Finally Someone Asked the Question..."Are Missionaries Safe"

[_SteelHead]

Mak,
I will agree that there are polices, procedures and training implemented to mitigate risk.

The missionaries in many areas, however, are working with and living at or slightly above the subsistence level of the local populace. This embedding is a inherent risk that the mitigations do little to redress. I am sure the statistical trend is acceptable to those making the risk management decisions. I however, sympathize with the outliers.

Is embedding missionaries in populations living at subsistence levels truly worth the risk to individuals?

[_Bazooka]

Mak,
I will agree that there are polices, procedures and training implemented to mitigate risk.

The missionaries in many areas, however, are working with and living at or slightly above the subsistence level of the local populace. This embedding is a inherent risk that the mitigations do little to redress. I am sure the statistical trend is acceptable to those making the risk management decisions. I however, sympathize with the outliers.

Is embedding missionaries in populations living at subsistence levels truly worth the risk to individuals?

How many missionaries per 1,000 would have to die before it became unacceptable?

[_maklelan]

What I would be interested in knowing is whether, in places like Bolivia, where I served my mission, the church can guarantee access to adequate health care. Even if we'd had money to go to the doctor, I'm not sure we would have known where to go or what services to request.

Does the church make sure that, wherever there are missionaries, an adequate provider is found and contracted to care for missionaries? I'm not even sure that's possible in many parts of the world.

I can't account for how it was long ago, but medical care is fully covered these days (unless you have coverage yourself, in which case they let you handle it). They make available the best care they can find. I was playing softball with a missionary in Uruguay when he got beaned in the head and burst his carotid artery, filling his skull up with blood. Long story short, he was clinically dead upon arrival at the British Hospital in Montevideo and went directly into brain surgery. It was the best available, and he came out of it perfectly fine. I had another companion who had a brother serving in the Philippines who got stabbed in the chest. He woke up in a hospital with a dirt floor, but it was the best available, and he came out of it perfectly fine.

[Guest]

Mak,
I will agree that there are polices, procedures and training implemented to mitigate risk.

The missionaries in many areas, however, are working with and living at or slightly above the subsistence level of the local populace. This embedding is a inherent risk that the mitigations do little to redress. I am sure the statistical trend is acceptable to those making the risk management decisions. I however, sympathize with the outliers.

Is embedding missionaries in populations living at subsistence levels truly worth the risk to individuals?

How many missionaries per 1,000 would have to die before it became unacceptable?

For me? 1. I am adverse to the sacrifice of life peddling cultural superiority on the masses, and the replacement of vibrant local cultures with Utah wonder bread homogeneity.

But I am not a corporate risk manager for LDS inc.

[_maklelan]

I don't think you're making it all up.
I think what it says in those papers you have at your disposal:
a. Isn't a reflection of what really goes on

Because you know? Based on what? Two missionaries serving in the states or just your assumptions?

b. It clearly isn't enough.

Clearly. Any competent administrator can guarantee that no one in a force of 75,000 spread across the world will ever die or get injured.

Or do you think the Church is doing enough to manage the risks to Missionaries?

That depends on whether or not you have a rational threshold of "enough." You're not telling me where the threshold is, you're just blindly barking that whatever it is, it's not enough. No one can ever guarantee 100% safety too all missionaries all the time. What the Church does provide far exceeds the safety standards you will find in any comparably staffed global organization. Until you can give me some indication of what is reasonably "enough," all you're doing is yelling "Nu-uh!" at me, which is, from my experience, all you ever do.

[_maklelan]

For me? 1.

Well, right now we operate far below 1 death per 1,000, so you must be satisfied. If you mean that no one can ever die or the entire endeavor must be scrapped, then you're being unimaginably irrational.

But I am not a corporate risk manager for LDS inc.

You certainly seem to think you should be.

[_Ceeboo]

Hey Mak! Hope this finds you and yours well!

All the returned missionaries who were perpetually in fear of being murdered or eaten by a bug

Missionaries have been eaten by a bug?

References?



Peace,
Ceeboo

[_Bazooka]

Or do you think the Church is doing enough to manage the risks to Missionaries?

That depends on whether or not you have a rational threshold of "enough." You're not telling me where the threshold is, you're just blindly barking that whatever it is, it's not enough. No one can ever guarantee 100% safety too all missionaries all the time. What the Church does provide far exceeds the safety standards you will find in any comparably staffed global organization. Until you can give me some indication of what is reasonably "enough," all you're doing is yelling "Nu-uh!" at me, which is, from my experience, all you ever do.

You have the paperwork, how many deaths per 1,000 missionaries will there need to be before the policies are deemed "not enough"?

[_maklelan]

I am adverse to the sacrifice of life peddling cultural superiority on the masses, and the replacement of vibrant local cultures with Utah wonder bread homogeneity.

So this is all really just about your ideological opposition to missionary work as a principle.

[_SteelHead]

No way on the last statement Mak.

6 billion dollar a year, 70k employee multinationals could not operate in the manner the church does with the missionaries. They would be sued into oblivion.