Posts by Mattieu

Longest Talk - Viv Mouritz from the Australian Bethel, he has the concluding talk at every District Convention. He is a good speaker, though getting on in years now. He always departs from the talk outline and spends 15 minutes talking about how deep we are in the end of time, relates over exaggerated experiences that generate lots of oooh's and aah's from the audience. He spends the last 5 minutes of every talk using his Darth Vader voice to whip up urgency & guilt feelings that we are not doing enough for Jehovah.

We used to have a running bet on how many times he could illicit audience clapping, he used to average about 20-25 rounds of clapping every talk!

Longest Prayer - Br Franz at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds back in 1988 or 89 where he gave a “special” talk, I sat down halfway through his final prayer.

19

New Here - My First Rambling.

by SearchingForMe in

jw
friends

newbie, born-in, 30+ yrs, still trying to decide what i believe since all my options are now open...i can say i no longer feel the need to follow men.... i've lurked here for quite a while and enjoyed the ramblings of many, so since i'm now a member here are some of my ramblings.. it makes me sad that so many people will continue to do something just because they feel they have too much time and/or energy invested to stop and make a course correction, even if they see it's leading nowhere or to an undesirable end.

it also saddens me how some people are so preprogrammed to follow what others say that they feel extremely uncomfortable changing their views, deep seated or not, even when presented with uncontrovertable evidence that their views are at best unproven, and at worst simply not possible or even plausible.. but i also realize, that just like in the sci-fi fantasy world of the matrix, some sheeple just are not mentally prepared to leave their fantasy world.

it works for them, and who am i to tell them how they should live.

Mattieu

Hi SFM,

I enjoyed your 1st post, welcome.

Mattieu....

23

Newbie

by Styler1fan in

jw
friends

hello all.

i am a newbie here.

just wanted to say hi!.

Mattieu

Hi Styler1fan,

Welcome and I look forward to hearing more from you.

Mattieu...

41

International Conventions = $$$$. WTBT$ in bed with South Korean government

by Mattieu in

i remember the whole process of selecting a host city for australias last international convention.

the australian bethel played the nsw government against the victorian.

it was so similar to choosing an olympic city and the big boys from bethel knew how to play the game.

Mattieu

Some people I know who went to the last International in South Africa, were slightly peed off as their accommodation package included 3 nights accommodation with a local J-dub family during the actual convention dates.

They did the math and worked out that they actually were paying for these nights with the local families! Local families volunteered to open their homes, society charges visiting brothers & sisters for utilising this aspect of brotherly love.

Dozy & Sir82, I used to reason the same when I saw these “advertorials” on host cities in the WT & Awake, how on earth could that be “food at the proper time?”

It was about that time I openly compared the Awake magazine to the Readers Digest.

Mattieu....

12

Memorial talk we do not dedicate ourselves to an organisation

by Mattieu in

we do not dedicate ourselves to an organisation.

that is a direct quote from the memorial speaker during his final comments about our relationship with jesus.

my wife looked straight at me when he said that, as that has been one of my many points i have raised with her as to my angst with the wtbt$.. i was baptised before the change of dedication vows in 1985 and she after the change.. was my memorial speaker ad-libbing or was that quote in all the memorial outlines worldwide?.

Mattieu

Thanks for those magazine quotes blondie, and TM, I went through the same thinking process.

I suppose I just found it so hypocritical to hear the speaker say that on their biggest recruitment night. If I was an RV attending the memorial and heard that and started studying the bible, made progress to the point of dedication & baptism, I would feel cheated reading the baptismal questions and then recalling the memorial speaker’s words.

Or is it just conditioning new ones to get used to all the lies.....

41

International Conventions = $$$$. WTBT$ in bed with South Korean government

by Mattieu in

i remember the whole process of selecting a host city for australias last international convention.

the australian bethel played the nsw government against the victorian.

it was so similar to choosing an olympic city and the big boys from bethel knew how to play the game.

Mattieu

Hi BP, yeah you assumed correct an Aussie, living in Melbourne! And you?

BP & ldrnomo - I have been over the costing of overseas conventions arranged through the wtbt$ travel department and they were always over the top price wise.

As an exercise, I used to put together a flight/accommodation/transfers/sightseeing/meals package using similar rated lodgings. I used pricing available to the average traveller, no inside hot deals.

I always came up hundreds of dollars cheaper than the wbt$ travel department.

Now keep in mind that the society gets a huge discount as they are purchasing on behalf of at least 1000 overseas delegates. That makes them eligible for a huge bulk discount on hotel rooms and airfares and ground content. I remember the last South African international where all the Australian delegates from different states met in Singapore for the flight to SA. The society had filled every seat on that plane with JDubs (who sat in 1 st class)....

Yes, a lot of the free rooms and air travel were given to the Brooklyn heavies, but there is still a huge amount of $$ that goes back into the societies deep pockets.

It simply is big business, the revenue of which we will never see in an accounts report.......

41

International Conventions = $$$$. WTBT$ in bed with South Korean government

by Mattieu in

i remember the whole process of selecting a host city for australias last international convention.

the australian bethel played the nsw government against the victorian.

it was so similar to choosing an olympic city and the big boys from bethel knew how to play the game.

Mattieu

Hi BP, without going into too many details (have not fully outed myself yet), my background is in hospitality management, I used to have to deal with government departments/tour operators/movie & music promoters...

Anywhoo, I was sounded out for some advice in the slection city process, that person kept me updated on the progress, not because he had too, he just had a big mouth and liked to bignote himself. Then about 6 months after the convention, a city overseer couldnt help but brag as to his "free accomodation" at the hotel nect to the convention location in Homebush, it seems a few "prominent" ones were given room deals that they could not say no to.

Mattieu.

41

International Conventions = $$$$. WTBT$ in bed with South Korean government

by Mattieu in

i remember the whole process of selecting a host city for australias last international convention.

the australian bethel played the nsw government against the victorian.

it was so similar to choosing an olympic city and the big boys from bethel knew how to play the game.

Mattieu

I remember the whole process of selecting a host city for Australia’s last International convention. The Australian Bethel played the NSW government against the Victorian. It was so similar to choosing an Olympic city and the big boys from bethel knew how to play the game. Each city wined n dined and showed off their facilities to the bethel delegates and both offered cash rebates based upon delegate revenue estimates from hotel bookings and visitor spending dollars.

(Keep in mind hosting conventions/expos is big business down under for the hospitality industry)

The end result was that Sydney won with an offer too good to refuse. Homebush stadium was offered for next to nothing, the NSW government offered a certain amount of free hotel rooms and airfares from New York for free, as well as a big fat cash rebate.

In return the society offered to run a 6 page tourism advertisement for Sydney, check it out in the 1999 Awake July 8 pages 14-19.

The article has nothing to do with extolling Jehovah’s virtues or of his hope for a future, but is rather a blatant tourism advertisement, it even ended with the most known Australian Tourism commercial when Paul Hogan said “ we might even put another shrimp on the barbecue for you!”

I couldn’t believe back then the blatant commercial aspect of that convention and of how the wtbt$ were not keeping separate from the world but rather using it to the full, though its followers are instructed to keep separate.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any more blatant...........

South Korea hosted an International convention last year, same deals done between the bethel boys and South Korean government. This time however, all delegates and attendees were offered handy travel bags with tourist maps of Seoul, handy travel tips, local phrase books and things to do and see whilst in Korea.

Nothing really wrong with that except that all the merchandise was stamped with the South Korean Travel Bureau logo and the WTBT$ logo. The South Koreans actually paid the Korean bethel to print all of the tourism merchandise with the government and societies logos.

How is that keeping separate? These large International conventions are a facade for making big $. The costs of hosting these events are never fully explained to those attending, just the regular announcements to make voluntary contributions. The amount of free hotel rooms and airfares offered or the financial rebates offered by the hosting city are never made available to the rank and file. And these free hotel rooms are often on sold for a price to “approved” delegates from overseas.

Go back in the old w/t and awakes and see how many host cities/countries had tourism articles published only to host an international convention in the next 6-12 months.

And they accuse Christendom of riding the commercial system like a harlot.....

12

Memorial talk we do not dedicate ourselves to an organisation

by Mattieu in

we do not dedicate ourselves to an organisation.

that is a direct quote from the memorial speaker during his final comments about our relationship with jesus.

my wife looked straight at me when he said that, as that has been one of my many points i have raised with her as to my angst with the wtbt$.. i was baptised before the change of dedication vows in 1985 and she after the change.. was my memorial speaker ad-libbing or was that quote in all the memorial outlines worldwide?.

Mattieu

“We do not dedicate ourselves to an organisation”

That is a direct quote from the memorial speaker during his final comments about our relationship with Jesus. My wife looked straight at me when he said that, as that has been one of my many points I have raised with her as to my angst with the WTBT$.

I was baptised before the change of dedication vows in 1985 and she after the change.

Was my memorial speaker ad-libbing or was that quote in all the memorial outlines worldwide?

Cheers, Mattieu.