[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by daj

Is contributing money to something without contributing yourself & your time really contributing? I don't think so...

Of course it is. Let's say I win $250,000 in the lottery and I contribute $225,000 of this to a charity. You don't think that's a contribution?

But on the other hand, Bill Gates left Microsoft and now works full-time with his philanthropic organization. He certainly is contributing himself and his time.

Also read this, about how billions of aid money to africa doesn't help anything:
SPIEGEL Interview with African Economics Expert: "For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!" - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News
You can't help people who don't want to help themselves.

That's a really interesting interview. I'd read the disheartening reports back in the 1980s after the rock musicians managed to get all those donations for Africa and it later sounded like most of the money was squandered.

I also was fascinated by the comments about all the used clothing that other countries send over there and how it puts their tailors out of business. The excess of used clothing in this world is a complete fascination to me. Everybody's gotta have new clothes all the time even though they already have closets full of perfectly good clothing. There's so much used clothing all over the place it's astounding. What are we supposed to do with all this stuff?

So all these annoying rich people who donate blindly aren't doing anything to help. That's the bottom line.

I think it remains to be seen whether Gates/Buffet will be able to accomplish their goals for Africa -- eradicating AIDS and malaria. They have huge political problems to deal wth over there though -- like this quote from the interview you posted: "Millions of dollars earmarked for the fight against AIDS are still stashed away in Kenyan bank accounts and have not been spent. Our politicians were overwhelmed with money, and they try to siphon off as much as possible."