Very nice Marvin! The picture is quite disturbing when you connect the dots!
Malawi Savage Betrayal by Watchtower?
by Marvin Shilmer 55 Replies latest jw friends
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Scully
Marvin:
I noticed some missing information intended for my article and went back and added it. It has to do with membership in the MCP. Witnesses were led to believe that paying to have an MCP card was the event that made a person a member of the MCP. That is false. Under the Banda regime birth made Malawians members of the MCP.
Giving a thug 50 cents and letting them hand you a blank MCP card was no more than an expedient for normal activity like traveling on the bus, visiting the hospital or shopping in the local market. It was not purchasing membership in the MCP. Whether they wanted it or not, by virtue of birth each Malawian was already a member of the MCP.
That's how it works in the nurses' union - whether I want to belong to it or not, I'm required to pay dues because all nurses in my place of employment are under the nurses' union. However, if I want to membership in the union, I must fill out a membership document and pay union dues.
I remember the sickening feeling I had when I realized the suffering that was inflicted on these unfortunate people, and for what? some manufactured political neutrality bull$h!t???
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JW GoneBad
B-A-S-T-A-R-D-S!!!
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crazyblondeb
bookmarked...for mom
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JustHuman14
Ray Franz had an extend analysis of this in the book Crisis...JW don't know anything about their past. Most of the JW's are new, propably came after 1995( I know many that they did after that date).
My personal experience with the WT was the "conscious issue" serving the Army. Back in the mid 80's then in my country they told us that when the time comes to join the Army, we will say that, "due to our trained Christian Conscious, we cannot join the Army". I recall that the "elders"they used to give guide lines for those who had the "neutrality issue". One of their basic guidelines for us was: NEVER SAY TO THE AUTHORITIES THAT THE WATCHTOWER IS TELLING YOU NOT TO JOIN THE ARMY. YOU MUST SAY THAT THIS IS YOUR PERSONAL DECISION BASED UPON YOUR CHRISTIAN CONSCIOUS...
So with this statement WT was saving their ass! The blame it was upon the brothers and the decision was theirs!!! Plus the Goverment couldn't blame legally WT that it is promoting an anti-army policy.
The most shameful part of the WT, was that in some countries they accepted ALTERNATIVE Service, while in my country they just didn't accept it. Many brothers suffered in prison for 3-5 years due to that policy. Then(as usual) WT came after few years and ACCEPTED Alternative Service for the brothers.
I recall when I had a discussion with a former JW on this matter. He said that were lucky because we are living in European Country. Imagine if we were living in an African regime. We would have been killed for sure!!! So just like the story of the Malawi Brothers, not many JW's recall that event. or what was happening in other countries on this issue. The GB those twisted old fools, they just follow the pattern that Booze Jo left as legacy for the WT. They find mechanisms to triger persecutions and blame it to the Devil(as usual)and that they are "God's chosen people"that they are suffering for the sake of the truth..."
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Joliette
That was horrible, terrible. As as a person of african decent, I wanted to download the racial aspect of it, since JW's say how were so united, so loving, there is no racism, etc. I truly beg to differ. The watchtower didnt even stand up for racism back in the 60's. They let a lot of things happen. I pray for the victims of that incident.
The GB are truly some gangsters!
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snowbird
Quendi, you make some excellent points!
Sylvie some months ago raised the subject about the party card that the Malawians had to purchase was a requirement as the country was receiving aid from the UN?
Yes, I did.
I'm trying to find that thread.
Syl
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Vidiot
palmtree67 - "I also think they orchestrated it to induce persecution and convince the international "rank and file" that it was the Truth."
A precedent theoretically did exist; the sandwich board signs in the 30s, Rutherford's radio follies, etc.
Assuming that's the case, I don't think GB1.0 even remotely had the prescence of mind to anticipate what a torture-porn horror movie it would turn out to be.
I suspect that epic fail was at least partly the result of the bias inherent in mid-20th Century American conservatism; the idea that everybody else in the world wants to be like the US, therefore, everybody else (whether they like it or not) could, would, and should accommodate virtually any and all demands for religious/ideological "freedom" that fringe groups in the US take for granted. GB1.0 might have mistakenly thought that Malawian courts would have caved to effective lawyering like back home, thus establishing a beachhead on the African continent.
I could be wrong.
james_woods - "The society had nothing to gain from the poor Malawians - so throw them to the dogs. *(unlike the Mexicans who owned property)"
I suspect that, in addition, (despite technically being in a "third world" country like Malawi) Mexican congregations were also able to donate more funds to the WTS than their Malawian counterparts. All authoritarian regimes have a history of sacrificing less-vital pawns to protect knights, bishops, and rooks.
It's the main reason why all the so-called "growth" the WT reports doesn't faze me a whole lot; the bulk of the "growth" is in the Global South, with is (by and large) dirt poor.
So the WT has more and more supporters overseas; so what? There's not a whole lot this new growing membership can actually do to advance the WTS's long-term survival.
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MidwichCuckoo
james_woods - "The society had nothing to gain from the poor Malawians - so throw them to the dogs. *(unlike the Mexicans who owned property)"
Similar to my thoughts (I posted on Snowbird's thread). The WT wants to make a profit (it's a business). Supporting these Malawians would possibly leave them out of pocket, with no return. Making Martyrs of them could benefit the WT in other ways - eg., all the letter writing, re-inforcing its more affluent members that the persecution is real.