Die zwei Gesichter der Gates-Stiftung

--- Die LA Times hat sich die Geschäfts- und Investitionspolitik der Gates-Stiftung mal genauer angeschaut, wonach die Philantrophie von Bill Gates und seiner Gattin anscheinend teilweise nach hinten losgeht bzw. die Investments ihre guten Taten konterkarieren:

Justice Eta, 14 months old, held out his tiny thumb. An ink spot certified that he had been immunized against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it "the cough." People blame fumes and soot spewing from flames that tower 300 feet into the air over a nearby oil plant. It is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Justice squirmed in his mother's arms. His face was beaded with sweat caused either by illness or by heat from the flames that illuminate Ebocha day and night. Ebocha means "city of lights." The makeshift clinic at a church 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, a Times investigation has found, the foundation reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works. ... The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At the same time that the foundation is funding inoculations to protect health, The Times found, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France — the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe. Indeed, local leaders blame oil development for fostering some of the very afflictions that the foundation combats. Oil workers, for example, and soldiers protecting them are a magnet for prostitution, contributing to a surge in HIV and teenage pregnancy, both targets in the Gates Foundation's efforts to ease the ills of society, especially among the poor. Oil bore holes fill with stagnant water, which is ideal for mosquitoes that spread malaria, one of the diseases the foundation is fighting.

Interessant auch, dass die Auflistung der Times über die Geldanlagen auch "die Bundesregierung" ("German government") enthält (Anlagesumme: Between $1 billion and $1.5 billion). Sind damit Bundesschatzbriefe gemeint oder was?

Und sonst: Jawoll, Frau Bundeskanzlerin: Die Rede von Bush beim Pressegespräch während des letzten Besuchs von Merkel in Washington (gleich nach dem Antritt der EU-Ratspräsidentschaft und der G8-Führung) ist lesenswert wegen all der schönen rhetorischen Darbietungen à la: Wir sprachen über Afghanistan, und, Frau Bundeskanzlerin, ich bin sehr dankbar für Ihre Unterstützung der Menschen in Afghanistan. Sie nehmen Ihre Verpflichtungen in der NATO ernst. Wir sind stolz darauf, an der Seite eines so starken Verbündeten dienen zu dürfen.

Auch das noch aus der Sunday Times: Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran. Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources. The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb. Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout. Update: Mehr zum Thema in Telepolis: Psychologische Kriegsführung. Die Aufregung um vermeintliche Angriffspläne Israels auf Iran ist gewollt.