Commodity Crises and Capturing the Moment
There is much talk of the commodity crisis these days. I just noticed in the papers yesterday, the position of China in terms of rare earth elements [1].
The role of Mongolia also, seems to be coming to the fore in recent news this autumn that vast mineral resources may open up to the wider world.[2]
In a country of around 3 million, the least densely populated nation (excluding only the Antartican continent) the spread of a significantly nomadic and pastoral people is vast. Will the development of mining opportunities bring into Mongolia and it's economy a broader range of skilled expertise that will benefit the nation? In the communist era, Russian influence moulded architecture, medicine, politics and faith (or atheism at least).What benefits economically, culturally or spiritually could this bring - or not?
The increasing veneer of Western Capitalism has had some impact, and yet investors have been slow to see it as an open door with the control government policy still has, state ownership within operations, not to mention the level of siphoned resources that seem to be so mismanaged, some would strongly protest.
In this instance, there is the typical blessing and curse of the 'colony by default' - not a geographical territory exactly as in the mode of 19th Century Africa, but in the form of increasing economic influence. Maybe for this reason, the loss of the culture, identity and religious foundations that have re-emerged post-Russia are not going to be relinquished easily.
Meanwhile,from that corner of the world, an influence and resources of a different mine are being dug out. The treasures of wisdom sold and distrubuted on the open world market are not simply copper or rare earth elements (Job 28:2,12, Colossians 2:3). The Dalai Lama (the 'Ocean of wisdom') is on a drive to influence the West, just as much (perhaps more than) we seem intent on influencing the East. Germans, for one, in their spiritual seeking, rated the Dalai Lama more highly as a figure of wisdom in a 2002 poll in 'Geo Wissen' magazine than Pope John Paul II.[3]
It is time perhaps for us to rise to the occasion to pray once more for the Buddhist World. For it is a world who's economic and religious influence is unsurprisingly more than we would like to admit. The Dalai Lama's message to Canadians in 2007 'Global Citizenship through Universal Responsibility' to mark his visit there, appeals to a generation looking for worldwide inclusive solutions to peaceful co-existence.
His popularity in Austrailia, Canada, Germany and many other places in the West, require Christians to address the spiritual needs of this generation again. At a time when Islam is seeking to win the West, by fair means or often foul from our perspective, the same is true of Buddhism: but in a gentle and non-violent manner which is far more subtle at times. It is time to win hearts with the love of God afresh in the Buddhist world (both in traditionally Buddhist countries and in the Western Buddhist population too), and to do it by prayer, with grace and wisdom and the in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Footnotes:
1 http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article6374603.ece
2
http://seekingalpha.com/article/165235-what-mongolia-s-mines-mean-for-metal-etfs
3
http://www.tibet.ca/en/newsroom/wtn/archive/old?y=2002&m=5&p=19_1
http://www.geo.de/GEO/fotografie/portfolio-des-monats/54055.html
4
http://www.tibet.ca/_media/PDF/commemorative_book.pdf
