Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gates Foundation Uses Money to Increase Its Control

"Insisting on controlling the use of one's gift of money is another low form of philanthropy. Today's givers want to control others' lives.”

--Dr. Diane Ravitch



Summary: Critique of some investments from the Gates Foundation, including an acknowledgement of conflicts of interest

PEOPLE who were born greedy often stay that way and people who disregard the law have almost nothing to lose if they do that again. There are legal rules and ethical rules, although some obviously intersect. Corporations typically work hard to remove legislation which limits a corporation's freedom (the word "freedom" is routinely misused here to mean "deregulation"), whereas people look for stronger legislation that can protect them from corporations, which of course deserve no rights because they are not people with emotions or nerves. This business philosophy debate is one we'll return to later when we heavily cover patent news, but for the time being it ought to be emphasised that the Gates Foundation is not a person anymore; it has balance sheets, it does not pay tax, and it is run by a selected, authoritarian group of people (i.e. hierarchically structured) such that unethical people who have had trouble with the law (e.g. Tachi, Gates) call the shots and they are tied to the corporations they came from or invest in. It would be short-sighted to suggest that these people will stand on the roof of buildings and scatter money, metaphorically speaking. One must check where money goes and what for. There is usually a Return on Investment (RoI), which is possible because of diversification in the foundation -- that is -- a wide range of subjects are intruded, not with a diversity of research paths in them but only one monolithic path that suffocates the rest. People have complained that the Gates Foundation dampens their area of research once it enters; essentially, those who do not explore the same path as Gates et al. struggle to get funding. It grants Gates and any company he associates himself with a monopoly. It is no joking matter and the issue came up in some respectable newspapers which Gates had not bought like typically does.



Rather than ask involved/affected people what they think is right and then offer money to get it done, the Gates Foundation typically makes the decision internally and then funnels money into the obedient branches, in order to get the job done (e.g. feeding the Africans by making them dependent on Monsanto, which Gates Foundation makes profit from as an investor). In the case of schools, Gates is habitually accused of "bullying" schools for management to change/operate the way he wants them to, otherwise they will receive no funds (in some cases, doors revolve, e.g. new school management is installed by Gates). It's reverse blackmail and there are strings attached. As Diane Ravitch recently put it in the context of education, "[i]nsisting on recognition for philanthropy (cf. Mark Zuckerberg) is the lowest form of philanthropy. It is ego-driven." Gates Keepers notes that there are strings attached even when Gates throws a bone to the homeless, based on this report.

Tough luck, homeless people. Without matching funds you will not see the benefits of this Gates Foundation grant.


The article also notes: "For every $1 provided by the foundation, another $2.50 has to be raised from government and other sources."

More importantly: "For the first two years of the program, up to $1.3 million will be available from the Gates Foundation. The necessary $3.2 million in matching funds, though, have not been found."

Nice PR they got there. The Gates Foundation was also forced to withdraw its support of tobacco giants, yet here it is pitching tobacco prevention only by funding a so-called 'study' which does not address a problem that's exacerbated by Gates:

Several studies including one conducted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2007 revealed that the Philippines is No. 6 in the list of top countries having the biggest illegal trade of tobacco.


What is the point of this? As noted quite recently, Gates is said to be part of this problem also -- but not only -- because of Carlos Slim.

As one last item of interest, there is this bafflement:

Tina Rosenberg raves about kangaroo care and blogs twice about it. She is compelled to mention USAID and Gates Foundation funding for this south to north intervention. But the Gates Keepers get no hits when they search the Gates Foundation website using the term 'kangaroo'. Hm? Does the Gates Foundation fund kangaroo care or doesn't it?


It's probably this project and regarding USAID, we wrote about it many times in relation to Gates Foundation staff which moved there [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. This gives the foundation more diplomatic control, which it cashes out using politicians as we noted this morning.

Whether we continue to cover the Gates Foundation on a regular basis or not, we urge all readers to think sceptically and remember who funds journalists that specialise in this area, as well as other areas. Coverage in Techrights is driven by interest and concern, not anger, so those who imply that Gates Foundation critics must be hateful/jealous/insane are resorting to nothing but ad dominem attacks, which nullifies their argument/s immediately.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
 
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October