The Good -
The
meeting of several well known super rich has triggered off all sorts of
conspiratorial conjectures and theories, in the diverse media, as to
the purpose and reasons of secrecy. The news was not revealed until now,
2 weeks later. Meanwhile these owners of such vast fortune were trying
to deal with matters like education in the United States, humanitarian
programmes in the ONU or their previous campaigns, like the
reconstruction of New Orleans after the brutal assault of the hurricane
Katrina for example.
Patricia
Stonesifer of the Foundation of Bill Gates, who directs the
association, revealed that the meeting was organised to debate on
charitable actions and procedures. "The group ( Bill Gate, Buffet,
Rockefeller, Oprah Winfrey amongst others ) is very committed to
philanthropical activities. From time to time, they get together to see
how they can do yet more." she told the ABC News.
According
to estimation of the magazine 'The Chronicle of Philantroph', amongst
all the benefactors, from the year 1996, have given some €50,000 million
to organisations of charity. Buffet, for instance, has committed in
2006 to donate 85% of his fortune, estimated to be €30,000 million, to
the humanitarian foundation of Gates.
The Bad -
A
personal friend of mine died 2 days ago, of cancer, at the age of 36.
That's what my Blog of yesterday 'Let it be said' was about really,
although I didn't mention this personal tragedy with respect to his
family's reticence of his illness. Now though, I am sure my friend would
have liked me to talk about it, instead of having all sorts likely
rumours going around that such a young man dying of some mysterious
disease.
Then
this morning, I found that I have lost one of the pair of my favourite
black and white genuine pearl earrings, a gift from this friend, as I
had wanted to wear them to his funeral. I had no idea when and where
that one earring was not in my procession any more. So I wore just one,
with a different one on the other ear. I was already extremely sad;
losing my dear friend and a treasured gift from him made me feel in some
strange sense that I had somehow failed him, that I am guilty of
something.
The Ugly -
I
arrived at my usual cafe much later today, due to the funeral. The
first news that hit my eye from the paper somebody had left open on the
table when vacating it, was that a man was sent to prison for a year
after he was found guilty of having installed a video camera in the
bathroom of his 2 daughters. His argument was that he had suspected one
of the girls might suffer from anorexia, and he wanted to see whether
she went to the bathroom to vomit out her food.
I found that excuse rather thin. More than that the whole episode was darn ugly.
Current Mood: 
Awake
Amused
