Unintended victims of Gates Foundation generosity

Los Angeles Times by Charles Piller, Doug Smith | Dec. 16, 2007 (Special Report)

A neighbor shaved Matsepang Nyoba's head with an antiquated razor. Blood beaded on her scalp. Tears trickled down her cheeks, but not because of the pain. She was in mourning, and this was a ritual.

Two days earlier, her newborn baby girl had died in the roach-infested maternity ward of Queen Elizabeth II, a crumbling sprawl that is the largest hospital in Lesotho, a mountainous nation of 2.1 million people surrounded by South Africa. Full Story »

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by Patricia Blochowiak - Oct. 1, 2008

This story emphasizes the harm that a lack of a broader perspective can do. US aid to Africa often produces the same sort of imbalance between primary care and tertiary that we have in the US, where our tertiary care is outstanding, but people die for the lack of basic care. It is also consistent with the Gates Foundation's emphasis on high school education in the inner cities, which fails to take into consideration that students who did not master elementary school skills are much less likely to benefit from higher quality high schools.

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