The IAS are renowned for their BS, but this one is a doozie.
They “approved a grant” but they didn’t spend it because they don’t have any photos of anyone on the scene. Just a generic shot from the media of a flooded location.
So, to give them the benefit of the doubt, I checked out their Twitter feed. A bunch of shots of the same 7 people, literally one after the other. This is the “team” for the displaced 500,000 people:
For the largest private relief force on earth, 10 likes on their Twitter feed is a bit slim. Obviously they have not allocated funds to clickfarms for the VM program.
And here is what your donation might buy:
30 VM booklets for $100. If they cost more than $1 to produce it would be ridiculous.
$1000 “can” help transport several VMs from abroad. Not sure what the definition of “abroad” is here, but its obviously not the normal definition as in “overseas”. You couldn’t fly one person there for $1000 but this person doesn’t seem to know that or doesn’t care. It sounds good enough to be believable. And $5,000 can get you a whole team. I bet there is not a single TEAM of doctors or certified EMT VMs on the scene, the guys above are not that unless they have doctors there to hand out VM booklets. But you can be sure they collected more than $5000.
As for those VM “teams” from Kenya and “outlying” African countries, you can be sure that the 7 you see above is ALL there is.
But there is bonus.
An IAS pitch about Narconon. What they DON’T say is that these people PAY for the program (or more correctly, their insurance does in most cases — Narconon has an extensive program of getting insurance money). The IAS makes it sound as if they have something to do with these “success stories.” They don’t. But they want to create the impression that “this is what your donations buy.” Nope, your donations have never paid for someone to do the Narconon program. That would be “rewarding a downstat.”
If this was some other organization taking credit for the success of Narconon, they would be all over them about taking credit for something they didn’t do. But this is just one big ball of wax – scientology organizations are distinct only when they need to try to distance themselves from trouble. Otherwise, as this shows, there is NO distinction between the International Association of Scientologists and the scientology front groups.
Crooked as a dog’s hind leg. LOL
Or as a politician
Why is anyone surprised at scientology’s duplicity. They lie, must lie, can’t not lie, as it’s their inviolable scripture — even in the (rare) cases when the truth would work better for their cause of that moment. AND they aren’t even very imaginative in the lies they tell oft-times. HOW do they keep track of the lies they’ve already told? They don’t; they believe the lies as the new truth. If, perchance, they revisit a subject, they might tell a lie about a previous lie they wholeheartedly believe and inadvertently tell a truth. Just part of the games condition they always seem to find themselves in the middle of. It’s ALL bad, nothing new; move along.
Jere – Sounds like politics with some politicians seemingly coming to believe their own lies. Happily enough politics is only one part of life.
Thank you for all the important information you give us.
Im reading a book in Sweden about Mariette Lindstrom. She lived in 20 years in Los Angeles in this sekt. Her last year she was in the desert, her life was so hard. She worked like a slave and had no mony, no passport. It was like a prison. One day she manage to escape, her husband the next day. She’s now started to talking about her terrible experiences, written 3 books.
After that the harassment started. Phone call at night, they hacked her computer, bank account, fake FB id etc etc
I salut all of u who speak out!! You are fantastic!
Siv:
I’m sure many of us are rooting for Mariette to quickly get her life and family back on track though I can attest to some of the bad effects continuing to reverberate for years and years. GOOD luck to her.
“Approved a grant” is definitely the current IAS weasel-wording, that misleadingly implies a lot but likely means very little. They definitely seem to be claiming to have sent the Los Topos leader – and apparently, typically, there are a couple of groups with that name, and Scientology is affiliated with one of the less reputable ones – but a “team” could be as little as 2 people, so it might just have included the OSA Sea Orger who coordinates such things (and takes the pictures) as well.
In another recent promo, I think after some parsing it seemed like the IAS might have paid for the truck to go to a event, but left local members to pay for the materials to be handed out. It only occurs to me now, that’s probably actually a cunning “loss leader” style sales trick, because another arm of Scientology makes big profits on the brochures – it’s like the cellphones that some carriers sell for as little as a penny in promotions, knowing that they will more than make their money up on service contract charges.
So if you’re an ‘active IAS field disseminator’ for 4 weeks in a row, you get an Asoh Africa card?? A freaking card?? Only someone doing steps A thru E would stoop that low.
Sadly, IAS doesn’t give away box tops. Those could actually be useful.
Maybe they should make them really really special cards. Like, collect all 100 and win a Baby Ruth candy bar or something like that. Now that would be something special.
When I was in the cult I always had the feeling that the money I donated was not going where I was told it would be used. When I left and was under the radar I found out from a very reliable source at one of the social betterment orgs that in fact they were not getting the IAS funds I thought they were getting. What a scam. I poured a great deal of money into that fraudulent organization.
I support all you are doing to prove the lies of Scientology!! You and Leah are the bomb!??
Los Topos? Really?
This Organization is independent, its resources to move their teams wherever is needed are generated by them. This group coordinates their rescue activities with the United Nations and the International Rescue League.
The IAS has no say, no influence, no donations given to them, zero involvement.
Shame on you IAS for pretending to help others when in fact the only concern is to keep stealing money.
“Shame on you IAS for pretending to help others when in fact the only concern is to keep stealing money.”
The Sea Org people in the know, the ones at the very top, those directly under Miscavige who run the IAS should be deeply ashamed.
I don’t include Miscave himself or his attorneys in this castigation as they are in a criminal league of their own.
I’m still appalled that they can get away with this stuff. “Normal” charities are scrutinized fairly carefully, and are often closed if things don’t add up correctly (although some can very easily fudge the numbers by claiming extremely high overhead- for example, several fairly well known charities claim 75%-85% of donations are used to cover ‘overhead’). This wouldn’t be the case here- these are ‘volunteers’ and the overhead stuff would be handled by people who are either not paid, or are making around 50 bucks a week. In the cyclone scenario, they got 5 to 7 people from another part of the country and maybe flew in boxes of pamphlets at extremely inflated prices-$3.33 per booklet. And we mustn’t forget the photographer and the t-shirts.
Another loophole they are using is probably that ‘donations’ don’t necessarily go to what you donated for. For example, if you donate to the Red Cross after a disaster, the money you donate may not actually be allocated to go to that specific incident (If you donated to Hurricane Katrina, your money may have actually been sent to help a family displaced by a fire in California instead). It depends on how the charity is set up and how the donations are solicited. It can also depend on if the person donating is very, very specific about how their donation is to be used.
Insurance fraud is a whole other matter. There may be a vulnerability there worth exploring, although I am sure that the lawsuits would have uncovered and used any fraud in their cases. I think that all of their front groups are carefully worded in such a way as to ensure that they are considered separate entities (even though we all know that they are not). I’m surprised that they don’t create a ‘scholarship’ fund next. It would be a good way to grab some more cash.
This just gets more and more disgusting the more you learn about it. WHY are they so obsessed with bleeding people dry? Why do they need all this money? Is it just so Miscavige can keep up with Cruise and live like a rock star? As far as I can tell, he treats the IAS funds like his own personal bank account- it doesn’t seem to go to do any good for anyone else.
Kat
Kat:
“Another loophole they are using is probably that ‘donations’ don’t necessarily go to what you donated for. For example, if you donate to the Red Cross after a disaster, the money you donate may not actually be allocated to go to that specific incident (If you donated to Hurricane Katrina, your money may have actually been sent to help a family displaced by a fire in California instead). It depends on how the charity is set up and how the donations are solicited. It can also depend on if the person donating is very, very specific about how their donation is to be used.”
I have a friend who has worked for the Int’l Red Cross for years and I’ve heard how hard their volunteers and staff work, so I’m sensitive to stories about them.
One problem I’ve heard for SOME relief organization, might not be the Red Cross was that specifying donations to a specific ongoing or past event can hamper their ability to properly allocate funds, etc. to the LATER disasters. AFAICT, by the time people respond with donations for an ongoing disaster, they’ve already spent what they have available or a bit more, perhaps everything that COULD be used. Thus, I would NOT limit my donations to any VALID relief organizations to one specific crisis. Just give it to them and let the experts do the necessary accounting. That way, they can stay AHEAD of the crises, unlike the VMs who use every little or big disaster as a way to line DM’s diminutive pockets with big wads of cash which will be spent however Dwarfenführer chooses, and likely NOT on the actual disaster-of-the-moment being used for unrestricted donations while NO IAS funds are used to fund the VMs (or whatever).
Kat:
“I’m still appalled that they can get away with this stuff. “Normal” charities are scrutinized fairly carefully,”
They’re NOT a “normal” anything, only asserting they’re ‘religious’ to avoid any real oversight or regulation, JUST like Ron needed to pull his scams off.
“For the largest private relief force on earth, 10 likes on their twitter feed is a bit slim.”
A bit slim? A BIT SLIM!!!!! C’mon now, Mike! It’s an utter disaster! Neighborhood kids could take care of this situation with one hand tied behind their back!!! Admit, Mike, THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK THEY’RE DOING!
Honest to God, I’d love to bitch slap everyone of them!
OK…I’m done.
BTW, my wife would like to meet you too, if that’s ok.
You need to meet this guy’s wife.
OSD:
“BTW, my wife would like to meet you too, if that’s ok.
”
Don’t forget to remind her that both she and Mike are married 😉
Old Surfer Dude, LMAO. These people are so full of shit. I got into it with some crazy, still swimming in the Kool Aid, dedicated scamologists. They do nothing. The 10 likes are all them. And yes, us “never in” people can’t believe how full of themselves and shit they can be. Yeah, and they don’t know what in the fuck they are doing. Actually, the best thing they are doing now is destroying themselves. These are the craziest people I have ever met im my life.
“Narconon has an extensive program of getting insurance money”
This is something that should be stopped. And should be able to be stopped. Insurance companies generally don’t like to shell out money for pseudoscience, and as far as I knew, don’t. If they are, I’m hoping it becomes a project to inform them of how they’re being ripped off until they stop covering Narconon.
Cat W said:
“… This is something that should be stopped. And should be able to be stopped. Insurance companies generally don’t like to shell out money for pseudoscience, and as far as I knew, don’t. If they are, I’m hoping it becomes a project to inform them of how they’re being ripped off until they stop covering Narconon.”
IIRC, Insurance companies ARE wise to Narconon, and are a large part of the demise of NN in Oklahoma.
Just for fun a few months ago I tried to see if Blue Cross would cover Narconon. It was good to know.
I guess they’ve given up on being good liars or plausible liars. Their blurb says VM ministers from all over the word but the picture shows 7 guys if you count the arm at the right that are African, so locals then and the only aid they are giving is handing out Way to Happiness books? If I were in a disaster and someone tried to hand me a Way to Happiness book I’d cuss them out and maybe punch them. If I were a Scientologist seeing this and wondering why it didn’t add up…I’d be seriously starting to find my way out of this organization. There is no reason why they shouldn’t start to question.
” To deliver assists to those in need” Can these morons get any more delusional ?
I can almost bet that they put a monetary value on these assist touches so that they can add that up for the total cost.
kat
Kat:”I can almost bet that they put a monetary value on these assist touches so that they can add that up for the total cost.”
No way I’d bet against that, and I’ll raise that to their “value” placed being the absolute highest number they can think of…. Maybe $100 per touch, perhaps $1,000 an hour??? They’re not that imaginative.
Jere,
Id bet they do an hourly because too many people would refuse the touching (creeeeeeepppppyyyy). Lets see: 7 people, lets say 100.00 (they have to be realistic) per hour for 10 hour shifts….otherwise they may get into trouble by ‘overworking’ them. That would add up really quickly for that tax write off!!!
Kat
KAT said, in part:
” 7 people, lets say 100.00 (they have to be realistic) per hour for 10 hour shifts.”
NO THEY DON’T HAVE TO BE REALISTIC! Remember, they claim 10,000,000 members worldwide with not a hint of a smirk on their “straight face”.
Sparkay said:
” To deliver assists to those in need” Can these morons get any more delusional ?”
Yes, they can. Supposedly, exorcised BTs are ‘clear’ and contribute directly to a cleared planet; part of the justification for the 100,000 (or whatever ) OT VIIs rallying cry.
Yup, and there’s this BRIDGE you’ll just LOVE!
Ugly, just ugly!
You’re so superficial.
OSD:
“You’re so superficial.”
And that’s ENTIRELY appropriate when discussing scn or one of its front groups.
Scratch the surface and a WHOLE LOTTA DISGUSTING starts leaking out, or perhaps pouring out or SPURTING out like an arterial cut. OR WORSE, too nasty for semi-polite society.
OK, they smell too – (you happy now?)