Posts by Bungi Bill

30

When Milton Henschel was tortured and beaten in Africa

by Hecce in

*** yb77 pp.

173-174 liberia ***.

after sitting down, the witnesses were told to look at the sun, and soldiers watched their eyes to make sure they were staring at the blazing sun.

Bungi Bill

It could have been Asia, Australia, Europe, North/South America.
Evil people are on every continent.

While evil people are to be found everywhere, Africa takes the word "atrocity" to a whole new level.

An informative read on this subject is David Van Reybrouck's Congo: The Epic History of a People (2010). This work catalogues the whole sorry story of the so-called Democratic Republic of Congo; one of unrelenting warfare together with unimaginable brutality.

This is in addition to the other ongoing and long running wars on the African continent - South Sudan, Darfur, Somalia, Nigeria, the Boko Haram insurgency to name just some - all of which are accompanied by numerous acts of extreme brutality.(Little of this, of course, ever gets mentioned in the news media)

Then in the 1980s, there was the campaign by the ANC in South Africa, in which the "Necklace" was used on suspected police informers. This device of torture was improvised out of an old car tyre, which was filled with petrol (gasoline), hung around the victim's neck, and then set on fire. It typically took about 20 minutes for the victim to die. A bloody humane way in which to dispose of someone!

Violence is never very far away in this district (e.g. last January, myself and several other workmates had to do a merry dance while dodging some shotgun pellets that were flying around during a gang altercation).

However, I haven't ever heard of anyone around here being "Necklaced"!

30

When Milton Henschel was tortured and beaten in Africa

by Hecce in

*** yb77 pp.

173-174 liberia ***.

after sitting down, the witnesses were told to look at the sun, and soldiers watched their eyes to make sure they were staring at the blazing sun.

Bungi Bill

If all this is true it is heart wrenching indeed.

Sadly, being Africa, this is all too believable!

30

When Milton Henschel was tortured and beaten in Africa

by Hecce in

*** yb77 pp.

173-174 liberia ***.

after sitting down, the witnesses were told to look at the sun, and soldiers watched their eyes to make sure they were staring at the blazing sun.

Bungi Bill

Fascist bastards!

30

When Milton Henschel was tortured and beaten in Africa

by Hecce in

*** yb77 pp.

173-174 liberia ***.

after sitting down, the witnesses were told to look at the sun, and soldiers watched their eyes to make sure they were staring at the blazing sun.

Bungi Bill

You couldn't call those who carried out these atrocities "animals", as that would be to insult animals!

Whatever you may or may not say about the JWs, nothing - but nothing - justifies such treatment of other human beings.

22

Are JW's non- violent

by notalone in

jw
friends

okay, i keep reading something and though jw's do not get involved in national wars, my experience has always been they are very violent people.

every convention i have ever been to was filled with children being beat within an inch of their lives for just not being able to take a third day of mind-droning silence without being able to move or now even sleep.

i have seen whole congregations laugh at stories of children being beaten and calling out to "jehovah".

Bungi Bill

Yep! Real Blood and Guts stuff, all-right.

22

Are JW's non- violent

by notalone in

jw
friends

okay, i keep reading something and though jw's do not get involved in national wars, my experience has always been they are very violent people.

every convention i have ever been to was filled with children being beat within an inch of their lives for just not being able to take a third day of mind-droning silence without being able to move or now even sleep.

i have seen whole congregations laugh at stories of children being beaten and calling out to "jehovah".

Bungi Bill

If hating someone is a sign of being a violent person then yes, Jesus would be classified as violent too, because he openly rebuked and cursed the Pharisees.

I have heard at least one professed Christian use this and similar statements of Jesus to justify Christian participation in bloodshed. (To be precise, that person was Catholic by religion, and of Croation descent. The conversation came up back in 1990, just as things were hotting up in the Balkans, and he was alluding to the so-called "Ethnic Cleansing" that was just beginning in the old Yugoslavia).

Other than that, JW non involvement in the world's national armed conflicts has much more to do with their ideas about "Christian Neutrality" than with the principle of non-violence. They do subscribe to the concept that there can be such a thing as an "Authorised War", such as the Israelites were instructed to fight. I well remember this being used against the LDS ("Mormons") when they referred to certain more blood thirsty passages from the Old Testament. The typical JW response was along the lines of "you show me where the Bible authorised WWI, WWII, Korea or Vietnam?"

When I was "coming into the truth", I was told in so many words that JWS were "Not Pacifists". The old trick question of the Conscientious Objectors Board was also explained to me in detail:

- i.e. "What would you do if somebody attacked your wife?" The correct JW response, I was told, was that you would indeed hand the offender the proverbial bunch-of-five - but that you would not " fight in a war started by politicians."

As for the JW's ideas about child discipline, I now cringe when I recall the frequent scenes of child abuse I observed at meetings, assemblies and the like.

So yes, I very much agree with the OP on this one - the JWs cannot exactly claim to be a non-violent people.

37

"Hard work never killed anyone," or "I have to give up knitting."

by compound complex in

greetings, my aging friends:.

it's not really a funny subject, our getting old and our bodies falling apart.

sure, as the saying goes, hard work won't kill you, but it can wear out your body.

Bungi Bill

Xanthippe,

There is osteo athritis, which is the result of aging (and which I starting developing in my late 40s), and there is rheumatoid athritis, which is by far the more serious one. One of my grandmothers was cruelly crippled by rheumatoid athritis, and this began when she was only 29. By the age of 42, she could only get about with the aid of a pair of walking sticks.

37

"Hard work never killed anyone," or "I have to give up knitting."

by compound complex in

greetings, my aging friends:.

it's not really a funny subject, our getting old and our bodies falling apart.

sure, as the saying goes, hard work won't kill you, but it can wear out your body.

Bungi Bill

I was going to make some wisecrack such as "They say hard work never killed anyone - but I am not taking any chances", - before realising that this is indeed a serious matter.

Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) is a rather common condition. One of its many sufferers is my wife, who worked for a number of years on an assembly line. Her only task was to lift the cartons of packaged garlic bread off a conveyor line and stack these on a pallet. While the cartons were not particularly heavy, just the sheer rate of repitition was enough to, in the end, cause irreversible injury to her back.

With the wisdom of hindsight, industry now realises the importance of rotating tasks around, so that nobody is performing the same repetitive movements for prolonged periods of time. Also, ergonomics plays a part; such things as the position of the computer's display relative to your eyes, position of the keyboard relative to your elbows, the height of your chair off the floor and its providing adequate lower-back support all play a part.

Of course, getting older doesn't help! There is a danger in that as young persons, we can seemingly get away with a lot - as in the handling and lifting heavy objects. It does come back to bite you, though, when you get older!

34

Are there 'ultra strict' congregations?

by jambon1 in

jw
friends

when i studied as a young adult, it was in one of those congregations.

having viewed the religion as a quaint little band of christians it conpletely dumbfounded me when i was told about such rules as 1 - no beards.

2 - you must wear a suit to meetings and while giving a talk.

Bungi Bill

It is extremely uncommon in this district to see any man wearing a suit.

The town's mayor turned up yesterday morning at our place of work, to thank everybody for their efforts in restoring power supplies after the two recent natural disasters. He readily volunteered that the only reason he was wearing a suit was because he was on his way to the airport, to welcome a group of visiting dignatories.

A bible-thumper strutting around in a suit stands out like a flashing light in this district. During the humid heat of a Bay of Plenty summer, people would actually regard that as madness. Furthermore, they would not be too far wrong, either!

55

JW's And Their Education Level

by Yesu Kristo Bwana Wangu in

i was thinking about this.... in my congregation, i was literally the only one with universitary education, out of a cong from around 110 people.... and we're very close to a very big university, which makes it even weirder.. on the other hand... sooo many here with their own business, mostly small cleaning businesses.

cleaning windows, or cleaning somewhere else... painters.... all have jobs that do not require any education level, cos they never had a decent education.. how is the composition of the jw people/congs that you know about?.

how many painters... cleaners... compared to people with jobs that require higher education?.

Bungi Bill

I only remember one congregation in which a number of persons had university qualifications. This was one of the English-speaking congegations in Papua New Guinea, and in that way, was rather different. In PNG, English is the language of business, government and the professions. As a consequence, this congegation's members were drawn mainly from the educated middle class of Papua New Guinean society (together with a smattering of expatriates, such as myself).

Other than that, all the other congregations I knew about had more than the usual complement of carpet cleaners, pest control technicians,farm hands, timber yard workers, concreters, roofers etc. I was not altogether popular when I entred into an adult apprenticeship at the age of 24. Then, when I undertook a paper in advanced trade studies (in order to get into my preferred field, electrical testing), some positively had the daggers out for me. However, by then I knew enough about what was what to mentally give those individuals the good old "two-fingered salute". That felt bloody good, too!

Winston Churchill is on record as saying "To try is to risk failure. To fail to try is to guarantee it." People as individuals should be free to at least attempt an education. Should they make the attempt, there is, of course, a to risk of failure (whether due personal limitations, lack of application or whatever). Others may realise beforehand that they are never going to be an academic, and thus elect another career choice. (There are many such people about, and it does not mean that they are stupid. My own father was a case in point, and a fool he was not!) Certain other persons may begin a university degree course, but then realise it is not for them, and elect for something else (that happened to a school friend of mine - and once again, a fool he was not, either!). But at least everyone ought to be given that choice to make for themselves.

It should not be left to seven old f@#t$ in New York to make that blanket choice "No!" for everybody. To do so is to fullful what Churchill observed and guarantee an automatic failure in academic acheivement:

- i.e. Failure in results brought about by failure to even begin!