Sri Lanka the island nation

Many of you may know about the country in the Indian ocean that may be called an island nation but has an area of 65,610 km2 (25,330 sq mi) and you can easily make it out on the world map.

Some of you may have visited it or have planned to visit it because of its natural beauty and delicious food. That dream is far from what is happening right now in this nation.

If you would have search 'Sri Lanka on Google Images some time ago it would have shown you images of lush forest, epic scenery and street vendors selling food now you would find images of protests, burning buildings and armed military roaming the streets.

I hate to say Crypto is the solution

Even ever something happens in the world our Crypto dudes would started posting "If these people had Crypto" and I absolutely hate it.

Don't get me wrong I believe in Crypto and specially BitcoinCash

Just that our Crypto dudes don't understand the actual problem at hand and proposes Crypto as an all-in-one solution for everything like a witch doctor.

Could Crypto could have helped Sri Lanka

Yes, to an extent. Even if you had Crypto in the mix and assuming all the people of Sri Lanka had at least some Crypto than it would have helped them levitate some of there problems. As they could have used it as a medium of exchange for trading essentials among themselves.

However, the country would still be reeling from the Forex reserve and fuel shortages and with transportation coming to a halt the supplychain would still be hit badly.

Chinese Debt Trap

That's an classic example of the Debt trap that Sri Lanka has fallen into which is brought on by The Belt and Road Initiative.

Basically taking on loans that you can't pay back is going to be a problem.

Check out these 2 videos that can explain it much better than I do:

The problem

We shouldn't just point to a foreign entity and put the blame on them for everything wrong domestically. That is the worst way of tackling a problem.

While yest international politics play a role in everything but if things are done right domestically they should have that much of an impact on the overall nation at large.

What's the solution?

I am not qualified enough to propose one but still from all my experience in managing risk (and what I learnt from watching youtube videos) is that diversifying can be a great tool to mitigate future risk.

For Sri Lanka they don't have enough money to buy crude oil and their industry is crippled without its fuel. Since they don't have natural oil reserves they should have diversified into renewable energy. Its not cheap and requires a large land allocation to set up solar or wind station.

However, there was a time when tourist were flocking to Sri Lanka and the economy was in a good place. While Sri Lanka is relatively an economically weaker country it still has a GDP of $306.997 billion and Per Capita of $13,909 as of 2021 estimate.

To say that the country didn't invest into renewable would be wrong but yes that wasn't nearly enough to have a major chuck of the energy needs of the country.

Diversification is of paramount importance

That is why many of the Arab countries that depended on oil wealth have been investing in other sectors, like Dubai is turning itself into a financial hub.

Both on a national level and on a personal level the key concept of Diversification is always of utmost important.

My personal status

Most of you may know that of my Crypto holding more than 80% is into BitcoinCash and would argue that I don't practice diversification myself.

Well, in my situation I mostly have my crypto from the work I do online and mostly receive it in either BitcoinCash or Nano (XNO) therefore from my prospective it is more of an currency than an asset.

Secondly I do convert some off my BitcoinCash into other Crypto through Sideshift platform.

Most importantly, I am diversified into traditional assets like stocks and bonds bring Crypto to a minor status.

Sri Lanka's people

In all of this the people thatare suffering are the common people of Sri Lanka.

Currently world is suffering a lot right now from Ukraine to Sri Lanka and it not just some pins on the map that you see on the news but actual people that are going through a great tragedy all over the world.

Turkey seems to be heading that way as well with Turkish Lira again touching 15 TRY to a US Dollar.

I have written about it before in my article Why there should be a separation of religion and state?

In the end all we can do is wait...