Burma is drenched in Buddhism: the monks in maroon red and nuns in lollypop pink robes are everywhere (there are over half a million), giant golden pagodas glitter on every hilltop and in every household there is a shrine. As a non-believer it is a bit much sometimes.

Officially 89% of the 50 million Burmese is ‘Theravada Buddhist’. In terms of the proportion of monks in the population and income spent on religion, it is the most Buddhist country in the world. Of course there are also many other religions in Burma: Christianity and Islam both count for 4% (according to state statistics), Hinduism 1% and there is even a synagogue in Yangon.

Somehow, Buddhism has globally a very positive and peaceful reputation. Maybe mainly due to the mediagenic ever smiling Dalai Lama or the fact Buddhism isn’t associated (in the West) with big international wars. But it isn’t always as peace loving as some like to believe.

Non-Buddhists have faced discrimination and persecution through out history, denying them citizenship and causing them to flee the country. Currently Muslim Rohingyas are facing random attacks by extreme nationalistic Buddhist gangs. Human Rights Watch has been warning for the danger of ‘ethnic cleansing’ and TIME magazine portrayed the ‘face of Buddhist terrorism‘ last April, which resulted in protests and censoring the issue here.

In that sense, Buddhism is just like any brainwash: all kinds of people totally believe in it, and some bad ones will use it also to justify their intolerance or even killing.

The reason I write this blog today though, is to thank Buddha. With our TV show, we record every saturday in the centre of Yangon the debate. Since we use huge lamps and downtown has power cuts every couple of hours (or just one for many hours), we bought a generator. But the massive machine has been shutting down every week, leaving the studio in the dark and without air-conditioning.

The same happened this morning. So the producer told me many colleagues have been asking him to do a Buddhist ceremony for the generator. Whatever it takes. So I donated to buy some incense and fruit and a couple of technicians went to the generator just before the recording would start, and .... it worked perfectly for the first time in 2 months!

Watch it on dvbdebate.com (or on chavannes.nl/video all English clips)