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Archive for 2000

10 Dec, 2000

How Marketing Gurus Tap the Persuasive Power of Religious Conversion

Originally Published:  Dec 10, 2000 Research done in South Africa into why people convert from on religion to another is now being used by modern-day marketing gurus to get customers to switch from one product to another, or to remain loyal to one product. Operating on the premise that any theory which one works in […]

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28 May, 2000

Why are Some Prayers Granted, and Others Not?

Originally Published: May 28, 2000 Have you ever noticed how often, when all the chips are down and none of the conventional solutions work, people turn to prayer? Even more often, if the prayer produces the desired result, it is dismissed as a “miracle”? This predilection not to give credit where it’s due has long […]

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5 Mar, 2000

My mother-in-law’s last days: One woman’s misery was another’s profit

Originally Published: 05 Mar 2000 My mother-in-law died last week after an 18-month battle with cancer. That was about 12 months more than the doctors had given her after she was diagnosed. She was 73, the third elderly person in my family to move on in the last six years. Shuttling her in and out […]

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20 Feb, 2000

UNCTAD Conference Shines Light on Alternative Paradigms

Originally Published: 20 Feb 2000 Last week’s UNCTAD conference was dominated by discussion of the machinations and manipulation of global players in pursuit of power and riches — and the consequences thereof. Certain global players already have both power and riches. Others are in pursuit of it. The domination of the weak by the strong […]

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6 Feb, 2000

Has Thailand Lost the Virtues of the Middle Path?

Originally Published: 06 Feb 2000 There can be few better representations of a country that has long forgotten its spiritually-mandated middle-path than Thailand’s recent spats with the Burmese. In the first case last year, the alleged terrorists who took over the embassy were given a comfortable exit to the border, courtesy of our deputy foreign […]

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23 Jan, 2000

Globalisation Will Make Religion Even More Relevant

Originally Published: Jan 23, 2000 When the United Nations Human Development Report for Thailand was issued in late 1999, various commentators leaped upon it with great gusto for post-mortems on the causes and consequences of the recent economic crisis. But on Page 17 of the HDR was a comment that caught my eye, one that […]

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