July 7, 2005
PHILANTHROPY GONE WILD
We've all heard about the 'Girls Gone Wild' video series, right? For the uninformed, it's notorious for its late-night infomercials pitching DVDs of young women exposing their breasts--and perhaps more--at nightclubs and college parties all across the country. From all accounts, it's a wildly successful business. So much so that according to the Associated Press, Mantra Films, the company that owns and distributes the series, was recently ordered to pay a young woman $60,000 after a jury determined that Mantra's filmmakers illegally used her image in a video. (The $60k apparently represents $1 for each copy of "Girls Gone Wild: The Seized Video" that her attorney estimates sold last fall.)
Okay, Girls Gone Wild is big-time stuff. But wait till you see what's next! In "Philanthropy Gone Wild", staring Oracle's swashbuckling CEO Larry Ellison, Ellison proposes donating $115,000,000 to Harvard University to, get this now, study and monitor the cost-effectiveness of global health initiatives. Yeah, baby... this is a great idea... come to papa... that's right, Larry, just like that... show me whatcha got!
That's right kids, $115,000,000 to fund a research center--complete with five full professorships--that would develop information that would be shared with other organizations that make financial contributions to health initiatives, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, so they can all sleep better at night knowing that their millions of dollars in donations are being put to good use. Ellison also says that the money will be used to publish a journal and employ statisticians to monitor other types of public, private, and philanthropic investments. "We're going to monitor the return on investment in different medical programs," Ellison told the Wall Street Journal. Ellison is also quoted as saying:
"How good, in terms of fighting malaria, are mosquito nets infused with pesticide? What's our return on investment for cleaning up water? What's our return on global warming? It's important to look at every dollar spent on health care and the return on that."
Look, I'm no expert, but does anyone in their right mind think that someone really needs to be spending $115,000,000 on calculating ROI (Return On Investment) on global health care efforts when millions and millions of people are dropping dead because of a lack of basic necessities like food, water, shelter, and space? Does anyone really think that this amount of money is justified when Measles, a disease that kills the most children worldwide each year and can be almost entirely prevented by simple vaccine costing $558,750, continues to go unfunded? (The $558,750 figure, by the way, is the cost of vaccinating the 745,000 children who died from the disease in 2001, according to the World Health Organization.)
I don't know about anyone else, but even though I'd surely face all sorts of questions from the gf about it, if forced to choose between the next Girls Gone Wild video and this Philanthropy Gone Wild one, I'm choosing the girly tape. Watching rich dudes like Ellison spend their own money like this just makes me go limp.
Posted by Mikal at July 7, 2005 7:12 AM
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OK, I think that the idea of a video/DVD is ridiculous. On the other side of the argument, I strongly agree with spending the money to review the ROI. If an organization knows where they will get the most bang for the buck, then they can use their dollars more effectively, thus serving more of those in need. Granted, many vaccines or pieces of medical equipment could be purchased for $115M. However, someone, at some point, must put forward the money to study the effectiveness of existing efforts, in order that we spend future funds in a manner that they matter most.
Go Ellison! But, why waste any materials and money to create the "Philanthropy Gone Wild."
