2) Mannam- A Follow-Up Investigation
3) Mannam Part 3- The Unintended Trilogy
4) 2012 Shinchonji Olympiad
5) Is Shinchonji Actually Using Mannam to Promote Itself?
6) Mannam- The Statement and the Apology
7) Mannam, Shinchonji, and the World Peace Initiative (WPI)- Thoughts Around the Web
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I normally don’t do this, but this particular story has piqued my interest for obvious reasons. Yesterday’s entry has sparked quite a bit of debate between my friends and I over the course of the past 24 hours.
Through all of this I decided to do my own little investigation into Mannam’s history and connections.
I started by Googling for Mannam’s events. The event I was interested in was the South African children’s AIDS awareness campaign. After all, it was the event that precipitated my introduction back in June. Google was kind to me, and it gave me the following link.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2012/03/312_107341.html
The Korean Times reported Mannam was hosting the event for Al Noor Orphanage. Donations would be given to this orphanage in Woodstock, South Africa. I decided to do a little snooping around to see what I could find on this particular orphanage.
The results? They were extremely interesting.
In 2006, an official was suspended for a scam concerning this orphanage. Apparently, ID’s for the children were being made to get social grants on behalf of the children.
In 2010, the same orphanage doctored photos in an attempt to hide the fact donors’ money was not being used for its intended purpose. Curious.
In 2012, the same orphanage’s director was deemed guilty of “not complying with regulations in the Children’s Act” and not a “true orphanage per se”.
I normally don’t do this, but this particular story has piqued my interest for obvious reasons. Yesterday’s entry has sparked quite a bit of debate between my friends and I over the course of the past 24 hours.
Through all of this I decided to do my own little investigation into Mannam’s history and connections.
I started by Googling for Mannam’s events. The event I was interested in was the South African children’s AIDS awareness campaign. After all, it was the event that precipitated my introduction back in June. Google was kind to me, and it gave me the following link.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2012/03/312_107341.html
The Korean Times reported Mannam was hosting the event for Al Noor Orphanage. Donations would be given to this orphanage in Woodstock, South Africa. I decided to do a little snooping around to see what I could find on this particular orphanage.
The results? They were extremely interesting.
In 2006, an official was suspended for a scam concerning this orphanage. Apparently, ID’s for the children were being made to get social grants on behalf of the children.
In 2010, the same orphanage doctored photos in an attempt to hide the fact donors’ money was not being used for its intended purpose. Curious.
In 2012, the same orphanage’s director was deemed guilty of “not complying with regulations in the Children’s Act” and not a “true orphanage per se”.
[Edit: Previously, I had stated that the orphanage was found guilty of being run as a scam, but that appears to have been a smear campaign run by a former disgruntled employee. I have since updated the allegations, thanks to two different comments]
And yet, through these instances Mannam never questioned where their money was going? They had sought many (foreign) people to attend that gig in Seoul, and asked for donations (even the Korean Times gave directions for donating). Yet how could such a massive discrepancy be overlooked? Mannam’s South African chapter has visited this orphanage at least several times, and have posted photos on their site. With this place making headlines every few years, how is it they never saw them? Did they offer any apologies to those who donated?
Perhaps Mannam is innocent, or just naive. If so, though, they are in no position to be collecting money.
Throughout all the discussions I have been having with my friends, there is something I keep returning to. The fact that Lee Manhee’s website and Mannam’s slogan share the same phrase.
Light meets light.
For those of you that click this link: http://www.lightmeetslight.com, you will see that you are immediately redirected. What’s the point of that, I wondered. So, I set out to discover who owned the rights to that domain.
What I discovered could only be described as “weird”. Are you ready?
[The following information is freely available to the public, and I am in no way infringing on anyone’s rights to privacy]
The man who registered the address was called “Joseph Suhng”, and his address puts him in Anaheim, California. With that name, I took to Google to work my magic.
I found an article where he featured, talking about a kimchi contest.
http://walnut.patch.com/articles/kimchi-contest-revisits-h-mart-saturday
It said that he was the regional director of an LA –based non-profit organization called the Serving Group.
http://www.servinggroup.com/index.html
It was like I had stepped into a mirror universe. They were a volunteer-based group, much like Mannam.
While they seemed to be comprised of Koreans (or Korean Americans), they were also keen to show off pictures of non-Koreans doing volunteer work. But the kicker?
The kicker was this:
Do you see what those people are doing with their hands? It’s the same gesture as this:
[That’s Mr Lee Manhee in the middle there and apparently Kim Namhee on the right]
And this:
Now, Mannam already has branches all over the world. This begs the question why the Shinchonji “religion” would need two different volunteer branches.
Serving Group and Mannam are obviously related. Mannam’s about page says they “strive to be a source of light”, and Serving Group’s about page states they are “becoming the brightest light in the world”. That is remarkably similar language. Throw in the same “v” hand gesture, and the relationship is even more obvious. The photo galleries are connected too. Both are using non-Koreans as a source of legitimacy.
How do they differ? Mannam states it is not religious or political. Serving Group on the other hand seems to want that political edge. Are we going to see Mannam start moving into the political arena?
Well look at the following screenshot. And do note that this taken from the Serving Group Website.
Wait. Did they just say “Mannam”?
Yes. Yes, they did.
Serving Group is Mannam. Serving Group's Anaheim director is the man who set up the URL www.lightmeetslight.com, which points to Lee Manhee’s webpage. Lee Manhee is the leader of the Shichonji “religion”.
Shinchonji, Mannam and Serving Group are all one entity. Serving group’s mainpage is the following address: http://scjworld.com/index.html. SCJ? Shinchonji. SCJ are the three initials to the Shinchonji “religion” (신천지).
I am going to assume their real purpose is to recruit Koreans into the organization, by using foreigners’ social statuses [if you don’t know what I mean, check out advertisements in Korea that use Westerners]. People in Mannam who are denying their organization is connected with Shinchonji are either lying or gravely misinformed.
2) Mannam- A Follow-Up Investigation
3) Mannam Part 3- The Unintended Trilogy
4) 2012 Shinchonji Olympiad
5) Is Shinchonji Actually Using Mannam to Promote Itself?
6) Mannam- The Statement and the Apology
7) Mannam, Shinchonji, and the World Peace Initiative (WPI)- Thoughts Around the Web
Zac, I need to buy you some beer or if you don't drink pizza. A little over a week ago I challenged via Facebook chat with the main Daegu recruiter. Lovely girl, It's so sad she's caught up in this. Anyway, I challenged her about Mannam / Man Hee Lee. She came back with "oh if you don't like us, you don't have to attend. it's OK" I replied. "Ok I won't, and I'll share some information about Mannam with other foreigners." She said "OK". The result has been wonderful to see. When light meets light there is victory.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I feel pretty bad for the people involved. All they wanted to do was to help people, and now this is thrown into their faces.
ReplyDeleteHopefully this doesn't put them off from volunteering. You don't need religious ties to help your community.
Shinchonji and Mannam should be hung out to dry for lying to people, recruiting folks to boost their image and using society's disadvantaged for their own gain.
Yeah it's just horrible. I just tried talking to her. Mannam really functions as in own little cult, all devoted to the idea of "volunteering" which in most cases is an insult to the word and idea. Chattng to the most active recruiter, all I get is the cult mindset. She's so smart and active. It's just horrific to see her mind shut down. They have the free part 0f volunteering down pat (unless Korean members pay membership fees), but the helping people part -which is the most important part - is missing completely. Yesterday the demographic they were helping was "foreigners in Hongik who couldn't find a place to dance." Mannam came to their rescue by throwing a free Mannam disco
ReplyDeleteI have seen multiple reports that a lot of their events are free for foreigners, but Koreans have to pay a little bit. Presumably it's like that all the way up, with foreigners (who are totally just an advertising gimmick) getting in for free but Korean followers having to pay more.
ReplyDeletezackary my dear you are 100% right,i have been attending their activities for some time now without knowing who they really are until yesterday i was invited to their office in my city.on my way to the office i had asked the person i was with about their source of funding but received no satisfactory answer.i expected the place to be one tiny room as they are not involved in any fundraising activities in my city but to my surprise it was a very big well furnished apartment.foolish enough their leader started to tell me about the romours suggesting mannam was a religious cult which aroused my interest to do alot of internet search all of which point to the fact that they are not innocent.i had no choice but to tell them never to come near me again.alot of foreigners have been cheated to join this organisation
ReplyDeleteby the way why is it that most recruiting members are all Korean girl and good looking too.i haven't seen any active male Korean as a member of mannam at least in my city i don't know about elsewhere?
ReplyDeletejust curious though
Actually, in my first contact with them, there were two guys helping to recruit. Most of them were (good looking) young women, though.
ReplyDeleteI think many of them have signed up in good faith, like you did, and I was about to last week.
ReplyDeletethanks alot.actually you are doing a good job to inform the unsuspecting population about this scum
ReplyDeletepeter, i know who you're talking about. in daegu, right? you're totally right. she has a long history of volunteering, not just in mannam, and i think her heart is/was in the right place. but now it seems like she doesn't want to admit she was fooled. it seems like they all have decided to just double down and push through this scandal like nothing is wrong. but some things don't go away when you smile brightly and blame everything on cultural differences
ReplyDeletei'm still pondering the other things you've put here and won't jump onto any discussion of them yet... but i personally donated towards the Al Noor orphanage so was surprised to see your post about it. when i was checking your source though i found this...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vocfm.co.za/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&layout=category&Itemid=119
it appears the orphanage was cleared of charges. it was all just a smear campaign.
Has anyone tried contacting the politicians in California that have previously worked with Mannam/Serving Group? It would be good to get an email campaign alerting US politicians wherever there's a Mannam group. It also seems like they've got wind of your little exposé. The scjworld site is "currently under construction" ;p
ReplyDeleteLike I said in the previous comment-
ReplyDeleteFrom the article: "An official from the Department of Social Development said Madien was however guilty of not complying with regulations in the Children’s Act, in terms of the administration of the orphans at the facility.
Department spokesperson Melany Kuhn said Al Noor was not an orphanage per se, but a “temporary place of safety for children”."
Mannam has been calling it an orphange and accepting donations for the orphans: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2012/08/177_107341.html
Have you found anything on the previous two discrepancies (2006/2010)?
I thought of that, but I'm Canadian. I shouldn't try to influence the politics in America!
ReplyDeleteAs for the site edits/deletions, I mentioned that in the newest entry. I've resorted to taking screenshots of Google caches because everything I touch gets nuked.
Yes. Permanent or temporary needs funding. Squatters are also temporary because they don't know as to when are they going to be kicked out by the land owner but hey also eat which they couldn't because of the lack of money. Mannam gave a very relaxing music and environment in general during the concert for a cause and people including me just spent 3USD for this event. I don't care about the orphanage, but just by the talent of the performers, 3USD is not even enough to pay them.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I concur about the funding. I hope the kids at the institution are being cared for adequately. Yet, with the ID scandal in 2006 and the donation discrepancy in 2010, I have the nagging suspicion things are not quite right.
ReplyDeleteHosting an event for orphans affect by AIDS is a good hook to gain initial interest. They could have said they were holding a concert for a youth centre that looks after disadvantaged kids in South Africa.
I was tricked into joining a bible study in Southern California, which I later found out through much effort that they are a group called Shinchonji. I know the people in these Serving Group photos you've posted, and they are definitely Shinchonji teachers and members. I recognize the Suhngs in the Serving Group photos, and they are Shinchonji bible study teachers. It took a long time, but I eventually "woke up" and decided to do some research. I quickly and painfully realized that this group is very effective in their brain washing techniques, and that it had happened to me. It's not initially obvious, as they are very friendly and seemingly harmless, but going through their lessons long enough, I almost put everything in my life on hold to join their church....it was just bizarre how they got me to believe that I needed to do that, but they were very careful to say it implicitly rather than explicitly so as to make it seem like it was my choice to leave my future aspirations behind and join them. I hope unsuspecting people who join the bible study group actually do their research (all this time I was too afraid to look up the name of the organization because the teachers told us not too...red flag right there...I'm recovering from the fact that I fell for all of it, but trying to get over it).
ReplyDeleteI wish I had read this before today. My girlfriend and I were approached to attend the "World Peace Festival." They said something about it involving the UN. We thought it would be okay and fun, so we agreed to go. I didn't look it up that night because I was exhausted from a long day.
ReplyDeleteWe went on the free shuttle bus to stadium and slowly got more weirded out as the event went on. All the religious wording was off-putting. The fanaticism was scary. The majority of the stadium consisted of people who were part of the show. And we felt trapped there by having agreed to go, being led in as a group and taking the free shirts. Eventually, it was just too much and we left before the opening ceremonies were over. That was about an hour-and-a-half wasted.
Can I get in contact with you? I went through the same experience..... Email?
ReplyDelete