Much of the Western news media would have it that the Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropy that was started by Microsoft’s founder, has become the great hope for "saving" Africa.

A Google search a few minutes ago for "Bill Gates and Africa" returns a glowing list of headlines:  "Dispensing hope: Bill Gates’ Global Health Gamble,"  "Time names Bono, Bill and Melinda Gates Persons of the Year," "Gates Foundation to Aid African Farmers" and so on. 

The heroic narrative for the tale of the $35 billion charity is a hard one to re-write, but the LA Times gave it a go this morning, reporting that Gates isn’t Africa’s God after all.  Yes, the foundation has spent millions on health causes around the continent but at the same time, it has invested its assets in a myriad of corporations that are causing or enhancing the very problems the Gates Foundation purports to be fighting.

The story is loaded with statistics punctuated by compelling vignettes: A toddler in

Ebocha, Nigeria, who gets a shot for polio and measles, then spends his day hacking from breathing the pollution generated by a nearby oil installation, run by a company the Gates Foundation has investments in.  The Times explains:

"The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles
immunization and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At
the same time that the foundation is funding inoculations to protect
health, The Times found, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal
Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France — the
companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with
pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe."

The two-part series, set to continue tomorrow, points out more of the same with pharmaceuticals, a key industry, obviously, when concentrating on health issues as the Gates Foundation does.