American Buddhist Net

May 11, 2008
By Steve Rundio
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Tomah Superintendent Bob Fasbender said there was less than a “50-50 chance” that the school district would prevail in a lawsuit over a classroom policy that bans religious art.

A Thursday hearing before a U.S. District federal judge in Madison was cancelled after Tomah High School art teacher Julie Millin’s grading policy that said “art work that has any violence, blood, sexual connotations, religious belief will not be accepted” was amended. The suit was brought by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of a high school art student who received a zero for including a cross and a Biblical reference in a landscape drawing assignment. The student also tore the policy in front of Millin and other students, which drew two 20-minute detentions.

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By Manuel L. Quezon III

MANILA, Philippines - The ancient Chinese believed that the "mandate of Heaven" was revealed by tangible signs, such as flood or famine. Such misfortunes were indications that the legitimacy of a ruler was waning. Confucius elaborated the idea further, and taught that the "mandate of Heaven" was dependent on knowing the moral order of the universe, and demonstrating it in the six relationships that govern superiors and subordinates (i.e. minister to prince, friend to friend, teacher to student).

From "The Analects of Confucius" (the L. Giles translation) come some useful principles to ponder. The first two extracts concern definitions of good government.

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May 11, 2008

Is selling police equipment to a notoriously brutal government tantamount to assisting in torture?

William Schulz believes that it can be, and that these types of sales are one of the principal ways in which businesses can entangle themselves with torturers. Schulz, former executive director of Amnesty International, spoke during a presentation sponsored by Wharton's Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research.

Seldom are businesses in the developed world implicated directly in torture, but too often they avert their eyes as their products, purchases or independent contractors support abuses, according to Schulz, who is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank based in Washington, D.C.

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10-05-2008
by Thu Huong

HCM CITY — Selling kidneys for cash has been a decade-long global concern. But to most poor Vietnamese who regularly sell their blood at HCM City’s hospitals, the illegal trade in kidneys was virtually unknown – until now.

The recent case of 22-year-old To Cong Luan, who sold one of his kidneys in China and is now in a critical condition, has served as a warning to the public about the high risks of such a surgical procedure.

...When [Luan] learned that people could sell their kidneys for VND70 million (US$4,375) in China, Luan crossed the northern border to Guangdong Province in December to have an operation.

Two months later, he was returned to Viet Nam in a vegetative state and later sent to HCM City-based Cho Ray Hospital, where doctors said several incisions on his abdomen indicated that the surgery in China had been improperly done. Luan is now severely brain-damaged and in a state of semi-consciousness, doctors have said.

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May 11, 2008
Bill Morlin

Human trafficking activities – ranging from mail-order brides to forced teenage prostitution – are causing “considerable concern” in the Spokane region, a new study concludes.

“Trafficking victims work on our streets, are often held captive in residents’ homes and hotels, and travel over our highways to other destinations where they will experience further exploitation and abuse,” according to the report prepared for the Western Regional Institute for Community Oriented Public Safety.

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Reverend George Exoo is a leading figure in the right-to-die movement. He says he has helped 102 people to commit suicide. But, reports Jon Ronson, most of his clients were not terminally ill, just depressed and in need of psychiatric help

Jon Ronson
Monday May 12 2008

In January 2002 it was reported on the Irish news that a woman's body had been found in a rented house in Donnybrook, Dublin. Her name was Rosemary Toole and, police said, she had been suffering from depression. Her suicide would probably have gone unreported were it not for the fact that she'd been spotted at Dublin airport a day earlier, picking up two jolly-seeming Americans at arrivals. The three of them were then seen drinking Jack Daniels and coke at the Atlantic Coast Hotel in County Mayo. At one point - other drinkers later testified to the police - Toole stood up to go to the toilet and did a jig at the table. The next day she was dead and that night the two mysterious Americans, one wearing a dog collar, left Dublin.

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Coastal villages that were swept away by the tsunami had just been rebuilt when tragedy struck them for a second time

May 12, 2008

The district of Pyinsalu, on the southwestern tip of Burma, is one of the most obscure, remote and impoverished places in the world, but it will go down in history for a uniquely grim distinction. Three and a half years ago it was washed away by the surge of the Boxing Day tsunami; over time, the collection of small coastal villages was rebuilt and the simple life of the fishermen returned to normal.

Then, nine days ago, Cyclone Nargis gathered force over the Bay of Bengal and pounded the exposed fields and rivers of the Irrawaddy delta. And Pyinsalu, so insignificant that it appears only on the most detailed of maps, achieved something unprecedented: it was wiped out for a second time by the region’s worst natural disasters in living memory.

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Why not require American drug companies to test all drugs sold in the USA? In fact, how could the FDA not require such an obvious precaution? It will be many years before drugs made in China will reach US safety standards, especially if the FDA cannot even inspect Chinese labs. As matters now stand, the FDA grants companies the right to market drugs, but allows them to have the drugs made in substandard labs and never test them before they are given to patients. Try that with your business. ABN
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By ALICIA MUNDY
May 10, 2008; Page A4

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration is withholding a list of Chinese heparin suppliers requested by congressional investigators looking into problems with tainted supplies of the blood thinner, saying confidentiality agreements prevent release of the companies' names.

..."The FDA thinks they have it under control, but they really don't," said the congressman leading the investigation, Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.). The FDA's reluctance to release the Chinese companies' names is a red flag, he said. "If I was the FDA director, I'd shut down every drug coming in from China" until they were deemed safe, he said.

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Mother's Day was originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their
sons. Here is the original Mother's Day Proclamation from 1870, followed by a bit of history (or should I say "herstory"):

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Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by
irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be
taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of another
country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From
the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance
of justice."

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LINK TO MAP

11th May 2008

The death toll following the Burmese cyclone disaster could rise to 1.5 million, an aid organisation warned today.

Oxfam said the stricken country faced a public health catastrophe unless clean water and sanitation was quickly provided.

Cyclone Nargis brought death and destruction to the secretive South East Asian country more than a week ago, leaving an estimated 100,000 dead.

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There's one medical statistic doctors don't much talk about despite its importance. It's called number needed to treat, or NNT. It’s a measure developed in the past 20 years, and it’s one of the best-kept statistical secrets in medicine.

The idea of NNT is simple enough. Most clinical trials look at how much better people do on a particular medicine. NNT answers the question: How many people have to take a particular drug to avoid one incidence of a medical issue (such as a heart attack, or recurrence of cancer)? For example, if a drug had an NNT of 50 for heart attacks, then 50 people have to take the drug in order to prevent one heart attack.

That doesn’t sound like a lot, so pharmaceutical companies tend to keep the number quiet and focus on broader, U.S. population-based statistics. But that could be changed if you ask for the NNT up front the next time you're handed a prescription.

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May 11, 2008

A G/B highly respectable professional, Kandyan, Aristocratic parents from Colombo 7, seek a partner above 26 years, for their very smart, extremely beautiful, very fair, academically and professionally British qualified daughter willing to migrate.

Academically / Professionally qualifed Govigama Buddhist partner with sober habits sought by respectable parents for doctor daughter who has already completed post-graduate degree (MD/ MRCP) and awaiting consultancy status. She is 36 years height 5' 4 1/2" fair complexioned, slim and pretty. Dowry available. Reply with copy of horoscope and family details.

Kandyan (living Kiribathgoda) B/G, respectable family, educated, 38 years, 5'4", fair & slim, pretty very young-looking daughter with excellent character, Senior Executive reputed firm, substantial wealth, seek, educated genuine loving partner with personality. Pls. reply with true details Tel. No., E-mail. Self- replies welcome.

MAY 12, 2008

The ancient “Song of Cheo-yong” dates back to 879 A.D. during the reign of Shilla Dynasty King Heongang. The Korean tune has resurfaced thousands of years later in the modern world under various representations, and has served as a motif in art covering genres such as dance and music.

...History-wise, Shilla imported a considerable volume of Western and Middle Eastern civilization through the Silk Road. Heo said this makes it highly possible that the song’s title referred to an Arab. Furthermore, the description of Cheo-yong in an ancient history book depicts him as an Arab man.

“Of course, we have lots of different interpretations,” Heo said. “But when we look at historical facts, features of ancient Persian civilization and the depiction of Cheo-yong’s appearance in literature, Cheo-yong must have been an Arab man.”

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CIARUTEUN, Indonesia (AFP) — A push by hardline Islamists for Indonesia to ban a "deviant" Muslim sect has ignited a battle for the soul of the world's largest Muslim-majority country.

Mob violence, protests and chilling threats have formed the backdrop to pressure on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and key ministers to ban the minority Ahmadiyah sect.

A decision last month by a Suharto-era state board overseeing religion recommended the sect be broken up because it believes Mohammed was not the final prophet, contradicting a central tenet of mainstream Islam.

Liberals are aghast at calls to ban the sect, but the ever-cautious Yudhoyono is under pressure to appease a vocal Islamist minority.

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Click on the screen to find the other four parts. Also, imagine what the internet will look like if corporations get control of it. ABN
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May 9, 2008--People in Waterloo are trying to figure out what sort of operation federal officials are conducting in town. This week, the Department of Homeland Security took-over and sealed-off the grounds of the National Cattle Congress on the west side of Waterloo.

Thursday night, our crew went to investigate, but security guards told them to stay across the street from the property. Our camera caught pictures of elaborate ventilation systems going into the buildings. There were dozens of cars coming in and out with license plates from surrounding states, and even as far away as Georgia and Texas.

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An additional problem not mentioned in this essay is why would Atta carry incriminating evidence with him? If he wanted it to be found, he risked having it destroyed in the plane crash. If he wanted it destroyed, he risked having it found, as it was. Was he careless? Hard to believe that was his state of mind if the official story is true. Did he simply did not care? Also hard to believe if he was the methodical terrorist we have been told he was. Consider also in this context the hijacker's passport that was found unscathed on a street in NYC just after 9/11. Since it is not possible that the passport survived the crash, we are almost forced to conclude that someone put it there to mislead investigators. And that conclusion strengthens the hypothesis that someone also planted Atta's suitcase.

See this for more: Former federal terrorism investigators say a piece of luggage hastily checked in at the Portland, Maine, airport by a World Trade Center hijacker on the morning of Sept. 11 provided the Rosetta stone enabling FBI agents to swiftly unravel the mystery of who carried out the suicide attacks and what motivated them. ABN
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by Prof. David Ray Griffin
Global Research, May 9, 2008
The Canadian

At the core of the official story about 9/11 is the claim that the four airliners that crashed that day had been taken over by a band of al-Qaeda hijackers led by Mohamed Atta. No proof was ever provided for this claim. But various kinds of evidence have been offered, the most important of which was reportedly found in Atta’s luggage after the attacks. The materials in this luggage were said to confirm the suspicion that the planes had been hijacked by Atta and fellow Muslims. As Joel Achenbach wrote in a Washington Post story on September 16, 2001:

Atta is thought to have piloted American Airlines Flight 11, the first to slam into the World Trade Center. A letter written by Atta, left in his luggage at Boston's Logan Airport, said he planned to kill himself so he could go to heaven as a martyr. It also contained a Saudi passport, an international driver's license, instructional videos for flying Boeing airliners and an Islamic prayer schedule. (“’You Never Imagine’ A Hijacker Next Door.”)

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Sri Lanka's leaders are testing a dangerous theory: that the best way to end a civil war is by winning it.

May 19, 2008 Issue
By Jeremy Kahn

The city bus, packed with commuters, had just pulled out of a dusty terminal in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital, when the massive explosion ripped it apart, leaving 26 dead and more than 60 wounded. The April 25 attack was another tragic episode in Sri Lanka's seemingly interminable civil war. For 25 years, the government has been locked in battle with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The group is fighting for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamils, who make up about a quarter of Sri Lanka's 20 million inhabitants. The Tigers routinely attack civilians, and pioneered suicide bombing in the 1980s. Overall, the war has cost more than 70,000 lives on both sides and frustrated attempts at a settlement.

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Sunday May 11, 2008

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- People of kindness around the world should join in efforts to help the Burmese people suffering from the May 2 cyclone that devastated the region, the Burma-born Buddhist Master Hsin Tao said Friday following his visit to the disaster areas.

Hsin Tao, founder of the Ling Jiou Mountain Buddhist Society (LJMBS) in northern Taipei County and a Republic of China citizen, was one of the few foreigners allowed to enter Myanmar in recent days.

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Sunday May 11, 2008

The chief incumbent of Colombo’s Gangaramaya Temple, Ven. Galaboda Gnanissara Thera, has strongly criticised the Government’s decision to increase the electricity tariff at religious institutions, and has called for remedial action.

The text of the statement is as follows:

“Our present Constitution requires that Buddhism be shown the highest consideration by the State, and that places of worship of all religions be protected. The Government’s CEB has ignored all places of worship when it drew the new tariff plan, thus belittling all places of worship.

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BY JONATHAN POWER (World View)
11 May 2008

ONCE again the CIA and MI6 are publishing dire warnings of the vitality of Al Qaeda. Once again the Islamic world as a whole is being tarnished by association. US presidential contender John McCain is saying that America needs a leadership “to confront the transcendent challenge of our time: the threat of radical Islamic terrorism”.

And the words still ring in our ears from Samuel Huntington’s treatise, “the Clash of Civilisations”, the book that in many ways triggered this paranoia that infects the politicians, the press and the public discourse. “The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism, IT IS ISLAM”, he wrote.

Few, if any, in the Western leadership seem to make the point that Al Qaeda is a deviant phenomenon within the Islamic world, just as Hitler was a deviant phenomenon within the Christian world (commentators seem to overlook Hitler’s early speeches calling on Catholic principles). But Islam has a much better record over the ages (despite its founder being far more warlike than the founder of Christianity) of dealing with its deviants who take violence to excess.

Islamic culture has never been tolerant of Nazism, fascism or communism. Christianity has spawned all three. Buddhism failed to resist Japanese militarism and Confucianism provided hospitable to Maoism. Yes, there was Saddam Hussein but he was an atheistic brute without an ideology.

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May 11, 2008

Bangladesh's ethnic minority communities, mainly Buddhist tribals, continue to be thrown out of their ancestral land, allegedly by government agencies, influential people and private organisations, a survey revealed.

Researchers and experts say that the fate of over 1.5 million indigenous people, who represent 58 small and large groups living in hilly and plain land across the country, is almost same.

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MYANMAR, Yangon (CNN) -- A Red Cross boat delivering supplies to help 1,000 victims of last weekend's cyclone sank Sunday when it hit debris in the Irrawaddy Delta region, as the U.S. prepared to deliver relief supplies to Myanmar.

"The crew managed to get to the safety of an island, along with four Red Cross staff who were on the boat," Red Cross official Joe Lowry said. "But we've lost most of the cargo."

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