There is a worldwide trend towards millionaires and billionaires giving away a substantial portion of their wealth to worthy causes and philanthropy. This movement is catalyzed by the “Giving Pledge” started by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. So far, over 164 billionaires have signed the giving pledge. The aim of the pledge is to encourage philanthropy, even if one is not a billionaire. Patrice Motsepe, the South Africa mining magnate was the first African billionaire to sign the pledge.
Last week, former New York mayor (and potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate) Michael Bloomberg has given $1.8 billion to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, to use for financial aid. This is a momentous gift. Veteran education reporter Nick Anderson writes that it is “believed to be the largest private donation in modern times to higher education.”
And it comes with a high-minded rationale. Bloomberg explains in a New York Times op-ed, “This will make admissions at Hopkins forever need-blind; finances will never again factor into decisions. The school will be able to offer more generous levels of financial aid, replacing loans for many students with scholarship grants. It will ease the burden of debt for many graduates. And it will make the campus more socioeconomically diverse”. Bloomberg quoted.
Gambian activists Marie Cham posted on social media that two anonymous philanthropists donated to a school in Rhodes Island recently and it reads: “This Thanksgiving, I have an extraordinary reason to be grateful: two anonymous donors have given a total of $8.9 million to our school! I am thrilled to announce that their generosity provides a major leap forward in scholarship funding and ensures that our long-held dream of renovating the lower school becomes reality”. The generosity of Americans will always be a critical piece of philanthropy, as it should be. Philanthropy can be a moral indicator for the places where policy and the free market are falling short. It can point to areas that need attention and lead lawmakers to solutions. Philanthropy can fill short-term gaps and work in concert with other public and private efforts.
Those American thoughtful gifts will not end inequality, but it will make college possible for more deserving young people today. It will get deserving students a little closer to that American ideal of access for all. Now let’s keep going. The next step in expanding access must be expanding it for more kinds of students and at more kinds of schools. The future needs big thinkers of every stripe.
In 2013, Patrice pledged half of his USD2.6 billion to charity through the Motsepe Foundation. He has since been joined by telecom billionaire Mo Ibrahim and Mohamed Dewji head of the USD1.25 billion MeTL Group of Tanzania. Mohamed launched his foundation in 2015 and is expected to give away over US$100 million of his fortune.
On giving away nearly all his wealth away, Bill Gates once wrote, “We think that’s a basic responsibility of anyone with a lot of money. Once you’ve taken care of yourself and your children, the best use of extra wealth is to give it back to society.”
The psyche of the Banjul “millionaire” is different. Deeply driven by the scarcity mentality. It is said that people with a scarcity mentality have a very difficult time-sharing recognition and credit, power or profit. Most philanthropic activities of the Banjul “millionaire” are a pale shadow in comparison to their net worth. An occasional contribution to a Mosque construction, donating Hajj tickets to Mecca. Donating dates and praying mats or the now tired “I am paying school fees for orphans.” Faceless orphans. Many have fake philanthropic foundations named after them, which are essentially money laundering vehicles for tax avoidance purposes.
Vanity follows the Gambian “millionaire” even in their sunset years. In the midst of imminent death, they will still be chasing young girls and impressing mistresses, buying fleets of Bentleys, Aston Martins, and Mercedes Benz Maybachs that they will never drive. The Banjul “millionaire” will be invested in a collection of vintage wine and expensive alcohol that will never find way past their shrinking throats.
On their deathbeds, shares and other assets will still be in their names. They are prepared to literally take their wealth to the grave. As the heart grows unsteady and shaky, they will seek to expand their mansions, so that when they die, mourners can be in awe of their “big” houses and homes. The Banjul “millionaire” simply does not know how to give and when to stop.
The Banjul “millionaire” is complicated……
Lest we forget, the Banjul millionaire forms the crust of the economic and political elite in The Gambia. As rightly pointed out by Alagi, those dallying in wealth in The Gambia can buy their ways through anything and everything, including moral treason. How do you animate the “Banjul Millionaire” to be more charitable and innovative in charitable giving is no easy task. But perhaps and hopefull, Alagi has jolted a few to start thinking about their responsibility to their fellow citizens and of course their legacy.
BUT philanthropy in the USA cannot serve as an example for The Gambia. He indeed mentioned a few in Afrikka but the bedrock of his position is the US. That’s problematic.
@Bourne: I was absent because Jollofnews was no more accessible. I moved to Kaironews and got the shock of my life. My comments are wantonly edited to fit their political taste or ditched all together. My complains fall on deaf years.
Those people (the “editors, reporters and favored contributors”) are just a horrible bunch of zealots calling themselves journalists. They got no taste and produce nearly all the time badly written articles that neither inspire, educate, inform or entertain the readership.
I wonder why they are willing to surrender their souls to the devil which is the government of Ousainou and Adama.
Positions they garnered could be one explanation.
Sincere greetings to each and all.
Thank you Bourne ☺️.
I can also only hope the other contributors will show up to make the discussions lively and the views divergent.
Bourne the phenomenon of socialites flashing their wealth and status at social gatherings is not peculiar to Gambian or Senegalese cultures. These has evolved over time to become what they are today, in form and content.
In analyzing our cultural practices, I sense you take a very negative view of how people comport themselves. I wonder why.
I suspect your views are informed by a narrative that interprets our cultural practices and performances as counter developmental and backward. As such they belong in the dustbin of history. Nothing could be further from the truth.
My opinion is, that, in this case, our cultures are not a hinderance to philanthropy. They in fact encourage it. One only needs to look at the relationships that such occasions foster and how our traditions encourage mutual support systems for one and all. I won’t belabor this point except Bourne further insists on negatively characterizing our ways of living and perceiving.
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My points of contention with the Kaironews team is not born out of malice. It’s based on principles. You can’t open a comments section under news and opinion pieces and go on to censor comments because they don’t conform to your political ideology. That’s BS.
Yes all online newspapers opened their pages to wage a liberation war against Yaya, including Kairo. But getting Yaya out is one thing, how we change the corrupt and inefficient system he and Dawda built over fifty plus years is the biggest challenge we face. What am saying in a nutshell is this: it didn’t begin with Yaya and it didn’t end with him. We can’t keep on hanging on his balls, we have to move on. There is much work to be done.
Adama and his political godfather are the next battle fronts for anyone interested in true freedom and justice for our people. Adama said he is much more powerful than Yaya and he won’t hesitate to unleash the same thugs (all branches (bandits) of the “security” forces) on innocent souls. I have sounded the warning bells a long time ago. Some on this platform still take this to be a joke thing. Before we know it, it’s too late. Adama plus Ousainou equals Yaya and Dawda. Need I say more?
Bourne you have a very determined spirit to get to the bottom of important topics and issues. I love it.
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Just like you, I think we all should abhor lavish weddings, naming ceremonies, initiation rituals, funerals, birthday parties and so on and so forth. I do! Just to prove my point, a relative of mine spent close to half a million Dalasis on a wedding, in a hotel, two years ago. I did not attend out of principle. The marriage lasted one and a half years and crumbled.
So I understand where you are coming from. And of course I will never partake in such.
Having said that, you have to understand that lavish spending on these ceremonies is a new phenomenon that goes beyond the purpose and intent of our traditions. The transformation from tradition to lavish western styled gatherings is a new phenomenon. Where does it come from and how did we adapt and continue to adapt to it is a thing for researchers in anthropology and ethnological studies.
Without going into too much details, lets take a classical Sene Kambiya marriage ceremony under the microscope and how it is traditionally done.
The marriage is first and foremost arranged between two families. It’s therefore not just about two people. The alimony that is paid to the brides family is often a collective communal effort. This can sometimes be in cash or kind. The day of the marriage is occasioned by drumming, dancing and eating. The bridegroom has the duty to provide on that day or a short period afterwards, a bed, an abode, clothing and invest in cooking utensils. There could be slight variations from one culture to another in how exactly the process runs. But basically this is the frame of a traditional marriage in our region.
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Compare that to the current trend of weddings. You will realize it serves the purpose of heightened consumption and desire than building communal cohesion and mutual help. It’s a foreign way of living forced on us. Don’t get me wrong, am not condoning it. Am only emphasizing that is not part of our cultures. But they have corrupted a huge chunk of our cultures and even how we view ourselves.
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You have mentioned how public figures in the west go on humbly carrying out their functions without ever having the need to be recognized in the public domain for what they are.
Bourne that cannot impress me and I think you know this. The white man is no role model for me in anything good. Why? I have enough excellent role models in Afrikka than you will ever find in the west. They are not necessarily politicians but even at that, I have my Thomas Sankara, my Seedia Jatta, my Ahmat Dansokho, Jomo Keneyatta, Julius Nyerere, Ebrima Ceesay etc.
Those western ministers will also sale weapons to Boko Haram and ride a bike from their offices to get home. They can deceive you with their false simple live styles. Not me.
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Family in the west is a temporal thing. You get children, school them until they are eighteen and they can go and live on their own. This is mostly followed by a divorce or the man coming out as a homosexual or the woman a lesbian. Crisis ensue. That’s the nuclear family system. I will urge you to research the genesis of this kind of family setup and what keeps it alive. Then we will talk on Skype, if you want.
I believe you in one way or the other conditioned to assimilate too much into western society and subscribe to western mentalities that you are failing to see how evil the system of individualism is. Europe is the most lonely continent on earth for Europeans. That is leading to a myriad of mental health problems for the old generation and even their youths are not spared. The picture you are painting of white societies is replete with factual holes. We need to mend that.
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YOurs in the service of The Gambia and Afrikka, I remain.