California Free Press

Off the Top of My Head

There is No Such Thing as a National Solution to a Global Crisis

by John Lawrence, October 9, 2020

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation announced its 2020 Goalkeepers report with the above words. COVID-19 has killed more than 850,000 people worldwide. Every year until this one the world has made progress towards reducing poverty and disease. Notice the Gates foundation emphasis on the world as one coherent unified organism rather than just on US national boundaries. The pandemic knows no national boundaries. Until it's stamped out worldwide, the US is vulnerable. The foolishness of spending a trillion dollars a year on the US military which was powerless to do anything about the pandemic has been demonstrated. International cooperation is crucial to ending this pandemic, as well as others which are likely to follow, and reducing the conditions of poverty and disease in the world which breed war and terrorism. When will the US get its priorities straight?

The Goalkeepers report tracked 18 indicators included in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In recent years, the world has improved on every single one. This year, on the vast majority, we’ve regressed.There is also a worldwide recession that the military and military-industrial complex is powerless to do anything about. The US is not an island. Pandemics, global warming - these are problems affecting the whole world not just the US. Nations that have the resources need to assist other nations that don't have the resources. That means that the developed world has to help the developing world to combat these problems: disease, poverty, weaponization, global warming.

In 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to a series of 17 ambitious goals to end poverty, fight inequality, and stop climate change by 2030. The Global Goals are within our reach, but we must remain committed—embracing what works and addressing what doesn’t, while holding ourselves and others accountable. In 2016 President Trump dropped out of global cooperation with his America First policy. That has gotten the US nowhere. Whichever countries handle the pandemic intelligently are going to come out of the recession as world leaders. That won't be the US unless Joe Biden gets elected and is able to turn the shambles of Trump's response to the pandemic around.

The first and most important goal is ending poverty. Eradicating poverty is not a task of charity, it's an act of justice and the key to unlocking an enormous human potential. Still, nearly half of the world’s population lives in poverty, and lack of food and clean water is killing thousands every single day of the year. Together, we can feed the hungry, wipe out disease and give everyone in the world a chance to prosper and live a productive and rich life. The second goal is zero hunger. Hunger is the leading cause of death in the world. Our planet has provided us with tremendous resources, but unequal access and inefficient handling leaves millions of people malnourished. If we promote sustainable agriculture with modern technologies and fair distribution systems, we can sustain the whole world’s population and make sure that nobody will ever suffer from hunger again.

The third goal is good health and well-being. Over the last 15 years, the number of childhood deaths has been cut in half. This proves that it is possible to win the fight against almost every disease. Still, we are spending an astonishing amount of money and resources on treating illnesses that are surprisingly easy to prevent. The new goal for worldwide Good Health promotes healthy lifestyles, preventive measures and modern, efficient healthcare for everyone. The fourth goal is quality education. Education liberates the intellect, unlocks the imagination and is fundamental for self-respect. It is the key to prosperity and opens a world of opportunities, making it possible for each of us to contribute to a progressive, healthy society. Learning benefits every human being and should be available to all.

The fifth goal is gender equality. Gender bias is undermining our social fabric and devalues all of us. It is not just a human rights issue; it is a tremendous waste of the world’s human potential. By denying women equal rights, we deny half the population a chance to live life at its fullest. Political, economic and social equality for women will benefit all the world’s citizens. Together we can eradicate prejudice and work for equal rights and respect for all. The sixth goal is clean water and sanitation. This will require major infrastructure development. It's not rocket science. The techniques involved are well known in the developed world. One in three people live without sanitation. This is causing unnecessary disease and death. Although huge strides have been made with access to clean drinking water, lack of sanitation is undermining these advances. If we provide affordable equipment and education in hygiene practices, we can stop this senseless suffering and loss of life.

Actually I would put clean water and sanitation right up there with ending poverty. It would put an end to many of the diseases that occur in the underdeveloped world. The emphasis on healthy living and basic creature comforts needs to spearhead the use of resources worldwide. That means that developed nations have to give back to the underdeveloped ones instead of putting their further enjoyment and well being first which is the gist of America First. Global cooperation to combat global problems needs to take precedence over preparations for war and bullying other nations by the most powerful ones. The negligence and incompetence with which Trump has treated the COVID pandemic, the withdrawal of the US from universal institutions, almost assures that the US will assume a secondary status in the world unless the next administration can make up for the damage Trump has done and set us on a new and more constructive course.

Off the Top of My Head

How Would Jesus Vote?

by John Lawrence, January 9, 2018

Republicans believe that charity or helping the poor should be a private undertaking, in the private sphere, not in the public sphere. They believe that, as long as they do some charitable acts in the private sphere but vote for a government that is intent on eliminating charity from the role of government (^i.e. cutting social programs like social security, medicare and medicaid) that they are "all right with God." When Jesus talked about separating the sheep from the goats and the sheep were those that helped "the least of these my brethren" and the goats were those who only pursued their self-interest, Republican Christians still think that they are cool because religion is part of the "private sphere".

So Republicans think the only role of government is to fight wars. They are in the business of dismantling the social safety net because that represents charity and charity is the role of the private sphere. I'm sure Jesus would understand that logic. As long as you give to charity privately, you are under no compunction to give in terms of voting for a government whose only mission is to give tax breaks to the wealthy and to fund a huge military-industrial complex budget.

Bill Gates disagrees. He has the largest philanthropic foundation in the world and is going around the world eliminating disease and saving lives. I'm sure Jesus would approve. However, Bill Gates, billionaire that he is, believes that private charity cannot do the job alone. It is primarily the role and function of government to undertake this undertaking. Here's what he said recently in a Time magazine article:

Our [the Gates Foundation's] global health work has exceeded our expectations. Being part of this movement, which has gotten childhood deaths down from over 12 million a year to about 5 million a year now, going from 1990 until today, and with a goal to get it below 2.5 million by 2030, cut it in half again.

And our aid is less than 1% of the U.S. budget. So the question is, In helping to stabilize 95% of the world and prevent epidemics that would come and hit the U.S., is it a priority to spend 1% of the budget for those 95% and keep 99% of the budget for us who are a bit less than 5% of the world’s population?

The payback to U.S. foreign aid: getting rid of smallpox; on the verge of getting rid of polio; lifting up countries like South Korea, which was a huge aid recipient.

So the benefits of what we’ve done are quite phenomenal. We did a forecast that showed that a 10% cut in HIV spending would, between now and 2030, cause 5 million more deaths, because the U.S. has been so key to keeping this infectious disease in check. To reduce the money now would be horrific if killing 5 million people can be described that way.

Of all the major bad things that could happen—a nuclear war, an asteroid, a gigantic earthquake—the one that’s the most scary is a big epidemic, like a flu epidemic sweeping the world as it did in 1918. And so helping poor countries so they would detect it early—and they’d have the capacity to stop it when the numbers are very, very small—is advantageous to the entire world.

The experts that understand this stuff the best are at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and so keeping them funded so they can work with these countries—that is not just a benefit to these countries. That’s very important to us.

In the case of Ebola, because it wasn’t caught early, the U.S. had to spend a lot of money, including deploying the U.S. military while some people from the CDC went in and did heroic work. In fact, a lot of polio workers were involved in making sure it was contained to the three countries.

That’s a big success, but there will be many more like that that could be worse. The speed of infection of a flu is 20 times faster than Ebola, so some disease could go global if you took as long to figure out what was going on as we did with Ebola.

[Interviewer] Some of the things you’re talking about feel like traditionally the realm of government, and yet people’s faith in government to solve some of these problems isn’t so great.

[Bill Gates] Government is responsible for these things, and so the big money is with government. It’s over 10 times bigger than all philanthropic things put together. The role of philanthropy will often be to fund pilot approaches, to find breakthrough approaches. Funding all these young people who think they have a new approach for an HIV vaccine. Philanthropy is a very strong complement to the government in that.

Is it easier for you to fund something that’s far-fetched? I think so. Government has four-year, eight-year cycles, and the U.S. government actually is the best government in the world when it comes to funding medical research, but even they aren’t going to reach out to some wild new approach quite the way philanthropy can. So the two [government and private charity] really do go hand in hand.

Philanthropy will never take over the role of government. Making sure every child has food and education, that’s governmental.

BINGO! The role of government and private charity go hand in hand, but the government has a much bigger role. But the goal of the Republicans and the Ayn Rand inspired Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, is to eliminate any governmental role for helping people either here in America or abroad. The Trump motto, "Make America Great Again" or "America First" translates to "the hell with the rest of the world" and in particular to hell with any role of government in charitable actions. That's the role of the private sphere. Not according to Bill Gates.

Gates points out that it's also in America's selfish interests to help out the rest of the world because disease somewhere else can quickly spread to America. San Diego found that out recently as Hep A spread from the homeless population into the "rest of us" population. Only then was something done for the homeless, not so much out of selfless interests but out of selfish interests. By the same token if America, instead of bombing some foreign countries and arming others, sought to make the lives of ordinary citizens of those countries better, it might redound to America's selfish interests.

But the Trump administration is intent on dismantling programs that would help others either here or abroad. I don't think Jesus would vote the same way some of these self-righteous Christian Republicans vote. From a Christian point of view it's the responsibility of the wealthy to help the poor both here and abroad not to give themselves tax breaks and then proclaim there's no money for anything else (except funding the largest military-industrial complex in the world.)

Economic Crisis Mustn't Eclipse Battle Against Poverty, Says Bill Gates

Philanthropist urges investment in agriculture and health as he outlines his vision for tackling poverty in the developing world

by Les Roopanarine, guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 January 2012 04.59 EST

 

Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, has urged national governments not to allow fiscal concerns to overshadow the need for continued investment in the developing world.

"There are many things going on in terms of the eurozone crisis and budget cutbacks that would make it easy to turn inward and reduce financing," Gates told an audience of international development experts and students at the London School of Economics on Tuesday.

"The answer is to remind people not only about the needs of the very poorest but also that we are making incredible progress in … the daily battle that is poverty."

Gates, the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, outlined his vision for tackling global poverty in an address that echoed the central themes of his fourth annual letter, published this week.

Gates highlighted the negative impact of food price rises and enlarged on his belief that innovative strategies on agriculture and health – areas he believes are closely interrelated – hold the key to development's future.

"Agriculture really affects the poorest," said Gates. "Most of the poor are people with very small farms who barely grow enough to feed their families. In tough years, they are extremely malnourished.

"So health ties very closely to agriculture. The reason why kids die of diarrhoea and pneumonia is because their bodies aren't very strong. If they had proper nutrition, the death rate would be dramatically lower."

Gates' emphasis on the need for greater investment in agricultural research reflected the contents of his annual letter, where the possibility that scientific advances in the understanding of plant genes might lead to new methods of tackling human diseases is among a range of ideas touched upon.

In his speech at the LSE, the Microsoft billionaire also argued for a nexus between food shortages and poor performance on other development indicators, such as education.

He said: "[For many people] the central fact of existence is 'Can I get enough food?' That takes away from 'Can I send my kids to school?' or 'Can I pay school fees?' as well as many other things.

"We're holding back poor countries, not just by the death rate but by the sickness and lack of development that those children suffer."

Gates was speaking at an event organised by the Global Poverty Project, a campaign group that has just launched a new initiative aimed at heightening awareness of poverty at community level.

More than 100 ambassadors from across the UK have been selected for the project, which is supported by the Gates Foundation.

They will undertake a two-day training course, either at the London School of Economics or in Edinburgh, which will teach them how to deliver a presentation locally about the complexities of poverty entitled 1.4 Billion Reasons.

For Gates, the attraction of the project lies in its accent on youth and the common ground it shares with the work of his foundation.

"The message of my fourth annual letter is identical to what the Global Poverty Project is all about – that is, that it's very easy to lose sight of the conditions of the very poorest," said Gates.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum summit in the Swiss resort of Davos on Wednesday morning, Gates reiterated his call for continued aid investment in the developing world despite the unfavourable global econcomic climate.

He underlined his rallying cry by revealing that the Gates Foundation has pledged $750m to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

"We're making a new commitment in a somewhat special form that we've worked out with the Global Fund, in the form of a promissory note," said Gates. "It's a commitment of an additional $750m.

"It frees up funds for the Global Fund so that they can immediately use the money and continue to save lives."