Bonum Certa Men Certa

More Dubious Practices from the Gates Foundation

Little apple



Summary: Agricultural (GM), pharmaceutical and educational interests unspun, backed by some of the latest news

FOR those who are not familiar with the darker side of the Gates Foundation, background information is required. A lot of the press is owned by the same people who use it to glorify their deeds while omitting what deep down they know to be their real interests.



Recently there has been a lot of coverage about Bill Gates; it's a lot to do with his patent games in Africa [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] (euphemism "green revolution", as we found out a week ago), not just his tax-exempt Gates Foundation.

The Monsanto affair grows stronger as more and more money is getting pumped into its patent-based business. In the following new article we have found the term "green revolution" again (a revolution whereby impoverished populations become dependent on US patents) and Gates is said to be investing a billion dollar in this. It's not a charity, it's an investment, a business activity.

Worth more than $40 billion, Microsoft founder Bill Gates could buy the world a Big Mac. But he’s more interested in helping fund a new green revolution, and he’s telling the world it should be “greener than the first.”


It has nothing to do with green. Daringly enough, Gates denounces opposers of this "revolution", calling them "environmentalists". If this revolution is truly green, then how come "environmentalists" (as Bill Gates arrogantly calls them) oppose it so strongly? We gave some academic papers on this.

“Daringly enough, Gates denounces opposers of this "revolution", calling them "environmentalists".”Here is where it gets really infuriating. At the beginning of the year we showed that Bill and Melinda were using fabricated numbers and instructing governments to give taxpayers' money to companies Bill and Melinda were investing in. It is so obvious to see that it's almost shocking that the press refuses to point this out. Associated Press (AP) even spins this in favour of Bill and Melinda using the headline "Bill Gates urges more spending on global health."

What we're not supposed to know is that by "global health" Gates refers to the very same pharmaceutical giants whose patents he invests billions of dollars in [1, 2, 3]. Mainstream sources like AP are using sob stories to make it look so benign and even benevolent. Reuters does no better; it sometimes seems as though the Gates Foundation -- like Microsoft -- relies a lot on marketing and PR. The "permissible" press unquestionably passes personal spin without delving into the real issues. That's not investigative; it's a disgrace. Only one major newspaper appears to have done its homework.

Here is another news article about how "Gates Foundation cash wields influence."

The Gates Foundation is offering up to $250,000 apiece to states that want to apply for $5 billion in federal grants to help reform our nation's school systems.

[...]

The Associated Press story noted that there is a joke going around that says the real secretary of education is Bill Gates. To us, that's no joke.


Of course it's not a joke. It's an exaggeration, but in essence it is true that no-one perverts the education system more than Bill Gates. He even insults the intelligence of the US population in order to justify hiring people in other countries (or importing them), then paying them a lot less for a lot more. The Abramoff story is an eye-opening must-read because there are parallels.

Here is another new article which is rightly titled "School reform the Gates way". Yes, that's what they mean by "reform". It's a deform.

The Gates approach may be radical, but in Memphis and beyond the circumstances call for a non-traditional approach and as much innovation as the system can muster.


More intervention by Gates is being used to keep education captive. Education is what shapes tomorrow's generation and Microsoft wants its share of the curriculum. Goldman Sachs, which we've mentioned a lot as of late [1, 2], does the same thing at the moment (while stealing money from the public). It is a PR move that also returns greater political influence and defense from criminalisation. For Goldman Sachs, to throw $200 million into education and receive several $billions in bailout money is basically to deceive the public, which essentially funds Goldman Sachs through debt. Is Goldman Sachs throwing 1% of the money it stole from the public back into the public? Of what benefit is Goldman Sachs to society then? Other robber barons have used precisely the same tricks for centuries in order to keep the masses whom they robbed off their backs.

On the face of it, the basic trick of the Gates Foundation (tax-exempt, money-generating business and public influence vehicle disguised as a "charity") has an analogous new one in China, inspired directly by Gates. Check out this new article.

The assets to be transferred to the charity will mainly include stakes that Chen owns in publicly traded companies such as Tsingtao Beer, Yunnan Baiyao Group, and some stock from his own Newhuadu Industrial Group. These will altogether account for 45 percent of his total assets according to current market value, Chen said at a media briefing in Beijing yesterday.


Even beer is being invested in. Similarly, the Gates Foundation invests in alcohol, tobacco, and oil. That's a fact.

In our previous post about the Gates Foundation and Microsoft in education we also mentioned the role of the United Nations (UN) staff, with whom Bill Gates tightens the relationship. UN staff is now literally hanging out in Bill Gates' own mansion and the following new report reveals an important conflict of interests:

Microsoft’s Andrea Taylor Named University Trustee



[...]

Her parents attended BU. So did two uncles, her sister, and her former husband. Her mother’s papers are archived at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center. Now Andrea Taylor, director of North America Community Affairs for Microsoft Corporation and a delegate to four UN summits, is joining the University’s Board of Trustees.


Here we have another university that falls into Microsoft's hands. Microsoft is among the decision makers, just like in the Open University [1, 2] which admitted Martin Bean. More interestingly in this case, Andrea Taylor is also a delegate (for Microsoft) at quite a lot of UN summits. Is Microsoft engaging in politics and diplomacy quite so openly?

Lastly, also regarding education, 'American EDGI' (or "Elevate America", as Microsoft euphemistically calls it) has just come to Mississippi. We wrote about Mississippi yesterday because funny things happen there after the expensive settlement [1, 2]. Watch what Microsoft is doing there now:

Through Microsoft's program, Elevate America, 19,200 vouchers for computer training will be given to Mississippians, regardless of their employment status, over the next 90 days.


"Elevate America" is an anti-GNU/Linux and anti-Free software push. Is Microsoft trying to prevent vouchers that it pays for from being redeemed as non-Microsoft products? Is it trying to buy the hearts of men, women, and children? Why Mississippi anyway? And more importantly, why now?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Alyssa Rosenzweig's LibrePlanet Talk About Freeing the Apple GPU
Alyssa Rosenzweig is the graphics witch behind the reverse-engineered drivers for the Apple GPU. She previously led Panfrost, the free drivers for Arm Mali GPUs powering devices like the Pinebook Pro. She graduated in 2023 with a Computer Science degree from the University of Toronto and now writes free software full-time.
Links 30/06/2024: LLMs Under Fire and Dictatorship of the Old
Links for the day
[Meme] Walking Outside the Guardrails of the Walled Gardens Built by Monopolies
So-called "advertiser-unfriendly" material was never a problem for Wikileaks
This War Crime Footage, Nothing Political Per Se, Is What They Made Julian Assange Plead Guilty To (War Criminals Not Convicted, Only Those Who Expose Them)
Wikileaks' Julian Assange: Exposing the US Military Crimes
20 Years Passed, Let's Go Even Faster Now
We are hoping to bring more original stories
Windows Lost Almost 92% Market Share in Egypt
From over 99% to just over 7%
 
A Crisis of Online Journalism
Almost a week ago a journalist was forced to plead guilty for an act of journalism
Germany One of Many Countries Where Microsoft's Bing Lost Market Share After All That LLM Nonsense (Bing Chat and Further Rebrands/Renames)
openai.com traffic plunged 60% last month
Microsoft’s Latest Antitrust Scrutiny
4 new stories
Microsoft Layoffs, Mass Plagiarism, and More
outrage included
GNU/Linux Climbed 0.25% This Month (in statCounter)
Around midday on Tuesday we'll start seeing preliminary data for July
Ilya Gulko Introduces Pollyanna
"Pollyanna is a web framework that makes it easy to create your own libre social space, such as a social network or blog."
'FSFE': Underage Labour, GAFAM Fronting, and Identity Theft to Undermine the FSF's Current Fundraiser
looking to raise funds at the same time as the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 29, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, June 29, 2024
Links 29/06/2024: Astronauts at Risk, Ukraine Updates
Links for the day
Fedora and Red Hat Leftovers
mostly redhat.com
Microsoft is Now Googlebombing or Spamming 'Open Source' and 'Linux' to Promote Proprietary Surveillance, Azure
Notice the title and the image, what's being promoted etc.
Seychelles: GNU/Linux Doing OK
Seychelles cannot be considered poor
Gemini Protocol Isn't Even Remotely "Dead"
"Lupa knows of 505,000 (half a million!) working Gemini URLs at present, up from about 425,000 this time last year"
About 10 New Free Software Foundation (FSF) Members Per Day
The total changed from 46 to 47 while typing the article
Vista 11 Adoption Unusually Low in Germany and It's Going Down, Not Up
This is not happening only in Germany
Kevin Korte on Computers Being Allowed to Make Decisions Based on Cryptic Algorithms and Proprietary/Secret Data
It uses buzzwords where none are needed
[Meme] Garbage In, Garbage Out (linuxsecurity.com)
It is neither Linux nor security, just chatbot-generated slop
Microsoft-Invaded CISA Spreads Anti-Free Software FUD (as If Proprietary Software Has No Memory Safety Issues), Brittany Day Uses Chatbots to Amplify and Permutate the Microsoft FUD
linuxsecurity.com became an anti-Linux spam site
Microsoft Laying Off Staff in an Act of Retaliation and Union-Busting
retaliatory layoffs at Microsoft
Gemini Links 29/06/2024: Content Drowning in 'Goo' and LLM Slop
Links for the day
In Ecuador, GNU/Linux Adoption Surged From Under 1% to Over 4% in About 3 Years
Not even counting Chromebooks
LibrePlanet: Cultivating Backups (of Recordings)
an appeal to recover some of these talks
Microsoft/Windows Machines Are Turned Off (or Windows Deleted/Decommissioned) in Web Servers, as the "Market Share" Collapse Continues
Taking full history into account, this is a decrease of over 90% in some cases
Corwin Brust Hosting Freedom: A Behind-the-scenes Tour With the GNU Savannah Hackers
"the "smiling faces" behind it."
Android at 90% or More in Chad
Windows below 2%
David Wilson: Cultivating a Welcoming Free Software Community That Lasts
"a feeling of shared ownership for all users."
Julian Assange Might Continue Wikileaks, But Certainly Not Yet (Recovery Time Needed)
And probably at a symbolic capacity only
Bringing in 12 Santas and Taking 13 Out (Old Interview With Julian Assange)
Julian Assange's life inside the Ecuadorian embassy
Neil Plotnick on GNU/Linux in the High School Classroom
uploaded to the LibrePlanet instance of MediaGoblin
Asia Appears to be Fastest to Adopt GNU/Linux
the home of a considerable majority of the world's population
Alexandre Oliva's LibrePlanet 2024 Talk About "Software Enshittification"
in spite of technical difficulties encountered while recording
What They Used to Do With Mono They Now Do With Systemd (Lower and Deeper Down Than Userspace)
Now we have a project started primarily by Red Hat (and managed by Microsoft GitHub, which is proprietary) being managed by Microsoft and primarily serving Microsoft and IBM
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 28, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, June 28, 2024
Links 28/06/2024: Kangaroo Courts and Patents Spam, EFF Still Fighting for CPC's TikTok (a Digital Weapon)
Links for the day
Links 28/06/2024: Overton window and Polarization
Links for the day
[Meme] In 50 Years...
Microsoft's Vista 11 will take 50 years to be fully adopted
Only About 1 in 8 Russian Windows Users is Using Vista 11
it looks like over the past 12 months Vista 11 hardly grew and it remains very low at around 12% of Windows usage in Russia
Links 28/06/2024: More Attacks on the Press, More Censorship in Russia
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/06/2024: Christmas Prematurely, Self-hosting
Links for the day
IBM: So Long, Suckers. Your Free OS is Now Proprietary. Pay IBM or Else.
almost exactly a year after turning RHEL into proprietary software
Vista 11 is Doomed and Despite Lack of Adoption Microsoft Already Speaks of Vapourware ("12")
"Microsoft has pulled a Windows 11 update after users reported boot loops and startup failures."
ChromeOS Reaches Highest Share in Years at the World's Most Populous Nation, Windows Now at All-Time Low of 13%
We're talking about India today
[Video] "It Is Incredible That Julian Assange Survives"
There was a positive and mutual relationship between Wikileaks and Dr Jill Stein
Never Assume That Because the Law Exists the Powerful Will Follow the Law
Who's going to hold them accountable now?
Nearly a Month Has Passed and Nobody at the Debian Project Even Attempted to Explain What Seems Like Back-dooring of Debian (and Hundreds of Distros That Are Debian-Derived)
I can cynically guess that only matters when a user with a Chinese name does it
[Video] Julian Assange Explains Wikileaks' Logistics
predating indefinite detention
IBM Was Never the "Good Guy", Just a Self-Serving and Opportunistic Money- and Power-Hungry Monopolist, Living Off of Taxpayers' Money (Government Contracts)
The Nazi Party of Germany was its second-biggest client at one point and now it's looking to profit from the work of slaves
"I Hated Working at IBM. They Were the Most Unfriendly People."
Don't forget what Watson the son did to a poor woman on a plane
State of the News (and Depletion of Journalism Online, Not Just Offline)
Newspapers are not coming back and the Web is not coming back either
GNU/Linux Consolidates in North America
Android rising a lot this year, too
[Meme] More Monopolies Granted While Patent Examiners Die (Overworking for Less Compensation)
Work more; Get less
Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO) is Taking the New Pension Scheme (NPS) to an International Tribunal (ILOAT)
SUEPO wants more EPO staff to participate in collective action
Stella Assange and the Legal Team Speak to the Media a Day After WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Arrives in Australia
Published yesterday by a number of mainstream publishers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 27, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, June 27, 2024
RIP Daniel Bristot de Oliveira, Red Hat death
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock