For many years, Bill Gates, the ex-boss of Microsoft, has been counted among the greatest fortunes on the planet. A comfortable position that the billionaire accompanies with regular donations and a commitment to humanitarian causes.
This week, on Twitter, Bill Gates took a step further in his desire to improve the world and announced that he had made a radical decision: to bequeath his fortune. Yes, but to her Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, created in 2000, “a non-profit organization fighting poverty, disease and inequality in the world” according to its website.
He said he would increase the annual budget by $9 billion. To which will be added 20 billion in one fell swoop. He explains on Twitter: “Going forward, I plan to donate almost all of my wealth to the foundation. I will descend and eventually disappear from the list of the richest people in the world. I have an obligation to return my resources to the society in a way that will have the greatest possible impact in reducing suffering and improving lives. And I hope that others in positions of great wealth and privilege will also engage in this moment.”, he wrote. Would Bill Gates no longer feel in his place on the prestigious list?
Critics of foundations
Remember that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is however the subject of many criticisms. Datamoutha program of the French public channel, recalls for example that the money of the organization “is not directly distributed to good works“. “The foundation devotes only 5% of its assets to donations, the legal minimum to benefit from the tax exemption. While the 95% is invested. A trust (note: a legal structure, which serves as an investment fund in this case) attached to the foundation is responsible for placing them in fossil fuels, with Total and BP, in GMOs with Monsanto and Bayer, or even in the arms industry. A foundation that feeds the scourges against which it claims to fight. Charity doesn’t give a damn about the hospital“, says the report.
In his book The art of false generosity. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundationthe journalist Lionel Astruc points out in particular the conflicts of interest linked to the organization. According to the former reporter of L’Express and of Release, the foundation helps companies conquer markets under the guise of philanthropy. “Often, it is found that the companies that are in the investments of the trust of the foundation […] are also among the beneficiaries of the donations. So there is a real problem there. That is to say that we give money to a company that will bring you money. […] In particular Coca-Cola, which in 2014 had 138 million euros in investments from the trust, and which also benefited from programs intended to train 50,000 farmers to grow passion fruit in Kenya. (note: fruits intended for Coca-Cola). For Monsanto, it’s the even bigger conflict of interest. So much so that a former senior Monsanto official is part of the foundation’s team today. The foundation, in Africa, is the Trojan horse of GMOs and Monsanto“, explains Lionel Astruc in an interview (see below).
For its part, the scientific journal The Lancet performed an analysis of the 1,094 global health grants awarded between 1998 and 2007 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The survey reveals in particular that a large part of the donations in the field of health are granted to American organizations or supranational organizations. A situation that prevents assisted countries and regions from developing their infrastructures and research tools. The analysis also indicates that the foundation prefers to support programs that will enable the development of markets exploitable by companies rather than empowering populations in difficulty. “Whenever there are two solutions, namely a natural remedy made locally by local populations, and a vaccine that will be resold by a large laboratory from outside a rich country, the Gates foundation chooses the diseases that require the opening of markets, the creation of vaccines“, denounces Lionel Astruc.