Thousands of people from all over the United States and around the world have kept their hopes high on killing many massive serpents in Florida’s public contest to kill Burmese pythons.<o:p></o:p>

Speaking about participating in the bizarre contest, 22-year-old native of Naples Jake Waleri said that his major plan is to hunt snakes during his summer break from the University of Ohio.<o:p></o:p>

Waleri said that he has knowledge about the Burmese pythons, which is an invasive species that took over the Everglades and wreaked havoc on Florida's natural habitat.<o:p></o:p>

He developed an interest in python hunting after he watched professional hunters on television, and began hunting the snakes himself two years ago. Last year, he participated in the state’s annual python hunting contest called “Florida Python Challenge”, however, he dropped out in between because he was lagging behind in the rankings.

<o:p>ALSO READ |&nbsp;</o:p><a href="https://www.wionews.com/trending/watch-us-woman-sets-guinness-world-record-for-burp-louder-than-blender-622165">US woman sets Guinness World Record for burp louder than blender</a>

"This year I want to win it," he said while speaking to BBB.

The Florida Python Challenge attracts hundreds of participants every year from Canada, Belgium and Latvia, who have been charmed by the prospect of fame and fortune, which includes around $30,000 (£23,600) in prize money.<o:p></o:p>

<h2 class="MsoNormal">Catching snakes with bare hands<o:p></o:p></h2>

Recent Python Challenge winners included a father-and-son duo who were able to rapidly despatch 41 snakes, a deaf science teacher who caught a 16ft snake with his bare hands and a 19-year-old who claimed that he will use his $10,000 prize for purchasing snake-spotting lights for his truck.<o:p></o:p>

Waleri and his cousin, who is known as the Glade Boys, have been planning to hunt snakes every night once the contest starts on August 4. He said that they will keep energy drinks for the 10-day marathon contest, along with "a lot of bug spray - that's important".<o:p></o:p>

He will also carry chest-high waders in case he requires to enter into the water, a roll of tape for sealing the mouth of the python before the kill as well as a snake stick for moving native venomous snakes from the road so that the cars do not hit them.<o:p></o:p>

"If you're not comfortable with snakes, you're going to feel very, very out of place when you're trying to go grab that head. When you hesitate - then you got your hand right in front of that snake's head and it's gonna bite you,” he said.

WATCH |&nbsp;US officials: Bid to stop Iran from seizing civilian vessels

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/us-officials-bid-to-stop-iran-from-seizing-civilian-vessels-622261/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

According to local conservationists, the contest is important for curbing the scourge that the Burmese python has wrought on the Everglades of Florida.<o:p></o:p>

The Everglades has the largest subtropical wilderness area in the entire country as well as the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere.<o:p></o:p>

Florida’s southern tip has been described by UNESCO as "a river of grass flowing imperceptibly from the hinterland into the sea", which supports a high variety of flora and fauna.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>

You can&nbsp;now write for&nbsp;wionews.com&nbsp;and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/content-contribution-registration-form">here</a>.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" data-gtm-yt-inspected-17="true" data-gtm-yt-inspected-23="true" data-gtm-yt-inspected-32="true" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe>

Thousands of people from all over the United States and around the world have kept their hopes high on killing many massive serpents in Florida’s public contest to kill Burmese pythons.

Thousands of people from all over the United States and around the world have kept their hopes high on killing many massive serpents in Florida’s public contest to kill Burmese pythons. Speaking about participating in the bizarre contest, 22-year-old native of Naples Jake Waleri said that his major plan is to hunt snakes during his summer break from the University of Ohio. Waleri said that he has knowledge about the Burmese pythons, which is an invasive species that took over the Everglades and wreaked havoc on Florida's natural habitat. He developed an interest in python hunting after he watched professional hunters on television, and began hunting the snakes himself two years ago. Last year, he participated in the state’s annual python hunting contest called “Florida Python Challenge”, however, he dropped out in between because he was lagging behind in the rankings. ALSO READ | US woman sets Guinness World Record for burp louder than blender "This year I want to win it," he said while speaking to BBB. The Florida Python Challenge attracts hundreds of participants every year from Canada, Belgium and Latvia, who have been charmed by the prospect of fame and fortune, which includes around $30,000 (£23,600) in prize money. Catching snakes with bare hands Recent Python Challenge winners included a father-and-son duo who were able to rapidly despatch 41 snakes, a deaf science teacher who caught a 16ft snake with his bare hands and a 19-year-old who claimed that he will use his $10,000 prize for purchasing snake-spotting lights for his truck. Waleri and his cousin, who is known as the Glade Boys, have been planning to hunt snakes every night once the contest starts on August 4. He said that they will keep energy drinks for the 10-day marathon contest, along with "a lot of bug spray - that's important". He will also carry chest-high waders in case he requires to enter into the water, a roll of tape for sealing the mouth of the python before the kill as well as a snake stick for moving native venomous snakes from the road so that the cars do not hit them. "If you're not comfortable with snakes, you're going to feel very, very out of place when you're trying to go grab that head. When you hesitate - then you got your hand right in front of that snake's head and it's gonna bite you,” he said. WATCH | US officials: Bid to stop Iran from seizing civilian vessels According to local conservationists, the contest is important for curbing the scourge that the Burmese python has wrought on the Everglades of Florida. The Everglades has the largest subtropical wilderness area in the entire country as well as the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere. Florida’s southern tip has been described by UNESCO as "a river of grass flowing imperceptibly from the hinterland into the sea", which supports a high variety of flora and fauna. You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here. WATCH WION LIVE HERE

US: People hope to kill massive serpents in Florida’s Burmese pythons killing contest

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/.../facebook-to-help-in-fight-against-polio- pakistan-274718">Facebook&nbsp;Inc</a> on Saturday blamed a&nbsp;technical&nbsp;error&nbsp;for&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;leader Xi Jinping’s&nbsp;name&nbsp;appearing as “Mr Shithole” in posts on its platform when translated into English from Burmese, apologising for any offence&nbsp;caused.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/facebook-sued-in-us-federal-court-for-alleged-anti-competitive-conduct-274773">Facebook sued in US federal court for alleged anti competitive conduct</a>

The&nbsp;error&nbsp;came to light on the second day of a visit by the president to the Southeast Asian country, where Xi and state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi signed dozens of agreements covering massive Beijing-backed infrastructure plans.

A statement about the visit published on Suu Kyi’s official&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;page was littered with references to “Mr Shithole” when translated to English, while a headline in local news journal the Irrawaddy appeared as “Dinner honours president shithole”.

It was not clear how long the issue lasted but Google’s&nbsp;translation&nbsp;function did not show the same&nbsp;error.

<h6><img alt="Xi Jinping Name error" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="1be5e237-daa1-45a6-88d7-bf861fcf254f" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design%20%285%29_18.jpg" /> 
 
Image: Facebook translation&nbsp;of Myanmar State Counsellor Office's Burmese post to English | Facebook</h6>

"We fixed a&nbsp;technical&nbsp;issue that&nbsp;caused&nbsp;incorrect&nbsp;translations from Burmese to English on&nbsp;Facebook. This should not have happened and we are taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. We sincerely apologize for the offence this has&nbsp;caused,"&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;said in a statement.

The&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;system did not have President Xi Jinping's&nbsp;name&nbsp;in its Burmese database and guessed at the&nbsp;translation, the company said.&nbsp;Translation&nbsp;tests of similar words that start with "xi" and "shi" in Burmese also produced "shithole", it added.

Facebook&nbsp;is blocked in mainland China. But it is not blocked in Hong Kong and mainland companies advertise elsewhere on the platform, making China&nbsp;Facebook’s biggest country for revenue after the United States. It is setting up a new engineering team to focus specifically on the lucrative&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;advertising business, Reuters reported last week.

Facebook&nbsp;has faced numerous problems with&nbsp;translation&nbsp;from Burmese in the past. In 2018 it temporarily removed the function after a Reuters report showed the tool was producing bizarre results.

An investigation documented how the company was failing in its efforts to combat vitriolic Burmese language posts about Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, some 730,000 of whom fled a military crackdown in 2017 that the U.N has said was conducted with “genocidal intent”.

It also showed the&nbsp;translation&nbsp;feature was flawed, citing an anti-Rohingya post advocating killing Muslims that was translated into English as “I shouldn’t have a rainbow in Myanmar”.

Facebook Inc on Saturday blamed a technical error for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s name appearing as “Mr Shithole” in posts on its platform when translated into English from Burmese, apologising for any offence caused.

Facebook Inc on Saturday blamed a technical error for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s name appearing as “Mr Shithole” in posts on its platform when translated into English from Burmese, apologising for any offence caused. Also read: Facebook sued in US federal court for alleged anti competitive conduct The error came to light on the second day of a visit by the president to the Southeast Asian country, where Xi and state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi signed dozens of agreements covering massive Beijing-backed infrastructure plans. A statement about the visit published on Suu Kyi’s official Facebook page was littered with references to “Mr Shithole” when translated to English, while a headline in local news journal the Irrawaddy appeared as “Dinner honours president shithole”. It was not clear how long the issue lasted but Google’s translation function did not show the same error. Image: Facebook translation of Myanmar State Counsellor Office's Burmese post to English | Facebook "We fixed a technical issue that caused incorrect translations from Burmese to English on Facebook. This should not have happened and we are taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. We sincerely apologize for the offence this has caused," Facebook said in a statement. The Facebook system did not have President Xi Jinping's name in its Burmese database and guessed at the translation, the company said. Translation tests of similar words that start with "xi" and "shi" in Burmese also produced "shithole", it added. Facebook is blocked in mainland China. But it is not blocked in Hong Kong and mainland companies advertise elsewhere on the platform, making China Facebook’s biggest country for revenue after the United States. It is setting up a new engineering team to focus specifically on the lucrative Chinese advertising business, Reuters reported last week. Facebook has faced numerous problems with translation from Burmese in the past. In 2018 it temporarily removed the function after a Reuters report showed the tool was producing bizarre results. An investigation documented how the company was failing in its efforts to combat vitriolic Burmese language posts about Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, some 730,000 of whom fled a military crackdown in 2017 that the U.N has said was conducted with “genocidal intent”. It also showed the translation feature was flawed, citing an anti-Rohingya post advocating killing Muslims that was translated into English as “I shouldn’t have a rainbow in Myanmar”.

Technical error caused vulgar translation of Xi Jinping's name: Facebook

There is what has been described as a &ldquo;textbook case of ethnic cleansing&rdquo; against the approximately one million Rohingya who live in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine. As well as retaliation from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army &ndash; a militant group of Rohingyas &ndash; which has been held by the Burmese military to have attacked a number of police and army posts.

And there is also what was seen as a newly emerging democracy with a prominent international figure, Aung San Suu Kyi &ndash; the state counsellor of Myanmar and the nation&rsquo;s de facto leader &ndash; guiding the country against a backdrop of Islamophobic Buddhist nationalism.

Buddhists are often regarded in the West as a peaceful people, so to hear of this kind of public prejudice may come as a shock to many. But looking at it from a Buddhist cultural perspective, one can begin to see why this is happening.

Militant Buddhism

Suu Kyi has used her own Buddhist faith to explain her ideas in the past. But it was only in a televised speech to the Burmese nation, in mid-October 2017, that she used some standard Buddhist rhetoric for the first time in her comments on recent events. Suu Kyi evoked the Buddhist principles of &ldquo;compassion&rdquo;, &ldquo;loving-kindness&rdquo; and &ldquo;sympathetic joy&rdquo; to overcome hatred. A &ldquo;close adviser&rdquo; later briefed the media, explaining that Suu Kyi&rsquo;s speech marked an attempt to wrestle Buddhism out of the &ldquo;hands of extremists&rdquo;.

One could say that the Buddhist sentiments expressed in Suu Kyi&rsquo;s speech are in line with the modern Western understanding of Buddhism. But look deeper into modern Asia and you will see Western perceptions aren&rsquo;t wholly accurate. There is now a form of militant Buddhism, which often promotes the supremacy of Buddhism, and can be Islamophobic, ethnocentric and chauvinistic in its preaching.

This is a Buddhism alien to the romantic, pacifistic, meditative and compassionate Buddhism of popular imagination, and &ndash; one would hope &ndash; much of Buddhist history. It is a Buddhism in which the Buddhist faith should be protected against the supposed threat of other religions (primarily Islam) overrunning Buddhist Myanmar.

Led by the Mandalay-based monk Ashin Wirathu, it is a religion which campaigns to punish those who offend Buddhism. In its organised form in Myanmar, these nationalistic Buddhist ideas coalesce around a group popularly known as MaBaTha &ndash; the organisation for the protection of race and religion.

Religious core

The battle between the two emerging forms of Buddhism in modern Myanmar is linked back to two core principles of the religion.

The first is the familiar Buddhism of calm, non-attachment, and compassion. Until recently one could say this was dominant within Myanmar. Lay meditation movements were important in the revitalisation of modern Buddhism and aspects of popular mindfulness meditation originate from them. The Saffron Revolution of 2007 displayed little of the aggressive nationalism of the MaBaTha movement, with monks evoking the &ldquo;discourse on loving-kindness&rdquo; &ndash; The Metta-sutta &ndash; as a Buddhist path of compassion to overthrow military rule.

The other form of Buddhism has a more ritualised focus. At the risk of oversimplification, this practice is based on the performance of personal and state rituals in order to protect society from danger. To be a practising Buddhist is to have recited certain texts, and to have paid homage at Buddhist shrines. To be a good Buddhist is to be a good Burmese, and, as it now appears, to &ldquo;stand with Aung San Suu Kyi&rdquo;.

It would be too simplistic to argue that Buddhist teachings are irreconcilably at odds with ideas of nationalism and patriotism. However, a sense of superiority and discrimination against minority groups does appear to be indefensible from a Buddhist perspective. Could Suu Kyi&rsquo;s speech, and the idea that she wishes to use Buddhist teachings in a way at odds with Buddhist nationalism be an acknowledgement that Buddhism needs to become part of the solution in modern Myanmar, rather than an aggressive symbol used by Buddhist nationalists?

If Myanmar is to emerge from military rule and become a modern democratic state then it must save its Buddhism from descending into extremism. If Buddhist identity is focused upon a narrow and uncompromising view of what it means to be Burmese, then it seems likely that Buddhism will become a form of state-sponsored religion promoted by the military. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with this type of Buddhism, but it is clearly engendering a form of nationalistic fervour, and atrocities are being committed and justified.

Can Suu Kyi see beyond the flags and slogans and use Buddhist narratives of compassion and loving-kindness? Observers expected this of her, and of the Buddhist nation, many weeks ago, yet we are still waiting.

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" rel="nofollow" target="blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/myanmar-and-buddhist-extremism-86125" rel="nofollow" target="blank">original article</a>.

There is a battle of Buddhisms taking place on the streets of Myanmar

There is what has been described as a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing” against the approximately one million Rohingya who live in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine. As well as retaliation from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army – a militant group of Rohingyas – which has been held by the Burmese military to have attacked a number of police and army posts. And there is also what was seen as a newly emerging democracy with a prominent international figure, Aung San Suu Kyi – the state counsellor of Myanmar and the nation’s de facto leader – guiding the country against a backdrop of Islamophobic Buddhist nationalism. Buddhists are often regarded in the West as a peaceful people, so to hear of this kind of public prejudice may come as a shock to many. But looking at it from a Buddhist cultural perspective, one can begin to see why this is happening. Militant Buddhism Suu Kyi has used her own Buddhist faith to explain her ideas in the past. But it was only in a televised speech to the Burmese nation, in mid-October 2017, that she used some standard Buddhist rhetoric for the first time in her comments on recent events. Suu Kyi evoked the Buddhist principles of “compassion”, “loving-kindness” and “sympathetic joy” to overcome hatred. A “close adviser” later briefed the media, explaining that Suu Kyi’s speech marked an attempt to wrestle Buddhism out of the “hands of extremists”. One could say that the Buddhist sentiments expressed in Suu Kyi’s speech are in line with the modern Western understanding of Buddhism. But look deeper into modern Asia and you will see Western perceptions aren’t wholly accurate. There is now a form of militant Buddhism, which often promotes the supremacy of Buddhism, and can be Islamophobic, ethnocentric and chauvinistic in its preaching. This is a Buddhism alien to the romantic, pacifistic, meditative and compassionate Buddhism of popular imagination, and – one would hope – much of Buddhist history. It is a Buddhism in which the Buddhist faith should be protected against the supposed threat of other religions (primarily Islam) overrunning Buddhist Myanmar. Led by the Mandalay-based monk Ashin Wirathu, it is a religion which campaigns to punish those who offend Buddhism. In its organised form in Myanmar, these nationalistic Buddhist ideas coalesce around a group popularly known as MaBaTha – the organisation for the protection of race and religion. Religious core The battle between the two emerging forms of Buddhism in modern Myanmar is linked back to two core principles of the religion. The first is the familiar Buddhism of calm, non-attachment, and compassion. Until recently one could say this was dominant within Myanmar. Lay meditation movements were important in the revitalisation of modern Buddhism and aspects of popular mindfulness meditation originate from them. The Saffron Revolution of 2007 displayed little of the aggressive nationalism of the MaBaTha movement, with monks evoking the “discourse on loving-kindness” – The Metta-sutta – as a Buddhist path of compassion to overthrow military rule. The other form of Buddhism has a more ritualised focus. At the risk of oversimplification, this practice is based on the performance of personal and state rituals in order to protect society from danger. To be a practising Buddhist is to have recited certain texts, and to have paid homage at Buddhist shrines. To be a good Buddhist is to be a good Burmese, and, as it now appears, to “stand with Aung San Suu Kyi”. It would be too simplistic to argue that Buddhist teachings are irreconcilably at odds with ideas of nationalism and patriotism. However, a sense of superiority and discrimination against minority groups does appear to be indefensible from a Buddhist perspective. Could Suu Kyi’s speech, and the idea that she wishes to use Buddhist teachings in a way at odds with Buddhist nationalism be an acknowledgement that Buddhism needs to become part of the solution in modern Myanmar, rather than an aggressive symbol used by Buddhist nationalists? If Myanmar is to emerge from military rule and become a modern democratic state then it must save its Buddhism from descending into extremism. If Buddhist identity is focused upon a narrow and uncompromising view of what it means to be Burmese, then it seems likely that Buddhism will become a form of state-sponsored religion promoted by the military. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with this type of Buddhism, but it is clearly engendering a form of nationalistic fervour, and atrocities are being committed and justified. Can Suu Kyi see beyond the flags and slogans and use Buddhist narratives of compassion and loving-kindness? Observers expected this of her, and of the Buddhist nation, many weeks ago, yet we are still waiting. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Myanmar and Buddhist extremism

burmese

Burmese, News on Burmese, stories on Burmese, articles on Burmese, Burmese stories at Wion, Burmese news, Burmese latest news