Religion, Economy and Politics

A fresh new morning, a fresh new blog. My interest in things religious and my interest in things historical/political converge in my interest in things related to the country of Burma/Myanmar, especially as Buddhist monks are at the forefront of efforts to support the impoverished and devastated Burmese population, and this is a good a place as any to begin my blog. However, Burma has not been in the news of late. This. I think, does not mean it has been been forgotten though. The current focus on the dire situation in Zimbabwe will hopefully force the UN security council to review their policy on what to do with a country's government that is determined to put their own population in harms way in order to maintain power. It is not all that dissimilar to the conumdrum surrounding suicide bombers; how do you stop someone that is willing to kill themselves or their own people to get what they want. Now obviously Burma and Zimbadwe are countries in very different circumstances but since the newspapers have noted that behind Mugabe there is essentially a military junta in control of the country both countries can be placed in a similar line of sight; how does a globalised world structure of foreign relations between nation-states deal with military juntas? Whatever conclusions are reached in regard to Zimbadwe, may well apply to Burma in the future and for this reason I think Burma has not been forgotten. One does not necessarily need to hear the name Burma in the news to see that something is being done about countries like Burma. Also Burma has had huge coverage lately. If it can be said that the 1988 massecre of the pro-democracy movement, killing c.3,000 people, brought Burma back on to the international affairs radar, readying the international community to act when they heard of the next outbreak of state violence, then the 100,000 strong Buddhist monk-led demonstrations of Sept 2007 and the morally reprehensible response of the Burmese military junta to the disaster of Cyclone Nargis prime the international community even further. This is brought into sharp relief because of the twofold relevance of 8.08.08. This is of course both the opening of the Beijing Olympics and the 2oth anniversary of the Burmese military's surpression of the pro-deomcracy movement in 1988. This day will simultanously symbolise the triumph of economic globalisation and the failure of a more globalised political structure to address problem states like Zimbadwe and Burma. The 2008 olympics will represent one of the worlds' biggest coming out parties, the emergence and intergration of the Beijing government into the new world order of our now globalised world. However, this economic triumph should not be seen, I believe, as a predetermined conclusion of past events. It was arranged due to political agreement between the superpowers of the world and potentially can be undone too. This is why it is important that this new economic structure can be seen to address thorny political situations such as Zimbadwe and Burma because it is a successful economic structure (whatever type that may be) that we all need to be in place to survive and this is ultimately a political event. And as a political event it needs to have a sound foundation and countries like Zimbadwe and Burma expose its weaknesses too much. I am not saying that a country should not be able to express dissent to a globalised economy, healthy protest is by its nature healthy for all, but since we are all now pretty much interdependent upon each other and our world population is growing so fast etc countries like Burma and Zimbadwe are a drain on everyone and it is in our best interests to stongly encourage a more healthy political/economic structure in these countries. And at the forfront of this action in Burma.....Buddhist monks. The history of ideas that national cultures source their ideological expression from has changed with the collapse of the USSR and Russia no longer as a world focus of international Communism. Religion is increasingly filling the idealogical gap, I think, and hopefully this does not lead to a religious nationalism like that which caused Europe so much trouble in the past. Socially active religious culture, a religious culture that has learned from modern political sensibilities and humanistic developments in the social sciences. The world is a more fluid, unfixed place and this resurgent religious culture needs to reflect this, hence the demand to surpress religious fundamentalism of all kinds, if that is possible. As dangerous as it is to mix religion, economy and politics, I can not resist but see some important links.