Rev. Danny Fisher

Here’s the pertinent Burma news for today:

This from Amnesty International:

Last summer, the United Nations Security Council voted to send 26,000 peacekeepers to protect the people of Darfur and United Nations member states made enough pledges to send those 26,000 troops and police to Darfur in a mission called UNAMID. Today, fewer than 11,000 peacekeepers are on the ground, and the force still lacks essential helicopters, despite warnings from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon that without these helicopters the mission in Darfur “is at risk.” Pledges of troops, police, and equipment have been made but many of those pledges have not been fulfilled. Delays in deploying peacekeepers with the resources they need to support their mission are killing Darfur. The United Nations Security Council must act on its commitment to protect Darfur and insist that pledges of troops, police, and equipment are fulfilled. UN officials have projected 80% deployment by the end of 2008 but this projection is widely believed to be exceedingly optimistic. The UNSC must take action and outline precisely how UNAMID will fully and quickly deploy in Darfur.

Send messages to UN Security Council President Michel Kafando and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Wang Guangya here.

Those us interested in the academic study of religion and film were given a nice gift today by Hulu.com, which made Steven Spielberg’s 1977 classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind available for free online. I’ve always been interested to teach a course on religion and film, and I don’t know why one wouldn’t include Spielberg’s richly rewarding film on the syllabus somewhere. (Scholars Paul V. M. Flesher and Robert Torry are with me on this to a degree, it seems.) An incredibly powerful, emotional, and exhilarating film–one of our greatest American films any way you slice it–you should make a point to watch it if you’ve never seen it. See it for free online anytime here.

This via Molly De Shong over at Shambhala Sun Space: In the latest issue of the magazine, four teachings about love and relationships given by The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Sylvia Boorstein, John Tarrant Roshi, Polly Young-Eisendrath have been adapted from talks given at this year’s annual Shambhala Sun/Omega Institute program, “What the Buddhists Teach,” and published. Take a look. In a mailbag question from several weeks ago, I recommended literature about Buddhism and romantic love–I’d add these to the list.