by AndDontCallMeShirley 173 Replies latest watchtower scandals
Johnamos....
The topic in discussion is the Atlanta International Convention. If you have something to add in that regard, please do.
You're not only off-topic but preaching to the choir when it comes to WT not being a true religion...we already know this.
(incidentally, quoting scripture ad nauseum is irritating as hell. Start your own thread if proselytizing is your objective).
AndDontCallMeShirley - you have a PM.
Magnum- you have a PM
I suppose there isn't anything especially new with these kind of arrangements - many of us remember the WTBTS deal to have a convention in Sydney with the city being offered a favourable article in the Awake magazine and similar deals with Korea.
It just shows how corporate the Society are becoming now. Conventions are becoming cash cows. It would seem that the WTBTS are finding that some depressed USA cities ( such as Detroit & Atlanta ) are desperate to get conventions and are prepared to do really good subsidised deals.
I just wonder whether the cities have done their sums and will really benefit financially as much as they have been promised. The city hospitality people get excited when they hear the Society talk of 100,000 delegates and ( possibly ) sweetheart promotional articles in the Awake with 20 million issues printed , but they have to realise that they can't do the normal pro-rata benefits to the local economy. These aren't big spending company executives boozing and partying , or even sports fans. They are just cheap JWs ( and I speak as a former cheap JW ) who take sandwiches for lunch and drink tap water with a cheap meal in the evening before having an early night. Other than the deals done with hotels very little spending will trickle down to the real economy.
I remember speaking with a CEO of a shopping mall which was attached to an assembly I used to attend & asking him if there was any upspend during the assembly - he said that he had looked back at the figures for the last 10 years and described it as "negligible" , despite the fact that there were over 1,000 attending every day. He couldn't really understand it - so I explained that JWs generally weren't noted for being big spenders. Eventually the local council realised there wasn't any financial benefit to the city and stopped subsidising our hall rental. Atlanta & Detroit etc will catch on eventually , by which time the WTBTS circus will move on to another city.
The video is a bit scary - a bit cult-like really. I almost felt sorry for the deluded guys who said that Jehovah had removed any problems about organising the event. How do they think other much more complex events get organised? Why does putting a man on the moon or organising a World Cup or Olympic games require no divine intervention but organising 3 assemblies does? Equating "loyalty to Jehovah and the Slave" with a big detour to catch a subway does seem to be pushing things a bit , but it just shows the mentality that now exists at the top. I'm just glad I'm out of it. It isn't a religion any more.
Add new Orleans to the list of desperate cities that got conventions.
Magnum, as part of my journey out I'm trying to learn more about the experiences of the pre-75 generation half a lifetime ago. My parents were post 75 so they can't help.
http://jwsurvey.org/cedars-blog/get-ready-for-the-time-of-your-life-promo-video-for-atlanta-international-convention-leaked
Cedars has the video shared on a russian site so doubt the WT will be able to take it down lol.
I love the way the Watchtower "God" helps the American Witnesses have slick, well-oiled preparatory stages leading up to conventions but elsewhere in the world, on a more personal scale, individual Witnesses suffer, toil and live in misery. If this "Jehovah" got his nose out of the slick PR stuff and focused on solving "His" people's real human problems - that would be something worth making a colorful video about. What a sad commentary this video provides, highlighting the disgusting "Mormonization" of a once fiercely outspoken organization that declared far and wide the "spiritual" and worldly perils of the world, Christendom included. Big business talks, brothers - and corrupts.
So many great comments. We can also see how the borg makes even more money by becoming a travel and tour operator with all voluntary labor. They charge the international deligates "full price" and then secure discount travel, hotel, tour, and entertainment, all with free labor. They also have all their own multimedia equipment and have free volunteers to produce these videos. The savings in labor is tremondous, this is just another branch of the real estate empire. Greedy sob's
HBH
Showed my wife the video - her jaw hit the floor.
BOC:"Not the religion we were raised in, is it honey?"
WIFE:"No. That was really disturbing."
Keep more of this propaganda coming, governing body!
Well at least all the apostates are aware of the GBs presents at this very specially live broadcasted to many other convention seems like a rather dumb move by the GB to leak out that bit of information.
