Bill Gates convened 1,000 people in Seattle, where he admitted that his big global health challenge has not produced significant gains in the Third World. Educators may recognize parallels to the Gates’ involvement in Common Core, where the foundation looked for a technological fix to complex human, social, and economic problems.
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“When he took the stage this fall to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his signature global health research initiative, Bill Gates used the word “naive” — four times — to describe himself and his charitable foundation.
It was a surprising admission coming from the world’s richest man.
“But the Microsoft co-founder seemed humbled that, despite an investment of $1 billion, none of the projects funded under the Gates Foundation’s “Grand Challenges” banner has yet made a significant contribution to saving lives and improving health in the developing world….
“Not only did he underestimate some of the scientific hurdles, Gates said. He and his team also failed to adequately consider what it would take to implement new technologies in countries where millions of people lack access to basic necessities such as clean water and medical care….
“Among his favorite projects is an effort to eliminate Dengue fever by infecting mosquitoes with bacteria that block disease transmission. Another is a spinoff biotech working on a probiotic to cure cholera.
“But critics say projects like those demonstrate the foundation’s continuing emphasis on technological fixes, rather than on the social and political roots of poverty and disease.
“The main harm is in the opportunity cost,” said Dr. David McCoy, a public-health expert at Queen Mary University, London. “It’s in looking constantly for new solutions, rather than tackling the barriers to existing solutions.”
“The toll of many diseases could be lowered simply by strengthening health systems in developing countries, he said. Instead, programs like Grand Challenges — heavily promoted by the Gates Foundation’s PR machine — divert the global community’s attention from such needs, McCoy argues.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
With all due respect to Dr. David McCoy, let me rephrase his remarks quoted above:
“The main harm is in the opportunity cost,” said Dr. David McCoy, a public-health expert at Queen Mary University, London. “It’s in looking constantly for new SELF-SERVING GIMMICKS, rather than tackling the barriers to existing solutions.”
[My change is in caps]
IMHO, that is literally a description of his efforts in education.
😎
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As a description of Gates efforts in World Health domination, the “opportunity cost” has been even more dire. The World Health Organization was derailed from its core mission. Everybody knows it was forced to embrace Gates’ agenda, everybody knows the disastrous consequences. Nobody has dared yet to say out loud that 2 + 2 = 4.
The cost has been enormous.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-22/berg-the-who-has-failed-the-ebola-disaster/5831968
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The Reuters link describing the most recent opportunity costs from the field
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/05/health-ebola-who-idUSL6N0RV23B20141005
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What, you mean he ignored experienced experts in the field in favor of grabbing the glory for himself with spanking new and untested ideas??? Say it isn’t so!
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BTW, in case I don’t check back in for the next few days, have wonderful holidays, all, and especially you, Diane! Thanks for all you do. Be well.
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Ditto! Blessings to all and big mahalo, Diane.
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Deep concerns about the Gates Foundation’s role as a player in world health — and perfectly parallel to those expressed by people in the field of public education — were detailed in a chapter in a 2008 report by Global Health Watch (Global Health Watch 2).
http://www.ghwatch.org/sites/www.ghwatch.org/files/d1.3.pdf (154 KB)
Chapter DI-3 (“The Gates Foundation”) “…draws on interviews with global health experts from around the world all of whom requested anonymity or indicated a preference to speak off the record. Several who recounted specific incidents or experiences asked that these not be described so as to protect their identity.” Excerpts:
– “But it is vital in today’s world of immense wealth and enduring poverty to question the mainstream portrayal of philanthropy as being entirely benign.”
– “The Gates Foundation is governed by the Gates family. There is no board of trustees; nor any formal parliamentary or legislative scrutiny. There is no answerability to the governments of low-income countries, nor to the WHO. Little more than the court of public opinion exists to hold it accountable.”
– “According to one [expert], ‘They dominate the global health agenda and there is a lack of accountability because they do not have to implement all the checks and balances of other organizations or the bilaterals.’”
– “In addition to the fundamental lack of democratic or public accountability, there was little in the way of accountability to global public health institutions or to other actors in the health field. The fact that the Gates Foundation is [both] a funder and board member of the various new Global Health Initiatives (e.g. the Global Fund; GAVI, Stop TB Partnership; and Roll Back Malaria) means that other global health actors are accountable to the Gates Foundation, but not the other way round.”
– “In reality, there is surprisingly little written about the pattern and effectiveness of grant-making by the Gates Foundation. Limited information is available on the Foundation’s website.”
– “Several interviewees also felt that the way grant proposals are solicited, reviewed and funded is opaque. Many grants appear to be made on the basis of personal contacts and informal networking.”
– “The absence of robust systems of accountability becomes particularly pertinent in light of the Foundation’s extensive influence. As mentioned above, it has power over most of the major global health partnerships, as well as over the WHO, of which it is the third-equal biggest single funder. Many global health research institutions and international health opinion formers are recipients of Gates money. Through this system of patronage, the Foundation has become the dominant actor in setting the frames of reference for international health policy.”
– “Not only is the Foundation a dominant actor within the global health landscape; it is said to be ‘domineering’ and ‘controlling’. According to one interviewee, ‘they monopolise agendas. And it is a vicious circle. The more they spend, the more people look to them for money and the more they dominate.’”
– “The Foundation’s corporate background and its demand for demonstrable returns on its investment appear to have resulted in a bias towards biomedical and technological solutions. In the words of one interviewee: ‘The Gates Foundation is only interested in magic bullets – they came straight out and said this to me.’”
– “The ties between the Foundation and the pharmaceuticals industry, as well as its emphasis on medical technology, have led some health activists to question if the Foundation is converting global health problems into business opportunities. Others worry about the Foundation’s position with regard to intellectual property (IP) rights and the effect this has on the price of essential medicines.”
– “The Foundation has done much, and it will be doing even more as its level of spending sets to increase. But there are problems with what is happening. The Foundation is too dominant. It is unaccountable. It is not transparent. It is dangerously powerful and influential.”
– “The Gates Foundation needs to consider its relationships with other actors. While it should preserve its catalytic, innovative and bold approach to global health, it needs to learn to know when it should follow and not lead.”
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Sounds familiar, right???
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Thank you, Sharon, for daring to think for yourself about this. For more updates and links, here is the 2012 inquiry, which opened my eyes.
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/the_gates_foundations_leverage.html
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Maybe instead of trying to be “inspector gadget,” he should take a cue from Oprah who chose to invest in South African girls. Her investment was in young women with the notion that “you educate a girl, you educate the entire family.” Time will tell what kind of impact the Leadership Academy will have.
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you haven’t been following the news… Oprah’s schools are failures too, both in South Africa and here in the US: First the link to info on the South African school troubles… http://abcnews.go.com/International/troubles-oprah-winfreys-school-south-africa/story?id=12950275
Diane wrote about the US problems here: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/01/22/oprah-charter-school-star-in-new-orleans-is-closing-down/
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It’s nice that Gates finally acknowledges his “naiivte” (willful ignorance, really), but what he will never admit is the damage that his projects (including Common Core) have done — and that damage amounts to much more than simply “opportunity cost”.
President Carter’s program to erradicate Guinea worm is the “right” way to go about helping people.
There are two problems with Gates’ approach that doom his efforts from the start.
1) he does not try to thoroughly understand a problem before imposing a “solution”. (“Understanding the problem” is the fundamental rule of problem-solving)
2) he has no respect for the intelligence and knowledge of the people he is trying to “help, people who usually know much more than Gates does (or ever will) about what is needed to solve a particular problem.
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What if he doesn’t even care whether problems are solved? What if he’s a sociopath monopolist, whose wealth continues to inflate unchecked by reason, while people don’t dare question his motives?
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I thought that’s what he has been and is . . . . .
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Discussing Gates, in any other terms, than chemtcher does, is a waste of time.
Gates is a man with a colossal ego, whose power and money, are a mile wide but, whose interests and understanding, are an inch deep.
If his children are like him, they can inflict far more damage on the world, than the young people that the network news programs, try to make us fear.
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He was warned early and often about his particular approach to “health philanthropy” in countries with little health infrastructure, building big “foot print” technology approaches unsuited to the places he was commandeering.
How is this anything other than “health colonialism” at its worst. He’s free to waste his personal fortune but not to warp the public health systems already set up in the countries he big foots into with his “new philanthropy,” distorting and damaging already useful programs built on a deep knowledge of the societies where public health officials have been working for years.
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His education policies reflect an attitude of “educational colonialism” right here in the USA. He starts from the egomaniacal position that he knows better than everyone else. Through his substantial wealth, he will save you from the errors of your ways through technology and market driven ideology. His approach shows his limited understanding of the problems and issues.
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Gates is not the only one.
This is the new villainthropy. Giving is in the name of socially engineering society, controlling how people think and act, and expecting a ROI when you give so generously.
Add to this roster Walton(s), Kochs, Bloomberg, John Arnold and wife, and, of course, Obama and Michelle. The list is long as the billionaires grow and are let loose on Citizens United.
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Villainthropy, perfect description. It should be the new word for 2015.
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This is very important and it’s why his initiatives in education will fail the same way. He does not get to the root causes.
Paula
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By pleading naivety, Gates again demands a free ride for his intolerable and successful profiteering. His GAVI alliance of big pharma corporations SELLS vaccines at marked-up prices to real providers like UNICEF and Medecins Sans Frontiers. Having seen his vicious drive to control public education at any cost, I hope teachers now see Gates’ rapacious hypocrisy with clearer eyes.
Gates gets away with calling himself “naive” because of the reflexive deference he has bought and enforced. He’s a merciless economic predator on the world’s poor, diverting the foreign exchange of victim nations to his profit-driven corporate partners, in which he owns stock both in his own name and through his wholly-controlled “philanthropy.
He has also personally directed the destruction of the fabric of the World Health Organization, which now serves as his routing agency, to direct real charitable contributions to his cadre of technological mega-corporations.
What Gates’ Global Health Challenge HAS produced is significant profits for the corporations that supply these innovative technological false solutions. He owns stock in them. Far from spending down his obscene monopoly profits, he uses his arrogant charity fronts to leverage them.
For God’s sake, call him out on it.
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his ego requires a “Showcase” instead of giving the funds to a responsible organization like Doctors Without Borders who already have people on the ground working in these areas. Watch for that “ego” need in Governors as well (who like to have showcase schools — )
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I am not stunned that Bill Gates can admit his mistakes when the data comes in –he fears no election, after all, and he is trying to find real solutions. If only we could treat him like an intelligent, resource- rich person with good intentions (as the advocates of the privatization of education do) instead of some kind of monster, there could be constructive dialogue. If he could be coaxed into the habit of listening to all interested parties instead of just charging ahead on the basis with a closed door meeting (admittedly the advantage of corporate execs, unlike government), he could do some real good in education. I think of him as smart, creative, energetic, and well intentioned, but lacking the benefit of a good liberal arts education (or the equivalent).
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See chemtchr’s post above. Gates is not some naive do-gooder. He’s a profiteer. He’s been given ample benefit of the doubt and opportunity to work with people with expertise, but time after time he’s chosen to roll over such people and blaze ahead with his megalomaniacal schemes that – surprise! – end up not having the beneficial effect he was just so sure they would have. Actions speak, and his speak loudly.
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Agreed, he is well-intentioned, but he doesn’t get the social experience. He has been a hot-house child and continues to think that way. Pres. Carter gets it. When his foundation introduced using a fine cloth to strain water to eliminate a parasitic worm, he learned he had to deal with the local shaman who would lose business, power, and prestige. These are the kinds of barriers that Gates doesn’t get, He is like a new, high-tech Ugly American.
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To say that someone is “well-intentioned” when their “giving” is so inextricably bound up in their self interest is not the best way to see the behavior of someone like Gates.
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Alan Turing and Tommy Flowers were smart and creative. Gates is exploitative. Do not let zeroes in a bank account fool you as a measure of all knowing ability. The reason America grew strong embracing the public good is because, collectively, people often make better decisions than an individual with absolute power. And when people are a part of the decision making, they sense a stake in the outcome. In many ways, the reason the reform movement in schools is failing, is because whatever the good intentions, these Reformers can’t help themselves from trying to make a buck. It pushes all else aside.
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The collective good was the first and is, the foremost, target of the Koch’s and other oligarchs. The villainthropies are the noblesse oblige that they favor, to exercise power.
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I guess you havent bothered to acquaint yourself with the shady way Bill came to make his billions, nor have you read reports on how he has been convicted in European courts of unethical monopolistic tactics and strategies… He is not a person with good intentions…
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He went to Lakewood – arguably the best private liberal arts education provider money can buy in Seattle…. please – research the man and his history….
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correction – the school is called LAKESIDE, not Lakewood… his children go there now… here’s a link to the school’s website…. notice the school is for “academically capable” children…. http://www.lakesideschool.org/
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I may be naive also but it seems possible that Bill Gates really does believe that he was promoting worthwhile educational objectives. If that be the case then it is just another instance of good but incredibly ignorant people promoting false ideas. I have seen first hand that happen with our school board when they rushed in where angels would fear to tread and destroyed great educational systems. They were good people, well meaning but abysmally ignorant, had swallowed hook line and sinker the prevailing propaganda so very prevalent at the time.
I have tried to educate our present board, good people but also ignorant, but have failed. Again: do not confuse me with facts. My mind is already made up.
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Is Gates going to be given a pass on, his anti-pension radio rant, too? And, his anti-raising minimum wage speech?
Remember his Foundation president was also the Walton Foundation president. If it walks like a duck and…..
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Thanks for this post. Diane was aware of this concern among health workers and medical researchers of the agenda-setting power of the Gates Foundation and the damage it was doing by pouring money into quick fixes, not root problems. The same point in this post also apply to the entire field of public education–from cradle to career and now on to teacher education and public higher education–where Bill is a a self-righteous ideologue fixated on making money, including a continuing return on investments for the family foundation secured from paying for the Common Core State Standards and purchased liasons with marketers of all of the ancillay products.
Gates has paid people in high places to agree that every school program and college degree can and should be monitized. For college programs, the metrics of choice are the income earned by graduates and their life-time contributions to the economy.
The value of a liberal arts degree is nebulous. Degrees in any of the arts, or philosophy, or archaeology have illusive payoffs. A degree in education is worthless unless the that is measurably productive of higher test scores and rates of “growth” in these along with other measures of student achievement.
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Shall we dare mention his polio vaccines that caused polio or polio-like crippling? How about trying to develop a malaria vaccine, when nets and repellent would work better – or how about investing in developing a mosquito eradicator? How about here in America, a tick eradicator?
Unless there is ROI for Gates, et al, they are not interested in even a simple, cost effective, “solution” or “fix” and that is there his and his ilk’s philanthropy stems from. I’ve had enough of Gates’s philanthropy to last me a lifetime.
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“The main harm is in the opportunity cost,” said Dr. David McCoy, a public-health expert at Queen Mary University, London. “It’s in looking constantly for new solutions, rather than tackling the barriers to existing solutions.”
I’ll refrain from a long stream of cuss words here directed at Gates and Co. They are the definition of head in the sand up to their toes insanity. The only tool they have, the only one they can conceive of is the hammer, so they insist in spit of the blatantly obvious evidence that all the worlds problems are nails.
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Looks like Gates did not meet his SLO targets. Tsk. Tsk. Perhaps an “ineffective” ranking and an improvement plan?
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I give Gates et al an F+.
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Gates has three years of low VAM scores, we should do unto him as he would do unto us; He should be fired from all educational activities. Philanthropy? Give the money and go away. Bill; For more than three years your VAM is low, you have to go! Maybe that would be a Christmas present for all of us.
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A perfect final summary of his education failure as well–technological fixes for social and political et al problems. Maybe he isn’t evil, just–as he says–naive and arrogant. A deadly combination especially if one has power and money. Maybe tha’s all evil is.
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“A deadly combination especially if one has power and money. Maybe tha’s all evil is.”
Quite perceptive as usual, Deb, quite perceptive!!!!
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From this I take this quote: “But critics say projects like those demonstrate the foundation’s continuing emphasis on technological fixes, rather than on the social and political roots of poverty and disease.”
Herein lies the problem with this and the common core and other technological “answers” that come from the Gates think tanks. I never once felt like his INTENTIONS were to harm. However, he and others like him lack the ability to see things from the perspective of people who have the needs that are brought on by poverty, lack of food, lack of background education, lack of a support system, or other situations requiring empathy for understanding. They simply don’t know, whether they have never been exposed to such, or whether they are incapable of putting themselves into others shoes, or whether they sincerely think that technology in the sense of computer usage (replacing the need for jobs performed by people who are simply not qualified to step up to the plate and work for Gates), there is a miscommunication as wide as the Grand Canyon in their perspectives and reality.
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Problem is he and his ilk come from one perspective: ROI.
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https://scontent-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/p417x417/1469962_10152897481595979_3998308614337362885_n.jpg?oh=0c1e42ccbf89aaa233a0f8c3ef4c47a1&oe=55458C1F
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To Robert Rendo at 2:34 pm, above–you are absolutely right about the villainthropists.
We have a whole bunch of them in Illinois who think they are working for the public good–that is to say, they know much more than professional people, in numerous fields, who actually DO know what needs to be done. These “do-gooders” are, perhaps, even worse than the Kochs & the Waltons (who mean no good for anyone but themselves), as they consistently impose their patronizing will, with the assumption that the “common” people don’t know any better, and would be well-advised to be grateful for their misguided “help” & “leadership.” An example: the extremely ill-advised group Advance Illinois, which is attempting to “equalize” community property taxes, purportedly to take monies from those “rich” school districts & giving to the “poor” ones. This was attempted years ago–in the correct way, and in accordance with ideas set forth in Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities.
Unfortunately, the amendment failed at the time. But, now, this is not an amendment–but a bill–that would be passed, a bill sprung from the aforementioned villanthropists of A.I. (think “Stand for Children,” & you’ve got the picture. Inasmuch as CPS has been closing & cash-starving Chicago Public Schools, this is how Illinois legislators will be doing it in the suburbs. Rather than actually “equalize” school funding (&, since we are constantly being told that “Ill-Annoy is broke,” those of us who know better highly doubt that ANY of these “poor” school districts will actually get their hands on–let alone “see”–cash infusions {one such school district has been told it stands to gain $34 million! Ha! To quote Buddy Holly, “That’ll be the day!”}). The end result, rather, will be to withdraw public funding from less vulnerable school districts, cash-starving them, leading to fertile ground for…charter schools, just like in the city and what Mike Klonsky calls “ring suburbs” (those lower-income ‘burbs that parents have fled to after CPS school closings.
All in the ALEC playbook, my friends–been in the works for over 40 years, while the rest of us have been busy working at jobs. Villainthropists, indeed.
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The Center for Media and Democracy reports that 100 funders have left ALEC. EBay was the latest one reported. I stopped using UPS because they support and defend ALEC.
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My take on Gates, unlike some other reformers, is that they want the quick fix solution. The reality of it is in the real world real problems take time to fix. I just finished doing a writing workshop that is the reform de jur in my school this year. The presenter actually said in her workshop that it took 4 years for it to actually have measurable results in her school. If we want true reform in our schools it will take time. Technology is a wonderful tool, but it cannot replace tried and true methods.
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Why can’t Gates do what The Urban Farming Guys do? Oh right- they are low tech, and what they are doing is actually making a difference.
http://theurbanfarmingguys.com/
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It’s that “smartest guy in the room” syndrome — thinking you know more than anybody else because you’re smart.
The thing is, if you haven’t experienced poverty, how can you create solutions for it? If you haven’t experienced educational inequality, how would you know if your solutions are the correct ones?
The people who do know the answers to these problems are not the ones who hobnob with billionaires. They are out in the field doing what they do. These philanthropists with money should seek these real experts out.
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Don’t know if you saw this. Gates has got to get down with the grassroots of problems. Fund the basic reforms, then maybe science and technological fixes can follow.
Sent from my iPhone
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In US schools, the achievement gap is caused by the effects of poverty, creating obstacles to learning, often in the form of disruptive kids whose abuse, trauma, neglect and social-emotional issues brings down a whole classroom. Gates gives hundreds of millions per year to schools, yet never once tackled the issue of – why can’t these families send their kids ready to learn?
Instead, he funded – let’s tinker with the learning standards for ALL schools.
and – let’s pretend test scores show which teacher taught the knowledge
and – let’s pretend teachers are the reason kids aren’t learning.
So naive, indeed. But is he willing to learn?
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In US schools, the achievement gap is caused by the effects of poverty, creating obstacles to learning, often in the form of disruptive kids whose abuse, trauma, neglect and social-emotional issues brings down a whole classroom. Gates gives hundreds of millions per year to schools, yet never once tackled the issue of – why can’t these families send their kids ready to learn?
Instead, he funded – let’s tinker with the learning standards for ALL schools.
and – let’s pretend test scores show which teacher taught the knowledge
and – let’s pretend teachers are the reason kids aren’t learning.
So naive, indeed. But is he willing to learn?
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