G'day all,
Strong gale force winds and storms have been lashing the coast of New South Wales for the past two weeks bringing unseasonally cool to cold weather. The bush fires that had been burning throughout the state's interior have been extinguished. Now the State Government has had to react to the new storm damage disaster and the State Emergency Service has been working around the clock for the past week to repair and cover damaged roofs. For a couple of days a large area of Sydney was without power.
The January 1st issue of The Watchtower was received with the usual interest. What of the many decreases? The most common reaction by the Witnesses is that it's a further indication of the fast-approaching end of this system.
Elders are exchanging news of the forthcoming Kingdom Ministry School. "Have you got your invitation?" and so on are questions being exchanged.
Australia reported a 1% decrease in publishers for the third consecutive year imitating the British branch's similar report. At the same time, Australia's population is reported in The Watchtower to have risen from 19 million exactly (!) in 1999 to 19,277,104 meaning that the ratio of publishers to population has gone from 1:310 in 1999 to 1:321 in 2001.
Further disquieting statistics are that the penetration into the general community is slipping so that Bible Studies have dropped from 19,302 last year to 18,942. Pioneers, too, have dropped from 5,526 last year to 5,020. The total number of hours for the year has dropped from 9,900,463 to 9,514,957.
Whilst reading through the latest report, your correspondent could not help but remember how so many totalitarian, controlling organisations like to keep statistics, even of their incriminating misdeeds. We may recall the detailed statistics that the Nazi regime kept of its concentration camp operations. Other regimes like the Romanian communist government, too, left a trail of incriminating evidence. In this week's issue of Time magazine we can read of the detailed records left behind by the Taliban government in Kabul.
I wonder if the WTS is coming to the realisation that this record keeping that they have carried out so diligently over the years may turn out to be an albatross around its neck?
Cheers,
Ozzie
"It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
Anonymous