Monday, May 19, 2008

The Politics of Karma

The thinking goes like this: In Sep 07, Myanmar's military regime crackdown on protesting monks; 2 months ago, the Chinese government crackdown on Tibetan monks. Behold Cyclone Nargis and the Sichuan earthquake as heaven's punishments!

No matter what religion you follow; You have to admit it's a hell of a coincidence.

Now as a Buddhist myself, personally I think there may be something to this. The cyclone especially was due to hit India before it change course, but I think the most important thing right now is to save lives! China's relief efforts are ongoing but Myanmar is another matter. The military regime has refused aid from the rest of the world and now there are fears that disease and starvation will finish off all the people that survived Nargis. The world must do more to help.

For the past few days, I have read about people blaming the military regime for failing to warn people of the cyclone, the shoddy workmanship of houses in Sichuan, even karma for the crackdown of monks.

Like I said earlier, there may be something to all this. But blame can come later, right now let's just concentrate on saving lives!

No comments: