Bonum Certa Men Certa

How the Gates Foundation is Sometimes Starving -- Not Feeding -- African People

Gates at Harper's Magazine



Summary: An analysis of banking interests in Africa, Gates' role in them, and their impact on the population

IN a later post about GMO we are going to address one aspect on this sensitive subject, but in this post we are going to explore the impact of Gates Foundation investments in Goldman Sachs (going back to this report from August 16th, as well as others, e.g. [1, 2, 3, 4]). Taken into consideration there ought to be a plethora of factors which we shall summarise at a later stage.



Gates' investment in Goldman Sachs is a subject we wrote about two weeks ago following literally thousands of links Techrights posted about Goldman Sachs over the years, e.g. about government influence. "Feeding the hungry" is the sort of sound bite everyone loves to hear and Gates sings it to the public many times. It's valuable PR, but what exactly happens on the surface? Today we won't be addressing the GMO agenda; however, we will be addressing the role of financial interests in food. By giving money to Goldman Sachs, for example, the Gates Foundation is actually feeding the bankers who starve the hungry. These are investments that achieve the very opposite of what's publicly stated, as we last discussed in the previous post (conflicts abound).

For a little bit of background (we put about a dozen links about it all in all), read articles like "The great hunger lottery - How banking speculation causes food crises" (it's not just Goldman Sachs, but it's probably the largest culprit). Warren Buffett too is investing in this whole thing. From several days ago in the news:

Buying Goldman stock will put you in good company



[...]

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropic foundation, bought 500,000 shares in Q2.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway famously bought $5-billion in Goldman preferred shares at the bottom of the 2008 financial meltdown, and acquired warrants for another $5-billion. Charlie Munger, Berkshire’s vice-chairman, commented that “we felt their merits outweighed their defects.”


It was just some days ago that we found out about the deadly effect of price hikes in Mozambique's food:

The UN has called an urgent meeting on rising global food prices in an attempt to head off a repeat of the 2008 crisis that sparked riots around the world.

Seven people, including two children, were killed in Mozambique this week during three days of protests triggered by a rise in the cost of bread. There has also been anger over increasing prices in Egypt, Serbia and Pakistan, where floods destroyed a fifth of the country's crops.


Read the article titled "Goldman Sachs makes $1 billion profit on food price speculation" and then take into account other banking connections, the World Bank for example. To suggest that solutions for third-world countries will come from banks is to assume that debt can resolve/substitute hunger and that putting people under the control of international banks is truly in their interest. Banks don't produce food and often they create long-term liabilities.

We previously wrote about the Grameen Foundation [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], which has roots in Microsoft and works with the Gates Foundation to put Western banking systems into places that are under-developed. Here is the Gates Foundation getting involved again, pushing US-based micro-payment technology that can only increase such dependence (see what was done in Haiti for example):

The Grameen Technology Center, formed nine years ago by a former executive at Microsoft, has deployed applications in Uganda that send text-message reminders for neo-natal patients in Ghana to take medication and tests. Through a partnership with Google and the local telecom service provider, Grameen is able to collect data through smart phones on how farmers are dealing with crop disease and then serve up instructions from the cell phones on how farmers can keep their crops from getting infected.


They are essentially enabling some businesses in the West. Maybe it's good, maybe that's bad, maybe it's a bit of both. It's up for the local population to make informed choices rather than foreigners deciding for these nations what's good for them.

China finds it rather offensive on the face of it. The financial press in the West shows how the world's wealthiest are suddenly relabeled "do-gooders" (following the money and using PR in the Financial Times), but such expansionism is frowned upon by China. They won't let Buffett and Gates play a role as "world's parents" and to be fair, China too is increasingly taking control and colonising poor nations, including some in Africa. Feeding the hungry is not a priority, it's a convenient excuse for getting in while having some consent from the exploited, occupied population (use of the local press for propaganda is crucial here too).

We are at risk of going off topic here, but one of the most fascinating things in Africa is the use of patents against it by the developed world (maybe about 10% of the world's population, depending where the line gets drawn). This helps show how notions which are taken for granted in the West are actually extremely harmful to the large majority of the world's people. Europe and the US each account only for about 5% of the world's people and assuming democracy amongst all living humans, there is magnanimous, abject, unjust, powerful, and hostile relationship that needs to be accounted for. It's a moral issue.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The 'Other' Bruce... on Openwashing at OSI (and Not Bruce Perens, the OSI's Co-founder)
Openwashing people (connected to Microsoft) already do "open weights"
Gemini Links 10/11/2024: A Writer's Block, VIM Tips and Tricks
Links for the day
"Paperless Office" (Incompatible With the Law) as a Threat to Workers' Health at the EPO, Europe's Second-Largest Institution and Largest Patent Office
"Software Ergonomics need to be brought back to the agenda at a high level!"
 
Gemini Links 10/11/2024: Taking Jokes and Writing Dense Assembly
Links for the day
Links 10/11/2024: Meaning of Life and iPhone ‘Inactivity Reboot’
Links for the day
Links 10/11/2024: Microsoft Adds Surveillance to Notepad and Paint, TikTok Shutdown Order
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/11/2024: Scrawlspace and California
Links for the day
Links 10/11/2024: Politics, Economics, and Ticketmaster Issues
Links for the day
Linux Foundation: We've Shut Down the Mailing Lists and Fired Everyone at Linux.com So We Can Spend Money Buying Puff Pieces and Paying Clickfraud/Spammers
deeply rogue
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 09, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, November 09, 2024
[Meme] Linux Foundation Cuts
money is spent by the million on highly dubious things
Politics Becoming Way Too 'Toxic'
'Toxic' political discourse ought to be covered, but reducing the toxicity of coverage itself (e.g. inaccurately covering things to incite "the left" and "the right") is still challenging
Linux Foundation is Rebuilding the Berlin Wall (to Keep Russians Out of Linux)
So the Linux Foundation is basically acting a bit like oppressive Soviets
Linux Foundation is a Scam Like 'Crypto' (So is the Company of Jim Zemlin's Wife, Bakkt)
To us, the Linux Foundation is just a massive scam
Remembering and Respecting Fallen Ones by Avoiding or Stopping Wars (and Boycotting Companies That Want Wars)
The people who die tend to be the least privileged and connected
EPO is Blasting Its Own Foot (There Will be No EPO Left)
If the EPO carries on shooting its own foot, there will be nothing left of it
There's Always a Way to Improve
Self-improvement is a perpetual task
Joel Espy Klecker, unpaid, terminally ill youth labor & Debian knew it
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
List of Debian lies and deception
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 09/11/2024: More Mass Layoffs and Concerns About Musk Working Like Trump Aide
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/11/2024: Operating the Temple System and SeaweedFS
Links for the day
[Teaser] [Meme] Central Occupational Health, Safety and Ergonomics Committee (COHSEC) at European Patent Office (EPO)
These are not teenage gamers
Links 09/11/2024: Further Restrictions on Social Control Media, CASIO Cracked Again
Links for the day
Why Brown CIT Oughtn't Be Named After Thomas J. Watson (Like Many Faculties Ought Not be Named After Bill Gates)
In their own words
Reminder That Mass Layoffs Are Going on All Month This Month at IBM
The "silent" layoffs continue until the end of this month if not longer
[Meme] Just Blame Whoever Takes Advantage of Your Back Doors
The media will even sympathise with malicious and/or incompetent companies if they blame "Russia"
This Remembrance Sunday We Must Also Remember That Some 'Security Companies' Want More Cyberwar
Some companies profit from the cyberwar; hence, their objective is not to end the war
Non-Tech Enshittification: Post Office Perils and the Czech is in the Mail
We still hope that the parcel will be recovered (maybe at customs) or will be sent back some day
[Meme] Don't Try This at Home (But a Datacentre Might be OK)
Quit outsourcing to Social Control Media
There's No Free Lunch in Video Hosting
they say there's no free lunch; if you aren't paying for hosting and serving of "your" videos, you're not the customer and those videos, once uploaded, aren't quite yours anymore
Parroting Microsoft Talking Points About Computer Security
This past summer Richard M. Stallman (RMS) openly complained in a public event that the term "security" had come to mean all sorts of ridiculous things, including the very oppose of real security
Visits to OpenAI's Site Plunged by More Than 67% in the Past Half a Year Alone
'autocorrect on steroids' is mostly worthless
Pocock Running for Office Again
Pocock dealt with all sorts of 'politics' in Free software and, unlike many politicians, he has a background in science and technology
[Meme] Turning the EPO Into a Speculation Bank, Monetising It by Breaking the Law, Playing Real Estate (and Mortgage) Financial Games
travesty
Real Estate and Workplace Problems at the European Patent Office, Which Grants Fake Patents Under the Guise of "Law"
Report on the 54th meeting of the Munich LOHSEC of 20 June 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 08, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, November 08, 2024
Links 09/11/2024: Politics, Climate, and Why Physical Cash is Crucial
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/11/2024: Minerals, Rants, and Maintaining Planetary Balance
Links for the day
Plagiarism by Bots: Guardian Digital, Inc (linuxsecurity.com) Still Creates Fake Articles About "Linux"
100% fake
[Teaser] [Meme] New Ways to Impoverish Patent Examiners (Entrusted to Block Unjust Monopolies or Monopoly Applications)
Coming tomorrow!
Apple Tax funds: railways, defective concrete blocks in Ireland's North and West
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Daniel Pocock, Nomination for Ireland, Dublin Bay South, General Election 2024
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 08/11/2024: TikTok Bans and Clownflare Issues/Perils
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/11/2024: RPS, O.D.I.N., and RSS in Yahoo News
Links for the day
Donald Trump as Censor in Chief Can Now Leverage Censorship Companies and Fake Protection Disguised as 'Security'
Centralised CAs were trouble all along
Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part VI
By Dr. Andy Farnell
A Death of a News Industry
A theme we explored thrice today
Deciphering Centralised CAs and Why Their Demise Should be a Goal
Encryption in transmission is good; but who controls the key exchange and certification/authentication/validation?
Links 08/11/2024: Strikes, Recessions, and Slowdowns
Links for the day
"Many Applications Labelled as "Cybersecurity" and Given a Veneer of Legitimacy Are Really "Weaponised" and Abusive Code"
New from Dr. Andy Farnell
[Teaster] [Meme] New Ways of Wrecking (NWoW)
The EPO
Gateway for News and Blogs
In the long run, this site and its sister site (less overlap between them now) should hopefully become a popular destination for people who look for information, not chaff
Going Even Faster
We hope the site will be faster soon
Psychopaths Who Reaffirm Our Work's Value
Psychopaths and sociopaths lack empathy, so they're willing to go very far and stoop as low as they deem necessary
[Meme] How Low Can You Go at the European Patent Office?
Not just in terms of patent quality
More Cuts/End to Benefits for EPO Workers (Europe's Working Conditions Incompatible With the European Patent Convention)
"The Office is now reviving it but plans to introduce new cuts on benefits"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 07, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, November 07, 2024
Security Advisory: Debian falls for social engineering hacks
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 08/11/2024: US Election, RetroChallenge 2024, and More
Links for the day