Cyclone Ditwah: How the Empathy Firewall Created two Sri Lankas

Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera Just forty eight hours after Cyclone Ditwah unleashed its worst flooding, Sri Lanka revealed a fracture in its collective conscience. On one screen, families salvaged their belongings from the mud, their grief broadcast live as communities stitched together survival. On another, a trending post debated the best Black Friday deals, untouched by the devastation. This was not malice but something more insidious: a protective tone deafness. For many outside the flood zones, engagement with reality had become elective. The cyclone treated not as a national crisis demanding action but as a mere background noise they…

Read the full article →