Wendy Sargent dies

Dr Wendy Midori Sargent died April 27, 2011 at 9am, aged 56 years, after suffering from a very aggressive cancer. The memorial service was held on 7 May in Australia. She was an internationally known member of Brahma Kumaris for 34 years, co-ordinator of the Australia based 'Network for the UN Dialogue among Civilisations Forum', co-ordinator of the Global Co-operation for a Better World Project in the Middle East in the 80s, and part of a group awarded one of the UN Peace Messenger prizes. She is survived by her mother Margaret and non-BK Sister Jacqueline.

Rare within the religion, Wendy was a genuinely intelligently lady that gave her life to the BKWSU (... and who appear to be strangely quiet about all it ...) at the cost of her own personal and professional life. For a long time she was a fairly lone voice for the BKs out in Japan, I seem to remember. I cannot say anything bad about her. I actually found her to be very quick witted and fun and, therefore, attractive ... all forbidden sentiments within the BKWSU. I suspect she tried more to do good improving the BKs, than spending time "earning her inheritance" and creating servants (aka "making new BKs"), and spend much of her life in Asia nations.

I wonder what she made of us lot? Did they call her back via trance messenger ... or do only Sindhi bigwigs get to have a posthumous last word?

Wendy wrote much of 'Visions of a Better World' (1992), 'Going Beyond Religious and Political Extremism by Implementing the Principle of Diversity in Unity: A Major Key to International Peace Building', the "Creative Raj Yoga Study Book: for Students and Teachers of Raj Yoga" (1995), 'The Brahma Kumaris in Tradition and Modernity: Strategies of Authority and Legitimization in a Modern Hindu Movement' for her PhD, and 'Civilizing Peace Building : Twenty-first Century Global Politics' (2007). She was on a panel discussing “East meets West: Spirituality and Women’s Leadership in Different Religious Perspectives” at the 2009 the Parliament of the Worlds Religions, something she was genuinely qualified to talk about, putting in the intellectual muscle after Janki Kripalani's usual stream of consciousness stuff.

I never actually read Strategies of Authority, Creative Raj Yoga nor Civilizing Peace Building but would like to critique them, and am interested to read if anyone else can define what was her input into the 'BKW Stew'.

Strange how the BKs make a big song and dance about any senile bag of curry that dies, have servants doting all over them as they are fading and spend a fortune burning endangered sandalwood when they final go. But when it comes to white folks ... they have to go back home to their own families to be looked after. How many times has that happened now? And don't their physical families just come forward again when needed, despite being valued like lepers by the BKWSU?

Caveat emptor any Westerner buying into the BKWSU ... if you don't make up with your physical family, you will end up in social housing and then a government run old folks' house. Strangely, religion the size of a good city and they cannot even afford an obituary column. For me, it just goes to show again that the Brahma Kumari leadership *really* don't appreciate intelligence but put the higher value on the "Bhakti Value" of individuals, their ability to pull in the rupees ... and, dare I say it ... their Sindhi-ness.

Wendy Sargent

Going Beyond Fundamentalism by Implementing the Principle of Unity in Diversity: A Major Key to International Peace Building and Peace Making by Wendy M Sargent.

The paper looks at the way in which the UN project Dialogue among Civilisations as the counter narrative to the divisive modern narrative can:

• Become a means to create co-operation and understanding between major international stakeholders by uncovering the common ground of ethics and interests.
• By the addition of a spiritual dimension the UN project can act as a bridge between modern secular and traditional religious institutions, by stressing the importance of both a secular rational exploration of common ethics and interests through dialogue but also acknowledging the importance of the transcendent approach to peace such as the use of prayer, co-operation on the basis of brotherhood and actions guided by a sense of morality emerging from being in touch with one’s conscience.
• Become a source of cultural governance, through the celebration and valuing of cultural diversity.
• Through the dialogic process can overcome the dynamic of separation of the modern and tradition by encouraging the participation of all civilisational secular and religious groups, thus becoming a practical expression of the principle of unity in diversity.

These four aspects are seen as a 21st century peace building approach to be taken up on an international level by governments and organizations through the UN projects. The assumption being that it is this very practice of unity in diversity that will move us away from the fundamentalist exclusionary dynamic presently leading the world towards increasing conflict and war. Instead the practical implementation of this same principle will lead us towards a future based on an international dialogue among civilisations.

Civilizing Peace Building : Twenty-first Century Global Politics

Highlighting the high price paid by the United Nations and international peace builders that under-utilize the reflexive new paradigm approach to international relations (IR), this study develops an overview of IR theory, relied on by governmental and diplomatic communities as a guide to peace building. Especially significant is the development of IR theory in relation to religious extremism and tendencies towards barbarism with modernities. It discusses outcomes such as the exponential growth of international enmity between diverse populations and public demonization of the religious or ethnic other, expressed most recently through the War on Terror.

Central to this research is the emerging debate on the impact of religious and cultural identity on IR and peace building. While many IR books continue to research positivist approaches, Sargent looks at the concept of structural violence as identified using post-positive approaches. This book rethinks peace building outside the limits of ideological difference.

Although Wendy was a bit fierce at times, she was also very kind and smart

R.I.P.

all best wishes for her near and dear

By worldly standards, Wendy Sargent was hard working and gifted. Her 'genes' had had generations of hard work, intelligence and and luck investment into them to raise her to the level that she got to. How much of the fruit of that labor was just picked off ... and ended ... by the Brahma Kumaris? Can you see how ... whatever the BKWSU claims to be doing ... the Brahma Kumaris are living off the efforts of others, and especially other families ... real families ... picking individuals off like ripe fruit and using them to support them.

But when it comes to white folks ... they have to go back home to their own families to be looked after. How many times has that happened now? And don't their physical families just come forward again when needed, despite being valued like lepers by the BKWSU?

OK ... my apologies and a correction.

Of course, there have been many, many India deaths and serious illnesses within the BKWSU that have gone without care or support from the BKs (... and the few notable non-Indian suicides). I am not racist against all Sindis. I just wanted to underline the apparently onesidedness paid to the BK Sindi bigwigs ... and their Hindi underlings who fancy a piece of the action ... as part of the business element of the BKWSU.

Big funerals are good for pulling in donations.

It is no wonder, in an intensely millenarianist (end of the world) religion like the Brahma Kumarism, that they did not plan some kind of insurance system or retirement plan. There was going to be no retirement ... it was not necessary. The End of the World was going to come and save them. What a wonderful financial system reaping that extra 10 or 20%, or what that otherwise would have gone to looking after adherents in their old age and infirmity. What do they give back to the people that have "given their bones" and kept a roof over their head and food on their plate?

Doesn't Baba, the clever businessman, offer the BEST GLOBAL insurance system of all !?! The promise of 21 lives and 2,500 years in paradise on earth ... IF ... and here is the small print ... you give up EVERYTHING this life and "grind your bones in service". Give up EVERYTHING ... even reading papers and watching movies never mind speaking to financial planners and advisors. Pensions, insurance and a retirement home ... Maya. LACK OF FAITH IN Baba AND The Cycle.

Wendy was by no means the first or last high profile, skilled and dedicated Westerner to have to fall back on their "lokik" (worldly) family after investing their lives and career in the BKWSU. I found it interesting she chose to return to her 'real home' and have her ashes scattered in a 'real place' with some 'real meaning' to her. A bay in Australia.

I think of Western individuals who have helped the Brahma Kumaris make very real, exponential leaps in their operation and reputation - many of who have since left or occupy suspect positions in the Seniors eye - what do and what will they every get out of the BKWSU when their time of need comes ... because Destruction does not? What advice do the Seniors give now regards planning for the future? What advice do senior Western BKs give new Western BKs? (... in my time, all they did was reinforce the lunacy of the old Sindis).

Much of life is a con. Cults and pyramid sales operations have a lot in common. They are 'numbers games' which only a tiny fraction at the top of the pyramid, the early adopters, will every make anything out of. Financially, and mathematically, it is just impossible for everyone to do so. They sell it on the idea that "YOU TOO CAN BE LIVE US IF YOU WORK HARD GIVE EVERYTHING" ... but financially, and mathematically, it is just not true. They don't tell you that.

Uou shouldn't pull yourself up for that comment, ex-l. It is spot on.

If you're a westerner giving money, your folks have to cover for you if there is a problem. If you're Indian and well inside the innermost circle, you will be doted on, your nappy will be changed if it comes to that. It's true ex-l, things are that unfair ... you have to be a Bharat Bhagat if you're white.

You shouldn't pull yourself up for that comment ex-l, it is spot on ...

I felt compassionate for the Indians, Mr Green. I don't think it is an "Indian versus White" thing, I think is a "Sindi Elite versus Everyone Else" thing. I don't think of the Sindis as Hindus or Indians.

I am thinking of the Hindis they peel a few more bank notes off of for a "special" Bhog offering or fortune telling from Baba when someone dies. How much does it cost to get on the stage at Madhuban these days? I think the Whites do not know the full exploitation of the Hindis because they are largely treated well, and it all goes on in another language. It is a separate topic to discuss, but I am also interested in the relationship between the BK Sindi Elite ... WHO WERE REALLY NOT ELITE IN SINDI SOCIAL TERMS ... and the rest of the Sindi society.

This game of funerals and memorial is also a numbers game. Only so many can happen before, a) people tire of them, and b) donations received reduce to the point where they do not cover costs.

If we take the example of Wendy Sargent ... put a VALUE on her professional input, the vanish and veneer that she put on the BKWStew. Whether it was in marketing terms or intellectually terms, it was huge. Can they value it? Do they value it? Did they offer to contribute to the funeral costs?

No, I bet you not ... "{i}Thank you for the best years of your daughter's life, Mrs Sargent. Here's the funeral bill.[/i]" And it was not just her life, it was also the son or daughter, the family she did not have ... the BKs are killing off family lines.

This then has an even more serious implication in India ... who is going to look after all the old Indians who gave up their life for the Brahma Kumari leadership and have no children? How many "surrendered Sisters" are there now?

Do the maths and you will find out when the financial crunch is going to hit the BKs ... and by that time, the elite, both White and Brown, will be gone. The White elite, off doing a little business on the side, the Brown elite dead, gone but fed, clothed and sheltered for life.