I greatly appreciate your writing about the situation in Sri Lanka and your unique persepective on it.

I have been feeling many of the same conflicting feelings about our less dire situation here in America. I feel like the interests of capital have pushed labor to the subsistence level, just as Marx noted in the 19th century. The rich are comfortable while the poor suffer. Of course, I say this from my large home in a gated community as I look out on my pool. I am not rich, but I am wealthy enough to benefit personally from those policies that are screwing the poor and the working class. Unfortunately, I can't soothe my conscious by giving $20 to the begger who camps out in the parking lot by my luxury grocery store. It all feels wrong, but I do what I must to care for my family and watch in horror as everyone I pass on the street suffers.