What is a Volunteer Minister? Who are they?

I found this excellent little article today on ScientologyToday which defines a Scientology Volunteer Minister:

In 1976, L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology religion, wrote an essay titled, “Religious Influence in Society,” in which he launched the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program and described the role of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers in these terms:

“...a Volunteer Minister is a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.

“A Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence. Rather, he is trained to handle these things and help others achieve relief from them and new personal strength as well.

“How does a Volunteer Minister accomplish these miracles? Basically, he uses the technology of Scientology to change conditions for the better—for himself, his family, his groups, friends, associates and for mankind.”

Also, quoted from VolunteerMinisters.org, from a talk by Mr. David Miscavige:

"They have become internationally known and recognized for what has been described as spiritual first aid, and to that end they are ready and organized to respond to any disaster — 'man-made' or by force of nature.

"Most notable, of course, were our Volunteer Ministers at Ground Zero, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

"Everything — from logistical work on the bucket lines, to caring for the rescue workers so deeply affected in the aftermath, our Volunteer Ministers were there for the duration. As for the help they provided, they were the only civilian group invited to participate in the Police Service, in memory of rescue efforts on the one-year anniversary of September 11th.

"But, what matters to us is the help we bring, and it is literally the same story in countries across the world."

If you want to find out more about being a Volunteer Minister, just contact your nearest Church of Scientology.

Human Rights Marathon at the Kremlin

Runners, participating in the 26th annual International Marathon for Peace in Moscow. The Marathon was co-sponsored by the Moscow government, the Church of Scientology of Moscow and the Moscow chapter of Youth for Human Rights International.

MOSCOW: For the thousands of Russian runners, who raced here on Sunday, world peace is not just a slogan — it is a mission.

The Church of Scientology of Moscow joined the local chapter of Youth for Human Rights International and the Moscow government in organizing the 26th annual International Marathon for Peace.

Human rights was a major topic covered by Mr. David Miscavige in his talks to world celebrities and leaders , and in subsequent presentations since. It's a major factor of what Scientologists do, in terms of ensuring Human Rights are available for all -- not just for people of the Scientology Religion, but for all religions.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Fight Fires Too

Scientology Volunteers and Botswana Firefighters Repel Fire in Gabarone » Netscape.com

This one I found particularly moving. This is about Scientology Volunteer Ministers who happened to be in an abandoned section of Gabarone, Botswana when a fire broke out. As they were the only ones in a position to help, they pitched in and worked side-by-side with the Gabarone Fire Dept, braving the flames and putting out a massive fire.

This is just like Mr. David Miscavige hit on in his talk about Volunteer Ministers in his This is Scientology presentation, in terms of Volunteer Ministers giving a hand anywhere and everywhere, wherever needed. Many times, this is just in the form of helping using Scientology to save a marriage, or to give someone the tools they need in life to get their job back or whatever -- but in this case it was digging in and fighting a fire -- something the Fire Dept was immensely grateful for.

Google Analytics

I just painlessly installed Google Analytics on this blog, as I couldn't stand being without statistics for any length of time. I've been a management by statistics fanatic for years now, as it's the only way to manage anything. Not by opinion (as is way to prevalent in marketing) but by cold, hard statistics. Again, I got the notion from an extremely good Scientology event, where I decided I'd stop using the crystal ball to try to decide my future, and instead use some proven Scientology management techniques.

As noted, this install was utterly painless. I worked for Webtrends for some time, and also worked as a Web Analytics consultant, and so I'm quite familiar with web stats programs - but I have to commend Google for how well they took Urchin's ASP analytics software and integrated it into their accounts system. It's extremely informative, and was an utter breeze to put in. Now, if you're looking at this, I can probably tell where you're from!

Taiwan: Does it just need more Hi-Tech, or Something Else?

I wrote an article a few days ago on India, as that is a country that just intrigues me with the sheer number of very able people as compared with the extreme poverty and disorganization most of the country suffers from. It’s something that fully seems like an ideal candidate for Mr. Hubbard’s management technology, as detailed by Mr. David Miscavige in his This is Scientology presentation, or in his presentation at the grand opening of the Church of Scientology of Africa. It’s something that with a little application of basic organizational technology, and a few ideal Churches of Scientology in the area, an immense change in the scene could be effected.

However, change gears to a location like Kaohsiung in Taiwan, and you get a fully different scene than that in India. Taiwan is the product of a strong-willed, exceptionally productive people not wanting to live under communist rule, and as such living under constant suppression from threats of military action or the simple suppression that comes about through countries not even willing to recognize you as a sovereign state.

Despite this, however, you have a place like Kaohsiung, which is now the 3rd-largest seaport in the world, and has some of the tallest buildings and beautiful downtown areas of anywhere in Asia. So, what are they missing in terms of technology? In this case, I would be hard-pressed to say it has anything to do with their ability to build tall buildings or printed circuit boards.

I would submit that it’s instead things like the technology of overcoming suppression - which individuals in that country need just as much as the country as a whole. It’s things like the technology of dealing with a seemingly dangerous environment, and how to stay sane and causative in a world that the media makes seem dangerous. It’s also what inspired me to write this on Taiwan — the technology of how to stop drug abuse before it starts — education.

With items like that to help the individual, I would have to say Taiwan could be made a better place to live.

What sort of technology does India really need?

India is a rather perplexing country to some, myself included.

Here is a country which suffers from extreme poverty in some cases, has some unreal third-world conditions (or at least unreal to a boy from New England) for a large majority of its population, and is a country stuffed with over a billion people. See photos of their most major cities, and with the exception of a few, they pale in aesthetics and engineering to many other world cities like Hong Kong and New York City.

However, in and amongst all that are millions upon millions of some of the most brilliant people on earth. Here is a country filled with absurd amounts of talent and thinking men & women -- and not just in the area of computer, network, civil and electrical engineering either. These are luminary philosophers, brilliant movie makers and writers, etc.

With all that, what technology does India then need to move it forward? In some countries one could argue that it's cell phones, or perhaps automobiles. Perhaps it's a better flu medication or a better way to fix a broken leg, or maybe it's how to build massive public transportation infrastructures that can alleviate the quality of living & working in crowded cities like Mumbai or Kolkata.

However, it's not just a random engineer that's going to hand someone a Nokia or a Toyota Prius hybrid and solve the whole thing. It's individual Indians being made more able so they can then lead others, and make their own individual lives better for whatever they need to improve in their lives.

In some cases, what's missing is effective education. As Mr. David Miscavige pointed out in his Grand Opening speech at the Church of Scientology of New York, it's the technology of education itself that is many times missing, and is what is provided by the study technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard.

Other times, it's the exact technology of how to get someone off drugs, and even keep them from taking them in the first place. Again, articulated in his This is Scientology presentation at the Celebrity Centre Gala, one thing that Scientology is known for is the fact that Scientologists do have the beat down on how to get people off drugs, routinely and effectively - quite in addition to having the largest drug-prevention campaign in the world.

When you've got something you just hope works, or that you plead with the nearest divine entity to make work, or that works every so often but you don't know why, that's not technology - that's luck. However, anything that can have an exact technique, and exact procedures by which you go about something which then produces an intended result, that's where you get actual technology - and in this case the technologies of Scientology in the realm of education, drug prevention, and the simple technologies the Scientology Volunteer Ministers use to be able to bring calm to an area hit by disaster -- these are technologies which I would submit that India needs - as that helps the people themselves, who will then go on to bring change and improvements to the country.

Digg this? Does it work on BetaBlogger?

I'm having an impossible time getting my BlogThis working on this damned blog. This is one of the reasons I use my other Wordpress blog so much, as it is so blasted easy to blog about stuff I find on the net using a digg blogthis type thign. Still doesn't work on this one. Anyone know if you have to do something special on this?