Psychs
Psychology Today published an article on October 8th on distrust by blacks of 
the mental health profession Scientology's targeting of blacks with 
anti-psychiatry messages. "Blacks do not volunteer for studies, observes the 
University of Illinois' Carl C. Bell, M.D. 'So it is difficult to document that 
they need half the dose of antidepressant medication that whites need.' The 
cultural mistrust that keeps blacks from treatment has been successfully fueled 
by the Church of Scientology. Bell is particularly distressed that Scientology 
has specifically targeted black communities with its anti-psychiatry message. 
'They are forever pumping into the black community scare tactics, that there's a 
genocidal plot to put black children on Ritalin, there's a genocidal plot to put 
black people on antidepressant medication.' "But when all is said and done, it 
may be that blacks turn less to the mental health system because they have long 
had other sources of coping. 'For us, the church has been our psychologist,' 
says Morrow. Unfortunately, she notes, 'the church has not often sanctioned 
people getting help other than from the church. Religious beliefs are supposed 
to sustain you through everything. There's the belief that 'your faith will 
carry you.'' But because African Americans 'pay attention to their pastors' she 
has sought the help of the religious community to give parishioners permission 
to take advantage of available treatments." Message-ID: 
1065693705.323894@newshost02.voicenet.com


Tim Robbins
MSNBC reported on October 6th that actor Tim Robbins helped raise money for a 
Scientology-linked detoxification program for New York firefighters. "Did Tim 
Robbins know he helped raise money for a group linked to Scientology? Robbins's 
Actors' Gang recently performed a run of 'The Guys' in Vail, Colorado to benefit 
the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Fund. The group has drawn fire from 
certain quarters because it uses 'purification' techniques developed by 
Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. "'Tim Robbins should have done a little Web 
surfing,' says Rick Ross of CultNews.com. 'He and Susan Sarandon may mean well 
but Tim was being used as a pawn. If he had gone to this group's Web site, he 
would have read that Tom Cruise is the co-founder, and that might have set off a 
few bells. And he would have read that their methods of 'detoxifying' 
firefighters are the ones outlined by L. Ron Hubbard.'" Message-ID: 
1065434170.370646@newshost01.voicenet.com


Ireland
The Sunday Mirror reported on October 5th that a Scientology recruitment van in 
Dublin, Ireland is causing controversy. "Dublin City Council has been slammed 
for allowing an infamous sect to park a recruitment van on the city's busiest 
street. The Church of Scientology was allowed to park its trailer at Grafton 
Street for 11 days. In a bid to enrol members, they offered free personality and 
stress tests from their new location as they have abandoned their building on 
Middle Abbey Street. "Mike Garde, of cult watchdog Dialogue Ireland, said the 
council was being irresponsible. He said: 'It is no coincidence the group has 
intensified their enrolment campaign at the same time young, vulnerable 
teenagers are starting college.' Fine Gael health spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell TD 
said: 'It is regrettable that an organisation that preys on vulnerable students 
who are away from home for the first time has been facilitated in this way.'" 
Message-ID: 1065434468.480643@newshost01.voicenet.com


Kate Ceberano
The Sydney Morning Herald published an article on Australian musician Kate 
Ceberano on October 11th. "What did Kate Ceberano, one of Australia's 
highest-profile Scientologists, really think of John Travolta's movie 
Battlefield Earth? The singer's brown eyes widen, her head tilts back and she 
laughs raucously. 'Oh, shithouse film!' she cackles. 'I hated that film!' "Would 
she say that to Travolta, a fellow Scientologist? 'Hmm,' she says, still shaking 
with laughter. 'Yeah, I'd probably tell him it was a dog.' Travolta's big-screen 
adaptation of the novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard was abysmal. But 
it's still something of a relief to hear Ceberano rubbish it. "She's a 
third-generation Scientologist, after all. Her latest album The Girl Can Help It 
carries a dedication to Hubbard and links on her website make her allegiances 
clear. But there's nothing sanctimonious about Kate Ceberano; she makes up her 
own mind. After 20 years in the business, she's grown used to journalists 
clearing their throat, gripping their pens a little tighter and saying: 'So, 
Scientology?' "'It's not really people who flip out [over Scientology], it's the 
media,' she says calmly. 'All I know is that Scientology has been a very 
practical tool to confront a very impractical world.' Specifically, Ceberano 
says, personal responsibility and education are two cornerstones of the 
religion. 'The ignorant can be controlled, but an educated person can have a 
point of view,' she says. She also talks about confronting adversity with a 
courage that 'can be learned' and endorses her religion's negative view of 
psychiatry and associated drugs such as Prozac. 'I don't want to be labelled [by 
a psychiatrist] and I certainly do not want to take anything which would subdue 
the honesty of the situation,' she says." Message-ID: 
d80eb3832dc3e7dd8d4e155794beb7f9@nox.lemuria.org



Russia
Izvestia reported on October 2nd that a program to reform psychiatric 
institutions in Russia is opposed by Scientology. "The chief Russian specialist 
in the field of psychiatry appealed to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov 
in an open letter. Psychiatric assistance is the only branch of medicine that is 
not financed by medical insurance. Therefore the majority of our pscyh patients 
are in asylums like the orphanages in horror films, with no treatment or food. 
To what this may lead, doctors know, and the government knows it doesn't want. 
"The number of people who need help from psychiatrists is increasing every year. 
The mental health of the nation is under threat, think the eminent doctors; the 
human and economic loss from this outweighs the damages from military operations 
in Chechnia, the scholars add. "'All our efforts have met with opposition from 
the Scientologists, who have found a way into the State Duma,' thinks professor 
Valeriy Krasnov, director of the Moscow NII psychiatric MZ RF. 'The deputies, 
who promised support, are now refusing to associate with us. The active role in 
this opposition is played by the so-called Citizens Commissioner for Human 
rights, which has gotten generally out of control in our cities,' said Vladimir 
Agishev, chief doctor of one of the largest hospitals in Saint Petersburg, 
psychiatric hospital No. 3. 'They mass distribute leaflets, they write letters 
saying that psychiatric institutions ought not to receive one copeck, that 
psychiatrists are killers and their medicine is poison. We've had repeated 
conflicts with them. For example, over the summer they took pictures through the 
fence and made videotapes of our patients without consent. The heat stagnated 
and the patients were half-dressed in old pajamas (purchasing finances 5 percent 
of the inventory we need), and then they distributed these photographs under the 
title 'here is how people are treated in psych hospitals.' "It is known that 
this charitable organization is closely connected to the totalitarian cult of 
Scientology, which is prohibited in our country but finds the City of Peter a 
first-rate place to be. Now the hands of the Gekachepists ['CCHRers'] have 
stretched to the capital, they say their letters have even found their way to 
Gennadi Seleznev and they got a resolution 'examined and announced.'" 
Message-ID: Pine.LNX.3.96.1031007174917.112A-100000@darkstar.zippy