George Soros and son funding Irish campaigning website.

I was texting with a member of the like-minded last evening about various like-minded things. When she asked me a question.

“ Are you subscribed to Uplift ? “

I must admit I have managed to go through most of the last 27 months without darkening the doorways of campaigning and on-line signature gathering sites. I have signed one or two Change.org petitions under silent protest and that’s about it. I had never heard of Uplift so I decided to go check out their website. I read the first few lines of their “ About Us “ page and got that sinking feeling.

Uplift is a people powered campaigning community of over 340,000 people who take coordinated action for progressive change across Ireland. 

Whenever I see the word progressive in print, especially over the last two years, my bad knee starts to throb. The woman that made the enquiry of me had signed loads of these Uplift petitions.

“ I don’t trust their motives recently. They asked me to sign a petition for securing homes for Ukrainians and I wrote back asking them to create a petition to house Irish homeless people first. Instead they just sent me another one to sign about an eviction in Shannon “

The throbbing sensation started making the long, lonely journey to the frazzled battlefield of thought experiments warring in my head. My like-minded freedom friend then sent on a few of the recent campaign e-mails she had received, some of which she had signed. I was interested to see how the Ukrainian one was framed.

What I have noticed about the progressive movement in the Unites States is that often the language is couched. I wondered if the same would be true here. My opinion on that particular subject is that many of these progressive organisations want to cloak their agenda so as not to lose traditional liberals. While wokeism gets all the social media headlines I still believe old school liberals are in the majority. While I was wondering about this the first email arrived in. I opened it.

XXXX, 

Imagine: this scene, a mother getting her child ready for school in a tent with the rain and wind blowing outside. This will be the stark reality in Ireland for people fleeing war in Ukraine very soon. [1]

It doesn't need to be this way. Thousands of homes lie empty all over the country - built by toxic vulture funds, owned by banks or just lying empty - including holiday homes and Airbnb’s, used only for a few weeks of the year.

Things to Note.

1. Author might have a career in Hollywood if the campaigning doesn’t work out. This writer has a good sense for setting a dramatic, apocalyptical tone I’ll give him that.

2. You’d be forgiven for thinking the e-mail designer was going after vulture funds in this campaign. However, read it again. The “ or just lying empty “ bit is the giveaway. It would seem to me that this campaign is targeting privately owned Irish property. Not just vulture funds. And by the way vulture funds have billions at their disposal to protect themselves. Unlike a small farmer that has a derelict house on his land and no means of refurbishing it to then possibly sell or rent it.

Let’s move on to the next section of the email.

This is where we come in, XXXX. A massive open letter showing Micheál Martin and his government where voters stand will get the alarm bells ringing. And when enough of us sign, the media will ask hard questions - firmly putting this government in the spotlight. 

So, XXXX, will you sign this open letter today telling Micheál Martin to use empty homes for people fleeing war in Ukraine? 

Below that last question in the above extract, in the actual email, is a lovely red button for people to click on and sign up to this petition. And of course the email doesn’t end before taking the opportunity to ask for a little cash. Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, every day’s a school day around here.

Who is the target of the campaign?

If you answered Micheal Martin I’m going to recommend some extra homework. The target in the first instance will be or is the media. Fortunately we don’t live in a country with a woke media…..oh wait a minute…..we increasingly do. So, in my cyncial mind, this campaign will give the media the legitimacy to start applying the pressure. If, of course, they can gather enough signatures.

So, to steal a quote from Columbo, you know , at the point he’s about to leave the scene and walk out the door:

“ Just one more thing….”

Who funds Uplift?

At this question, I decided to do some further digging on Uplift. Obviously, like every organisation they give the whole spiel about being funded almost entirely by donations. Almost.

75% of the funding comes from subscriptions and one - off donations. I didn’t have to get off my couch thankfully to find out where the rest of their funding come from as they are kind enough to post their published accounts on the website. 2020 is the most recent year of published figures.

Ah now would you look at that!

If it isn’t my auld buddies from the Open Society. Or the Open Society Policy Centre to give them their full title. Having provided Uplift with no funding in 2019 they coughed up almost 50 grand into the 2020 donation bucket. 49,239 euros to be exact. At the beginning of the pandemic World cup. How very interesting. And who exactly are the Open Society Policy Centre and what are their aims I hear you ask. Well the answer to that question is George Soros and family.

Now, in fairness, old George is over 90 at this stage so Alex Soros is the face of all of the Soros family “philanthropy” in recent years. Although George still gets wheeled out for the big events and small occasions. Do we have another question?

Why yes we do.

What are the stated aims of the Open Society Policy Centre?

Well let’s just allow them to tells us shall we? Courtesy of the bigger banner on their website home page.

I have to hand it to these progressive NGOs - everything is hidden in plain sight. If you just open your eyes a little. The whole NGO, charity, campaigning and not for profit sector in Ireland needs to be forensically examined with a fine tooth comb. Hidden and Not so hidden agendas abound I suspect.

As far as I’m concerned, when you contribute to these organisations like Uplift, all you are doing is funding the salaries and expenses of people who are pushing an ideology. This is fine as long as you are aware of the fact. But probably you are similiar to my like-minded friend. Dazzled and hooked by a specific cause that you share with these organisations but totally blind to the overarching ideology that feeds them.

I could spend the same length of time bemoaning organisations like change.org. and the sneaky fundraising aspects of that petition gathering website. Where people often believe the donations are going to the petition they are signing when in fact most of the time they are not. If you want to sign petitions on these fine but for the love of god think carefully before you go sending them any money.

In fact, I wish most of these organisation were actually for profit and left their ideologies back at home. At least then you could hold them to account for their donations, profits and the work they are doing in return. Left and Right. It is curious to me that of the hundreds of thousands of not for profits in the world no-one has successfully executed one that merely allows people to donate their time and energy. No matter what skills they possess.

A charity where nothing is added but time as the old Bulmers ad goes.

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I have added the facility to make one-off coffee sized contributions for a piece of writing that particularly resonates with you and doesn’t force people into an annual or monthly subscription cost. Seems pretty simple to use too.

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