The Bill and Melinda Gates Fondation just plunked down another $ 100 million to help starving sub-Saharan Africans that add up to a majority of the 800 million population.. This new program is titled " Alliance For A Green Revolution". It's about developing more foodstuffs for malnutritioned Africans. This is a new direction for the Gates Foundation. Prior grants dealt with disease prevention and control. The Gates Foundation's ,with $ 60 billion in resources, is constructively creating history's largest dependency program. The intentions are certainly well meant. But I have my doubts about trying to feed the greater part of 800 million of anything. Even if they were ants at a picnic.
I wish them well. But that is not reason for this essay. The reason is to put along side the problems of humans , problems of other inhabitants of Africa. Particularly the problems of the gorillas. There are only 700 mountain gorillas left in the wild. The primates are split into 2 groups living in Rwanda and Uganda. The gorilla shares 98% of our human DNA. We split from the common ancestor of the chimpanzee and gorilla about 500,000 years ago. The rest is history. But now there are only 700 gorillas versus 800 million Africans.
Gates should earmark some of his many millions for truly endangered species. Not in the form of dependency programs but in land conservation so the primates have a place to live. They have been around for millions of years and know how to care for themselves.It would be an excellent investment in keeping the world more balanced.
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