Theos-Talk Archives (February 2009 Message tt00040)

Our thanks to Sampsa for keeping us informed from Finland.

Since we have not seen the official record of the GC meeting, any event
witnessed by several people will be recalled by each differently due to
various human reasons. We have read accounts from two GC members. Hence it
would be informative to all, if Sampsa can translate the Finnish version
into English and post it here so that we can get another view of the meeting
(of course with a disclaimer that Sampsa is not responsible for the accuracy
of the translation.)

The tie votes for Lindemann is interesting. If there is a legitimate concern
about his association with any other group, there is no need for any
secrecy. TS is not a secret organization. Bring up the issue openly with him
and ask him to respond openly. As a long-time theosophist of highest
integrity, suspecting anything untoward regarding his association with any
other group, surprises me and is also not fair to him.

The right course of action is to ask him directly in writing and I am sure
he will respond. In my experience, many times, when issues arise, the real
reason behind the issue may be something other than that openly cited or
discussed.

So it is better for TS as well as for himself to remove the cloud that seems
to have spread over him and the hanging cloud is neither fair to him nor is
a brotherly action from theosophical leaders.

In my opinion, the proposals made by the Quartet need to be viewed with the
events that took place since the start of the election process. First came
the attempt to depict to membership, Radha as sick, mentally and physically.
When three highly reputed doctors, one a GC member and GS of a Section, from
two continents certified her fit, both mentally and physically, instead of
immediately sharing this information with membership so that they can come
to their own conclusion, the nominators of the other candidate, kept silent,
thus leading many to think Radha as sick and possibly voted against her.
Next was the move to disenfranchise the membership world-wide and radically
change the rules. The timing of the move (soon after the election), and the
players behind it (those who wanted to defeat Radha) coupled with the
secrecy and speed with which the change was attempted was the real problem.

The super secrecy with which disenfranchisement move was crafted and speed
with which approval was sought was astonishing. It was so secret that even
long-time members at Adyar, Olcott and other National Centers were kept in
total darkness and they learnt it from Internet.

All of us world-wide were to be disenfranchised and a small group of GC
members end up monopolizing not only the nomination (as at present) but also
the selection (the election is a farce) of the president, would in effect
resulted in making the president a puppet controlled by a small group of GC
members.

So the problems are not with the proposals. It is with the lack of
transparency at all levels of administration and last year's events creating
a culture of lack of trust in the leaders. Until the trust issue is settled,
any change would be highly suspect. Once members lose their rights, they
will never retrieve it.

My 0.02.

MKR



On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 4:26 PM, sampsakuukasjarvi <
sampsakuukasjarvi@yahoo.com> wrote:

>   A correction. I was told that Gabriel Burgos Suarez and Conrad
> Jamieson are not anymore additional members of the General Council:
>
> "According to the 2007 Annual Report, both Gabriel Burgos' and Conrad
> Jamieson's terms as Additional Members, ended on 31 Dec. 2008."
>
> The GS report given by the Finnish General Secretary reminded the
> reports given by Betty Bland and Warwick Key, but it had been written
> softer, more politely. The report was published in Finnish on the
> Finnish Theosophical internet forum.
>
> Not any decisions were made in the GC meeting. The reason is that
> they were not on the agenda. Transparency, rule amendments,
> membership decline and other hot potatoes were neither discussed
> formally, but they were discussed informally during the convent.
>
> The tie votes mentioned by MKR in his message below took place in the
> Vice-President nomination and in Ricardo Lindemann's nomination.
> Lindemann has some connections to an other organization in Brazil and
> some General Council members thought that the TS will be mixed with
> that other organization (which name I don't want to mention).
>
> I believe that there are serious problems in the way how Adyar
> administration works. It is undemocratic. Erica, MKR, William, Pedro,
> Aryel and others big critics against the proposals should admit this.
> It is not so that "the quartet" behind the amendments is just
> villains. The truth is somewhere between the opposites.
>
> Sampsa
>
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com <theos-talk%40yahoogroups.com>, MKR
> <mkr777@...> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for sharing the information. I think we have a good set of GC
> > members. Would it not be nice if the International Secretary
> publishes their
> > e-mail addresses so that members world-wide can write to them of
> any issues
> > that should be considered by the GC.
> >
> > Already two TS members have suggested that the meetings at national
> and
> > international level can easily be opened up by putting a camera and
> > broadcasting live on Internet. Looks like Internet technology is
> going to
> > help us bring transparency to TS. Transparency will be the bulwark
> to help
> > prevent any secret dissentious moves by GC members with their own
> stated or
> > hidden agendas.
> >
> > Tie votes in the last meeting shows the division that exists and it
> would be
> > interesting to know who is in what camp and possibly discover and
> understand
> > any underlying unspoken driving force or ideology behind them.
> >
> > After all we are all human and as a Master once said - the human
> nature in
> > London and Adyar are the same. Hence we should be prepared for
> surprise
> > actions subtly conflicting with the first object we all subscribe
> to in
> > varying degrees.
> >
> > Let us keep tuned in and hope we get feedback from other sections
> and learn
> > what their members are being told about the GC meeting..
> >
> > M K Ramadoss
> >
> > THERE IS NO RELIGION HIGHER THAN TRUTH
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 12:12 PM, sampsakuukasjarvi <
> > sampsakuukasjarvi@...> wrote:
> >
> > > The General Secretary of my country (the Finnish Section) will
> soon
> > > inform our membership about the decisions and discussion that took
> > > place at the General Council meeting at Adyar. (I am, of course,
> > > talking about the TS Adyar.)
> > >
> > > I already heard from her who are the current additional members of
> > > the GC. I am sure that some people here are interested as I to
> know
> > > these people.
> > >
> > > Ex-officio members:
> > > President Radha Burnier
> > > Vice-President Linda Oliveira (Australia 1)
> > > Secretary Keith Fisher (Australia 2)
> > > Treasurer Keshwar Dastur (India)
> > >
> > > New members (since 2009):
> > > Helen Jamieson (New Zealand 2)
> > > Ricardo Lindemann (Brazil)
> > > Sriram Panchu (India)
> > > H.K. Sharan (India)
> > >
> > > Old members (in 2008 Ãâ" 2010):
> > > Gabriel Burgos Suarez (Colombia)
> > > Terezinha Franca Kind (Brazil)
> > > D.K. Govindaraj (India)
> > > Conrad Jamieson (New Zealand 2)
> > > Tran-Thi-Kim-Dieu (France)
> > > Joy Mills (USA)
> > > Surendra Narayan (India)
> > >
> > > Explanations:
> > > 1 = will soon move to Adyar
> > > 2 = lives at Adyar
> > >
> > > Best Wishes,
> > > Sampsa
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>  
>


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