Can We Please Have an Adult Conversation About China?

A NEW kind of madness is seeping into global political discourse, a poisonous fog that suffocates reason. This fog, which has long marinated in the old, ugly ideas of white supremacy and Western superiority, is clouding our ideas of humanity.

Latin America’s Fourth Left Wave Since the Cuban Revolution is Social Democratic

ON August 7, 2022, Colombia will have a new president (Gustavo Petro) and a vice president (Francia Márquez), both stalwarts of the country’s left-wing movements. They will form the first left government since the country won its independence in 1810. Two months later, on October 2, the people of Brazil will vote in the first round of their presidential elections.

The Advances of the Cuban Revolution

PALPITE, Cuba, is just a few miles away from Playa Girón, along the Bay of Pigs, where the United States attempted to overthrow the Cuban Revolution in 1961. Down a modest street in a small building with a Cuban flag and a large picture of Fidel Castro near the front door, Dr Dayamis Gómez La Rosa sees patients from 8 am to 5 pm. In fact, that is an inaccurate sentence. Dr Dayamis, like most primary care doctors in Cuba, lives above the clinic that she runs.

Despicable NATO

NORTH Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) had its summit in Madrid, Spain in the end of June. It is not just the timing of the summit, but also the outcome that entails significance to the summit. Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea participated together in a NATO summit for the first time. Finland and Sweden were invited to become members of NATO and it was agreed to sign the Accession Protocols.

On Marxism and Decolonisation

IN 1959, one of the revolutionary leaders in Cuba, Haydée Santamaria, a hundred years old this year, arrived at a cultural centre in the heart of Havana, Cuba. This building, the revolutionaries decided, would be committed to the promotion of Latin American art and culture and it would become – eventually – a beacon for the progressive transformation of the hemisphere’s cultural world. Renamed the Casa de las Américas, the home of the Americas, it would become the heartbeat of cultural developments from Chile to Mexico.

Colombia Votes in Its First Left Government

ON June 19, 2022, long lines brought 39 million Colombian (out of a population of 51 million) to vote in their presidential election. In rural areas, where the vote is often suppressed due to desolation or violence, the lines seemed longest. People took great risks – against threats from paramilitary groups and narco-mafias – to stand in these queues and choose between two very different political projects: an old project that favoured the old hierarchies that have ruled Colombia since the 19th century, and a new project that favours the development of democracy and social equality.

Why this Sudden Interest of Sangh Parivar on Alluri Sitaramaraju?

ALLURI Sitaramaraju is a much venerated revolutionary freedom fighter in both the Telugu speaking states. Along with his associates Gam Gantam Dora, Gam Mallu Dora, Padalu and others, he had waged a war against the British empire. This year, his 125 birth anniversary, coincides with the 75th anniversary of our independence. The BJP and the Sangh Parivar eco-system, as is their nature, are busy trying to appropriate his legacy.

Can the Left Triumph in Colombia, Latin America’s Country with the Harshest Oligarchy?

ON June 19, 2022, the people of Colombia will vote in a second round to elect their president and vice president. In the first round on May 29, the candidates of the Left – Gustavo Petro (president) and Francia Márquez (vice president) of the Pacto Histórico (Historical Pact) – led the way. Coming second was Rodolfo Hernández, a millionaire former mayor of Bucaramanga, and his running mate Marelen Castillo, both of the League of Anti-Corruption Governors.

Outcomes of the QUAD Meeting

THE month of May ended with a flurry of diplomatic activity from the US side in the Asia-Pacific region. Starting from US President Joe Biden, US administration officials made a beeline to our part of the world. Apart from his bilateral visits to Japan and Republic of Korea (RoK, South Korea), Biden’s time was occupied in meeting the leaders of Quad in Tokyo, launching a new initiative – the Indo-Pacific Economic Forum for Prosperity (IPEF). Given the war in Ukraine and NATO’s involvement, it is natural to be surprised with this high-level flurry of US activities in the region.

Mali Ejects the French Military

IN the first two weeks of May 2022, the Malian military government ejected the French military and withdrew from the French political project, G5 Sahel. Deep resentment spread across Mali because of the civilian casualties from French military attacks and because of the French government’s arrogant attitude towards the Malian government. Colonel Assimi Goïta, who leads the military junta, said that the agreement with the French ‘brought neither peace, nor security, nor reconciliation’ and that the population aspires ‘to stop the flow of Malian blood’.

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