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Showing posts from April, 2014

What Colombo can learn from Bangkok

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An article in the Daily Mirror  of 22 April reports a call from the National Sangha Council  that asks that Colombo not be made a Chicago or a Bangkok.  It is a protest against the casino bill that will be presented to the Sri Lankan parliament this week.   I don’t know about Chicago, but I am right now in Bangkok, and I marvel, as I have always done, how Thai people practise their religion, Buddhism, alongside their highly consumerist life style, with little pretense or hypocrisy.  The Sanga walk collecting alms every morning in the city.  I have never seen that in Colombo. And it would seem that the gods of consumerism and the gods of religion sit comfortably side by side, with the people of Bangkok constantly worshipping at street temples in the course of their day to day activity, showing respect to the gods as they go about their daily routine. May be a little more Bangkok style Buddhist piety,  may not be a bad thing for Colombo after all.