Reply #43: Straw man alert. Didn't say no one wants to help people. Just that "helping people" is not [View All]

[Hannah Bell]

the aim of large foundations. "Herding people," "managing people," "controlling people" - while assuring profits - is more apt.

How they support policy?

For starters, Gates is making huge investments in biotech, planting & supporting research establishments in various countries, funding plantings of GMO crops, training personnel, creating infrastructure & distribution networks & future patents, using land, etc.

Supposedly to "improve crop yields" etc. in poor peasant economies - as if "crop yields" are the main reason some folks are starving or malnourished.

Bullshit.

During the historic Irish & Indian famines, thousands of tons of food was being shipped out of countries while people starved.

It's no different today, e.g. per UN & FAO figures, 548,000 tons of international food aid was shipped to Sudan in in 2007 - but Sudan itself produced & exported 534,000 tons of food - & in the midst of war/conflict, to boot.

Study this, & similar historic/geographic cases, & you start realizing something is rotten in the "charity" biz.

Gates is also funding initiatives that monetize formerly peasant economies & upset the power balances/authority structures within them. The highly hyped "microlending" initiatives for one.


Locally, e.g. Gates Foundation pays 1/3 of the salary of the President of the Discovery Institute - a think tank whose main agenda is promotion of "intelligent design" & its teaching in the schools. Gates also committed to funding of 10 million for the institute. Ostensibly for research on regional transportation initiatives.

Riddle me this: why would "liberal" (ha) Gates fund a right-wing think tank to study regional transportation in the Pacific NW? Are there no non-political groups working on the same issue? (answer = yes). Are there no liberal think-tanks in the area? (answer = yes). Are there no existing studies, etc. (Answer = yes).


Most people who praise philanthropists have never looked too deeply into their actual practices. Philanthropy has a long history of use as a policy arm, & nothing has changed.

Gates, Soros, Buffett et al are not "the good guys". There are no good guys.