The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is not as pure as it seems.

[alfredo]

We've all known there were strings attached to his philanthropy. Now we see he is associated with some real bad players like Monsanto.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/the_gates_foundations_leverage.html


Donor nations were shocked last month, when UNICEF disclosed that it has been forced to pay artificially elevated prices for vaccines under an arrangement called the Advance Market Commitment, which was brokered by Gates Foundation-dominated GAVI alliance, to greatly increase drug company profits. Stakeholders also worry that industry reports of particular vaccine's effectiveness might be skewed by marketing goals. .

There is no doubt that vaccines save lives, but a 2009 analysis by the British medical journal Lancet flagged a number of concerns about the Foundation's pattern of expenditures, particularly questioning the propriety of making "charitable" contributions to the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC). Others have expanded on those concerns.

The 2010 Gates Foundation announcement of $1.5 billion for maternal health in developing countries over five years was welcomed, but it came heavily leveraged. Gates launched the Health in Africa Fund, through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to establish new mechanisms to invest world health funding and national health budgets in private-sector healthcare facilities in Africa. The Gates Foundation's funding category for Global Maternal Health includes research and development in the US of technology and treatments, and also advocacy in vulnerable African nations for government policies. Since Gates believes sustainable health systems must be privately profitable, he leverages his "maternal health" funding to effectively divert investment of available in-country funds, as well as NGO funding, into private ventures that he favors, instead of into national health plans.

The pursuit of profitability for the Foundation's corporate marketers warps the design and implementation of delivery programs. The Gates Foundation leverages its own contributions to dominate and focus external funds into its own intensive, vertically integrated programs.

[hedgehog]

1. "Since Gates believes sustainable health systems must be privately profitable,"

This kind of corporate money has been around since the Carnegie put his funds to building libraries. It can do a lot of good, but it places the direction of societal development at the hands and whims of a very few. How much money have non-profits spent in the US to convince people that global climate change is a natural process?

[alfredo]

6. His giving grew out of the PR nightmare of the anti trust case against MS in the late 90's.

The only thing that really saved his ass was the selection of bush in 2000. In negotiations over the penalties, MS got more than they asked for. It just happened that Gates had given $5,000 to John Ashcroft's failed Senate bid, so there was little chance Ashcroft was going to bite the hand that fed him. (I think the deal he made with Apple was tied to his anti trust case. A bankrupt Apple would make the government's case stronger.)

If your school or your government wanted aid from Gates, you had to dump all Macs, and all UNIX/Linux machines and run Windows machines and the long term contracts that were bundled with them. In the end, the gift ended up costing more than you received in aid. It seems from the report, he has expanded his list of companies (Monsanto for one) taking part in the scam.

[xtraxritical]

19. Why does he not put that much effort into his own country, USA?

[alfredo]

28. We might not be as easy to manipulate, or maybe we have a functioning court system.

[HiPointDem]

29. he's putting loads of money into the effort to destroy teachers' unions and privatize and computer-

ize education.

[alfredo]

31. What an ass.

[Honeycombe8]

46. I've seen interviews with the Gates and Buffet on this.

The Gates sat down and, as I recall, considered what they could do that would save lives on as large a scale as possible.

It's in other countries, rather than the U.S., where there are a lot of deaths from things that people in other countries don't die from, for which there are cures, and that the Gates believed they would be able to save lives. Like deaths from polio (there's a polio vaccine, and it's not that difficult to distribute it). They wanted the $ to go toward saving as many lives as possible. Death from childbirth was a Melinda Gates cause.

It not only had to have a solution or cure, but it would have to be possible for the Gates to get in there and implement the solution.

They did not go after illnesses or problems which were extremely difficult to solve, or where there is no "cure," seeking instead to focus on those situations where this is a cure/solution and the Gates Foundation could implement or distribute the cure/solution.

[HiPointDem]

52. yeah, right. that's why unicef and others pay *more* for vaccines, cause bill wants to help

everybody so much.

You see a picture of Gates personally putting a dose of polio vaccine into a child’s mouth, in one link, as though he had bought it with his billions. It turns out later that what he bought was the leverage to spend the money my own students raise each year for Unicef, and that he used his GAVI Alliance control to engineer a secret price gouging scheme, to overcharge Unicef and the other real charities who purchase the vaccines.

That’s a cold fact, not a “conspiracy theory”, and it’s a crime when drug companies collude to raise prices. The puzzle piece missing is, as you say, a motive for the Gates Foundation. His rationale is apparently that higher profits will incentivize big Pharma to invest in research, he explained in his Forbes interview.

http://dianeravitch.net/2012/07/05/more-puzzling-about-the-gates-foundation/


The first question:

Does GAVI strike the hardest bargain with drug companies, getting the needed vaccines at the lowest cost? Put another way, is the organization too willing to accept what the drug companies want?

The Wall Street Journal today cites a number of organizations who think GAVI has not done enough to reduce prices, is too “cozy” with drug companies and want to see pharmaceutical industry representatives removed from the governing board. Nina Schwalbe, a GAVI official, responded that the alliance has done the best it could to get the industry to reduce vaccine prices and that they need to collaborate with the drug industry...

Some would argue that the GAVI Alliance is one of the best marketing machines ever devised by industry and partners, stimulating demand and shaping pricing mechanisms…. Challenging the industry publicly or privately seems off limits for discussion, adding to the ‘smoke and mirrors’ perceived relationship that GAVI has with pharma...

http://humanosphere.kplu.org/2011/06/is-the-gates-foundations-plan-for-global-vaccinations-too-friendly-to-the-drug-industry/


USA (AP) -- UNICEF is for the first time publicizing what drugmakers charge it for vaccines, as the world's biggest buyer of lifesaving immunizations aims to spark price competition in the face of rising costs.

On Friday, UNICEF posted on its website the actual prices that it has paid individual drugmakers for 16 vaccines purchased over the last decade. It's a move that a few Western pharmaceutical companies don't support. Novartis AG and Merck & Co., which only sells one of its many children's vaccines to UNICEF, both declined to have their prices published.

UNICEF said it will continue to disclose pricing of future vaccine deals, with the hope that the transparency will push drugmakers to cut prices and thus allow the organization to vaccinate more children and save more lives.

Its price list shows significant disparity, with Western drugmakers often charging UNICEF double what companies in India and Indonesia do. Just as striking is the steady rise in prices in the last decade, with the cost of vaccines against measles, polio and tetanus roughly doubling between 2001 and 2010. Prices of a few vaccines have remained flat or declined as additional competitors entered the market.

http://www.mb.com.ph/node/320365/unicef-di

[Honeycombe8]

53. They've spent their $ saving lives. Period. No getting around that. That's a wonderful thing.

No negative campaign against a good cause will work. Mega wealthy people spending their money saving lives. Unlike most mega wealthy people. And a group of educators are going to launch a campaign against that, and think it'll work?

Makes me wonder about the intelligence of those educators. Maybe there IS something to all the criticism against educators, after all. I'll have to rethink my support for teachers and educators.

[HiPointDem]

54. no, they've spent *your* money. bill gates doesn't spend his money on doing good, he spends

it on amassing power for his business interests.

and if your support for educators is taken away because of a discussion in a chat room, i guess you weren't that supportive in the first place.

[handmade34]

2. excellent

big money should not be in private hands

"government's role is to even out excesses"

[AndyTiedye]

20. He Does. Mostly Into Charter Schools

[knitter4democracy]

3. Shocked. Shocked, I am.

I'm a teacher, and trust me, Bill and Melinda Gates are anything but pure philanthropists. They're doing their dead-level best to destroy public education through "helping it" and get rid of teachers.

[Raster]

4. This literally comes as no surprise. Bill Gates is an UBER-control freak, in everything and....

....everyone he does. Gates believes he is smarter than everyone else, and if you want access to the Gates' largess, you'd better believe it too.

Not a shocker. The only shocker is the apparent naivete of those that thought money from The Gates Foundation came entirely altruistically and without "conditions."

[progressivebydesign]

5. Never been a fan of Gates at Microsoft or now in his effort to push the worker visa in America.

He spends a lot of time and money trying to get more technical visas for people to work at companies like Microsoft, even now.. after he's "retired" from there. They bring those guys over from India, because they KNOW that they will have no life and will work like dogs because they have no family here and usually just rent rooms or a small apartment. If Gates and his cohorts spent the same amount of money as they do lobbying, they could create a training campus that could retool some of the unemployed American techs to work at their companies. Instead, they lay off American workers and import workers on these visas.. claiming that America has no good tech workers... And under his management, MS laid off thousands of customer service people, sending those jobs overseas, too. I don't care if he donates billions to malaria.. he's been no friend to the Country where he made his first billion.

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. Apple does not advertise on Fox news nor support Monsanto

As an old compter guy..... Bill gates would have shut down the revolution that happened if he had had his way.

Fuck HIm,
He never did acid and is worse than JP getty.

[HiPointDem]

25. apple supports education deform & the bono scam 'project red' which is tied into the gates post-

colonial africa project (GM agriculture, marketization).

apple is no paragon. The computer industry is a bloc, not a competitive group.

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. The more one digs... the scarier Gates and Co. loom.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1124447


hhhhhrrrrrrr.....rr....r......."rrr-ose b-b-bud".

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. Rarely does too much money NOT lead to less than honorable dabblings. so, not surprised.

[redqueen]

10. Arundhati Roy has written at length about the way pholanthropic organizations

are used to further the goals of the capitalist predator class first and foremost, with the 'good works' being more a cover than a driving force.

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. I totally dislike him and his crap on his penitence for his wealth

Its a scam..... education, monsanto..... he's fucking evil.

[redqueen]

14. Yes, he is fucking evil.

No two ways about it.

[drokhole]

51. Yep, and he's arrogant enough to think he knows how to grow crops...

...better than indigenous people do in their own countries, in their own soils.

I don't remember if this documentary mentions Gates's style of "philanthropy," but it demonstrates how his method of farming (GMO, monoculture, petro-chemical, one-size-fits-all) is devastating and destroying native soils:

Dirt! The Movie


"'Kindly let me help you, or you'll drown,' said the monkey, putting the fish safely up a tree." - Alan Watts

[Reader Rabbit]

17. For example:

Gates Foundation vaccine scam

[alfredo]

32. Thanks for reminding me of "Sinfest."

[Egalitarian Thug]

11. I'm constantly amazed at people's constant amazement upon discovering that this a$$hole

is one of the worst of a very bad lot. Born rich, lie, cheat, & steal your way to super-rich, work every day for 30 years to crush innovation, and destroy an entire sector of middle-class families, create a global monopoly, and so on ad infinitum.

Well, welcome to the world that Gates wants.

[erpowers]

16. Please Explain

I am not trying to contradict you, I would just like some more information on how Bill Gates, for the last 30 years, has tried to "crush innovation".

[Egalitarian Thug]

21. Here's an easy start for you. Read up on Dr. DOS and Netscape. These are just two

quick examples of how he operated in the days when M$ had just become viable because of the government contracts his connections got pushed his way, and Netscape shows just how well friends in high places protect their own. He flat out stole a product and market worth $2B and payed a $70M "fine".

As with every giant corporation today, it is connections to government contracts that created and sustains them.

[Logical]

35. OK, what is your version of the Dr. DOS story? I will be waiting.

[Egalitarian Thug]

37. "My version"? Go away microserf. n/t

[Logical]

38. LOL, in other words, you have no clue about the DOS or Dr. DOS story. Classic BS! n-t

[Egalitarian Thug]

42. In other words I've heard everything you have to say since they first wrote it for you in the 80's.

It's BS and anybody that committed the crimes he did without the benefit of ruling class status would just be getting out of jail about now.

[Logical]

34. LOL....jealous much. Yes, spending billions to stop Malaria is horrible. n-t

[Egalitarian Thug]

39. And Kim Jong Il had excellent taste in wine. Is there a point to your reply? n/t

[Logical]

41. Yes, my point is Gates has done a lot of good for many people. Unlike most billionaires.

[Egalitarian Thug]

43. He may in fact not be the worst billionaire on earth, I can think of others off the top of my head,

but that doesn't make him any less a criminal.

[Daemonaquila]

12. It never seemed pure to anyone with any sense.

"Not as pure as it seems?" Really? Was anyone ever so foolish as to believe that Bill Gates would be running a charity with any less unethical behavior than he had when running Microsoft?

[alfredo]

30. The low information citizen doesn't always look behind the curtain.

[Honeycombe8]

48. No one is pure. I don't recall anyone saying the Gates are pure. But his foundation is saving lives.

No matter how you cut it, that means a lot, esp. to the people whose lives he has saved and will save.

He didn't have to donate his fortune to philanthropy. He could've done what most mega wealthy people do, which is to leave it to their heirs after carefully sheltering it from taxes. He could've put it in offshore accounts.

So even though he's not pure, the villifying of a philanthropist because some say he does it in a way that benefits himself, well, so what? The end result is still that he is in fact spending the money how he says he is, and it is saving lives and making REALLY poor people's lives more endurable and healthier.

From simple things like clean water, vaccines, midwives for childbirth. These are very good things in and of themselves. Whoever does those things is no devil, no matter how some might want to make it seem.

I suspect this is a campaign started by educators who are unhappy with his education reform? I noticed the link in the OP. (BTW, I totally support teachers and teachers unions, so I'm not a charter school lover or teacher hater.)

[Egalitarian Thug]

22. Haven't you noticed the trend? Larry Elison, the M$Apple gang of 5, Bezos, Cuban, Zuckerberg, Son,

and on and on and on...

[Egalitarian Thug]

24. I think the main focus here is on M$. But they are all interchangeable. n/t

[HiPointDem]

26. steve jobs *was* an asshole, & apple's philanthropy supports the same type of thing gates' does.

they both use foxxconn & they're both assholes.

[Guitarzan]

18. Gee, what ARE the odds...

that capitalists' scrrrrratch them backs!

[HiPointDem]

27. hopefully people are losing the blinders about things labeled 'philanthropy'. a long time coming.

[Brickbat]

33. The Gates Foundation seems pure?

[Logical]

36. No doubt Gates has saved millions of people with his Malaria efforts. Jesus, are people clueless!

[Honeycombe8]

49. This is a concerted campaign to drag the Gates Foundation through the mud, I think.

I'm not sure, but that's what it looks like. Since the posts are all negative and not balanced at all....not even one positive comment in those posts. That's usu. an indication that it's a negative campaign thing, and not the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

[randome]

40. Is ANYTHING as pure as it seems?

Gates & Co. have done some good, they've done some bad. Kind of like everyone, wouldn't you say?

[DCKit]

44. My S. O. works for the WHO. He and all the people he works with will be horrified....

When they see this tomorrow.

Yeah, Boil and malingering get a pass. Every time they pull this shit it hurts my BF. It's personal.

[randome]

47. Well, you sound like you're privy to more details than me.

So I'll keep an open mind.

[Pizz]

45. Fraud!

Last edited Mon Jul 9, 2012, 07:33 AM - Edit history (2)

This guy is either sneaky or just plain dumb!
Did he not think that his tactics wouldn't be figured out or did he just
not care.
With me it all started with his play on public schools.
Give me a couple of million dollars to play with and believe me within
a year I'll take a failing school and turn it completely around without fucking
firing one teacher.
This guy might be great with numbers but he stinks as a human being!

[Godhumor]

50. Not a good article...poorly researched and dubious conclusions

Start with the "donor nations shocked to learn..." The author claims the disclosure was last month, but it actually happened in May of 2011. So no shock last month. Advanced Market has also been in use world-wide not just with UNICEF through Gavi. The way it works its simple, drug makers get a subsidy Foote agreeing to continue to provide ultra low cost vaccines to qualified countries. There was no shock, as this is a known and stated outcome. And, again, the author creates outrage where none existed without bothering to make sure she could get the dates, hell, the year right.

Other conclusions are a stretch to say the least. Young activists walk out of Rio+20 and stage a silly counter gathering? Abner has booked over at Bill Gates somehow!

Articles on Malaria vaccine effectiveness that Gates helped fund from 2009? Throw it in there! No reason to actually Deedee what conclusions have been reached in the three years since then (Here is a hint, it looks like it cuts infections and could be ready for widespread use as early as 2013.).

Poorly written and researched drivel. Can't believe we're going to have to endure a part two.