I haven't posted on here for a while, and then, having decided to do a long intended post on this series of Big Brother (tho admittedly not having actually started that post), I saw a story that just seemed so insane that I had to post it. The story is
here :
Bill Gates and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced on Wednesday that they will spend $500 million to stop people around the world from smoking.
Now, I know there is a certain type of billionaire who gets a kick from the whole foundation thing, giving money away in their own name to combat disease or illiteracy or poverty or whatever, but an anti-smoking campaign?
The campaign will urge governments to sharply raise tobacco taxes, outlaw smoking in public places, outlaw advertising to children and free giveaways of cigarettes, start antismoking advertising campaigns and offer their citizens nicotine patches or other help quitting. Third world health officials, consumer groups, journalists, tax officers and others will be brought to the United States for workshops on topics like lobbying, public service advertising, catching cigarette smugglers and running telephone hot lines for smokers wanting to quit.
How patronising is all this? Third World Officials being bought to the US to be taught on lobbying? Genius. The lobbying system in the US certainly doesn't need changing does it? Let's export it to the world.
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