Maximum Politics!

[CrazyThomas 0]

You want to hear politics? Hear you go:

Subject: "Robin was right, Malaysia is out!!!" Archived thread - Read only
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Mark Hewitt
unregistered user
May-31-02, 06:53 PM (PDT)

"Robin was right, Malaysia is out!!!"


I want to make a public apology to Robin Heid because everything he said
about Dann and Jasmina Lee last year was true.
I was led to believe that he was cut from the Petronas project because of
his compensation requests, but that was NOT the case. As I worked for
basically free for the good of the sport of Base Jumping, to make it
possible for Skyventure to succeed, and in the hopes they would have some
loyalty for the person who pulled them out of their hole, and use me this
year.

Well they are showing me, and everyone who attended last year, their true
colors, as they decided not to use me because of safety calls that I made,
which they overrode. They want a scapegoat, as a Technical Advisor, someone
to blame if there is a problem, but don?t talk unless you are asked a
question. Because I stood up to wrong decisions they made, and overrode me
on, I am not involved.

I ran the Petronas event for Skyventure last year, against Robin?s wishes,
because I thought it was the right thing for our sport, but it wasn?t.
Skyventure has no loyalty to base jumpers, and no loyalty to Petronas. They
actually exploit base jumpers for their own ego fashion show, and use base
jumping as a tool to bring attention to their personal popularity party.

I pulled their event together last year in 6 weeks on location in Malaysia.
And despite fighting Skyventure?s owners over safety calls, ran a decent
event. Skyventure couldn?t even produce a scoreboard before the events 10th
and last round ? or friction tape for the launch platform at all.

Jasmina put several low-time Malaysian jumpers on the load, even after I
voiced my opinion on "checking them out" on another local jumpsite, which
never happened, after requesting it for the whole 6 weeks. As she, without
any jumps, didn?t think it was important.

One of the jumpers who she O.K.ed, made his first base jump off of Petronas,
without any training. I found out of his real experience afterwards. Now if
he had gotten hurt, not only would our sport look bad, but everyone who
spent their $1,000+ dollars on plane tickets, would have gone home with no
jumps.

Don?t forget, you are just the sideshow freaks who bring attention to the
Lees. Where else can they get freaks who will risk their lives many times a
day, and pay not only their own way, worth thousands of dollars each, but
even pay for the Lees party?

That is what all this is really about. After they decided not to use me this
year, it became clear to me that it is not about money, it is about control
and interference, meaning anyone who stands up to Jasmina when she
interferes with safety is officially "out of control" and out of the
picture. That?s what happened to Robin, that?s what happened to me.

Control of the overall event is one thing, but not when she goes against me
on safety calls, and overrode my judgments, as the Jumping Technical Advisor
over safety, when the jumpers were putting their faith in me, and I was not
able to live up to it completely because of it. They couldn?t even get a
scoreboard, they sent people home with the wrong amounts of prize money, two
days after the event, because of poor, no lousy, score adding.

Skyventure only wants a Yes Man, a scapegoat to be accountable for
accidents, but still let Jasmina make all of the decisions for her "fashion
show." Both of the Lees have never jumped, and have no understanding of
jumping, and yet they still demand to make all of the decisions. That?s
another reason Robin was kicked out by them; he refused to compromise on
safety and professional standards and the letters he sent to Petronas said
so.

That is the way the Lees operate. It doesn?t really matter who runs their
events, they will take and take from the next Technical Director, until he
too is humiliated and discarded and lied about, as they think the base world
is endless and that there will always be another sucker. First it was Robin,
then it was me, who?s next, I wonder?

A last word on Robin and this event. Remember, every "technical director"
was chosen by him, as were half the people who came. He knew what he was
doing, as far as who should run it and who should come.

He also knew how to get the keys to the world?s tallest building for a whole
bunch of jumpers all over the world, a great job no one had ever done. And
still hasn?t. With Robin doing his writing and political magic last year,
there were two base events at Petronas.

This year, there won?t be any and if anyone has been told or thinks
otherwise, write to me and I?ll show you the emails from Petronas.

So everyone who talks caca about Robin on Petronas doesn?t know what he did
or how bad the Lees ripped him off. Think about it; only some of the
technical directors got expense money, as Skyventure refused to pay for any
of Omar?s expences. And only I got paid, a humiliating amount. Many of the
competitors won prize money. Robin is the only guy who was paid nothing and
was left holding the bag for several thousand dollars in expenses.

And not only do the Lees not have Petronas, they have no other buildings at
all at the present. If you don?t believe me, ask Dann or whoever?s
"organizing" it this year to show you proof of the written permission they
have for even one building before you make that non-refundable airline
reservation. Even last year, Petronas held a joker card, that left them a
way out all the way up to competition day, last year. And this year, I have
been told by Petronas officials, that there will be no jumping from the
building at all.

Without any building permission yet, they are grasping at straws to pull
together an event. I personally have an e mail from Petronas that there will
be no jumping from the twin towers this year. If you want a copy, just e
mail me. This year, it is more likely to pay for Jasmina?s fashion show
while you sit on the ground looking at the buildings they didn?t get the
keys to. Don?t let them pull the wool over your eyes with holding Petronas
as a carrot in front of you, because it is just more lies.

I will not tell anyone to boycott their events, but I warn you all, Robin
was dead on right about these people, and you will be used, on your bill,
and they will screw you.

Sincerely Mark Hewitt hewittlunar@hotmail.com


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Lukas Knutsson
unregistered user
Jun-03-02, 06:23 AM (PDT)

1. "RE: Robin was right, Malaysia is ou"
In response to message #0

Mark,
It was really good how you handled your side of things then, including the
Malays, whining spoilt jumpers, unskilled jumpers and the whole safety
aspect of it all.

If people decide to go, please be very weary about leaving any credit card
numbers to these people or the hotels or any deals in conjunction with
Skyventures/hotels/transport etc. I got a mysterious $300 withdrawl from the
hotel about 2 months after visiting KL. I gave my credit card number in
order to make a long distance phone call, happy as I was to jump the worlds
tallest building. The room was already paid for as part of the registration
fee, with cash. I didn't stay any extra days.

With the organization demonstrated by Skyventure I realised that fighting
them for my 300 bucks back was/is a lost cause and I let it slide. Dann Lee
hasn't answered my mails for several weeks now.

So my tip is,

1.) Pay in cash.
2.) Bring a mobil phone.

See some of you in Norway this summer.

/Lukas




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Dann Lee
unregistered user
Jun-04-02, 08:02 AM (PDT)

2. "RE: Robin was right, Malaysia is ou"
In response to message #1

Lukas,
Firstly, you know the event was good and you wanted to come over again. It
is not right for a sportsman like you to join in the unprofessional bad
mouthing of an organizer especially when we did such a good job for people
like you to have the chance to jump.

If you are not happy, then don’t join any of our event or championship that
we organize in the future but it is unfair after all the work and
preparation that we have done for jumpers like you and all we get is the
ungratefulness of your behavior and words.

You were invited by our country to participate in the only World BASE
championship and now you are calling our people by names. You must either be
a racist or an egoistical maniac.

I have been busy doing road shows for Xtreme Skydive 2002 and I just finish
a major sports conference on BASE jumping with all the public and private
sectors. I only didn’t reply to you in two weeks because of my busy
schedule.

If you only knew the work and effort that we have put in. So Lukas, stop
being a hypocrite because you will only put BASE a step or two behind.

As for Mark remark on the BASE board, I will give clarification in a few
days when my schedule is a little free.

And don’t put the blame on us for your carelessness with your credit card.
You just paid an nominal entry fee. We spent over a million dollars to
organize the event with prize money and trophies of over USD 26,000.

BASE has got more to gain than us. If we don’t organize BASE, we can always
organize other sports. We are truly disappointed in you because we thought
you would be the best Swedish BASE ambassador. That is why we offered you
the post of an International Director.

We are working very hard to put BASE into the professional sporting arena so
all will get to enjoy the game. Please don’t give us a hard time by
sabotaging us just because we can’t use the same person as a technical
director again. As in all sports, only the organizer will know the true
characters of a coach or in this case the technical director.

Sincerely,
SkyVenture Productions sdn Bhd
Malaysia International Xtreme Skydive Association

Dann Lee
CEO/President





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ghost of carl
unregistered user
Jun-04-02, 10:18 AM (PDT)

4. "RE: Robin was right, Malaysia is ou"
In response to message #2

I'd believe Mark, Robin, or Lukas (real BASE jumpers) over Dann on this
issue. Sounds like Dann has pissed off all his good customers. There are
other places to jump buildings in this world.



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space
Charter Member
390 posts, 4 feedbacks, 8 points Jun-04-02, 11:22 AM (PDT)

6. "Response to this thread"
In response to message #2

I was offered the slot (tech director) but after Dann Lee was
disregarding my safety suggestions, I declined and gave him some basic tips
on how to pull it off safely. At the end of Dann´s and my dialogue, he
professed his interest in safety for the jumpers. I am nonjudgemental, It
just didn´t fit my idea of how to pull it out at the last moment which was
it was down to. It will take me some days to put the dialogue down of the
pertinent points as I have an unbelievable amount of Petronas subject to
cover to find it. But then I will email it to ANYONE. Just send me an email
with "Petronas dialogue" as a header and wait.
take care,
space




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Lukas Knutsson
unregistered user
Jun-04-02, 11:38 PM (PDT)

7. "RE: Robin was right, Malaysia is ou"
In response to message #2

Dear Dann,
I am definitely not a racist, any implication of that was not meant. I'm a
Swede, we seem to be the planet's diplomats. Neither do I have any problem
with you or your sister. And yes, I did have a whopping load of fun. I made
20 jumps! These are not the points of my criticism, so I don't feel I am
being a hypocrite.

It will be definitely interesting though, to hear why you think Mark is not
suitable to be technical director this year. I can't think of a better
person to control fifty jump hungry BASE jumpers from slamming themselves,
which is in essence what he did. Not only in concrete decisions like "wear
helmets" or "BASE specific" canopies but in reaching and understanding the
soul of BASE jumpers and with his enormous understanding of the sport and
feel for safety issues. I said this to you, others did as well, and you
agreed. I just hope that a political or monetery issue is not governing that
decision.

Then there is all that other stuff, like the scoreboard ecetera, which is
all true. It was chaotic at times.

And you don't answer my mails Dann. I have a good crew of excellent Swedish
BASE jumpers, really good technical jumpers, not manic hardcore crazies,
just the type you want at an event like this. But they need to plan a trip
now, and you need to provide some more information and a guarantee of
jumping. It was really close last year. I have nothing to tell them apart
from "what I know I read on the board". Makes me a good so called
"international director" huh ?

Still prepared to go, still standing by. Clock is ticking.

/Lukas "Cold Steel" Knutsson

Did you see my movie ?
http://www.skydive.se/~lukas/video/titts-divx.avi 19Mb (you'll need DivX to
watch it from www.divx.com).

[skybytch 273]

Umm... isn't this already posted in the BASE forum? Since the majority of us who post here have no idea who these people are or the circumstances behind the subject matter... I'm not sure this needs to be in this forum....

[TomAiello 26]

I removed it from the BASE forum.

Thomas, thanks for putting it here.

Lisa, it's all yours...

-- Tom Aiello

Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[ChileRelleno 0]

Aw c'mon Bytch, I thought this was like a noisy barroom? Let the man go off into long post about stuff which the vast majority of us know nothing about and could care less about.
He aint hurting nothing or no one except maybe a teensy wee bit of bandwidth.

Thats right Tom, inane babble belongs in here.




>>

ChileRelleno-Rodriguez Bro#414
Hellfish#511,MuffBro#3532,AnvilBro#9, D24868

[skybytch 273]

Quote

I removed it from the BASE forum

Ahhh... that 'splains it.

Guess I should actually read it now so I can semi-intelligently comment on it...

[CrazyThomas 0]

Quote

Quote

I removed it from the BASE forum

Ahhh... that 'splains it.

Guess I should actually read it now so I can semi-intelligently comment on it...

Don't strain yourself. No offense meant by that. Maybe you could try answering these:
Will Petronas go smoothly/at all this year? And which of these people in the above post are you most likely to believe? Ever met any of them?
Peace,
Thomas

[Staso 0]

dude, you have issues ...

stan.

--
it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ...
Speed Skydiving Forum

[narcimund 0]

What utter garbage. This has nothing to do with dropzone, or skydivers, or this forum.

Nobody here knows these people or the situation. Copying a thread from another website about the middle of someone else's snitty argument is not just pointless muckraking, it's a feeble attempt at muckraking!

Dropzone's being co-opted by outsiders to hurt other outsiders. It's clearly meant solely to pick a fight and we don't need that here. Lisa, please clean this garbage up.

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[CrazyThomas 0]

Let me guess your take on the issue. Wait, I won't do it with words. It is about politics, and I thought general talk back was the place for politics. It is not solely about BASE. It is about politics. Some people may be interested in this. Why try to shut down this concept? Are you friends with..xxx? And he has told you how to respond? Because maybe he tried before, but got laughed at, so he thought that someone else's words were a better way to talk? Is this hitting close to home, or I am way off the mark?
You think I cut and pasted this? That truly shows your involvement with this situation. You came here simply to disagree. You tried to get my post removed, so you could feel better.
Why not just leave it alone? Something like....if you have nothing nice to say, then don't say it?
Or did I flame you by pointing out the obvious?
Peace,
Thomas

[rgoper 0]

Quote

I removed it from the BASE forum.

Tom:

doesn't "CrazyThomas" have a bet with someone that he could stay away from blinc for a month? i think he just lost! busted........

--Richard--
"We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

[fasterfaller 0]

And the point of this post is ?

[CrazyThomas 0]

Quote

Quote

Quote

I removed it from the BASE forum

Ahhh... that 'splains it.

Guess I should actually read it now so I can semi-intelligently comment on it...

Don't strain yourself. No offense meant by that. Maybe you could try answering these:
Will Petronas go smoothly/at all this year? And which of these people in the above post are you most likely to believe? Ever met any of them?
Peace,
Thomas

I guess I was wrong again. good thing I am thought of as a "dribbled basketball" of a child. I am just glad that noone took me serious enough to not go. Then I would have really been the asshole
Oh well, live and learn. And if you think I copied and pasted this from another website, I will allow you to judge yourself correct. See, my problem is I know how to be good ground crew.

[police] name the others, or you go to jail![/police]

CrazyThomas: Noone else. Just me. take me away, and make sure my cell has a bible.

[police]you have the right to remain silent. anything you say, can and will be used against you, even on an internet posting board.[/police]

This gets into a BASE topic, but just how far does ground crew go to protect the jumpers?
I'd go to jail to protect my friends, and not give out names.
Good thing I don't have any friends, right?

Thomas