who or what this creature is is anyone's guess.
Galloway himself says ‘I am not exactly what you would think I am’
http://www.scotsman.com/features/Interv ... iclepage=2
Galloway's own father, who died in 1997, was an active trade unionist, and a big influence. "He was a genius to be honest. No university education but he built a car, could build stereos – he could turn his hand to anything." An electrician, he then worked for NCR before retraining as a teacher when he was made redundant. "He was very shy and none of us ever thought he would stand in front of a class but he did." Not a firebrand like his son, then? "No, no. My father used to have to smoke a cigarette before asking someone for directions." Galloway was more like his mother, "though I am not exactly what you think I am".
Galloway has been on a trip to Romania to raise money for the orphans there, without paying any attention to what is going on in these orphanages.
The BBC produce a theatrical account of his visit, complete with 'horrific' image:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8428283.stm
Galloway, by then a veteran of sub-Saharan Africa as well as the famine in Ethiopia, stood in their midst with a solitary tear rolling down his cheek.
"We cannot walk away from this," he said.
The manipulation of the public with staged images of Romanian orphans:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/ ... html[quote]
2) Misleading the Public
(p. eighteen) The Sera report was full of dramatic black and white pictures and the description of the Romanian orphanages was horrific. The Unicef report made clear there were many children in residential care throughout Eastern Europe. This was a matter of concern the more because the conditions in these homes were rather bleak. But the descriptions were not as tragic as in the Sera report.
(p. 31) A week off. One morning I read the most recent Sera report. The same pamphlet-like texts and dramatic black and white pictures as in previous reports.
(p. 43) The first letter of the year was from De Combret. This time addressed to President Prodi asking for more EU money to close ‘death houses’. Attached to the letter was another Sera report… on De Combret’s most recent visit to Romania, including dramatic black and white pictures. Strategically planned as usual, as Prodi was about to embark on a visit to Romania. I quickly checked the briefing our team had prepared to Prodi to see if the part on children was sufficiently clear: Emergency aid underway, and 25 million euros available to continue the reform…..
(p. 44) I realized that what De Combret was writing was often exaggerated. He described some camin spital in dramatic terms, calling them death houses and concentration camps.
(p. 55) After the break, it was Sera’s turn. When Braunsteffer started his complaints about Romania’s camin spital and the failed Commission actions, I saw someone of the EP distributing yellow folders….In it there were A4-format black and white pictures with awful images of disabled children. I walked over to someone from a French NGO who worked in Romania since early nineties. I asked her if she thought these were recent pictures. She said she could not judge on the spot. What she did now know is the horrible images, showing naked disabled children, widely distributed to the media in 1990, had been taken while these children were going to have their weekly bath. But the public was left with the impression these children had no clothing.
Braunsteffer, in his speech, accused the Commission of having wasting 100 million euros……Braunsteffer’s words did not have much effect. The black and white pictures did. The Romanian side was enraged and denied the images were recent.
(p. 59) We knew this camin spital from the Sera reports, where it often was presented with the picture of a cemetery, implying this was a ‘mouroir’ (death house). We asked several people about the cemetery and were told there had been a fire in that institution many years ago in which some children had died. Not quite what Sera’s fund raising report had suggested.
(p. 69) Indeed, Landaburu and De Combret had their informal lunch….two more letters with drama stories on Romania’s children, including a video cassette with images from 1990. Well that was 100 million euros ago.
(p. 141) Sera is once more fundraising for its new model orphanage….a camin spital was filmed at night, with lights off, the only light came from the camera focusing on the disabled children with black and white images as result.
(p. 144) De Combret has organized a postcard action….On the card a black-and-white picture of a baby, ‘behind bars’, in a crib. I recognized the pictures from one of De Combret’s reports from years ago.
(p. 146)…these eight pages were full of dramatic black-and-white pictures: a sad mother holding her newborn subtitled ‘This child would be abandoned.’ Children in a worn down ‘camin spital’. That could not be a recent picture, as I knew that institution had been closed quite some time ago…
(p. 152-153) Landrieu and Craig visited a private children’s home just outside Bucharest…..They found just a few ‘abandoned’ babies instead of the dozens they expected, and thus this part of the visit was left out of the press.
(p. 162) In a six-page letter De Combret lamented that still thousands of children are in orphanages….De Combret asked for donations, if 10,000 people would give 50 euros each,, the children could be saved and placed in small homes of ten beds each. Monthly donations were also welcome….But, Sera Romania already received 1.2 million euros from the Authority, from their National Interest Programme to close the described institution…….
(p. 165) De Combret sent his mission report….Again a disastrous description of camin spitals, with dramatic black-and-white pictures. Most camin spitals that are described have agreed closure plans, either with funding from the Development Bank of the Council of Europe, by Children First or by Sera. But that was not mentioned.
(p. 172) There is lately again a lot of negative media on the children issue. …the UK press…the articles did not attack the Baroness, but reported on how bad things are fro children in Romania. Perhaps they were to influence the Baroness. As for me, I have read and seen so much over the years that I do not even pay attention any more. [/quote]
(Note that Francois de Combret, has been a senior advisor to UBS, who sponsor Bridge Academy in Hackney:
http://www.ubs.com/1/e/wealthmanagement ... unity.html )
Galloway fails to notice that medical facilities attached to orphanages use the children as subjects for brain research; this prevented the closure of at least one orphanage so that the three year study could be completed.
He gives Peter Tatchell airtime, where they discuss ‘reclaiming words’ (interesting that Julia Gillard PM of Australia has her own ‘grammar chant’).
George Galloway interviews Peter Tatchell:
http://www.genesisradio.co.uk/index.php ... ink&id=288
Peter Tatchell in Africa:
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article4956
This press statement was signed by 20 African LGBT activists.
PRESS RELEASE: African LGBTI Human Rights Defenders Warn Public Against Participation in Campaigns Concerning LGBTI Issues in Africa Led by Peter Tatchell and Outrage!
2. Outrage! repeatedly quotes people out of context and uses these statements to further their own agenda rather than presenting the truth.
3. Outrage! does not consult the relevant local activists before embarking on campaigns that directly affect us and are destructive to our work. They disregard collaborative efforts by African LGBTI Human Rights Defenders and international Human Rights organisations, and come up with unilateral strategies that work against the progress being achieved by the rest of the Human Rights actors. We are tired of having to constantly expend energy working to undo irreparable damage that Outrage! has caused.
Interesting then that Galloway has such an interest in the spoken word, and supports Peter Tatchell and the ‘Romanian orphans’ propaganda.
Romanian orphans and brain research here:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/417535.html
The Baroness…..expressed her dismay about how Romanian children were used for research and how their image was often abused. She gave as example the American brain research project…..Mariela had told the American doctors that no matter how ethical they considered their research methodology, the fact was their project had prevented the closure of Saint Ecaterina (children’s home)….
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