The following is an article written by Raybon Kan which I just read in the Sunday Star Times. It's quite interesting.

"God, I love the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is struggling with his two jobs: religious leader versus political figure. As the Buddha incarnate, he must see us all as one. As the leader of Tibet, he must take a side. He respects humans, He cares about human life, even though he believes in reincarnation. It's like caring about the cost of a coffee, even though you're Bill Gates.

So, Easter.

A time to think about when the Roman empire executed a dissident.

Hmmm.

Meanwhile, in Tibet, another empire does the same thing.

People the world over will make a scene about Jesus, but not care about something more recent.

The hypocrisy is disgusting.

I realize it's pointless injecting rational thought into religion.

You can't draw Mohammed? Why?

What if you drew him really nicely?

Muslim extremists kill people for saying the wrong thing about someone dead, long dead, centuries dead: yet have so little regard for actual people, in your face, in your space, right now?

Here's my truth. Religion is just a polite word for superstition. Crossing yourself, showing up in special buildings, facing Mecca, shaving your head and wearing yellow - it's all no different to throwing salt over your shoulder, or saying white rabbits on the first of the month. It doesn't change the fact: We're all gonna die.

The only sensible thing to come out of religion is head covering. And that's only because it's sunsmart. I don't want to be the Easter Grinch, but here's what gets me.

Jesus gets way too much credit for dying.

It wasn't like real dying.

He was superhuman. He came back. His dad was God.

As the spin goes, God so loved the Earth he sent his only son to die for us.

Well...

Not really.

Jesus just vanished for three days. That's not death. That's a long weekend.

We, us, flesh and blood humans of 2008 - we die for real. For keeps.

Yet - Jesus's followers find it so easy to get so emotionally involved about him, to talk about loving him. He died - let's face it - a long time ago. A very long time ago. Thousands of years ago. And there was a happy ending.

Three days later, he came back. It was a magic trick.

Other murder victims don't.

Pumpkin's mum ain't coming back. The monks in Tibet last week aren't coming back. (And they believe in reincarnation.)

It's easy to love Jesus. Nobody's met him. Talk about a long distance relationship. People create him in their imagination. He's ideal. He's unrequited.

And envy can't arise because he's long dead.

But if he lived now, people would have human reactions to him. By that I mean judgements.

His income, his hair, his house, his car. His brand of sandals, his boy band entourage, the whole Mary Magdalene is-he-or-isn't-he thing. Current affairs shows would send hidden cameras to his miracles.

Let's put his death and execution into perspective. He's not the only one ever to have been tortured. Or to be executed. Ask Amnesty International.

He wasn't even the only one - on that hill, on that day.

Plenty of people have been tortured and executed since then. Much more recently. Without an audience. Without media. Without protest.

Try Tibet. Try Burma.

And they didn't have the comforting thought that they were coming back.

They didn't have the thought that they were personally hooked up, as in the son of, the actual creator of the entire universe.

Plus, I imagine death is a lot easier to stomach when you know it only lasts three days. Yet, this weekend, people get all sombre about what happened to Jesus, this historical figure, who died, centuries ago - but we can disregard what happens to real people, right now.

Our country will enter a free trade agreement with China, China is a country, which, like the ancient Roman empire, executes dissidents. And we will not criticize. We will not protest. Because we want their money. Their pieces of silver.

Contrast: Our government will bully and block a Canadian pension fund, which wants to invest in our airport, because this is somehow strategic. Canada, one of the nicest, sweetest, most honorable countries on the planet. No deal.

But China? Land without media, land without human rights? Lets deal. This is bullshit.

How do we sleep at night? If we are silent, we are accomplices."