Gerontocracy of the Buddhist monastic administration in Thailand

This paper examines the monastic administration in Thai Buddhism, which is ruled by the senior monks and supported by the government. It aims to answer two questions; (1) why the Sangha’s administration has been designed to serve the bureaucratic system that monks abandon social and political justices, and (2) how the monastic education curriculum are designed to support such a conservative system. Ethnographic methodology was conducted and collected data were analyzed through the concept of gerontocracy. It found that (1) Thai Buddhism gains supports from the government much more than other religions. Parallel with the state’s bureaucratic system, the hierarchical conservative council contains the elderly monks. Those committee members choose to respond to the government policy in order to maintain supports rather than to raise social issues; (2) gerontocracy is also facilitated by the idea of Theravada itself. In both theory and practice, the charismatic leader should be the old one, implying the condition of being less sexual feeling, hatred, and ignorance. Based on this criterion, the moral leader is more desirable than the intelligent. The concept of “merits from previous lives” is reinterpreted and reproduced to pave the way for the non-democratic system.

KARAKTERISTIK NILAI DAN MORALITAS KEPEMIMPINAN PENDIDIKAN ISLAM

AbstrakKarakteristik nilai dasar dan moralitas kepemimpinan merupakan sebuah tolok ukur yang dapat mempengaruhi perilaku manusia dalam situasi tertentu. Jika dikaitkan dengan kepemimpinan, nilai dasar berarti tolok ukur yang mendasari perilaku seorang pemimpin dalam melaksanakan kepemimpinannya. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan untuk mengetahui karakteristik dari nilai dan moralitas kepemimpinan pendidikan Islam. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian pustaka (library research) dengan berusaha mengumpulkan informasi kepustakaan, baik melalui catatan, berbagai buku, jurnal, maupun penelitian terdahulu. Berdasarkan analisis yang dilakukan dapat diketahui bahwa karakteristik kepemimpinan harus visioner agar dapat membawa orang-orang dan organisasi menjadi lebih maju dari sebelumnya. Bahkan tidak sekedar mengalami perkembangan tetapi juga dapat mempertahankan apa yang telah diraih sampai pada beberapa generasi. Pemimpin yang efektif adalah seorang yang sangat responsif, terhadap setiap persoalan, kebutuhan, harapan dan impian dari yang dipimpinnya. Jika dikaitkan dengan moralitas kepemimpinan Islam maka perbuatan seorang pemimpin yang dianggap baik dan benar, dari sisi agama mencerminkan akhlakul karimah dan dari sisi sosial mencerminkan tindakan yang beradab. Seorang pemimpin yang bermoral pasti memiliki akhlak yang baik (akhlakul karimah) dan tindakannya merupakan tindakan beradab yang dianggap baik dan benar oleh masyarakat pada umumnya. AbstractCharacteristics of basic values and leadership morality are benchmarks that can influence human behavior in certain situations. When associated with leadership, basic values mean the benchmarks that underlie the behavior of a leader in carrying out his leadership. This research was conducted to find out the characteristics of the values and morality of Islamic education leadership. This research is a library research by trying to collect library information, either through notes, various books, journals, or previous research. Based on the analysis done it can be known that the characteristics of leadership must be visionary in order to bring people and organizations to be more advanced than before. Even not only experiencing development but also being able to maintain what has been achieved through several generations. An effective leader is someone who is very responsive, to every problem, need, hope and dream of the person he leads. If it is related to the morality of Islamic leadership, the actions of a leader which are considered good and right, from a religious perspective reflect morality and from a social perspective reflect civilized actions. A moral leader must have good morals (akhlakul karimah) and his actions are civilized actions that are considered good and right by society in general.

Canada and the International Human Rights Regime

Canada, a country of relative economic and military unimportance, garnered significant soft power and influence from its international reputation as a moral leader and protector of human rights. However, a deeper analysis of Canada’s role in the development and implementation of the international human rights regime reveals a continued emphasis on economic benefits at the expense of human rights. This and other inconsistencies are clear in Canada's dealings with historic and current cases involving indigenous rights and human rights abuses by Saudi Arabia, China, and Myanmar. Realistically, Canada requires capital-intensive resource development and trade deals with major economic and military powers that often lack actionable interest in the advancement of human rights. In the modern age, it can be said that although Canada had a significant role in developing the international human rights regime, with a broad collection of formal treaties, organizations, and processes and many informal norms and values, the country's supposed reputation is subject to influences incongruent with the protection of human rights.

American Fatherhood

This book explains the unbending ideal of the nuclear family and how it has seeped so deeply into American society and consciousness without ever becoming the actual norm for most people in the nation. It presents the rich diversity of family lives in American history from the American Revolution to the twenty-first century and at the same time the persistence and normative power of the nuclear family model. American society—one of the major arguments—is “governed through the family,” and to govern, in this sense, is “to structure the possible field of action.” To make this broad examination of the discourse and practice of the family in American life more accessible, this book focuses on the relations of fathers, families, and society. Throughout American history “the father” has been posed as provider and moral leader of his family, American society, and the nation. At the same time power and difference were established around “the father,” and fatherhood meant many different things for different people. To tell this history of fatherhood, families, and American society, the author presents biographical “close-ups” of twelve iconic characters, embedded in contextual “long shots” so that readers can see the enduring power of the family and father ideals along with the complexity and varieties of everyday life in American history. Each protagonist covers a crucial period or event in American history, presents a different family constellation, and makes a different argument with regard to how American society is governed through the family.

Kerangka Teologis Kepemimpinan Dalam Pendidikan Islam

The leader is essentially someone who has the ability to influence the behavior of others in the work by using power. Morally, leadership is closely related to the duties and functions of human beings on this earth. Among the duties and functions of his birth into this world is to preserve and utilize natural resources for the welfare of mankind. Man is created as the caliph of God on earth. In the Qur'an described that a good leader is for the good society as well. In other words, a good society can only be led and only requires a good leader as well. Moral society will determine the moral leader who has high integrity.

Art installation from glass and steel with elements of museum collection for exposition of State literary museum of Yanka Kupala

Статья посвящена инсталляции «Путь поэта», выполненной авторами для Государственного литературного музея Янки Купалы (Минск, Беларусь) в 2014 году. Это произведение современного искусства, репрезентирующее последние минуты жизни Народного поэта БССР Янки Купалы. В то же время оно представляет собой фрагмент музейной экспозиции, посвященный трагическому окончанию жизненного пути поэта, и включает в себя реальные экспонаты из музейной коллекции, имеющие отношение к смерти Купалы. Остальные составляющие инсталляции – сталь, стекло, звук и направленный электрический свет. Инсталляция должна была стать не только драматическим контрапунктом экспозиционного тайм-лайна, но также и послужить прозаичным оборудованием для демонстрации музейных предметов. В результате длительной работы над эскизами выкристаллизовалась вертикальная композиция объекта, напоминающего лестницу и составленного из стеклянных листов-ступеней, которая и была, в итоге, воплощена. В статье раскрывается концепция произведения, его привязка к конкретным историческим событиям, а также особенности образно-художественного решения. Особое внимание уделено специфике использования стекла в качестве основного материала инсталляции. The paper is devoted to the art installation «Way of Poet» created by the authors for the State Literary Museum of Yanka Kupala (Minsk, Belarus) in 2014. It is a work of contemporary art that represents the very last moments of life of People's poet of the Byelorussian SSR Yanka Kupala. At the same time, it is a fragment of the Museum exposition dedicated to the tragic end of the Poet's life, and includes the real exhibits related to the death of Kupala from the Museum collection. Other components of the installation are steel, glass, sound and spotted electric light. Yanka Kupala (1882 – 1942) was the classic writer of Belarusian and world literature, one of the founders of modern Belarusian literature and literary Belarusian language, the spiritual and moral leader of national rebirth in Belarus. On 28 June 1942 he tragically died in unexplained circumstances, having fallen into the staircase opening at the 10th floor of the hotel «Moscow» in Moscow. The installation is not only a dramatic counterpoint of the exposition time-line, but it also serves as prosaic equipment for demonstrating the Museum’s items. As a result of long work on the sketches, the vertical composition of the object was invented and embodied. It resembles a stairway that composed of glass sheets-steps. The paper reveals the concept of the work, its connection to specific historical events, as well as its original artistic features. Particular attention is paid to the specific use of glass as the main material of the installation.

Apprenticeship

In 1634 Fuller became the minister of the parish at Broadwindsor, in Dorset. This provided him the opportunity to know John White, the minister in nearby Dorchester. White, the spiritual and moral leader of the town became a pastoral model for Fuller. In this setting, Fuller wrote The Historie of the Holy Warre, the first English history of the Crusades. His use of medieval sources was extensive, and his analysis of the motives and tactics of western leaders is shrewd and persuasive. Elected to the clerical Convocation that met in 1640, during sessions of the first Parliament to be called in eleven years, Fuller dissented from the leadership of Archbishop William Laud, who sought to impose more stringent rules or canons on the Church of England. This Convocation, continuing to meet after Parliament was dissolved, passed canons whose legality was contested. War with the Scots ensued over religious issues, forcing the king to call what came to be known as the Long Parliament.

Leadership Phenomenon Research: from Diagnostics to Formation of Competences

In article approaches to the analysis of moral leadership — the difficult phenomenon which is only recently opened in the theory and practice of management, and social management, extremely perspective for the sphere, and social and humanitarian knowledge in general are considered. The author addresses leadership phenomenon research history in psychology and management, revealing regularities of development of theories of leadership (stages, a typologization). It is established that moral leadership as a subject of cross-disciplinary researches reproduces dynamics of formation of the main approaches to leadership developed in the XX century: from diagnostics to formation of competences. Concrete qualities of the moral leader are considered: the prudence, courage, self-control, justice (revealed by Aristotle), the humility and generosity (developed in Christian ethics) and modern (high level of moral responsibility). As competences of the moral leader are called: skills of ethical assessment, ethical examination, minimization of ethical risks, social intelligence. The main skill of the moral leader — adoption of administrative solutions of high degree of ethics is accented. It is claimed that formation of the professional — the moral leader — is possible by means of innovative technologies of ethical education. The example of a stakeholders analysis (the analysis of interested parties) as educational technology for formation of skills of ethical examination, minimization of ethical risks, adoption of administrative solutions of high degree of ethics is given.