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Tvind: San Juan De Las Pulgas

I love to travel. Google earth allows poor-man's flight time: pick some portion of the Earth's surface and explore it from above. Tonight I was checking out the Northern Baja California Coast (MX), when I happened across a photo of a strange-looking complex, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, taken by "californiapilot":

According to the comments, the complex was designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the same guy who did the Sydney Opera house. It was built for an, um, "humanitarian organization" (cult?) called "Tvind", named after a commune in Denmark. "There will often be 6-7 Danes living there, probably also the Tvind chairman Mogens Amdi Petersen." Petersen apparently also owned one of the world's largest yachts. At one point he hired OJ Simpson lawyer Robert Shapiro. "As of January 2009 Petersen, Larsen and three senior Tvind members were wanted by Interpol, and their location unknown." [Wikipedia]

There's a slide show of the facility here (nice, a tad new-agey or otherworldly (or even creepy perhaps), and very, very empty -- someone should develop it as a resort). Cult-dude Rick Ross has a series of articles on the group here. And here's a website ("Clothing Bin Cult") with a picture of the clothing donation boxes the group apparently placed around California.

The guy apparently sold his organization as a humanitarian group, but was channeling the money into rather, um, surprising efforts.

... a group of Danish intellectuals got together in the late 1960s with plans to form an experimental traveling folk high school. They wanted to gain knowledge about the third world and to find solutions to combat poverty. [source]

A student yesterday revealed how a cult held him prisoner for six months in Denmark.... He signed up for Humana - which claims to be a charity endorsed by UNICEF - to help some of Africa's poorest people. But when he got to their volunteer centre in Julesminde, Martin, 29, was put in a shared dormitory, constantly watched and sent out to sell newspapers and roses on the streets. [source]

Tvind has bought at least 24 plantations in Latin America in recent years. 56 employees in a luxurious administrative building in Guayquil are running the Danish colonial masters' latest conquests in Ecuador alone.... Before the Danes came, Floryl was a model farm, where employees were treated really well. "But after that, we have had no contact at all with the workers", said Joaquim Gomes da Silva... [source]

The controversial Danish-based organization Tvind, whose ties to the Cayman Islands have been outlined in previous Caymanian Compass stories, has been linked to international terrorism, guerrilla training and weapons, and communist rebel movements in Africa by a Danish newspaper and Norwegian National Television (NRK). [source]

No particular point to make here. Just a very strange thing I happened to stumble across, apropos of nothing. Thought I'd help make your day a bit more surreal.

Best to y'all!

Comments

lol, that "photo" is computer generated, and not particularly well.

Posted by: Relay on February 11, 2010 10:33 AM

strangest thing... i work for tvind, i have been doing so for at least 9 years now. i have never experienced the things as described above...

Well, good! Thanks for contributing your perspective! (That's why there's room for public comments here.)

But in any group where abuse occurs, that abuse is often not the entire picture. To pick an example at random, in cases where, say, some priest abused a few young men, there would be plenty of people who knew the priest who said: "He seemed like a nice guy", and plenty of people in the parish who said: "Well, I was never abused."

The question isn't whether everyone is abused, the concern we should have is whether anyone was abused.

It may also be that Tvind has cleaned up its act. If so, good for them!


my girlfriend is currently at the conference-centre in Las Pulgas. the actual buildings are funded by tvind itself

You should know that's impossible -- the previous commenter stated clearly they were computer-generated, so they must not exist. Tell your girlfriend to get out of those CGI-rendered buildings right away! ;-)

Commenters are so funny.


when 1000 people put their monthly salary together on a saving-up account, and only use what they need, one is able to accumulate an enormous surplus... since when is that illegal?

Um, are we having the same conversation? I don't think anyone is saying charitable giving is illegal. The concern here, apparently, was the sponsoring of illegal activities (terrorism) and misusing charitable funds.


my guess on why a lot of people can´t grasp the concept of tvind, humana and DAPP, and Gaia-movement, is siply because we are crazy enough to go for making a difference for underpriviliged people

1. The complaints listed above are based on concern that Tvind was hurting underprivileged people.

2. You're saying they're completely fiction, made up because, say Norwegian National Television, the Danish government, and Interpol hate to see someone helping poor people? If so, why don't they also go after World Vision or Feed the Children, which also do that?

Respectfully, it sounds like you might be in denial here, Olaf. I readily admit your perspective is valid. (In fact, I welcome your views and comments!) But when you encounter information from someone else, which doesn't match up with the way you want reality to be, you claim it doesn't exist?

All the articles here about abuses linked to Tvind are fiction, made up by people who sit around worrying that someone will help poor people? (Yes, helping poor people! How we hate to see that!)

That's really your perspective?

The human mind is truly an amazing thing, isn't it?


but it was amuzingly funny to read all this again.. thanks

How can you say you're concerned about the underprivileged when you find allegations of them being abused... funny? They may be true (and tragic, if so) or false (and then evidence should be produced showing that) but I don't read about some group abusing workers and volunteers and say: "Oh, that's so funny!"

It makes me suspect you might not actually be concerned for the very people you say are so important to you.

Posted by: Tim (Random Observations) on March 4, 2010 12:05 PM

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