U.S. Foreign Aid: Bill Gates, Dr. Zeke Emanuel, And Dr. Richard Sezibera Discuss U.S. Generosity

Ordinary Americans are saving millions of lives worldwide every year -- they just don't know it yet. Global deaths by malaria have dropped from 1,000,000 per year to 800,000. Children's deaths by preventable diseases has declined, from 15 million per year to 9 million. Rwanda is poised to enter the malaria pre-elimination phase (the complete eradication of the disease), and Senegal is on the brink of providing mosquito bed nets for all of its families.

The American taxpayers have been instrumental in achieving all of this through the United States' global health investments, but most are none the wiser. Bill Gates lamented this fact at a private panel event last week: "In a way, the U.S. taxpayers don't even understand the great things that have happened because of their generosity."

Gates shared the stage with Dr. Zeke Emanuel, Rwandan Health Minister Dr. Richard Sezibera, and moderator Frank Sesno on a panel about U.S. global health investment. Peter Chernin, former CEO of News Corporation and Fox Entertainment Group, and his wife Megan Chernin hosted the event at his Brentwood home with help from Hollywood-based Foreign Policy Roundtable and DC-based advocacy group Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The panelists were before some of the most powerful people in Hollywood: super-agent Ari Emanuel (who praised his brother as "the smartest Emanuel!" when he was introduced), billionaire philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, Imagine Entertainment founder Ron Howard, Sony CEO Michael Lynton, HBO president Sue Naegle, and Christina Norman, CEO of the Oprah Winfrey Network. Gates and his co-panelists threw down the gauntlet to Chernin's guests: is there anyone here tonight who can tell the success stories of the United States' global health investment, with eloquence and urgency?

Eloquence, because according to a Gallup poll from last month, 59 percent of Americans are in favor of cutting "foreign aid" in order to fix the looming federal deficit. And despite the fact that foreign aid makes up just 1 percent of the United States federal budget, a 2010 University of Maryland study found that Americans vastly overestimate the figure: "the median estimate is 25 percent. Asked how much they thought would be an 'appropriate' percentage, the median response is 10 percent."

Urgency, because in the face of a federal deficit reaching in the trillions, Republican congressmen are in a race to the bottom to propose cuts to the foreign aid budget, which includes funding for global health systems. While Tea Partier Paul Rand's proposal to eliminate all foreign aid is an extreme, Politico reports that the Republican Study Committee filed a bill to eliminate the Agency for International Development.

When talking about money, statistics, and percentages, it's easy to lose track of the lives that have been changed through global health investment. Dr. Richard Sezibera was at the panel to provide an account "on the ground" of the effect global health aid has had on his country.

Before Rwanda's national health campaign to eradicate malaria, Sezibera explained that the disease was once so common that all Rwandans knew how to diagnose it -- from personal experience. Bill Gates added, "There's a hidden part to that, which is that for every child who dies, there are four children whose brains are basically destroyed. They have an IQ of about 65 because of cerebral malaria. It's a terrible injustice for them, and a terrible thing for the country they're in." But now, Dr. Sezibera explains, "In many parts of Rwanda, it is gone. Even the health workers and laboratory technicians do not know how to test for malaria... a few years ago you'd have seen three children on one bed. Today, the [malaria] wards are empty."

Despite all this good news, "The deficit looms large," Emanuel warned. He praised both former Senator Jesse Helms and President George W. Bush for their work on PEPFAR but lamented that they were no longer in Washington to carry on their work. He emphasized, "It is going to be important to make sure that this is a bi-partisan issue," and "for everyone who has looked at all the things the U.S. government has done, this is the highest return on investment in terms of saving lives and in terms of favorable response overseas." He then quipped, "It's also a very cheap version of smart power."

After Chernin thanked the panel and his guests for coming to the event, he closed the evening by repeating, "This is one of the singular achievements of American society over the past 10 or 20 years... This is something we should be inordinately proud of, and we should communicate that pride."

On the way out the door, documentary director Davis Guggenheim (of Waiting For "Superman" and An Inconvenient Truth) said to the Huffington Post, "What's so wonderful about an event like this is that you can learn about something that America's doing that's good in the world." When asked if a global health film was on the way, he replied, "Someone's gotta do it, I don't know. I've got to figure it out."

Comments

[Independent1969]

06:47 PM on 02/16/2011

Vaccine Injured Children.

[dbrett480]

10:18 PM on 02/17/2011

More of this ridiculous conspiracy theory.

[Independent1969]

11:18 AM on 02/18/2011

Is it still a conspiracy theory if it's true? How about we call it a horrific reality instead?

VAERS Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
http://vaers.hhs.gov/index

VICP National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/

[Vajara]

09:30 AM on 02/15/2011

"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." We don't know why we are born into a society that has the resources to prevent many of these diseases,however, we have some of the most greedy people in the world who head up these global corporations--eg. Big Oil,BigPharmas, Big Wall Street & Banks, Big "Pigs." With all of their homes, yauchts, planes and greed used as tax wirte offs, they are responsible for putting us into this economic disaster, let them do the Right Thing by spreading their wealth rather than ripping us off.

Seems to me that Capitalism is a big failure and does not fit with the morality that we pretend to have as a Nation. Our War Lords (congress & administration) also need to awaken to our principles of living a healthy, responsible and caring Nation.

[SitandStay]

02:10 AM on 02/15/2011

When I see these celebrities actually working in the field with the afflicted, I might trust them.
However, Jimmy Carter has privately waged war on the Guinea worm for 2 decades and has almost eradicated it. Jimmy doesn't do "photo ops". If a photo is taken, he is working.
He sets the bar pretty high.
The Carter Foundation does a fantastic amount of good because it doesn't have too many cooks spoiling the broth.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/25/jimmy-carter-vs-guinea-worm-sudan-is-last-battle/

[Susan Pratt]

12:14 AM on 02/15/2011

I saw Bill Gates on the Daily Show talking about all the work his foundation does, and it is truly remarkable how little it costs to save lives. A few dollars for a vaccine is a pittance for any of us but it is an astronomical cost to neediest of the world's poor.

While we do need to work on our spending, we must not forget that precious lives hang in the balance. We spend so much money as a nation on wars that devastate communities and countries, and though we are one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we give so little of it back to those that need it the most.

No one is saying that we should give all of our money away, or that we shouldn't focus on balacing the budget, but closing our hearts and our pockets harms on a greater scale. Life is bigger than just this one country.

[homebirthmamma]

07:13 PM on 02/15/2011

"A few dollars for a vaccine is a pittance for any of us but it is an astronomic­al cost to neediest of the world's poor."

You mean population control.

[iridium53]

06:12 PM on 02/14/2011

So, why doesn't Al Jazeera do some specials on this?

[Kenz300]

03:04 PM on 02/14/2011

The worlds limited resources are coming head to head with the ever expanding
world population growth.

We have tried for decades to reduce hunger, poverty and despair. If we could not
do it when the world had 5 billion people and adequate resources how will we do it
in a world of 9 billion people and limited resources.

The world added a billion people in the last 12 years. It will add another billion people
in the next 12 years. Where will the resources come from?

[ddanimal]

02:12 PM on 02/14/2011

As usual, republican policy proposals are based on ignorance and fear.

[Mares]

02:07 PM on 02/14/2011

Given that the US debt has virtually almost out paced our GDP, it is not sustainable for us to give foreign aid any longer. Our poor and suffering are being ignored by the same people, like Gates, Zeke Emanuel (who has written 2 essays demanding US citizens be allowed to die if they aren't considered profitable to the government). Bill Gates discriminates against US citizens employment, lies about the need to import skilled workers, and then demands the taxpayer pay to educate the unskilled foreign workers he's brought in on the visas he's demanded, and then those same "skilled" workers have their rent subsidized by the taxpayer, and they be given food stamps and medicaid. Gates likes corporate welfare, he exploits people for profit. What's more, why isn't Gates spending his foundation money on these foreign causes of his? He, like Bono, don't donate any money to help the poor overseas, but they do demand the US spend billions on their select causes, such as the vaccine trials Gates and Bono had heavily invested in and hoped to profit from, the vaccine trials that ended up increasing AIDS in Africa. African journalists are begging that foreign aid be ended, because, it increases corruption in African government officials. They've stated that Africa, and India, Latin America and other countries we're told we have to give aid to have many wealthy people, large middle classes and industries, their taxes should be raised and governments forced to be answerable to their people

[kozmo9]

03:30 PM on 02/14/2011

You are simply repeating well known misrepresentations of Emanuel's writings by a flamboyant New York Post writer.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/deadly-doctor/
http://m.factcheck.org/2009/07/false-euthanasia-claims/
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/08/ezekiel_emanuel_rahms_brother.html
Gates and Bono have both donated significant amounts of money to global causes.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20018310-10391709.html
http://www.artivist.com/manual_article_detail.php?article_id=373

You might want to include some references for your claims. I suspect everything you cite is either grossly exaggerated, embarrassingly misunderstood, or just made up.

[Mares]

09:09 PM on 02/14/2011

Actually, no, neither Gates or Bono have donated significant amounts of money to global causes. In fact, both have set up foundations that do nothing other than lobby governments to spend taxpayer dollars. Gates' advocacy along with his pal Bono's, lobbied the US and EU governments to fund vaccine trials that both were heavily invested in. The two bribed corrupt African governments to allow their people to be used as guinea pigs, and the upshot was people were being diagnosed with AIDS and HIV merely for having malaria, diarrhea and other common ailments to their countries. They were vaccinated, and lied to, told they could indulge in unprotected sex as they were protected from HIV and AIDs, the result was a massive increase in infections. The scandal was reported by African and European journalists, but not the US media. Google to educate yourself. Even Bono's been exposed as not using any of the money given to his One Foundation to donate to the causes he claims to care about. Gates only seeks to profit him self. I dare you to provide one scrap of evidence that he funds his global activist causes. Gates has been getting the US to funnel hundreds of millions to fund his expansion of Microsoft into Sri Lanka, Armenia and Bosnia, through USAID. That was exposed late last year by Info Week, a tech site