See:  

Note at the Tedx website:

Published on 27 Oct 2014

 This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. The Ugly Indian is an anonymous collective that does not talk to media, wants no publicity and works with the motto – Only Work No Talk. However, they made an exception for TEDxBangalore so that they could open up the question of why we as Indians are okay with filthy public spaces? The tragedy of the commons – can we change it to the victory of the commons?

There’s a silent revolution brewing in India, and it’s called The Ugly Indian. It is anonymous, faceless and leaderless, and has seen thousands of citizens coming out to fix local civic problems following a simple motto: Kaam Chalu Mooh Bandh. Only Work No Talk. What started off as a series of social experiments in Bangalore in 2011, to see what it takes to change everyday ugly Indian behaviour in public spaces (littering, spitting paan, public urination and more), has now transformed into a nation-wide movement that is spreading virally – both on social media, and on the ground. The centrepiece of the TUI approach is the ‘spotfix ‘ where ugly spots are ‘fixed’ by citizens. There is no activism, no sloganeering, no lecturing, no finger-pointing and no ideological debates – just a sincere attempt to solve problems by focusing on a spot – using one’s own time, hands and money.

–

Who will step forward? Who simply will speak out?

Why the big load heaped on the shoulders of so few?

Like Nelson Mandela or Gandhi the Mahatma

Like  Simone Weil or Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

And the small band of others across time

Many not named or else famed and soon-forgotten

Who will walk like these? Who simply will step forward?

Even though, even though – the numbers need to grow

*

Or who will be timid, and show kids how to back-step?

Or who will teach boldness by ourselves being bold?

Like Martin Luther King or Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop

Like the Dalai Lama or Wangari Maathai 

And the small band of others across time

Their eyes on the straight point of their compass of conscience

Simple as a fable, just as pointed, and as true

 *

Standing up, speaking out, stepping forward

Even though, even though – their numbers need to grow

*

… Why does it take war before we snap awake?

… Or a Royal Commission before we listen

… To the rivers across the years of people’s tears

… Who have no protection when bullies oppress them

*

Who will step forward? Who simply will speak out?

Why the big load heaped on the shoulders of so few?

Like Malala Yousafzai or Liu Xiaobo

Like the Irish peace women or Andrei Sakharov

And the small band of others across time

Many not named – or else famed and soon forgotten

Who will walk like these? Who will simply step forward?

*

Standing up, speaking out, stepping forward

Even though, even though – the numbers need to grow

*

… Why does it take war before we snap awake?

… Or a Royal Commission before we listen

… To the rivers across the years of people’s tears

… Who have no protection when bullies oppress them

Except when we are –

Standing up, speaking out, stepping forward …

 ——————————————————

“If I win Nobel Peace Prize, it would be a great opportunity for me, but if I don’t get it, it’s not important because my goal is not to get Nobel Peace Prize, my goal is to get peace and my goal is to see the education of every child.” Malala Yousafzai

“Nonviolence is not a thing that comes easily. You have to learn how to be nonviolent.”
Betty Williams

The great South African leader Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) died late yesterday (South African time), aged 95. 

Some around me have canceled other activities, preferring to watch – often in tears – the television reports coming through. One of our number asked a fourteen year old boy to sit and watch, saying: “This is a super special day in historical memory. Have as many of the good qualities of Nelson Mandela as you can, and you will know an inner strength and purpose that nobody can ever take away from you.”

Happily, the boy tore himself away from his Sony Playstation 3. It remains to be seen who wins the future: Nelson Mandela or corporate heads such as those at Sony.

Nelson Mandela looking through prison bars to a brighter  future for all, irrespective of race or creed

For 27 years, a hideous and violent, white supremacist South African regime incarcerated Mandela on Robben Island and later Pollsmoor and Victor Verster prisons.  On his release, Mandela  addressing a huge and joyous rally in Capetown, said (See this speech below):

“I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people”.

Nelson Mandela receiving the 1993 Nobel Prize, co-awarded along with Frederik Willem de Klerk “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa”

His compassion, wisdom and humility have long proved genuine. On the other hand, the following photos show Sathya Sai Baba in the pomp and circumstance that accompanied his claims to be God fully manifest on the earth. After he died, imperial caches of treasure were found in secret places in his private chambers. See:  Exposé writer Barry Pittard on the latest Trust and treasure scandals. Posted by robertpriddy on June 22, 2011

Sathya Sai Baba: Incredible pomp In poverty-stricken India

What Mandela was – and, in a sense, forever is – Sathya Sai Baba was not, and can never, in his profoundly compromised memory, forever be.

Under the extremely cruel racist policy in South Africa, which brutally segregated white and non-white populations, Nelson Mandela, bravely stood for justice, democracy, compassion, truthfulness and decency. Despite the evil directed against himself and others in South Africa, he was a moral giant who affirmed compassion and forgiveness, and eschewed bitterness and revenge. He withstood persecution, torture and long imprisonment. He was mankind-at-its-best triumphant. Sathya Sai Baba, surrounded by extremely mendacious servitors, was God pretended.

From Business Review Weekly (Australia), Updated 06 December 2013 11:22 :
“Nelson Mandela first met former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser in March 1986. By then, Mandela had been in prison for almost 23 years.
“The first thing Nelson Mandela said to me, speaking formally: ‘Mr Fraser, is Don Bradman still alive?’ ” Fraser recalls. He met Mandela as one of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, a body charged with promoting dialogue between the apartheid National Party government and the then-outlawed African National Congress (ANC), and wrote about the meeting in a document commemorating Australian-South African relations.
The former prime minister assured Mandela Bradman was still alive. He was also later able to give Mandela a present – a cricket bat inscribed by The Don.
“To Nelson Mandela in recognition of a great unfinished innings,” Bradman wrote.  (Note from this blogger:  Irrespective of what a few misled Indian cricket over-enthusiasts claim, Sir Donald Bradman was the greatest cricketer the world has seen).

 Australia’s Prime Minister from 1975-1983, Malcolm Fraser – who knew Mandela and visited him in prison, and in marked contrast to other contemporary Conservative heads of State like Margaret Thatcher (UK) and Ronald Reagan (USA), played a distinguished role in defeating South Africa’s Apartheid regime – has said of Mandela:

“How does one judge his place in history? Of all the people I have met, he was by far the greatest. I do not know anyone who could stand near to him. In the pages of history, there would be few who would stand as an equal …  His sense of forgiveness and of justice was immense. His sense of equity was absolute. For Mandela politics was a matter of high principle and of steadfast purpose. He did not need polls or focus groups. He knew what was right, he knew what had to be done”.

Canberra Times

Nelson Mandela: ‘By far the greatest man’

December 6, 2013 – 10:25AM

Malcolm Fraser

Nelson Mandela’s life: from struggle, to greatness

Revered by millions as a leader in the fight against oppression, and as an archetype of reconciliation, Nelson Mandela leaves behind a grieving nation.

In the 1980s there was already a magnetism about Nelson Mandela. His name was known worldwide even though he had been in jail for 27 years. What kind of man could achieve that reputation from the barren Robben Island?

I first met Mandela in Cape Town’s Pollsmoor jail. I was with other members of the Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons in 1986. He was a tall, spare man standing very straight with a steady eye. He was a person of natural grace and dignity.

A tribute: Nelson Mandela. Photo: Getty

We had come to see him to talk about negotiations between the African National Congress and the government of P.W. Botha.

He had some preliminary things to say, however. He looked at me and said, “Mr Fraser, is Donald Bradman still alive?” Later I was able to take a bat to Mandela, signed by Bradman, with the following notation: “To Nelson Mandela, in recognition of a great unfinished innings”.

Mandela then turned to Lord Barber, who had been Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer in Ted Heath’s government some years before. He said, “Lord Barber, I read somewhere that Prime Minister Thatcher said she could do business with President Gorbachev. Would you please tell her it would be very much easier and far, far safer to do business with Nelson Mandela.”

• Click to play videoThe world mourns Mandela
• Click to play video.  Cameron calls Mandela the ‘hero of our time’
• LIVE: Nelson Mandela death leaves South Africa in mourning

• Nelson Mandela dead: Jacob Zuma confirms news
• A colossus whose time had to come
• The man who built the rainbow
• Mandela, the myth and the man

Nelson Mandela`s Address to a rally in Cape Town on his release from prison

11 February 1990

Friends, comrades and fellow South Africans.

I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all.

I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people. Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands.

On this day of my release, I extend my sincere and warmest gratitude to the millions of my compatriots and those in every corner of the globe who have campaigned tirelessly for my release.

I send special greetings to the people of Cape Town, this city which has been my home for three decades. Your mass marches and other forms of struggle have served as a constant source of strength to all political prisoners.

I salute the African National Congress. It has fulfilled our every expectation in its role as leader of the great march to freedom.

I salute our President, Comrade Oliver Tambo, for leading the ANC even under the most difficult circumstances.

I salute the rank and file members of the ANC. You have sacrificed life and limb in the pursuit of the noble cause of our struggle.

I salute combatants of Umkhonto we Sizwe, like Solomon Mahlangu and Ashley Kriel who have paid the ultimate price for the freedom of all South Africans.

I salute the South African Communist Party for its sterling contribution to the struggle for democracy. You have survived 40 years of unrelenting persecution. The memory of great communists like Moses Kotane, Yusuf Dadoo, Bram Fischer and Moses Mabhida will be cherished for generations to come.

I salute General Secretary Joe Slovo, one of our finest patriots. We are heartened by the fact that the alliance between ourselves and the Party remains as strong as it always was.

I salute the United Democratic Front, the National Education Crisis Committee, the South African Youth Congress, the Transvaal and Natal Indian Congresses and COSATU and the many other formations of the Mass Democratic Movement.

I also salute the Black Sash and the National Union of South African Students. We note with pride that you have acted as the conscience of white South Africa. Even during the darkest days in the history of our struggle you held the flag of liberty high. The large-scale mass mobilisation of the past few years is one of the key factors which led to the opening of the final chapter of our struggle.

I extend my greetings to the working class of our country. Your organised strength is the pride of our movement. You remain the most dependable force in the struggle to end exploitation and oppression.

I pay tribute to the many religious communities who carried the campaign for justice forward when the organisations for our people were silenced.

I greet the traditional leaders of our country – many of you continue to walk in the footsteps of great heroes like Hintsa and Sekhukune.

I pay tribute to the endless heroism of youth, you, the young lions. You, the young lions, have energised our entire struggle.

I pay tribute to the mothers and wives and sisters of our nation. You are the rock-hard foundation of our struggle. Apartheid has inflicted more pain on you than on anyone else.

On this occasion, we thank the world community for their great contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle. Without your support our struggle would not have reached this advanced stage. The sacrifice of the frontline states will be remembered by South Africans forever.

My salutations would be incomplete without expressing my deep appreciation for the strength given to me during my long and lonely years in prison by my beloved wife and family. I am convinced that your pain and suffering was far greater than my own.

Before I go any further I wish to make the point that I intend making only a few preliminary comments at this stage. I will make a more complete statement only after I have had the opportunity to consult with my comrades.

Today the majority of South Africans, black and white, recognise that apartheid has no future. It has to be ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. The mass campaign of defiance and other actions of our organisation and people can only culminate in the establishment of democracy. The destruction caused by apartheid on our sub-continent is in- calculable. The fabric of family life of millions of my people has been shattered. Millions are homeless and unemployed. Our economy lies in ruins and our people are embroiled in political strife. Our resort to the armed struggle in 1960 with the formation of the military wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe, was a purely defensive action against the violence of apartheid. The factors which necessitated the armed struggle still exist today. We have no option but to continue. We express the hope that a climate conducive to a negotiated settlement will be created soon so that there may no longer be the need for the armed struggle.

I am a loyal and disciplined member of the African National Congress. I am therefore in full agreement with all of its objectives, strategies and tactics.

The need to unite the people of our country is as important a task now as it always has been. No individual leader is able to take on this enormous task on his own. It is our task as leaders to place our views before our organisation and to allow the democratic structures to decide. On the question of democratic practice, I feel duty bound to make the point that a leader of the movement is a person who has been democratically elected at a national conference. This is a principle which must be upheld without any exceptions.

Today, I wish to report to you that my talks with the government have been aimed at normalising the political situation in the country. We have not as yet begun discussing the basic demands of the struggle. I wish to stress that I myself have at no time entered into negotiations about the future of our country except to insist on a meeting between the ANC and the government.

Mr De Klerk has gone further than any other Nationalist president in taking real steps to normalise the situation. However, there are further steps as outlined in the Harare Declaration that have to be met before negotiations on the basic demands of our people can begin. I reiterate our call for, inter alia, the immediate ending of the State of Emergency and the freeing of all, and not only some, political prisoners. Only such a normalised situation, which allows for free political activity, can allow us to consult our people in order to obtain a mandate.

The people need to be consulted on who will negotiate and on the content of such negotiations. Negotiations cannot take place above the heads or behind the backs of our people. It is our belief that the future of our country can only be determined by a body which is democratically elected on a non-racial basis. Negotiations on the dismantling of apartheid will have to address the over- whelming demand of our people for a democratic,

non-racial and unitary South Africa. There must be an end to white monopoly on political power and a fundamental restructuring of our political and economic systems to ensure that the inequalities of apartheid are addressed and our society thoroughly democratised.

It must be added that Mr De Klerk himself is a man of integrity who is acutely aware of the dangers of a public figure not honouring his undertakings. But as an organisation we base our policy and strategy on the harsh reality we are faced with. And this reality is that we are still suffering under the policy of the Nationalist government.

Our struggle has reached a decisive moment. We call on our people to seize this moment so that the process towards democracy is rapid and uninterrupted. We have waited too long for our freedom. We can no longer wait. Now is the time to intensify the struggle on all fronts. To relax our efforts now would be a mistake which generations to come will not be able to forgive. The sight of freedom looming on the horizon should encourage us to redouble our efforts.

It is only through disciplined mass action that our victory can be assured. We call on our white compatriots to join us in the shaping of a new South Africa. The freedom movement is a political home for you too. We call on the international community to continue the campaign to isolate the apartheid regime. To lift sanctions now would be to run the risk of aborting the process towards the complete eradication of apartheid.

Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way. Universal suffrage on a common voters` role in a united democratic and non-racial South Africa is the only way to peace and racial harmony.

In conclusion I wish to quote my own words during my trial in 1964. They are true today as they were then:

`I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.`

In yesterday’s article – Shattered International Sathya Sai Organization Faces Dead Guru’s 2013 Birthday Celebrations – I said that early in our exposure of the Sathya Sai cult, my closest and immensely trusted collaborator the late Glen Meloy dearly wished that we could find a widely-respected Vedic pundit. He wrote to me saying that it was valuable to have the American academic Dr Timothy Conway’s expert

“documented research on the record, but we still need an authentic voice from the hierarchy in the Hindu priesthood in India to speak out on these alleged kundalini raising procedures employed by Sai Baba. I think that the Hindu spiritual leaders owe it to all the faithful followers of Hinduism to set the record straight. It’s time for them to come out of the closet and dispel the false notion that shaktipat can only be done by touching the genitals or the muladhara region. It’s actually an insult being hurled by Sai Baba to all the Deities such as Lord Krishna, Lord Rama, Lord Jesus, Lord Buddha, Moses or any of the names of God. Let’s put this kundalini raising claim to rest once and for all, so that the leadership of the Sai Organization cannot hide behind those false assertions”.

We repeatedly found Hindu leaders unwilling to comment. My own personal contact with a number of outstanding Indian swamis from different ashrams provided me with the privately shared knowledge that, far and wide in India, deeply distressed spiritual seekers with shocking experience at the hands of Sathya Sai Baba had sought the solace of other well-known ashrams. However, sexual abuse is still such a profoundly tabooed topic in India that my efforts to obtain public statements came to naught. However, one figure, not Indian, but held in enormously high regard both by many foremost academic institutions, religious scholars and Hindu teachers, responded to us personally and with decency, clarity and compassion, and came out with a public statement. This was Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya (Dr Frank Morales), who has long advocated the use of the Vedic term ‘Sanathana Dharma’ rather than the relatively recent term ‘Hinduism’.

Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya (Dr Frank Morales)

Of Morales, the Editor-in-Chief of the worldwide ‘Hinduism Today Magazine’, Paramacharya Palaniswami, has written:

“Few have the background and fewer still the courage to speak boldly about Hinduism in modern times. Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya has both, and wields them to trenchant purpose.” 

Here is the Acharya’s public statement:

One of our outspoken former Sathya Sai Baba devotees – a highly credentialed psychologist with a great deal of experience counseling young people and others who have been sexually and in other ways abused – is Shirley Pike, of Iowa, USA.  She wrote to the Editor of Dr Frank Morales’ magazine:

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Suddenly and shockingly, almost overnight, many Sai devotees demonized those who, for decades, were highly regarded in the Sai Baba fold, once they spoke out. As I was to learn from others well beyond this cult who have exposed corruption and betrayal in authoritarian organizations, this demonization process is an inescapable result for those who speak out, no matter how responsibly and within integrity they do so. It is, perhaps, all the more disturbing when the hatred, anger, distortion of one’s words, defamation, libel, and ice-cold shunning come from those who claim to be involved in spirituality. 

Happily, Glen Meloy’s hope expressed to me (see below) that we would be able to get a distinguished acharya widely influential within Hinduism to make a public statement about the abuse issue was to be realised. We eventually corresponded with a renowned Vedic scholar and teacher, Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya (Dr Frank Morales). He responded personally, graciously and kindly. He also soon went public, which we found Indian religious authorities unwilling to do. For the Acharya-ji’s statement, see my post that follows this one: 

Hindu Leaders Reticent To Go Public On Sexual Abuse. Dr Frank Morales (Acharya-ji) An Exception. Posted by Barry Pittard on November 23, 2013

The following note from Ron Mead (husband of one of the foremost Sai cult matriarchs, Bernice Mead) to Glen Meloy shows a reaction typical in its head-in-the-sand attitude when devotees are confronted with their guru’s wrongdoings: psychological denial.

In my post at this time last year:

Sathya Sai Baba’s Birthday, 2012: No Celebration For A Many Worldwide Who Mourn As Victims, Posted by Barry Pittard on November 22, 2012, I wrote:

‘For thousands of former Sathya Sai Baba followers worldwide, there is no celebrating the late would-be ‘Avatar’s’ birthday on 23 November. Often without formally resigning, countless left his international Sathya Sai Organization. Many who had thought to join it did not do so. The cult is in terrible disarray.

I am all the more saddened at his vast betrayal, because, for two years (circa 1978-79), I lectured in the three-years Arts degree course at the Sathya Sai College at Whitefield, and will never forget, as I was all too slow in discovering, his and his organization’s profound failure in duty of care for the students. See my article and the BBC television documentary, The Secret Swami: The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision

I worked hard, as any conscientious teacher does, to see that the utmost dedication, trust and skill served them as of their complete birthright. I was at my most idealistic – More than just a work force, I wanted to see the building of a soul force.’

As I was to learn from others well beyond this cult who have exposed corruption and betrayal in authoritarian organizations, this demonization process is an inescapable result for those who speak out, no matter how responsibly and within integrity they do so. It is, perhaps, all the more disturbing when the hatred, anger, distortion of one’s words, defamation, libel, and ice-cold shunning come from those who claim to be involved in spirituality. Indeed, right at the Sai Organizational apex, Sai Baba’s close aide, Dr Venkataraman could be seen in full swing, and most devoid of the love and truthfulness which he, like Sai Baba, so often extol above all qualities. See:

Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard On Dr G. Venkataraman – Sathya Sai Baba Global Propagandist

Posted by Barry Pittard on October 18, 2009

After he learnt of Sathya Sai Baba’s serial and large-scale sexual abuse of boys and young men, Glen Meloy embarked on an enormously self-sacrificing, far-reaching systematic investigation of the allegations. This included families and victims whom Glen had known for years. By some children of Sathya Sai devotees of many years standing, Glen was lovingly known as ‘Uncle Glen’.

Increasingly, from circa 2000, much-assisted by the spectacular growth of the internet, first-hand and terrible stories spread of homosexual and other forms of abuse at the hands of Sathya Sai Baba. Devotees in many countries became former devotees, and began to network. I just wish we could have had Skype back in those days.

This exit from the worldwide Sathya Sai Organization included top leaders as well as those from the rank-and-file. See my articles (which contain many further links) e.g.,:

The Late Leo Boogaard: A Dutch Voice of Conscience On Sathya Sai Baba and Sathya Sai Baba Critic Serguei Badaev: An Incisive Voice of Conscience From Russia ‘BILD’ Story. “Guru Wants Sex” (Sathya Sai Baba) and Why Do Prominent Sathya Sai Baba Sect Critics Persist? and Timothy Conway Ph.D – On ‘The Hislop Letters’ and BBC Transcript ‘The Secret Swami’ (Sathya Sai Baba’s Frauds Exposed)

With an enormous amount of international coordination among former Sai Baba devotees, we were able to bring our case to the United Nations, Interpol, and many leading media. See:

BBC Caught UNESCO Head Bowing To Indian Government

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 26, 2007

Barry Pittard’s Guide To His Articles On The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Exposing Sai Baba)

See my obituary for Glen, who was (until after his death when Robert Priddy and I joined forces) my closest collaborator in exposing Sathya Sai Baba and his cult:

Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam

Posted by Barry Pittard on November 18, 2009

See also:

The Genesis of the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Sai Baba)

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 9, 2007

U.S. State Department Named Sathya Sai Baba To BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’

Posted by Barry Pittard on January 31, 2010

Sathya Sai Organization, Australia, Ex-Head Terry Gallagher’s Testimony Against Sathya Sai Baba

Posted by Barry Pittard on November 20, 2009

On Leaving the Sathya Sai Baba Cult (Parts 1, 2 and 3)

Posted by Barry Pittard on November 20, 2009

Sathya Sai Baba’s Chief Broadcaster Dr G. Venkataraman: Select Critical Articles by Barry Pittard

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 24, 2010

See, too former head (resigned in 2000 after investigating multiple sex abuse and the cover up of murders in Sai Baba’s bedroom) of Norwegian Sathya Sai Organization Robert Priddy’s:

SATHYA SAI BABA – WORLD-WIDE EXPOSURE OF REPORTED SEXUAL ABUSES BY THE ‘SECRET SWAMI’
A documented overview of the history and extent of the alleged sexual abuses by Sathya Sai Baba and the questions they raise

Part 1 – The Great Scandal Has Come to Stay

1 A long history of reports through decades
2 The cover-up of allegations about Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual behaviour
3 ‘The Findings’ by David Bailey – once the top favourite foreign devotee – released the floodgates for testimonies
4. Deceptions and failed prophesies revealed…..
5. Strong circumstantial and corroborative evidence
6. Sai Baba knew he would some day be caught out, saying, “A great scandal is coming”

Part 2 – Smoke Not Without Fire – Claims and Evidence of Serious Molestations

6 Sai Baba’s ‘oiling’ of genitals of young males an ‘acceptable practice’?
7 Young men and their relatives testify to major sexual abuse by Sai Baba
8 Sex with “the Avatar” proclaimed as “Good Chances”

Part 3 – More smoke and fuel to the fire

9 Many young boys from abroad given too much attention and soon left Sai Baba?
10 Sai Baba’s entrapped student boys and young men serially abused?

Part 4 – The Jigsaw of Mounting Testimony & Circumstantial Evidence Takes Shape

11 More Documented claims of sexual molestation
12 Ram Das Awle’s alleged ‘channeled’ explanation to justify perverse sex by Sai Baba
13 Sai Baba a threat to many of his students
14 Claims that Sai Baba is a hermaphrodite

Part 5 – Sathya Sai Baba’s Claims of Purity and Celibacy that Defy all Accounts

15 Defending the indefensible – rationalizing pedophile activities
16 Sathya Sai Baba never celibate – fresh evidence
17 The self-professed ‘teacher of mankind’ who totally avoids the subject of sexuality?

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

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The British Crown Prosecution Service has just announced it is satisfied it has enough evidence for successful pedophilia charges against Rolf Harris, the famous ex-patriot Australian entertainer and artist. His trial has been set for 23 September 2013.

Rolf Harris alongside his portrait of Queen Elizabeth 11. Harris, like one of the biggest pedophiles in history, Sir Jimmy Savile (whom he also drew), has long had rare privileged guest status at Buckingham Palace, and is favoured among other British Royals, some of whom have had affiliations with Sathya Sai Baba, such as Prince Charles, the Queen’s son.

Harris has long been identified as a devotee of (the late) Sathya Sai Baba. This most famous and powerful of Indian gurus may in one respect be compared to Sir Jimmy Savile, the British entertainment star – whose pedophile rampage over decades gave terribly belated impetus to investigating other celebrities such as Rolf Harris. Both were among history’s worst pedophiles. Sathya Sai Baba and Savile both received powerful protective patronage in the highest places, which secreted their crimes and prevented their prosecution.

In 2012, given British traditions of justice, some media and other observers were censured for being too prompt to release Harris identity as being among those investigated by Scotland Yard’s ‘Operation Yewtree’. The police, however, continued their investigation but without revealing Harris as one of their many targets of enquiry.

Operation Yewtree is an ongoing, watershed British investigation set up after enormous public outcry and government action in the wake of the Sir Jimmy Savile pedophile scandal. 

Rolf Harris Sketch of Sir Jimmy Savile

See my articles on the Sir Jimmy Savile issue:

Serial Pedophile Issues and Comparisons: Sir Jimmy Savile and Sathya Sai Baba

Pedophilia: Why Do Most Of Us Protect the Jimmy Saviles Everywhere?

Charge sheet facing Rolf Harris. (Harris’s trial is set for 23 September 2013):

• Indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16 years between 5 April 1980 and 4 April 1981.
• Indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16 years between 5 April 1980 and 4 April 1981.
• Indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16 years between 5 April 1980 and 4 April 1981.
• Indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16 years between 5 April 1980 and 4 April 1981.
• Indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16 years between 5 April 1980 and 4 April 1981.
• Indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16 years between 5 April 1980 and 4 April 1981.
• Indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16 years between 28 April and 7 June 1986
• Indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16 years between 28 April and 7 June 1986
• Indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16 years between 28 April and 7 June 1986
• Making indecent images of children on or before 16 March 2012
• Making indecent images of children on or before 25 May 2012
• Making indecent images of children on or before 11 June 2012
• Making indecent images of children on or before 18 July 2012

My articles on the Rolf Harris issue, from which I include a brief quote, are:

British Police Re-Arrest Rolf Harris In Operation Yewtree Pedophilia Hunt

Posted by Barry Pittard on April 20, 2013

Operation Yewtree originated in the UK pedophile scandal which exposed the British entertainer and disgraced national treasure, Sir Jimmy Savile, who, like Sathya Sai Baba, was a pedophile on a vast scale – one never met in British police force history. He had extraordinary access to members of the Royal Family and to Buckingham Palace itself. The Yewtree remit is to investigate:

– claims against Savile

– claims against Savile and others

– claims against others

Investigators Can Probe Rolf Harris’s Links With Sathya Sai Baba, Target Of Major Serial Pedophile Allegations

Posted by Barry Pittard on April 22, 2013

Once the closest of all western followers of Sai Baba, David Bailey, the well-known British musician and, like myself, a former lecturer in Sai Baba’s education establishment, has told us about his visit along with Rolf Harris to the University of Leeds, some thirty years ago. Harris played the guitar and evangelized Sai Baba to a group of around thirty students. David has mentioned his irritation at the time that Harris insisted on a first class return fare from London.See my: Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba  and:  David Bailey and Thomas Wiehe. Transcript Of Phone Link: Sathya Sai Abuses and: Reply to a Sathya Sai Devotee’s Note re: David and Faye Bailey

Rolf Harris (Sathya Sai Baba Cult Man): Scotland Yard Investigators Travel to Australia

Posted by Barry Pittard on May 3, 2013

The famous Australian entertainer Rolf Harris is, in the true sense, a household name in Australia and the UK. His name, like that of his friend, the major jazz and blues singer Dana Gillespie, has long been associated with Sathya Sai Baba.

Rolf Harris, 83, Facing Underage Sex Accusations, Does Second Big Stage Show

Posted by Barry Pittard on May 20, 2013

Australian entertainer, Rolf Harris, 83, long  mentioned as a devotee of Sathya Sai Baba, has just done a second concert for this year (the last being in February). In the last two years, British police arrested him for questioning about underage sexual assault allegations. He is required to report to police for further question in about a week.

Last November, he was interviewed under caution, and again arrested last March, two days prior to turning 83.  Since then, a second Australian woman given testimony against him.

First News Reports

ABC NEWS

Rolf Harris charged with indecent assault and making indecent images of a child

By Europe correspondent Mary Gearin, staff

Rolf Harris has made no public comment following revelations British police have charged him with nine counts of indecent assault and four counts of making indecent images of a child.

Six of the indecent assault charges relate to the alleged assault of a girl aged between 15 and 16 in the years 1980 and 1981, while the other three relate to the alleged assault of a 14-year-old girl in 1986.

The four charges of making indecent images of a child relate to alleged incidents between March and July 2012.

Most of the charges carry maximum sentences of five years, some carry a maximum of 10.

Neither Harris nor any of his representatives have made any comment.

The charges come as a part of Operation Yewtree, the investigation prompted by the child sexual abuse allegations against late BBC TV star Jimmy Savile.

Key points

• Rolf Harris charged with a total of 13 offences.
• Nine indecent-assault charges relate to alleged incidents with teenage girls in 1980-81 and 1986.
• Four charges of making an indecent image relate to alleged incidents in 2012.
• First arrested in November 29, 2012.
• Harris will appear in court on September 23.

 Alison Saunders from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says evidence from the Metropolitan Police has been carefully considered.

‘Realistic prospect’ of conviction: prosecutors

Ms Saunders says there is sufficient evidence against Harris for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction.

“Having completed our review, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Harris to be charged with nine counts of indecent assault and four of making indecent images of a child,” she said in a statement.

“The alleged indecent assaults date from 1980 to 1986 and relate to two complainants aged 14 and 15 at the time of the alleged offending.

“The decision to prosecute has been taken in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and the DPP’s interim guidelines on prosecuting cases of child sexual abuse.

“We have determined that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that a prosecution is in the public interest.”

Court date set for September

Rolf Harris: Timeline

• Born in Perth, Australia in 1930.
• Harris moved to the UK in 1952 and begun drawing animation for TV.
• In 1957, Harris wrote ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport’, which became a top-ten hit around the world.
• In 1973, he played the first-ever concert held in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House.
• He invented the percussive instrument the “wobble board” in the 1970s.
• Harris later moved into TV, appearing on many British television shows in the 1970s and 80s.

Harris is set to appear in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on September 23.

Harris was first arrested on November 29 last year over alleged sexual offences.

He was re-arrested earlier this month but was granted bail without being charged.

A file of evidence was passed on to the CPS from the Metropolitan Police on August 12.

It is notable to say that this is the first time Scotland Yard has actually named Harris.

It has only been the media that in the past few months have published his name and his identity in relation to this investigation.

Harris has been keeping a very low profile and the police, in turn, also have been very circumspect about giving any information out.

Harris charges not related to Savile abuse

Harris’s case relates to the third strand of Operation Yewtree, which is investigating allegations of abuse not related to the Savile scandal but which emerged in its wake.

He is now the fourth person to be charged as a result of the operation.

While Harris is yet to make any public comment about the allegations, the veteran entertainer alluded to the scandal during a concert in Bristol in May.

“You’ve got no idea what this means to have you turn up with such enthusiasm and such support,” he told the audience.

Harris received a standing ovation at the beginning and end of the concert.

Topics: sexual-offences, arts-and-entertainment, people, human-interest, england, australia

First posted Thu 29 Aug 2013, 9:09pm AEST

Rolf Harris charged with indecent assault of two girls

Paul Peachey.  THURSDAY 29 AUGUST 2013

The television presenter and entertainer Rolf Harris was today charged with indecently assaulting two teenage girls and making indecent images of a child.

The 83-year-old will appear in court next month facing nine counts of indecent assault dating back to the 1980s and four of making indecent images from last year, police and prosecutors said.

Mr Harris, of Maidenhead, Berkshire, was first arrested in November last year by detectives on the Jimmy Savile child abuse inquiry, Operation Yewtree, but his identity was not publicly revealed for months.

Police do not reveal names of people it arrests, and Mr Harris was known only as “Yewtree Five” until April, while other suspects were swiftly identified through lawyers, agents or neighbours.

Alison Saunders, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the charges were imposed after lawyers agreed there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and it was in the public interest.

“We have carefully considered the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police Service as part of Operation Yewtree in relation to Rolf Harris

“Having completed our review, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Harris to be charged with nine counts of indecent assault and four of making indecent images of a child.

“The alleged indecent assaults date from 1980 to 1986 and relate to two complainants aged 14 and 15 at the time of the alleged offending.”

The Australian-born entertainer will appear at Westminster magistrates court on September 23. The DJ, Dave Lee Travis, and PR guru Max Clifford, have already appeared in court after charges were laid in connection with the Yewtree inquiry.

Mr Harris, who painted a portrait of the Queen in 2005 and performed at her Diamond Jubilee concert last year, has been a family favourite for decades.

He had his first musical hit Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport in 1960, and continued to enjoy success in the industry, gaining cult status in recent years and performing at Glastonbury festival several times.

He also proved popular as a television presenter, getting his first big break in 1967 when he began hosting his own BBC1 programme, The Rolf Harris Show, before moving on to children’s television in the 1980s and then to Animal Hospital, which he hosted from 1994 to 2004.

Mr Harris was awarded an MBE in 1968, an OBE in 1977 and a CBE in 2006, and was made Officer of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list last year.

Related articles

• Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal: Rolf Harris revealed as ‘entertainer’ arrested by police investigating abuse allegations in November – so why has his name only come out now?
• Met officer in court on attempted child sex charge
• Rolf Harris investigation into alleged sex abuse moves to Australia
• Rolf Harris performs first concert since arrest for historic sex assault claims
• Rolf Harris: A household name for 50 years

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

For background to this story, see my post: Violence Erupts In Sathya Sai Central Trust Saga.  Barry Pittard on July 9, 2013.

A correspondant of mine – well familiar with life at Puttaparthi, including members of the late Sathya Sai Baba’s family – notes that she “would not be surprised if death or dire injury occurs in the near future” and that “woe be it to anyone trying to point out faults of the powerful Ratnakar!”

Satya Sai’s kin Ganapati, son held for attacking Man

By Express News Service – ANANTAPUR.  15th July 2013 08:38 AM

In yet another turn to the ongoing turf war between the Satya Sai family members, Ganapathy Raju and Ratnakar Raju, the police on Sunday arrested Ganapathy Raju and his son following a complaint lodged by a person said to be a close associate of Ratnakar Raju.

The complainant alleged that he had been attacked by Ganapathi Raju a week ago.

Following the complaint, police have arrested Ganapathi Raju, who is a close relative of Sri Satya Sai Baba, along with son in Puttaparthi on Sunday.

According to Puttaparthi police circle inspector Sridhar, a person named Sai Prasad, who was said to be the follower of Satya Sai Cenral Trust member Ratnakar, lodged a complaint with the police that Ganapathi and his son had attacked him with an iron rod near the APSRTC bus stand in Puttaparthi a week ago.

Acting on the complaint, the police arrested the father-son duo and later admitted them to a hospital, as both had injuries.

Some of the alleged followers of Ratnakar had allegedly attacked the residence of Ganapathi, who is the first cousin of Sai Baba, in Puttaparthi on July 7.

Later, he went to the police station for lodging a complaint and had gone missing since then and was arrested by the police along with his son on July 14.

Differences between Ratnakar and Ganapathi  reached a peak after the trust members received a mail, in which the mailer demanded a ransom of `25 lakh from them.

After learning about the mail, Ganapathi suspected it as the handiwork of Ratnakar and asked the trust members to trace the persons involved in it.

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Yet another scandal has erupted in the Sathya Sai Baba camp, again involving the Sathya Sai Central Trust, whose exceptional dishonesty became, particularly following Sai Baba’s death in April 2011, only too clear as it came under increasing media attention. Contestants fought publicly, loudly and bitterly, and government and police actions made extraordinary discoveries. See: Sai Baba Treasure Scandals: His Big Political Protectors Now Run For Cover. Posted by Barry Pittard on June 22, 2011

This earlier news item gives a brief background to the present scandal:

R.J. Ratnakar, nephew of Sathya Sai Baba. and Sathya Sai Central Trust member

Before coming to know of the dark scandals in the life of Sathya Sai Baba and others around him, Eileen Weed (USA) closely attended on Sai Baba’s sister Venkamma. Ms Weed, formerly known by the spiritual name ‘Divya’, is known as a fluent Telegu speaker and writer and responsible for editing tasks related to Sai Baba publishing. For background on this important primary witness, who lived in Sai Baba ashrams for many years, see: Sathya Sai ashram honeymoon delusions depicted. Posted by robertpriddy on August 2, 2012

In response to the latest revelations, Ms Weed (see news report below), has just written to myself and another:

“I was actually surprised that Ganapathy Raju didn’t get into trouble before”.

————————————-

Fight over Satya Sai Baba trust turns violent

By Express News Service – ANANTAPUR

08th July 2013 08:31 AM

The turf war between the relatives of Sri Satya Sai Baba reached its peak with an attack on the residence of M Ganapathy Raju, the first cousin of Satya Sai Baba, by alleged followers of Ratnakar, member of Sri Satya Sai Central Trust and also nephew of Sai Baba, in Puttaparti on Sunday.

The agitators also burnt Ganapathy Raju’s effigy by alleging that he is hurting the sentiments of Satya Sai devotees. Though it was learnt that Raju went to the police station for lodging a complaint over the incident, he did not return home till late in the evening. Meanwhile, rumours were making rounds in Puttaparti about the abduction of Ganapathy Raju by followers of Ratnakar. There are also reports that the police took him into their custody and shifted him to Bangalore citing security concerns. Following the demise of Sai Baba, allegations poured up against the trust members especially against Ratnakar, that he is damaging the image of Sai Baba.

However, Ratnakar described all the allegations as ‘baseless’ from time to time.

Meanwhile, the trust members received a mail from rajuug 1958@yahoo.in, in which the mailer demanded a ransom of Rs 25 lakh from the trust members.

After learning about the mail, Ganapathy Raju, whose mail ID (rajug1958@yahoo.co.in) is almost similar to the above mail ID suspected it as the handiwork of Ratnakar and sought the trust members to unravel the persons involved.

Later, he also lodged a complaint with the district SP some time ago and it was learnt that a CID official directed the district police to probe the issue recently. As per directions, the district police enquired him about it.

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)

Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Yesterday’s news story in The Australian (see full article below) about the ‘Respect, Understanding, Acceptance’ (RUA) project among some schools in Sydney, Australia, is inspiring. The newspaper reports:

NINE years ago, a Jewish girl was walking home from school on Sydney’s north shore when a busload of students from a neighbouring school roared past her and began shouting racist slurs.

Rather than insist on harsh punishments against the students involved, the state’s Jewish leadership proposed a novel solution of bringing the distraught girl face-to-face with her anti-Semitic attackers.

“We started out with 20 Catholic students, 20 Jewish and 20 Muslim students and got them talking to each other,” Vic Alhadeff, chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, said.

“The students were able to ask direct questions about why people with different cultures or faiths or backgrounds engage in their different cultural practices. It was an enormous benefit and an opportunity for the students.”

Almost a decade later the program – now labelled Respect, Understanding, Acceptance – involves more than 1500 Sydney school students each year, brought together in groups of 100 or 200 to learn about each other and to discuss issues of racism.

The Sathya Sai Organization has long made much of the so-called ‘All Faiths’ credo (Sarva Dharma).

Clearly, it does not denigrate various faiths, and to this extent cannot be regarded as a force of active division and conflict. In fact, Sai Baba centers teach children the main elements of the major world religions, and many Sai centers invite practitioners of those religions to give introductory talks, whether to children or adults.

Worldwide, a great many worthy organizations do extraordinary work.  But those familiar with Sai Baba and his Indian leaders’ talks will recall gross exaggerations about his impact around the world. Sathya Sai Baba and his leaders had their chance to make good their claims about bringing religions into mutual respect and harmony. In neither India nor the rest of the world, has Puttaparthi has been visible as a broker of any remarkable peace and harmony.

However, Sai Baba followers from other countries know but – as befits the cultic mind in denial – turn a deaf ear to the extraordinary, tall claims.The claims do great injustice to the countless people and groups doing signal work for a better world.

Throughout many decades, despite all the ‘Sarva Dharma’ talk within Sai Baba circles, the overwhelming influence seen at Puttaparthi is classical Hinduism. In a systemically vague notion, this, Sathya Sai Baba proclaimed, he would restore, and much of the achievement he would fulfil in his own lifetime. He achieved nothing of the sort, a fact which his devotees adroitly ignore. See: Sai Baba claims all power & the universe is in his hand (video clip). Posted by robertpriddy on August 1, 2011

Even the most diligent search fails to turn up evidence of any significant Sathya Sai Baba impact in, for example, the ecumenical world, or in international fora for solving key challenges like war, racism, genocide, world poverty, environmental destruction, and so on.

Students brought together to learn about each other and discuss issues of racism

At the RUA gathering yesterday were, from left, Alysa Vinokur, Wassim Naboulsi, Lizz Diggins, Jordan Werner-Hall, Maddi Breen and Mahmoud Skef.  Picture: James Croucher Source: The Australian

NINE years ago, a Jewish girl was walking home from school on Sydney’s north shore when a busload of students from a neighbouring school roared past her and began shouting racist slurs.

Rather than insist on harsh punishments against the students involved, the state’s Jewish leadership proposed a novel solution of bringing the distraught girl face-to-face with her anti-Semitic attackers.

“We started out with 20 Catholic students, 20 Jewish and 20 Muslim students and got them talking to each other,” Vic Alhadeff, chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, said.

“The students were able to ask direct questions about why people with different cultures or faiths or backgrounds engage in their different cultural practices. It was an enormous benefit and an opportunity for the students.”

Almost a decade later the program – now labelled Respect, Understanding, Acceptance – involves more than 1500 Sydney school students each year, brought together in groups of 100 or 200 to learn about each other and to discuss issues of racism.

The program is touted as a way of helping young Australians break the cycles of racism demonstrated by recent incidents involving ABC presenter Jeremy Fernandez — abused with his daughter on a bus in February — and AFL star Adam Goodes, who was branded an “ape” by a 13-year-old female spectator in Melbourne at the weekend.

“Clearly, some racism which one encounters is coming from the home, and that is where the real challenge is. We must counter negative messages, the bigoted messages coming from the home,” Mr Alhadeff said. “There is no such thing as a bystander. If you’re a bystander, you’re part of the problem.”

Yesterday’s RUA gathering at the University of NSW allowed students from Granville Boys High – a public school in Sydney’s strongly-Islamic west – to come face-to-face with pupils from Brigidine College and Masada College, a Catholic girls school and Jewish school on the city’s affluent north shore.

Brigidine student Maddi Breen, 16, said the meeting gave her an opportunity to meet and mingle with the city’s Muslims, who are a rare sight in St Ives, where her school and Masada are located.

“I don’t think we have any Islamic people at my school. We learn about Islam when we study religion, but this is giving us a chance to meet and understand each other,” she said.

Granville’s Mahmoud Skef, 15, said he had learned that Jews prayed three times a day.

Muslims make up 18.5 per cent of the population in Granville, compared with 0.6 per cent in St Ives. Jews account for 13 per cent of St Ives residents, compared with 0.3 per cent in Granville.

From Archives of Racismnoway comes this undated article.

Anti-racism education for Australian schools

School initiatives

Respect, Understanding and Acceptance

150 students come together for intercultural experience

ABOUT 150 Jewish, Muslim, Armenian, Aboriginal and Christian students from four north shore schools came together at the Galstaun College in Ingleside last week for the first event of an innovative three-part intercultural program titled “Respect, Understanding and Acceptance”. Devised by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Education Secretariat, the program brings together students from the Galstaun Armenian College, Masada College (a Jewish school), the Australian Islamic College of Sydney and St Paul’s Catholic College, Manly.

The students met for a day of discussion and multimedia performances.

Guest speaker Dai Le, Community Relations Manager for the NSW Liberal Party, told the students of her treacherous journey to Australia on a tiny boat escaping Vietnam. She stressed the importance of building bridges between the diverse cultures which call this country home. NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff said the program encourages the students “to respect each others’ differences and to have the guts to speak out when you see someone being isolated, marginalised or discriminated against.”

The second event of the program will be held at the Sydney Jewish Museum on Harmony Day in May and the third at Masada College in October. Both will feature interactive sessions with Jewish, Muslim, Armenian, Aboriginal and Catholic speakers.

Clusters of the RUA program involving other cultural and faith groups will also run in the east and south west of Sydney in 2010.

For more information : or to join a cluster: email benmenashe@nswjbd.com

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

After all the years of betrayal, and only since the epoch-making advent of a high-powered Royal Commission set up to investigate institutional sexual abuse, Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s foremost Roman Catholic official, now admits long years of Church silence and cover-up. The hearing to which I refer below, though, is of a parliamentary committee of the State of  Victoria, Australia. See:  

Cardinal Pell admits long Catholic Church coverup of sexual abuse by priests

I have earlier (14 November 2013) written of Pell, stating:

“In Australia, both many Roman Catholics and the public more widely regard the head of the Catholic Church in this country, Cardinal Pell, as an arch conservative. In my view, Pell is symptomatic of a grave and untreated problem quite other than the issue of any continuing institutional cover up. Too often, reform does not get to the roots of a problem, and becomes a different sort of cover up – that is to say, there is a covering up of, or of a blindness to, those very problematic roots. One of these roots problems is a focus on institutional survival. This greatly thwarts the addressing of justice and healing issues that relate to sexual abuse survivors. One area in which this occurs is an institution’s lawyer-mediated, miserable out-of-court settlements. Mr and Mrs Foster’s case is one of a great many which show the cruelty of such arrangements. (See video footage): Parents’ harrowing story, ABC News Breakfast, November 13: 2013.”  Australian Royal Commission To Probe Institutional Handling Of Child Sexual Abuse. Posted by Barry Pittard on November 14, 2012

From long experience in dealing with the international Sathya Sai Organization’s profound denial and cover-up, and the tremendous betrayal and hurt many families worldwide, I know too of the culture of cultic secrecy and shrinkage of normal human compassion.  And I strongly recommend my readers to view the ABC (Australia’s national broadcaster) footage of the Roman Catholic family who lost a daughter to suicide and saw their other daughter succumb to binge drinking – outcomes sadly familiar to those who deal with the evil that is sexual abuse.

We have many former Sathya Sai devotees whose testimony is compelling  like that of  husband and wife Anthony and Chrissie Foster.  Click here for Video: Anthony and Christine Foster on Pell’s testimony (7.30). 

Mr and Mrs Anthony and Christine Foster, Roman Catholics who have waged a long battle to expose the Catholic Church cover-up of clergy sexual abuse. The story of their two daughters abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest, Father Kevin Dillon of St Mary of the Angels Catholic Parish in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, is most harrowing. We need to listen, though, with our hearts ….

The background story is that the Foster family’s parish priest, Father Kevin O’Donnell, repeatedly raped Foster’s two daughters, Emma and Katie, in primary school. Emma committed suicide and Katie became a binge drinker who became disabled when a car hit her.

Mr and Mrs Foster’s moving testimony depicts Cardinal Pell as a man who appears to act in a very different way before the very distinguished commissioners to the way he responded when the husband and wife dealt with him before. Mr Foster states that Pell spoke with a “sociopathic lack of empathy” when he showed him harrowing photos of the abused Foster sisters and asked that Church to “go the extra mile” to care for victims. Mrs Foster spoke of Pell’s bullying, unfeeling and legalistic way, cutting across her and her husbands points.

Key points: What Pell told the inquiry

• Apologised for decades of abuse in Melbourne diocese.

• Admitted a systemic cover-up of child abuse within the Church.

• Said former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns destroyed documents relating to abuse cases.

• Said former Melbourne archbishop Frank Little covered up cases of abuse.

• Said abuse became widespread because the clergy did not talk about the problem.

• Defended the Melbourne Response, which he established to deal with abuse cases.

• Defended maximum compensation level of $75,000 for victims of abuse.

The International Sathya Sai Organization Is No Different

It is the same craven silence and cover-up we see in the international Sathya Sai Organization. For decades, they too have stood aside and shut up. Indeed, all the while, they have striven for acceptance within mainstream communities around the world as good and ecumenical citizens. Leaders outright lied to Sathya Sai sect members stating that those who raised questions were simply disgruntled and untrustworthy, and other such outrageous untruths which many members knew perfectly well were inconsistent with those persons’ behavior over many years.

A number of us are now intent on ensuring that the Royal Commission is well-advised of the appalling failure of the Australian Sathya Sai Organization to show duty of care to victims. 

Sathya Sai Baba devotees, Roman Catholics, and many other religionists believe:  Act truthfully and God will come to your aid. But no – they put their faith in silence, inaction and cover-up.

One of the items in the Sathya Sai Organization’s ‘Code of Conduct’ is:

‘Not indulging in talking ill of others, especially in their absence’

But far too often, their talk is hypocritical. They do not walk their prayers, nor all their fine talk about truth, righteousness, peace and love. Witness the incredible, distortions and hateful internet attacks on former Sathya Sai Baba devotees, some of whom spent decades of the utmost dedication.

To this day – despite the huge amount of exposure of their guru and cult – Sathya Sai Baba devotees stand by and let their more vociferous fellows cause untold suffering for those sexually and in other ways abused. And distress and hardship, moreover, for those who have spoken out. These so-called ‘spiritual’ devotees revile and shun those who have sacrificed much to expose the terrible Sathya Sai Baba’s terrible abuses and those of others in his organization. 

These devotees proclaim themselves dedicated to  truth, righteousness, peace and love. They do not like to be called a cult, yet they summarily evict from their organization anyone who raises the simplest questions about the sexual abuse and other allegations from so many people from around the world. The Sathya Sai Organization refuses to institute those very processes of transparency and duty of care which responsible organizations properly adhere to.

For but a few examples of the Sai cult’s treatment of those long known as truthful and decent human beings, see:

              Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion

Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam

Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba

Reply to a Sathya Sai Devotee’s Note re: David and Faye Bailey

Sathya Sai Baba Critic Serguei Badaev: An Incisive Voice of Conscience From Russia

The Late Leo Boogaard: A Dutch Voice of Conscience On Sathya Sai Baba

(Late) Ron and Peggy Laing: Deeply Alienated From Sathya Sai Organization

Alaya Rahm’s Testimony – Some Key Statements
–the full statement of the Rahm family and the International JuST Group is here 

The ‘Sai-lencing’ of Conscience-raised Voices

U.S. Psychologist Shirley Pike’s Moving Challenge To Sathya Sai Baba and His Organization

Updated Tue May 28, 2013 8:27am AEST

From ABC PM News Report

Video: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-27/cardinal-george-pell-sorry-for-church-abuse/4716132

Video: Pell apologises on behalf of Catholic Church sex abuse (7.30)

Photo: Cardinal George Pell told the Victorian Government inquiry into child abuse he was “fully apologetic and absolutely sorry” about decades of child sex abuse within the Church. (AAP: Joe Castro)

Related Story: Pell admits cover-up of Church sex abuse

Related Story: Victims demand truth about church abuse

Map: Melbourne 3000

The father of two girls who were abused by a Catholic priest says apologies by Australia’s most senior Catholic, George Pell, are meaningless unless they are followed up with actions.

Yesterday Cardinal Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, told the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse that he was “fully apologetic and absolutely sorry” about decades of sexual abuse within the church.

During his evidence he admitted the fear of scandal led to the cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Church.

Key points: What Pell told the inquiry

• Apologised for decades of abuse in Melbourne diocese.

• Admitted a systemic cover-up of child abuse within the Church.

• Said former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns destroyed documents relating to abuse cases.

• Said former Melbourne archbishop Frank Little covered up cases of abuse.

• Said abuse became widespread because the clergy did not talk about the problem.

• Defended the Melbourne Response, which he established to deal with abuse cases.

• Defended maximum compensation level of $75,000 for victims of abuse.

In its submission to the inquiry, the Catholic Church said at least 620 Victorian children had been abused by its clergy in the past 80 years.

During sometimes tense exchanges, Cardinal Pell insisted individuals were to blame for what had happened, not the Church structure itself.

“I’m certainly totally committed to improving the situation. I know the Holy Father [Pope] is too,” he said.

Cardinal Pell denied the Church’s assets were hidden in trusts to avoid paying compensation to victims and said the Church would pay whatever lawmakers decided it should pay to victims of child sexual abuse and their families.

Cardinal Pell was the Archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 until 2001, and one of the lead architects of the Melbourne Response, the Church’s response to abuse.

Anthony and Chrissie Foster’s two daughters were repeatedly raped in primary school by their parish priest, Father Kevin O’Donnell.

Emma Foster later committed suicide and her sister, Katie, took to binge drinking and was left disabled after being hit by a car.

Audio: Pell admits fear of scandal led to child-abuse cover up (PM)

Mr Foster says he hopes the inquiry leads to legislative changes to compel the Catholic Church to better look after victims.

“We hope that we will get the right recommendations out of this inquiry,” he said.

“Then we’ll get action by this government to change the legislation, to force the Catholic Church to look after victims, to enable victims to get true justice, and so that then there will be consequences for anyone who tries to do this sort of covering up in the future.”

Calls for greater compassion and support

Video: Anthony and Christine Foster on Pell’s testimony (7.30)

Mr Foster has previously told the inquiry his family was unsatisfied with the way Cardinal Pell dealt with his daughters’ case.

And after the hearing he said his feelings remained unchanged.

He said Cardinal Pell’s apologies were delivered with a “sociopathic lack of empathy” and called on the Church to “go the extra mile” to try and look after victims.

“They don’t do that,” Mr Foster said.

“In our case, part of our settlement was that once we had the money, they would provide no more care for Emma.

“So they are not about going the extra mile, and they need to be about that.”

Mr Foster said in response to evidence given at the enquiry, the Government needed to make legislative changes to enable victims to receive much greater compensation.

“Which will have two effects: one, it will help restore the lives of victims, and it will make sure that the Catholic Church has a real interest in this not happening again,” he said.

“I think [Cardinal Pell] failed to address the whole issue of compensation, [he was] very defensive, saying that the compensation was based on the same as the Government victims of crime system, where there is no comparison.

Audio: Foster says Pell didn’t say what he wanted to hear (PM)

“He tried to draw comparisons between trying to say that the Catholic Church was not responsible for many of these victims’ injuries.

“I think we all know that the Catholic Church is responsible for all 300 of the victims that they’ve acknowledged, never mind the thousands of others that are out there, which he admitted today they have failed to systematically investigate and try to find.”

Priest backs increased support to abuse victims

Watch Cardinal Pell’s full testimony

1. Part 1

2. Part 2

3. Part 3

Father Kevin Dillon of St Mary of the Angels Catholic Parish in Geelong has been critical of the Church’s response to victims of sexual abuse.

After the hearing, Father Dillon told the ABC’s PM program Cardinal Pell’s comments were similar to previous Church leaders who have given evidence at the inquiry.

“Which has perhaps been disappointing insofar as maybe people were hoping for some radical shift, to be able to ensure that people who have been abused can have a little bit more hope to believe in,” he said.

“But nonetheless I think it’s had its role in the whole inquiry, and ultimately it’ll be when that inquiry gives its findings later in the year – I think at the end of September – that perhaps the real import of both today and the previous months will really be felt.”

Father Dillon said the Church’s leadership needed to do more to support and address the needs of abuse victims, their family and supporters.

“I’d like to see a lot more emphasis put, on all levels, on what can be done for the people who are damaged, hurting, wounded, and we know who they are,” he said.

“More of them have come forward as a result of these inquires and the Royal Commission to come, and we can do something about them.”

Audio: Geelong priest disappointed with Pell’s approach (PM)

Father Dillon said Cardinal Pell’s admission that he believes the Church should face the same calls for compensation as any other organisation was “helpful”.

“I think we should face the same calls for compensation, more so, simply because of what we stand for, and simply because a greater degree of trust has been placed in Church personnel than would have been placed in members of other organisations where people perhaps have their guard up,” he said.

“But for many decades, the amount of trust placed in Church personnel has been enormous, and that’s been part of the problem, and that’s why those who’ve offended have been able to get away with as much as they did.”

Read more:

• Cardinal George Pell to give evidence to Victorian child sex abuse inquiry

• Archbishop admits church too slow to act against abuse

• Christian Brothers say child abuse record indefensible

• Church admits moving known paedophile priest

HERALD SUN

Cardinal George Pell has confessed to creation of false documents and ‘reprehensible’ cover-ups of child sex abuse

CARDINAL George Pell has confessed false documents were created and priests took part in “reprehensible” cover-ups of child sexual abuse

The most prominent Catholic in Australia was grilled by a Victorian parliamentary committee for 4 1/2 hours about systemic failings by the church to deal with abuse.

Cardinal Pell said the fear of scandals drove much of the reaction to rampant abuse in the 1970s and ’80s, but that a concern about money was also involved.

“I am fully apologetic and absolutely sorry,” he said.

“I would agree that we’ve been slow to address the anguish of the victims and dealt with it very imperfectly,” the cardinal said.

In a victory for victims, Cardinal Pell said he would ask the Vatican to send all documents it holds on Victorian sex abuse accusations to the inquiry – a promise he had also made to the federal royal commission into abuse.

Cardinal Pell defended the church’s compensation scheme, saying it abided by the “law of the land”.

But he opened the door to greater compensation for some victims saying a $27,000 payment to a man raped 10 times was “miserable”.

Abuse victims at the hearing said they were unconvinced by the cardinal’s apology. Some walked out soon after he began speaking.

Anthony Foster, whose daughters, Emma and Katie, were abused by Melbourne priest Kevin O’Donnell in Oakleigh in the 1980s, said he wasn’t satisfied.

Cardinal told Hell awaits him

Pell defends capped compensation for victims

‘It’s time to stand down’, victims say

“It’s another apology. It’s the same words again. It’s just not backed up with the actions that we need.

“What we need is real care for victims,” he said.

Mr Foster also hit out at Cardinal Pell’s repeatedly saying he was not responsible for changing the church structure and was not the “Catholic prime minister of Australia”.

National MP David O’Brien said letters showed that one abusing priest should “submit a resignation as parish priest on health grounds”, and asked if that was further evidence of church cover-ups. “Yes, it is,” Cardinal Pell said.

Cardinal George Pell has confessed to creation of false documents and ‘reprehensible’ cover-ups of child sex abuse

Parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse in Victoria. Picture: Mike Keating Source: Herald Sun

He didn’t seem fazed: he has, after all, had almost two decades to perfect his explanation for what he describes as the Catholic Church’s “imperfect” response to paedophile priests.

Cardinal Pell played chess as a kid. Through the afternoon he struck the pose of a master pondering his next move – elbows on the arms of his chair, fingers steepled in front of him.

Yet his opening play was the obvious one, a thoroughly modern tact adopted by corporations keen to be seen to accepting responsibility for perceived wrongdoings.

Cardinal Pell may have been refused his request to give an opening statement, but he gave an abbreviated form anyway – he offered his “full apology” for the Catholic Church’s failings in handling child abuse cases.

From there, his was a measured performance, almost relaxed in contrast to the tensions before he turned up at 1.34pm. Female attendees queried the heightened security.

In the press to get a seat, priests were accused of pushing into the line. An overflow room was arranged for the expected rush. Five minutes before Pell turned up – his head stooped as always, as though he is embarrassed by his height – news filtered through that the overflow room had overflowed.

Cardinal Pell was free of the lapses of flippancy that marked Archbishop Denis Hart’s appearance last week. Yet it was dulled of its revelationary impact in part because of Hart’s evidence.

Like Hart, and in a tone similar to a seasoned politician, Cardinal Pell spoke of “regrets” and “errors” and “cover-ups”.

Cardinal Pell was forced to weaken his defence of Archbishop Frank Little. He was subdued when he agreed the evidence showed Little’s actions were “reprehensible”. That’s one conclusion from the past week’s evidence – Little’s lifework may have to be rewritten to include some terrible errors of judgment.

Yet he seemed comfortable enough with his beliefs and thinking. Most telling, perhaps, was when the inquiry’s David O’Brien lectured Cardinal Pell about the trustworthiness of the Catholic Church.

Not that O’Brien offered up the advice itself – many in the community might have been cheering him on – but that Cardinal Pell, the most senior church member in the country, appeared to receive the de facto sermon so humbly.

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Australian entertainer, Rolf Harris, 83, long  mentioned as a devotee of Sathya Sai Baba, has just done a second concert for this year (the last being in February). In the last two years, British police arrested him for questioning about underage sexual assault allegations. He is required to report to police for further question in about a week.

Last November, he was interviewed under caution, and again arrested last March, two days prior to turning 83.  Since then, a second Australian woman given testimony against him.

See: Another Australian Woman Accuses Rolf Harris of Sexual Abuse When She Was Young.  Posted by Barry Pittard on May 15, 2013. And: Rolf Harris (Sathya Sai Baba Cult Man): Scotland Yard Investigators Travel to Australia. Posted by Barry Pittard on May 3, 2013, and:  Investigators Can Probe Rolf Harris’s Links With Sathya Sai Baba, Target Of Major Serial Pedophile Allegations  Posted by Barry Pittard on April 22, 2013. And: British Police Re-Arrest Rolf Harris In Operation Yewtree Pedophilia Hunt.Posted by Barry Pittard on April 20, 2013.

ABC NEWS

Rolf Harris thanks fans for ‘support’ at concert

Photo: Rolf Harris made his first public appearance in weeks at a concert in Bristol. (Reuters: Mick Tsikas, file photo)

Harris made no direct reference to the allegations he is facing, but alluded to his situation several times during the show in Bristol in south-west England.

“You’ve got no idea what this means to have you turn up with such enthusiasm and such support,” he told the audience.

Harris received standing ovations at the beginning and end of the performance.

How Manipulated Publics Ignore The Corruption And Lap Up The Hype

Just like corporate spin doctors in other areas, Managements of artists faced with scandals tailor-make concerts, public appearances, interviews, etc., that will defuse the scandal as much as possible.

Ignoring the seriousness of the crimes and betrayals (although one must emphasize in Harris’s case ALLEGED ones), this chicanery expresses itself variously – e.g., ‘the show must go on’, ‘toughing it out’, ‘old news is stale news and the public will soon forget’, ‘the artist has done a lot of good charitable work, is working hard at overcoming weaknesses, and, like all of us, deserves our forgiveness and help’ ….

In some respects, in the hands of adroit spin-masters bad publicity can be re-packaged as ‘good publicity’. A story has many angles to exploit: Our happy memories of great concerts we have enjoyed, and by which we mark our own life stages. The suffering of the artist under pressure of the accusations, the arrests. The suffering of his or her family and friends in the face of revelations ….

A masterpiece of recovery from shockingly bad publicity is McDonald’s strategy of survival after the famous Mc Libel case, often branded as ‘the longest-running case in English history’.

A major aspect of the McDonald corporation’s image recovery was to emphasize how much it was doing for charity. In the exposure of the international Sathya Sai Organization, we have had to endure the oft-repeated, fallacious argument that whatever laws Sathya Sai Baba broke he did much social work. (In passing, I note that it was his devotees who did this work!).

McDonald’s icon cleverly suggests openness, innocence and fun – qualities far removed from that corporation’s long, corrupt, and environment and health destroying  history

The international fast food giant had to withstand tremendously adverse publicity about perjured witnesses. It had to pay large fines to prevent its experts (who proved not to be experts at all) from going to gaol. It tried extensively to buy off witnesses via settlements that were, in fact, bribes. It hired ex-policemen in a long series of devious and rotten malpractices, and much else that sickened the public.

It is a public that too soon forgets, and acts shocked each time that the wool pulled over its eyes is, for the while, pulled from its eyes.

Exposed were McDonald’s profoundly unethical practices (not in essence different from many other corporations). Fortunately the two remarkable and penurious young people would not yield to the vast pressure McDonalds put on them, and they ended up attracting a world-wide support campaign and the skills of one of the greatest legal minds in the world, the Australian Geoffrey Robertson QC, famous as a human rights lawyer, academic, author and television and radio broadcaster.

Photo: Geoffrey Robertson, 2006. BA LLB (Hons) Sydney, BCL (Oxon) Rhodes Scholar, Honorary Degrees (Doctor of Laws) from Sydney, Brunel and Bucharest Universities, Visiting Professor at Queen Mary College and the New College of the Humanities.

See: McLibel. Burger Culture on Trial, by John Vidal. Published in 1997, Macmillan Publishers Ltd ISBN 0 333 69461 9 (hardback) ISBN 0-330-35237-7 (paperback). And: The biggest bunfight in history? McLibel by John Vidal, reviewed by John Mortimer, The Sunday Times (UK); 13 April 97.

The entertainment industry is vast, corporate, corrupt. No less, indeed than many corporations and large organizations in general. They are mendacious, secret and unjust. And these in a way that some of us know to our immense cost in the case of the international Sathya Sai Organization. These instrumentalities are alike in the evils of cover up and ruination of the lives of many, especially those who attempt to tell the truth. It is to be hoped that, if the two women who have testified against Rolf Harris, saying that he sexually abused them when they were very young, are speaking the truth that they will have the best legal representation. And that the courts – too often harshly adversarial – will be models of a sort of justice that will encourage many more sexually abused people to speak out, rather than being confronted by bullying lawyers and courts systems badly in need of reform.

Rolf Harris takes stage in Bristol

Show goes on for Harris despite abuse probe

Nick Miller. Europe Correspondent

Entertainer Rolf Harris will proceed with his second concert of the year, even while he waits to learn whether he will face charges over sex assault allegations

Some Select Readings on Our Early Exposure Campaigns 

Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam

Posted by Barry Pittard on November 18, 2009

Barry Pittard Replies to Saionline.com writer, 1 July 2002

Sai Baba-A Degenerative Disease?

Posted by Barry Pittard on February 16, 2007

The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision

Posted by Barry Pittard on April 4, 2007

(Late) Ron and Peggy Laing: Deeply Alienated From Sathya Sai Organization

Posted by Barry Pittard on November 14, 2009

BBC Caught UNESCO Head Bowing To Indian Government

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 26, 2007

 Ramanathan Threatens Barry Pittard With Law.

Posted Barry Pittard, 14 April 2003.

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Perhaps, in regard to serious accusations against any person, there is a cautionary tale in the story below.

A second Australian woman has come forward on national television, and in a mass-circulation magazine Womans Day, with sexual abuse testimony against the now 83 years old Rolf Harris, the famous Australian entertainer (long associated with devotion to Sathya Sai Baba). For my earlier takes on British police arrests of Rolf Harris, see: Rolf Harris (Sathya Sai Baba Cult Man): Scotland Yard Investigators Travel to Australia. Posted by Barry Pittard on May 3, 2013, and:  Investigators Can Probe Rolf Harris’s Links With Sathya Sai Baba, Target Of Major Serial Pedophile Allegations  Posted by Barry Pittard on April 22, 2013. And: British Police Re-Arrest Rolf Harris In Operation Yewtree Pedophilia Hunt.Posted by Barry Pittard on April 20, 2013.

Mother of three, Ms Tonya Lee, alleges that Rolf Harris sexually abused her when she was 14 years old.

A factor needs almost endless reiteration, almost endlessly. When a person makes accusation of sexual abuse years later, it does not necessarily mean that they are lying, mad, on a money-making stunt, seized by a false memory episode, etc . There is so much unconscious, averse psychological denial about sexual abuse, and much conscious coverup and deliberate, self-interested avoidance.  Commission of the crime of sexual abuse and, concomitantly, its coverup exist irrespective of socioeconomic background. The view that:

“Ninety percent of sexual abuse victims never tell.” —Susan Forward, Ph.D., 1989. Innocence and Betrayal Overcoming the Legacy of Sexual Abuse

will now need ongoing review, principally in western societies, owing to a changing culture of confession and exposure. Think only for a second of the vast mass audience outreach of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ or ‘Dr Phil’, not to mention countless others. However, despite such social sea changes, our experience in exposing the worldwide Sathya Sai organization’s coverup of sexual abuse, has always been a hugely uphill struggle. When we sought very credible witnesses in the intensive months of preparation for the BBC’s The Secret Swami, for which he and I were the main international coordinators, my great colleague the late Glen Meloy (USA) and I were privy to the deep personal struggle of Mark Roche, at that time in his 60’s, an American psychotherapist and former Sai Baba follower. At times, it was touch-and-go whether he could manage to jump off the brink into free-fall, courage and revelation. In BBC’s ‘Secret Swami’ Clip. Highly Respected Man Claims Sai Baba Abuse When Young. Posted by Barry Pittard on May 14, 2007, I wrote:

“Mark Roche says that, in a private place, Sai Baba offered him what is termed ‘pada namaskar‘. This is considered the greatest of privileges granted by a guru – called e.g., ‘bowing unto the Lotus Feet’). Sai Baba is reported to say, “I’ll give you a great chance”. Mark Roche says that Sai Baba then pulled up his robe and asked Mark to put his penis in his mouth. The BBC interviewer Tanya Datta asked, “Why would God want to put his penis in your mouth?” To those who have carefully considered the issues involved in issues such as abuse, self-esteem, the hunger to believe, the betrayal of faith, and human naivete, Roche’s answer resonates: “Got me!” (His emphasis indicated the meaning:  I simply do not know).

This sad scenario recurs in many Sai Baba abuse accounts from around the world, held by both former and non-devotee investigators, that attest to his widespread, serial sexual molestation of young males for many decades”.

  The film clip of Tanya Datta’s BBC television interview of Mark Roche is HERE.

See also: The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision. Posted by Barry Pittard on April 4, 2007. And: Health Professional Comes Out On BBC: Sai Baba sexually abused him when young. Posted by Barry Pittard on April 26, 2011.

Only in his sixties did Mark call up the fortitude to speak publicly to BBC television of his experience of sexual abuse when he was in his teens at the hands of Sathya Sai Baba. See: BBC’s ‘Secret Swami’ Clip. Highly Respected Man Claims Sai Baba Abuse When Young. Posted by Barry Pittard on May 14, 2007.

In the latest case, The Age newspaper reports (see below):

“Ms Lee, 42, is the second person to go public with allegations about Harris, 83, after claims by another woman, Lauren Martell, that she witnessed an alleged incident in the early 1990s. Ms Martell, who was interviewed by Scotland Yard detectives at her home north of Sydney this month, was not paid for her media interviews”.

Speaking out in a paid interview to a peak-viewing Australian television show like A Current Affair, and telling her story in a weekly magazine read by millions of Australian women, may make reception of her testimony all the more difficult. News reports say, however, that Ms Lee first gave her testimony to police. But this will not keep her safe from any lawyers determined to shake her story, if the issue comes to trial. Too often, it is a merciless process, and it has long been why so many fear to testify, especially in sexual abuse cases. Many courts have a bad reputation for ensuring that survivors of sexual abuse are abused a second time – this time by shameless and barbaric forms of  lawyer attack.

Many praise Ms Lee for her courage in going public. But the same news report states:

“Former NSW director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, QC, said the publication of the allegations had the potential to prejudice a hearing if the investigation ever reached that stage and that any trial may have to be adjourned for up to 12 months.‘I think if this woman has already given her story to authorities as a witness, then it’s even more morally indefensible,’ he said.Ms Lee’s ‘reliability as a witness’ may also be called into question for selling her story to a media outlet, he said. ‘The inference arises that the person may be telling a story or sticking to a story motivated by the reward that he or she has received or might receive at some future time.’”

Our own most outspoken people have, for over two decades, faced without blinking many threats, some of them legal. See: THE SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION’S FAILED THREATS AND COURT ATTEMPTS. Posted by robertpriddy on April 24, 2007. And: A Sathya Sai Saga. Barry Pittard Recollects. Part 3. Posted by Barry Pittard on July 25, 2010. And: Ramanathan Threatens Barry Pittard With Law. Posted by Barry Pittard on http: Exbaba.com on April 4. 2003. 

Knowing of the great wealth and political power of the international Sathya Sai Organization, we felt that our best strength was – as it remains – to face the public and tell our story and trust that it will sense our honesty, clarity and integrity – whether we landed up in court with an appalling vulnerability or whether we got a hearing via the international media. Or both.

My own take on Ms Lee’s action – although I do not of course know her motivations – is that it may well be, given the difficulty of getting testimony out into the wider public, a good tactical move in the interests of getting this often tabooed subject much more out in the open. Whereas, however, I rather think she could well find the legal arena a minefield. And one where, unless she is very strong in herself, and has strong support among friends and well-wishers, she could be torn apart or in any other ways made to come unstuck by lawyers defending Rolf Harris.

Going widely public, she and others who may take the same route, may prevent stories from being killed in the law courts. See my article: Al Rahm’s Explanatory Letter To Sathya Sai Baba Internet Proxy Gerald Moreno. Posted by Barry Pittard on January 14, 2010

Paid interviews may risk trial

Tonya Lee’s sexual abuse allegations against entertainer Rolf Harris, aired in a paid interview with A Current Affair, could prejudice a potential future trial says professor of media at Macquarie University, Catharine Lumby.

Any potential criminal trial involving Rolf Harris could be prejudiced by a Wollongong woman’s decision to go public in paid interviews about how she was allegedly sexually assaulted by the entertainer.Mother-of-three Tonya Lee has alleged that the assualt occurred in a London pub in 1986 when she was 14. It allegedly occurred when Ms Lee was one of 12 members of a youth theatre group from Carlton, in Sydney’s south, on a six-week tour of Britain.In paid interviews with Woman’s Day and Channel Nine’s A Current Affair, brokered by celebrity agent Max Markson, Ms Lee said the troupe were in a pub when Harris allegedly sexually assaulted her.

Tonya Lee on A Current Affair. Photo: Channel Nine

Ms Lee alleges Harris inappropriately touched her while they sat with the group at a table and again outside the pub’s bathroom.Ms Lee, 42, is the second person to go public with allegations about Harris, 83, after claims by another woman, Lauren Martell, that she witnessed an alleged incident in the early 1990s. Ms Martell, who was interviewed by Scotland Yard detectives at her home north of Sydney this month, was not paid for her media interviews.Mr Markson said that Ms Lee gave her interview after she had gone to police.

“Harris has strongly denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime”. Photo: Supplied

Harris has strongly denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime. Former NSW director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, QC, said the publication of the allegations had the potential to prejudice a hearing if the investigation ever reached that stage and that any trial may have to be adjourned for up to 12 months.‘‘I think if this woman has already given her story to authorities as a witness, then it’s even more morally indefensible,’’ he said.Ms Lee’s ‘‘reliability as a witness’’ may also be called into question for selling her story to a media outlet, he said. ‘‘The inference arises that the person may be telling a story or sticking to a story motivated by the reward that he or she has received or might receive at some future time.’’

“Problematic”: The magazine story. Photo: Womans Day

Mr Markson said Ms Lee was within her rights to sell her story to Australian media, saying any trial would occur in Britain.She told the magazine she was going public in the hope other alleged victims might come forward.Hetty Johnston, founder of child protection group Bravehearts, praised Ms Lee, saying alleged victims find courage in others who speak out about abuse.‘‘The fact that it is a paid interview sullies it a bit but I do not believe that money would have been her motivating factor,’’ she said.Mr Markson said selling an exclusive was preferable to his client facing an all-in press conference.Mr Markson would not disclose how much Ms Lee, a bank manager, was paid for her story, or if she sought permission from investigators to do so.Catharine Lumby, a professor of media at Macquarie University, said: ‘‘It can be very problematic when there are ongoing investigations in giving an interview to media organisations whether there are payments or not.’’

Source: The Age, Melbourne

Paid interview may ‘prejudice’ Harris case

WPA Pool, Getty Images

Gallery: Rolf Harris 7 images

Update: 6

Rolf Harris Videos

SRH (Sexual Rolf Harris-ment) – The Drowning Hitlers

Rolf Harris ‘witness’ interviewed

Australian questioned in Rolf Harris case

See all Rolf Harris videos

10 Updates

Any potential criminal trial involving Rolf Harris could be prejudiced by a Wollongong woman’s decision to go public in paid interviews about how she was allegedly sexually assaulted by the entertainer, a top QC warns. Mother of three Tonya Lee …

1 day ago, 4:39pm CDT

Full article at: The Age

Update: 9

Update: 6

Rolf Harris Videos

SRH (Sexual Rolf Harris-ment) – The Drowning Hitlers

Rolf Harris ‘witness’ interviewed

Australian questioned in Rolf Harris case

See all Rolf Harris videos

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

The famous Australian entertainer Rolf Harris is, in the true sense, a household name in Australia and the UK. His name, like that of his friend, the major jazz and blues singer Dana Gillespie, has long been associated with Sathya Sai Baba.

As an indirect outcrop of the history-making British police Operation Yewtree – set up in the wake of hundreds of sexual abuse of minors allegations surfacing about Sir Jimmy Savile – Scotland Yard has just sent detectives to Australia to interview an Australian woman, Lauren Martell, who has offered to testify to British police about Rolf Harris, both in Australia and, if necessary in Great Britain. Caroline Marcus, The Daily Telegraph, reports (May 03, 2013 12:00AM):

Scotland Yard child sex abuse investigators have traveled to Australia to interview Australian woman, Lauren Martell, who has volunteered information to British police investigating  Australian superstar Rolf Harris

“Detective Sergeant Gary Pankhurst, of the Metropolitan Police child abuse investigation command, another Scotland Yard detective and an Australian Federal Police escort arrived at the Wisemans Ferry home, north of Sydney, of 43-year-old Lauren Martell at 12pm yesterday ….

They spent more than 2½ hours interviewing the mother-of-two and former accountant, who said she first contacted local police with her claims in January this year.

Ms Martell claimed she witnessed alleged events involving Harris at a West End recording studio with her then boyfriend, music producer David Malin, while he worked on the Dana Gillespie album Methods of Release, for which Harris was recording backing music with his didgeridoo.

Ms Martell said as a young woman herself, barely out of her teens, she did not contact authorities at the time because she did not think anyone would believe her.

She has allegedly told friends over the years, but none could believe the beloved children’s entertainer would be involved in any potentially compromising behaviour.

At the beginning of the year – after news broke that an Australian entertainer was being questioned in relation to child sex offences in the UK – she contacted local police and then Scotland Yard.

She said detectives had indicated they may fly her to London to testify if the matter proceeds to court.

Ms Martell said she hoped her going public might encourage other witnesses to come forward and give evidence”.

Because most people will not speak up, Society is paying an horrific price. A ‘civilization’ is barbaric when it shuts up. I think it is good to pause and reflect on the part where Ms Martell is quoted as saying:

“as a young woman herself, barely out of her teens, she did not contact authorities at the time because she did not think anyone would believe her”.

If Ms Martell proves to be a reliable witness, she now stands in the cherishable place where conscience stands.

Harris and the late entertainer Sir Jimmy Savile, the vastly toppled former British national treasure, are prime examples of stars so venerated that any questioning of their morality meets with vast incredulity. Too often, people want the myth, not the truth.

Even when some fans admit some of the most glaring facts about their heroes, they commonly make legally and ethically naïve statements such as:  But look at all the good service they have performed for society. Activists in the exposure of Sai Baba have often had to put up with this kind of brainless nonsense.

It is this idolizing of certain public figures that those of us instrumental in exposing a powerful cult like that of Sathya Sai Baba have had – hugely – to contend with.

In short, on this value-warped account – let certain most favoured people be beyond the law. Especially, one’s own favoured gods and demigods.

 Typically, the cultists turn viciously on, and libel and persecute, those who raise questions.  This, with an intensity all the more ironic when it comes from those, like the international Sathya Sai Organization, who proclaim spiritual aims, and who speak constantly of truth, right conduct, peace, love and non-violence ….

Cultists cover up their own scandals, quite oblivious that many other cults think their own guru or star and version of the truth is the correct one. Lost is any half decent thought of accountability to proper processes of investigation and good citizenship.

Rolf Harris, 83. Again arrested for questioning in investigations stemming from the British Police Operation Yewtree. UK detectives have traveled to Australia to extend investigations in to the already twice-arrested Harris

See:

Investigators Can Probe Rolf Harris’s Links With Sathya Sai Baba, Target Of Major Serial Pedophile Allegations.  Posted by Barry Pittard on April 22, 2013

British Police Re-Arrest Rolf Harris In Operation Yewtree Pedophilia Hunt.  Posted by Barry Pittard on April 20, 2013

Sydney woman interviewed over Rolf Harris arrest

Australian Broadcasting Corporation:  First posted Thu May 2, 2013 6:33pm AEST

British police investigating entertainer Rolf Harris over allegations of sexual abuse have interviewed a woman in Australia.

Detectives from Scotland Yard interviewed Lauren Martell at her home at Wisemans Ferry, north of Sydney, on Thursday.

Harris was arrested and questioned in London last month but has not been charged.

He denies any wrongdoing.

The investigation was prompted by the child sexual abuse allegations against Jimmy Savile.

However, the alleged offences at the centre of Harris’s arrest are not linked to the late BBC TV star.

British police established Operation Yewtree after abuse claims were made against Savile, who was one of Britain’s biggest TV stars in the 1970s and 1980s.

He was found to have carried out sex crimes on an unprecedented scale over six decades.

Other celebrities arrested in the Savile investigation include glam-rock singer Gary Glitter and comedian Freddie Starr, who both deny any wrongdoing.

Police say Savile committed 214 offences, including 34 rapes or serious sexual assaults, beginning as long ago as 1955.

The scandal forced former BBC director-general George Entwistle to stand down after only 54 days in the top job.

—————————————–

• Call For Media and Government Investigation

• Citizen Initiative Website of British Kevin Shepherd, author of many philosophical studies, including in-depth analyses of religious figures

• Recent Research on the Claims of Sathya Sai Baba Important and extensive website by retired academic Brian D. Steel

• Sathya Sai Baba Casebook-Factsheet Facts and Cases with links to more detailed materials to be found on related blogsites and websites critical of Sathya Sai Baba and the Sathya Sai Organization

• Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed Blogsite of author and retired academic Robert Priddy. Former head of Sathya Sai Organization, Norway

• Sathya Sai Baba In Word And Action Highly organized, main website of Robert Priddy, former Norwegian Head of Sathya Sai Organization

• http://exbaba.com. A huge former devotee database that extends across the years (from circa 1999).
• Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
• Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
  Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

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Since Sathya Sai Baba’s death on 24 April 2011, Puttaparthi is a virtual ‘ghost town’, and many businesses have failed.

We continue to learn from reliable sources that the Puttaparthi ashram struggles to keep going. In the next couple of days, we shall be able to see from press and other reports whether any significant VVIP’s or crowds of any size turned up.

The Sathya Sai Central Trust and the international Sathya Sai Organization desperately try to shore up some remnants of a collapsed empire. Of but a recent small but symptomatic part of this effort Robert Priddy reports – Sai Touch Tablet: or “indulging in wrong activities”? Posted April 17, 2013 – noting:

         “The cash-strapped Sathya Sai Trust and Co. have ventured into the computer tablet promotion business – which goes against Sathya Sai Baba’s clearly expressed warning to his followers! 

‘Swami has nothing to do with internet. Not only now, even in the future also you should not indulge in such wrong activities.’ See http://sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume32/sss32p2-08.pdf

The tablet is not manufactured by any Sai Baba institution, of course, but an agreement has obviously been made with the makers to sell a version of the tablet (BSNL Tablet Penta T-Pad 701C – a 7-inch Android tablet – selling independently from Rs 3,500). If you fork out another Rs 1,000.- then you also get some already-published materials.”

For a while the pushing of a railhead to Puttaparthi increased visitor numbers within India. The airport, however, is now seen by many as a spent force. See: Robert Priddy’s: Sathya Sai Airport “white elephant” for sale!  See also: Sai Baba’s tennis stadium another white elephant? See: Major Downturn of Foreigners Visiting Sai Baba At Puttaparthi Posted by Barry Pittard on June 26, 2010.

From one very conversant with the Telegu language, checking the Indian press and with reliable informants, and who lived in Puttaparthi for many years, comes this email referring to the last couple of days in a period which commemorates the death of Sathya Sai Baba:

“I did a check of official announcements after the Kerala 2nd Samadhi article came in my Alerts. The PN 2nd Samadhi schedule doesn’t seem to include any VIP speakers, just “World Peace” homas! Whereas in Kerala, they managed to scrape up some minor govt officials. Too bad there are people still out there willing to publicly show their support.

 Meanwhile, the only person speaking for Sri Ram Navami last Thursday, was Anil Kumar! HA! No VIP speakers for Tamil New Year on the 14th, either.

 2nd Samadhi Starts on the 22nd (with carefully chosen pics, trying not to show the sparse crowds and big empty areas – looks like the hall is hardly 1/4 full, most the people being in chairs against the walls)”

There has been a severe diminution of numbers in the international Sathya Sai Organization,  and the huge decline, following our intensive former devotee Expose, for a several years in the number of foreigners visiting Sathya Sai Baba at the Puttaparthi ashram.

After the discovery of a vast trove of riches cached in Sathya Baba’s bedroom and after the Indian media – long almost entirely muzzled in regard to any adverse reports of Sai Baba and his cult – reported the Sathya Sai Central Trust’s disarray and infighting and cover up – the Puttaparthi and world leaders are in dire straits, in many respects far more severe than our two decades of intensive exposure were able to achieve.

Apart from many Sathya Sai Organization former leaders, victims and their families, and others, it is the best reputed western media, such as the BBC, DR, CBC, SBS, Times of London, Telegraph, Guardian, The AGE and European newspapers etc., that have investigated and exposed Sathya Sai Baba and his cult, much to the shame of the Indian media, except India Today, whose proprietor experienced the case of a young person close to him being sexually abused by Sathya Sai Baba. See: Barry Pittard’s Guide To His Articles On The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Exposing Sai Baba). And: BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ and British Press Praise.  And:  The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision. And:  Sathya Sai Baba’s Chief Broadcaster Dr G. Venkataraman: Select Critical Articles by Barry Pittard.

All power to those increasing numbers of Indian people who are coming out against government and corporate corruption. But they need to expose many corrupt Indian religious leaders like Sathya Sai Baba, and free themselves from the shackles of superstitious servitude to those who mislead them with polished false piety. This is just as false as those politicians, corporate and social elites who pay convenient lip service to religion, and who pour vast riches into religious coffers to buy a spurious respectability and appearance of social responsibility.

• Call For Media and Government Investigation

• Citizen Initiative Website of British Kevin Shepherd, author of many philosophical studies, including in-depth analyses of religious figures

• Recent Research on the Claims of Sathya Sai Baba Important and extensive website by retired academic Brian D. Steel

• Sathya Sai Baba Casebook-Factsheet Facts and Cases with links to more detailed materials to be found on related blogsites and websites critical of Sathya Sai Baba and the Sathya Sai Organization

• Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed Blogsite of author and retired academic Robert Priddy. Former head of Sathya Sai Organization, Norway

• Sathya Sai Baba In Word And Action Highly organized, main website of Robert Priddy, former Norwegian Head of Sathya Sai Organization

• http://exbaba.com. A huge former devotee database that extends across the years (from circa 1999).
• Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
• Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
  Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba