Gates and Bloomberg to announce $500 million anti-tobacco donation

Update 10:33 a.m. PST: It appears the planned announcement was in fact made around the time this item was first posted.

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are expected to announce Wednesday morning a $500 million donation to fight tobacco use in developing countries, according to a CNBC report.

Gates is expected to announce his contribution of $125 million over the next five years toward the project, which will address tobacco-related problems in such countries as China, India and Africa.

Global health is one of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's focus areas.

Gates and Bloomberg are reportedly making their announcement in TheTimesCenter in New York.

[TomiDee]

I am always disappointed when I read comments like "......such countries as China, India and Africa"! Elementary geography tells us that while China and India may be countries (some argue they are sub-continents), Africa is a CONTINENT which has well over 50 countries in it including South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya and others.

[fredtheviking]

I understand that tobacco is a dangerous product, but I think more people are having trouble getting food and potable water I think that would be the sweet spot. Also programs to get world of off Oil is more useful than getting people off of tobacco. Such programs only make sense in countries where people are well feed and tobacco is the thing that will kill them. But tobacco usage has the benefit of keeping the world population in check. I don't think the problem is too many people dieing from tobacco, but too many people being born and living longer. This is putting a strain on the planet's limited resources. But I do apprienicate this goodwill gesture, bravo.

[smokinmunky]

***- Bill can't get a break from anyone. Poor guy tries to do something good for people on the planet and people still complain about it. TomiDee and fredtheviking, what have you done for poor people in africa?
I'll be willing to bet that it will be nothing compared to what Bill Gates will do in his life.

[pictureguy]

Ok, so why don't these people start helping people in OUR country, not someone elses country? Or put the money toward green energy developement. I"m sick of US citizens and the US Government giving away everything to everyone else before taking care of our own first!

[someguy999]

so let's see should the columnist have listed out the 50+ countries in africa (I think we all understood his intention).

Further more, different charities have different purposes. The purpose of this charity is to look at global health and development. To look beyond the US, not to say they don't do US oriented efforts as well. With China being one of the largest growing populations, I would think that education, much like we've had here, would be of value of the use of tobacco use. It was important here 15 years ago, incase anyone forgot and there was tremendous campaigns. the same goes even more so for Africa where the education system is in a terrible state of a affairs.

[ban tree huggers]

Why don't we resolve to spend these sums of money on education, feeding the poor, helping the farmers, increasing police and fire protection, fighting crime, etc. IN THE USA !

[Perry_Clease]

Smoking tobacco is one thing, growing it as a cash crop is another. See this link http://internationaltrade.suite101.com/article.cfm/top_ten_tobacco_countries

[MichaelJMcFadden]

People read about this $500 million dollar contribution that will take place over a period of five years and think, "Wow! Smoking's going to disappear!"

What they don't realize is just how much money has ALREADY been pumped into a campaign of social engineering that beggars anything done even under the most totalitarian regimes in history. According to the American Medical Association itself, the "Tobacco Control" effort spent over 880 million dollars just here in the United States in 2001. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/upload/mm/hod_ibot14_doc.doc And that 880 million dollar figure doesn't even cover the amount of money coming out of the pharmaceutical companies to push their NicoGummyPatchy products or the money spent on antismoking/fundraising ad campaigns by the Cancer/Heart/Lung "charities."

In the last ten years it's likely that well over ten billion dollars has been spent to demonize (Antismokers prefer the word "denormalize") smokers, pressure/encourage people to quit, raise tobacco taxes, lobby for smoking bans, and make smoking less enjoyable, more difficult, and more expensive in every way possible. While I don't have the current figures at hand, I do have a report from the CDC for the period 1990 (when taxes and bans were close to nonexistent) to 2002 (when both were VERY existent!) : BRFSS Trend Data - Data Display Comparison

Those figures show that the national rate in 1990 was 23%. And the national smoking rate 12 years later, in 2002, was 23%. *EXACTLY* the same!

The World Health Organization's total annual budget is about $1.5 billion. Think of what the World Health Organization could do with another $1.5 billion to save the millions of children dying of malaria, pneumonia, and even simple diarrhea every year if they had this money for those purposes rather than having it spent in a "War" that produces more hate than substance.

Michael J. McFadden
Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"