Politics and charity joined by the hip

What you are about to read is factual. It might be new to you, but it's factual and you are encouraged to follow the references if you have doubts or if you come across something that you find difficult to believe.

Greece Gets Shackled

In the past week alone, Windows deals in Dubai, in Paris and even in Greece were announced not quite by Microsoft, but by Bill Gates, who had met politicians. We seem to recall press releases suggesting so -- giving Gates all the credit. This was a not technical decision as much as a political one. Here is the latest news from Greece, which we have not covered yet (follow the links to find the rest).

The agreement, signed by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Greece's finance minister calls for the creation of centers to provide IT and business development skills.

[...]

Total government and private sector IT spending is about 2 billion euros and is seen growing about 7 percent annually through to 2011, according to IT research group IDC.

As usual, IDC is there too. For those who do not know, IDC is somewhat of a Microsoft 'mouthpiece', allegedly backed by Bill Gates and then weaved into many of the accompanying press releases and various Microsoft-commissioned studies [1, 2, 3]. Be sure to make yourself familiar with "evangelism is war", which is a very damning leak from Microsoft. It should arguably be seen as damaging as the Halloween Documents that have been out there (leaked) for longer.

“If you live in Greece, you are strongly encouraged to investigate this more properly than we have.”About Greece, we have already shown how the government there is apparently manipulated by Bill Gates and Microsoft [1, 2, 3]. It seems to happily welcome Gates' exclusionary procurement deals. If you live in Greece, you are strongly encouraged to investigate this more properly than we have.

Spreading the Word

We have notified Steven Vaughan about this issue. Free Software Magazine does not fail to spot this worrisome trend, either. Just published:

Fight Microsoft's lobbying of the world's governments: call to free and open source millionaires

[...]

The current lobbying

Mr. Gates has continued his lobbying and travelling over the last years. In general, every time he goes somewhere, something happens. A government or a city is converted to Microsoft; an important GNU/Linux contract is cancelled (see how the Mandriva deal turned out in Nigeria). Officials start contradicting each other in what they tell the press. Things generally go pear-shaped.

The trouble now is that Mr.Gates seems to have decided that giving Windows software to second and third world countries will help them. I am sure he believes, truly believes, that he’s right. He wouldn’t want children to get started with a laptop from the OLPC project, because in his mind it’s surely impossible that the OLPC is indeed as good as Windows for those children. On the other hand, I very much doubt he has ever used a laptop from the OLPC project; and I very much doubt he would ever admit that the OLPC is better than a Windows XP machine.

In the above, a Mandriva deal is mentioned. Mind you, it was bribery.

Gates Bought Media Companies, So Here Comes the Spin

A Microsoft/MSN-affiliated publication, Motley Fool, views these dumping techniques [1, 2, 3] as though they are charity and even compares Gates to the mythical Robin Hood.

Bill Gates' Plan to Better the World

Move over, Robin Hood.

The above phenomenon is sometimes referred to as "hypnosis" [1, 2]. They try very hard to reshape Gates' public image. Remember Robber Barons? How about escaping law-enforcing arms using money?

Either way, as we watch hundreds of Microsoft articles per week, the bias seems clear. Bias? Blindness morelike. That's the glorification Bill Gates gets when he literally owns a lot of the press (Microsoft owns some too), including some of the largest media companies. New case of point:

On January 30^th 2008 you could find the press release "Msnbc.com No. 1 Source for Political News Online"

Msnbc.com No. 1 Source for Political News Online

[...]

Based in Redmond, WA, msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft (NasdaqGS:MSFT - News) and NBC Universal (NYSE:GE - News).

On the same day (press release also):

MSN to Sponsor and Webcast the Music Industry's Exclusive Grammy Event

SN will be the exclusive online broadcaster of the evening's historic musical performances. On Sunday, February 10, music fans can log on to music.msn.com for access to performances and interviews straight from the red carpet. On Monday, February 11, fans will also be able to access on demand performances from the star-studded event.

How Novell is Affected

At the moment, various other publications (not just Gates/Microsoft-owned) talk about the Novell deal from yesterday. They portray the situation as some sort of an expression of love that Microsoft has for Linux. Microsoft called Linux a "cancer". Using SLED/SLES, Microsoft now collects revenue from it. It wants to get closer to just to whisper in your ears that Linux violated many patents. It might then offer you Windows or a job at Microsoft. That's just what this 'love' is all about.

Foundation Shuffles, Apparently

The news comes from the Wall Street Journal, which has just signed an advertising deal with Microsoft (it had already been biased in Microsoft's and Intel's favour). It's hard to obtain enough details because a subscription is requires, but it seems like some notable changes are being made at the Gates Foundation at the moment.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation named former World Bank official Geoff Lamb managing director of public policy, a new position that highlights the philanthropy's growing need to work more closely with governments world-wide.

The words "World Bank official" should have you a little worried if you already know about Melinda Gates' affiliation with the Bilderberg group. Let us end with a quote.

"If it [the timing of the donation] had anything to do with the antitrust case, we would have told someone"

--Ms. Stonifer, Director of the William H. Gates Foundation

Reference: Responding to the question if the timing of Gates’ $3.3 billion gift... (more here)

Some of the Foundation's investments are particularly curious. Remember who owns the press and don't be misled what you are told to believe. ⬆