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Bill Gates' Donation of Thousands of Chickens Rejected by Bolivia (theverge.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the hatching-a-plan dept.

HughPickens.com shares an article from The Verge: Bill Gates' philanthropic efforts are usually greeted with near-universal praise, but a recent attempt by the US billionaire to donate 100,000 chickens ruffled some feathers. The leftist government of Bolivia...has refused the donation, describing Gates' gift as "offensive." "He does not know Bolivia's reality to think we are living 500 years ago, in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce," said Cesar Cocarico [Bolivia's minister of land and rural development]... "Respectfully, he should stop talking about Bolivia, and once he knows more, apologize to us."
Gates' "Coop Dreams" initiative partnered with Heifer International, a group which fights poverty by delivering livestock and agricultural training, to deliver 100,000 chickens around the world, mostly to sub-Saharan Africa, as a way to improve the lives of people making $2 a day. In a blog post Gates noted that chickens are cheap and easy to take care, while selling flocks of chickens can be a profitable business, and raising chickens offers other benefits to children and families. "Our foundation is betting on chickens..." Gates writes, adding "if I were in their shoes, that's what I would do -- I would raise chickens."

8 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. Well, that sounded extremely patronizing. by Lisandro · · Score: 5, Informative

    Bolivia already produces 115 million chickens a year. The country is not first world by any measure, but people are not starving to death on the streets either.

    1. Re:Well, that sounded extremely patronizing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Exactly. I've spent a lot of time in the poorest Latin American countries (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia), and if there's one thing the region has in abundance, it's fucking chickens. The things are everywhere. Offering chickens demonstrates an utter lack of any kind understanding of the region. It would not be so bad, except that the countries are also full of holier than thou aid workers who cruise around in land rovers and try to tell farmers how to farm... except the aid workers aren't farmers and don't know how to farm, especially given local climates.

      If you ask Bolivians, they'll tell you the first thing they need is transpotation infrastructure so that they can trade these scads of chickens they have. Spend some time there and you'll see they're right.

    2. Re: Well, that sounded extremely patronizing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The chickens don't just have GMOs but come with a "free" copy of Windows 10, which they also rejected.

    3. Re:Well, that sounded extremely patronizing. by Solandri · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The stuff most aid organizations provide (food, clean water, medicine) aren't really what poor countries need. It's literally putting the cart before the horse, and can even be counter-productive by making life harder or impossible for domestic producers of those things, and allowing these countries' population to grow beyond their ability to self-sustain themselves.

      These countries need to develop their own economy first.That's why UN assistance for developing nations focuses on building infrastructure, increasing the number of citizens participating in the economy (education and gender equality), figuring out ways to exploit natural resources, facilitating trade and economic development, and helping set up government programs to help support all these things. Once you get the economic ball rolling, they can grow their own food, clean their own water, build their own hospitals. These things are the result of development. Giving people the end product instead of the means to produce the end product is exactly what the aphorism "give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for life" tells us not to do.

  2. Almost 20% of Bolivia is malnourished... by drmaxx · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not sure if chickens are the right thing to deliver, but Bolivia certainly does not know how to feed their population properly: https://www.wfp.org/stories/10... or http://www.unicef.org/bolivia/... I am always baffled, when pride is willing to kill people.

    1. Re:Almost 20% of Bolivia is malnourished... by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's a lot less baffling if you understand that the prideful people in power who are refusing the gifts are not the same folks that are going hungry.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  3. Re:Here we come to save the day by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

    What do you think the effect on an agrarian economy would be if you came in and flooded the market with free food?

    This would not "flood the market". 100,000 chickens is less than 0.1% of Bolivia's annual chicken production, and only a small portion of the 100K chickens would go to Bolivia. Most are going to Africa. Anyway, this is not about "more chickens", it is about chicken redistribution. It is not like crates of chickens are going to flown from America. The chickens will be purchased locally and given to a handful of the poorest families. The reason that BG is doing this is because there is actual data that shows it this program has helped similar families in the past.

  4. Re:Here we come to save the day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    640,000 chickens should be enough for anyone.