by Tony Ortega, Village Voice. 12th Dec 2011
The Voice was leaked a copy of Scientology's latest gala -- its October meeting of the International Association of Scientologists -- which took place in the UK, near L. Ron Hubbard's legendary home, Saint Hill Manor.
At three hours long, it's an interminable amount of time to watch diminutive church leader
David Miscavige talk about what a bang-up job Scientology is doing to make the world a better place. Honestly, I don't know how the guy does it. He doesn't seem to have Teleprompters, and never glances at his script. [Mike Rinder has corrected me on this. See note, below.] He just goes on and on in a program that was clearly written carefully ahead of time, extolling the gains of the past decade since the 9/11 attacks, which he calls "The Wake-Up Call."
Somehow, we got nearly to the end of the three hours, when something happened that was really interesting -- at least to us here at the Voice. Miscavige started talking about a place we've actually
been to and reported on. He started talking, in other words, about the new "org" in Jaffa, Israel, that is associated with attempted murder, two arson attempts, and a hairy new lawsuit. Oh, this ought to be good, we thought!
Somehow, Miscavige left all that good stuff out. We've taken about four minutes from the video so you can see how he characterized the new building...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44QOfJwKOig [Video: IAS Miscavige and Jaffa Org]
Miscavige gave this presentation in October, giving the impression that the org was open for business with its "more than 200 staff."
In November, when we went by to see for ourselves, it was a different story.
[...more in article link...]
[...]
We felt we must share with you Miscavige's performance as he transitions from talking about the new Jaffa org to the one in Inglewood. Prepare to cringe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR2h_1tXFp4 [Video: Miscavige Explains Black Culture]
Awkward, Dave. Awkward.
Let's see that quote again: "Talk about a permeating and penetrating culture. Or to put it another way, most white folks wouldn't have a clue what it means to be cool if it weren't for Black America."
Earth to Miscavige: Black people are cool? Well, why do you think none of them have joined your superpowers club? Think about it
[...]
Check out the whole article.
As usual, comments are open and active.
new Israel Ideal Org building set on fire. Arson suspected: