Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, whose name means "resplendent land," is a tropical island nation off the southern coast of India. It is slightly larger than West Virginia with a population of over 18 million people, and was formerly called Ceylon. But its beauty belies the ethnic conflict that has plagued the country since 1983. Sinhalese ethnic people who are Buddhist and represent roughly 74 percent of the population have been embroiled in a civil war with minority Tamil ethnic people who are Hindu and represent 18 percent of the population. The conflict has crippled Sri Lanka's economy. More than 20,000 people have died and an estimated 1 million Sri Lankans have been uprooted from their homes in the fighting which continues today. Sri Lanka is headed by a female mother-daughter team of President and Prime Minister.

Sustained economic growth, coupled with a low population growth, has helped Sri Lanka rise from the ranks of the poorest countries in the world up to the threshold of the middle income countries. Its economy is based largely on agriculture, but the predominantly hilly terrain does not yield enough to feed the population; Sri Lanka imports such basic foods as rice, wheat and sugar. Large tea and rubber plantations, grown for export, cover the southern slopes. As late as the 1970’s, these large plantations accounted for 93% of all exports. Jobs are scarce and unemployment is high. High schools and universities have been closed during the conflict. Government studies indicate that 70 percent of the unemployed are youth between the ages of 15 and 25. The average Sri Lankan is worse off today than yesterday.

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