Major religions unite in fight against slavery.

[stui magpie]

[pietillidie]

Yes, good article. Just read his wikipedia page, and he seems to have a very strong social conscience, which is great to see.

Of course any sane person would support such an initiative. Good on him. He also seems to have been very supportive of indigenous initiatives, too. I see he and his wife have also pledged half of their wealth to charity while living, which I think is a major acknowledgement of the failure of markets, which shows strong insight into the world.

At the same time, any sane person with a conscience would oppose the cutting of 4.5B of foreign aid from the budget of one of the richest countries in human history, or worry sick about the overwhelming expert consensus on the risks of global warming, or be extremely concerned about the financial stress inflicted upon children by the decreasing share of productivity reflected in Australian real wages. So you just hope the full account of his moral ledger is as impressive as this excellent work he's doing. Perhaps it is, give or take.

Certainly I accept that people sometimes make well-intentioned trade-offs, such as saying nothing about certain issues they could speak on, and focusing on things they think they can get done. That's a fair trade-off, in my view. But one needs more information to judge rationally. And Forrest certainly isn't Rio, BHP and the shabby lot recently charged with corruption by ICAC in NSW, so if he is a blessing to society his halo only extends so far over what is a significantly filthy and destructive�albeit essential�industry.

Bill Gates always comes to mind in these situations. The bloke is doing great work now, but you do wonder just how many trillions of dollars his monopoly originally cost the global economy. But again, I'm happy to take the upside of people with open arms, no problem.

[stui magpie]

No one can fix everything. If individuals with the means focus on one target, that doesn't mean the others are less worthy.

Gates is focused on a narrow field with his foundation, doesn't mean the good he does is lessened. I get where you're coming from and no criticism of what you say.

IMO it's good to see some of the people who've made serious coin putting it back voluntarily to help with social issues. Doesn't mean they're all good, but does mean kudos to those who do.

[Tannin]

Given his past record of nasty and dirty tricks, you have to be a bit cynical about this one. Maybe it's straight-up, but coming from this nasty bit of work, you have to wonder.

[Tannin]

[ronrat]

This would have a bit more currency if Forrest wasn't trying to get into the "slavery" areas for mineral exploitation where he would be flat out paying the locals 5 dollars a day.

[Tannin]

^ This

[Culprit]

[pietillidie]

Tannin, you surely have to allow for some complexity and ambiguity. Few people don't have a mixed ledger, even if the total numbers in both columns are inflated when it comes to gazillionaires, and even when one fundamentally disagrees with people having the power to command such resources to begin with.

That's not to encourage ignorance of the fine art of spin, of course, but it's okay to assume a posture of taking the good and rejecting the bad�even within the one individual.

[HAL]

It only takes a few.

[Wokko]

Why aren't the Jews or Orthodox involved? There are more than 3 major (Abrahamic) religions.

[watt price tully]

[David]

I don't really have an issue with Andrew Forrest as a human being and am glad that he's pumping some of his absurd wealth into positive projects. I do though disagree strongly with the system that allows him to gain so much personal wealth in the first place.

This initiative is good, but how much better would it be if all the money gained from taxing Forrest and other billionaires were pumped into humanitarian projects like this directly via government revenue?

[stui magpie]

[think positive]

I'd really like A slave, could come in handy, doesn't matter their religion