 11th, yesterday - scenes from a mellow but alert and hopeful #Gotagogama. Tents have been repaired, there are books in the library again, everyone speaks to of calm and non-violence and tea was being made in the evening. #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota

'We ask everyone to be calm. Save your strength - we have more to do, not to set fires. This isn't a place to sacrifice lives. We remember those who hit us till we bled - 'nahi verena verani, වෛරයෙන් වෛරය නොසන්සිදේ' (violence doesn't drive out violence) #lka #srilanka #GoHomeGota

'Many think those who follow the law are spineless. Politicians see if we break their laws while they broke them completely.

We don't want a military government. We don't want a dictatorship. We want a government that respects people's sovereignty.' #lka #srilanka #GoHomeGota

Read 14 tweets

Hasitha Liyanage

@h_liyan

We got to #GotaGoGama around 2.30pm yesterday. By then the lawyers had done their job. We were allowed to move through two heavily armed lines unhindered. Was unable to livestream due to bandwidth issues in the area.

Crowds were thin at first, but soon the cavalry arrived. The Cardinal spoke from the barrier soon after.

GGG began to receive reports of the Temple Trees crowd’s buses being attacked around 4pm. Gladly the violence did not reach GGG. Only as we went home in the night did we see the full extent of the carnage.

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'Today is one month that Nande has been at home'

Scenes from a #Gotagogama that has immediately started rebuilding, and evolving situations elsewhere.

Please stay safe. #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota

Police and Army barricade at Lotus Road, 2.31 pm. They eventually left. #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota

'You thought you could crush our protest with your violence and bloodshed. We thank all those who stood with us and say, we will be stronger now'

Spirits seemingly high on the barricade when we eventually made it there. #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota

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Scenes from the Maadan Badhrakali Puja, last night at #Gotagogama/Galle Face.

With thanks to everyone who translated and explained the parts of the ceremony as it went on. #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota

The rituals came to #LKA with Indian labourers brought by British colonisers & are continued by their descendants, the Malaiyaha Tamil community.

The deities are village guardians, who were worshipped before formal Hinduism began & they can speak to in their own languages. #lka

The Vikki Parai Isai group from Ingiriya heating the drums to tune them before the ritual. Parai drums are played by oppressed castes & is a key part of Malaiyaha Tamil culture, along with dances such as the kooththu, all of which their ancestors brought from India. #lka.

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The Samathai drummers from Batticaloa joined in and lead the final stretch of the artists' protest yesterday.

Thread of some scenes and stories from both these powerful elements. #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota #GoHomeGota2022

Tamil and Muslim women from Ampara, Batticaloa and Jaffna visited #Gotagogama yesterday. They raised the issues they were facing due to the #EconomicCrisisLK and issues of justice they'd been fighting for years. #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota

They drummed, sang and took up space at the barricade. I might be wrong but I've never heard that much Tamil spoken at the barricade since this protest started. There were short translations so listeners could understand. It was A Moment. #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota

Read 14 tweets

Blindfolding Bandaranaike: Arrived at Galle Face to this powerful sight.

Thread of a few more things that happened at #Gotagogama today.

#lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota #GoHomeGota2022 #TakeBackOurPower

Rally by the Medical Faculty Student Action Committee, raising issues of the lack of medication and the patients whose lives are at risk. #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota #GoHomeGota2022

Medical Faculty rally and the ongoing protest by IT Professionals merge near the statue. #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota #GoHomeGota2022

Read 9 tweets

General strike - some scenes of various trade union protests that arrived at Galle Face/#Gotagogama today. The uniting demand - #GoHomeGota - is for GR & his family must answer for their failures, then go to jail. Power to the people ✊🏾 #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota2022

March by a mixture of trade unions leaving from Fort Railway and heading to GGG. Posters focus on state violence & the murder in #Rambukkana. #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota #GoHomeGota2022

Collective of Ports unions & several other small groups protest outside Fort Railway Station. #lka #SriLanka #GoHomeGota #GoHomeGota2022

Read 10 tweets

Sonal Jayawickrama

@sonaljay8

REGISTERING YOUR BUSINESS IN THE #USA FOR #SRILANKANS! As promised, here is a 🧵 on how you can register your business in the USA and open yourself to a global market of potential customers, accept foreign payments and open a US Corporate bank account!

Please note that since this is a thread, I have simplified the entire process here. There may be a few extra steps, which ARE NOT substantial. Once you go through this, I will host a Twitter Space to answer your questions. And before we start, total cost for this is under $400.

First things first. The actual legislation can get a bit confusing, and there are different types of business entities you can set up. For the sake of simplicity, I will assume most of you are single-owner businesses and SMEs. Therefore, a Single-Owner LLC is the way forward.

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The Sri Lankan History Project

A quick thread on how government expenditure is almost always paid for the people - in 1 of 3 ways

#SriLankaEconomicCrisis #SriLanka #lka (#GotaGoGama #GoHomeRajapakshas #GotaGoHome2022 #අරගලයටජය for reach)

(1/9)

Whenever a government has an expense, it's paid in 1 of 3 ways.

1. Taxes
2. Loans
3. Money printing

Despite what it looks like, taxes are often the least anti-poor

(2/9)

https://mobile.twitter.com/ChayuDamsinghe/status/1514092187000061953

Let's start with money printing - I explained it detail here but what matters is that excess printing just results in inflation.

https://mobile.twitter.com/ChayuDamsinghe/status/1514092187000061953

(3/9)

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@HistoryCeylon

In our continued look at #protests and past civil disobedience in our #history, today we're covering the May Day Rallies and labour strikes of early 19th century #srilanka and seeing what we can learn from their success...

#GoHomeGota2022 #EconomicCrisisLK #GotaGoGama #lka

The origins of these labour protests can be traced back to colonial rule. Many low-class native Sri Lankans worked in factories and estates while British business owners simply managed their monopolies. Wages were low, hours were long, and little to no facilities were provided.

Across the globe during the 19th, people in these circumstances began demanding better rights. Many were inspired by the ideas of the ideals of the Buddhist Theological Society and the Sarasavi Sandaresa, the first unions were formed and teachers began striking in the 1890s.

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Following import substitution, self-sufficiency, and local production didn't work out for Sri Lanka in the last 2 years. My longest 🧵yet to explain - promise it's worth it!

(1/30)

#SriLankaCrisis #SriLanka #lka (#GotaGoGama #GoHomeGota #GoHomeRajapakshas #අරගලයටජය for reach)

Now, these ideas are often "common sense". It sounds good - if we have a forex problem, lets stop importing and make it ourself! Lets be self-sufficent, why depend on others?

But econ ISN'T common sense - so let's go through my view on why these don't work.

(2/30)

The main idea behind these is basically - produce goods locally, ideally goods we currently import, and sometimes, hope to export later.

So 3 broad benefits spoken of

1. Save/grow forex
2. Increase GDP
3. Have a backup if global trade fails

Lets go through all of these

(3/30)

Read 30 tweets

I promise I'll try my best to make this not-boring, but let's talk taxes in Sri Lanka.

#SriLanka #SriLankaEconomicCrisis #lka (also #GotaGoGama #OccupyGalleFace #අරගලයටජය #GotaGoHome2022 for reach)

(1/24)

https://twitter.com/ChayuDamsinghe/status/1510529458058702851

Our tax revenue before 2019 was about 11-12% of GDP. After the tax cuts, this came down to around 8%. Both in comparison to around 12-14% in non-debt expenditure (about 16% in 2019 due to election goodies)

Explained how this was a problem here

https://twitter.com/ChayuDamsinghe/status/1510529458058702851

(2/24)

In an attempt to make this easier to digest, going to bring back Rehan (our rich guy), Pasan (who I've made less poor than he was), and a new fellow Ayesh who's basically in poverty.

Rehan earns 500k a month. Pasan earns 50k. Ayesh earns 15k.

(3/24)

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Let me try and explain the Uganda banknote mess as much as I can and how it relates to Sri Lanka and how it doesn't.

#SriLanka #SriLankaEconomicCrisis #lka (also tagging #GotaGoGama #OccupyGalleFace for the reach)

(1/22)

As I understand it, there are 2 separate issues here, which may be linked together in a way we don't yet know.

1. Uganda's own money laundering issues
2. De La Rue printing Ugandan money and SLA airlifting it

(2/22)

Lets start with Uganda's own issues.

Uganda has had money laundering concerns for a while, and especially terrorist financing issues. This is unfortunately true for some countries in Sub Saharan Africa.

(3/22)

Read 23 tweets

ඒ ආර් සිරිසේන

@duplicatesiri

මෙන්න සුමල් පෙරේරාගේ අද ගේම. පැටිකිරිය සහ පරණ කතා coming soon. If you are wondering why Johnston Fernando was one of just FOUR ministers kept in Cabinet, its to do one LAST GREAT HIGHWAY ROBBERY.
#SriLanka #GoHomeGota #GoHomeGota2022 #lka #GoHomeRajapakshas #GoHomeRajapaksas

While the people are demanding that #RajapaksasGoHome, the family is trying to pull one major scam in close partnership with crony businessmen of the likes of Sumal Perera of Access Group. #GotaGoGama #අරගලයටජය #GotaGoHome #SLnews

The consortium, calling itself the Lanka Infrastructure Development Consortium (LIDC) comprises of Access Engineering, Maga Engineering, ICC, KDAW and NEM Construction.

Read 10 tweets

I'm going to do a single political thread on the #GotaGoGama #GoHomeGota #OccupyGalleFace protest and a threat it faces. Might be contentious, but please give alternative views.

#SriLankaCrisis #SriLankaEconomicCrisis #SriLanka

(1/20)

Starting off with a few disclaimers.

I think the protests are great for Sri Lanka, I think they've done permanent good already, I think they should continue.

I'm also not a political/social expert - so take this from that POV.

(2/20)

https://twitter.com/ChayuDamsinghe/status/1514835306645946372

The response to the poll confirms something I was concerned about - that there is space for the protest to be attacked based on perceptions of elitism

If a Twitter poll of what protestors think is like this, I feel actual sentiment might be worse

(3/20)

https://twitter.com/ChayuDamsinghe/status/1514835306645946372

Read 20 tweets

What will happen to Sri Lanka, economically, over the next few months, especially to its people?

The answer isn't pretty, but it's something to prepare for.

#SriLankaProtests #SriLanka (Also tagging #GotaGoGama #GoHomeGota #OccupyGalleFace #අරගලයටජය for reach)

(1/11)

Let's assume there's some sort of political stability at some point. What that is doesn't really matter too much to this thread's outcomes, it just extends the timeline if it's delayed.

With that out of the way - what will SL need to come out of this?

(2/11)

As long as we keep engaging with the IMF and our creditors, it should hopefully bring enough confidence that there will be some inflows (bilateral, remittances, export conversions, aid) that allow the urgent essential shortages to ease across the next month or two.

(3/11)

Read 11 tweets