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LettersThe terrorists win if tourists stay away from Sri Lanka
- The Easter Sunday bombings have deterred visitors, hitting small local businesses hard in the island nation
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Every year, I spend a few days in the hills of Kandy, Sri Lanka, to escape the madding crowd of Hong Kong and to write in relative tranquillity. This time, my trip feels different.
Where are the foreign tourists? The answer is obvious but the implications of the answer are less so. The foreigners are absent because of the Islamist bombings on Easter Sunday that killed over 250 people and wounded around 500 others.
Terrorism has been defined as a practice that deters people – out of fear – from doing what they would otherwise do. On that definition, the fanatics are winning in Sri Lanka.
Their first victory was slaughtering the faithful in churches and tourists and locals in hotels. Their second victory is more protracted: impeding the ability of thousands of Sri Lankans – Buddhist, Christian and Muslim alike – to make a decent living.
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