The Gates Foundation and the rise of “free market” philanthropy

According to a report published January 7 in the Los Angeles Times, the Gates foundation invests its assets in companies whose operations induce some of the health problems it seeks to combat. The report notes that 41 percent of the foundation’s holdings are invested in corporations whose policies “countered its charitable goals.” It also claims that the foundation has holdings in over 60 of the highest-polluting companies in the US.

In one example mentioned in the report, a recent medical study found that half of the children attending a high school in Merebank, South Africa suffer from asthma and other respiratory disorders. The study attributed its findings to high concentrations of sulfur dioxide and other pollutants spewed out by nearby mills and refineries operated by BP and Anglo American.

Dr. Nonyenim Solomon Enyidah, a local health commissioner, told the newspaper that the immense amounts of pollution generated by these plants weaken local residents’ immune systems and leave them vulnerable to polio and measles. Yet the Gates Foundation, which is ostensibly in the business of combating these diseases, continues to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the companies that help to create them.

The Gates foundation is set up as essentially two independent organizations—an asset trust and a charity. The foundation’s investments—such as those made in BP and Anglo American—are made with only one concern, profitability. By mandate, its investment decisions are completely isolated from its charitable activities.

The foundation spends about 5 percent of its endowment each year, an amount that essentially represents the return on its investments. This profit—and the vast accumulation of personal wealth that forms the backbone of its endowment—is made possible by the continued exploitation of workers and poor people worldwide. What the foundation gives with one hand, it takes with the other.

More
http://wsws.org/articles/2007/jan2007/gate-j22.shtml