This is the first in a series of postings, fact checking claims made by Corporate Scientology. There will be more.
The Original "Fact Checker" (see Freedom Magazine 2009) Mike Rinder
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Part One – Salvaging Education
by Natasha Boris
The International Association of Scientologists makes several claims on its website. This series is about investigating the truth behind those statements.
First, it should be noted that there is very little reference to L. Ron Hubbard on the homepage. There are two floating quotes in the banner, one by Hubbard and one not, though the attribution is implied. LRH has a menu tab nestled between Make a Donation and What Is Scientology, but the rest of the homepage is devoted to the IAS with no other mention of Scientology’s founder. [Ed note: perhaps because there is NO LRH reference on the IAS, in fact it is in violation of many LRH policies]
Second, the ambiguous language used – “recipient of grants”, “with funding,” etc. make those statements difficult to verify. There is no information as to how much was given or spent to launch the programs discussed. As will be seen there is very little independent corroboration that these programs even took place, certainly not in the orders of magnitude promoted.
Under "IAS Activities" we find six major categories: Reversinf the Decline of Literacy and Education, Making Human Rights a Fact, Bringing about a New Era of Morality and Peace, Defeating the Scourge of Drug Abuse, Scientology Volunteer Ministers, Helping to Clean Up the Field of Mental Health.
This week we are taking up the first, Salvaging Education.
The IAS lists several outreach programs they have been involved in, however research on the veracity was difficult given how few specifics are provided. We have attempted to research, using simple Google searches, each of the assertions made in a similar manner to someone who knows nothing about the subject and what they would discover. If a person should show a little more initiative in their research and there were leads that could be followed, this researcher attempted to do the same. We looked at the first two pages of Google hits as well as any possible news articles.
Ø “In South Africa, Education Alive was the recipient of grants from the IAS as early as 1989 and as a result trained many thousands of students and teachers to use Study Technology.” South Africa, Education Alive: website not updated since 2009/2010, YouTube documentary video, Executive Director Sonja Botha, as of (a comment on Marty's Rathbun's blog) there is indication that she has left the CoS, no current news on Education Alive available. [Ed Note: Sonja is no longer part of Applied Scholastics and apparently nobody has taken her place. I believe the "premises" of Applied Scholastics shown on the site is her home — one of our S. African readers may be able to confirm]
Ø “In Ghana, IAS grants funded the establishment of a Study Technology facility to serve as a base for the training of teachers.” Ghana “Applied Scholastics”: first two pages of Google hits are CoS affiliated sites or negative articles associating Scientology to Applied Scholastics and quoting the IAS claims. With only generalities and no names of people involved there is little more to track down. No Google news hits.
Ø “With funding from an IAS grant, IAS members from England and the United States traveled to The Gambia where they held an intensive series of seminars for that nation’s teachers. Working with the Gambian Department of State for Education, volunteers trained a total of 5,533 teachers from all over the country. “Results were unprecedented,” said Mrs. Ndong Jatta, then Secretary of State for Education in The Gambia.” Gambian Department of State for Education Mrs. Ndong Jatta: Mrs. Ndong Jatta is the Secretary of State for Education in Gambia. Searching “Mrs. Ndong Jatta Scientology” resulted in 3 web hits, 2 from CoS sites and one negative site. Searching “Mrs. Ndong Jatta Applied Scholastics” came up with 2 CoS sponsored sites. As best we can tell the involvement of Applied Scholastics with Gambia took place over a decade ago and there is no indication on a Google search of anything current. There were no Google news hits for either search.
Ø “In Zimbabwe, teachers in eleven districts, including all seven districts in the province of Mashonaland Central, were trained in Study Technology. Welcomed by local officials, this technology has played a vital role in improving education in Zimbabwe with more than 18,000 teachers trained and 826 schools using Study Technology.” Zimbabwe "Applied Scholastics" results in the entire first page of hits coming from CoS sponsored sites, page 2 has one negative article. There are no news hits. Zimbabwe, Mashonaland "applied scholastics" returned one news article from Dec 2012, completely unrelated and CoS sponsored sites. In this article two names were given. Searching “Ann Roberts Scientology” we found that she passed away on April 8th, 2007. Mr. T.K. Tsodzo, the Permanent Secretary of Education in Zimbabwe is a writer and recent articles by him can be found here. Searching “Mr. T.K. Tsodzo Applied Scholastics” gives no other information than that already discovered.
Ø “Lecturers from many of Sudan’s universities came to Khartoum University to train on the Basic Study Manual and Effective Teaching Course, training made possible by a grant from the IAS, and delivered by IAS members.” Khartoum University, Sudan, Basic Study Manual, Effective Teaching Course: trying various different combinations we were unable to find any links outside of CoS sponsored sites to verify this activity occurred. Khartoum University "Applied Scholastics" got some interesting results of tutors available, but we were not able to actually find any links that worked.
Ø “In the United States, the World Literacy Crusade was originally founded in response to the civil disturbances that shook Los Angeles in 1992. It has helped some 11,000 youths with Study Technology, with an average increase in reading scores of two academic years for every 20 hours of tutoring.” World Literacy Crusade: results in two pages of CoS sponsored sites or negative sites exposing WLC’s connection to the Church. A long list of YouTube videos sponsored by the WLC is available of successes. The WLC of Florida was discussed in this memorandum regarding grant money that they were approved to receive but have not as yet due to inability to obtain additional funding. There were no news hits.
Ø Hollywood Education and Literacy Project: resulted in the first page of hits all CoS sponsored sites or reviews. Page 2 had one negative video and several negative sites. We were unable to verify independently “…it has now expanded to 19 groups in three countries.”
Ø “Since Spanish Lake opened in 2003, entire schools and educational systems have been revived with LRH study technology. And through expanding teacher training programs emanating from Applied Scholastics International, salvage of the entire field of education is now a goal within reach.” An entire page is devoted to the Applied Scholastics Spanish Lake facility: Open since 2003, a search on “Spanish Lake Applied Scholastics” resulted in the first page being CoS sponsored sites, except for 3 and those were negative. One article mentions St. Louis schoolteachers being sent to Spanish Lake for training and complaints against it. In the same article Benetta Slaughter as then CEO of Applied Scholastics denies her organization has any connection to the Church of Scientology. News resulted in one press release April 2013.
So there you have it. The International Association of Scientologists is apparently very active in promoting their efforts to salvage education, but it doesn't appear that everyone else has caught on yet. If they have, they aren't talking about it.
We look forward to many more contributions from Natasha and if anyone else wants to spend some time providing FACTS about anything related to Corporate Scientology, please send it along.
I like your work Mike and John P. Fact checking is cool. Years ago I tried to fact check the amazingly glorious Scientology expansion news I heard at an IAS event. I brought a notebook to write down as many “facts” as I could, the countries, programs and the government officials mentioned. I then went home and goggled everything and came up empty just as you did. I suspected it was all made up and still I carried on. Boggles my mind really.
NIce work. It’s like having the Freedom Mag back in it’s former glory!!! Thank you Mike and Natasha!
During the first term of George W. Bush, his Secretary of Education sent a letter to Miscavige, asking for a proposal to implement Study Tech throughout the K-12 public school system in the US. Speculation is that this was prompted by Isaac Hayes, who was a personal friend. In any case, Miscavige put the letter in his desk drawer and never responded to it.
We only know about this because sometime later an exec proposed a program for a local school district and Miscavige pulled out the letter to show this exec how “small-think” his program was by comparison.
I’m going to guess that the letter came from Rod Danielson, the chief of staff of the secretary of education, who is a Scientologist. I’m going to guess further that the letter was furnished to Miscavige for exactly that reason: Miscavige had no intention to act on such a letter — he knows full well that the reputation of Scientology even at that time among the general public was so poor that even the first whisper of an idea to roll out anything based on Scientology nationally would result in a devastating firestorm of bad PR for RCS, worse by far than the avalanche of news covering the TomKat divorce last summer. Think: a bunch of articles like the 1991 Time Magazine cover story, but even nastier. And of course, the Scientology guy would have gotten fired if that blew up and thus the highest ranking Scientologist ever to win a government job would be gone.
I suspect that Miscavige kept this letter fraudulently asserting that the government was considering a national rollout of Scientology-related “tech” to enable him to scam more money in one-on-one reg meetings with a couple of the biggest IAS whales (Duggan, Jensen, I’m thinking of YOU), knowing full well that he would never actually follow through on such a thing — he could always blame the government and claim they got shut down when nothing ever happened.
B.I.N.G.O!!!!!!
So nice to see you commenting here FS! 🙂
also … Note, according to the webite, the IAS is providing “succor” to tsunami and hurricane victims.
Does anyone think a word check would be appropriate?
Question … Your choice of symbols as bullet-identifiers for each fact… was that random, or an allusion to the trigonometric symbol for theta? Just curious. -R
Ssss-weeet!
Thanks Rinder … I have only gotten to “The original ‘Fact Checker’ ” part of your post and just wanna say THANKS.
Thanks for this approach to illuminating. Facts …. How novel. (And yet the most seductive component of the LRH approach…)
… (And thanks for continuing to maintain this blog site. Kuddos. Youre a Rock Star.)
According to Karen: “There are only 9 Class XIIs left at Flag. Down from 24 in 1982! No replacement Class VIIIs or XIIs are being made.
NOTE: All 8 Class XIIs trained by LRH are declared, that’s right, all 8 of them, I was the last one , hanging on like you did, finally surreptitiously declared – I had to obtain the issue by other means, hidden in a locked cabinet in HCO!
Out of 8 Class XII CSes EVER made, 5 are declared SP and 2 are dead.” Karen De La Carriere
And the Church is handling study tech in Africa? Nobody is studying in the Church!
I see Rena Weinberg has been removed from the ABLE web sight. How many DECADES of devoted service did she put in before David stuffed her in the RPF? Does anyone know what happened to Simon Hogarth? Who is WDC ABLE now? Why does ABLE pretend they are not part of the Church when there was a WDC ABLE and ABLE is parked in the Flag Command Building? I am curious about these things if anyone has any news.
I am also VERY curious about the VAULTS where David buried all the tech, (now outdated and ordered burned above ground). Did they burn the tech he buried in the vaults? How much did he spend to bury the tech, I should say, he really did squirrel away the tech down there. Did he build those vaults for himself? How was he able to build the vaults without donations but not deliver Super Power? Why is he charging people 40,000.00 if they want to open a mission? For a “Mission Starter Package” which is a few boxes of Div 6 books? Doesn’t he know know anyone can start a “book club” or “study group” in their own home with no money down? How much studying has David done in the last few decades? Isn’t he a blown student?
Oracle, Rena has been in the Hole for years along with Laurie Zurn. Do not
know much what happened to Simon. Are there any WDC members on
post at all?
Initially ABLE was the umbrella for all the secular activities grown from
LRH writing and Tech. IMHO however, if a true data analysis and Eval
had been done on that whole subject we should have incorporated the
whole shebang into the church and called a spade a spade ( barring of
course all the bad PR we got over the years from bad manners).
A moment’s analysis on one of the claims makes it seem pretty unlikely. I looked at the claim about how Applied Scholastics trained 5,533 teachers in The Gambia. The Gambia is the smallest country in Africa, with a population of about 1.8 million (per Wikipedia). First, let’s look at the teacher population in the US, where the National Education Association (the teachers’ union) has 3.2 million members, or about 1 for every 97 people in the country. That number cross-checks with the numbers from the National Center for Education Statistics. So that’s about 1 teacher for every 100 people.
A poor country like The Gambia, with a per-capita GDP of $1,864 (versus $49,922 for the US) has far fewer teachers per capita. According to UNESCO, in 1998, there were a total of 4,488 certified teachers in The Gambia of all types and that number did grow from the prior numbers in 1991. Let’s assume that the cult is claiming it implemented its program in, say, 2005. It is possible that the total number of teachers in the country at that time was approximately the 5,533 number claimed. That’s about 1 teacher for every 300 people, one third the density of teachers in the US, which seems reasonable.
For the claim of reaching 5,533 teachers to be true, it follows from the data that the cult had to reach every single teacher in the country. Let’s look at how realistic that would be. The Gambia is basically a long sliver of land approximately 250 miles wide and 50-75 miles north to south; it basically comprises the north and south bank of the Gambia River, a major West African river. While the river is navigable throughout the country, most passenger transport is via the North Bank Road (there’s a South Bank Road but it’s basically a jeep trail and is in very poor shape). It takes at least a day to drive from the eastern part of the country to Banjul, the capital, longer if you’re on the south bank because you have to take one of the few ferry boats across the river to get to the North Bank Road. So for Applied Scholastics to have reached all these teachers, either they would have had to get their people out into the weeds for many many weeks to reach the teachers or it would have had to bring them all to Banjul for courses. It seems unlikely that either Applied Scholastics or the government would have had the money to do that, and it seems unlikely that the government would have pulled teachers out of the field for several weeks for courses in the capital even during a school break.
Unless… all they did is mailed something to each of the teachers, in which case it makes one wonder just how much impact it would have had. Naturally, they may have merely spent ten minutes with Wikipedia to gin up the number of teachers helped, completely fabicating every detail of the story, figuring (probably correctly) that nobody would actually go to The Gambia and verify the claim.
JP — I figured this post would spur your analytical juices…. You are of course right, this claim is absurd. They are all absurd.
Another proof of this being a lie is the omitted:
There are NO independent reports about this whatsoever. Every teacher in an entire country trained on LRH study tech and nobody in the entire world has heard of it. The omnipresent Google draws a blank. Yet a search for Gambia Red Cross shows up hundreds of listings. Not a SINGLE media story. And most teling of all: NOT A SINGLE PERSON FROM THE GAMBIA HAS BEEN FEATURED IN SUBSEQUENT PUFF PIECE VIDEOS DECLARING THE SUCCESS OF THE PROGRAM.
Interesting
Your is a much simpler argument, with a single well-chosen detail that logically and inevitably leads to the same conclusion: they’re lying.
Wow John P. This is eye opening. Mike and John, thank you for doing the research to find out whether the IAS claims are true or not. When it turns out to be all fabricated PR, it is like being in a movie or watching a movie of total fraud and coverup. Really sent a chill down my spine.
Thanks for your kind words. What really sends a chill down my spine is not that this is a total fraud, it is that this is a REALLY LAME total fraud. In my long career on Wall Street, I have been a witness in several cases and have helped send white collar criminals to jail. Those guys all had very sophisticated frauds, ones that in some cases took investigators over a decade to pin enough on the crooks to make charges stick. Miscavige and company are rank amateurs by comparison.
The fact that they haven’t been caught is an embarrassment to the authorities, but it is even more an embarrassment to those still supporting RCS that they have disabled their critical thinking skills and continue to fall for this sort of nonsense. The numbers and analysis I put together to bolster my argument took me about ten minutes to uncover with Wikipedia and Google and to write ’em up and post it. It should take a moderately skeptical person with reasonable analytical skills a couple minutes to do enough back-of-the-envelope figuring to become highly suspicious of the story.
“Bringing about a New Era of Morality and Peace”
I am relieved they have done this. It’s just one less thing for me worry about.
My favorite part was when I saw on the news all the prisons were empty and the Israelis and Palestinians had smelted all their guns into a giant statue of COB.
LOL!