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Burma's government hoping Muslims drown in typhoon?
Cinorjer
Veteran
Yesterday on a talk radio station I heard a troubling report from Burma. Seems there are many thousands of ethnic Muslims shoved into official refugee camps in Burma because the Buddhists in their home towns won't let them return to their homes. These camps are tent cities on basically useless wasteland, because they're flooded every time typhoons come through.
Well, a typhoon is on its way. The reporter on the radio just returned from Burma, and the government is busy moving the Buddhist population to higher ground...but forcing the refugees to stay in the camps and refusing to help any Muslims that still have homes to evacuate. In fact, one camp that wasn't too vulnerable was ordered to pack up and move even closer to the ocean because the Buddhists needed the spot for their own people.
The reporter said she passed a couple of monks on the street and gave them a polite greeting. And the monks mocked her because they knew a western reporter would be there to help show what's happening to the Muslims.
So if the typhoon does slam into Burma as tracked, thousands of Muslims are going to drown, and that will be an intentional action by the Buddhist government and Buddhist people.
Buddhism is nothing special when it comes to changing how societies act. They can remain bigoted and filled with hatred no matter what their religion tries to teach them. This rotten branch of the Sangha needs to be chopped off and fresh Dharma allowed to grow.
Well, a typhoon is on its way. The reporter on the radio just returned from Burma, and the government is busy moving the Buddhist population to higher ground...but forcing the refugees to stay in the camps and refusing to help any Muslims that still have homes to evacuate. In fact, one camp that wasn't too vulnerable was ordered to pack up and move even closer to the ocean because the Buddhists needed the spot for their own people.
The reporter said she passed a couple of monks on the street and gave them a polite greeting. And the monks mocked her because they knew a western reporter would be there to help show what's happening to the Muslims.
So if the typhoon does slam into Burma as tracked, thousands of Muslims are going to drown, and that will be an intentional action by the Buddhist government and Buddhist people.
Buddhism is nothing special when it comes to changing how societies act. They can remain bigoted and filled with hatred no matter what their religion tries to teach them. This rotten branch of the Sangha needs to be chopped off and fresh Dharma allowed to grow.
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Comments
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/human-rights-watch/burma-cyclone-threatens-d_b_3273613.html
In terms of Federica's comment, I can understand where she is coming from. However, one of the things I find on this forum is that many people here, perhaps even most, look at Buddhism through rose-colored glasses. Most of us live in a very select Buddhist environment where the other Buddhists we know sought out Buddhism and converted to being Buddhist. Which is a very different environment than where most of the world's Buddhists live -- in societies where they were born into Buddhism. Having lived in Thailand, my observation is that within a nation where Buddhism is the majority culture, Buddhists are not particularly better (or worse) than the people in a country where its citizens are born into Christianity. That's not to say they're not different. In Thailand I felt relatively safe from being the victim of violent crime, even though I walked almost everywhere in almost every Bangkok neighborhood (except the most notorious area of Klong Toey). But I knew I was very likely to be the target of a scam...a Thai way of life. I knew the way graft and corruption work over there...and it's rampant. And, on rare occasions, I used it myself. I learned never to trust the famous "Thai smile"; Westerners often have this romantic idea that just because a culture teaches polite and gentle social interactions that it's an unfailingly kind and compassionate nation, as well. People are people. And while cultural norms differ from one country to another, the idea that people who live in a Buddhist nation are any more perfect than the people in any non-Buddhist nation...well, just read the history of Southeast Asia, and you'll know better.
But, I thought we of this forum generally didn't ascribe to the idea that it was up to one of us to decide who was a "real Buddhist".
I'm not perfect, but I wouldn't ever want anyone to drown/die from such an event, especially in the predicament the muslims are in. Is this kind of action and hatred for others seen too much in Sanghas throughout the world? Or is this just a SELECT few?
And I know that, even if the country is "officially Buddhist", for most people there, the religion is a matter of cultural identity and not something they take seriously when it comes to their actions.
And I know you know! You're one of our most realistic posters!
On the flip side, if we look back on past events and remove them from history, we'd miss out on some good things that happened as a result. If we had not had the Chinese invasion of Tibet that exiled the Dalai Lama, we likely would not have seen the spread of Buddhism that we did to the extent we did. Whether you like the HHDL or not, whether you are a Tibetan Buddhist or not, what happened there contributed greatly to the spread of Buddhism to the western world. Often, even years later, out of bad, comes good. No mud, no lotus.
No body should be killing any body.
No where. In defense of Nothing.
Well....May my freshness grow then....
that's all I can do.