Beware the Heart of Darkness that May Beat Behind the Benevolence of Billionaires

It shouldn't come as any surprise that power increases moral hypocrisy,  nevertheless, that's what  Dutch researchers found who tested the aforementioned hypothesis.  They noted, “the powerful impose more normative restraints on other people, but believe that they themselves can act with less restraint.” In other words, we, the less powerful, cannot afford to trust the rich and powerful, therefore, it's incumbent upon us to educate and inform ourselves beyond the elite propaganda.

The billionaires were each given 15 minutes to present their favourite cause. Over dinner they discussed how they might settle on an “umbrella cause” that could harness their interests.

The issues debated included reforming the supervision of overseas aid spending to setting up rural schools and water systems in developing countries. Taking their cue from Gates they agreed that overpopulation was a priority.

Take god  tech-titan, Bill "Microsoft" Gates, who gathered some of the world's wealthiest and most powerful billionaires, in secret, to discuss curbing  global population, something he claims is the most important issue of our time. During his speech, "Innovating to Zero", he clearly states his agenda, “First we got population. The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.”

Considering Mr. Gate's history, that falls on the sociopathic end of the spectrum,  and his dedication and investment (the Gates Foundation is actually an investment firm which reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works) to vaccinating the entire planet, his words are a little disturbing to say the least.

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.

So first, we should ask ourselves: Is overpopulation the overarching problem that Bill Gates asserts?  



Next, we must explore beneath the surface of Mr. Gate's persuasive rhetoric, because, in general, the truth is seldom found on the surface, however, in Mr. Gate's case, you can be certain, no matter how sincere his posture, it is only a pretense disguising his real purpose:  covert coercion to his will.

The Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio, included 500,000 shares of Monsanto - The short list of Monsanto`s toxic products includes Agent Orange, PCBs, aspartame, rBGH, and Ready Roundup. - stock.   Monsanto recently purchased the services of Xe (Blackwater) Intelligence Services and it was within that same time frame that Bill Gates purchased 23 million dollars (US) of Monsanto stocks, marking a substantial increase from its previous holdings, valued at just over $360,000.

Neo-Eugenics masquerading as altruism?

According to Edwin Black in his book, War Against the Weak, the eugenics movement got its start at the turn of the last century.  "American corporate philanthropy combined with prestigious academic fraud to create the pseudoscience eugenics". The Rockefeller Foundation funded eugenics research in Germany through the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institutes in Berlin and Munich, including well into the Third Reich and it was John D. Rockefeller III, a life-long advocate of eugenics, who used his “tax free” foundation money to initiate the population reduction neo-Malthusian movement through his private Population Council in New York beginning in the 1950’s.

In William Engdahl's book, Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation, he reports that using vaccines to covertly reduce births in the Third World is not new.  Bill Gates’ good friend, David Rockefeller and his Rockefeller Foundation were involved as early as 1972 in a major project together with WHO and others to perfect another “new vaccine.”

GMO crops and patented seeds were developed in the 1970’s with significant financial support from the pro-eugenics Rockefeller Foundation, by what were essentially chemical companies—Monsanto Chemicals, DuPont and Dow Chemicals. All three were involved in the scandal of the highly toxic Agent Orange used in Vietnam, as well as Dioxin in the 1970’s, and lied to cover up the true damage to its own employees as well as to civilian and military populations exposed.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with David Rockefeller’s Rockefeller Foundation, the creators of the GMO biotechnology, are also financing a project called The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) headed by former UN chief, Kofi Annan. Accepting the role as AGRA head in June 2007 Annan expressed his “gratitude to the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation, and all others who support our African campaign.” The AGRA board is dominated by people from both the Gates’ and Rockefeller foundations.

The bottom line seems to be that the partnership between government, the major foundations and the agribusiness industry reaps far more reward than do the purported recipients of the billionaire's "benevolence".

Links:

US v. Microsoft Timeline

Microsoft v. US trial on Youtube

Docs Reveals Blackwater-Linked Companies Provided Intel & Security to Multinationals Like Monsanto, Chevron

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Modest Needs

Founded in 2002, Modest Needs is an award-winning charity that works to stop the cycle of poverty before it starts for low-income workers struggling to afford emergency expenses like those we've all encountered before: the unexpected auto repair, the unanticipated trip to the doctor, the unusually large winter heating bill.

At Modest Needs, we believe that EVERY person has the power to make a difference. So, by choice, the work we do at Modest Needs is funded exclusively by the 'small change' donations of people just like you.

The average gift of these extraordinary people? Between $5 and $100 at a time.

Since 2002, our donors' 'small change' has stopped the cycle of poverty for 3296 individuals and families who stood to lose everything over a short-term financial emergency. But with your support, we could reach even more of the hard-working people who need our help the most.

Discover your power to change a life. Please join your friends and neighbors in supporting Modest Needs.

Because Modest Needs has earned the highest possible charity rating from the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, you can give with confidence, knowing that we won't abuse your kindness.

But more importantly, simply by working together in this very modest way, we can make sure that no hard-working person is ever forced to choose between taking a child to the doctor and putting food on the table.

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Dead Children: The Consequences of Corporate and Wall Street Greed

Currently, food aid is now at its lowest in 20 years. Tens of millions of the world's poor will starve as rich nations cut or cancel food aid funding in the next few weeks.

Big business and the enormous influence of corporate lobbyists not only undermines democracy, its overwhelming authority often results in dead children (must read) around the globe.

Why? U.S. food aid policy lines the pockets of corporate America - the agricultural and the shipping industry - instead of feeding the starving populations they are supposed to serve.

Current policy requires that at least 75% of food aid has to be grown and packaged in the U.S., and then transported using U.S. vessels. Most countries donate cash as food aid as it offers greater flexibility and enables the recipient populations to get more for their money.

While it's no secret that our economic system is based on profit motive, even when it comes to basic necessities, it's unsettling, to say the least, that profit motivation is the driving force behind programs created to help starving people around the world.

"We prefer cash donations as they offer us greater flexibility -- with cash donations we can purchase locally, enjoy greater flexibility and also speed things up. We can get more for the money if we have cash. We can do the job faster as cash lets us buy the right food we need at the right time." - Richard Lee, a spokesman for the United Nation's World Food Programme.

In 2007, humanitarian and food advocacy organizations called on Congress to rewrite food aid policy. Even George W. Bush proposed that 25% of the food aid be cash, available to buy crops locally for the people who need it. Congress failed to act, fully embodying MLK's description of the kind of men our economic system, that - as he says, "permits necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few" - produces: "...small hearted men to become cold and conscienceless so that, like Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved by suffering, poverty-stricken humanity."

Sharp increases in global food prices and shipping costs, doubling over the last two years, the impact on food aid groups has been enormous.

"U.S. farm and shipping lobbyists have stifled efforts to simplify aid deliveries, leaving Africans to starve when they might have been saved." -- Andrew Natsios, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington who led USAID, the Agency for International Development, from 2001 to 2006.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reports the minimum for avoiding malnourishment is 1,800 calories per day. The food supply that finally arrived "was enough to supply about 1,300 calories a day for a month." To put it in perspective, the average American consumes more than 3,700.

Many fear a return to the conditions of 1984 and 1985, when famines in Ethiopia killed more than 1 million people. During that time, according to Haylar Ayako, the Ethiopian farmer, who recently lost seven grandchildren, “Some people survived eating the wastes of their cattle, some even the skins of their cattle.”

Well, at least, as a Christian country, we live up to Christian principles, such as taking from the poverty-stricken to provide for the greedy, wealthy evil-doers. That is what Jesus preached, right?

The World Food Programme feeds nearly 100 million people a year.

There is some hope: Plumpy'nut . A French scientist trying to fight malnutrition discovered the answer at his own breakfast table.

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When Charity Needs Charity.

The severity and speed of the current economic downturn has left many unable to sleep or eat, consumed with worry that they will be counted amongst the millions facing the possibility of the proverbial "breadline". In addition, the very nature of this "crisis" breeds cynicism, making people cling even more to what's left of their depleted finances.

So, it comes as no surprise that charities, at a time when their help is most needed, have been left incapacitated, either because they too have been victims of the selfishly or callously calculating members - as in the case of Bernie Madoff - of society, who perpetrated much of what is going on today, or lacking contributions, etc.

According to the IRS charitable organizations:

... are classified as either a public charity or a private foundation. Public charities are those that are churches, hospitals, qualified medical research organizations affiliated with hospitals, schools, colleges and universities, that have an active program of fundraising and receive contributions from many sources, including the general public, governmental agencies, corporations, private foundations or other public charities receive income from the conduct of activities in furtherance of the organization’s exempt purposes, or actively function in a supporting relationship to one or more existing public charities.

Private foundations, in contrast, typically have a single major source of funding (usually gifts from one family or corporation rather than funding from many sources) and most have as their primary activity the making of grants to other charitable organizations and to individuals, rather than the direct operation of charitable programs..

One would think, in an age of instant information, that at the very least, we can rest assured, if we do our homework, that our charitable dollars will not line the pockets of swindlers. Charity watchdogs rate and give an accounting of charities all over the world, so we should feel very secure that our money will be put to good use, right? However, what makes things easier for us also makes things easier for the scammers.

Too many fake charities play the, "take names that are very close to those of reputable, established charities" game. They might change the word 'foundation' to the word 'society' for example.

In addition, there are also no laws requiring that a certain percentage of every donation must go toward the actual cause. Charitable organizations may spend your money on anything from salaries to administrative supplies to festivities and advertising instead of the issue they say they are targeting. Not only that, professional solicitors who raise money for charities are not required to hand over anything but a small percentage of what they raised to the charity itself.

Charities that lend their names to for-profit enterprises are another twist you need to be aware of. The charities figure it's money they wouldn't have gotten otherwise, but donors need to realize that often only a minuscule amount of money makes it to the charity.

All of this adds up to more "homework", more decisions to make, and more time and money that most of us do not think we have, which leaves those who barely have enough to survive, completely stranded. That number is growing exponentially, or will be, soon.

As we are only as strong as our weakest link, funding for low-income and sustainable housing development, infrastructure and social service programs must be top priority.
Our forefathers envisioned a country powered by the diversity and strength of its people. As it is, this country is powered by the uniformity of an elite few.

Our strength lies in the enormous spectrum and interaction of our diverse capabilities. If we lose that and we don't tap into the energy and creativity of the many, innovation will cease to exist.

Guidestar

Charity Navigator

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Like Fighting Off a Hungry Tiger With Two Sticks.

As funding falters, shelters and soup kitchens across the nation are reporting as much as a 50% increase in applications for their services since 2007. Demand is sharply up at soup kitchens, and people are seeking emergency shelter and sadly, more are being turned away.

In a report published in December, 330 school districts identified the same number or more homeless students in the first few months of the school year than they identified in the entire previous year.

Joel Berg, calculated, in his book, All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America what would happen if we doubled the charitable food donations in America - 200% . The number of hungry Americans would decrease from 36 million to 32 million. In addition, Berg says a 10% increase is much more realistic and even that is considered too high.

In other words, relying on the private sector, charitable funds, foundations, or institutions to fight off America's growing "hunger" is like...well, it's like fighting off a hungry tiger with two sticks.

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Donate Your Flash Drives To Help Schools in Africa.

Donate your thumb drives, flash drives, or keychain drives, you are not using anymore so they can be put them to good use.

Inveneo "is a non-profit social enterprise whose mission is to get the tools of ICT into the hands of organizations and people who need them most: those in remote and rural communities in the developing world. To do this, Inveneo creates and sells highly affordable and sustainable ICTs that are specifically designed for organizations -- governments, NGOs, private enterprises -- that serve these rural communities with vital services that include education, healthcare, economic development, relief and telecenters. Inveneo's ICTs are designed to overcome challenges that these organizations face.

Since mid-2006, when Inveneo released it's first product, Inveneo and our partners have supplied gear to or completed more than 75 projects in Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Mali, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania and more. These projects will reach over 150 communities and almost 400,000 people directly or indirectly with life-changing ICTs. Our three-year goal is to certify over 100 local ICIPs and jointly complete projects that provide a digital lifeline to thousands of communities, directly or indirectly reaching up to 3,000,000 people in poor, rural areas of the developing world.

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Donating Cars to Charity

If you are donating an old car to charity make sure you donate it to a charity that, in turn donates it to someone else in need. Under new IRS rules, in an organization auctions off a used vehicle, the former owner can only claim the amount the group gets for the sale, which could be well below market value.

BUT donations to charities that supply cars to needy people can be taken at full value.
Check out 1-800-CHARITY CARS, the first and only national charity of its kind that
provides donated vehicles free of charge to struggling families willing to work and become self-sufficient, tax-paying members of the community.

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Wiser Earth.

WiserEarth is an interactive database whose goal it is to list, categorize, and describe every non-profit and civil society organization on Earth such as climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights, and more. Content is created by people like you from around the world. It currently includes 104,304 organizations which can be viewed by name, location, or category. You can post (or search) jobs, events, and resources; you can discuss; you can visualize the networks connecting specific categories and the various organizations.

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Only 10% of All Charitable Deductions Go to Help Poor.

Lots of charitable dollars — especially from the wealthy, who have the most to donate — are going to culture palaces: to the operas, art museums, symphonies, and theaters where they spend much of their leisure time. And to the universities they once attended and expect their children to attend, perhaps with the help of what's known as affirmative action for "legacies."

These aren't really charitable contributions. They're more like investments in the lifestyles the wealthy already enjoy and want their children to have too. They're also investments in prestige, especially if they result in the family name engraved on the new wing of the art museum or symphony hall.

Now it's their business how they donate their money. But not entirely, because, you see, charitable donations are deductible from income taxes.

This year, the U.S. Treasury will be getting about $40 billion less than it would if the tax code didn't allow charitable deductions. By the way, the government now spends less than $40 billion a year on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which is what's left of welfare.

I can see why a contribution to, say, the Salvation Army should be eligible for a charitable tax deduction. It's helping the poor. But why, exactly, should a contribution to the Guggenheim Museum or Harvard University?

Not long ago, New York City's Lincoln Center had a gala dinner supported by the charitable contributions of the leaders of the hedge fund industry, some of whom will be receiving billion-dollar bonuses in the next few weeks. I may be missing something here, but this doesn't strike me as charity. I mean, poor New Yorkers don't often attend concerts at the Lincoln Center.

It turns out, in fact, that only an estimated 10 percent of all charitable deductions this year will be directed at the poor.

At a time in our nation's history when the number of needy continue to rise, when government doesn't have the money to do what's necessary, and when America's very rich are richer than ever, we should revise the tax code.

Limit the charitable deduction to real charities.

And have a happy holiday.

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