The month is October, best known (or so it should be,) for Halloween, and all things dark, drab, terrifying, and spooky. Of course, October is also known for being breast cancer awareness month, a month in which numerous entertainment entities try to make themselves look good by throwing their lot in alongside one or more charities created to help either bring awareness to the fact breast cancer exists and what you can do to help with early detection, or to help those currently fighting breast cancer.
A good example of entertainment and cough cough "charities," working together would be the "alliance" between the WWE, and Susan G. Komen. The reason I find this to be a good example is because it is the perfect example of capitalized medicine inside the USA. You see, when these big charities work together with a big industry, company, or even just a person of some repute it isn't for the good of the people the charity is purported to help, oh no. Instead the non-charity part of the alliance benefits from good publicity, and possible tax breaks due to charitable write offs, "well I spent a week in Paris in a five star hotel eating at five star restaurants for this charity, better write it all off..."(Ignore point three on the linked site, for the rich who are used to five star shit, exceptions are made to "maintain their quality of life.") Meanwhile the "charity" rakes in the dough, and in the case of Susan G. Komen, this means more money for suing other charities for using the words "for the cure" or even the color pink. It also means more money for deluxe benefits packages and six figure salaries for the charity execs.
As if suing real charities and misappropriating donations weren't enough, Susan G Komen is also known for stealing other charities I.P. and ignoring victims of metastatic cancer, as well as the acts of "pinkwashing" and giving misleading information, all while having financial ties to the private RX companies they give money to!
Now you may be saying, "well yes, that is all terrible, but why shouldn't they have ties to pharmaceutical companies?" Well, my answer to that is a fairly common answer and it goes a little something like this. Despite constant promises of a cure being just around the corner, the survival rate for various cancers has barely increased in decades, and most of that is due to early detection and new surgical methods, as well as a better understanding of holistic methods prevention (really risk reduction) and complementary methods of fighting cancer, see the Cancer Treatment Centers of America for more information on "integrative care". Oh, and when I say they have financial ties, I mean they own stock in pharmaceutical companies, privately owned companies that receive your donations and use it to fund their research so they can patent any discoveries and extort people, "your money or your life." In fact, you can actually donate stocks directly to Susan G Komen.
Metastatic cancer for those who don't know, is when cancer spreads from one place to another, Susan G Komen, as stated above has ignored those suffering from this advanced form of cancer, and some of these victims have accused Susan G Komen and affiliated medical facilities of pushing them away to keep from scaring other patients.
And what is pinkwashing you might ask? Well this excerpt from a site linked above and below answers it very well...
Breast Cancer Action, a nonprofit organization known as “the watchdog of the breast cancer industry” coined the term “pinkwashing.” It happens when a company or organization claims to care about breast cancer by promoting pink ribbon products, while at the same time produces, manufactures and/or sells products that are linked to the disease. Pinkwashing is when “cause marketing” loses sight of “the cause” and is more about the bottom line – profits.One of the best examples of pinkwashing was Kentucky Fried Chicken’s “Buckets for the Cure” campaign. For every pink bucket of fried chicken sold, KFC donated 50 cents to Komen. Fast food and especially fried food are a well-known cause of many diseases, including cancer. You gotta wonder…who at Komen approved this joint venture and whose interest do they really have in mind?
~Donna Pinto~
Here is a video clip from Penn and Teller's "Bullshit" that briefly touches on some of the issues I've talked about, and lists even more problems with this false charity, and cancer research as a whole, including that there is no single unified effort to cure cancer and only a bunch of private companies vying for profit.
So, just to recap, Susan G Komen misuses its funds by grossly overpaying its executives and focusing more on brand growth than on fighting cancer, makes deals with companies that make and or sell products proven to increase cancer risk, does its best to ignore those fighting metastatic cancer, has financial ties to for-profit pharmaceutical organizations, and purposefully gives misleading information on cancer risks, prevention, and detection.
My suggestion? Let Susan G Komen shut down, if you want to donate to research, do it either with a better charity, or do it directly. If you do not trust any organization to see your money goes where it is needed, find someone with cancer, and donate to them to help them pay the costly medical bills and offset the cost of other bills associated with a serious illness. If you don't have money to donate, donate your time, baby sit kids for free while the parent is visiting the doctor, drive patients to and from their appointments (this is specially pertinent for thse undergoing chemotherapy,) etc, etc.
Some more pinkwashing that honestly made tears come to my eyes...
Brilliant article. Good advise at the end. And read this book: Feelings Buried Alive Never Die .... Karol K. Truman. That's the cure!!!
Thank you, I will put that on my reading list.