NGOs - activism or nest-feathering in Poland?

One of the acquisitons of the post-communist period in Poland have been non-governmental organisations which are heavily bankrolled by the EU. These groups have some agenda such as propmoting the learnign of English and Third Age Universiteis (for OAPs), computerising rural libraries, supporting various youth initiatives, grant compeititons and communtiy involvement. All this is supposed to get people involved in building civil society. To what extent do you believe this is instilling the spirit of voluntarism and pro bono attitudes in ordinary Poles or simply serving to provide a generous cash cow for organisations, their officers, local councillors or private individuals who know how to get plugged in?

So for education.


What makes you say that?


And what makes you say that?

The NGO's look to me like another chance to "spread the message" of the countries behind them..

For practical reasons, a nice opportunity to find a job, btw good paid. ;-)

Yeah!
Damn those educational, well paying NGOs!
Booooo!

Didn't say that they are all crap, but there is always a fine line, especially when politics are involved.
What they do in helping (Africa, Asia, Haiti etc.) after nature disasters is great, but politics are often messing up in other circumstances.

I was interested in the pros and cons of NGOs, as I haven't made up my mind on them yet. Like with most everything else, there is an upside and downside. Take charities...there are high-overhead charities (fund-raisiing drives ostensibly benefiting the handicapped, cancer victims, mentally retarded, whatever) where much or most of the freewill donations collected go to pay fo fancy offices and equipment, hired staff, company cars, conferences, banquets, etc. Others make it a point to slash operating costs to the bare bones so the beneficiaries can benefit from the revenues, and that is how it should be, shouldn't it?

Merged: Poland's Government to shake up NGO's

According to an article today in the Guardian ' .theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/28/polish-pm-beata-szydoa-angers-human-rights-campaigners-ngos' PL Gov have decided to set up stricter rules for NGO's to receive public funding. Those NGO's which are openly critical of PIS party may find themselves at the back of the line . Many NGO's have been critical of the current PL Gov in essence biting the hand that feeds... Looks like PL Gov have a plan to stamp out political correctness - all good things must come to an end :-)

No.... this is political correctness to a T. Political correctness isn't "crazy liberal ideas". Political correctness is the attempt to control what people can say and to make it impossible to publicly discuss inconvenient facts - like the fact that the current Polish government is using the PRL as a model....