On FIFA’s ranking of 211 national men’s football teams, the #lka team ranks 207th. In a country where football is the second most popular sport after cricket, and is played in schools and on streets islandwide, why isn’t our national team more successful? #lka #FIFAWorldCup 1/7 According to former national captain & under-23 head coach Mohamed Amanulla, this has to do with the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL), which stands accused of mismanagement of funds & failure to follow instructions provided by FIFA and the Ministry of Sports. 2/7

🧵Every morning, Dinesh Ruban (26) sets off with the fishermen in his village to set crab traps in the vast Vakarai lagoon on Sri Lanka’s east coast. Ruban, a father of two children, is just one of over 400 non-motorized traditional ‘dhoni’ boat fishermen in his area. 1/5 The low cost of gear for the ‘dhoni’ boats and the once bountiful lagoon meant fishermen such as Ruban were previously able to earn an income of around LKR 2000-2500 per day. But #COVID19 and economic collapse have left the community unable to earn a decent daily wage. 2/5

Today, on 6 May, several public and private sector entities join trade unions and several other groups in an islandwide hartal. The last time Sri Lanka saw mass civil disobedience of this nature was 69 years ago, during the ‘Great Hartal’ of 1953. 1/8 On 12 August 1953, a country-wide demonstration was organised to protest the policies of the United National Party (UNP) government at the time. Similar to today’s protests, the hartal was largely triggered by an economic crisis, with the price of rice nearly tripling. 2/

They call it the 'hospital of the revolution'; it's a distinct blue tarp over a table full of all sorts of basic medicine. There is a small white poster, with the red cross and four dots, symbolising the colours of the Sri Lankan flag, hanging from the top. 1/5
📷: Kris Thomas The makeshift hospital stands opposite the gate to the President's Office, where the protesters have gathered, demanding the ousting of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. When it first started, it was just some water bottles and other basic first aid supplies. 2/5 #EconomicCrisisLK

“As a community that has been marginalised in multiple ways, under such dire economic circumstances, the living conditions of our LGBTIQ community are going from bad to worse,” says Nicole Fernandez, an organiser of today’s LGBTIQ+ community protest at Lipton Circus. “Under the Rajapaksa regime, our rights were always sidelined,” Fernandez explained. “Only a particular kind of hyper-masculinity — military masculinity — was celebrated against other diverse gender identities and expressions.”