World Cultures Blog

Quiz Makeup for the Thursday, 23 April 2009 Quiz

Mr. Neiffer — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:07:29 +0000

If you missed the 23 April 2009 quiz, your make up:

Compose a blog entry answering the question:

What about Ancient Greek culture is still relevent in Greece today?

Be sure to cite sources and link to ONE other credibly, trustworthy page.

Indian religion

Kelsey J — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:01:13 +0000

Derived from Hinduism, Buddhism is based on two things, enlightenment and reincarnation. To Buddhists the point of life is to achieve bodhi or enlightenment and stop the process of reincarnation. Life is about suffering, and suffering comes from ignorance. To relieve ignorance and gain knowledge you must meditate, this is how you can become Buddha or “teacher”. Buddhists also have no definitive god, everyone is reincarnated until they reach Samsara, where there ever repeating existence ends. Another Buddhist belief is that reality, inanimate things and people do not exist. This is an extremely challenging thing to comprehend but once realized, makes you buddha. At this point you have two choices, end your life, or use your knowlege to help others. Choosing to help others is the most honorable choice a buddah can make.

ahref=”http://www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?id=29062″>

http://international.ucla.edu/asia/article.asp?parentid=106061

Pollution in India

Kaitlyn M. — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:59:48 +0000

India Failing to Control Open Defecation Blunts Nation’s Growth

There is a major pollution problem in India. More than half of India’s population does not have a toilet, which causes them to go other places. There are about 100,000 tons of human excretment left by the Indians every day in potatoe fields, carrot fields, and spinach fields. The waste is also left along river banks which are used for bathing and drinking, and also along roads. This has created a big problem and 75% of the country’s surface water is contaminated by human and industrial waste. The people living here are in great danger of consuming human waste. Every day 1,000 children younger than 5 die due to complications related to the pollution. Also, because of the lack of bathrooms, many girls drop out of school.

Damodar river pollution in India-blame it on coal.

The Damodar river is considered to be a sacred river in India, however, there are many problems with it. It is filled with sewage and toxic metals. This river has about 46% of the India’s coal in it. This can effect human health. The lead contained in the river causes many health concerns such as anorexia, metallic taste in the mouth, headache, drowsiness, high blood pressure and anaemia.

Both of these articles are about how pollution to the rivers in India can cause many health problems for those living there.

Buddhism

Katie W. — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:59:28 +0000

Translating the holy book of Buddha’s teachings to english is the goal of some organizations. To help the religion survive people must understand what the foundations of that religion are and what are the goals of that religion. One of the major problems that the buddhists are facing now is that in many languages when a holy book is translated, the one who is doing the translating changes the meaning of the words. They often alter the teachings slightly to reflect their personal beliefs. In a related article buddhism is also expeirencing problems. The Dalai Lama is currently 73 years old and he is becoming more frail by the day. The Dalai Lama is one of Buddhisms most important leaders. One teenage monk that might take the Dalai Lama’s place is, like the Dalai Lama himself, opposed to violence, but this young monk enjoys playing violent games on his play statinon. He says that he plays these games not because he likes violence, but because it helps him to let go of his frustrations. There are a lot of differences that buddhists will have to face like culture and language. Will buddhism survive the changes of the modern world?

http://www.kuenselonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=12141

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gB8LQB5Zjm6V9LEK2YQBo6OG-w-gD96S0LRG2

Misinterpretations of the Hindu religion

Kalei S. — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:42:28 +0000

The Hindu

The Scientist in India are protesting against the harnessing of one of the tributary of the Hindu’s sacred river.The scientist were protesting by fasting or their “hunger strike”. And one of the following scientist that was fasting came very close to dying on his 38th day of fasting, so the work on a electric dam in the Himalayas was stopped. As soon as the Indian government agreed to quicken the inquiry into how the electricity couldprocess with no water included because the free flowing of the Ganges river is an important to the sacredness of it. Because of this one of the people involved in protesting against the harnessing had stopped fasting since the government did this. Now the Pala project which is one of the 100 major dams which is now going under constuction by the countries India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bhutan. Together are going to make 150,000MW which would help support the countries in need of electric power. But many argue that these plans with the dams could affect the economy and move thousands of people out of their homes, it could also contribute to global warming effect in the Himalayas that are already heavily impacted by it. But still all those countries have been preparing for years for dam construction . Many Hindus are against this because this would affect the natural route sacred river the Ganges.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/wendy_doniger/2009/03/the_battle_over_hindu_history.html

The battle over Hindu History

Many people in India are being murdered for the mistakes of the Hinduism history for example when the Hindus had said there was a Hindutemple that was built over with the Babir Masjidand Hindus started saying “Death to the Muslims” because they had built over their temple and many went into riots about it and tried to destroy the mosque and many died. Now a Hindu priest does his rituals there. So many Hindus think it is so important for their children to the right stories of the Hindu religion and not what they are taught in school text books. In this article the author tries to make a better understanding of what they do in the religion of Hinduism.

Both of these articles have issues in where either the geography or the history of the Hindu religion is impacted by those that aren’t Hindu’s. And both of these articles show how many times Hinduism is misinterpreted.

Mother Ganges

Olivia C — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:41:29 +0000

motherganges. The Ganges River is the main river in India. The people of India use this river for many things. The Ganges River which is also known as “mother Ganges”. The Ganges River is extremely polluted. When Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was ruling he layed down an action plan to try to clean the river and make it less polluted. Cleaning the Ganges River would benifit everyone .But instead of the river being cleaned they have been spending money on plans that have not even been succsessful. The administration has accepted the program trying to clean the Ganges River and now has delayed the plan to a later time. cleaning motherganges Prime minister manmohan singh was thanked by a social activist group for an athority to respond to the increasing pollution in the Ganges. The activists were in the save Ganga movement. The autority would innclude integrating activities relating to the use of water, solving pollution problems, and the maintenance of flowing water and river conservation.

The Battle over Hindu History

Caleb K — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:40:57 +0000

For years, some Hindus have argued that the 16th century mosque called the Babri Masjid stood where a muslim mosque stood. Well not any more. On 1992 on a december day a Hindu party BJP broke some 200,000 people into a rioting state of mind “Shouting “Death to the Muslims!” the mob attacked Babur’s mosque with sledgehammers. In the riots that followed, over a thousand people lost their lives, and many more died in reactive riots that broke out elsewhere in India. On the site today, nothing but vandalized ruins remains, and, in a dark corner of the large, empty space, a small shrine with a couple of oleograph pictures of Rama, where a Hindu priest performs a perfunctory ritual. Whether or not there ever was a Hindu temple there before, there is a temple, however makeshift, there now.” The conflict in india over Hinduism and Muslim beliefs are great. To go to this article click here. To go to another cool article about Hindu conflict in India click here.

The endangered river ecosystem of Kashi

Brice B — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:40:34 +0000

The Ganges River ecosystem is facing many challenges. The population around the river is growing quickly, and the pollution is bad. Their sewege is dumped directly into the river. 80% of the pollution in the river is urban waste, and 60% of that comes from near a city called Varansi. To ease the pressure on the rivers ecosystem a fund of the R’s 12.22 crore has been set up under the Jawaharla Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Due to the polluted water maney people die each year from drinking straight from the Ganges river. The rivers ecosystem and unplanned tourism can and will have a disastorous impact on the cultural carrying capacity of the cities along the river and the rivers ecosystem if this pollution is not stopped. A link is here. To go to the article click here.

Hindu extremists have gotten out of hand in India

Sean R — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:39:59 +0000

Many Hindu activists have been causing problems for many people and events in India. The first being Valentines Day, where a Hindu extremist group known as Sri Ram Sene threatened to “marry-off” couples they saw together during the much western influenced holiday. The most recent event though, was when a recent Indian film director inquired to build a statue of Charlie Chaplin. Hindu extremists were outraged, saying that Chaplin had made no influence towards India and was a Christian man. The filmmakers of the region disagree though, saying it has nothing to do with religion, and is an expression of art. I agree with these filmakers, about the Chaplin subject and The Valentines subject, and think that these extremists are being unreasonable. The statue has nothing to do with religion, its of Charlie Chaplin, for a movie. People should also be able to have a little free will, going out in public together. It even said some women were mad about the Sri Ram Sene for attacking some women in a bar for smoking and drinking, which is their choice to do in the first place. I think that this group of Hindu extremists have gotten out of hand.

India’s and Pakistan’s religious problems

Dan P. — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:58:29 +0000

This link gives an incite how India’s and Pakistan’s religious issues being solve is not happening. Pakistan’s Muslims and India’s Hindus have very different beliefs and conflict very often and i believe that they need to decide on something to solve the conflict between them before something very horrible happens like Pakistan and India having a nuclear war between each other.

This link gives a view on how sikhs are not being displayed in India as a relgion and aren’t having rights. They are also having conflicts with India and Pakistan (muslims and hindus). They are getting brutially harassed and prisoned wrongfully. I beleive that they should try to get along.

I beleive that for them to end this conflict they should offer a stalemate. Like give eachother want they want from eachother.