What does Bill Gates want?

[xchrom]

http://blogs.elpais.com/trans-iberian/2012/02/in-spain-last-week-bill-gates-pointed-at-some-rigidities-that-were-stopping-the-spanish-economy-function-in-a-normal-wa.html

In Spain last week Bill Gates pointed at some “rigidities” that were stopping the Spanish economy function in a normal way, and the Microsoft founder found it downright eerie that wages weren’t falling at a time when the country is blighted by such a high unemployment rate. Because he also said he was not an expert on Spain, he has to be given the benefit of the doubt; let’s say he doesn’t know that in real terms wages in Spain have fallen since the advent of the euro and that’s why the generalized pay freeze for those in work is an even bigger sacrifice on the part of labor than it might seem. A recent survey said that Spanish salaries had risen by 14 percent during the first decade of the single currency, while the cost of living had risen by around 50 percent.

Gates was in Spain to ask Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to hold back his austerity ax when it comes to the international aid heading in the belated 2012 budget, so it would also make sense that he was voicing the ultimate aim of the government’s new labor reform: to cut wages. And it hardly comes as a surprise that the world’s second-richest businessman should stay true to the neoliberal world view.

And then something surprising happened...

On a more global level, Gates talked about unemployment as a “structural” problem: “There are plenty of jobs to do, in teaching, science, tourism and looking after the old. There is no shortage of work but it is a question of structuring it right.” So, on the one hand, the billionaire philanthropist believes in the capitalist cure-alls of fitter, leaner markets, including the labor market, and letting money do its thing without being held back by the kind of “rigidities” he sees in Spanish regulation; on the other, he seems to be suggesting that the economy needs to be restructured to better meet society’s needs, and not those of the market. And, yes, I think he is saying that these are not one and the same thing.

Let’s take teaching, for example. Private education has never covered any country’s entire demand. Only when the state, sometimes together with some other non-profit institution, such as the Church, takes charge do all children get a chance. In fact, in education as in health the private sphere can operate as a magnet, luring away professionals from the lower-paid state sector, which becomes an under-appreciated, residual safety net for the poor. Then there are the complications caused by globalization. A doctor trained in sub-Saharan Africa can earn many times more in Europe or North America, even if he performs a task other than curing the sick.

[izquierdista]

1. More

Just what the rest of the obscenely rich want, they want your retirement money. They want it all. They don't care a whit about what they sell you, as long as you have no other alternative than to send them your money. They won't be happy until life returns to the Middle Ages, when the serfs were bound to the land and had no rights except the rights to give all they produced to the Lord of the Manor.

[onehandle]

2. He needs to come out of 'retirement' and return to Microsoft.

His college roommate is destroying the Redmond icon.

[zbdent]

3. if he doesn't have it already ... he can buy it ...

and what he can't buy, he'll just take over ... be careful when you click that license agreement ...

[proverbialwisdom]

4. Link from the irreplaceable madfloridian,

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2011/12/ny-student-data-to-be-given-to-limited.html

Regents agree to give NY student data to limited corporation run by Gates and operated by Murdoch's Wireless Gen

December 16, 2011

...This week, the Wall St Journal reported that the NY Board of Regents approved the state's sharing of student and teacher information with a new national data base, to be funded by the Gates Foundation, and designed by News Corp's Wireless Generation.

All this confidential student and teacher data will be held by a private limited corporation, called the Shared Learning Collaborative LLC, with even less accountability, which in July was awarded $76.5 million by the Gates Foundation, to be spent over 7 months. According to an earlier NYT story, $44 million of this funding will go straight into the pockets of Wireless Generation, owned by Murdoch's News Corp and run by Joel Klein.

The Regents approved this project, despite the NY State Comptroller’s veto this summer of the State Education Department’s proposed no-bid contract to Wireless to build a state-wide data system, apparently because the state is not paying money to participate. According to sources who were present, while several Regents expressed concerns, Betty Rosa of the Bronx was the only member to abstain. The others apparently thought that even though the Comptroller-- and the public as well—had opposed this contract in large part because of the privacy issue and the involvement of Murdoch’s company, which is still embroiled in a major phone-hacking scandal in the UK, these issues were not important enough to ask for more information or to delay the state from going forward with the deal.

More at link.

[xchrom]

5. +1

[proverbialwisdom]

6. Bill Gates outlined his planned "digital revolution" of the world's food supply in Rome 2/23/12.

http://technology.inquirer.net/8585/microsoft-founder-urges-digital-revolution-against-hunger

Microsoft founder urges digital revolution against hunger

By: Dario Thuburn
Agence France-Presse
10:54 pm | Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

ROME—Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Thursday called for a “digital revolution” to alleviate world hunger by increasing agricultural productivity through satellites and genetically engineered seed varieties.

“We have to think hard about how to start taking advantage of the digital revolution that is driving innovation including in farming,” the US billionaire philanthropist said in a speech at the UN rural poverty agency IFAD in Rome.

“If you care about the poorest, you care about agriculture. We believe that it’s possible for small farmers to double and in some cases even triple their yields in the next 20 years while preserving the land,” Gates said.

He gave as one example of innovation the genetic sequencing that allows cassava farmers in Africa to predict how individual seedlings will perform, shortening the time it takes to develop a new variety from 10 years to two. Another key development is the use of satellite technology developed by defense departments to document data about individual fields, as well as information videos of farmers discussing best practices to help others.

“If we don’t do this, we’ll have a digital divide in agriculture,” he said.

Gates also defended the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the developing world and large-scale farm land investments by foreign states in the developing world – both highly controversial issues in the aid community.

More at link.

I have no problem cherry-picking factual content from this web page, like the excellent article above and the cafeteria sleuthing below, but obviously DO NOT endorse the garbage (eugenics claims).

http://templestream.blogspot.com/2012/02/gates-and-rockefeller-cafeterias-reject.html

February 29, 2012

Gates and Rockefeller Cafeterias Reject Monsanto GE Foods

...Bill Gates outlined his planned "digital revolution" of the world's food supply in Rome, Italy on February 23, 2012. He was grilled by reporters regarding his heavy promotion of genetically modified foods, to whom he retorted, “You should go out and talk to people growing rice and say do they mind that it was created in a laboratory when their child has enough to eat?”[3] This seems to be a false dichotomy: 'Eat poisonous genetically modified food or die of starvation.' The third option, food freedom and the choice to eat natural food, will unfortunately not be an option for the masses if Bill Gates and friends have their way. The Gates Foundation website states in bold letters, "ALL LIVES HAVE EQUAL VALUE". But, if this were true in their eyes, then why is the cafeteria where the Gates Fund people eat completely void of GE foods while they propose that others don't need a choice? This all goes to show that some people are considered more "EQUAL" than others. Or, in the language of Michael Taylor and the corrupt US FDA, some are more "substantially equivalent" than others.[4] In the US there is no GE labeling, no choice, just as the Monsanto execs have desired all along.

Food hypocrisy is easy to detect because eating is something we do frequently and often publicly. A comment was posted February 22, 2012 regarding an application for a deputy director position at the Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle. In the context of a three week interview process, it was noted, "They have a great cafe in a beautiful atrium. There is a coffee bar and a great selection of food. All food is organic. However it's not particularly cheap."[5] Did you catch that remark? This person interested in an elite position at the Gates Foundation became privy to the fact that all the food the Gates Fundies generally eat is completely organic. If Bill Gates enters their local cafeteria with the munchies, he apparently has no choice - Gates eats organic. Like Monsanto, they likely feel the need not to loudly publicize their subtle 'food discrimination' because they heavily promote GMO foods around the world. But the interviewer posted the truth on the Internet and a webpage copy has made made...

3. Inquierer Technolgy, Microsoft founder urges digital revolution against hunger, http://technology.inquirer.net/8585/microsoft-founder-urges-digital-revolution-against-hunger

5. Glassdoor, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Interview Questions & Reviews, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Posted Feb 22, 2012) Interviewed Apr 2011 in Seattle, WA (took 3 weeks), http://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Bill-and-Melinda-Gates-Foundation-Interview-Questions-E9097.htm

[proverbialwisdom]

7. Here's the nauseating article I was looking for.

Last edited Tue Mar 6, 2012, 01:31 PM - Edit history (2)

https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/23-2

Gates' yield-increasing claims widely refuted by studies.
- Common Dreams staff



Bill Gates: We Need Genetically Modified Seeds
Published on Thursday, February 23, 2012


At a forum of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome today, Microsoft founder Bill Gates pressed the need for genetically modified seeds in the developing world, and the need for a "digital revolution" to meet the needs of the world's farmers. Gates' claims that genetically modified crops double or triple smaller farmers' yields have been challenged by recent research...

<...>

The Associated Press notes that Gates' plan is looking for more accountability with countries receiving aid, saying they should provide "report cards" to show what they've accomplished with the aid.

As John Vidal reported for the Guardian, the claims that genetically modified seeds can increase gains have been challenged by research:

Genetic engineering has failed to increase the yield of any food crop but has vastly increased the use of chemicals and the growth of "superweeds", according to a report by 20 Indian, south-east Asian, African and Latin American food and conservation groups representing millions of people.

And a 2009 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists showed that genetically modified seeds failed to increase yields in U.S. crops:

Despite 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization, genetic engineering has failed to significantly increase U.S. crop yields.

"The biotech industry has spent billions on research and public relations hype, but genetically engineered food and feed crops haven't enabled American farmers to grow significantly more crops per acre of land," said Doug Gurian-Sherman, a biologist in the UCS Food and Environment Program and author of the report. "In comparison, traditional breeding continues to deliver better results."

Ronnie Cummins, International Director of the Organic Consumers Association, told Common Dreams:

“Bill Gates may be a smart guy in terms of computer programming, and an expert on how to become a billionaire, but he obviously knows nothing about agriculture other than what Monsanto and the biotech industry have told him. Eighteen years after the introduction of the first genetically engineered crops, there is no evidence, including data from the pro-biotech USDA, that these energy and chemical-intensive crops increase yield, improve nutrition, or provide greater yields under adverse weather conditions of drought or heavily rains. On the contrary hundreds of studies, including those by peer-reviewed scientists and the U.N.’s FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) indicate that organic crops provide significantly higher levels of vitamins, nutrients, and cancer-fighting anti-oxidants; that organic crops have significantly higher yields during periods of drought and torrential rain; and that agro-ecological or organic farms produce 2-10 times great yields than industrial-scale chemical and GMO farms. In others words, not only can organic farming and ranching feed the world, but in fact it is the only way that we will ever be able to feed the world.”[/io]

* * *

Recent reports also show Gates behind climate engineering efforts, as he is among other wealthy individuals financially backing scientists to lobby governments to push geoengineering, raising concerns that this small group may have a large impact on further decisions on geoengineering.