Obviously it is, the question was rhetorical. I find that if one does anything left in a big city, you’re bound to bump into NGO types everywhere. Nearly all are good intentioned and very left of centre. Most people I meet who work at an NGO are very critical of their job and the whole “NGO industrial complex” thing. People need to eat, I’m not gonna shit on someone for filling out grant applications and throwing events.
I was always really uncomfortable with the “But did you know that in China” spin that nominally lefty NGOs would try to throw into the discourse, uncritically sourcing the US State Department or VOA. It’s been weird seeing these same NGOs, who have always positioned themselves as lefty yet not disclosing their funding, suddenly go public about their difficulty once USAID got gutted. Nothing previous to this disclosed nor thanked anyone for USAID funding, this is the first we’ve all heard about it. I’m at the stage right now where I don’t want to listen to any NGO that doesn’t list their funding.
For the record, I know dick about China and I’m happy to engage with some critique. Hell, I’ll even read through Trot and anarchist commentary as long as they’re not referencing their facts from the great Satan.
When it comes to any of these organisations, obfuscation is the name of the game. They’ll make some kind of a list or make a note of government funding if they’re pushed enough. Even if they seem to disclose their funding, that’s not sufficient reason to take them at their word. Consider, if a usian non-profit gets funding from the government, who’s going to go after them for not saying as much?
Regardless, the NGO workers that believe in what they’re doing are liberals, they’re gullible enough to fall for whatever western MSM tells them, and people who’re just there for the pay won’t give enough of a shit. I don’t even mean this on the apathetic sense, what snakeoil seller will go out of their way to test the efficacy of their cures?
For the record, I know dick about China and I’m happy to engage with some critique. Hell, I’ll even read through Trot and anarchist commentary as long as they’re not referencing their facts from the great Satan.
So you’re just not going to hear them out, huh? After all the effort they went through to get that BBC hit piece. I mean I kid, but not really, with any real critique trots and ultras can’t provide tangible improvements. They have to resort to imagined faults.
