Religion has little to do with culture.
Religion helped establish the culture of modern Norway, specifically following the Conversion of Norway, so I have to disagree. We Norwegians are typically referred to more as Culturally Religious then Practicing Religious, despite some 80% of our country identifying as Lutheran. This is because of how prevalent Christian themes are in our nation's institutions.
Our customs, our laws, our culture today are taken from many Christian practices. Hell I'm not religious and I just celebrated Christmas with my family.
While I disagree with more than a few points
@Chinese-Dragon is making, I disagree with you as well. Growing up in Norway and living here for all 26 years of my life, and looking at religion as an outsider and non-practitioner, it's fairly self-evident that Christianity has had a major impact on shaping our nation's modern culture - as have our pre-Christian religions, what would commonly be called paganism. That they've flourished alongside our Christian roots is rather ironic.
Of course we never let Christianity get in the way of some of our traditional religious practices. While strictly prohibited by Christian tenants at the time, alcohol and festivals in reverence of it had their names changed to disguise their pagan origins and their dates changed, but our traditional religious practices persisted and continued even following the Conversion of Norway, again shaping modern Norway. They're still around and as popular as ever.
Gulaþing Law actually mandated the production and consumption of alcohol during Christian times, a holdover pagan tradition:
The drinking of ale was particularly important to several seasonal religious festivals, of which the Viking Scandinavians celebrated three: the first occurring after harvest, the second near midwinter, and the last at midsummer. These festivals continued to be celebrated after the introduction of Christianity, although under new names. Historical records show that ale consumption at these festivals, even in Christian times, was quite important: the Gulaþing Law required farmers in groups of at least three to brew ale to be consumed at obligatory ale-feasts on All Saints (November 1 - Winternights), Christmas (December 25 - Yule), and upon the feast of St. John the Baptist (June 24 - Midsummer). More ordinary festivities, celebrated even today, are so closely associated with beer that they are known as öl ("ale") and include Gravöl (a wake, or "funeral ale"), Barnöl (a christening, or "child-ale") and taklagsöl (a barn-raising, or "roofing-ale")
This thread is hardly the location for a more indepth dissertation on how religion shaped modern Norwegian culture, so let's just say I neither agree with
@Chinese-Dragon or you
.
Instead of furthering this discussion, come to Norway or any Nordic nation and you'll see how religion has shaped our cultures, customs and modern life. Religion has had a lot to do with culture in the Nordic world.
@Armstrong do you think religion has influenced Pakistani or British culture?
Myanmar was and still is under strict sanctions against its military, financial and political institutions. Like with North Korea they weakened the country, but haven't broken it. And they never will. Sanctions aren't always the solution to conflict. They rarely are. If reapplied enforce, and this would require cooperation from Russia and China who've been reluctant in the past, would they be strong enough to bring Myanmar's conflict to a resolution?
History says no.
But then again partitioning a country and giving a certain group its own nation isn't the answer either. That too causes problems. Anyone remember the last nation to be partitioned with an ongoing conflict and multifaceted strife?
Like South Sudan, without solving the underlying tensions in Myranmar partitioning the nation wont yield anything other then a perpetuation of conflict.
