LEILA FADEL, HOST:
A farmer, a fishmonger, a cook who makes school lunches - these are Sri Lankans who say the war with Iran hurts them thousands of miles away. NPR's Diaa Hadid reports.
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DIAA HADID, BYLINE: Chooti (ph) the parrot demands rice from her perch on a balcony in Dambagolla village. Her owner, Nita Kumari (ph), sympathizes.
(SOUNDBITE OF PARROT SQUAWKING)
NITA KUMARI: (Speaking Sinhala).
(SOUNDBITE OF PARROT SQUAWKING)
NITA KUMARI: (Speaking Sinhala).
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HADID: Life's long been tough for the 44-year-old single mum. But now she says, "I'm under pressure." Kumari's a farmer, and she says she's only planted a quarter of her land because she couldn't afford to hire help. That's because of the Mideast war. Both Iran and the U.S. are blocking the Strait of Hormuz. It's a key global route for energy and fertilizer. That blockade has pushed up the price of fuel in Sri Lanka, and that's pushed up the price of food and transport. So Kumari says farmhands are charging more so they can keep up with rising prices. Now it's $10 a day for a man, half that for a woman.
NITA KUMARI: (Speaking Sinhala).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Sinhala).
NITA KUMARI: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: For millions like Kumari, the Mideast war is just the latest punch. Sri Lankans have been reeling from crisis to crisis since 2019. This is NPR reporting on the events of Easter Sunday that year.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Coordinated bombings killed more than 200 people in churches and in hotels popular with tourists.
HADID: Tourism is one of the main ways Sri Lanka earns foreign currency. But after the bombings, foreigners emptied out, and they stayed away as the pandemic paralyzed international travel. Then another shock jolted the country. This is Ahilan Kadirgamar. He is a political economist at the University of Jaffna.
AHILAN KADIRGAMAR: What really pushed us over the cliff was in 2022, when the Ukraine war started.
HADID: It pushed up the price of gas and key items like wheat and vegetable oil, and that partly caused Sri Lanka to default on its debts, triggering a serious economic crisis. Then in November last year, a cyclone washed away homes, farms and killed more than 600 people.
KADIRGAMAR: Now the war on Iran.
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HADID: In the town of Sigiriya, a caterer prepares free lunches for school children.
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HADID: This is part of a government program for about 1 1/2 million kids. It began two years ago to help curb child malnutrition.
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HADID: Nilanthi Kumari (ph) has been up since 3 a.m. preparing rice, dal and an okra curry. By dawn, she's shelling 57 boiled eggs, one for each child.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: At the school, kids have left their open lunch boxes out, and Kumari brusquely ladles in the food as they play outside.
NILANTHI KUMARI: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: She says feeding children is a good deed.
NILANTHI KUMARI: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: But she's not a charity. The war's pushed up food prices. She's barely breaking even. But she knows if she walks away, these boys and girls will go hungry.
NILANTHI KUMARI: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: In the capital, Colombo, the deputy finance minister says some children are attending school just to eat.
ANIL JAYANTHA FERNANDO: That is the reality. They are starving.
HADID: Anil Jayantha Fernando says the government wants to spend money to help people get by, but it also needs to spend its limited money to buy oil, which is now much more expensive, to keep industries afloat so the economy doesn't tank through this latest crisis. Fernando cautions patience.
FERNANDO: It takes time.
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HADID: Sri Lankans are trying to muddle through. In a fishing harbor in the southern town of Galle, Dhanushka (ph) chops up fish for tips.
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HADID: Dhanushka, who only goes by one name, sharpens his machete, then gets to work on a tuna.
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HADID: Dhanushka says there's not much work, and even the tips are stingier. Instead of $3, folks are more likely to hand over 30 cents.
DHANUSHKA: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: He says, "how can people buy fish without money?" He gestures to his other machete. The handle's fallen off. The last time he bought one, it cost $4.50. Now it's $18.
DHANUSHKA: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: He says, "I can't afford that. I'll just have to wait till things get better."
Diaa Hadid, NPR News, reporting from across Sri Lanka. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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