SOME OF the conflicting interests in the Gates Foundation are amusingly obvious, but it's not exactly amusing when lives are at stake. To give one recent example, Gates invests in tobacco and in tobacco prevention at the same time [1, 2]. Perhaps both sides can be profitable, but that's just speculation.
“Gates has been investing in BP for several years and he invests in other large oil companies, so it's not exactly an accident.”To give another more concrete and new example (new in the sense that it makes headlines right now), Bill Gates invests in BP [1, 2] while also investing in "green" energy. Which is it then? Can one invest in both sides? Like financiers who fund both sides in a war? Just because one invests in two conflicting sides does not make it any less profitable. The two sides do not necessarily cancel each other from an outsider's point of view. In fact, it can become twice as valuable.
Gates, venture capitalist Doerr issue warning about America's future
The ever expanding BP oil spill, in a sense, provides Bill Gates the perfect backdrop for selling Congress and the White House on a proposal to increase annual U.S. spending on clean energy research and development from $5 billion to $16 billion.
Microsoft's founder and chairman talks oil and clean energy on "This Week."
“We find it rather ironic that Gates currently gives instructions to the government; his past experience in the government is being grilled in a chair for abuses he committed.”According to other reports, Gates is traveling around the world lobbying. We'll start with the United States. Gates was lobbying the White House earlier this month. He is making many visits to the White House [1, 2, 3] as though he was actually elected in some way to run the country. What did he go to the White House for? Not to donate but to lobby the government to spend -- i.e. pay on behalf of taxpayers -- for something which Gates is trying to sell [1, 2]. We find it rather ironic that Gates currently gives instructions to the government; his past experience in the government is being grilled in a chair for abuses he committed. Years later they swap chairs as he rides a high horse.
According to Microsoft Nick, Microsoft's Brad Smith is also lobbying for Microsoft this month in Washington. It wasn't long ago that Smith worked to legalise and defend/justify Microsoft's tax evasion.
This lobbying-fest is not over yet. According to another new report, "Mr Ballmer goes to Washington for China pirate gripe" (they mean counterfeiting, not "piracy").
Big name bosses at 12 tech companies are meeting with US lawmakers and White House officials to complain about illegal software copying in China.
According to the Business Software Alliance lobby group, 79 per cent of China's computers ran on counterfeit software in 2009.
Convicted lobbyist Abramoff set to leave jail this week or next
And what timing: Documentary on scandal begins Friday
Three and a half years has passed since the incarceration of onetime Washington power-broker Jack Abramoff.
And as soon as this week, or next, Abramoff will he on his way out the doors of a federal prison and into a halfway house, where he will reside until he's formally released.
“Gates has gone lobbying in Nigeria where he invests in harmful oil operations that cause polio and kill/maim many Nigerian children...”Here you can see Bill Gates lobbying the Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan (who tells people to stop dropping his name). What have they got in common? Well, news reports say that it's about polio [1, 2], but once again, rather than speak about how Gates' investments cause polio (like his BP investments help destroy the environment), those two discuss the very opposite, pretending that Gates just cures polio. The "Nigerian leader lauds Bill Gates on polio," according to local reports. Is that the same Bill Gates who helps cause polio with his investments in Nigerian oil that leaks into rivers and pollutes the air because it's much cheaper to treat it this way and the Nigerian population is unable to properly sue companies like Shell? My Nigerian friends here in the UK have told me about this. It is an issue that a minority is aware of and those who campaign against this injustice are sometimes hired by the very same companies which they criticise (because it gags the critics, who receive money for their loyalty or silence). That's just corruption.
Despite the issues raised here, Gates' PR people seem to be pushing dishonest stuff (maybe ghostwritten because it's in English) into local newspapers. They are sometimes advertising Microsoft in the process (as though polio and Microsoft are connected). Just watch what Microsoft does to Nigerian schools [1, 2].
According to additional reports, Gates lobbies other high members of the Nigerian government, makes bold claims that neglect his contribution to polio, and then asks taxpayers to pay for the projects he has in mind. See this article from Reuters. It's the usual trick of getting taxpayers to pay the pharmaceutical companies which Gates invests it, with Gates acting as the key lobbyist for it:
Global polio fight to get needed funds -Bill Gate
[...]
The World Health Organization has suggested a budget of $2.6 billion for its polio eradication efforts in 2010-2012, but says it faces a shortfall of about half of funds for that period.
Behind the scenes at Women Deliver, whose speaking list included UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation, Margaret Chan of the World Health Organization, politicians, policy makers, celebrities and others from around the world, people said they were perplexed by Canada's policy on funding for maternal health.
Reports accuse WHO of exaggerating H1N1 threat, possible ties to drug makers"
European criticism of the World Health Organization's handling of the H1N1 pandemic intensified Friday with the release of two reports that accused the agency of exaggerating the threat posed by the virus and failing to disclose possible influence by the pharmaceutical industry on its recommendations for how countries should respond.
Gates signs soccer ball in Nigeria
Bill Gates, cochair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, added his support to the Kick Polio Out of Africa campaign this week, signing a soccer ball that is making its way through the continent before the 2010 World Cup.
Bill gets it right here when he says it is both good work and good luck leading to continued control. In the following story the author appears to have mixed up Bill's work and the work of the Gates Foundation. Does the Foundation encourage this confusion?
A quick Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) search revealed that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is connected to the Council on Foreign Relations and Melinda Gates is herself a Bilderberger.
World Bank health efforts failing in Africa: study
[...]
The survey funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said the international lender and its partners' approach "is not achieving intended outcomes," especially against diseases like tuberculosis.
An Argentine scientist’s project to develop vaccines taken orally will receive funding from the foundation headed by Bill Gates, the Argentine government said Saturday.