A gloomy morning dawned on MysticLand. It was raining cats and dogs. The windows had to remain closed, or else rainwater would come streaming inside. Verum sighed as she stared into her trusty crystal ball. The murkiness on its surface matched the dull, grey clouds.
“What a boring day!” she thought. Right then, her crystal ball’s murkiness disappeared. It was time for world news! A lot was happening in Sri Lanka, an island nation in the Indian Ocean.
Due to an economic crisis, huge crowds of protestors stormed into the official residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on July 9. They occupied the house located in the capital city of Colombo. Rajapaksa had vacated the house a day before. He was said to be on a Navy vessel in Sri Lankan waters. But as the people continued demanding his resignation, he fled the country with his wife and bodyguards on an Air Force plane. He went to Male, the capital of Maldives, a neighboring country.
The Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament announced that the President had authorized Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to carry out presidential duties. But people have been demanding Wickremesinghe’s resignation too. The police fired tear gas at the protestors, and the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency in Sri Lanka. He also announced a curfew.
“But why are the people protesting?” said Scorch.
“Due to inflation, the country is experiencing a shortage of food, fuel, and medicines. Inflation is an economic term. It refers to an increase in the prices of goods and services,” explained Verum, “Sri Lanka doesn’t have the funds to buy these items from other countries.
This crisis has been going on for a while. People blame the government for mismanaging the economy, but the government blames Covid-19.”
“It’s a difficult situation,” said Orak.