Rant 524 / What If The Next Dalai Lama Is An Eskimo?

Catholic churches in the US are going broke, some selling their lands to pay debts while others are even considering bankruptcy. I don't think those in Singapore are in such a bad situation, but don't Catholic churches everywhere get financial aid from the Vatican? I don't know the exact policies regarding the Church's money though I believe that places of worship shouldn't be sold due to financial problems if those of the same religion in other parts of the world can help.

Of course, money and religion shouldn't even be intertwined at all, but things are the way they are and I'm in no position to do anything about that. The thing is, if the believers allow their places of worship to be taken away without doing everything they can, what are they believing in in the first place? Are they just going to worship at another place that isn't sold yet?

Temples and churches are sacred buildings, they aren't supposed to be built and taken down on a whim. In a sense, they are symbols of the strength of the followers' belief. If the community is okay with their church being sold and none of them are broke, then what they're saying is that their families/personal lives are more important than their religion.

There is the possibility that the people who use those churches wouldn't be able to save them even if they had pooled their resources. This would prove that money is necessary to sustain a religion, a very unfortunate phenomenon. In terms of natural selection, this is evidence that religions with wealthier believers have better chances of survival.

This news reminds me of the Papal States and how the power of the Catholic Church is still waning today. At first it was Napoleon who took a bite out of their lands, then when Italy was unified they took the rest, leaving that tiny bit that is now called the Vatican City. By the way if you come across any Vatican Euros it's a good idea to keep it due to their rarity. At the rate it's going they may get even rarer.












Oh wow this is surprising. In World War I, the British recruited hundreds of Nagas to fight for them in France. Apparently the German Minotaurs were strong enough to defeat the French Harpies regiment. They should have just upgraded them to Harpy Hags to get the No Retaliation bonus because it's cheap and makes the Harpies much more powerful. Nagas are expensive though they are worth the gold. Even today India still has a Naga Regiment in their Army.

Jokes aside, the British really did get Nagas to help at the French front from Nagaland, north-east India. The Naga Regiment in the Indian Army is also real and last fought in the 1999 against Pakistan.












This month's issue of National Geographic is all about water. Less than 1% of the Earth's water is fresh and liquid, and in many places in the world people are getting too much or not enough of it.

What really caught my eyes was this map showing the price of tap water around the world. Apparently Singapore's tariff of US$0.61 per 100 gallons (S$0.85 per 379 litres) is pretty low for a developed country, but very high compared to the rest of South-east Asia. To the North of us, the only country that has more expensive water is Japan. To the South, Australia and New Zealand.

In fact in the entire Asian continent, the price of water in Singapore is only lower than those in Japan and Dubai. Compared to the rest of the world, it is still cheaper than almost all of those in Western Europe, North America and Oceania. I can probably say that we have the most expensive water in our region but the cheapest in the First World.












When the present Dalai Lama passes away, the succession is going to be a huge problem. It's not just because China has already chosen their own puppet Dalai Lama, but also because Tenzin Gyatso has said that his reincarnation is not going to be in PRC-controlled territories.

Traditionally 13 of the 14 Dalai Lamas have been born in Tibet, with only one exception who's from Mongolia. Since Tibet might as well be part of China now and Tenzin hasn't said where he will be reborn, we may see lots of Tibetan monks travelling on planes in the future.

It is entirely possible that the next Dalai Lama may turn out to be a Israeli Jew and the following image is an artist's impression of the face of the Jewish God when this happens.


















FFXIV is going to come out in the near future! I'm quite interested to see if SquareEnix has learnt anything from FFXI in the last few years. If they do succeed, I am seriously considering trying it out. But first I'll have to wait for reviews months after its release.