Abstract/Sommario: The Author looks at why the appeal of faith has increased in the last few years, particularly for intellectuals and youth in Chinese urban areas. Before 2000 the most believers were in the countryside, after that they started to move into urban centres, cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Christianity is providing an alternate system of social values to address problems that have emerged since China began its transition to a free-market economy. A recent trend of Chinese Chri ...; [Leggi tutto...]
The Author looks at why the appeal of faith has increased in the last few years, particularly for intellectuals and youth in Chinese urban areas. Before 2000 the most believers were in the countryside, after that they started to move into urban centres, cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Christianity is providing an alternate system of social values to address problems that have emerged since China began its transition to a free-market economy. A recent trend of Chinese Christian lawyers who feel called by their faith to take on pro bono human-rights cases also demonstrates this. Overseas Chines Christians that have been coming back to China in the last few years have great impact with their families and friends. China's internal migration also contributes to the spread of Christianity: factory workers who leave their homes in the countryside to find a work in the cities sometimes find God along the way. Many college students and recent graduated, regardless of their religious beliefs, identify openness towards religious experimentation as a characteristic of their generation. However, many Christian students often keep their faith to themselves for fear of recrimination if they were found out. Meeting Christians who are also party members is not uncommon, and many in Beijing bring up disillusionment with communism to explain the trend of Christian conversion among China's intellectuals. But however, Christianity's current boom in the cities is largely due to the religion's strong rural roots.
Abstract/Sommario: Although a peace deal between the government and rebels is within reach in Mindanao, the prospects of pro-growth and reconciliation policies are slim. The chief sticking point involves MILF demands for control of their 'ancestral domain' lands: however both sides seem to prefer peace to fighting, that has cost 100,000-plus lives since the 1970, while uprooting more than a million villagers. But Ms Arroyo government is regarded as corrupt and ineffective, and also the economic elite ...; [Leggi tutto...]
Although a peace deal between the government and rebels is within reach in Mindanao, the prospects of pro-growth and reconciliation policies are slim. The chief sticking point involves MILF demands for control of their 'ancestral domain' lands: however both sides seem to prefer peace to fighting, that has cost 100,000-plus lives since the 1970, while uprooting more than a million villagers. But Ms Arroyo government is regarded as corrupt and ineffective, and also the economic elite is rife with protectionism and corruption. One issue that unites Muslims and Christians in Mindanao is a mutual belief that the island's economic development has long been hampered because of a neglectful 'imperial Manila': high shipping costs (controlled by a cartel-like oligopoly), the lack of decent roads contrive Mindanao's economy. While many of the Muslim's problems traditionally have been self-inflicted -corrupt leadership, feuding warlords- probably the most important point involves a tradition of neglect and domination from Manila. In the autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao the population is desperately poor, without clean water and other necessities. Moreover, many parcels of rice and corn lands owned communally by Maguindanao clans have been transferred to Christian hands, and this fact contributes to create conflicts.