h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's not often that relgion and the internet combine and, when they do, the results are often not a great advert for either party. However these two much maligned and wildly diverse groups seem, I notice, to be doing good business in Burma at the moment. The Buddist monks lead the charge against a military dictatorship, which sounds like a bit of a one-sided fight, except that of course people believe in the monks, which means the whole country is coming out, which is fantastic. Now of course the Government blames the monks for starting the trouble (buddist monks being a well-known source of mob violence) and their state tv, as in bygone eras, plays along. But it's not that simple anymore, because the people have their own form of mass communication. The internet.

Alright, so maybe it will all fizzle out and life will go on as before. Maybe there will be a lot of fighting and a lot of killing and all for nothing. But maybe, just maybe, the next time someone who thinks that the internet is a refugse for terrorists and paedophiles and the church is the same thing but without broadband asks you 'what has the internet ever contributed?' you can point to the free and democratically run Burma and say 'that'.

You never know.

Traveller in Time marching virtually
"Join the petition as in < F43348?thread=4617176 > "

It's really another true case of "watch, wait and see", huh?