3 This ranking, called the World Giving Index, is published annually by the London-based Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). In this context it is interesting that I am not only living in an evolving democracy, but according to a recent report also in the „most generous country in the world“.
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Our REALEURASIA-project seeks to discover and understand links between religion and economic behaviour. My research is without doubt taking place in an utterly exciting time. Changed policies give rise to new economic opportunities and challenges. new laws for banks and foreign investment. Economic issues are, of course, also widely debated, e.g. Minorities ask for more protection and rights while some nationalist forces (supported by a not so small portion of the country’s overall population) expect the government to promote and protect Buddhism which they understand as inherently linked to the ethnic identity of the majority group, the Bamar. Members of the former elite want to secure their influence while a large part of the people calls for democracy and change. 2 This already hints at the seemingly unfulfillable expectations the new government faces. He is said to be a military hardliner and played a vital role in past decisions to crackdown pro-democratic protests. 1 The other vice president was elected by the military that still holds considerable power in the parliament (25% of the seats are reserved for them). One belongs to the ethnic minority group of the Chin and is Christian by religion – promptly, ultra-nationalist Buddhist monks announced public rallies to protest this choice. While this choice seems to please many of her voters, the two new vice presidents evoked mixed reactions. Because Suu Kyi was banned by law from becoming the president herself, she presented her old friend and colleague Htin Kyaw on 15th March 2016 as Myanmar’s new president. The National League for Democracy, party of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, was clearly favoured by the vast majority of people I met – and it won a supermajority of 77%. I have witnessed historical elections in November 2015, people’s insecurities about the voting process and their huge excitement after they learned about the results. I came to a country that was still ruled by a former military elite, and now I am living in a society under a democratically elected government, the first one since the military takeover in 1962. Seven months have passed since I arrived in Myanmar in August last year. Second, I will describe in more detail what I am doing at the moment.
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First, I will address links between Buddhism and economic action more generally. With this blog post I want to introduce my current REALEURASIA-field work in Pathein, Myanmar.