No comment, again, from his great friend and ally, the WHO.
It may be a brand new year, but it seems to be the same dodgy business as usual for Michael Bloomberg-funded outfits.
News has crossed the desks at Copwatch of Pakistan’s anger with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK) and Vital Strategies (VS), both bankrolled by the World Health Organization’s great friend, Michael Bloomberg.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior has banned the operations of both NGOs, frozen their bank accounts, and heavily criticised Bloomberg’s malign influence in the affairs of other countries.
A CTFK Manager has been accused of embezzlement and misappropriation of funds, while both CTFK and VS were caught “operating without proper registration or government approval, violating Pakistani laws.” This flagrant flouting of the rules put Pakistan at risk of contravening its obligations “to counter money laundering and terrorist financing.” We are sure that the WHO’s Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, often accused of being supportive of terrorist groups himself, would be quick to condemn this activity, but he has yet to comment.
It is further alleged that the Bloomberg-funded organisations engaged in “media bribery” and supported “illicit mafias.” Indeed, Pakistan is outraged that Bloomberg’s influence on their country obstructed efforts to curb illegality by “complicating efforts to shut down the illegal trade, potentially for their own financial and political gains.”
Quite a rap sheet, we think you’d agree. Although not that surprising considering Bloomberg-funded organisations have been a great friend to the illicit trade by encouraging the closure of legal harm reduction companies throughout the world.
Pakistan should hardly be surprised as their neighbour, India, similarly sanctioned Bloomberg NGOs for “acting against India’s national interests” using foreign funding. The WHO, as a supposed global authority committed to the rule of law amongst its member states, should condemn these activities but how can they criticise the man who funds many of their reports?
The WHO was very quiet, too, when the Philippines Food and Drug Administration received funding from The Union and Bloomberg Initiative in 2021 which breached several Philippine laws as well as the country’s constitution and United States laws on charities. The result was that the Philippines kicked Bloomberg-funded groups out of the country, abandoned the assault on safer nicotine products, and legally regulated vaping instead.
We are sure that the Global Alliance of Tobacco Control awarding the Philippines a Dirty Ashtray Award – awards which show “blatant disregard for the sovereignty of governments, shaming countries, belittling the independence of their policy-making procedures” – at the latest WHO conference of the Parties was purely coincidental.
In fact, the WHO has seemed very comfortable with the Bloomberg business model of using bribery as a tool to influence national sovereignty.
This is all rather inconvenient for the WHO which, this week, began a campaign on X (formerly Twitter) intended to counter misinformation, which included a denial that WHO intends to “take over our country’s sovereignty” and claimed that to say otherwise is “f***ing false.”
Maybe the WHO could also start a campaign to tell Bloomberg and his corrupt organisations to stop trying to buy governments around the world, and to advise them that using bribery and ignoring local laws to influence the sovereignty of countries such as Pakistan, India and the Philippines doesn’t really fit with the WHO’s claims to respect the decisions of national governments.