The noseweek article says:
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I recalled Werner Erhard's Hunger Project to "raise awareness" about hunger� only $2m out of $67m raised went to relief organisations, according to Mother Jones magazine (the noseweek of America).
Here is a link to several articles on the hunger project (including a Mother Jones one) that Rick Ross has in the database:
[
culteducation.com]
The Mother Jones article (1978) says (typed not copied... apologies if any typos):
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est created the Hunger Project as an independent, nonprofit organization and gave it a $400,000 interest-free loan. Est's tax-deductible arm, the est Foundation, bestowed on the Project a $100,000 grant. This money financed a series of 12 "presentations" in uran centers across the nation, where Erhard "presented" the idea of ending hunger to 40,000 Americans. In a slide show and lecture, he and his resident hunger expert, Roy Prosterman, tried to "get at" the first principles of hunger and starvation. He then "gave" the Project to those Americans who, after paying $6 to attend the show, demonstrated that they wanted to take "personal responsibility" for being the source of the Project and ending hunger and starvation on the planet in the next two decades".
...
What, precisely, does the Hunger Project plan to do to end famine and starvation? The Hunger Project does not, you see, do anything about ending hunger. That's why, Erhard tells anyone who asks, it is a difficult idea to grasp. The Hunger Project does not advocate any particular solution to hunger - like land reform, food self-sufficiency or the wresting of power from landowners by peasants. Nor does it ask its enrollees to make "dehumanizing gestures" - like sending money to anti-hunger organizations. Above all, the Project does not want its members to feel guilty about the deplorable situation that causes, each year, the death of some 15 million all over the world. Rather, it asks them to view hunger and starvation as a "wonderful opportunity", an opportunity to "make a difference in the world."
To create such optimism, Erhard counsels us to examine our "positions" about hunger and starvation. This is the first step in "getting" the Project. Once we examine our attitudes, we will discover that two prevail: one, we think hunger and starvation are inevitable; two, we think to to end it, we have to "do" something, support a particular "position".
But these things, Erhard assures us, are not the case. Hunger and starvation are not inevitable. We have the technology to eradicate them. And positions merely make matters worse - by engendering opposing positions.
What the Hunger Project literature - a slick collection of Erhard's sayings, photographs and aphorisms gleaned fromm hunger experts and their writings - counsels is a process of de-education. For anyone confused by the complex issues of the day, this has enormous appeal. "Rather than knowing more and then more as you go along," Erhard counsels, "you will need, instead, to be willing to know less and and then less - that is to say, to become somewhat confused as you go along. Finally, you will have struggled enough to be clear that you don't know.
In the state of knowing that you don't know, you get, as a flash of insight, the principle out of which the answer comes."
...
A six-month investigation by Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting of Oakland, California, however, has revealed a far different set of goals for the Hunger Project:
* Werner Erhard is using the Hunger Project not only for self-aggrandizement but for promoting the for-projit corporation he founded, as well. The Hunger Project is a thinly veiled recruitment arm for est. Hunger Project volunteers have said that est-trained Hunger Project staffers have pressured them until they agreed to do the $300-a-shot est training. Others told of being asked to lend their cars or provide other services to est.
The Hunger Project has nonprofit status - which gives it the ability to receive tax-deductible contributions. But thhis use of a nonprofit organization to recruit customers for a for-profit one is in violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of Internal Revenue Service laws.
* In various cities across the country, Erhard's disciples have organized a "HUnger Project Seminar Series" at $30 per enrollment. Yet the proceeds go, not to the Hunger Project, but directly to est.
* The official claim that est and the Hunger Project are organizationally separate is a fabrication...
- from the Mother Jones article [
culteducation.com]
...that was in 1978
In 2004:
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April 9, 2004
By Rick Ross
The Hunger Project (THP), describes itself as "a strategic organization and global movement committed to the sustainable end of world hunger." But it seems the group has added some interesting new strategies to its list of commitments lately.
THP has apparently decided to pursue a strategy of intimidation and threats to purge critical and/or historical information about it from the Internet.
What it seems THP doesn't want the public to readily know is that it was initially launched by a controversial seminar guru named Werner Erhard (once known as John Paul "Jack" Rosenberg) through his organization called "est" (Erhard Seminars Training).
And another sickening continuation:
[
culteducation.com]
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XL Results Foundation Opening in Mexico City with Support for The Hunger Project, Mexico
PR Newswire/June 11, 2007
XL Results Foundation, the world's leading entrepreneur and social enterprise network [sic], has announced that it will open its first Latin American office in Mexico City in mid July...
Given the serious problem of poverty within Mexico, XL will support The Hunger Project as Mexico focuses on the nationwide eradication of poverty. XL Mexico will donate 10% of its profits to The Hunger Project...
The XL Results Foundation is a leading entrepreneur and social enterprise network [sic]. XL stands for Extraordinary Lives and its mission is to accelerate the power of individuals to create and contribute. This it does by providing effective training, networking and resources worldwide.
Hosting over 1000 events in 50 cities in 2007, XL provides coaching accreditation, online networks and the XL Results Foundation -- a global membership programme. The company provides tools for entrepreneurs which include the Wealth Dynamics Experience, Entrepreneur Business School, XL Magazine and the XL Social Enterprise Accreditation Programme.
The XL 2020 Vision is to reach a billion dollar challenge target by 2020, when it will have 25,000 companies participating in the XL Social Enterprise Accreditation Programme. Its goal is to have reached $1 billion of new wealth created annually with $100 million being contributed and leveraged to end poverty and environmental degeneration.
So I followed the trail of XL Foundation and found:
[
rogerhamiltonexposed.wordpress.com]
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Letter of complaint and petition
11 September 2006, 03:04:00 PM | steandreassen
Dear XL Results Members
We are filing an official complaint against Roger Hamilton & Dave Rogers of XL Results Foundation Pte Ltd, www.resultsfoundation.com (a private limited company registered in Singapore Company registration: 200107729C) on its unfair business practice and misrepresentation to the Commercial Affairs Department of Singapore www.cad.gov.sg
Complaints include:
Where are Life Membership funds?
Where are the reserves to guarantee Life Membership Security?
Proof of 10% of ALL Life Memberships sales promised to charitable causes worldwide.
Non refund policy
High pressure sales tactics & predatory business practice
Misrepresentation
Unfair Business Practices
Company accounts have not been forthcoming
The company has no recognized fixed assets
The company only has two directors Roger Hamilton and his mother
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Specimen Letter
Date: September, 2006
To: Commercial Affairs Department or
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
Dear Sir/Madam
We are members of XL Results Foundation Pte Ltd for which we pay a fee of USD$XXXXXXX for a life membership.
We would like to make a complaint against XL Results Foundation Pte Ltd, Singapore for the following reasons
Misrepresenting members using the name FOUNDATION as a private business concern.
Does the company hold a trust fund in Singapore to protect life membership monies? We purchased a life membership where are the funds?
Misrepresentation regarding the Master Coach Dave Rogers ability. Dave Rogers is not accredited or qualified.
No proof of the 10% charitable donations taken from each life memberships in Singapore and the region as promised verbally and in writing by Roger Hamilton has been forthcoming. Repeated requests for receipts, donations and amounts have not been forthcoming.
The Terms & Conditions keep changing without fair notification to life members.
No cooling off period or refund policy implemented by the company.
Roger Hamilton has openly misrepresented members about his business experience and his educational qualifications.
High pressure sales tactics and misrepresenting members on the number of memberships available. The MTI gazette three day cooling off period is not honored.
Also, the following list of services that warrant our membership entitlements are not delivered.
a) The XL Results Foundation coaching is of poor quality, not certified, accredited or recognized with anyone. XL is not affiliated with the International Coaching Federation in the US.
b) Misrepresented about the extent of the XL Results Foundation network. The XL network consists mainly of the free linkedin and ecademy network. Ecademy only has 8,000 paid subscribers world-wide. Members have been misrepresented about XL network numbers which have not been substantiated.
Singapore is reputed to be a safe and honest business enterprise. We do not understand how this predatory business: XL Results Foundation’s can operate in Singapore.
We ask the Consumer Affairs Department to look into the unfair business conduct of Roger Hamilton and Dave Rogers of XL Results Foundation and find out where our life membership funds are and where are the reserves to guarantee life membership.
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On the 7th April, 2007 Linda Ruck’s affidavit was accepted by the judge in its entirety and is now a public document. The affidavit has opened up specific questions regarding the company and its sources of revenue.
... cons of a feather, flock together...