http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Special_Affairs

while Cory appears to have a legitimate concern for Permaculture, Her true aim is to KSW or Keep Scientology Working.
Scientology exploits connections to infiltrate,take control of use to their advantage, or destroy.

Corys intentions here are to use permaculture projects in Haiti as Public Relations Mission used to promote Scientology, not to promote Permaculture the Kanef promotion is a Scientology project by Bill Loftus Google (Bill Loftus + Kanef)

I hope many of you stay clear of Cory Brennan its not in your best interest and most of what she posted here about investors and research etc is intentionally bogus.

Six permaculturists went to Haiti as first responders via Volunteer Minister chartered planes. Five are still there. They have been engaged in a number of projects, mainly focused on sanitation and creating clean water supplies as these are the two most life threatening issues. They have been teaching Haitians how to safely create compost latrines as well as building them, and they were able to create sanitary conditions at the main hospital in Haiti which undoubtedly saved lives. The Nature Healing Nature team has been teaching Haitians to filter their own water, which has been compromised by lack of sewage systems and other toxic exposure. They have undoubtedly saved lives too as bottled water was not reaching all the areas for some time. And the knowledge they’ve imparted will continue to be used and hopefully spread.

The teams are currently working with the Haitian gov’t, SOIL (oursoil.org), UNICEF and other organizations to work out some broad scale projects including potentially installing compost toilets in orphanages and other structures, and teaching permaculture techniques to various NGOs who can then train others. They have an opportunity to create some very good long term effects in Haiti that will continue to ripple outward from their base.

This is exactly what I had hoped for and why I wanted them to go in with an experienced disaster team that could provide a stable base for them to operate from and help string some connections to other organizations. My first phase goal in initiating this project has been accomplished (lives saved by going in as first responders, connections established with NGOs and the Haitian gov’t to create long term solutions). We are moving into the second phase and I will probably be traveling to Haiti in April with a Haitian student from the recent PDC I taught in Little Haiti, to assist with second phase projects.

It is important in permaculture to observe systems and what they are actually doing – speculation about it only goes so far in usefulness and sometimes can prevent people from seeing or even trying to look at what is really going on. I strongly believe in tolerance as a backbone of diverse systems and so will work with any organization that is truly open to applying permaculture principles. Each of us has the freedom to make our own moral choices on who we work with and why. I would ask that as permaculturists, we might observe the system for ourselves (which is essential for any truly sustainable design) before coming to conclusions about what that system is doing.

I’d like to acknowledge the bravery, dedication and hard work of the volunteer permaculturists who went there early. They have been dealing with some horrific conditions and have made them much less horrific. They have learned things about being first responders in disasters that they will be able to share with other permaculturists who might be interested in doing that. What are the advantages, what are the disadvantages of going in early?
I will continue to share these experiences on our web site and via other channels. I am excited to see some of the other projects that are springing up as a result of the permaculturehaiti and permacorp web sites and various discussions, such as the noramise.org project. Permaculture does have so many of the answers that are needed for Haiti, and they so deserve the help. I’d like to also thank all the “backlines” volunteer help and the donors who helped get the volunteers there, helped provide valuable research for them, and helped fund their projects.

I’m operations and logistics coordinator for PermaCorps for Haiti, a project of the USPI. PermaCorps has steering committee and advisory board members from permaculture institutes around the world, and we have to answer to them as well as every single volunteer we send into the field. We do not and will not send them in with people who don’t meet our training and certification standards as first or second responders, particularly to a largely unsecured location. We follow modern medical trauma protocols, including those for psychiatric trauma treatment, and would never knowingly partner with an individual or group that doesn’t do the same in any emergency recovery situation.

The people in disaster prone areas are deserving of all the help they can get. We all work in our own way to bring that aid to them. I don’t think we should feel guilt for not taking on projects we may feel compromise our core values and moral obligations. If a company or organization feels passionate about permaculture, they can get involved and personally learn how to help. Money isn’t always the answer, and sometimes money can actually be the problem.

http://ellenthevm.blogspot.com/

http://volunteerministers.org/blog/helping-doctors-haiti-university-miami-hospital-or.html

http://www.24hourforums.com/forum129/29630.html

From Nicole Metzner, a permaculturist in Haiti working on sanitation:

Our first very small project was setting up a latrine for the Volunteer Ministers camp, so that all those wonderful people who are working very hard, have the means of staying healthy! This was the first half day and then we started going out into the town.

The general hospital of Port au Prince was in a very bad shape when we arrived first, no solid waste management, meaning: garbage, medical waste, body parts all went into different piles anywhere people could find a place to dispose. The area of the Swiss Red Cross = maternity ward was especially bad, so the babies, who were born over the last couple of days were inhaling garbage with their first breath. It was heart-breaking and we focused on getting rid of this situation as soon as possible, so that in the end the Swiss Red Cross was able to set up another tent and thereby able to treat more patients than before. The area is clean now and is kept like this by locals, who are employed by the hospital administration. The funding for this came / will come from IMC, who work very close together with the local hospital administration. The second target there was getting rid of open defecation and urination to promote public health and avoid the spreading of diseases. This unfortunately could only be done by implementing portable toilets, since even though we advocated composting toilets the hospital administration would not let us do it. Anyway again it was more important to get sanitary conditions in as soon as possible as to fight for a longer time for a more sustainable solution. I am still convinced that we managed to plant a little seed in some peoples minds. (The implementation of this project was mostly managed by Rodrigo Silva, who is working relentlessly on getting the job done and Andrew Larson)

I moved on to another project, which will be implemented with UNICEF as soon as the project gets approved. This will include the implementation of water, sanitation, solid waste management and hygiene promotion in 60 orphanages in Port au Prince. I will let you know as soon as it gets approved and give you the details. The idea behind this is to implement UD composting toilets, so that the products can be used in a garden (teaching of the use of urine as fertilizer, the idea of creating compost out of feces, the re-use of hand-washing water to flush the toilets, general hygiene education and so on) Our main focus lies on training locals, who will work with us, so they can work as trainers on the same topic in the future. Regarding materials which have to be used, we got strong requirements from UNICEF, but are trying to work on using local materials as much as possible. Re-use of rubble, which can be found plenty here right now, in the drainage canals for showers and hand washing stations.

Again I will let you know when I know more.

While waiting for the approval we are not sitting around, but we rehabilitated a structure in front of the University of Miami Hospital, a field hospital in the airport camp, where we also live. Neither the patients nor their family members had a bathing place until yesterday, even though the hospital was set up immediately after the earthquake as far as I know. The facilities we used for open defecation and urination, since they provided a little privacy and public health that close to a field hospital was not taken into account, since more pressuring issues had to be handled first.

I want to make sure, that everything I am writing here is not supposed to put anyone in a bad light, because so far everyone I met down here, regardless of nationality and organisation she/he is working with is doing as much as possible to bring order back into this country and help where immediate needs have to be met.

In addition we provided water and sanitation and hygiene knowledge to the volunteer ministers, who were setting up an orphanage, which already has 100 children living there. Those children were living in 3 different orphanages before the earthquake and are now taken care of, loved and educated by local teachers and volunteers as well as international volunteers.

Since we are trying to work with locally available materials as much as possible we do not need anything right now. (If you could provide me with a hot shower and a little less noise, while planes start and land about 50 meters close to the tent in which I am sleeping I would be the happiest person you can imagine.;-) )

What would be needed and appreciated for the orphans we are taking care of are toothbrushes, about 100 or more and fluoride pills.

Aside from those bigger things we are all handling different smaller projects, work just does not stop. The army asked us to help with the assessment of wells they have, this is probably going to take place in the next days, we are driving around on motorcycles to assess the most immediate needs of orphanages we know of and involve locals as much as possible.

A little sidestory to our shower project yesterday, which made me so happy, that I almost cried.

While working on the showers with 5 male locals assigned to us by the hospital command, a young woman of about 20 years approached us and asked for work. We told her, that we could not pay here and could not even provide food or water for her. She wanted to help us regardless of any of those things. She was working twice as hard as the men and I happen to run into the in charge of local personnel, who I met and talked to earlier about what we were willing to do for the hospital. I told him about the young woman and recommended her to him in case he has the possibility to hire more people. Since we so far always kept our promises, build showers for the doctors earlier and finished the project on the patient showers as promised, he had a lot of trust in my recommendation. Quote: If you guys recommend her I trust you. He asked her to come over, took her information and hired her as a member of the team!

I am very busy right now but I do believe it is not good to let this type of thing sit. I do truly get tired of handling the same ol untrue rumor lines over and over so I don’t do it sometimes, but after consideration I feel I should address more of the specifics of your post.

I do not think there is anything wrong with people being concerned about things they’ve heard or read. I do want to clarify that. I do think there is something wrong with not going to that organization to get their side of the story, that is all. I understand there is a lot of controversy on the ‘net about Scientology and it is hard to understand why without the whole history and a longer post than I want to write right now. So I’ll try to address some of the individual concerns.

The belief system of Scientology is not hidden from us until we get to a certain point, that is very untrue. But that particular rumor influenced you to not talk to me about it, didn’t it?

Hubbard wrote dozens of books and gave thousands of lectures about Scientology and the vast majority of them are available to anybody, including non Scientologists. The church has made an effort to get these materials to religious scholars and other independent bodies to examine. They can be found in many libraries – one does not have to be a Scientologist to get access to any of the material. Go into any church and look at the amount of material available in the library of that church. It is a huge amount of material available to anybody Scientologist to study and the church has made a point to make it available to non Scientologists as well.

Most of the majorly important key beliefs are available in beginning courses of Scientology – they remain thematic throughout the most advanced studies. Hubbard believes that there are fundamental truths that open doors to many other truths and those fundamentals are the most important to isolate. He approached spirituality scientifically, and searched, via scientific method, for those fundamental underpinnings of existence and those are the most important aspects of Scientology. I feel permaculture has isolated many of the fundamentals of the natural world and that’s what makes it so effective. I feel the same way about Scientology. I also feel that way about a number of other philosophies – I personally like to seek alignment and beneficial connection amongst a diversity of belief systems and worldviews. It enriches me and my understanding of things.

There are some counseling processes in Scientology that are confidential – it is believed that one cannot benefit from them until one achieves a certain level. But there is no requirement to achieve that level and many do not. People get plenty of benefits from the substantial amount of material available to anybody.

The church is not a pyramid scheme. Upper management is paid less than some parish ministers. I know this personally because I’ve personally seen the tax returns when I did some work for the church in that area. There is no group of individuals who are getting wealthy, the money is used for church expansion.

Re: 9/11, I need to ask you, what makes you think psychological counseling is what everybody needs or is the best way to heal trauma? I have never chosen that medium to heal myself mentally or emotionally – my personal experience and observation has been that it is not really that helpful or workable. There are many people who would turn to some form of spirituality to heal themselves rather than psychology. Psychology has a monopoly on care of a person’s spirit and emotion, but they shouldn’t. Diversity is a good thing in an ecosystem and in human systems – people should have free choice. Scientologists give what is called “assists” at disasters. People don’t have to accept these unless they want to, they have free choice, unlike those who are involuntarily incarcerated in mental hospitals, for instance. Many assists are delivered by word of mouth – someone had good results and brings a friend or family member.

These are simple procedures (like getting a person to look around and become oriented in his environment) that can help calm a person, bring him out of shock, and help get him oriented. Other assists are physical procedures that can help renew one’s energy, like the “touch assist.” These have been invaluable to exhausted rescue workers. Many people have found these very helpful and useful. In some disaster areas, Red Cross workers and other disaster relief workers are using these methods because they have personally observed how helpful they are to people. But this is far from the only thing Scientologists do at disaster sites. They do basically whatever is needed to help, and they are good at it which is why they are invited to be first responders. They would NOT be invited back and allowed into areas other lay organizations do not have easy access to if they were not effective. Please just think about that. They are in the main camps at every disaster, working hand in hand with Red Cross, and all other major organizations. That doesn’t happen to groups who are there for purely selfish reasons. People’s emotions are very high in disasters and if a group was there just sucking resources instead of helping, they would not be tolerated very long.

One reason I wanted permaculturists to go in with Scientologists is I felt they would more quickly be introduced to other organizations that could fund some major permaculture projects. I am waiting to hear back from the permaculturists there now, but it sounds like this may have been achieved – they are working with UNICEF right now to possibly build a bunch of compost toilets for orphanages, per last report and there are several other projects ongoing. This is the exact effect I hoped might be created – that being right in the center of things would enable permaculturists to get their message out there into the mainstream. So really, one could say I was using Scientology to forward the aims of permaculture, as sneaky and nefarious as that may be

I know that VM’s are nimble and can move fast, think with new things and respond to them, more so than some of the more bureaucratic organizations like the Red Cross. I briefed them on permaculture before these guys went, in hopes of getting their help to get these guys the right connections to really make a difference. The response of the VMs is that they love permaculture, they see its value, they want more. It works, its needed, it’s helping Haitians, it’s got long term ethical implications (which is another key tenet of Scientology – ethical behavior takes the long, seven generation view, though Scientologists may say it differently). They called me to specifically ask me to get more experts down there because they are needed and are being effective.

I’d like to address your statements about Hubbard last. This man has a track record of being a very productive humanitarian. He created one of the most successful (by study and statistic) drug rehab programs on the planet, he created a program to rehabilitate criminals rather than incarcerate them (he believes that any criminal behavior can be rehabilitated, and that all people are decent at their core), inner city literacy programs all over the world, etc.

One could accuse anybody of being a fraud – the proof is in what people get out of what that person has done. For that, I again suggest that people read something that he wrote, and see for themselves if it makes sense or is useful or meaningful. The majority of people who do that and look for themselves, find it helpful. I have found a great deal of wisdom and truth in the writings.

I don’t consider the organization perfect. No organization is. But there are many, many positive elements that critics just do not acknowledge. I personally believe that if someone wants to heal or rehab a system that has problems, it is best done by observing the system, being on the ground, and working WITH the system, not against it. Critics are at war with Scientology, like monoculturists are at war with nature. And their view of Scientology is about as narrow as a row of artifically fertilized corn, in my opinion. I go into the system, and work with the system as a designer, to improve it, using all the principles of permaculture to do so. I believe that is a far more responsible route than being an armchair critic, hiding behind one’s computer screen.

I hope this answers more questions as to why I wanted first responder permaculturists to go in with the VMs. Please, if you have more questions, ask. I will post updated info from the five on the ground and the new team going in as soon as I have it.

The other point not addressed is, why is this even an issue? I don’t know of any attempt by the church to position itself with permaculture. Why is anybody even concerned with it?

I really like you and respect your work quite a lot, Craig. I find your articles intelligent, informative and useful. That is one reason this surprised me so much, because it seemed out of character from the thoughtfulness and care I usually see, so I guess I have reacted to that to some degree and I apologize for that. I hope you can see something of why I feel this coverage has been unfair to me and to other Scientologists who may also be permaculturists.

I do appreciate your suggestions that I address the issues that have been aired, and I ask that anybody that has specific concerns please do write me to get my side of the story. I’m also asking that people please try to differentiate between accusations/rumor and actual facts, and try to stick to facts, please.

I would like to gently point out some illogics in your response. You say you felt I would be biased in my responses, but ex-Scientologists are NOT biased? Any reporter routinely gets both sides of the story, because they know that BOTH sides are biased. Ex-members of any group who make a career out of criticism are always biased, Craig. These guys cannot say one nice thing about Scientology to save themselves. Try them.

What you’re saying is that people with religious beliefs who actually study that religion cannot be trusted to explain those beliefs or to know anything about their religion, because they might have affinity for what they study. Only people who hate that religion can be trusted on the subject.

You wrote to John asking him about on the ground reports, but you didn’t write to me, even though I am the one that started this whole controversy by flying people to Haiti on Scientology-chartered planes. Why wouldn’t you write me to ask who I got there and what they were actually doing? To find out if they were even involved with Scientology AT ALL? You wrote this article full of concerns that you didn’t even verify were true. They are not legitimate concerns.

Now, I am being asked to publicly defend my religious beliefs on a permaculture site that has nothing to do with religion, because no one bothered to find out what had actually happened before going off into some fantasy about a plot by the church to do something or other about permaculture that might be “bad”.

By the way, I DID post on PRI that I had five volunteers going, and the information is also clearly stated on my web site, which has been posted on every one of my posts, which you apparently did not check. Permacultureguild.us

I don’t have the most recent report from the ground up on the web site yet, but I did send it to you via email and you acknowledged receiving it, a few days ago.

I want to point out that the ONLY reason Scientology even came up on PRI is because you asked me to post info on who was involved in getting people to Haiti. I complied to your request. So why are people “high up” in permaculture concerned with this?

Does that really seem fair and unbiased? Now I’m having to take time out to defend my religion when all I really wanted to do is get people to Haiti fast. But if you want me to talk about why I like Scientology on here (which I’m making very clear, was never my intention), I will do so.

I would like to write an article about what the volunteers who are going there are doing and I will give the details about that in the article. I hope PRI will post it – I think readers will find it interesting. It is quite nice what they are doing there – they have saved lives which is why I wanted to get them there fast.

As for Scientology, it saved my life. I have found this religion to be a very deep and broad spiritual philosophy that is also practical and useful in every aspect of my life, that embraces everything that permaculture stands for. The way I would suggest anybody find out about any subject, including Scientology, is to go to the source material about it and look for yourself. Read some books by Hubbard, and decide for yourself if it has value. I would say that anybody who hasn’t looked at what it is for themselves doesn’t really know what they’re talking about. That is true of permaculture, Scientology, anything.

I have personally worked with the Volunteer Ministers and these people have very large hearts and truly care about people. They are sacrificing a lot to be there, and critics have no clue about that because they certainly haven’t gone there to do that. They haven’t been side by side cleaning up the dead bodies with these people, to SEE what they are actually doing. They are just making unproven accusations, which I’m now asked to defend. Is there a responsibility to LOOK, before assuming? To me, that is an essential principle of permaculture. There is plenty of info about the positive things they are doing – I posted some of it.

Scientology believes that there are eight dynamics in life, that are concentric in nature. They start with self, and move to romantic relationships and family, then to groups, then to mankind, then to the natural world, then to the physical universe, then to spirits, and then to a Supreme Being.

We are all responsible to live ethically and with correct exchange, with all of these dynamics. That means we cannot take from the upper dynamics to serve the lower ones. The lower dynamics are dependent upon the upper ones and we have responsibility to care for those, just as we would care for ourselves. That means we have a responsibility to care for mankind and the natural world just as we would care for ourselves individually.

Ethical behavior is defined as the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics, meaning that one must consider how one’s actions affect all life forms before one takes action.

One of the principles tenets of Scientology is personal integrity, which is considered more important than one’s immediate life. What personal integrity is defined as in Scientology is “What is true for you is what you have observed for yourself” and Hubbard exhorts people to observe everything in life for themselves, including Scientology, and consider if it is harmful, helpful, decent, etc, for themselves. This is read at every Sunday sermon the church gives.

As for the accusations the critics made, how would you like it if someone started accusing PRI of being a bunch of child molesters and you had to defend that? Priests were tried in a court of law and actually convicted of molestation – the accusations you’re making of the church are rumor, not convictions in a court of law. Is being innocent before proven guilty part of people care?

The church has been involved in DEFENDING lawsuits brought by litigious ex-members who are trying to make some money from it. An investigation of actual facts, not internet rumor, will reveal that. The vast majority of lawsuits have been defensive, and we have won about 99% of them because they were frivolous and unfounded. The church has had no choice but to be “litigious”. Critics are extremely harrassive in the legal system, trying to depose church workers who have no relation to their lawsuit, making blanket accusations of horrible stuff they have no proof of (and get kicked out of court because of it), and then using media about the lawsuit, or post it on the internet to inflame people, etc. It is very ugly stuff. If you took a real unbiased look at this Craig, I think you would find out that the critics are the ones with a manipulative agenda – they have gotten you to attack a worthy project without even trying to really inspect for yourself first.

Cory