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"Make Agent Orange History"
Director of Ford Foundation's Special Initiative on Agent Orange/Dioxin to deliver message
Oct. 19, 2010 - The 2010 celebration called Make Agent Orange History is a two-part program including a keynote address with Charles Bailey, film screening, and a special educational session presented by the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, William S. Richardson School of Law (Environmental Law and Health Policy Center) and San Francisco-based strategic communications non-profit Active Voice.
Charles Bailey, Director, Ford Foundation Special Initiative on Agent Orange/Dioxin, will pay a special visit to the UH Mānoa campus on October 21 and 22 as part of the international celebration of Conflict Resolution Day 2010. Conflict Resolution Day is celebrated annually on the third Thursday of October to promote the use of conflict resolution in schools, families, businesses, communities, governments and the legal system.
Keynote address and film: Thursday, October 21 from 5‐7 p.m. (reception 5-5:30 p.m.)
Charles Bailey will give a keynote talk that will be followed by the showing of the film “Vietnam's Lingering Ghost: Facing the Legacy of Agent Orange” as part of the Make Agent Orange History program. Charles Bailey is the key architect of the U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group, a diverse group of private citizens, scientists, and policy makers from the U.S. and Vietnam who, through the effort of the Ford Foundation, were brought together to work on critical issues related to the legacy of Agent Orange that the two countries’ governments, for decades, were unable to resolve. Bailey will recreate his experience forming the U.S.-Vietnamese Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin and address the strategic selection of participants and the vital role neutrality played in its success. {read rest}
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But based on what I've read about it from people who know plenty about front groups and organizations, including foundations, founded by imperialist and economic elites, I'd suggest being wary of the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and others. These elites are all imperialist, globalist, capitalist, corporatist, et cetera, so since they founded the foundations that are in their names, it's sensible to be wary.
With that said, what do they think to be able to truly accomplish? Do they really think that planting new trees and shrubs in place of existing ones will de-poison or decontaminate the environment when the soils probably are very contaminated with dioxins and new plants will surely become also contaminated as they absorb dioxins through their root systems? Is there some fantastic substance that's safe to use in the environment and which would either absorb the dioxins, removing them from the soil, or which would neutralize or safely decompose the dioxins? What [real] solution do they really have? Is there any that exists?
People should understand that Save the Children and many other so-called humanitarian organizations really are not humanitarian at all; they're in it for profit. Virtually none of the money donated to these organizations actually goes to helping the people the money was donated to help. It's similar with what Professor Norman G. Finkelstein has called and calls "The Holocaust Industry"; a scam for profit. Save the Children regularly airs tv ads showing little African children covered with flies in order to try to reach the "sympathy bones" within viewers of the ads so that people will donate to the organization, but hardly any of the money goes to help the people the money is donated for. And other "humanitarian" organizations also operate in, basically, the same way. Rich NGOs also do.
Be wary. Efforts to deceive the public are very, very frequent and are from all or nearly all sectors.
And $30mn a year for 10 years seems very little for the extreme and long-term poisoning the U.S. committed in Vietnam; and the victims, the direct ones, and from their later generations, deserve a lot of compensation. It can't repair the harm done, but a lot of compensation is nevertheless owed. And decontaminating their environment is essential, if it's possible to do this. If it's possible, then it [must] be done; while the same would also be true in plenty of other countries with areas very toxically poisoned because of corporate West.