Blog Post 2- The Violent Side of Buddhisim

We have been learning about the different religions in Monsoon Asia and Buddhism has appeared in many forms and many countries. While different branches of the faith contain slight variations they do share core values. One of such values is to do good works in order to reach Nirvana. The term good works generally means to be kind and charitable in order to better meet the needs and welfare of the group. In this article however a Buddhist monk named Ashin Wirathu from Myammar is preaching a completely different kind of rhetoric. This monk is preaching anti-muslium rhetoric that is hateful and violent. His speeches have been known to invoke nationalism to push the Muslim minority to the fringes of society. Many other monks within the country do not support him however he has been able to garner a small following within the country primarily within his own  religious faction. He has also just recently captured international attention by publicly calling the U.N ambassador of the region a whore, his speeches have already started a number of violent outbursts and it is likely that they will inspire a great many more. This article shows an interesting side to the traditionally  peaceful religion and the darker side to the social emphasis of group-welfare
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30930997

Blog Number One- China and Youth Revolutions

In Class last week it was mentioned briefly that societies in this area are very rule abiding due to the group welfare mentality of the earlier civilizations. This was interesting to me so I researched and found this article on protests in China that are currently going on. The article mentions that it is lead mostly by students and that the protests are centered around the desire for democracy, their dissatisfaction with the current political officials and the vetting done to their elections. The article mentions that this particular protest is the first gathering of individuals with expressly political aims of this size since the Tiananmen protests in 1989. While there is a large amount of time inbetween protests the article goes on to say that China has had youth revolts within it's history, the earliest is thought to be in 1911. It will be interesting to see how the public awareness of these protests will affect the country and the way China as a whole will deal with the dissent of the protests.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29440986