As one Thai monk is quoted in the piece: 'Consumerism is now the Thai religion." He's wrong, of course, and he needs to get off his ass and stop whining. New spiritual challenges naturally follow. The monks need to summon up their inner Joel Osteen - or just find one quick.
I had to google Osteen: he preaches the prosperity gospel. Heh. Yup. Which is why the parachurch groups like El Shaddai and some of the Protestant churches have such a big following here.
WSJ article on El Shaddai here.
Entrepreneurial activity is often viewed in the Philippines "as materialistic, and thus taboo," says Cynthia Bautista, a sociology professor at the University of the Philippines. Among followers of the alternative Christian movements, though, she says that idea "is shifting to the belief that working hard in various endeavors, including business, asking the Lord to bless you, and prospering—to help others—is a desirable goal." If this mindset takes root, Ms. Bautista adds, "it will affect the Philippine economy over the long haul."------------------------------------------------
TPMBarnett mentions that Iran has a similar problem in that article: Strategypage on Iran's societal problems.
It's not religion vs modernity, you know, it's "troubles/poverty is god's will" vs "praise the Lord but pass the ammunition" idea. So do we get rid of desire, like Buddha, or shun greed, as Jesus advises, or do we agree with Calvin that working honestly and business as a vocation honors god and helps man?
Since Islam spread via businessmen and traders, maybe someone does need to oppose AlQaeda with reviving their heritage of Mohammed the honest and rich trader/businessman. Of course, that might upset the hard liners since it was his first wife who gave him a chance to prosper by hired him and then marrying him.
and no, although my step son runs his business as a work of God, I'm more inclined to follow Francis of Assisi in these matters.
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The irony of the AlJazeera taking over Algore's network is not that their English service is not "pro terrorist" but that their editorial pages are full of tired 1960's type leftist rhetoric. I mean, they have an editorial by Norm Chomsky today.
I used to read Chomsky and his arguments are impressive, but after working overseas I saw that they had little or nothing to do with reality: they only allowed people a "one size fits all" anti American anti big business meme for them to feel self righteous. It's like fundamentalist religion: why look at facts when the talking points say so.
however, as a whole, Al Jazeera's reporters on the ground are fairly good.
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And no, I'm not into the prosperity gospel (I tend toward the ideas of St Francis) but my stepson is.
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Supreme court here is hearing the cybercrime law.
How bad is it? Well, all it would take is one comment and your blog or twitter feed go kaput.
There is a strict libel law here, which of course means you can't print rumors. This can be used to shut down the nasty reporters who publish too many details on all those lovely gifts going around.
and then there are privacy concerns:
Asked by Carpio if collecting real-time data was just like the government asking for one’s mobile phone bill without the name and address of the owner of the account, Disini replied details on the bill could be used to reveal a person’s identity, the people he called or texted, their locations, or even the websites he visited if the cell phone had Internet connection, thus establishing his profile without the person knowing it.
Disini said any collection of real-time data should be covered by a court order so that that precise data to be collected would be specified.
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In our prayers:
Cuba is suffering from a cholera outbreak, and the origin seems to have been food at a sports stadium.
This Catholic report says the epidemic started in a contaminated well.
The BBC reports that the government is in coverup mode about the outbreak.
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We Are Spartans!
We are...short?
- An examination of skeletons from several ancient cemeteries suggests that the average Greek warrior during the Fifth Century BC was about 5’5” tall.
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DNA studies are rewriting the history books:
Early settlers in India visited Australia...Inuit in Greenland came from Siberia and most folks DNA shows where they and their families have lived for (meaning their families stayed there despite numerous invasions etc).
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LATimes has another article trying to normalize pedophilia: They are born that way and can't help it.
Another nice factoid from the article: what is the difference between someone who just abuses children because they can, and a true pedophile? the real pedophiles make up a romantic story to justify their abuse.
But society is the bad guy here, not the one who acts on deviant desires:
Other pedophiles are "good people who are struggling," said Dr. Fred Berlin, a psychiatrist who heads the Johns Hopkins Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit. "They're tortured souls fighting like heck not to do this. We do virtually nothing in terms of reaching out to these folks. We drive it underground."
So THERE! Stop being so judgemental against the guy who raped your 9 year old daughter or son. He is really a good person.
All of this reminds me of what we were taught in medical school, and when all the experts assured us that child sex was okay, even desirable, and that it was ashamed to jail these guys, because ordinary honest criminals might not treat them kindly. (want to read the details about what they are talking about? LINK. Try not to vomit...and alas it is a lot more common than most folks think: read this report on health risks in teenagers, especially Table 55, )
This WSJ article points out how stories of success programs with the highly motivated might not be true for the general population.
Ya think?
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Catholics worrying about persecution in the UK: Thompson notes that the letter writers include folks from the left and the right, so it can't just be dismissed as crazy right wing nut cases.
By redefining marriage without even the fig leaf of a manifesto commitment, he has forced Catholics and other Christians who thought of themselves as gay-friendly to take a stance which, in the lexicon of hashtag politics (see my earlier post), renders them homophobic opponents of "equal marriage". They won't quickly forgive him for that.
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