Nyheten som DN och SvD vägrade skriva om trots stort allmänintresse var när Tony Blair fick priset ”Global Legacy Award” av Rädda Barnens styrelse. Omvärlden reagerade med bestörtning. Tony Blair en av västs mäktigaste personer var en av de mest pådrivande personerna i världen för att år 2003 starta kriget mot Irak. Blair har direkt ansvar för 10,000-tals barns död och lidande.
I artiklarna: ”100 000-tals vill att Rädda Barnen drar tillbaka finpris till Tony Blair” och ”Leaked internal mail reveals Save The Children will not withdraw the “Global Legacy Award” to Blair” finns mer detaljer.
Nu försöker en aktivistgrupp samla de sista namnen i en namnlista för att protestera och försöka förmå Rädda Barnen att dra tillbaka finpriset.
Idag tisdag den 6 januari 2015 skriver Miranda Pinch:
”We now have nearly 123, 000 signatures and I believe the time has come to have one last push and then to present the petition to Save the Children UK on Monday or Tuesday of next week.
If it had been possible for those without UK postcodes to sign the petition as well, we would have achieved many more signatures, but this is still a very good result and the petition has certainly made its point. I doubt Save the Children or any other charity will act quite so irresponsibly again – at least I hope so.
Although Save the Chidren UK claim no responsibility for the award, that is sadly not entirely true. Justin Fosyth, the Chief Executive of Save the Children UK was a former adviser to Tony Blair and was asked by the American branch to pass the award onto his former boss. He therefore had the opportunity to advise the USA that it was inappropriate and chose not to do so. Even had the US branch acted autonomously, it was a very unwise action for an international charity.
The saddest part of giving such an inappropriate recipient an award is that had Save the Children given it to someone like William Pooley, bbc.co.uk/news/health-29680400, for instance, it could have done itself a great deal of good and would have generated positive publicity. This is what I intend to say to STC when I present this petition.
I have tried to respond to all those who have written to me, though one or two emails bounced back for some reason. So I am sorry if you were one of those.
Thank you for all your support. If we can give this one last effort I can then work out when and how it would be best to deliver the petition.
Thank you!”