Sri Lanka Drives Its Incompetent, Corrupt Rulers From Their Homes, Occupying Them

Sounds like Sri Lanka knows What Time It Is.

Angry protesters who stormed the official residences of Sri Lanka's President and Prime Minister succeeded in forcing them to resign on the weekend as the country lurches further into crisis.

However, the protesters say they won't leave the luxury houses until both leaders have vacated their roles. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to step down on Wednesday, while Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tweeted his resignation Saturday but didn't confirm his date of departure.

Liberal turned sane Michael Shellenberger blames it on the Green movement, obviously, and on "ESG," the corrupt Obama scheme to reward investors for putting money into companies that were unprofitable -- but which poured money into leftwing causes. Think of it as China's Social Credit system, but for corporations. And countries.

Sri Lanka has fallen. Protesters breached the official residences of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister and President, who have fled to undisclosed locations out of fear of death. The proximate reason is that the nation is bankrupt, suffering its worst financial crisis in decades. Millions are struggling to purchase food, medicine and fuel. Energy shortages and inflation were major factors behind the crisis. Inflation in June in Sri Lanka was over 50%. Food prices rose by 80%. And a half-million people fell into poverty over the last year.

But the underlying reason for the fall of Sri Lanka is that its leaders fell under the spell of Western green elites peddling organic agriculture and "ESG," which refers to investments made following supposedly higher Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria. Sri Lanka has a near-perfect ESG score (98 ) which is higher than Sweden (96) or the United States (51).

To be sure, there were other factors behind Sri Lanka's fall. Covid lockdowns and a 2019 bombing hurt tourism, a $3 billion to 5 billion-per-year industry. Sri Lanka's leaders insisted on paying China back for various "Belt and Road" infrastructure projects when other nations refused to do so. Sri Lanka racked up a huge foreign debt. Growth had been declining since 2012. And higher oil prices meant transportation prices rose 128% since May.

But the biggest and main problem causing Sri Lanka's fall was its ban on chemical fertilizers in April 2021. Many other developing nations had to deal with similar challenges, including covid and high foreign debt, but have not collapsed. Indonesia has suffered terrorist bombings, which harmed tourism, but managed to rebound, and tourism rebounded in Sri Lanka starting last year. And while economic growth declined after 2012 but from astronomical peaks of 8% and 9% and remained above 3% and 4% until 2020.

The numbers are shocking. One-third of Sri Lanka's farm lands were dormant in 2021 due to the fertilizer ban. Over 90% of Sri Lanka's farmers had used chemical fertilizers before they were banned. After they were banned, an astonishing 85% experienced crop losses. The numbers are shocking. After the fertilizer ban, rice production fell 20% and prices skyrocketed 50 percent in just six months. Sri Lanka had to import $450 million worth of rice despite having been self-sufficient in the grain just months earlier.

Read the whole thing.

124 Does this mean they need more bugs to eat Posted by: Y5

And they're replaying the same ESG playbook in the Netherlands.

posted by Ace at 12:38 PM

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