Sri Lanka's revolt of the people

BANGALORE - As protesters in Sri Lanka trooped out of the President's and Prime Minister's homes on Thursday (July 14), some of them paused on the wide lawns for a last look or selfie. For days, citizens young and old, angry and amused, had overrun the white colonial-style palatial homes of the country's most reviled men.

Almost every one of them was poorer than their leaders. That gulf between a country's leader and its 22 million citizens would have felt ordinary some months ago, said protester Manuri Pabasari. But "now the gap feels so wrong, so undemocratic".