Bar manager arrested and held in Myanmar for insulting Buddhism

[phazey]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2871044/Myanmar-bar-manager-accused-insulting-Buddhism.html

[superyacht]

Very sad for his wife and 6 month child. But he broke the law

[boomerangutang]

Tried viewing link, but paranoid Thai officials blocked it.

Edited January 8, 2015 by boomerangutang

[NeverSure]

Tried viewing link, but paranoid Thai officials blocked it.

The only additional info I noticed is that Buddhists are becoming stronger and more vocal to the extent of boycotting Muslim owned businesses. (Or at least asking people to.)

And this not so veiled threat from a monk:

'We will wait and see what action the authorities take. We will do what we need to, if the authorities do not take action,' he added.

Link in post above.

[phazey]

Link to Article.

http://bit.ly/1Cdb0io

[balo]

Tried viewing link, but paranoid Thai officials blocked it.

You just had to make a comment on that again didnt you?

As we all know Daily Mail has been blocked by TOT for a long time.

Try another ISP like DTAC and the link works. Or even better a vpn/proxy .

[Asiantravel]

Myanmar court finds trio guilty of insulting religion

Philip Blackwood, who managed the VGastro Bar in Yangon, was arrested in December along with bar owner Tun Thurein and colleague Htut Ko Ko Lwin.

They have each been sentenced to two and a half years in jail.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31918269

Edited March 17, 2015 by Asiantravel

[piersbeckett]

I believe the careful words of Mya Tway (Mr. Blackwood's lawyer) hold the key to understanding this seemingly harsh sentence - "It will be difficult to say whether this verdict is fair or not because this is Myanmar, not like other democratic countries. That's all I can say."

The headline could have read - N.Z. Bar manager, concentrating on the promotion of the business in which he's involved, pays too little attention to the precept of his host country's government.

I feel, conjecturing, that the government sanctioned, nationalistic/religious fervour aimed at keeping same in power and hoisting a certain intransigent, non democratic element inexorably linked to a political agenda, by its own petard, somehow washed over Mr. Blackwood.

It may well be that at the present time, 'the powers that be' consider that an example needs to be set in which case an appeal if based on leniency is unlikely to succeed.

Personally, I feel sorry for Mr. Blackwood who probably had no intention of insulting the Buddhist religion and having, I fancy, been one myself, looks to me like a hard working, conscientious caterer.

Edited March 26, 2015 by piersbeckett

[boomerangutang]

I thought, naively, that only Islamists claim their religion could get insulted. Now it appears Buddhists claim that. Too bad.

Fact remains: religion is a thing. It's a belief system. A thing doesn't have an ego, so it can't be offended. Can you offend a brick or a loaf of bread?

People, however, can get offended. It happens often. Indeed, it's a very exceptional person who can not be offended. The sort of person I admire.

If something offends someone, then that person can speak up and say, "that offends me." or "that offends people with my belief system." But to say, "that offends Buddhism" or "that offends Islam" is off-base. Oh well, nothing I write on this topic is going to make a bit of difference, so you people who claim to speak for an entire religion, .....just go ahead and do your damage to other peoples' lives. Nothing I can do or say can change that.

[spidermike007]

Only very insecure men do things like this. If these fools had spent even five minutes in prayer, in the past year, they might not have felt compelled to commit an act of stupidity as grand as locking these people up. The level of foolishness is stunning. Only half men do things like this. Only men who are not comfortable in their own skin. Burma is a very dangerous place, when officials are such ignorant fools. But, we are talking about a place that was run by Than Shwe, the multi billionaire crook, for how long?

[impulse]

Though it appears these guys actually violated the law, I have to wonder about the back story.

Did they piss off a local official, or is there someone with power that has greedy eyes on their businesses, or did they take business away from powerful competitors, and so on.