The proposed "Online Safety" bill can be interpreted ambiguously and applied selectively to imprison average people for discussing average sociopolitical issues, for up to 5 years. Disclaimer: personal interpretation; not a lawyer. 1/9 If the govt. deems what you said is a "false statement" (??) and deems it could lead to a riot by someone else, you could be imprisoned for up to 3 years, *even if the riot doesn't take place*. 2/9

I truly hope I'm wrong and stability advocates are right, but current outlook for #SriLanka 2023:

a) new taxes
b) electricity tariff hike
c) many will run out of savings (which they've been dipping into in 2022)
d) inter-monsoonal power cuts
e) debt repayment restarts

1/4 f) tourism picks up but other exports languish
g) public agitation shifts from middle class (2020 trigger: gas & petrol) to working class (2023: food & child care)
h) govt. suppression attempts make public even angrier
i) new round of protests

2/4

What happened to Sri Lanka has happened many times since recorded political history began, circa 500BC in Ancient Greece. A corrupt politician who becomes unpopular, diverts attention away from himself by starting a war across the border. 🧵 1/11 #lka If no such border exists, he finds an enemy within: usually a minority with a culture different enough to elicit dislike. He blames them for the very ills he himself is responsible for. 2/11

Why some politicians will laugh as people die on the streets, and why it makes no sense to appeal to their guilt, shame or humanity. A thread. 1/8
#lka Becoming less empathic as you gain power, appears to be an evolutionary adaptation meant to help tribal leaders put the tribe's needs before any one individual. However, these traits evolved when prehistoric human tribes were probably < 100 strong. 2/8

Why I did not bother with the presidential "election":
While changing a nation's executive branch in 100 days is eminently doable, reforming a parliament is a much longer process. The ruling party still controls parliament so any decision is to their favour. 1/4 #SriLanka #lka This July 20 "election" only had a menu of lesser evils to choose from. The current ruling party was built over 20 years, so we cannot reasonably expect to change it in 100 days. It's a much longer process. 2/4

මෙවැනි දේ කළ හැකි ජනපතිවරයකු සිටින රටක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීන් කිසිදා ජනතාවගේ පැත්ත ගනීද? (ව්‍යවස්ථා වගන්ති වරහන් තුල)

1. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව වසරකට පසු විසිරුවා හැරීම (70)
2. අගමැති පත් කිරීම හා ඉවත් කිරීම (43,47)

#AbolishPresidencyLK #SriLanka 1/ 3. කැබිනට්, රාජ්‍ය, නියෝජ්‍ය, වැඩ බලන යන මෙකී නොකී සියළු ඇමති ධුර පත් කිරීම හා ඉවත් කිරීම (44,45,46,47,50)
4. පොලිස් කොමිෂන් සභා සාමාජිකයින් පත්කිරීම හා ඉවත් කිරීම (155)
#AbolishPresidencyLK #SriLanka 2/

While we're fighting the short term battles of keeping the economy aloft, seeking justice for the 9th May attacks and repealing the state of emergency, don't forget long term goal of eliminating the root cause: the executive presidency. #AbolishPresidencyLK In case anyone is still under the illusion that a strong presidency can help stability and growth, here are some data. Out of 150 republics and constitutional monarchies, the top 25 most stable countries had only 2 with executive presidents. #AbolishPresidencyLK

When politicians want to reduce public scrutiny on themselves, an age old tactic is to introduce an issue that divides the public. In these times in #SriLanka, it is important that the public remain united, despite disagreements on various issues. How? A thread. 1/ Aristotle identified three modes of persuasion that have remained valid for 2500 years: Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Ethos is using your authority to persuade. Pathos is rousing emotions in the listener to persuade. Logos is using facts and reason. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modes_of_… 2/

"Is #GotaGoGama and the violence of the 9th evening orchestrated by left-wing parties?" -- A THREAD.
Those who know me, will identify me as historically right-of-center, pro-west, pro-free-enterprise and generally anti-communist. #SriLanka 1/ I am a vice president and shareholder of a global tech company (previously VP of a fortune 100 corporation) and a graduate of Moratuwa University, then heavily opposed to IUSF. Read these comments through that lens. 2/

The only strong commitment he made in this speech: I WILL NOT RESIGN. EVEN IF THE COUNTRY BURNS TO THE GROUND. Mark my words: send this man home now, or Rajapakses will return. #GoHomeGota #SriLanka

https://twitter.com/newsfirstsl/status/1524415148588470272

And if you don’t want another one like him, vote to abolish the presidency NOW. Change parliamentary standing orders if necessary. But do it now.

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.

"Won't general strikes make it even harder for people? shouldn't we be working more, not less?" A thread. When those in power absolutely refuse to listen to all other appeals, and there is no election on the horizon, a general strike is how a population votes. #SriLanka The source of a nation's wealth are the people who live and work there, not the elites, who usually "manage", "invest" or "provide vision". Once in a generation, the elites forget this fact and start to think they're the source of wealth, and that regular people are stupid.

In my field, there is a concept called "agile", which basically says: "don't plan or attempt grand projects; instead break them down into small goals; focus all energy on achieving the first goal before going to the second". Something, perhaps, to be applied to #ProtestLK Economic recovery plans, software systems, education -- all those are necessary future steps. However, none of that matters if we don't have a functioning cabinet right now. For that, people (and opposition) are calling for #GoHomeRajapaksas.

A superstitious man might say that the curse that befell #SriLanka started with the end of the Civil War: rather than reconciliation and equal rights, we chose to signal minorities to "know their place"; 1/6 Rather than demilitarizing at the end of the war and investing in economic growth, we chose to find yet another minority to demonize; 2/6

A thread on the most amazing hack I have ever heard of. This exploit hacked an iPhone by just sending an image to it (recipient doesn't even need to open it).

1. iMessage has a feature to send and receive GIFs...

googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep… 2. These GIFs are copied to a specific path early in the message processing pipeline (even before the message is displayed)