Greening Greenpeace India-My struggle

My struggle with Greenpeace India is getting support from lot of people with similar interests- outside Greenpeace. The silence from Greenpeace India itself remains deafening. Members of other- more effective,voluntary, participative and activist organisations I am involved in are forwarding it to people they know in Greenpeace. Let us see how long GP I can actively ignore this. I am not a trouble maker. I am a troubled supporter.

Here is a copy of my letter to Greenpeace. This bounced- but I forwarded it to other GP India e-mail addresses- all to no avail..

-----------------

Dear Madam,
I just saw that you are an employee of Greenpeace India. I have been voicing concerns about the opaque functioning of Greenpeace and even more worrying for me the lack of opportunity to volunteer or information about any activities which Greenpeace India actually does.

I am surprised that as an employee of Greenpeace, you or any of your other colleagues have not bothered to address my concerns or even reply once. This is not only to my posts on the Orkut forum, but also to the e-mails I have sent. Not just that- when one of your volunteers personally attacked me on the forum, there was no response from GP India employees. Having worked for many customer facing, for profit organisations; I think this is fairly atypical behaviour.

The fact is that I have mailed you, posted on the forum etc because I am concerned, I care for the environment, for Greenpeace. The contribution I make every month( for a couple of years now) is my (small)investment in the future of the planet. I believe I can be more effective by investing my time and effort.

If you really- as an individual and as an organisation- care at all, I expect a coherent, relevant reply. Don't attack me and suggest that I am out to do you in. I don't have to pay money to you, and then do you in- it is not logical. So far I have not even got an acknowledgement that I have a legitimate concern.

I have also paid for this month. I will issue instructions to my bank and stop payment from Jan 1st in the absence of any reply/ decent, coherent, polite reply. You may have heard about the study which says a happy customer/stakeholder tells 5 people and an unhappy one tells 20 people. I am a stakeholder in this and if I tell others to stop paying as well, it will be as natural as anything. Nature has a way of eliminating inefficient processes, animals and parts of the anatomy. So if you choose not to listen to me, more people will just find out for themselves...

Just to reiterate my top concerns:

1. Greenpeace India does not seem to be doing much. For an organisation of this size what you do is insignificant. The only time you see volunteers is when they are out to ask for contributions.
2. There is no communication. Even when GPI does something, we read about it from the papers- we are only sent e-mails when you need more money.
3. There is little opportunity to volunteer- mailing people, mailing GPI, applying through web-site are all things which don't seem to have any use.
4. Smaller organisations are much more effective at the local level. GPI does not seem to be interested in any issue which does not give it lots of publicity, nor does it give its volunteers/contributors an opportunity to suggest new issues/actions which can be taken up. To be told this is done by some mysterious committee( as I was told on the forum) does not impress, but strikes one as being bureaucratic and not befitting an activist, voluntary organisation.

I am already forwarding this mail to my colleagues around the world who share similar, environmental concerns. I thought you should know- the movement- environmentalism - is bigger and stronger than Greenpeace India. I admired Greenpeace even as a child of 10- before it actually came to India. I am disappointed and saddened by the state it is in today.

Regards,

----------

Any Comments, suggestions ?- please let me know.