Making Merit In Burma

Much to be admired about the Buddhist way of life, but one particular aspect of 'making merit' - the idea that by releasing animals (birds, turtles, eels, fish... anything goes) into the wild, one is carrying out a meritorious act of compassion that will rewarded in due course - leaves a lot to be desired...

Temples throughout S.E. Asia offer these creatures for you to set free, for a few coins donated to the Buddhist temple ... but the trouble is, you have have to wonder about the 'merits' of capturing these animals in the first place! What's more, the birds in particular have often been raised in captivity, and within a few minutes they return to their captors - and so the cycle continues. At least in Thailand the authorities are beginning to clamp down on the practice. The above photo was taken in Myanmar (Burma)...

The poverty is astonishing in Myanmar; its isolation from the rest of the world because of the continuing stubborn refusal of its military dictators to relinquish their hold on power, combined with the recent natural disaster (thousands of lives lost in the flooding in the south), leaves an impression of a country caught in a time-warp decades ago. One of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources, yet the streets are filled with faces devoid of hope ...