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- Posted January 21, 2013 by
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Palm oil: The European Commission lacks moral character?
When I was a teenager, my close friend Stan and I went on many hunting and fishing trips together. Most became happy memories, but one fishing expedition was nearly a disaster. We hiked up into a high mountain range and set up camp in a remote area. The next mornimng, Stan and I trudged a long way down the mountain to get to a stream to fish. After a long day fishing in the hot sun, it was time to return to camp. But as we began to head back, my face grew pale. I was dizzy and nauseated, and had almost no strength.
The epitome of calm, Stan had me sit down and drink liquids. Eventually I recovered, and we began to go slowly back up the mountain. I held on to Stan’s loosened belt as he crawled upward—leading the way back to camp. Stan did not abandon me in my hour of need. That is the hallmark of his character and to this day, we remain close friends.
When I relate this to the European Commission’s (EC) actions against palm oil it is patently clear that the EC lacks moral character! By resorting to subterfuge and quietly funding surrogate green groups to carry out anti-palm oil campaigns that they are fully aware is based on “manufactured” and false evidence, all in a vain effort to protect the EU’s own indigenous edible oilseed industries such as rape and sunflower oils, which are unable to compete in the open market against the hyper yielding palm oil, the EC has sullied and continues to sully the good name of the EU!
Evidence of this shocking act of bad faith by EU governments in using green NGOs as proxies to carry out anti palm oil campaigns by these green groups has been unraveling for some time, to the utter embarrassment of the citizens of this self declared bastion of fair-play and democracy!
In 2005, the oddly named Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) published a “report” called “Cruel Oil: How palm oil harms health, rainforest and wildlife” in which they made wild and unsubstantiated claims that palm oil cultivation was causing massive deforestation and threatening the extinction of biodiversity such as the orang utan.
The report was prepared with the assistance of Aid Environment listed as partners with Hivos — a Netherlands based civil society group with direct links to campaigns in Indonesia. Hivos, in turn, is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for clolse to 67% of its annual 100m Euro budget.
Of more recent vintage, a 2010 report by researchers Caroline Boin and Andrea Marchesetti entitled “Friends of the EU.” (http://www.policynetwork.net/accountability/publication/friends-eu) showed that the EU, through its environmental ministries and commissions is involved in funding up to 70% of the operating budgets of FOE EU.
Recently, Libertiamo, an Italian think tank, in a paper entitled “Taxpayer funding, NGO Collusion and Manufactured Crisis” has blown the cover of EU Governments who are openly funding green NGOs, ostensibly to improve environmental practices in developing countries, but in reality to prop up their indigenous edible oilseed crops like rapeseed and sunflower, who are otherwise unable to compete on an equal footing with the rampantly higher yielding palm oil!
To put it bluntly, these EU governments did not so much as flirt with the extortionists schemes of these green NGOs but have grasped their funding proposals with a full embrace as it helps erect artificial trade barriers against palm oil conveniently packaged as altruistic environmental campaigns!
That is just the tip of the iceberg. What is not disclosed is the amount of slush funds thrown in the path of “off the radar” outfits and cleverly disguised by the Environmental Directorate of the European Commission as funding for other myriad and disparate “environmental” programs!
Note: About Inc Society of PalmHugger: We are made up of professionals and individuals with a great passion for the truth.
We are biologists, creative designers, engineers, business men and women, professional tennis players, stay-at-home moms, retirees, college students, filmmakers, journalists, communication experts. You name it!
Our goals are all the same – to advance the cause of truth through better and wider dissemination of true palm oil environmental news and views, assisting in CSR initiatives, or developing programmes for advocacy and lobbying of palm oil environmental matters, always with an emphasis on truth.
Who we are not: We are not politically linked to any political parties. We are also not donor nor profit driven. Every single cent raised through our initiatives are channeled back to fund Palmhugger programmes that require financial assistance. www.Palmhugger.org
The epitome of calm, Stan had me sit down and drink liquids. Eventually I recovered, and we began to go slowly back up the mountain. I held on to Stan’s loosened belt as he crawled upward—leading the way back to camp. Stan did not abandon me in my hour of need. That is the hallmark of his character and to this day, we remain close friends.
When I relate this to the European Commission’s (EC) actions against palm oil it is patently clear that the EC lacks moral character! By resorting to subterfuge and quietly funding surrogate green groups to carry out anti-palm oil campaigns that they are fully aware is based on “manufactured” and false evidence, all in a vain effort to protect the EU’s own indigenous edible oilseed industries such as rape and sunflower oils, which are unable to compete in the open market against the hyper yielding palm oil, the EC has sullied and continues to sully the good name of the EU!
Evidence of this shocking act of bad faith by EU governments in using green NGOs as proxies to carry out anti palm oil campaigns by these green groups has been unraveling for some time, to the utter embarrassment of the citizens of this self declared bastion of fair-play and democracy!
In 2005, the oddly named Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) published a “report” called “Cruel Oil: How palm oil harms health, rainforest and wildlife” in which they made wild and unsubstantiated claims that palm oil cultivation was causing massive deforestation and threatening the extinction of biodiversity such as the orang utan.
The report was prepared with the assistance of Aid Environment listed as partners with Hivos — a Netherlands based civil society group with direct links to campaigns in Indonesia. Hivos, in turn, is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for clolse to 67% of its annual 100m Euro budget.
Of more recent vintage, a 2010 report by researchers Caroline Boin and Andrea Marchesetti entitled “Friends of the EU.” (http://www.policynetwork.net/accountability/publication/friends-eu) showed that the EU, through its environmental ministries and commissions is involved in funding up to 70% of the operating budgets of FOE EU.
Recently, Libertiamo, an Italian think tank, in a paper entitled “Taxpayer funding, NGO Collusion and Manufactured Crisis” has blown the cover of EU Governments who are openly funding green NGOs, ostensibly to improve environmental practices in developing countries, but in reality to prop up their indigenous edible oilseed crops like rapeseed and sunflower, who are otherwise unable to compete on an equal footing with the rampantly higher yielding palm oil!
To put it bluntly, these EU governments did not so much as flirt with the extortionists schemes of these green NGOs but have grasped their funding proposals with a full embrace as it helps erect artificial trade barriers against palm oil conveniently packaged as altruistic environmental campaigns!
That is just the tip of the iceberg. What is not disclosed is the amount of slush funds thrown in the path of “off the radar” outfits and cleverly disguised by the Environmental Directorate of the European Commission as funding for other myriad and disparate “environmental” programs!
Note: About Inc Society of PalmHugger: We are made up of professionals and individuals with a great passion for the truth.
We are biologists, creative designers, engineers, business men and women, professional tennis players, stay-at-home moms, retirees, college students, filmmakers, journalists, communication experts. You name it!
Our goals are all the same – to advance the cause of truth through better and wider dissemination of true palm oil environmental news and views, assisting in CSR initiatives, or developing programmes for advocacy and lobbying of palm oil environmental matters, always with an emphasis on truth.
Who we are not: We are not politically linked to any political parties. We are also not donor nor profit driven. Every single cent raised through our initiatives are channeled back to fund Palmhugger programmes that require financial assistance. www.Palmhugger.org
- TAGS:
- palm,
- hugger,
- oil,
- palmhugger
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