Mick Meaney

RINF Alternative News

Philanthropy

noun, plural philanthropies.

1.

altruistic concern for human welfare and advancement, usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work to needy persons, by endowment of institutions of learning and hospitals, and by generosity to other socially useful purposes.

Read that definition.

Now read it again with an image of Tony Blair in your minds eye.

Are you seeing a disconnect here? Good.

OK, let’s put Blair’s history of war crimes and profiteering to one side for a moment. Just days after a leaked document showed how Blair offered advice to Kazakhstan’s despot president Nursultan Nazarbayev on how to deal with the media after it emerged that his security forces massacred 14 unarmed protesters in 2011, GQ magazine has somehow seen fit to name Blair ‘Philanthropist Of The Year’.

The mind boggles.

Tony Blair Associates (or perhaps a more suited name would be Whitewash Inc?) is estimated to receive around £7 million a year to advise Mr Nazarbayev.

“I think it best to meet head on the Zhanaozen issue,” Mr Blair wrote to him.

“The fact is you have made changes following it; but in any event these events, tragic though they were, should not obscure the enormous progress Kazakhstan has made.

“Dealing with it in the way I suggest is the best way for the Western media.

“It will also serve as a quote that can be used in the future setting out the basic case for Kazakhstan.”

A spokeswoman for war criminal Blair claimed the contract is to provide advice on government reform, and not spin.

She said: “While Tony Blair has always made it clear there are real challenges for Kazakhstan over issues of human rights and political reform, and that these have to be dealt with, nonetheless, the country has made huge progress over the past 20 years.

“The letter was simply making these points, namely that the events of Zhanaozen were indeed tragic and they had to be confronted in any speech, not ignored.”

What next? Will I have to wait with bated breath for George W. Bush to be recognised for ‘Improving the Human Condition’? Oh hang on, that’s already happened.