It is the height of arrogance to assume because I support the environment, I will therefore support a radicial religious or alternative political stand.

“People in glass houses”

My difficulty with Walhi is that they have been dishonest where Newmont is concerned and when the truth emerges they acted like the most despicable businessmen and buried their heads in the sand instead of accepting responsibility for their mistakes.

I agree that the environment is important and we should work toward it being people friendly for future generations. I also agree that many businesses have to clean up their act and be more responsive and responsible.

But lying and manipulating information is not the way to do it and gives environmentalists and other do gooders a bad name.

The purpose of this blog is, as the name suggests, to unspin things. That’s because I have an aversion to falsehoods and dishonesty – no matter from which quarter it comes from. If you read the postings in these blog regularly you’ll be aware that I’m as hard in unspinning business and government as I am on NGOs and anyone else.

I can categorically say that I’ve received no money from any quarter for my postings. Like most people, I blog to vent. Not all things in this world have to be accompanied by conspiracy theories. Sometimes, what you see is hat you get and you don’t need to unspin them.

If Walhi wants to continue to present themselves as a responsible and responsive organization, don’t you think they should engage in conversations rather than one-way communications through their website? They are no better than newmont in communications savvy if this is the case.

BTW, do you mind declaring your interest in this issue? Are you afiliated to FoE or Walhi or any environment group? It’s only fair as Unspun is an open book to all and sundry.

So please tell me why Walhi, which is supposed to be all for transparency, accountability and apple pies not be responsive to such accusations? And if you are a potential donor, what would your reaction be to funding an NGO that does not bother setting the record straight?

The issue here is Walhi’s failure to respond to an open offer to clear their name of an allegation that has been made by Eric Ness.

Now as for the link you posted regarding FoE’s funding source in Europe…

1. IT’S IRRELEVENT TO THE TOPIC OF THIS THREAD. You are obviously using the emotive title of the thread to get publicity for your own inaccurate views on FoE.

2. Enough with the ridiculous conspiracy theories claiming FoE only campaign against non-European companies. The link you posted doesn’t mention this at all so why bring it up now? It’s another point that’s irrelevent to this thread. Do you even know anything about FoE’s operations in Europe?

3. FoE does not exist solely to campaign against companies (whether they be European or not). It’s aim is to protect this planet’s rapidly deteriorating environment no matter who or what is contributing to the destruction. Now it just so happens that companies and governments hold all the power in this struggle so who do you think FoE is going to lobby to try and help save the planet and the millions of lives that will be lost when the earth starts seriously reacting to human abuse. Schiller do you even realize what a perilous situation we are in at this time in history? We have virtually reached the culmination of thousands of years of ignorance about how ecosystems work and our utter reliance on their healthy functioning. Of course FoE is going to lobby the holders of power, whether they be governments or companies. They just aren’t doing enough about this serious situation and more often than not continue to contribute to the destruction.

4. How can you construe that the fact that FoE lobbies or campaigns against the very governments that funds it as being a bad thing? To me this demonstrates their integrity more than anything else. It shows a lack of fear of speaking the truth despite the potential of losing some major funding.

The funding source for Friends of the Earth is very important. It makes it clear that they’re actually lobbyists, who are paid to lend the appearance of public support for Europe’s trade protectionist policies. This includes “campaigning” against non-European companies around the globe.

This is dishonest and reprehensible, and now that Friends of the Earth have made common cause with terrorists, it implicates the European Union. The EU should therefore pull the plug on FoE funding.

The EU and the US should also put a freeze on all FoE assets until an investigation is completed.

These remarks have nothing to do with any “false accusation” by unspun, however. The accusations were made by Richard Ness, and also by a member of the Australian Senate.

Someone needs to either freeze some funds or explain why they won’t.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/17/weu217.xml