Following is an exact quote from a new promotional email being circulated in Australia.
“The Continental Commanding Officer briefed on where the Sydney Ideal Org is at on completion. And the latest news – the scaffolding has been erected on 201 Castlereagh Street!! We are all ready to go. Just need to very rapidly complete the funding so that we can actually start and be on target for renovation completion in December and Grand Opening in January.”
This just keeps getting more bizarre. Can you imagine that after 10 YEARS of fundraising for Sydney “Ideal Org” (which like Toronto is a building the church has owned for decades) they have gotten enough money to erect scaffolding, but they don’t have money to start construction?
People apparently just buy this like there is no outpoint?
I wonder what they would think of someone who planned to take a round-the-world trip and had been working on raising money from friends for 10 years and then announced that she had her bags packed and they were on the sidewalk now and she could get started on her trip as soon as she raised the money to get a cab and a ticket at the airport….
They would no doubt laugh, probably mutter under their breath that the person needed some LRH tech to make her plans become an actuality and natter about how unreal and insane the situation it was. BUT, if it is about an “Ideal Org” and “Command” says this is all perfectly normal, in fact it should be applauded and supported — they clap and cheer on cue and reach into their pockets to fork over some more…. They are actually PROMOTING that they put up scaffolding but cannot start renovations — after 10 years….
OMFG!
I wouldn’t trust anything that the church puts , it all seems to revolds only around MONEY
and not much else.
On it, Thoughtful 🙂
At least Sydney has scaffolding. So far, there’s no sign of any work on the Toronto Org, and due to condo construction behind the org, there’s only one place at the side for renovation trash dumpsters–not a one!
The temp org is okay. Why don’t they buy it and Idle-ize that?
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/RogerRamdrive/TempOrg002_zps28d6c42a.jpg
This is a very sick joke being played on the faithful.
The fire escape on this building is supposed to be fixed before ANYTHING can happen in the building itself, and, as anyone familiar with the layout of the building will know, the fire escape is a rusty piece of crap that goes into a hole at the rear of the building and guarantees anyone using it death.
The RPF have already gutted the wiring in the building to sell as scrap – I was told they managed to raise a few thousand dollars by doing this.
And the purpose for the scaffolding is?
There is little work to be done on the front of the building – most of the “plans” involve internal renovations. So why has the scaffolding been erected in the first place?
Whoa! Let’s not jump to unfair conclusions here – do we actually know the costs of scaffolding down under? It’s an arm and a leg over here and costs can very easily spiral when a contractor sees a loaded corporate mug approaching……..so it’s not difficult to misjudge the estimation of effort when it comes to fundraising for this kind of thing. There, see, so easily explained, justified, rationalized and excused away when you want it to be!
‘Just need to very rapidly complete the funding….’ does smack of some serious panicking, doesn’t it?
Poor silly sods. So glad to be away from all that insanity.
Enjoying your blog Mike. Nice job.
Miscavige is a shop a holic. He is totally in a wife valence. “House fever” is what it is called. Then when it gets to the fancy threads, custom digs, fleet of cars, personal servants, he has morfed right into a princess.
Unless one is actually in the construction business, isn’t scaffolding for a single job normally rented?
Why would someone rent scaffolding before it was actually needed?
And why would one buy scaffolding for just one or two jobs? Would that be cost effective?
I’m just trying to figure out what the rational plan behind this picture is.
That may be my mistake.
Maybe the plan was only to take a good picture to promote the idea that, “See, we’ve started!”
In that case wouldn’t Photoshop be less expensive?
Good point, Espiritu! Normally a company pays rent per day for scaffold. It’s very expensive to buy and maintain, not cost effective. Unless they have a public who owns a construction or scaffold company and let them borrow it for FREE and thus getting out of Ethics!
Well, I’m ready to comment, but I just need another 20 million dollars before I can start typing words.
Mike, thanks for this latest Chuckle-O-Rama. And I hear the utter amazement in your comm, btw.
Nice scaffolding. Make the building look really like a correctional facility. So much so that I think they should have a fundraising party with a “Jailhouse Rock” theme. You know, Elvis and Cellmates doing their thang on the scaffolding. Maybe the Dwarf could even get Tom to step up for this. Its a question of his OT responsibility, after all. And I think TC would make a great Elvis. Then everyone on the planet could all be invited by Bronwyn Strub of Wise EUS to attend this momentous TC event. Betcha they’d get some deep-pocketed K/A drinkers to fly halfway across the world and fork over major bucks to watch him swivelling up and down that scaffolding with his hair in a dyed black ducktail singing that iconic song. Lisa Marie might even relent and come back to the fold. Hey, bear with me, as I’m just Brainstorming For Fundraising here, trying to furnish the RCS with fresh, exciting new themes to make their MEST dreams a reality. Pirates have been done to death, after all.
Pieface Mike…. Pie friggn Face!
LOL. Ideal Scaffolding is a new important achievement. Perhaps there should also be a new donor status of “Scaffolder” to go along with this.
SSOA,
“…new donor status of ‘Scaffolder'” – Perfect!! LOLOL!!!
Scaffolder Patron Meritorious .. with Sprinkles!
Oh that’s perfect 🙂
I heard the exciting news about the scaffolding from AOSHANZO’s Call-in Officer last week (she’s nice, still calling to chat even though I haven’t given any money for over a decade). The excuse made for Adelaide is that property prices are higher here than in Sydney… eh, come again?
They need the donations for their advertising.
I had no idea the Google ads cost them so much.
Here are some numbers,
http://www.vice.com/read/how-much-does-the-church-of-scientology-spend-on-advertising
Wow, that’s really interesting.
Thanks for updating us this building that we are familiar with for over 10 years. Japanese came and go, Taiwanese came and go. Now with them moving around in the city, I don’t know which alien “-ese” will be sucked into.
BTW, an interesting off-topic link about costs of RCS Internet ads: http://www.vice.com/read/how-much-does-the-church-of-scientology-spend-on-advertising
“People apparently just buy this like there is no outpoint?” Yes–I think we all used to do it to some degree. Over the years we’d see more and more of the most ridiculous things, outpoints, psycho statements made, wierdo orders given, and we’d go with it. Until we had enough and ran away or tried to stand up to it and got in more and more trouble and THEN ran away. Being at the bottom of the totem pole for some time, I remember even coming up with reasons in my own head that would rationalize how these stupid/off-policy/suppressive outpoints enforced by big executives were OK. After I finally left (and I was scared for my own safety while I was there towards the end) it took a long time to stop dragging those rationalizations around with me. Everybody else who is still there, and the public who blindly follow these nutty ideas are all doing it! At least now there are more and more blogs and articles to bring this to their attention should they go hunting for some info on that nasty ol’ internet.
Yeah too bad for that damned internet. Those pesky wogs!
The same thing happened in Phoenix: the building had been purchased by a California holding company (that was funded by the church) essentially so that no one else could buy it. The tenants were evicted by the holding company. All the while “fundraising” was going on, right up to the day of the “auction”. When the building was finally “purchased” by CSI, it was a token transfer. And only then could the “renovations” get started. It’s a giant racket, from one end to the other.
One way you could tell that the Phoenix purchase was a big covert operation was that the floor plans and chair count and…and…and… were known and published years before the fundraising was finished.
Cart? Horse? Who’s kidding who?
Oh, and how bizarre is it that the Super Power building was issued a certificate of occupancy a week before renovations began on it…again!?!