[Foundation-l] New project proposal: Soviet Repressions Memorial

[Fred Bauder]

> Kurt Maxwell Weber wrote:
>>> On Wednesday 24 December 2008 18:43, Phil Nash wrote:
>>>> Geoffrey Plourde wrote:
>>>>>> Well where will it stop? If we have a project, we should have a
>>>>>> memorial project for all disasters. I echo Mr. Bimmler in his
>>>>>> concerns about the motives behind this proposal.
>>>>
>>>> I'm in some agreement here because my experience of UK charity law
>>>> is that it is not generally permitted to have a "political"
>>>> purpose, and certainly taking such a strong line on any
>>>> "repression", "genocide" etc, would appear to be anathema to a
>>>> charitable objective. It's OK, I suppose, if the United Nations has
>>>> used such terminology, but I don't think we should be seen to be
>>>> taking partisan sides in political disputes, because that dilutes
>>>> the educational charitable status of the Foundation. It's entirely
>>>> a different issue to support humanitarian aid to the victims,
>>>> however, and I am open to the idea that such memorial projects
>>>> might have that idea as a focus. However, the way it's been put
>>>> forward seems to militate against that construction.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I fail to see how simply presenting a list of peoples' names and
>>> telling their stories constitutes "taking partisan sides in
>>> political disputes."  It's educating people about the impact of
>>> these events, plain and simple. --
>>> Kurt Weber
>>> http://blog.kurtweber.us
>>> <kmw at kurtweber.us>
>
> That would be fine, up to a point. On the other hand, putting all that
> under
> a POV title within the WMF umbrealls is quite a different issue, and not
> one, I think, which would be palatable to the WMF, for reasons I've
> already
> outlined. Kurt, as you now should realise, politics at any level is a
> subtle
> and complex business, and my personal opinion is that you should stick to
> marching bands.

Please be respectful.

Fred