all they want you to do is anything that will make you feel depressed..
Sad - but only too true!
Watching TV, playing sport, hobbies, music and other cultural activities; in fact, everything except:
- attending meetings,
- preparing for meetings,
- hawking WTS literature on people's doorsteps,
Add to that the 40 hours a week you have worked at your "secular job" (how I loathe that expression!), very little time for any thing else, anyway.
Bill.
as a jw, i always believed that the outside world adored us.
i knew that many people didn't care for us, and didn't believe our teachings, but i thought our conduct was a "bright light" shining to the world.
from the stage, we heard endless stories of business people and other non-jws praising us because we were such nice people.
What a question to ask!
At the very best, the "world" viewed us a maybe rather harmless - but still definitely on the lunatic fringe:
- and this was at the very best.
As there became more of us about, and we started covering the territory every month or less, we started to be regarded as a straight-out bloody nuisance around the place.
From harmless lunatics to just a plain bloody nuisance - but NEVER (not even once) adored!
Bill.
i attended a recent ministerial servant k m school on the east coast and the main school instructor mentioned among other things (part entitled: 'objective of the km school course') that the total number of ministerial servants is seriously less than it should be.
in times past the ratio of m ss to elders was much more than it is today.. in the u.s. apparently the total number of elders is 88,500+ as opposed to m ss 65,000. the numbers show & numbers don't lie: the society is running out of spiritual men.
the instructor stated that this is a new downward trend that has (in so many words) the society worried.. the next speaker (part entitled: 'why we must be spiritual men') added that in his years as a traveling servant the pool of m ss has always been much, much larger than it is today.
Things seem to have changed somewhat in 30 years!:
- in the congregation I was with then, young fellows were climbing over themselves to get used in any way in the Kingdom Hall; just so they might one day be considered for appointment as ministerial servant.
Bill.
port moresby in p.n.g is a very violent dangerous place.
some witnesses told me how much the witnesses on this island "love jehovah.
" "every time they go witnesing they think it might be the last time..." due to the crimes, killings, and kidnappings, but these idiots still go door to door as ordered!!!!
As always, the ones issuing the orders will be making sure that they are well to the rear!
During the time that I lived in Port Moresby, only the "local" publishers went into the extensive squatter settlements around the city:
- these were places so dangerous that even the police would not go into.
Expatriate publishers were restricted to the parts of the city where either the local middle class , or the expatriate people lived.
- these, while not exactly the safest places in the world, were far less dangerous than the squatter settlements.
Bill.
did you get angry?
feel pity?
not care?.
Having the door slammed in ones face was a frequent occurrence in our territory.
There were so many JWs living in the area, that it was being covered several times a month:
- and guess what; people were well and truly / heartily / passionately fed up to the eye brows with us!
(This flew in the face of the WTS's claims that you "did not work territory to death - rather, you worked it to life." Like Hell you do!)
In many ways, too, this was exacerbated by being in a hot climate - with everyones doors and windows being left open at all times:
- so that when one person "blew a gasket" at you, everyone in the whole street could hear them go off.
Then , the process was repeated at the next door, and the next one, and the next one and so on.
(Sometimes I wondered if they were each holding a contest, to see who could shout and scream the loudest!)
Still at that point believing the nonsense we were trying to talk to the public about, I remember being philosophic - if not a little cynical in response:
- thinking to myself each time " Fella, it's your funeral, not mine! The day will come when you wished you had listened, but by then it will be too late."
Incidentally, that so many JWs lived in this area had NOTHING to do with the territory being exceedingly productive:
- it had everything to do with it being a low cost housing area, and the low socio-economic status of most JWs.
- we were nearly ALL of us imports, who could not afford to live anywhere else.
Bill.
it was shit!
we had to stand outside in all weathers like we were the elite police for the kingdum hell.
when all the cars were in we had to lock the gates but a few years ago when we had all finisied the brain washing meeting the gates had been super glued shut by some smack heads!!
I did that for several years.
This kingdom hall was in a (very!) high crime area, and surrounded by an 8 foot high security fence:
- so we had to keep the gate locked at all times.
It actually wasn't too bad - the hall was uphill from the carpark, and the carpark was intensely lit by security lights.
The carpark attendant could sit just inside the doorway, and observe not only the carpark, but also the entrance from the street.
It did have the benefit of stopping me from going to sleep during the meetings!
Bill.
i thought it'd be fun to talk about what part of the conventions just made you cringe or be annoyed with.
i can remember a couple things:.
i remember after the tms when they put the list in the back on the announcement board, there were people that would get up while the last song was being sung to write down the info.
The whole bloody thing!
Bill.
.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/12/027844.php.
ha ha ha ha ha!.
The Paddock brothers in Famine 1975 did hold some credence when their book was first published:
- simply because, for two years in a row during the mid-1960s, the monsoon failed on the Indian Subcontinent.
As a result, the world's food production decreased (remembering that India, as well as being a very populous country, is also the location of some of the world's richest agricultural land).
The predicted disaster, of course, did not happen:
- for one thing, the monsoon resumed its normal pattern from 1967 onward (who says climate change is a new phenomena!)
- and most importantly came what was termed the "Green Revolution", in which Asia's food production was significantly increased by the introduction of high yielding strains of wheat and rice.
Ever the experts in depressing people, the WTS sought to downplay the achievements of the Green Revolution.
A 1972 article in Awake made it sound like the Green Revolution had delayed famine for, at best, only a year or two - and that the Paddock brothers predictions were largely still valid.
(From memory, that Awake article listed over half a dozen reasons why the Green Revolution was going to fall flat at any moment!).
Further on the matter of food shortages, I can recall another Awake article on hunger during those years (sometime in 1969).
This article contained a map of the world, showing which countries received adequate nutrition, and which countries did not:
- the criterion being 2400 calories per day, which is considered the minimum necessary daily intake of food for an adult human being.
According to that article, only the peoples of Northern Europe, North America, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand were receiving an adequate daily intake of food.
Since that time, the situation has much improved;
- by the first decade of the 21st Century, the area of the world in which the population receives less than 2400 calories per day had been reduced to parts of sub-Saharan Africa, some of the smaller South American countries, and certain Pacific Islands.
Interestingly, in the late 1960s, the south of Italy, Sicily and Greece were included in the area affected by lack of adequate nutrition. Today, those countries have some of the highest per capita calorie consumptions in the world.
Despite the calamity howling by the Paddocks, the Erlichs and the WTS, something has worked right!.
Bill.
cetainly in great britani they are, right?.
see: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html.
.. .. .. oh, that's from ten years ago!.
From what I have observed as to how surface air temperatures are now measured at many weather stations, I will admit to being more than a little sceptical.
As a result of the economic and political changes that occured 15 - 20 years ago, many weather stations were shut down and much of the skills base was lost. Some new weather stations were established, but often by people who had little idea of what they were doing.
So that today's temperature reading can be compared with that taken tomorrow and on all subsequent days, thermometers are supposed to be housed in a ventilated, white painted wooden box - known as a "Stevenson Screen."
This box should be mounted four feet off the ground, away from all buldings, and over a grass lawn:
- direct sunlight on the thermometer, and also heat reflected off the ground or radiated off buildings will greatly affect the thermometer reading.
Yet in all too many instances in recent times, this knowledge seems to have been lost when new weather stations have been established :
- partly to blame, I feel, are the full "Weather Station" kits that are readlily obtainable from any electronic store.
- invariably, the instructions come with no reference made to the need to shade the thermometer.
(Yet none of this is rocket science - I recall these things being covered in detail during Grade 9 geography at high school).
I saw a classic back in 2006:
- A Platinum Resistance Thermometer (PRT) was mounted directly above a long run iron roof, totally exposed to the full heat of the tropical sun.
- Then, to further add to the heating effect, this thermometer was in the direct path of the exhaust gases of eight 10 500 hp gas turbine engines.
As a result, the climate statistics for the Tari Valley area of Papua New Guinea WILL be showing a marked "warming trend" since 2006!
(The most disappointing thing of the lot about the establishment of this "weather station" was that nobody was at all interested when I attempted to explain to them about the use of a Stevenson Screen - and about mounting it over the grass lawn on the other side of the building.)
My thoughts, anyway!
Bill.
this is a old case but just shows what goes on behind closed doors if you are a jw family.
this arsehole needs to go to the chair!!.
more news:.
The whole time that I had dealings with the JWs (i.e. the mid-1960s though to the mid-1990s), it was spelled out that "The Rod" referred to corporal punishment;
- AND I saw it used plenty of times in that role, too!
Bill.
