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.

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 75^th anniversary of our independence. The BJP and the Sangh Parivar eco-system, as is their nature, are busy trying to appropriate his legacy.

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).

A NEW report comes out with a troubling headline: that annual global expenditure on weapons has gone over $2 trillion. The United States leads the pack, with its spending greater than that of the next ten countries combined. If you add in the US intelligence budget and the money that the United States spends on its nuclear arsenal, then US annual military spending by itself is above $1 trillion. This is an astronomical amount of money, a colossal waste of human resources and ingenuity.

ARAGALAYA in Sinhala broadly means struggle. The country is struggling to meet its fuel, food and financial commitments. People are on the streets, in struggle against the government that had failed them. They are demanding immediate resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and all the 225 members of the parliament, including Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. The catchy slogan of this popular struggle is, ‘Gota Go Home’, implying President Gotabaya should leave office. All attempts made by the president to appease the protesters have failed.