Do you want to take a trip into the twisted, psychopathic, narcissistic minds of the gb? Maybe be a fly on the wall at a Wednesday morning meeting? Let's image its 2015 and they're planning the 2016 Special Conventions. Of course they can plan their expenses paid luxury pleasure trips, and keep them tax free to the WT for just about any reason, like visiting any assembly, a branch office, KMS, RTO, or whatever. But the Special Conventions can be another special way to stroke their own narcissism.
GB1: Well it's time to plan our exotic vacations. Special Conventions are a proven way to extract maximums donations and to get some big green handshakes and serious bling. As with other pleasure trips, one third of the fun is planning, one third is actually going, and one third is reminiscing about it afterwards, even bragging about it later on. How many shall we have?
Gb2: There are seven of us, so why don't we each pick a place we like?
1: So are you saying you want to go to Manila again?
2: No, I'm kind of sick of that filthy place. I was thinking a nice clean place, like Finland. There are so few JWs there we can do the whole country in one weekend. Set up a big convention in Helsinki, with three smaller ones the same weekend in other cities, and tie them in by Internet. Of course we'll include our official language English, so the NY elite don't have to listen to foreign a gauges. We can throw in Russian and Swedish for some of the natives that speak those, and it will make it look a bit international. We can ask them to fix some Swedish meatballs and Russian borscht.
1: Helpers, you heard him, set it up!
Helpers: Yes, Brother L, we'll set it up starting June 24.
gb3: I want to go some place close. You know I'm the oldest and we told everyone on JWTV that I have diabetes. And the last time I went to Paris I had to rely on an angel that looked like Arnold Schwartzenegger to carry my bags.
1: OK, we'll find some place close for you. But I'm going to Paris. The City of Lights. The City of Love.
It got sickening for me to start getting into their thinking process, so I thought I'd write down a short summary of what the Helpers and their little helpers in the GB travel department came up with:
1) Helsinki, FinlandHelsinki Special Convention starting 2016-06-24, to be held at the Helsinki Messukeskus (Expo and Convention Centre). Languages are English, Finnish, Russian, and Swedish. There will be three concurrent Finnish conventions in the cities of Kuopio, Oulu, and Tampere.
2) Paris, FranceParis (Villepinte) starting 2016-07-29 in French, English, Polish, and Serbian.There will also be two English conventions held starting 2016-07-15 at Marignane (Salle d'assemblées) and starting 2016-08-19 at the Bressols (Salle d'assemblées).
3) Utrecht, NetherlandsStarting 2016-08-05 at Jaarbeurs Utrecht in English, Dutch, Papiamento (Curaçao), Portuguese, and Spanish. There will also be two Dutch conventions held at the same time in the cities of Den Bosch and Zwolle. The only other Dutch convention starts earlier on 2017-06-02 in Congreshal Swifterbant
4) San Juan, Puerto RicoSan Juan, PR 2016-08-26 American Sign Language, English, Spanish Arecibo, PR 2016-08-26 Spanish Ponce, PR 2016-08-26 Spanish
5) Kaohsiung, Taiwan2016 特別區域大會 Special Convention 2016-11-11 高雄國家體育場 National Stadium Amis, Chinese (Mandarin), English, Japanese, Min Nan (Taiwan), Taiwanese SL
6) Nairobi, Kenya2016 Special Convention Series 2016-12-02 English and SwahiliSafaricom International Sports Centre KasaraniRongo Luo 2016-12-02 Luo Rongo-Kuja School for the Deaf 6 more Swahili the same weekNext week 6 more 2016-12-09 Kikamba, Kikuyu, and Swahili
7) Santiago, ChileSantiago Asamblea especial 2016-12-09 English Salón de Asambleas El Trebol. Spanish translated talks too.