{"id":209196,"date":"2019-08-23T17:21:59","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T22:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=209196"},"modified":"2019-08-23T17:21:59","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T22:21:59","slug":"melinda-gates-wrong-birth-control-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/melinda-gates-wrong-birth-control-poverty\/","title":{"rendered":"Melinda Gates is wrong: Birth control isn\u2019t poverty control"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(National Catholic Register<\/a>) There is a very funny scene<\/a> in the 1980 film Airplane<\/em>! that speaks to the current assumptions about what the West thinks is best for developing nations.<\/p>\n

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The movie features a young couple, Ted and Ellen, who visit the fictitious \u201cMalombo\u201d tribe in Africa as Peace Corps volunteers.<\/p>\n

Instead of focusing on practical solutions that might best help the tribe to which they are assigned, the couple spends time introducing Western solutions that, while well-meaning, completely overlook the real needs of the people. For example, Ellen hosts a Tupperware party for the women of the village to help them \u201cstretch\u201d their food dollars and to \u201ckeep hot dog buns fresh for up to a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cognitive dissonance in the scene is, of course, part of the humor, but it also draws a bead on the mixture of ignorance and arrogance that has defined much of what passes as Western \u201caid\u201d to developing countries.<\/p>\n

Like this idealistic young couple in Airplane! <\/em>Melinda Gates, the wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, seems to have her heart in the right place. She has a love for the poor and a genuine desire to relieve the suffering of others. She understands the influence that her position in society brings.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Gates\u2019 primary solution to the problems plaguing African and other developing countries is no better (and often a great deal worse) than Tupperware: Gates is strident in promoting widespread use of artificial contraceptives, as she argues in her new book, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Gates\u2019 argument for contraception is experienced-based. She holds that contraception is the primary path for women to freedom and equality and cites her own success as a career woman \u201cto work and have the time to take care of each\u201d of her and Bill Gates\u2019 three children, who are precisely spaced three years apart.<\/p>\n

Moreover, she says that when it comes to contraception, \u201cno woman I knew went without it.\u201d If Western women are healthy, educated and powerful \u2014 a packet of adjectives she comes back to frequently \u2014 Gates reasons that such benefits are a result of unlimited access to contraception.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Bill Gates and Warren Buffett spend billions to control minority populations<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n