... and the case could lead to the nationwide dissolution of the controversial organisation.
The so-called church is accused of targeting vulnerable people for commercial gain.
France, which categorises Scientology as a sect, has previously convicted several individual Scientologists of fraud over the past decades – most notably its science fiction-writing creator, L Ron Hubbard, in 1978.
The Guardian reports that the case stems from the testimony of a French woman who filed an official complaint against the organisation in 1998.
Lawyers for Aude-Claire Malton claim Scientologists preyed upon her at a time when she was "very psychologically fragile", pressuring her into spending €21,000 (£18,000) – her life savings – on products including "purification packs" and vitamins.
The investigating magistrate in charge of bringing the case against the church, Jean-Christophe Hullin, said the church, which has been glamourised by Hollywood members such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, made a profit by placing individuals in a "state of subjection". The organisation, he argued, is "first and foremost a commercial business" whose actions reveal "a real obsession for financial remuneration".
Tuesday 26 May 2009
Marohasy shows her ignorance on NSW North Coast flooding
When the first inklings appeared of a coming May 2009 flood event in the Clarence Valley one local warned me that such flooding would be used to raise the issue of further damming in the Clarence River catchment area.
Sure enough, yesterday climate change denialist Jennifer Marohasy opened her mouth and displayed a level of ignorance which quite frankly surprised:
It doesn't matter what time of year you drive through this region, known as the Northern Rivers District, it is always green and the wide Clarence is always brimming with water.
Oh dear, let's ignore the fact that the Clarence River is salt from above Grafton right down to the river mouth, that it appears to brim with water because of a strong tidal influence, stay silent on the fact that there is a large dam on one of its principal freshwater tributaries and let's also conveniently forget that the Clarence Valley goes in and out of drought with the same regularity as the rest of the NSW North Coast.
I honestly don't have the patience to correct the many misconceptions on which her post is based, so I'll just refer all to the blog A Clarence Valley Protest which was created during the last big John Howard - Malcolm Turnbull push to rob the Clarence catchment of its fresh water and, which includes the political response at local, state and federal level.
NSW North Coast flood photos sent to local media
With newspapers being in short supply on the NSW North Coast at present due to the number of roads still cut by water, here is a link to a bundle of flood photographs sent to the media by local residents.
A fun piece of trivia from Core Economics
Sometimes the trivia machine works overtime and produces grin-inducing posts such as "Was someone short of fact checkers?" with statistics like this:
Australian PM Physical Data
I always wanted to know that Kevin Rudd was 2.5cms taller than John Howard!
As the PM data spreadsheet is a work in progress, join in and give Alistair a bit more info.
Monday 25 May 2009
Maclean begins its post-flood clean up
They were taken in low-lying areas of Maclean on Sunday, close to the street leading to Mareeba Nursing Home where staff and volunteers did a magnificent job looking after seventy-one aged residents during a very difficult week.
McDonald's receives a fail in both staff and customer relations
From The Daily Examiner letters to the editor column last Friday:Bad Experience
I AM writing to you about something I witnessed one night recently. I was at McDonald's on the highway at Grafton having some time with my family after work.
We were sitting having coffee when I heard some shouting and yelling. At first I thought a customer was abusing the staff but on looking, what I saw shocked me no end.
A manager was screaming at the girls on staff and calling them names and yelling in their faces.
The whole restaurant stopped and people were so uncomfortable. We let it slide, but after it kept going a man confronted the manager and asked him to cut it out and treat the workers with respect.
The manager told this customer to leave and there was a discussion and the customer sat back down. I was so embarrassed for the girls on the counter how this manager belittled and demeaned them in front of customers and his attitude towards the customer who spoke up in defence of these girls.
He was basically told it was none of his business and to go away. I remember when customer service was a priority at any store and this just shows why a lot of kids hate to work for companies like this.
I would hate to think that this is normal, but after seeing this manager talking down to the customer I believe that McDonald's Grafton may have a bad .' attitude towards staff and customers.
The kids give up their time to earn some money and feel better about themselves. I am writing as I believe it's about time someone spoke up for these kids and how they were treated.
KYLIE NOY,
Coutts Crossing.
ABC North Coast Radio was doing an excellent job reporting on the floods and then, along came Martin....
I was in awe of ABC North Coast Radio this week.It covered the flood situation on the NSW North Coast extensively and professionally.
In fact, if it were not for questions asked of emergency services by its on-air staff quite a few areas wouldn't have had much information on what was happening locally as flood waters rose.
Then I heard the dulcet tones of Martin (who once hailed from ABC 2NR) and I awaited the inevitable.
Martin did not disappoint during one on-air conversation.
He casually dismissed the fact that a Yamba caller was cut off from reaching high ground at Yamba Hill by flood water across the main road as being nothing much - because she was not in 'Yamba proper'.
Of course the caller's concerns were similar to those of at least another 2,500 residents in that same section of Yamba (which as any fool would be aware had experienced steady urban growth for the last fifteen years and was very much within the town boundaries).
Fair dinkum, that bloke doesn't deserve to be anywhere near an ABC microphone.
Send him back down south.
To all the other ABC radio staffers who showed the rest of the mainstream media what excellence sounds like - well done!
Thanks to Clarencegirl for the LOL.
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