Very interesting, thanks! Seemed such an obvious move, could not believe they’d missed it.

Here’s my take: even if we assume the 230 figure in the Australian flyer is accurate (and the crowd pictures on their FB page show more than that attending the event, so it is plausible), This is what I believe happened – they obviously rustled every believer in the entire ROC down for that event. About 200 of them decided to go to a service that day just for the hell of it, or just to say they were they on opening day. Big numbers to be crowed about, but never to be repeated. Well kinda big – isn’t 230 public a bit paltry for the only Ideal Org in an entire country of 23 million, not to mention their “gateway to Asia”?)

My money is on them never, ever achieving that number of public on site again before selling the property at a net loss. The property looks nice now, but they don’t have the numbers to keep it up, and the climate in Taiwan is merciless to untended structures.

There was a purchase of a TV studio / station in Los Angeles by Scientology in 2011.

More info is at this link:

http://gizmodo.com/5925367/scientologists-are-launching-their-own-tv-station

The Spring 2014 issue of Presente, the newspaper of the movement to close the SOA, is going to print in February. We need your help to distribute the paper far and wide! You can order a box with 75 copies for $19, or a box with 150 copies for $27, which covers the printing and shipping within the United States.

They did have a radio show in Clearwater – maybe they still do. It was amazingly content-free.

I know it’s marketing cognitive dissonance, but their entire branding effort seems turned inward instead of trying to get new blood.

(an aside: I was working in radio when right-wing Christian groups purchased up giant blocks of radio frequencies and stations in the 80s and 90s.)

One of the contractors involved in the Pretoria Ideal Org construction wrote a very interesting account of his experiences.

A reader asks,

Ahhh, having spent many years as a co-owner in a family-owned contracting business, I got shivers reading your excellently written description of this “project from hell”, so to speak. …

The other point that interested me a lot in your narrative is the history of slow and non-payment in several of these Ideal Org projects. That, combined with the “rob Peter to pay Paul” activities is something I took to indicate the general contractor was on quite shaky grounds financially. In fact, I saw it in several cases where bankruptcy followed….

Does anyone think Cof$ does not in fact any longer have the millions and billions of dollars they are said to have? And if not, where did all the money go? I ask because I have read several times that more than twice the actual costs of the Florida FLAG building was raised. And this, of course, is what the Garcia case is about.

This was the answer: “The thing is the money is there. There is enough money in reserves in South Africa right now to pay for the building of all the ideal orgs in one go. But the reserves are never spent. They would rather just suck more money out of you and me and the next guy than spend any. At last report Joburg Org still owed about R 900 000.00 on unpaid water and lights bills. I believe the FBO managed to negotiate it down to about R 750 000.00 . However the bill goes unpaid despite there being on the order of R8M in reserves. Dunno why you have reserves if you cannot use them.”

I assume he’s speaking of reserves held by the Africa CLO. Is Miscavige equally tight with all the reserves? Seems possible.

Microsoft is bound by generally accepted accounting principles, SEC oversight, tax considerations, a scruple or two. Miscavige has none of these handicaps.

Could he (or minions Starkey and Spurlock) have worked out some shady underhanded way to raise operating cash without dipping into the reserves? Unlike Gates and Ballmer, he won’t care if the whole thing falls apart after he makes his getaway.

Sorry; spent too many years in Marketing, & the loss of PTL leaves a sad gap to be filled by a group like the scilons :

You do not know about Debbie Cook’s purported $1Billion Scieno slush fund, do you Drat? Reading up will help you. Excellent for you! What are you suggesting? Are you saying His Eminance Blatter is peerless or faultless? You could offer to provide to be recused, yet most stupid cunts beg to be included. Does that cover you “Drat” and your needs?

Good. Pity the building is worth so much. Thanks for the info.

The Sydney website only lists the 841 George Street addy, so it’s probably correct to say that the Castlereigh location is, to be charitable, inactive at this point in time.