{"id":82370,"date":"2016-11-07T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=82370"},"modified":"2016-11-28T12:50:26","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T12:50:26","slug":"just-how-grey-are-the-white-helmets-and-their-backers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/11\/just-how-grey-are-the-white-helmets-and-their-backers\/","title":{"rendered":"Just How Grey Are the White Helmets and Their Backers? (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jan<\/a><\/p>\n

Read Part 2 HERE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

1 Nov 2016 – <\/em>While thousands of humanitarian organisations around the world are struggling fiercely with diminishing support from governments and the public, one has achieved a surprising amount of support from Western governments in a surprisingly short period of time and gained a surprising attention from mainstream media and ditto political elites: The Syrian Civil Defence or White Helmets.<\/p>\n

Their name of course makes you think of the UN\u2019s Blue Helmet and white is the colour of those who should be protected in harm\u2019s way \u2013 and the colour of innocence. However, for many years there has been an Argentinean relief organisation with the same name.<\/p>\n

The SCD or White Helmets counts nearly 3.000 rescue workers who operate in very dangerous areas in rebel-held territories in Syria and claims that it has, in three years, rescued about 70.000 lives according to its Twitter account (or 65 per day).<\/p>\n

Contrary to what you might think, it isn\u2019t a Syrian organisation because Syria has its own organisation, incidentally also called Syria Civil Defence, which was established in 1953 and is registered with ICDO, the International Civil Defence Organisation<\/a>, since 1972.<\/p>\n

The White Helmets seems to have an annual budget of US$ 30 million and has raised a total support of well over US$ 100 million. And it seems that they operate exclusively in war zones in which the fighting against<\/em> the Syrian government and the Syrian Arab Army takes place, i.e. in \u2018liberated\u2019 areas where hundreds of groups and some 80 countries, mainly NATO members, Gulf states and Saudi-Arabia, operate.<\/p>\n

On the White Helmets\u2019 briefing page<\/a> it is stated that \u201cfunding for their humanitarian relief work is received from the aid budgets of Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is how the Foreign Ministry in Copenhagen explains<\/a> the roughly US$ 9 million to the White helmets from Denmark, a country that bombs in both Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n

Other civil society and humanitarian organisations inside Syria have not been so fortunate. You\u2019ve probably not heard that much about the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and its work<\/a>? How much\/little support have they received from Western humanitarian-concerned governments? And in general, civil society organisations in Syria \u2013 women, peace, human rights, culture, etc. \u2013 have received nothing like US$ 100 million in a few years and no one has such a flashy media appearance as the White Helmets.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo from the White Helmets\u2019 homepage<\/p><\/div>\n

The White Helmets was started in 2013 by James Le Mesurier<\/a> who seems to have tried a little of everything everywhere, including the grey zones of special forces and intelligence in virtually all NATO wars, Yugoslavia in particular. He later set up a foundation in Holland to gather the funds. Here is a recent account by Scott Ritter<\/a>, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and weapons inspector in Iraq with tremendous knowledge of things Middle East:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe organizational underpinnings of the White Helmets can be sourced to a March 2013 meeting in Istanbul between a retired British military officer, James Le Mesurier\u2014who had experience in the murky world of private security companies and the shadowy confluence between national security and intelligence operations and international organizations\u2014and representatives of the Syrian National Council (SNC) and the Qatari Red Crescent Society. Earlier that month, the SNC was given Syria\u2019s seat in the Arab League at a meeting of the league held in Qatar.<\/p>\n

At that meeting, the SNC assumed Syria\u2019s seat, and the Arab League authorized member states to actively provide support, including arms and ammunition, to the Syrian rebels. The Qataris, working through the SNC, helped assemble for Le Mesurier $300,000 in seed money from Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom for a seven-day course designed to train and equip a 25-person rescue team, recruited by the SNC, for duty in so-called \u201cliberated areas\u201d of Syria. The SNC made available a pair of Syrian activists\u2014Raed Saleh and Farouq Habib\u2014to assist Le Mesurier in this work.<\/p>\n

The group is \u2013 as will be seen below \u2013 treated as uncontroversial in virtually all Western mainstream media. However, there is enough material with documentation to merit caution.<\/p>\n

If you read media reports about the White Helmets and do not see the author mention that this group\u2019s real identity is disputed and functions controversial you can be sure that you are wasting your time with somebody who is politically incredibly naive, or gullible; someone who has not done his or her research or is knowingly part of a deceptive effort serving a one-sided political agenda.<\/p>\n

The White Helmets definitely is<\/em> an controversial NGO \u2013 at the same time as it is (made) difficult to understand clearly what it really is.<\/p>\n

And until the whole picture has been developed, anyone ought to be cautious with taking information about them at face value. So much must be clear given the links below.<\/p>\n

Dual purpose?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That said, this author has not been on the ground but has studied both the pro- et contra links provided below.<\/p>\n

Some observers draw the conclusion that the White Helmets \u2013 Syrian Civil Defence \u2013 is purely good guys rescuing lots of people, children in particular. The opposite advocacy claims that, all told, they are part of the terrorist groups, serve Western governments with intelligence and that their backers run political propaganda in their name and that they are simply executioners \u2013 murderers with a human face.<\/p>\n

But does it have to be either\/or?<\/p>\n

An alternative hypothesis could be that the White Helmets is a dual-purpose<\/em> organisation. They claim to be ordinary Syrian volunteers who came together around the idea of saving lives and are truly altruistic \u201cbakers, tailors, engineers, pharmacists, painters, carpenters, students and many more, the White Helmets are volunteers from all walks of life.\u201d It could well be that some of them actually are, even a majority.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t preclude that other elements \u2013 not the least those operating outside Syria such as foundations, PR and marketing firms, change organisations, NATO government and NGOs are in it with less noble, war-promoting purposes.<\/p>\n

Link collection pro et contra<\/strong><\/p>\n

Find below a link collection \u2013 long but fascinating in its wealth of information. We bring it as a help<\/em> to those seriously interested in Syria\u2019s fate and in studying how opinions are being built by means of connected actors in a rather opaque networking structure, in how NGOs have increasingly become Near<\/em>-governmental organisations and for those who do not want to sound foolish when they discuss these matters.<\/p>\n

First some links to how the the White Helmets presents themselves. Second, some mainstream media articles in their favour of and praising it \u2013 including some that argue that the White Helmets ought to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (which happens to be nonsense, since they don\u2019t even remotely qualify according to the criteria in Alfred Nobel\u2019s very clear will and the prize is not a general do-good-prize. In addition, it must be doubted that the Nobel Committee will get more persuaded by the White Helmets\u2019 \u2013 quite immodest \u2013 campaign in favour of their own candidacy).<\/p>\n

Third some links to the comprehensive network of organisations, including governments, that the White Helmets seem to be part of \u2013 and it is quite a confusing lot with absolutely no transparency \u2013 but quite a few investigations have<\/em> been carried out.<\/p>\n

And fourth and final \u2013 the main links to investigative reports and other stuff that are sceptical in various degrees to the first three.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The White Helmets present themselves<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Syrian Civil Defence \u2013 The White Helmets<\/a><\/p>\n

    The White Helmet Homepage <\/a>
    \nOn the front page you are asked to sign an appeal for establishing a No-Fly Zone (which would be a violation of international law).<\/p>\n

    Wikipedia\u2019s entry about the White Helmets<\/a><\/p>\n

    The White Helmets\u2019 media FAQs<\/a><\/p>\n

    Syria Civil Defence on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

    The White Helmets on Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

    Netflix
    \n    Official Trailer about White Helmets<\/a><\/p>\n

    The Atlantic<\/a>
    \nThe makers of the Netflix movie give their background<\/p>\n

    Mayday Rescue
    \n    Dutch foundation supporting the White Helmets<\/a>
    \nAccording to its website it channels government funds to the White Helmets: \u201cSyria Civil Defence receives funding (through Mayday Rescue and Chemonics) from the governments of the UK, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Japan, and the USA.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Chemonics<\/a>
    \nA US global development corporation through which government funds for the White Helmets are channelled (according to Mayday Rescue).<\/p>\n

    White Helmets themselves campaigning for the 2016 or 2017 Nobel Peace Prize<\/a><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Sources that promote the White Helmets without questioning<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Time
      \n      How the White Helmets are being hunted in a devastated Aleppo<\/a><\/p>\n

      Time
      \n      The White Helmets of Syria<\/a><\/p>\n

      The Economist
      \n      The rise of Syria\u2019s White Helmets<\/a><\/p>\n

      Syria\u2019s White Helmets<\/a>
      \nA film by Danish journalist Nagieb Khaja shown on Al-Jazeera (30 secs into the film one learns that they have saved more than 56.000 lives \u201csince the war began in 2011\u2033 although the White Helmets were formed in 2013).<\/p>\n

      Nominated for an Oscar<\/a><\/p>\n

      The Nobel Peace Prize must go to the White Helmets<\/a><\/p>\n

      The Guardian view on the Nobel peace prize: give it to Syria\u2019s White Helmets \u2013 Editorial<\/a><\/p>\n

      Syria\u2019s White Helmets nominated for Nobel Peace Prize<\/a><\/p>\n

      The White Helmets get the Right Livelihood Award<\/a><\/p>\n

      The Right Livelihood\u2019s motivation \u2013 almost a copy of the White Helmets\u2019 own story<\/a><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Organisations in the network around the White Helmets<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Purpose<\/a>
        \nA social movement creation and PR company that allegedly wants to change the world, co-founded by Jeremy Heimans \u2013 whose mainstream, politically correct background you see         here<\/a>. Jeremy \u2013 of course \u2013 began his career with the strategy consultants McKinsey & Company. He also happens to be a co-founder of<\/p>\n

        Avaaz<\/a>
        \nAvaaz means voice or song in several languages and the organisation is known by millions as a petition platform for many good\/progressive causes. Avaaz has some 43 million members around the world and is thus easily the largest NGO in the world.<\/p>\n

        Avaaz has also created Purpose.com. Here Jeremy Heimans, co-founder of Avaaz too, speaks to Forbes<\/a> about his background and what the two companies do.<\/p>\n

        Avaaz is very active in promoting a No-Fly Zone in Syria<\/a> which it explains in a petition text with these words: \u201cLet\u2019s build a resounding global call to Obama and other leaders to stand up to Putin and Assad\u2019s terror. This might be our last, best chance to help end this mass murder of defenceless children. Add your name.\u201d<\/p>\n

        The sad thing is that it has learnt nothing from its own campaign for a No-Fly Zone in Libya. John Hanrahan is a former executive director of The Fund for Investigative Journalism and reporter for The Washington Post, The Washington Star, UPI and other news organisations has made this extremely interesting analysis<\/a> about how odd it is that Avaaz maintains an interventionist war-agenda in spite of earlier experiences and resistance even by high-ranking militaries.<\/p>\n

        Hanrahan quotes Avaaz\u2019s campaign director, former State Department official John Tye, \u201cthat Avaaz shows 54,000 members in Syria in a population of 23 million \u2013 which means that even if every Avaaz member supported a no-fly zone, this would still mean that only one of every 426 Syrians had \u201cvoted\u201d for one.<\/p>\n

        Avaaz spearheads \u2013 at least in this matter \u2013 an extreme militarist policy while \u201cAvaaz is a global web movement to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere\u201d. Which people want a No-Fly Zone in Syria? Do they know it\u2019s a violation of a sovereign state\u2019s airspace, of international law? That it would embolden every terrorist on Syrian soil because they would get rid of the Syrian Airforce as their enemy? That it continued into regime change in both Iraq and Libya?
        \nMany questions unanswered by this peculiar \u201cpeople power\u201d organisation, more militarist than governments!<\/p>\n

        But back to Purpose.com and one of its important clients:<\/p>\n

        The Syria Campaign \u2013 home<\/a>
        \nThey maintain on         their website<\/a> that \u201cThe Syria Campaign is fiercely independent and has accepted no money from governments, corporations or anyone directly involved in the Syrian conflict. This allows us full autonomy to advocate for whatever is needed to save lives.\u201d But they also say that they have accepted funds from the Asfari Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation and other anonymous donors.
        \nThe Syria Campaign also states that it is only pro-human rights and pro-freedom and takes no side. But they explain the conflict in these words:
        \n\u201cThe regime of Bashar al-Assad is responsible for crushing a peaceful uprising that has led to the deaths of over 450,000 people, the displacement of over 12 million \u2013 half the country \u2013 and the emergence of violent, extremist groups like Isis.
        \nToday the fighting in Syria has given way to a world war with more than eighty countries involved on all sides.
        \nThe majority of Syrians want neither Assad nor Isis. They want an end to the violence and a democratic Syria.
        \nWhat is happening in Syria could be happening to any of us. No one is free until we\u2019re all free.\u201d<\/p>\n

        I would characterise such a presentation as side-taking wrapped in substance-free marketing jargon; a very politicised statement wearing only black-and-white.<\/p>\n

        About the Syria Campaign<\/a><\/p>\n

        What the Syria Campaign is proud of: Impact page<\/a><\/p>\n

        The Syria Campaign seeks all-stars senior campaigner and \u201cYou don\u2019t need to know anything about Syria\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

        The Syria Campaign on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

        The Syria Campaign on Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

        Analysis, Research and Knowledge (Ark)<\/a>
        \nA private company, headquartered in Dubai, that describes itself as \u201ca research, conflict transformation and stabilisation consultancy\u201d.
        \nIn Syria \u201cArk has been at the forefront of the response to the conflict \u2026 for the past five years\u201d.         One of its two team members, Alistair Harris is described here<\/a> advocating two years ago that \u201cmoderates\u201d should be armed to fight ISIS and not only in Iraq but also in Syria.<\/p>\n

        The British-based Asfari Foundation<\/a> for change
        \nWhite Helmets, according to their website, received seed funding came from the Asfari Foundation \u2013         trustees of which<\/a> are heavily related to the oil industry and corporate finance. The Asfari Foundation\u2019s bonds with the Syria Campaign is dealt with here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Sources raising investigation-based questions about the White Helmets<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Vanessa Beeley
          \n          Syria\u2019s White Helmets: War by Way of Deception \u2013 Part I<\/a><\/p>\n

          Scott Ritter at TruthDig
          \n          The \u2018White Helmets\u2019 and the Inherent Contradiction of America\u2019s Syria Policy<\/a><\/p>\n

          Hands off Syria
          \n          The White Helmets \u2013 al-Qaeda with a facelift (video)<\/a><\/p>\n

          Rick Sterling
          \n          The \u201cWhite Helmets\u201d Controversy<\/a><\/p>\n

          Vanessa Beeley
          \n          Who are Syria\u2019s White Helmets?<\/a>
          \nThe article contains this diagram:<\/p>\n

          \"white-helmets-controversy-media-infographic\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Vanessa Beeley
          \n          The real Syrian Civil Defence<\/a><\/p>\n

          Christina Lin, Asia Times
          \n          White Helmets: Instrument of regime change in Syria?<\/a><\/p>\n

          Jonathan Gornell
          \n          Newsmaker: The White Helmets<\/a><\/p>\n

          Syria Solidarity Movement
          \n          Its list of humanitarian\/human rights organisation that are pushing for war on Syria and its government<\/a><\/p>\n

          Open Letter from The Hamilton Coalition To Stop War
          \n          White Helmets should NOT be Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize<\/a><\/p>\n

          Max Blumenthal
          \n          Inside the shadowy public relation firm that is lobbying for regime change in Syria (I)<\/a><\/p>\n

          Max Blumenthal
          \n          How the White Helmets Became International Heroes While Pushing U.S. Military Intervention and Regime Change in Syria (II)<\/a><\/p>\n

          Rick Sterling
          \n          Seven steps of highly effective manipulators<\/a>
          \nThe article contains this diagram:<\/p>\n

          \"white-helmets-controversy-media2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          21st Century Wire
          \n          CrossTalk: \u2018White Helmets, Really?\u2019 with Vanessa Beeley, Eva Bartlett & Patrick Henningsen (video)<\/a><\/p>\n

          Russia Today
          \n          Multi-million funded \u2013 can\u2019t be independent<\/a><\/p>\n

          General reasons for concern about the real identity of the White Helmets<\/strong><\/p>\n

          Here are some of the reasons \u2013 numbers not indicative of priority:<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Huge funding by NATO\/EU countries which are militarily involved.<\/li>\n
          2. A degree of political lobbying \u2013 a very specific explanation of the conflict and how it started which points to a no-fly zone, weaponization of human rights issues and speaks strongly against the Syrian government and Russia and very critically of the UN \u2013 that is extremely unusual for a purely humanitarian organisation.<\/li>\n
          3. Incredibly advanced public relation in terms of very professional websites, videos and PR strategy dropping the right stories and images at the right time \u2013 quite unique for a group of \u201cbakers, tailors and students\u201d etc..<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \"\u201cOmram<\/a>

            \u201cOmram rescued from a Russian airstrike\u201d \u2013 From the White Helmets\u2019 homepage.<\/p><\/div>\n

              \n
            1. Too professional wordings and images, too much playing to (exploitation of) emotions, too catchy smart formulations again and again; in short, lacking every sense of genuine local quality. Too many children \u2013 and cats<\/a> \u2013 in the images speaking to an audience with little politically consciousness but surely a good heart. In short, populist marketing also in the sense of conveying the message: Look how good we <\/em>are and how evil everybody else<\/em> are.<\/li>\n
            2. Guilt by association: If the White Helmets is a 100% humanitarian first responder organisation it must be extremely naive in ignoring that its integrity, credibility and noble purposes is put at risk with the specific network of organisations and governments that it has chosen to seek support from.<\/li>\n
            3. Substance versus public relation: how does a humanitarian organisation justify that millions of dollars are spent on self-promoting public relation rather than on saving more lives in such a horrific war? And taking so many photos and shoot films of its own work in the midst of massacres and bombing raids?<\/li>\n
            4. It\u2019s very difficult to discern who actually manages the White Helmets in general and in terms of day-to-day operations. One looks in vain for something like an organisational chart secretary-general, board, executive director (although one is mentioned, Raed Saleh, whom the US has on one occasion actually denied entry into the US).<\/li>\n
            5. How come that such an innovative organisation seems to have been started in circles that have to do with oil interests, British intelligence, mercenary\/military operations and interventionist\/bombing countries?<\/li>\n
            6. How come it works only in rebel\/terrorist\/liberated areas? Could it do that without co-operation or co-ordination with some of these groups? It has been stated \u2013 naively \u2013 by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation that their vision is to operate also on government-controlled territory and later be a leader in re-building a new democratic post-war Syria. However, why should the sovereign state of Syria\u2019s legitimate government accept a foreign-based and -financed civil defence territory there when it has had its own since 1953?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              Perhaps we should not be that<\/em> surprised?<\/strong><\/p>\n

              Should we be surprised that humanitarian workers are involved in \u201csomething else\u201d and are not exclusively devoted to doing no harm and doing good for humanity?<\/p>\n

              Not really. I\u2019ve met that sort of people and organisations during the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, among other places at the US Embassy in Zagreb where the humanitarian section people, most likely CIA operatives, after some talk with me about helping the people switched to talk about how good it would be if president Milosevic was killed.<\/p>\n

              Are humanitarian organisations \u2013 like most other NGOs today \u2013 highly or completely dependent on governments? Yes, most are. And they should therefore always be checked for possible moral corruption and co-optation. Many are no longer Non-<\/em> but Near-<\/em>governmental and behave, at minimum, politically correct or serve\/promote the interests of their governments one way or the other.<\/p>\n

              Wasn\u2019t Doctors Without Borders<\/a> started by Bernard Kouchner who advocated military humanitarian intervention as an idea, did the dirty job for NATO in Kosovo and morally advocated<\/a> the bombing of Libya as a \u201cpeace guarantee\u201d? Here an interesting video debate<\/a> with him at Oxford by Mehdi Hasan.<\/p>\n

              Should it be so surprising that \u2013 even liberal, democratic \u2013 governments propagandise, construct concrete stories to appeal to the human heart in us all (for a good cause) and that they regularly lie, do fear-mongering, use stereotyping and demonisation, present black-and-white narratives \u2013 all of which serve their elites\u2019 interests and may not always be that<\/em> noble in reality?<\/p>\n

              Think of the ugly shadow world of the global arms trade<\/a> in which virtually all governments take part in?<\/p>\n

              Of course not. No wars would be possible without one of more of these ingredients.<\/p>\n

              Think of the \u2013 invented \u2013 story about the Iraqi soldiers who kicked out babies of incubators in Kuwait city \u2013 all invented as part of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait public relations campaign which was run by American Hill & Knowlton for the Kuwaiti government.<\/a><\/p>\n

              Or, remember James Harf of the US public relations firm, Ruder and Finn<\/a>, who in 1991 was hired by the Croatian and Bosnian governments as well as by the Kosovo-Albanians to create and promote an anti-Serb attitude in the Western media?<\/em><\/p>\n

              Says Harf \u201cWe were able to equate Serbs to Nazis in public opinion\u2026\u201d Some kind of balance or truth didn\u2019t interest him: \u201cWe are professionals. We have got a job to do and we do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

              If there is<\/em> anything new in this field since the early 1990s it is the spectrum, the depth, the money and the intensity with which public opinion is being deceived about war and peace \u2013 that war today is<\/em> peace and peace is preserved by violence. And the de facto replacement<\/em> of knowledge and texts by purpose-driven, mediatized and emotionalised \u201cnarratives\u201d and images and films \u2013 right down on you phone and into your mind.<\/p>\n

              In summary: Illusions about our goodness that feed social narcissism and the MIMAC <\/strong><\/p>\n

              I do not believe that I know exactly what the whole story and the<\/em> truth is about the White Helmets. But I know that quite a few things don\u2019t feel right.<\/p>\n

              As a sociologist and peace researcher with four decades of academic and practical experience of global affairs and work in conflict zones, the word spoken by the guard Marcellus in Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet<\/em> at Kronborg Castle in my native Denmark come to mind: \u201cThere is something rotten in the state\u2026\u201d not only in the bombing state of Denmark (that supports the White Helmets) but also in the state of the \u2013 free \u2013 media coverage of conflicts and wars.<\/p>\n

              If, thus, you are generally<\/em> sceptical of Western media coverage of wars fought by the West and specifically<\/em> of the story of the White Helmets as a purely brave humanitarian organisation \u2013 are you then automatically pro-Assad, pro-Russia or pro-bombing? If you are critical to A, must you automatically endorse everything B or C does?<\/p>\n

              Given the \u201cZeitgeist\u201d of these times, my hunch is that the anti-intellectual\u2019s, the propagandist\u2019s and the blamegamer\u2019s answer is a roaring \u201cYes!\u201d Personally, I couldn\u2019t care less but there is reason to worry about the fact that our media are not free to take up the issues dealt with here.<\/p>\n

              Pulitzer prize winner, Chris Hedges, talks about \u201cthe incessant manufacturing of illusions that feed social narcissism.\u201d<\/a> The \u2013 unwinnable \u2013 wars the West fights with the illusory ideology of spreading goodness, democracy, freedom and peace as well as the alleged good role of the White Helmets in it is little else but an expression of such an incessant manufacturing of illusions that feed social narcissism of the many while filling the pockets of the few in the Military-Industrial-Media-Academic Complex (MIMAC).<\/p>\n

              It\u2019s time to give reality show<\/em> politics and media a reality check. But who can and who will? And who dares now everything will get worse after November 8?<\/p>\n

              ________________________________________<\/p>\n

              TFF Director Prof. Jan Oberg is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

              Go to Original \u2013 transnational.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              While thousands of humanitarian organisations around the world are struggling fiercely with diminishing support from governments and the public, one has achieved a surprising amount of support from Western governments in a surprisingly short period of time and gained a surprising attention from mainstream media and ditto political elites: The Syrian Civil Defence or White Helmets. Their name of course makes you think of the UN\u2019s Blue Helmet and white is the colour of those who should be protected in harm\u2019s way \u2013 and the colour of innocence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}