Hi JimFunnily enough a premie friend of mine told me recently that he didn't like the fact that the money he gives to EV may then be passed on as humanitarian aid. Not that he doesn't want to help in that way, of course he does. And he does so by donating directly to the Red Cross, or whoever.
But he just cannot understand why EV is now taking this on board themselves - albeit in a very small way - and then making such a big song and dance about it. He really was very annoyed about this, and is quite pissed off, and doesn't see the point in donating to EV anymore.
As you say, premies could be encouraged to donate directly to those charities that are experienced in the field, and have the necessary infrastructure. May be EV could suggest to premies not to give any money this month (to EV), but instead to send the money directly to Oxfam! In fact, they could take it one step further and have a fund raising event (these are quite popular at the moment, especially for the keys) and fund raise for Medicines sans Frontiers!
I think EV should clarify exactly who and what they are about.
If M has self-respect, and a sense of honour, he could do the right thing and repay people, like Mike Finch, who gave inheritances to M, and who now feel they were conned. M is plenty rich enough to do this. He doesn't have to announce it to the world either, to get a pat on the back. No one would know, apart from just a very few people. However, we all know that the only reason why M is doing this humanitarian stuff is for Public Relations purposes.
