One Hand Gives, The Other Takes Away

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One of the projects funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been to immunize children living in Ebocha, Nigeria. But at the same time the foundation owns shares in the French oil company, Eni, that pollutes the residents air and water by the open air burning of gas considered to be waste. The Los Angeles Times reports that the foundation has "invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France - the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the [Niger] delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe." Despite having 95% of its $35 billion in assets invested, the foundation declined to comment on specific shareholdings or whether it will change its investment policy away from holding stocks in companies involved in environmentally or socially damaging projects.