The Smoke Screen

I attended a lecture yesterday by a visiting speaker from the Not for profit sector (NGO'S) and I was struck by some issues that she revealed about the sector - some may be obvious.

NGO's because of their political "leanings" do not qualify to be categorised as Charities. Therefore they do not receive any funding from the government. This means they have to do their work on really tight budgets.

So how do they manage to run huge international campaigns successfully without an enormous pool of funds?

According to the honourable speaker, one of the biggest tactics used by NGO's is by creating a "smoke screen". Here the limited available resources are used to position the campaign in key media or target areas that are bound to attract the attention of the authorities concerned. The smoke screen magnifies the issue and forces the authorities to act. I interpreted this "smoke screen" tactic as an exaggeration of the problem.

This got me wondering whether this global warming debate is not a "smoke screen" created by environmentalists who have for years been campaigning for global action. If you've been reading this blog, you may agree with me that it has been very successful.