|
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Batuhan: Charity Inc.
By Allan S. B. Batuhan
Foreign Exchange
It is a deal unlike any other before it – one of the richest mergers in corporate history. Together the two parts create an organization with over $50 billion in assets, and bring together the most powerful families the business world has ever known.
Gates and Buffett. Arguably the most famous businessmen of our time – and certainly the wealthiest, being Number 1 and 2 respectively in the world’s rich list – both have decided to merge fortunes in what is going to be a business combination to rock the world.
Sitting side by side in a well-attended press conference earlier this week, the two powerful CEOs spelled out their plan to dominate the world together, and once and for all imposing the Gates-Buffett stamp on us all.
But wait, the journalists covering the event are all smiling and cordial. Surely such a “greed-driven” scheme by Gates and Buffett deserve the collective contempt of mankind? What will they think of next, buying up entire countries?
“Clearly, something is up here,” I thought. But what?
Yes, true enough, something big was up. And it wasn’t the merger I thought it was going to be either.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are indeed joining forces, not to dominate the world’s business this time but to solve its most basic problems – health, education and poverty. In a dramatic gesture that has not been seen in today’s greed-driven corporate world since the time of the Carnegies, the Mellons and the Rockefellers, Buffett decided to give all of his fortunes away to charity – with most of them to what is already the largest charitable organization in the world – the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
What prompted the world’s second richest man to give it all away is still a bit of mystery. Even more uncertain is why he decided to give it to a “rival” foundation, instead of one that he set up on his own, as many rich families are wont to do.
What is no mystery however, is the impact that all this would have on many of the global problems we face today. HIV in Africa, poverty in Asia, and crime and neglect in the inner cities of America will surely feel the aftershocks of Buffett’s momentous decision to pool his resources with Gates’ in the fight to improve the plight of the world’s underprivileged.
Some quarters may suspect the motivations behind such a powerful and dominant charitable organization as the combined Gates-Buffett trust. After all not even the business world had witnessed such a formidable partnership in action, apart from Berkshire Hathaway passively investing in Microsoft shares. Is there some ulterior motive behind all this, perhaps?
In the early days of the Gates foundation, they were accused of channeling all their resources to India, where majority of Microsoft’s army of software programmers and engineers come from. In effect, through his charity, Bill was still looking out for Microsoft’s interests.
Be that as it may, the fact that corporate charitable activity has come full circle since Andrew Carnegie decided to give away his fortune to the Arts can only be a good thing.
Traditional organizations like the United Nations and the various large NGOs – themselves saddled with all sorts of scandals and management problems – can surely use all the help they can get from the best minds industry has to offer.
(Allan may be reached at asbb.mbm91 @aimalumni.org)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 30, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
