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Not tired of hating on Komen?
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EGYPT
Secret Strongman
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FRANCE
A Piece of Dixville Notch
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SPAIN
King?s Sub-Par Vacay
Posted By Joshua Keating
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 - 11:15 AM
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Given that it's still reeling from the controversial, and eventually reversed, decision to suspend funding to Planned Parenthood -- fundraising is reportedly down 30 percent for some of its events -- you'd think breast cancer advocacy group Susan G. Komen for the Cure would want to steer clear of potential political controversy.
Evidently not. As Nathan Hamm notes at Registan, Komen is partnering with Fund Forum, a charity run by Gulnara Karimova, the socialite, part-time pop star daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, to sponsor a series of charity runs in Uzbekistan. In addition to her dad's atrocious and well-publicized human rights record, Gulnara herself has been implicated in a range of illegal business practices, including essentially taking over rival companies at gunpoint. Then there are disturbing reports of widespread forced sterilizations of women in Uzbek hospitals and evidence that's it's being encouraged by the authorities.
You might expect this sort of thing from the fashion industry, or say, Sting, but Komen should probably know better at this point.
Update: Apparently Gulnara's other big charity campaign these days is a program dubbed ?1,000 weddings, 1,000 circumcisions.? So there's that.
Update 2: A Susan G. Komen representative has contacted us to clarify that the organization is partnering not with Fund Forum, but with the National Breast Cancer Association of Uzbekistan. The two organizations seem to share both web space and an address in Tashkent.
Fund Forum itself seems under the impression that it is sponsoring the event. It has declared itself a fundraising partner for the race and is featured its own name as a sponsor on posters along with Komen. A previous edition of the marathon was described GulnaraKarimova.com as "a brainchild of Gulnara Karimova."
Re: Not tired of hating on Komen?
If you donate to Komen, you support DICTATORS!!!
I'm telling, I'm teeeeeEEEelllllLLLLLing!
DICTATORS!
Click me, click me!
My BFF lost her mother to breast cancer and the walk was one of the few things she did with her mom, dad, and brother that really brought them all together (they were spread out geographically) and also gave her mom a lot of hope and strength for the trials she faced. We recently were talking about all the controversary surrounding Komen and how she hated that she actually felt guilty for having so many good memories related to their organization and events. I guess I'm a bad person because I said *** that noise, this was something that gave your whole family a ray of light in a really sh!t situation, and I'm doing it with her this summer. If another foundation rises to prominence and the same level of activity she said she'd switch to that but until then, feh.
Avon
Sweet, there's even one in her city!
Excuse me, if I may, it's "Uzbekibeki-stanstan" . Please get it right.
It's not that. It's protecting your brand.
My H does a lot of work in Africa and Asia. Whenever he starts with a new company or starts working with gov't organizations, he always makes sure everything is on the up and up, and if not,then he doesn't do it. Sometimes he thinks it would be okay to do that project, but he knows if any of the funny business comes out, it destroys the integrity of every other project he has. His funds are worth millions and he works with a team of only 8 and somehow they are able to do the due diligence (as much as is known at the time) to not get their work sullied by something that may be an issue, like this was for Komen. Komen is a huge organization, yet doesn't have the people and the good sense to find another way to meet their goals then one that gets their brand tied up with these eyebrow-raising activities?
I don't necessarily think Komen supports dictators because they are evil. But I do think that it's lazy and only makes me sideeye their credibility.
ETA for clarity
Click me, click me!