Bill Gates recently advised poor people to raise chickens to improve their lives.
He had Africa in mind, but he also offered chickens to Bolivia.
The Bolivian government was offended by Gates’ offer. Bolivia raises millions of chickens and exports them to the world.
“How can he think we are living 500 years ago, in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce?” Bolivian Development Minister Cesar Cocarico told journalists. “Respectfully, he should stop talking about Bolivia.”
Wouldn’t it be great if public schools and superintendents could respond like that to Bill Gates? Something like this: “We are professional educators and we know what we are doing. Please don’t offer money to try out your experiments on our children. Please take your advice and your money elsewhere.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Oh gosh, chickens are small change.
Gates says they’ve reinvented math! :
http://hechingerreport.org/happens-computers-not-teachers-pick-students-learn/
Good for Bolivia. You’ll never hear a US politician contradict or even question Gates.
They’re buying what he’s selling, lock-step.
Maybe he should work on inventing (genetically engineering) a chicken that does math — a poultry version of “Clever Hans (part of the “Common Farm”)
He could call them “Clever Hens” and prolly make a mint.
Gates could prolly even make a super compooper if he linked all the clever hens together.
Gates endorses Teach to One and the the echo chamber picks it up and amplifies the sales pitch:
https://www.the74million.org/article/teach-to-one-inside-the-personalized-learning-program-that-bill-gates-calls-the-future-of-math
Then Gates picks up the 74 million story (which was based on his endorsement) as validation of the endorsement. A circle.
It’s kind of fascinating to watch the ed reform system in action. Pitch, promotion, dissemination. 1, 2, 3.
Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads and commented:
This is yet another example of Bill Gates deciding he is an expert on something he knows absolutely nothing about.
When you have incredible wealth, nobody ever tells you “no” any more, so you begin to believe that all your ideas are pure gold.
Zorba, to finish your sentence: when they (your ideas) are only chicken poop
Diane, absolutely! 🙂
Nothing is more expensive than “free” stuff from Bill.
“Wouldn’t it be great if public schools and superintendents could respond like that to Bill Gates? Something like this: “We are professional educators and we know what we are doing. Please don’t offer money to try out your experiments on our children. Please take your advice and your money elsewhere.” ”
Why don’t they?
Exactly, Gates should have been told, “You can keep your Common Core and VAM. They have no value to our students and teachers.” The problem is that these Gates’ initiatives were only sold tangentially to educators. Gates and other billionaires continue to co-opt our representatives so they continue to accept his flawed, non evidence based ideas as gospel. Money talks and corrupts.
Why don’t they?
Because every politician out there wants to keep their cushy, self-enriching “job” and they need campaign money to make that happen.
They would ignore Gates in a heartbeat if he were not allowed to fund their political aspirations.
The Coleman/Gates Common Core was ‘accepted” by Arne Duncan because it was precisely what he (essentially Obama) needed to carry out his own plan for national testing.
National standards are needed for national testing, but the federal government is prohibited by law from establishing standards.
Enter Bill Gates who facilitated the whole thing (and made it possible with no involvement from Congress or state legislatures)
National testing, RTTT, widespread VAM and all the rest would never have been possible without Gates’ plan and Gates’ money.
I would not expect any supe adminimal to respond like that. They can’t, it’s not in their being to do so. These adminimals are GGGAGA*ers through and through.
*Good German Go Along to Get Along.
The same is true for the blind acceptance of “Personalized Learning” which gets “favored partner” status in ESSA. Why? It is an experimental project that uses students as guinea pigs. It is being given legitimacy because Gates is behind it. The government should not be allowed to spend taxpayers’ money so freely and allow what is a pilot project be adopted by whole districts. It is irresponsible for districts to be so cavalier with their students’ education.
Apparently Gates has never actually visited any developing country to see how people actually live. Having visited and lived in a few myself, including in sub-Saharan Africa, I’m pretty sure the flightless fowl running around virtually everyone’s houses, laying eggs and being plucked before cooking were chickens. But I could be wrong. My direct experience might be clouding my hubristic knowledge.
The power of money allows Bill Gates to feel entitled to tell everyone else what to do.
People in need don’t want to be told, they might need a hand up, but not stupid suggestions.
A “white” knight hoping to change the world? More like the knight in Lewis Carol’s Alice Through the Looking Glass – the one who can’t seem to stay on his horse.
Ah yes. Bolivia is so economically advanced it became the first country to legalize child labor for 10-year-olds.
“Samuel Juan’s family lives in a small room provided by their employer. He shares a bed with his parents, his younger brother Juan Manuel and his baby sister Naeli.
Most families in the town come from parts of Bolivia such as Potosi and Oruro – mining areas where children have traditionally worked in dangerous jobs from a young age.
Recent figures are hard to come by, but in a report from 2008, it was estimated that about 800,000 children worked in Bolivia. Of that, 491,000 were under the age of 14. That equates to about one in four children.
Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. It has made huge economic strides in the past decade as a result of high commodity prices.
With the money that it has earned, socialist President Evo Morales has boosted social spending programmes and his popularity among Bolivians recently gave him a third term as president.
But a law passed in July that lowered the minimum working age was seen by many as a huge step back.
The new bill kept the official minimum working age at 14, in line with international labour conventions in developing countries.
But it introduced two exceptions. For children aged between 10 and 12, work is allowed if they attend school, are self-employed and get parental permission. And from 12, children can do light work for others – mining and brick making are not considered light work.
In all cases, the work needs to be authorised and registered with a child protection officer.
“We know the realities of Bolivia,” says Katarina Johansson Mekoulou, the deputy representative of Unicef in Bolivia. “However, these two exemptions to the minimum age are of great concern to us because we see this as a risk – the most vulnerable children will be at risk of abuse.”
The International Labour Organization (ILO) argues that child labour should not be justified as a necessary evil, nor as a development strategy, but sponsors of the bill disagree. They say this law addresses Bolivia’s needs and is part of a plan to eradicate extreme poverty by 2025.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30117126
Lucia,
Are you recommending that Bolivia should accept Bill Gates’ 100,000 chickens whether they want them/need them or not?
What is your point?
Bolivia has child labor, so they need more chickens? Bolivia has child labor, so Bill Gates is right to give them chickens?
I am having trouble with your train of thought.
Please help.
Lucia, you are absolutely correct that Bolivia is a poor country, and that child labor is not good. But I agree with Diane Ravitch that this has nothing to do with chickens for Bolivia.
And I don’t know if you realize this, but kids in farming areas of this country work on the family farms from a very young age. I live on a farm in the US in a very rural area. Our kids worked on our family farm. My kids were baling hay and driving tractors from the time they were 12 years old. Also, helping castrate male calves, and other necessary chores. Including shoveling cow manure, even before they were 12. They were raising calves to show at the 4-H fairs, and helping grow our vegetables and fruit. Other kids around here were helping shear sheep, raising chickens (including plucking them when it was time to eat them) and other farm tasks.
So how have the Democratic Socialist in Bolivia done? Poverty has been reduced by 25% extreme poverty by 43% . What is more amazing they did this between 2006 and 2015 as the rest of the world was crashing. More amazing still Morales has managed to avoid the fate of every South American leader who has had the audacity to try and improve the lot of his people by challenging American Corporate Imperialism. I assure the increases in Standard of living represented by the Pink tide in Latin America were not built on the backs of Children.
http://cepr.net/blogs/the-americas-blog/bolivias-economy-under-evo-in-10-graphs
But Plutocrats like Gates care little about children except in lip service .His chicken dropping are minuscule as compared to the features negotiated into Trade Agreements that will protect intellectual property , including patent protection on life saving drugs. We will pivot to Asia by making sure sick people in the East get ripped off like people in the USA .
Have no fear if we can not manufacture a soft coup as we have done in Brazil and Argentina Honduras… …. Evo will some how be found in a mysterious plane crash. The victim of the American Corporatocracy and the CIA
http://economichitman.com/ John Perkins
In simplest terms, there is reason to suspect that the growth of Bolivia’s chicken production has involved the exploitation of rural indigenous children. For example:
“In 2014, a journalistic investigation[xi] denounced a case of Guarani children labour exploitation that was taking place in the municipalities of Camiri and Lagunillas, located in the department of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in the East of Bolivia. The article was published as a result of complaints from residents and community members, mainly from the captaincies of Kami, Irundaiti and Puente Viejo.
This type of work starts with the grouping of children between 10 and 16 years that begin to pluck chicken manually at 1 am and do not end before 7 am, when the chicken is transported to the market to be sold. They get paid an average of 50 Bolivian cents (centavos bolivianos) per plucked chicken. Each child reaches an average of 40 chickens per day, receiving therefore a daily compensation of around 20 bolivianos (approximately £ 2).
These children are called “triperos” because they also have to take the innards out of the chicken. The final destination is the city of Santa Cruz, capital of the department Santa Cruz, and one of the most dynamic and growing cities of Bolivia. Communities where this work was described on the newspaper are mainly Guapoy, Piedrita and Canon Segura. However, even though some actions were undertaken to solve this situation in these communities, this kind of child labour still exists in many other unidentified communities, basically due to the growing demand of chicken[xii].
Recruitment of children instead of adults can be explained by the fact that they represent a low cost workforce compared to adults. Moreover, in one of the country’s poorest areas, children are in need to support their families. The demand of Guaraní workforce in the regional markets is not new. Their work has been exploited already since the past century with the harvest of chestnut and sugar cane, forcing communities to regularly migrate to look for work.
Growing cities originate new demands, among others more poultry farms, which are increasingly employing local Guarani workforce. In general this type of farm is not regulated and constitutes an unhealthy working environment where children work without any protection. In addition to the health risks, children’s school attendance is also put in danger, in addition to the violation of their rights of protection.”
http://www.alternautas.net/blog/2015/9/1/vivir-bien-a-discourse-and-its-risks-for-public-policies-the-case-of-child-labour-and-exploitation-in-indigenous-communities-of-bolivia
And while Bolivia saw increased poultry production in 2014, there’s been a significant decrease in 2016.
http://www.wattagnet.com/articles/27041-decline-in-chicken-consumption-in-bolivia
Moreover, in comparison to other Latin American countries, Bolivia’s consumption of poultry has hardly budged. In 2000, it was 16.3 kg/person/year, and in 2009, it was 17.3 kg/person/year.
Columbia’s consumption in that time increased from 13.5 to 23.3 kg/person/year.
Ecuador’s consumption in that time increased from 15.4 to 23.4 kg/person/year.
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/3025/global-poultry-trends-chicken-meat-consumption-exceeds-global-average-in-the-americas/
Lucia,
Maybe I am dense, but I still don’t get the point. Bolivia exploits indigenous children. These children produce chickens. Therefore, what? Does this mean that Bolivia should accept Gates’ offer of 100,000 chickens? Does this mean that the indigenous children won’t be exploited any more? Please explain your point.
Diane, Lucia obviously has an agenda here. And she’s right, Bolivia still exploits their indigenous children.
But it has nothing to do with Bill Gates and his offer of thousands of chickens. Obviously, if more chickens show up in Bolivia, they’re going to need even more workers for those chickens.
Maybe it would make more sense for the Gates Foundation to address the fundamental causes of poverty in other countries. As well as our own, for that matter.
But forget about responding to Lucia any more. She has her “thing,” and it’s apparently all she wants to talk about.
Read about Trillium Farms in Ohio. One of the trials is scheduled for July. Migrant youth labored for more than a year as part of a slave labor ring. They worked 12 hr. days, 6 days a week. They lived in appalling conditions. Their paychecks were confiscated and they were threatened with death. The Trillium owners and managers have avoided a court date. They claim they didn’t know what was going on.
What do you think, Lucia?
The question may not be whether there is child labor in Bolivia, a Nation with few comparative advantages in a “World Economy” .
The question might be why that labor was legalized. The situation is similar ,emphasis similar to ,not the same as the question of undocumented immigrant labor in this country. For years the AFL-CIO position was enforcement of immigration law. After beating their heads against reality for decades . They adopted a position that giving undocumented immigrants legal status protected not only immigrant labor but American labor . Employers would be less likely to cheat on wage and hour law .
Child labor in Bolivia was a fact on the ground ,long before the law was passed .The law granted legal status . Legal status was meant to ensure minimum standards. Has it worked probably not. Will it,maybe.
But as it is easy for Gates to sit in his Ivory Tower and pontificate about everything from Public Education to solutions for world poverty .
It is easy for us who sit in the most resource rich nation in the world, to pretend we are Mr. Gates . Few nations want their children to be forced to work at the age of 8 or 10 ,many have little choice.
My point is that the Development Minister of the first country to legalize child labor for 10-year-olds, some of whom are exploited to produce chickens consumed by less impoverished people, uses some smoke and mirrors when he asks, “How can he think we are living 500 years ago, in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce?”
Particularly when Bolivia apparently hasn’t increased its production of chicken enough to raise its chicken consumption as much as other poor Latin American countries have.
Lucia,
So you are saying that Bolivia should take the Gates chickens?
No. I’m saying that the Development Minister purports to know what Gates thinks (“…we are living 500 years ago, in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce) while the country’s laws exploit children in order to produce.
That’s all.
Lucia,
China claims to have very stringent manufacturing standards. There’s no enforcement. The U.S. has all kinds of lofty ideals, codified in law. No enforcement, establishes that the laws are meaningless. Instead of criticizing Bolivia, take on industries, like Trillium farms, or Wall Street, where, despite the law, it’s profit taking as usual.
You’re like Gates, who chooses fights in lower weight classes.
I recommend that the economic elites, the 1 percenters, billionaires and millionaires should personally raise dyspeptic pigs; no help from their maids, butlers or hired staff. They have to feed them, burp them, and clean up after their bodily deposits. Perhaps then, these economic royalists might learn some humility but I have my doubts.
Good for the Bolivians.
I feel the tide is turning against Bill Gates here and abroad because none of his big schemes are bearing any positive fruit.
His ideas in a million different areas were tried and they failed. That’s what everyone but Bill Gates is seeing.
Cupcake
Remember the famous blue screen of death . He didn’t get that right either . Not even close till windows 7 . But personal computers are a disposable item . Children aren’t .
I wonder whether Billy Boy knows about cui? Cui is a relative of the guinea pig and they are raised in the Andean areas of Bolivia and Perú. They forage for food, much like chickens and are a staple of the Quechua diet – have been since before Columbus got lost on his way to India.
The ancestors of the Quechua also gave us the potato.
What has Bill Gates given us? (besides a pain in the backside)
Cui are guinea pigs, not a relative. The folks of the Andean region have been raising them as a “natural” bug deterrent and as a protein source for a couple of thousand years as shown in the archaeological record of the remains of the walls of huts in which the cui tunnels (built into the walls by man) can still be seen.
Cui are tasty, usually roasted (had some when I lived in Peru). I’d say the closest to cui I have tasted here is squirrel-which make sense since they are both part of the Rodentia order.
SDP,
And quinoa the new hot item in upscale cuisine.
So hot that indigenous communities can no longer afford to eat it.
Interesting. Didn’t know that, thanks Christine!
Duane –
My husband is Peruvian and we were in Lima this past November for a family wedding. My last trip was in 2009 and I was amazed at how much has changed. People were out in the streets until “altas horas”, the days of terrorism a piece of history for today’s young people. The restaurants are in a fierce competition to prepare typical Peruvian and criollo dishes, and the food is sourced from the mountains, jungle and shore daily. The variety and ingenuity of preparation is comparable to New York and there is a great pride taken in serving “lo nuestro”.
On the other hand, they’ve just elected an economist as president. 😟
Talking about the lesser of two evils, an economist or a Fujimori-ha ha. Actually I don’t know the particulars but I’m pretty sure Fujimori would have pardoned her dad had she been elected.
Peruvian cuisine has been on the up and up in nouveau cuisine in the US for about a decade now.
I’ve always said the best food I ever ate was when I lived in Peru. The variety and unlimited taste combinations were/are amazing. Even the “chifas” had excellent food.
I played for a basketball team-the Social and Sporting Club Ilave in Trujillo and we won the league. To celebrate the “owner” was a Chinese Peruvian and asked me to pick the choice of either home cooked Peruvian (his wife was Peruvian) or home cooked Chinese. Well I ate home cooked Peruvian everyday so I picked home cooked Chinese. It was a feast!
Don’t tell him! He will try to market some genetically improved version of them to the governments of Bolivia and Peru.
I read this story the other day and thought immediately of the posters here who think Billy is the greatest thing for education since sliced bread, and that his offer of his chickens, genetically modified no less, is something everyone should accept. There must be strings attached to those chickens though, just like the polio shots that crippled 47,000 kids in India (thank you Billy Gates), and the genetically altered mosquitoes (that I mentioned in a prior post on the first chicken post) and someone wrote that I was being duped into believe the inter webs. Well here we are again, and if you google Gates and the mosquitoes, instead of handing out nets and bug spray and helping create sanitary conditions where malaria is rampant, Billy believes in genetically altered mosquitoes.
Don’t you find is scary as hell that Billy is GENETICALLY altering insects and chickens, and is in bed with Monsanto’s GMO crops? He does zero for free…there is always a “get” for him.
Google how GMO seeds harm farmers, financially usually.
Google Gates and the mosquitoes.
Google Gates and polio vaccines.
Google Gates and eugenics.
Scary stuff.
What is his legacy going to be?
Your comment got me googling, Donna. Here’s an article on GMOs that I found interesting: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-bartolotto/a-farmers-take-on-gmos_b_4621669.html
I also found this article on polio: https://www.truthorfiction.com/bill-and-melinda-gates-polio-efforts-paralyzed-47500-kids/
2old, there are articles both yay and nay on everything concerning Gates…just how much of it is true is left up to the reader/researcher.
“…just how much of it is true is left up to the reader/researcher.” Unfortunately, human beings tend to look for evidence supporting their beliefs. For example, no matter how many reputable scientists confirm that there is no credible evidence to support the belief that vaccines cause autism, people still choose to not vaccinate their children.
Let’s just hope that Bill Gates does not clone himself before he passes.
“The Clones of Gates”
The clones of Gates
Have hit the floor
And seal our fates
Forever more
Poet, what makes you think he hasn’t already? Its possible to clone animals, so its possible to clone humans. Is it ethical to clone either? Probably not, and certainly not legal to clone humans. Have you seen the adverts for $100,000 one can clone a beloved dog? Of course, it will look the same, but sure isn’t the same. Creepy stuff. Reminds me of the Alien movies where Ripley is cloned; again, creepy. Gates would have no problem throwing out the rejects, and he’s got all the money in the world to do it time and time again until he gets the result he wants.
Well, he might already have done it, but the clone(s) would still have to develop and age, so a Gates clone could not be very old.
The first mammal cloned was Dolly the sheep in 1996, so even if Gates started cloning himself soon thereafter, his clone would be only 20 years old, just about the age when Bill Gates dropped out of college and started producing junk.
There is one reassuring point. Dolly only lived seven years (out of an expected 11 or 12 of a normal sheep) and there is evidence that clones in general tend to die fairly young.
So if Gates expects to achieve immortality through cloning, a new clone might have to be produced every few years from the existing one(s) and the clone may never reach an age where it can do any real damage to society.
Well, Gates may not have a clone, but he does have three kids, so who knows how his kids will act?
Kids with obnoxious, overbearing parents often purposely go the opposite way.
My guess is that his kids are probably already much more thoughtful than he is.
I certainly hope so.