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Bill and Melinda Gates Are Paying Off Nigeria's $76M Debt to Japan

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Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Are Paying Off Nigeria's $76M Debt to Japan

#211

Post by danjoc »

dang wrote: post #125
danjoc wrote: post #16

Why does the 6th largest oil exporter in the world need a $76M loan paid? Edit: Downvotes? Legitimate question guys. Can someone explain how that works?

> Edit: Downvotes? This breaks the site guidelines. You've done that a lot and we've had to warn you a lot. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow them if you want to keep commenting here.

>This breaks the site guidelines.

"Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."

I found the replies to and discussion of my question informative. It seems others did too.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16155099

That discussion wouldn't have taken place if I didn't ask about the downvotes. The post was at -2 in minutes when I asked "Downvotes?" and it is now at 3. I don't doubt that I would have been flag killed by people questioning my sincerity had I not made the edit.

I have to wonder if you are enforcing the spirit of the guidelines or selectively enforcing it because you don't like positions I've stated in the past?

FWIW, I've pointed out the guidelines to new users who dominate a topic with top voted generic naval grazing and taken the downvotes in stride.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16079626

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Are Paying Off Nigeria's $76M Debt to Japan

#212

Post by namlem »

a_imho wrote: post #187
roadbeats wrote: post #111

In return to handing Nigeria's agriculture industry to Monsanto; [1] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matte... [2] https://www.ecowatch.com/5-million-nigerians-oppose-monsanto...

Has any consumer ever asked for GM crops?

Of course. They're cheaper. Consumers love cheaper goods. Personally, I'm very much in favor of GMOs and think it's a shame that so many countries overregulate them so much. There's no evidence of that the crops themselves have caused any harm whatsoever to human health or the environment. Now, may not be the case for the chemical pesticides and herbicides often used with them, but that just means we should regulate those chemicals.

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Are Paying Off Nigeria's $76M Debt to Japan

#213

Post by jxramos »

> "No new cases of the wild poliovirus were reported in 2017 and there were only four cases reported in 2016, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative."

Other than verified infections, is any health organization able to sample this virus out in the wild as a discrete virus? Even in the US is polio just circulating impotently about us unable to hook-on from all the vaccinated individuals?

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Are Paying Off Nigeria's $76M Debt to Japan

#214

Post by dang »

danjoc wrote: post #211
dang wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Edit: Downvotes? This breaks the site guidelines. You've done that a lot and we've had to warn you a lot. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow them if you want to keep commenting here.

>This breaks the site guidelines. "Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." I found the replies to and discussion of my question informative. It seems others did too. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16155099 That discussion wouldn't have taken place if I didn't ask about the downvotes. The post was at -2 in minutes when I asked "Downvotes?" and it i…

We don't remember or care what positions you've stated in the past. The only thing we care about is whether accounts have a history of breaking the site guidelines. It's great that you know what they are and want to abide by them. That should make any problems easy to fix.

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Are Paying Off Nigeria's $76M Debt to Japan

#215

Post by BenjiWiebe »

RickJWag wrote: post #109

Awesome. I used to think very badly of Bill Gates. (New corporate PCs often came bundled with Word. The newest PCs wouldn't be compatible with older ones, so everyone had to constantly upgrade. It was a huge scam.) But it's nice he's giving his money away. I look forward to hearing about more acts of charity in the years ahead.

I agree. I get the feeling maybe he's trying to make up for having brought Microsoft/Windows into the world. :)

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Are Paying Off Nigeria's $76M Debt to Japan

#216

Post by lkbm »

throwwwwaway9 wrote: post #158
somberi wrote: post #114

A book by Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty, argues in favor of this approach where, wealthy individuals or nations help write off debt of poorer countries. The cost of servicing this debt is often crushing enough that no meaningful uplifit is possible from their current poverty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Poverty

A more correct title would be "Bill and Melinda Gates Are Paying Off Nigeria's Polio Related $76M Debt to Japan." So Bill Gates wants to eradicate polio and has been funding countries. In this Japan loaned it to Nigeria and Bill Gates paid it off. Paying debts for third world countries (is this still politically correct?) is not efficient, might as well give it directly to their leaders--you save on fees. A corrupt t…

Sounds like an argument against blindly paying off third-world debt. If we focus on paying off just appropriate, "non-corrupt" debt, we're good.

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Are Paying Off Nigeria's $76M Debt to Japan

#217

Post by jkchu »

danjoc wrote: post #211
dang wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Edit: Downvotes? This breaks the site guidelines. You've done that a lot and we've had to warn you a lot. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow them if you want to keep commenting here.

>This breaks the site guidelines. "Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." I found the replies to and discussion of my question informative. It seems others did too. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16155099 That discussion wouldn't have taken place if I didn't ask about the downvotes. The post was at -2 in minutes when I asked "Downvotes?" and it i…

"Downvotes?" is simply unnecessary, and that's the spirit of the guideline.

I see nothing wrong with you adding: "Legitimate question guys. Can someone explain how that works?"

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Are Paying Off Nigeria's $76M Debt to Japan

#218

Post by RobertRoberts »

croon wrote: post #205
RobertRoberts wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What we can do is judge him from his actions. Actions are proof of what he's doing. It's very easy to give something you have an abundance of. I don't see how his good is better than other rich peoples, just because we know about it? Because it's front page news? That makes it "good"? I am not willing to jump to the conclusion his motives are altruistic for these reasons alone. Do you know if he is getting a kick ba…

> It's very easy to give something you have an abundance of. I don't see how his good is better than other rich peoples, just because we know about it? Because it's front page news? That makes it "good"? Tell that to the Kochs/Mercers/etc of the world. I doubt that Gates puts much effort into publicizing their current work. It's front page news because they're doing it. > Do you know if he is getting a kick back from…

>Tell that to the Kochs/Mercers/etc of the world.

I am not comparing anyone to anyone, I am asking a simple question, that I think can be extrapolated to all news of this sort.

Why do we assume certain news stories to be true/false?

If we line up all the news stories that show contradicting ideologies like flat/round earth, holocaust denial, climate change, etc... we'd likely get results of support based on belief in those topics.

But Bill Gates? Polio? Debt? What in this story should make one automatically be supportive? And so vehemently?

All it takes is a tiny bit of research to show that almost all diseases are cured (massively in society) by clean water, nutrition and clean living conditions. But Gates isn't doing that, he's supporting vaccines.

Now this changes the argument from "do we believe Gates is altruistic?" into a vaccine debate. See the problem?

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Are Paying Off Nigeria's $76M Debt to Japan

#219

Post by JauntyHatAngle »

SolarNet wrote: post #152
JauntyHatAngle wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I am missing the relevance here, or not getting your point, could you clarify please? Possible I'm missing the obvious reference. As a side note, I find that articles arguments troubling for several reasons that appear to be glossed over, but in interest of not derailing onto a different comment, I'll wait for what aspect you are specifically referring to in this case.

Japan did something to stop polio when no one else would. And now because a billionaire did more as charity Japan looks like a monster for doing what no one else would at the time. Would it have been better if Japan had done nothing and Bill gates committed the charity now? No, people would have died. So unless you are japanese my question to you would be what has your government done for polio irradication in Nigeri…

From that perspective, I can see what he meant. Fair enough.

The ethics of profiting off the act might need to be truncated off it though, that is a genuine moral discussion that has so many shades of grey I feel.

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Are Paying Off Nigeria's $76M Debt to Japan

#220

Post by RobertRoberts »

saint_fiasco wrote: post #200
RobertRoberts wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What we can do is judge him from his actions. Actions are proof of what he's doing. It's very easy to give something you have an abundance of. I don't see how his good is better than other rich peoples, just because we know about it? Because it's front page news? That makes it "good"? I am not willing to jump to the conclusion his motives are altruistic for these reasons alone. Do you know if he is getting a kick ba…

> why did he help only Nigeria? This just seems suspicious to me. Perhaps I am unreasonably cynical. If he does this again and again, maybe that will be proof? Bill Gates has been a philanthropist for a while. They have helped poor people in several countries in several ways like malaria/polio eradication, education and family planning. For each project they always write about why they think it is a good use of their…

I could and should do research on the gates foundation. But that wasn't my question. It's why do we assume they are altruistic in their endeavours?

(specifically in this case with Nigeria and debt toward Japan, a very, very odd mix of circumstances that don't seem to be allowed to be questioned here)

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