Mood: irritated
Topic: big media
A strange combination of two articles appeared on the Sunday and Monday Fairfax press. The earlier one is offline by the look of the index archive and features a nice large image of charming, long distance running Melinda. Bill’s better half indeed. It’s a highly complimentary one page feature in the Sydney SunHerald 7th January 2007 at p71 after the lifestyle and glossy liftouts, with the curious non title in large font:
She has been dubbed the most powerful woman you know nothing about
But then next day we see this crash tackle in the much lower Monday circulation below, a very rude article undermining all that good PR they are getting about philanthropy of unprecedented level. What indeed is going on? Are we seeing a differential of circulation tactic to spin the impact of the second damaging story?
The Monday January 8th 2007 shocker in Fairfax Sydney Morning Herald is here
(and refer here for more horror info on the situation of Shell in Nigeria which is in the story: Shell Hell) sourced to the Los Angeles Times:
The Gates cash that keeps people healthy but makes them sick
Charles Piller in San Francisco and Edmund Sanders in Nigeria
January 8, 2007
JUSTICE ETA, 14 months old, held out his tiny thumb. An ink spot certified that he had been immunised against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive in Ebocha, Nigeria, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
But polio is not the only threat Justice faces; he has suffered from respiratory ailments since birth. Many people blame this on the flames and smoke that rise 100 metres over a nearby oil plant. The plant is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The makeshift clinic where Justice Eta was vaccinated and the flares spewing over Ebocha represent a head-on conflict for the Gates Foundation. In a contradiction between its grants and its endowment holdings, the foundation reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works.
Elekwachi Okey, a local doctor, says hundreds of flares at oil plants in the Niger Delta have caused an epidemic of bronchitis in adults, and asthma and blurred vision in children. Many of the 250 toxic chemicals in the fumes and soot have long been linked to respiratory disease and cancer. "We're all smokers here," Dr Okey said, "but not with cigarettes."
The Gates Foundation has poured $US218 million ($280 million) into polio and measles immunisation and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At the same time it has invested $US423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Total of France - the companies responsible for blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the US or Europe.
Local leaders blame oil development for fostering some of the very afflictions the foundation combats. Oil bore holes fill with stagnant water, a breeding ground for mosquitoes that spread malaria. Health inspectors also cite an oil spill clogging rivers as a cause of cholera. The gas flares contain toxic byproducts such as benzene, mercury and chromium and lower immunity, said the area's health commissioner, Dr Nonyenim Solomon Enyidah.
Like most philanthropies, the Gates Foundation gives away at least 5 per cent of its worth every year, thus avoiding paying most taxes. In 2005 it distributed nearly $US1.4 billion.
A policy officer at the foundation, Monica Harrington, said the investment managers had one goal: returns "that will allow for the continued funding of foundation programs and grant making".
An investigation has found that the foundation has holdings in many firms that have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses, employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights, or unethical practices. The foundation has big holdings in several companies ranked among the worst US polluters, including ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical and Tyco.
The investments also include pharmaceutical firms that price drugs beyond the reach of AIDS patients the foundation is trying to treat. Hundreds of Gates Foundation investments have been in companies that countered the foundation's charitable goals.
This is "the dirty secret" of many large philanthropies, said Paul Hawken, director of the Natural Capital Institute. "Foundations donate to groups trying to heal the future, but with their investments they steal from the future." Worse, said Douglas Bauer, of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, was investing for profit without attempting to improve a company's way of operating.
By contrast, foundations that make social justice, corporate governance and environmental stewardship key considerations in their investment strategies include the $US11.6 billion Ford Foundation, America's second-largest private philanthropy.
The Gates foundation did not respond to written questions about whether it might change its investment policies.
Los Angeles Times