Why the "disease-fighting" charities are silent on the subject of water fluoridation?
It is not easy to question the declared intentions of any party. If you suspect something is not right with them, it would be much easier to simply ignore them, instead of publicly questioning their motives, their methods, pointing to the examples where their declared intentions are at odds with their actions.
But still, I see no reason why should anyone be intimidated by the declared intentions of anybody else and thus refrain from questioning the ulterior motives of any party?
This page is about charities who are engaged in fundraising towards education and research of various diseases.
I would like to state right away that I did not examine the financial statements of any charity and I have no intention of doing it in the future.
But I take time to follow the more "newsworthy" stories, which spill into the media.
Anybody would, no doubt, agree that the world without charities would be very much different from the one we know.
I grew up in a world like that. Communist Russia had no charities.
Whatever "charitable work" there was, it was all originating on a "personal level".
People knock on your door telling you that fire destroyed everything they had, now they are destitute, so could you please help?
There very many people who claimed to be blind and who were "working" the commuter trains, doing it with a touch of "professionalism".
Open panhandling was not officially permitted, as that, obviously, would tarnish the image of the "worker's paradise", but police could not do much about people who approach others in a "selective fashion" asking for money.
Police would often also turn a blind eye on someone who is obviously disabled, especially an amputee.
But even that would not be permitted in large cities, where foreigners could, theoretically see those beggars.
As a matter of fact, after the Second World War all amputees, who were begging on streets, were exiled to the small towns, where foreigners could not see them.
This was done in a summary fashion, without any legal proceedings!
Could there be a better example that communist regimes treat people like disposable property!
Obviously, when you live in a country like that, charity acquires a different meaning!
I talked to one woman who spent several months in a chronic-care facility. She was lucky that there was nothing serious and she was discharged after several weeks, but during that time she had seen enough horror stories to write a book.
People spend years there, practically isolated from the outside world.
No "dignitaries" or "celebrities" ever visited them.
Officially those disabled people did not exist in the "worker's paradise".
I have never seen a wheelchair while in Russia!
Sometimes you could see a homemade cart with ballbearings as wheels, an amputee "riding" it, propelling that cart with a pair of sticks.
The first thing that comes to your mind when you see someone like that is how did he manage to leave the place where he resides?
How is he going to cross the street.
There were absolutely no wheelchair accessibility arrangements of any kind anywhere! Not even "cut-ins" on sidewalks, those small ramps to allow strollers and other wheeled contraptions to be moved between streets and sidewalks with ease.
In a naval base where I lived it was a routine procedure when representatives of the so-called "women's council" were making door-to-door collections for funerals.
People simply could not afford that expense!
In other places there were no door-to-door collections, collections were being done at work.
The workplace would also provide a truck to carry the coffin, provided, of course, the employee is in good standing.
There were no hearsts or funeral homes. People had to make arrangements with relatives, friends and coworkers to carry the coffin to that truck and then to the cemetery.
Friends and relatives were pretty much the only "charity" one could rely on in the "worker's paradise".
In a country where a pound of margarine would cost a day's wage, twice as much for a shirt, almost two-week's wage for an umbrella, producing several-years worth of savings to pay for things like a funeral, often having to do it at no notice, was definitely out of reach for the majority of the population.
And overall, I believe I know a few things about a world without charities.
And it is definitely not the world I would like to live in!
But still, when it comes to charities in the West, who allegedly work to advance the research in the medical area, I have to say that I find some of their activities a bit "peculiar".
In Toronto, where I currently live, there are two hospitals, which are most "visible" in the area of fundraising.
They have a well-oiled, professionally organized fundraising campaigns, with professionally managed fundraising departments, with many fundraisers actively working the busy areas of the city.
In addition to the people who are clearly professionals and who are probably on salary or commission, you can also see children as young as 14, apparently doing this as a part of their school assignments.
Those hospitals also have lotteries, which are not your ordinary lotteries, with a dollar or two per ticket, those tickets go at a HUNDRED DOLLARS each.
They get exposure in the media, which, of course, is very friendly.
They also print colorful flyers and booklets, which you see in public places, like banks, others are delivered to your door.
There are also many other "stand-alone" charities, doing similar work.
I have even seen people who claimed to be doing fundraising for those charities going door-to-door.
The message is always the same - every dollar counts! you can help! please help to advance our knowledge about this or that killer disease.
One cannot deny that money does help to advance the medical research, but what I find "peculiar" is a silence on the part of many of those charities about things like water fluoridation, environmental pollution, genetically modified foods.
I have never heard any statement to that effect from any hospital!
And, considering that they have so many "knowledgeable professionals" on staff, wouldn't it be appropriate to say a few words?
And yet their attitude seems to convey just the opposite, as if they quietly welcome more "business".
One does not need to be a rocket scientist to realize that there would be more business for the medical professionals in a polluted, fluoridated world.
At least that's what people may well think. Quite obviously, doctors cannot make money from healthy people!
In view of that perfectly natural "suspicion" on the part of the general population, wouldn't it be appropiate for the medical professionals to take a stand and to speak out?
After all, those "dedicated and knowledgeable professionals" know something about pathology and physiology, they can speak with authority about things like the health effects of industrial pollution, drinking water fluoridation, genetically modified crops.
And yet I never heard anything like that from those hospitals or those charities!
That is the reason I do not donate to them!
I believe that the people who help spread the word about the aforementioned hazards can put donations to a much better use.
I cannot recommend any particular organization, as they may well resent any referrals made this way.
But you can find them if you do an Internet search for subjects like "fluoridation dangers / hazards / controversy", "vaccination dangers / hazards / controversy", "industrial pollution", "GM crop dangers / hazards / controversy" or other varieties of these terms.
And I am pretty sure those people have never been involved in any kind of a scandal similar to what happened in the 80s, when an outgoing big-wig in one big charity was suing them for severance to the tune of US$350,000.
Or when one charity had collected several million dollars during a particular year, but everything went to the office expenses and staff salaries.
Nothing was allocated to their declared charitable work!
This was reported in the Canadian media in early 2003.
You would not find the people from those educational organizations in any "salary disclosure list" either.
They survive on much lower incomes.
A law in the Canadian Province of Ontario requires the names of all people on government payroll who make more than 100K per year be made publicly available.
In compliance with that law, the Ministry of Finance maintains a website with a list of such names.
That webiste has a great many names of people who work in hospitals, which are considered to be on a government payroll.
You can find it by doing an Internet search for "salary disclosure" on Canadian sites (for example google.ca)
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