CAN BILLIONAIRES WITH A CONSCIENCE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?

I couldn't resist! Soon after posting my earlier post I came across this so as an addendum...

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have caused widespread debate with their recent call on the wealthiest people in the world to give half their fortunes to charity, writes WMG Media. Some saw their move as unacceptable interference in the private affairs of others, while activists resurrected the argument that taxation would achieve social justice far more effectively than philanthropy.

The Gates Foundation is now by far the biggest philanthropic foundation in the world, with three times the endowment of its closest rival, the Ford Foundation, and has a truly global reach to its activities, reports The American Prospect, in an examination of the giving game.

One of the reasons that such foundations are needed is because efforts by national governments and international organisations to address world poverty, such as the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, have been rich in promises and poor in delivery. Melinda Gates believes that persistent nagging – including with powerful world leaders – is key to improving outcomes in neglected areas.

It is an approach they are hoping to expand upon. Along with Warren Buffett and David Rockefeller, Bill and Melinda Gates recently convened a series of secret meetings to convince other billionaires to become ‘Great Givers’, in line with Buffett's belief that “huge fortunes that flow in large part from society should, in large part, be returned to society.”

Over lavish meals, they convinced 37 other major money-makers including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, media executive Barry Diller, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and energy tycoon T Boone Pickens to embrace their view that more money donated equals fewer problems, writes The American Prospect.
The American Prospect: Gatekeepers

But what works in one society does not necessarily work in another, writes WMG Media.

The announcement that Gates and Buffett would visit China to promote the Giving Pledge was met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm from China’s roughly 500 000 millionaires, reports Global Times. Columnist Mike Freier writes, “while strong Christian traditions and the frontier heritage have forged charity into an integral part of American society, in China altruism typically does not extend outside of the family circle.

“Statistics prove that their stinginess hardly is a unique Chinese attribute but is shared by rich people virtually worldwide from countries with a collectivist legacy,” argues Freier.
Global Times: China’s rich haven’t caught on to charity’s benefits

And then there is the small matter of what the motivation is and whether that should even matter, writes WMG Media.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s $100m donation to inner-city schools, made on the Oprah Winfrey show just hours before the release of an unauthorised biography and a film that depicts Zuckerberg in an unflattering light, is a case in point. A sceptical nation asks, was it all a PR stunt?

Its been a while...

Have you missed me? I am not a very dedicated blogger, I know, but every now & again I hear something which makes me want to put it out there into cyberspace...

So our very own Julius Malema shot his mouth off once again!

I am by all means an ultra conservative capitalist. I believe that through your own hard work, you should reap benefits and no welfare government should in anyway impede on your proceeds. Each to his own. Pull yourself up from your bootstraps and fend for yourself... haha! A paragraph full of cliche's! No Boooker Prize here!

But back to Malema, he said something that got my antennae up. Free education needs to get funding from somewhere and why not from beneath our very own soil? Yes! He is back on that bandwagon, the nationalising of the mines. You have, to consider it though, surely. Those resources that are burieed under our land, do they not belong to all of us? And should we not use them to educate our future leaders? Why is Anglo the only one profiting? Do Anglo & other mining companies subsidise enough university bursary? It would be interesting to look into that!!

I can't stop smiling because I just saw a real-life person with the exact same profile as Homer Simpson!! Haha! And here I thought only in the imagination of a cartoonist!

Three Weeks On.

And so the strike by the public sectors continues...

As I have said before I am all for the proper remuneration for the vital services rendered by public servants, especially when our Ministers do not feel the repercussions of an economic downturn or the need to be frugal.

So one has to consider the President of Cosatu Zwlinzima Vavi's opinion of the ruling party when he describes them as a "predatory society." COSATU is part of an alliance with the ANC and the South African Communist Party, called the Tripartite Alliance. Although COSATU’s role in the alliance has been the subject of debate, since and because the organisation has been critical of some of the ANC government's policies. There are some affiliates who have argued for greater independence from the ruling political party, others have argued that the arrangement gives COSATU a political influence beneficial to its members. Three weeks on and the power struggle has become more than evident.

In this period Vavi has come close to being compared to Poland's Nobel Peace Prize Winner Lech Wałęsa. A man who went from leader of the Solidarity Trade Union to President of Poland. Lech Wałęsa organised a mass action of over 12 million workers, not all of whom were members of the union, to down tools against the Communist Government's use of violence against workers.

Are these the intentions of Mr Vavi? To gain leadership?
Is the S.A government guilty of violence against bottom of the food chain, public sector, by not meeting their demands of a 8.6% increase and a R1000 housing subsidy?
Are the workers demands unrealistic?
How beneficial is the alliance with government now?
How long can this go on?

With arms up in the air...

The temperature had dropped to a chilly 4 degrees Celsius and the clock was showing 23H45 in a gleaming luxury car as it zoomed past a township.

The passengers had lent their heads back and closed their eyes after being satiated by a feast for the eyes... a West End Show of glamour and glitz and Cadbury's Nutties. The driver glanced across at the outskirts of the township and saw a blazing fire. For a moment concerned, for surely that fire if unattended would torch the surrounding shacks! But on closer inspection it was obvious that circled around it were Friday night revellers with arms up in the air as if in praise of a God who seemed to have forsaken them and all who dwelled in this shanty town! Or maybe they were just having a good time with friends and a couple of beers, singing township songs that prompted a little dance of sorts?

Further on there seemed to be a flurry of activity as a young man start to run as his friends took after him. Were they too fooling around after a long hard week or was there something more sinister going on? Because surely the surroundings were only conducive to prompt evil-doings and not foolery?

The scene flashed past, that the thoughts did not linger for more than a moment and then it was onto the more affluent suburbs and the crowd around the fire and the youngsters fooling around were dismissed but not forgotten...

:-)

I’ve seen that look somewhere before
Your sorrow’s like an open door
You’ve been this way for much too long
Somebody must have done you wrong

But one day the sun will shine on you
Turn all your tears to laughter
One day your dreams may all come true
One day the sun will shine on you

I’ve seen that look so many times
I know the sadness in your eyes
Your life is like a wishing well
Where it goes, only time will tell

One day the sun will shine on you
Turn all your tears to laughter
One day your dreams may all come true
One day the sun will shine on

Say goodbye to the lonely nights
Say goodbye to the northern lights
Say goodbye to the cold north winds
Say goodbye to the autumn leaves

One day the sun will shine on you
Turn all your tears to laughter
One day your dreams may all come true
One day the sun will shine on you
One day the sun will shine on you
One day the sun will shine on you

Workers rights!

I must say that although I tend to lean toward the right when it comes to economic policies, I do believe that workers must be taken care of by their employers and should never be exploited.

This belief becomes even stronger when it comes to the public service and the government as employer. A government such as ours who promises essential services to all its people must surely look after those offering the service. So teachers, nurses and doctors should be very well looked after, so that they in turn can look after everyone, from the young school goer to the elderly.

When demands for an increase in salary and certain benefits are reasonable and your employer offers much less,you, as worker, should have the right to protest in the form of a strike. However, when the protest takes on an almost murderous streak by means of not allowing non striking workers and volunteers to meet the needs of the sick and elderly, I have to draw the line. Surely a compromise needs to be reached.

Freedom.

I was intrigued at who made the cover of TIME magazine this week.

An American 51 year old novelist by the name of Jonathan Franzen, he joins only a few other American authors who have ever made the cover, one being Salinger.

His new book Freedom, which took him nine years to write, they say will probably out sell his previous book The Corrections which sold over 2.8 million copies world wide.

I like what is said about him: "...allegations of elitism that are leveled against him are not only untrue but the opposite of true. He's one of contemporary fiction's great populists and a key ally of the beleagured modern reader."

I think I'm off to Exclusive Books to buy a copy of Freedom and I think I also want to be one of the 2.8 million world wide who have The Corrections. So I'll be hunting that one down too! How can I resist when his writing is described as unshowy almost egoless perfection?

A man? Egoless! This I have to see.