Why Gates, Buffett and So Many Other "Philanthropic Givers" Are Part Of The Problem
The Charitable-Industrial Complex
By PETER BUFFETT
I HAD spent much of my life writing music for commercials, film and television and knew little about the world of philanthropy as practiced by the very wealthy until what I call the big bang happened in 2006. That year, my father, Warren Buffett, made good on his commitment to give nearly all of his accumulated wealth back to society. In addition to making several large donations, he added generously to the three foundations that my parents had created years earlier, one for each of their children to run.
Early on in our philanthropic journey, my wife and I became aware of something I started to call Philanthropic Colonialism. I noticed that a donor had the urge to “save the day” in some fashion. People (including me) who had very little knowledge of a particular place would think that they could solve a local problem. Whether it involved farming methods, education practices, job training or business development, over and over I would hear people discuss transplanting what worked in one setting directly into another with little regard for culture, geography or societal norms.
Often the results of our decisions had unintended consequences; distributing condoms to stop the spread of AIDS in a brothel area ended up creating a higher price for unprotected sex.
But now I think something even more damaging is going on.
Because of who my father is, I’ve been able to occupy some
Video Of Educator Questioning Anthony Weiner's Moral Authority
Weiner's dishonesty runs so deep that he tries to deflect her argument by saying "But this was in the privacy of my own home" when he knows that if a teacher were doing this sort of thing in "the privacy of their own homes," they STILL would be fired for moral indecency, after they were dragged through the mud in the Post and Daily News.Hell, a teacher just needs to be accused of this sort of thin