History and Culture – Page 3

Factum Perspective: A new dawn for the Middle East

Health and Economic Cooperation, History and Culture, International Development, UncategorizedApril 3, 20231KViews 0Likes 2Comments

By Deshani Samaragunarathna ألا هو لا دان (Ala ho la dan) Look who we are, we are the dreamers - We make it happen 'cause we believe it Look who we are, we are the dreamers - We make it happen 'cause we can see it Here's to the ones that keep the passion…

Factum Perspective: Mission Accomplished? – The War in Iraq at 20

History and Culture, Peace and Conflict, UncategorizedMarch 21, 2023790Views 0Likes 0Comments

Vinod Moonesinghe At the beginning of 2003, the United States seemed on top of the world. The sole superpower, its ideologues spoke openly of America as the “global policeman”, fighting multiple major wars enforcing a “Pax Americana.” That March, the US invaded Iraq, setting in motion a sequence of events which resulted in today’s increasingly…

Factum Perspective: Janissaries and Reluctant Fundamentalists

History and CultureMarch 5, 20231KViews 0Likes 0Comments

A comparative review and reading of Nayomi Munaweera's Island of a Thousand Mirrors and Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist. By Dhanuka Bandara It is becoming increasingly clear to the more astute observers that the historical process has entered a paradigm shift. The “black swan” event of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of…

Factum Perspective: The rise of the regional film – A paradigm shift in South Asian cinema

History and CultureFebruary 27, 20231KViews 0Likes 0Comments

By Deshani Samaragunarathna “Telugu is the new Hindi.” Ram Gopal Varma Unlike the American cinema, there is no single film hub in the Indian subcontinent. Bollywood has long held the distinction of being India's “national cinema.” With stars such as Priyanka Chopra making forays into Hollywood and artistes like A. R Rahman winning Academy Awards,…

Factum Perspective: Indo-Sri Lankan relations since independence – A checkered history

Belt Road Initiative and Indo-Pacific Policy, Health and Economic Cooperation, History and Culture, Peace and Conflict, Regional GeopoliticsFebruary 13, 20231KViews 0Likes 0Comments

Read this article in Tamil: vidiyal.lk/post/--2812 By P. K. Balachandran India-Sri Lanka relations are undoubtedly at their best now, thanks to India’s timely and generous assistance to its financially-beleaguered southern neighbor. But in the past 75 years or more, bilateral relations have been overwhelmingly troubled. Therefore, the million-dollar question now is: Will India’s help…

Factum Perspective: How Sri Lanka obtained independence

History and CultureFebruary 4, 2023665Views 0Likes 0Comments

Read this article in Tamil: vidiyal.lk/post/--2817 By Chandani Kirinde In 1918, George Wille, a Member of Ceylon’s Legislative Council, cited an interesting metaphor to describe the growing weariness among the Ceylonese about the lack of any political rights, despite being tied to Britain for over a century. Speaking at the second reform conference organized…

Factum Perspective: Robert Clive and the taking of India

History and Culture, Regional GeopoliticsJanuary 30, 20231KViews 1Like 0Comments

By Vinod Moonesinghe A 2002 poll carried out by the BBC, accompanying its TV series “Great Britons”, found that most viewers fancied wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill as the “Greatest Briton”. His sole claim to fame lay in making stirring speeches when the British Empire stood on the threshold of defeat. Yet his pro-US policies…

Factum Perspective: Sumitra Peries – A Sri Lankan woman of the world

History and CultureJanuary 22, 2023816Views 0Likes 0Comments

As Ambassador / Undated / Courtesy of Sumitra Peries Read this article in Tamil: vidiyal.lk/post/--2806 By Uditha Devapriya Sumitra Peries passed away last Thursday, 19 January. One of the last definitive auteurs of the Sri Lankan cinema, Sumitra was also one of the last few international figures from the island nation. Having begun her career…

Factum Perspective: Peace on Earth, the message of Christmas?

History and Culture, Peace and ConflictDecember 25, 2022776Views 0Likes 0Comments

By Vinod Moonesinghe With the expansion of proselytizing Christian empires in the centuries before the second millennium, Christianity became a world religion. As Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta said, "When the missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened…

Factum Perspective: Buddhism in the Cold War

History and Culture, Regional GeopoliticsDecember 19, 20222KViews 0Likes 2Comments

By Chandani Kirinde What prompted the US government to put in place a “Buddhist policy” in Southeast Asia during the Cold War and how successful were these clandestine efforts at using a predominant religion of the region to counter the spread of communism? And did Sri Lanka play a role in shaping the US policy of co-opting Buddhists…

Factum Perspective: The geopolitics of the Jewish Homeland

History and Culture, Peace and Conflict, Regional GeopoliticsNovember 15, 20221KViews 0Likes 0Comments

By Vinod Moonesinghe The history of Palestine is fraught with controversy, obscured by religion. Emigration and conversion to Christianity and Islam reduced the Jewish population: by the 1516 Ottoman Conquest, they comprised 2% of the population, with Muslims 85% and Christians 11%. Ottoman Palestine thrived, exporting soap, olive oil, sugar, barley, cotton and, from the…

Factum Special Perspective: “Completely friendly” – The history of Türkiye-Sri Lanka relations

History and Culture, International Development, Regional GeopoliticsOctober 28, 2022811Views 0Likes 0Comments

Statue of Alâeddin Keykûbad / Wikimedia Commons By Vinod Moonesinghe The country we now know as Türkiye has a long history, holding within its borders the remains of the world’s first city, Çatalhöyük. Our knowledge of much of ancient foreign relations comes from the records of the Hittite empire, based at Hattusa. The great city of…