If you would like to contact the Gates Keepers, send an email to Gates.Keepers.blog [at] gmail [dot] com.   more »

A fallacy of thinking due to a misunderstanding of a statistical principle may have let the Gates Foundation down the garden path. Perhaps they are making similar mistakes at the moment. Who would call them on it?   more »

Lots of comment in the mainstream and social media these days.   more »

Very clever.   more »

Here is a view from Nairobi.   more »

If Seattle based civil society groups and activist groups speak loudly and clearly then the local press will publish stories on their issues that may be picked up by other media outlets. It is good to see this kind of advocacy increasing.   more »

Here is a brief note about the CAO of the Gates Foundation.   more »

This is the second faux pas for the Gates Foundation on tobacco issues this year. Are the programme officers on tobacco asleep at the wheel? Or is Tachi?   more »

Imperialism sits heavily on the Gates Foundation.   more »

See Bill talk. His response begins with "Well, ...".   more »

"Power systems do not like criticism, and they use whatever techniques they have to undermine and condemn it."   more »

This is from Microsoft's very own Slate. It is worth reading for bons mots such as "an angelic choir of media approbation" and "Do I need to repeat the line from Balzac? "Behind every great fortune there lies a great crime."" and the brilliant "Billionaire Begathon". Well written, Ron.   more »

Are these sound investments?   more »

Normal peiple cannot see your yacht and jet and cannot get close to your mansion. But they sure can see your philanthropy, especially when you hire publicists to be sure they do.   more »

Melinda had better get used to controversy. The Gates Foundation engenders it. Listen and read.   more »

Economists like Marginal Revolution's Alex Tabarrok have views on the Gates Foundation, too. Read the comments.   more »

There is discussion on the Gates Foundation on the Democratic Underground.   more »

The editor of the Atlantic Wire is the husband of the former CEO of the Gates Foundation. The links in the original article lead to some interesting views.   more »

Ghanaweb has fifty comments on this article about research that may have been funded by the Gates Foundation. Or not.   more »

Don't miss the Seattle Education 2010 blog. It has a valuable view of the activities of the Gates Foundation.   more »

Now the Gates Foundation has gone and bought TED. It was too good.   more »

What language did Ray Yip use in his warning to China's gays? And did he also address the millions of non gay-identified men who are not part of "the community"?   more »

"All the foundation wants is results, says Bill Gates, however they are achieved."   more »

Sure beats a pie in the face.   more »

"Very often their programme is too much directed by the Gates foundation and they don't consider enough the local situation."   more »

Bill Gates has the ear of twenty thousand HIV professionals. Why does he waste the opportunity and give an AIDS 101 talk? And why does he stutter and sputter his way through it? GKs suppose it is hard to read a speech. --- The talk starts with a swerve towards looking at opportunity costs, a topic he should know about. But it degenerates. GKs cannot wait for the trial results from "rulvrulpiverine" (29:55).   more »

Pablo Eisenberg's measured thoughts provide counterweight to the gushing of Philanthrocapitalist cheerleaders. ------ "The infusion of additional great sums of money by very wealthy individuals is likely to increase societal inequities, the gap between large and small nonprofit organizations, and the disparity between privileged and disadvantaged citizens."   more »

The Gates Keepers haven't been keeping up with the Philanthrocapitalismboosters so they missed this.   more »

Not only do we have to listen to Bill Gates, of all people, give a speech at the start of the International AIDS Conference, but we have to put up with speech previews. Double coverage. The Gates Foundation PR people are milking this one for all it is worth. --- So are the Gates Foundation grants in HIV prevention efficient? Don't expect to hear from Bill on this one. There is almost nothing about prevention in this preview. --- This takes the heat off Tachi.   more »

A year ago Patty Stonesifer said Gates Foundation investments had no social impact. Now with Tachi in trouble the Foundation is selling off its pharma investments. Huh?   more »

Who says long form journalism is dead? In this brilliant article that would never be published by an American newspaper, the British political journalist Andy Beckett takes on the Gates Foundation. This article is a frontrunner for Gates Keepers' best Foundation coverage of the year award.   more »

Now here is a rare event. The Washington Post has quoted someone who, while not critical of the Gates Foundation, questions the merit of having one big funder influence everything in educations: "But any time you have one big player that is influencing all of these groups, it is cause for concern." --- Even Melinda serving on the board of the Post cannot force all journalists and editors to close their mouths.   more »

Rema in India gets it.   more »

One gets the idea that the author of this article does not buy all the stuff that was presented.   more »

From one live philanthropist's pocket to a dead one's. It is too bad that the Rockefeller Foundation appears so broke that one of its beneficiaries has to beg money from Gates.   more »

This is a nice high school level essay that does not prove the point in its title. One expects better of a person with Suzman's responsibility.   more »

But the Gates Foundation links to other sites. Huh?   more »

What a wasted opportunity.   more »

This is from a book flog blog.   more »

A subcontinental view of the Gates Foundation is on this video ...   more »

Terse words on the GF.   more »

Not talking about abortion just fuels controversy ...   more »

To look at this headline you would think that the President of the Global Development Program was a Native American. But the photo demonstrates that she is white. And there is nothing in the article to say that she has ever owned a passport.   more »

Here is a recent speech. She talks a bit about evidence but does not go into sources or clear conclusions.   more »

Who paid for the building?   more »

How can a PR firm have “passion for the issues we focus on”?   more »

Pledge? Social contract? Document? What do rich people (or poor people) need a pledge for? It has been for the last several years the norm for the very rich to give away a lot. Why the hegemon? Three billionaires' dinner party diners decided on the 50% figure.   more »

We can be sure that Mike Klonsky is on to the Gates Foundation inputs and outputs ... The Foundation is a major investor in the gusher.   more »

Gates Keepers applaud the Gates Foundation on the limited release of the findings of its first set of Grantee Reception Reports. Well done Jeff. You have listened and your action plan is sound. --- Gates Keepers are not surprised by the findings. It is not easy to deal with hubris on the part of leaders, managers, and portfolio managers. --- Now what about those five hundred grantees who did not respond to your request to report? How are you going to find out how you are doing with THEM? --- And can we please see the report on the Reports?   more »

Bill Gates' former public school was a battleground but it still got a grant.   more »

It is rare for a public intellectual to rave against, or even stand up against the ideas of the Gates Foundation and the Billionaire Boys Club. Listen carefully. She is not finished. --- The title of her book reminds one of the title of a book by another giant-slayer, Jane Jacobs. Does Ravitch see herself Jane to Gates' Moses?   more »

Unless the situation is extremely well researched this is a very risky investment. 'Leapfrogging' may only be possible when there are already lots of cell phones being used.   more »

Whether Michelle Rhee went too far or not, philanthropic donations involved vested interests. She should resign and see if the money stays put. The Gates Foundation appears to have dodged this bullet by not being directly involved. --- Is a leadership clause really a "standard feature of private funding agreements" in education. It is not in field of health.   more »

Bill gets it right here when he says it is both good work and good luck leading to continued control. In the following story the author appears to have mixed up Bill's work and the work of the Gates Foundation. Does the Foundation encourage this confusion?   more »

These are very big grants given to countries that have high military spending. One wonders to which countries the other grants in the commitment will go. But it is good to see that the Gates Foundation is back into family planning after years of ignoring it. The eugenics loonies won't like it.   more »

USA Today usually only excels at sports and weather and good distribution at airports. But here is a surprisingly well researched and well written article looking at the Gates Foundation. Are they really listening or will "smoothing out such criticisms" be as far as they go?   more »

Some helpful thoughts from a development blogger on biases.   more »

It would be interesting to see an analysis of Gates Foundation involvement in the U Dub presidential race.   more »

Here is an education conversation --- and more.   more »

Read this carefully: "so that all the people who are smart about the disease are to some degree on the same side, working together.” Here is a fatal flaw. Gates thinks that you can define "all the people who are smart about the disease" and invite them to work together. He and his staff wouldn't know how to begin to find "all the people". They are elite technocrats. How many people LIVING with the disease are working together on his elite panels?   more »

Read on ---   more »

It is amusing that this Zimbabwe newspaper says that farm seizures are a related story. GKs wonder whether the Gates Foundation staff have considered the harm they may be doing with this grant.   more »

Do you think Ethiopia is going to end up with two Starbucks kitty corner from one another on a main intersection like Vancouver has? Or just one Starbucks on every corner?   more »

This begins like an excellent analytical article but it is behind a paywall.   more »

Like it or not, the Gates Foundation is funding a trip to Asia for The Three Amigos. The characters in the Vietnamese version have Saigon accents. We wonder how that goes over in Hanoi.   more »

Not everyone agrees with the results of Gates Foundation-funded research. Even this Darling who can't keep his facts straight.   more »

Look at the last line of this article. How do they fit all those bitten patients into one little bottle?   more »

Clever ...   more »

The Gates Foundation public relations division appears to have teamed up with Cartier to bring you the following blog post. It is amazing what information technology, spurred by the 'innovation' of Microsoft, has brought us. It can even blog and advertise at the same time.   more »

Hey, didn't this publicist used to work for the Gates Foundation?   more »

Busy busy busy.   more »

Here is an informercial on smart global health. The public relations people at the Gates Foundation are working overtime these days.   more »

Mainstream media challenges Bill challenging teacher's unions. Ravitch's ideas are getting a bit of traction as more people read her book.   more »

There is no hard data or historical data on the number of visitors in this article on an Everett library so we cannot decide for ourselves if there is strain. Library marketers are not big on publishing true visitor numbers.   more »

This development tourist is so naive. He has never heard of breast milk as the first vaccine but mothers in Bihar have been told this for years. And they can parrot it to any important visitor with connections to the ruling elite. --- And then he says he knows nothing about the cervical vaccine trial being stopped. He is either lying or ignorant. We are not sure which is worse.   more »

The tweetosphere is buzzing with this "quote" from Bill Gates. Did he really say this or is it apocryphal? --- "If I had two dollars left, I would spend one on PR" --- The Gates Foundation publicity machine is turning up the volume these days.   more »

This coverage of the head of the Gates Foundation's trip to India is amusing. It gives a whole new meaning to: "You are our father. You are our mother. Please adopt us" Arey bap! Bill appears to be a development tourist and Rahul is leading him by the nose. What does he expect the villagers to say to him except that they love his grants and want him to be their mother and father just like the Congress Party?   more »

Bill says "We use Twitter ..." His tweets are so jejune we thought they were from him.   more »

While at TED, Bill took time out (twice) to bask in the genius award glow of Esther Duflo. She says: "I had two dinners with Bill Gates in two days. It was efficient." "Gates later pressed MIT to make Duflo's undergraduate course on poverty available online and told her, "We need to fund you."" Too bad, Bill. She's already taken by MacArthur. --- Is Bill Gates really, like, crass, or does he just put his foot in it too often? Will he now abandon his beloved microfinance program?   more »

Bad hair day, bad vid day, bad advice day. All on one day at a big prestigious university ---   more »

Here is a Gates Foundation-funded project to tell people the good news that projects that have not been funded by the Gates Foundation have been successful. --- Gates Keepers find the following statement distasteful: "Perhaps because of language or cultural barriers, stories of malaria elimination from Asia—Pacific have been under-recognised and under-appreciated within the region and by the international community." --- What cultural barriers prevent Asian people from writing? And doesn't the public health elite in Asia speak English? WHO staff do. Can the authors please be more specific about these barriers?   more »

The arrogance is astounding ... and the power of money is not surprising.   more »

Do you think Bill really thinks that the "human piece is the ultimate test" or still believes that technology trumps?   more »

At first the idea of the head of the Gates Foundation answering questions from young people at a Bahia boarding school for farmers made the Gates Keepers nauseous. But we can learn a lot about the arrogance of the Gates Foundation from this Q and A. Here is a privileged rich white heterosexual American man who happened to be in the right place at the right time answering naive questions from 'others'. The worst thing that ever happened to Bill was a legal situation of his own making. He has little experience of suffering like most of the inhabitants of the planet. It is no wonder he is the way he is.   more »

Here we are given a few clues as to what makes Jeff Raikes tick.   more »

Whoa, some people are not happy about Gates Foundation involvement in education. Here someone wishes "Bill Gates would choose another cause for his giving".   more »

The Gates Foundation is throwing its weight around. It is proving interesting to have a very heavy elephant in the room when you are talking about improving people's lives.   more »

The elephant in the room stifles other views and diversity of ideas.   more »

The Gates Foundation loves to pay for computers in public libraries. How do you know if the FBI is snooping on you on that computer? You don't. These computers are used mostly by the poor.   more »

This statement makes it sound as if the Gates Foundation didn't have a project officer looking after the IDRC tobacco grant. Huh?   more »

Wouldn't it be better for northern Nigerians to make the call to end polio in northern Nigerial rather than someone from the Gates Foundation?   more »

Not much interest on the Chronicle of Philanthropy blog about the Gates Foundation funding and a conflict of interest   more »

Fifty comments on Metafilter on the Chinese factory story so far ...   more »

McKeever's views certainly do not represent the positions and strategies of the Gates Foundation. By no stretch of the imagination could the Foundation be called resilient. And does not promote resilience. --- Does he have any ideas for his own employer?   more »

Perhaps the Gates Foundation could run an antitobacco AIDS control campaign among these underpaid workers of theirs.   more »

Gates Keepers hope that Tjada continues to listen ...   more »

More on the pressure on Richard Horton to delay publication. Good on him. --- Did the Gates Foundation pressure Horton? Who knows? --- More at the Freakonomics blog.   more »

Lancet editor Richard Horton challenges the Gates Foundation who funded this study. Who is responsible and accountable for the timely presention of new findings that may cause controversy? The researchers? Their sole funders? Journal editors?   more »

There is an irreverent bio of Bill Gates on the web.   more »

Gates Foundation-funded PATH was trying out an HPV vaccine in India. Oops.   more »