History

Photo: The Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, one of the most holy sites in Sri Lanka reputed to contain an actual tooth of the Buddha on his 2nd visit to the Island over 2000 years ago. CC BY 2.0

Sri Lanka's Heroic Freedom Struggles of 1818 and 1848 – Part 1

By Dr. Palitha Kohona

The author is former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, and former Foreign Secretary. The following is Part 1 of the text of his keynote address delivered at Sri Lanka's University of Peradeniya, Kandy, on 26 November 2018.

COLOMBO (IDN-INPS) – We look back on a heroic struggle that our ancestors waged 200 years ago against the mightiest empire that the world had known up to that time, to regain their freedom and that of a nation that had remained unbowed for over 2300 years.

Unfortunately, it was a heroic but unequal struggle with a much more powerful and vengeful colonial power, which had also through unscrupulous manipulation succeeded in splitting the Kandyan people in to factions suspicious of each other and diluted the centuries old bonds that bound the nation together.

: Dr. Palitha Kohona; THE WORLD; History; 05 December 2018

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg signs The Kellogg Briand Pact (or Pact of Paris) for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy on August 27, 1928 at the ministry of foreign affairs in Paris. Background French Foreign Affairs Minister Aristide Briand. Credit: AFP/Getty Images.

Significant Progress in Ending All War

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – “We need jaw jaw not war war,” said Winston Churchill rather hypocritically. Still, he would be glad to see that the number of wars around the world has fallen dramatically since the end of the Second World War, despite the wars in Korea, Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Pakistan versus India, Central America, Cyprus, ex-Yugoslavia, Syria and now Yemen.

Compared with centuries past this has been a remarkable era, yet one not often acknowledged.

Interstate wars, apart from India versus Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Yemen, have vanished off the map. The wars that remain are civil wars. The democracies do not go to war with each other, as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher long ago observed.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 04 December 2018

Photo: Skyline of Lujiazui, Pudong New Area, Shanghai (2016). Xi Jinping has specified the goal of achieving – between 2020 and 2035 – the condition of xiaokang shehui, of a moderately prosperous society, without poor. CC BY-SA 2.5

On 'Socialism with Chinese Characteristics' – or Harmony and the Seeds of Conflict

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the fourth of a four-part series. Click here for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

ROME (IDN) – Since 2004-2005, the CCP has set itself the task of "building a harmonious society". The internal harmony of China presupposes the discipline of farmers and the working class within the paternalistic dictatorship of the single party. No longer totalitarian as in the time of Mao – and how could it be otherwise when becoming rich is the glory of "socialism", transnational societies are courted, Confucius is a model of wisdom and capitalists are no longer demons to beat?

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 09 October 2018

Photo: The ballet The Red Detachment of Women, one of the Model Dramas promoted during the Cultural Revolution. White House photo by Byron Schumaker. Source: https://web.archive.org

On 'Socialism with Chinese Characteristics' – or Ideological Mess and Reality

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the third of a four-part series. Click here for Part 1 and Part 2.

ROME (IDN) – One of the collective ideological hallucinations of the 20h century was Mao Zedong Thought. A remarkable thought in terms of metaphors and similitudes but even more so in terms of incoherence: as with Stalin, the most different lines can be extracted from the texts and the practice of Mao depending on convenience.

It is true that the Red Army was mostly peasant; but it is also true that from the "Great Leap Forward" in the second half of the 1950s – which resulted in the greatest famine of the twentieth century (about 30 million deaths between 1958 and 1961) – up to the phase of the "Third Front" of industrial development in China's interior, and passing through the Cultural Revolution and most of the 1970s, the peasant masses trapped by the hukou system were uninterruptedly squeezed like a lemon to finance industrial development, especially heavy and military industry.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 08 October 2018

Photo: In Tiananmen Square protests Beijing in 1989 the hopes of a mass democratic movement and the possibility that it would generate a workers' and people's movement of the Solidarność type were massacred. CC BY-SA 3.0

On 'Socialism with Chinese Characteristics' – or Mask of Capitalism

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the second of a four-part series. Click here for Part 1

ROME (IDN) – "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" is described by the regime in the following terms:

"A historic transformation from a highly centralised planned economy to a dynamic socialist market economy has been achieved in China. A basic economic system in which public ownership takes the lead and different economic ownerships grow side by side has come into being. The market plays an increasingly important role in allocating resources, and the system of macroeconomic regulation is improving. A social security system covering both urban and rural residents is taking shape, and culture, education, science and technology, health care, sports and other social programs are flourishing."

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 07 October 2018

Photo: Chang'an avenue in Beijing. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

On 'Socialism with Chinese Characteristics' – or Problem of Epochal Social Transformation

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the first of a four-part series.

ROME (IDN) – The "peaceful rise" or "peaceful development" of China is one of the most remarkable processes marking the world economy between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries ... and perhaps the most important.

Over four decades of the era of economic reforms, per capita product growth, industrial production and export rates have been impressive. The Chinese government can proudly show that since 1978 its gross domestic product has multiplied, that China's share in world production has increased fourfold, that China is the number one exporter in the world and that it is the country with the largest currency reserves (mostly in dollars).

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 06 October 2018

Photo: Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, built between 1970 and 1973, was a gift from the People’s Republic of China in memory of Solomon Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike who was Prime Minister from 1956 to 1959. CC BY-SA 2.0

China and Sri Lanka: A History that Stretches Back into the Mists of Time – Trade, Religion and Diplomacy - 2

Viewpoint by Dr Palitha Kohona

The writer of this 2-part series is former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, former Foreign Secretary and former Head of the UN Treaty Section. The articles are based on a talk on 'China and Sri Lanka: A History that Stretches Back into the Mists of Time – Trade, Religion and Diplomacy' given in Sydney on August 26, 2018. Read Part 1 here. – The Editor

COLOMBO (IDN) – In this second part of the series on China and Sri Lanka giving a sweeping overview of the pivotal role of Sri Lanka throughout history, the author looks at latter-day international relations.

: Dr. Palitha Kohona; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 05 September 2018

Photo: The landmark Nelum Pokuna (Lotus Pond) Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre is one of symbols of China-Sri Lanka Friendship. CC BY-SA 3.0

China and Sri Lanka: A History that Stretches Back into the Mists of Time – Trade, Religion and Diplomacy - 1

Viewpoint by Dr Palitha Kohona

COLOMBO (IDN) – Sitting in the middle of the Indian Ocean at the southern tip of India and the meeting point of the monsoon winds, and swirling ocean currents, Sri Lanka occupies an enviable strategic geographical position.

: Dr. Palitha Kohona; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 05 September 2018

Photo: Mass rally in Cuba marked ‘Che’ Guevara’s 50th death anniversary on October 9, 2017. Credit: CubaSi

Guevara and Marx: Critical Remake of an Old Film – 9

By Roberto Massari*

This is the ninth of a nine-part series. Read Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

BOLSENA, Italy (IDN) – FADE-OUT … Scene 9[ Vallegrande, October 9, 2017]

The scene is composite, polychrome and multi-sound. On the large clearing for what in the past was to become the Vallegrande airport in Bolivia, some thousands of people convened by the government of President Evo Morales are gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Che’s fall in combat.

There are many multi-coloured flags, but mostly red with the silhouette of Korda’s famous photo, Andean and Caribbean music, and the banners of political, trade union and cultural associations of various Latin American origins. In the days that proceeded, scholars of Guevarism from various parts of the world had spoken: the author came from Italy but, incredibly, was the only one from Europe.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 27 August 2018

Image: Countries Che Guevara visited (red) and those in which he participated in armed revolution (green). Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Guevara and Marx: Critical Remake of an Old Film – 8

By Roberto Massari*

This is the eighth of a nine-part series. Read Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

BOLSENA, Italy (IDN) – MARXIST STORY: Scene 8 [Prague, 1966]

At this point we must devote attention to this polemic, trying first of all to imagine the scene: after the lengthy confinement in the Cuban ambassador’s house in Dar es Salaam, there is a drastic change of continent – from Africa to the heart of old Europe; a large villa on the outskirts of Prague; the semi-clandestine coexistence (Cuban-Czechoslovak “Operation Manuel”) with some of the closest companions (“Pombo” [b. 1940] and “Tuma” [1940-1967]); chess games; study and writing.