Touched a nerve, have I?

First off, to the anonymous person who asked in response to my last post why I'm concerned about what others have, I'm not. Well, not really. It's the need to have things, just to have them that I don't understand. I have relatives and friends both who are very into consumerism, and as Suze said, I guess it does keep people employed. I can't get my head around it, but each to his own, I guess. If the bills are paid and there's money in the bank, and spending $20,000 or more on your hobby makes you happy, then what the heck. Knock yourself out.

Yesterday, earlier, I was reading about the work the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is doing in Nigeria, immunizing the populus against polio and measles. It's good work that will save lives. But hold on a second, turn around. This particular village, Ebocha is literally in the shadow of a petroleum plant that, without the regulation we enjoy here, spews toxic chemicals into the air causing serious respiratory problems for those same children who won't die of polio. Big investor in the company (Eni) that operates that plant? Well, that would be the same Gates Foundation.

I don't know what one situation (the sewing machines) has to do with the other (the duplicity of the Gates Foundation and other many charitable foundations.) But I know that they both made me tilt my head sidewise and go "huh?" And in both cases there's a whole lot of money involved. A lot of show, but how much substance? Maybe it's none of my business.