And speaking of the absurdity of categorizing East and West

This guy is slated to speak at the Buddhist Geeks conference. Obviously he's of Asian heritage. But listen to what he says when he opens his mouth...

He seems to have the background, mannerisms and grammatical styles of a management consultant, and his topic at said conference is "Why Buddhism Needs To Innovate Now."

I could write a whole series blog posts about the myriad issues associated with this,  but to be concise I would hardly say that I would expect this young man to be a "leading" teacher and/or thinker, since I have not heard or seen  or read any "leading" thoughts or teachings.

But my real point in mentioning Mr. Gunatillake is just to point out - even in the UK - how ridiculous it is to split the world into these Eastern or Western or ethnically based categories.