Wednesday, 2 July 2025

"Spending $200 billion"

 Dear Dawn, 


It is really a badly misplaced and misguided column by Zafar Mirza, former Minister of Health, on Bill Gates' philanthropy which has received plenty of critique : top down bureaucratic approach, promotion of GMOs, total lack of support of local better solutions, self appointed God who will impose their own solutions and control and influence, etc. Please see Vandana Shiva’s critique of Bill Gates promotion of GMOs if nothing else. Philanthropy outside of own’s borders reinforces colonial structures and sets outside agendas. This much is basic!

In Zafar Mirza’s column there is no analysis or mention of the power and influence that that Bill Gates has assumed in African states which in itself is disturbing, Africa which suffers from the aid complex , European Neo colonial parasitic control, resource extraction and constant instability thanks to Western proxy wars and puppet governments. Why has Mr. Mirza written such a glowing column on a narcissistic Bill Gates?

As Zafar Mirza is a former Health Minister, he writes :

“ The Foundation’s contributions include among other things support for development and deployment of lifesaving vaccines for diseases like rotavirus pneumococcus and meningitis. The Foundation has also helped establish new models for procurement and funding like Gavi the Vaccine Alliance as well as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria. It played a catalytic role in global health research and innovation including through the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. The list is very long.” This is written without any critique or details. Does the Foundation provide vaccines for free? Where are these offices located? In Africa or Europe or US? Who controls these organisations? What are these new models for procurement and funding? What is so great about them? As far as I know all the head offices are in the Global North !

Bill Gates’ own country needs money for the homeless, environment, from police brutality, etc. There are at least 770,000 homeless in the US which is probably an undercount. They have a health, education, poverty, drugs, poor infrastructure crisis not to mention proliferation of guns, school shootings, and police brutality. Philanthropists can devote their attention to their own societies. Health care is not free in the US and, without insurance, you don’t get any. Social media is littered with stories of how Americans crowd fund their own surgeries, health care, etc. We have been privy to stories of how expensive insulin shots are in the US without insurance. 

To write such a glowing column on private-island-owning Bill Gates who made his billions with monopolistic ruthless business tactics, just attended that other gazillionaire's wedding in Venice, Jeff Bezos is so severely misplaced! Jeff Bezos’ wedding has been heavily protested by locals, especially environmentalists.

There is such a backlash against the billionaire class especially in the US and India where they are manufactured with full support of the state. This column is so incredibly misplaced and badly written I wonder was it written as a satire?

Microsoft has been named as complicit in the genocide in Palestine. The American Tech Sector, and I quote:

enabled the collection, storage and governmental use of biometric data on Palestinians, “supporting Israel’s discriminatory permit regime”, the report said. Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon grant Israel “virtually government-wide access to their cloud and AI technologies”, enhancing its data processing and surveillance capacities. (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/1/un-report-lists-companies-complicit-in-israels-genocide-who-are-they)

As an end note, if Zafar Mirza is interested in writing about philanthropists, perhaps a column on how Hindu philanthropists contributed to Pre -Partition Pakistan would inspire Pakistani billionaires to do something great. 

Sincerely, Farzana Rasheed

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