Re: [tlug] Re: [OT] Say _no_ to the Microsoft Office format as an ISO standard

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 09/07/07, david.blomberg@example.com
<david.blomberg@example.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 2007-07-09 at 14:25 +0900, Josh Glover wrote:
>
> > And don't they, like the other major foundations established by the
> > Bill Gateses of yesteryear (Carnegie, Mellon, Rockefeller, Morgan, et
> > al.) have an obligation to make sure their endowment has some staying
> > power?
>
> at the cost of supporting companies using child labor (okay I can accept
> although I hate it)
> at the cost of being party to the withholding of patented drugs to poor
> nations (okay again I can accept but don't like it)
> at the cost of providing support to genocidal military groups via
> oil/diamond interest (see dafur/sudan) NOT a chance. It is just
> disgusting to the core.

I agree with you that these companies should not be supported. The
problem is that it is not really fair to say caveat emptor here;
international courts of law should prosecute these companies for human
rights violations and those successful prosecutions should have to be
part of a corporations SEC filing and the like.

I am simply not capable of knowing which companies are doing bad
shite, be it directly or indirectly.

If the B&MGF is investing in companies that are involved in the
activities that you cited, I agree with you that they should stop. If
those companies are actually *guilty*, that is. And that is the hard
part. The court of public opinion is not a very good court, especially
when it is fuelled by the news-tainment media that we have allowed to
grow and prosper.

I hear ya, Dave. I just wish I had the power to know whether an
entity, be it corporate or human, was doing the dirt. But I don't have
that power, and I don't like to jump to conclusions based on
propaganda (not accusing you of that, BTW; I am talking to the Fox
Newes and the Michael Moores--love most of his politics and all of his
movies, but they are propaganda--of the world) and circumstantial
evidence.

--
Cheers,
Josh