|
In Reply to: Re: Perhaps not so much after all posted by AndyNoc on October 23, 2008 at 15:58:06:
Dear AndyNoc,
You said, "As a rule, any such organization who has professional PR teams, practically forbidding rank and file people to speak to the press, are to a degree fraudulent. This is simply because any information leaving must be supplied with the right spin."
I beg to differ, and strongly so, because of my emotional stake in what I do and the organizations I work for. Pardon me for saying so, but you muddle the issues.
There is a huge difference between assigning someone in the know who has the facts and figures and is able to answer questions intelligently, and assigning someone to be fraudulent and create spin. In all the organizations I have worked for, the only time "rank and file" are discouraged from speaking to the press is to guard sensitive issues, such as preventing certain dictatorships from "losing face" for receiving aid. Legitimate aid organizations cannot take anything to the level of what you called the "full extent" because of laws on ethical practice, built-in safeguards and watchdogs at our heels. The "extent" of how far legitimate aid organizations go regarding turf wars and marketing is one organization taking undue credit for something or marginalizing another. That stems from competition and zeal, not conspiracy to defraud. When it comes to TFI however, they do conspire to defraud.
It would be worth your looking a little closer at the UN as you suggest. You will find that the UN cannot be agglomerated as you have done. It is a huge, complex organization and certainly not all related to charity and benevolence. There are wings of the UN such as UNICEF functioning almost independantly. About all these organizations get financially through being associated with the UN is some free office space in the same building. While it is true that some donations are offered at a state level, there are no guarantees. They still have to raise their own funds and secure their own income from private donors like any other charity, and must answer to the heavy scrutiny of these donors.
Such organizations are accomplishing a lot of good at the organizational level, it's not just some individuals within as you say. Their concrete goals for the betterment of mankind include successful education programs which have fed starving populations, eradicated diseases, lowered the spread of HIV, eradicated the practice of female genital mutilation in some countries, signifcantly lowered infant mortality rates, and so on.
TFI will never come close to achieving any of this or to being a genuine aid organization.
You said, "The baseline in regards to legislation that makes practices of such outfits as FCF possible is basically the same baseline that enables lots of other fraudulent organizations to operate. My intention is not to defend TF, but it is to say that imo TF is just one of many such outfits."
That is so true. I can agree with you there.
Sincerely,
UN aid worker and friend of Exfamily
