Who keeps the NGO's honest?

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

I read and concur with this article by Peter Meeus, who was once the head of the HRD and Antwerp semi Govt body:

http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullNews.asp?id=38283
He said the NGOs were over-zealous in their activities given the fact that less than 0.2 percent of diamonds are considered to be conflict diamonds.

He asked why they were so vigorous in their criticism of the diamond business. "Definitely not because there are more conflict diamonds than there were twelve years ago. So why is it then? Could it be because the NGO's became a small business themselves and that the funds available are less so that the competition for the funds is stronger and the need to tell strong stories higher.

I read somewhere recently that some loony org has come out claiming that the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) was bad because it was made up of all jewellery board members. (Anyone got a link?)
Hello???? The RJC is a self auditing body. Do'H.

I love NGO organisations like the Diamond Development Initiative - because they actually DO STUFF. There are other whistleblower orgs that do a great job - Global Witness in my opinion is essentially good at that, but can sometimes be too idealistic and impose high moral western values over situations where this is just dumb and stoopid.

End of rant

 

[Karl_K]

The easy gains have already been made and getting the remainder is hard and expensive.

As far as the question of ngo's and even charities in general I feel that any over 5 years old needs to shut down and start over. After about that time the bureaucracy takes over and the quality of service goes down per $ raised very rapidly.

 

[John P]

I read somewhere recently that some loony org has come out claiming that the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) was bad because it was made up of all jewellery board members. (Anyone got a link?)

Are you thinking of this CSR article from last month, Garry?
http://www.csrwire.com/press_releas...f-Preventing-Conflict-Diamonds-and-Dirty-Gold

One week later there was an RJC press release, which was either coincidental, or a response.
http://www.professionaljeweller.com...lls-for-feedback-in-code-of-practices-review/

"The RJC is currently undertaking a formal review of its COP [code of practices], the standard against which all RJC members, from mine to retail, must achieve certification within two years of joining the RJC."

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Karl I guess that is true, although being a board member of a not for profit to support carers and promote solutions to fronto-temporal dementia (FTD or Picks disease) - after 1 year we have hardly been able to do nothing and it will take another to get funding and staff.

Thanks John - thats it. Thanks.
having been one of the few Ma and Pa audited RJC retailers in the world I can tell you these Earthworks people have no idea. It is exactly as Peter Meeus says - they are riding on the coattails of an excellent organisation (the COP has been worked on for more than a year BTW).
When they say things like:
The RJC system is riddled with loopholes relating to membership, auditing, and accountability, allowing, for example, member companies as a whole to be certified as RJC compliant even when some of their gold, platinum and diamond-producing facilities -- or projects they are invested in -- are excluded from RJC audits. The system lacks transparency. Auditors’ reports are not made public, and equally troubling, the RJC itself doesn’t receive evidence or detailed auditors’ reports about operations that it certifies.
I challenge this organisation to undergo the very same audit. Bet they would fail.

Here is a challenge Earthworks, http://www.earthworksaction.org/you are a sham and a fraud. Sue me and we will see how you go with the negative PR.

The RJC is not and never set out to be a panacea. It is an org to enable honorable miners and jewelry firms to ensure that their behavior and processes (right down to occupational workplace and safety) are at the highest standard. Come on EarthWorks - are your houses all clean? You are a don't organisation. The world needs do'er's like DDI.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

The subject line is an astute statement posing as a question!

I can add to the sentiments already expressed from this perspective: My older brother is an attorney who specializes in fisheries management in the Bering Sea. He is an ardent environmentalist and he taught me the love of the outdoors and respect for nature.
His work over several decades has been instrumental in making the Bering Sea pollock fishery a model of sustainability and responsible stewardship.

He represents an important group of large vessels. Those vessels carry federal observers on board who carefully monitor the catch, by-catch and other impacts of the operations. They not only verify compliance with all quotas and other regulations, but they record a variety of important data about the fishery for use by the scientific community.

It has been the philosophy of the group to never harvest 100% of the allowable catch determined each year by scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service. (I think they cap it at 80%) I could go on tell tell you about the utilization rates of the resource which have been achieved- something like 93%. Virtually nothing is wasted. On board they completely process all the fish even making the guts and bones into fertilizer and meal in a process that extracts the fish oil which is used to fire the driers that make the meal!

With that being well known to all interested parties, it comes as some surprise that they would find themselves regularly in the crosshairs of Greenpeace. And the kinds of tactics Greenpeace uses and public statements that they make are not only inflamatory and highly deceptive but are clearly counter to the purposes Greenpeace preaches. But it turns out that demonizing the large vessels is good for Greenpeace and their fund raising efforts.

So, yea, who holds them accountable?

It is analgous to the conflict diamond issue. The vast majority of diamonds are produced in large scale pit mining operations which are highly controlled. They are not part of the problem! They are driving all the good that comes from a diamond industry that benefits millions of people around the world.

 

[denverappraiser]

NGO’s (That stands for Non-Governmental Organizations for those who don't know what we're talking about) are an industry, and a big industry at that. They have revenue, they have expenses, they advertise, they have lawyers and accountants, etc. Their business is making mountains out of molehills and the public has become increasingly immune to a sensible argument so it just gets worse and worse. Fear mongering pays and it’s HARD to get the public’s attention. I too have had family with direct experience. In my case it had to do with a mining company that was damaging beautiful Colorado mountains by mining Uranium. Saboteurs from Earth First! were destroying their equipment and roads and assaulting their workers. The problem was that they were an exploration company, not a mining company. They weren’t mining ANYTHING, and they weren’t even exploring for Uranium. They were looking for Molybdenum, and they were looking in a neighborhood that has been a mining district since before statehood. It didn’t matter, the protests went on for years. Eventually the company threw in the towel and left the state. Actually they left the US, along with most mining companies and the support industries like exploration along with them. Did the protesters ‘win’? Can they be more self-righteous when they ride their molybdenum alloy bike to the ban mining rally because the moly came from Brazil? Does it even matter that they were wrong?