Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing Really Pays!
An old story in the Virginia-Pilot suggests charity really does begin at home -- at least for creepy, murder-advocating religious fanatic Pat Robertson:
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) Airplanes sent to Zaire by evangelist Pat Robertson's tax-exempt humanitarian organization were used almost exclusively for his diamond mining business, say two pilots who flew them.Three airplanes were flown to Zaire in September 1994 by Operation Blessing. However, chief pilot Robert Hinkle said only one or two of the roughly 40 flights during his six months in the country could be considered humanitarian. All the rest of the flights were mining-related, he told The (Norfolk) Virginia-Pilot.
Robertson's spokesman first denied the accounts by Hinkle and a co-pilot, Tahir Brohi of England. Later, Gene Kapp, vice president for public relations at Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, said the planes turned out to be unsuitable for medical relief and that Robertson reimbursed Operation Blessing for their use.
"Without Mr. Robertson's generous overture, Operation Blessing would have incurred further expenses with its aircraft," he said.
Or...is it that Pat Robertson's favorite charity is...Pat Robertson? Diamond mining, by the way, is a dirty business. While a godless harlot like me wouldn't dream of investing in it or ever buying a diamond, our "man of god" seems to have not a problem in the world with it.
A book about the diamond industry that I bought and have been meaning to read: Blood Diamonds, by Greg Campbell. And here's the story, by Edward J. Epstein, of the brilliant marketing campaign, by NW Ayer in the late 1930s, that caused the overvaluing of diamonds, and led people to believe buying one was an obligatory show of love from a man to a woman. Let's see...if you're a woman, and you're not a prostitute, and a guy has to buy you a diamond for you to marry him...why don't you, in turn, have to buy him a boat?!
I would reccommend "Glitter & Greed : The Secret World of the Diamond Cartel" by Janine Roberts. While she isn't a terribly sophisticated writer, she was an inside source during the height of the De Beers corruption that went virtually unreported (and still does, really).
It's some seriously creepy, life-altering material.
Jake at September 3, 2005 7:44 AM
I think you're on to something with that boat idea.
Charlie at September 3, 2005 1:37 PM
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