PHILANTHROPIC PHILANTHEFTIC: The Love of Getting
Away with Theft
By Not Sure
7 May 2023
In October of 2022, the sixth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) was held in in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, “Investing in Humanity: Enabling a New Global Order.” This annual event, announced in 2017, to target a “global community of influential investors and innovators” including heads of state, CEOs, policymakers, finance and investment leaders, entrepreneurs and technology pioneers, university and think-tank experts, futurists, scientists, and visionaries.
The three days were filled with speakers and the program was custom designed for busy and important people with attention deficit disorder. Most speakers were allotted ten to twenty minutes. Richard Attias, CEO of Future Investment Initiative Institute, was given five minutes to launch the event with its survey conducted by IPSOS of 130,000 adults from 13 countries, representing approximately 50% of the world’s population, presenting insights on the world’s highest priorities amidst unprecedented social, environmental and identity challenges. I did not find a video of those five minutes, but had I been a fly on the wall in that grand Riyadh conference center, I imagine I would have heard something like this:
“There are billions of poor people in the world and so much money to be made off their suffering.”
Of course, Mr. Attias said nothing of the kind. What I did hear him say was that the Future Investment Initiative was started by royal decree to have an impact on humanity. “It’s very ambitious but it’s so important to invest for good and have a call-to-action which will really have an impact on everyone and especially emerging markets. We decided two years ago to focus really on ESG principals…” (Environmental, Social and Governance.) On the screen behind Mr. Attias, were the words “as much as $20 trillion in investments could be unlocked with new ESG framework.”
After the 2018
assassination of journalist Jamal Kashogghi by agents of the Saudi government,
key media outlets withdrew as partners and major invitees to the FII such as JPMorgan
Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford, BlackRock CEO Larry
Fink, The Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, and US Treasury Secretary
Steve Mnuchin also withdrew from the conference. This seems to have blown over,
because at the 2022 event, both Jamie Dimon and Stephen Schwarzman spoke at a
session that was given a full hour plus fifteen minutes and was entitled THE
NEW GLOBAL ORDER: VIEW FROM THE BOARD OF CHANGEMAKERS. One of the speakers in
this segment was Dr. Patrice Motsepe, Founder and Executive Chairman, African Rainbow
Minerals, a billionaire businessman who has a finger meaty fist in every
one of South Africa’s renewable energy pies and just happens to be the
brother-in-law of South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa.
A little while later, billionaire Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates spoke at plenary session with the modest title, WELCOME TO THE NEW GLOBAL ORDER. Later that day, Jared Kushner of Affinity Partners, and the son-in-law of Donald Trump, spoke at a meeting entitled IN CONVERSATION: ACHIEVING PEACE AND PROSPERITY.
***
On November 11, 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange house of cards, came crashing down atop his head, as FTX, Alameda Research and 130 associated enterprises declared bankruptcy, followed by his arrest in December. But according to a report by Puck, just two weeks before his spectacular collapse, Bankman-Fried was invited to dine at the palace in Riyadh with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Also in attendance was Jared Kushner, billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio, and Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman.
The late George Carlin famously said, “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it.” Evidently, neither is Sam Bankman-Fried.
***
On day two of the Future Investment Initiative, HE Dr. Jacques Attali of Attali Associates was given ten minutes to deliver FUTURE FLASH: THE WORLD IN 2050. Long time listeners of Alan Watt will know of Jacques Attali from Alan’s frequent mentions of two of Attali’s books, Millennium: Winners and Losers in the Coming Order and A Brief History of the Future. In this Redux 108, from Alan’s talk on RBN on 15 July 2010, Alan read several sections from A Brief History of the Future. Here is Alan’s poem from that talk, which of course contains a more truthful glimpse into the future than anything you’ll get from Attali, however accurate his claims turn out to be.
New World Order -- Communitarianism:
Hundreds of Years in the Making,
Now Your Wealth They're Taking:
"Communitarianism, We're Told's the Plan We're On,
Individual Liberty and Choice to be Dead and Gone,
It's All Under the Guise of Sustainable Living,
The U.N.'s the Boss, So Get Used to Giving,
Taxed till You're Destitute, You Poor Old Soul,
To Build Factories in China, Guzzling Up Coal,
To India too, We Redistribute Our Wealth,
As We're Told to Go Vegan, Good for the Health,
Yet We Must Cut Back, Too Much Consumption,
We Should Nip this in Bud, If We've the Gumption,
Are We so Stupid We'll Pay Taxes for Breathing?
We've Already Lost Homes, the Banks are Seizing,
Stop the Madness Because it Grows, You See,
Carbon, Energy, Food Taxes, it'll Endless Be,
Masters, Minions Worked Up to Age Aquarian,
For "Big Idea," New Governance, Communitarian"
© Alan Watt, 15 July 2010
In A Brief History of the Future, Attali described the coming corporate power grab and the dominant position that the insurance and entertainment industries would assume. He wrote about hyper-surveillance and self-surveillance and how constant self-monitoring of our health status and social norms were to become normalized.
Alan said, “Now back to communitarianism and the future. Jacques Attali is up there at the United Nations. He was the top advisor to French Presidents, Mitterrand and other ones and in fact most folks went to see him. He really ran the show. Number 2 is always the boss, not the guy they put in front to take the tomatoes and the rotten eggs.”
Attali is described by Wikipedia as a French economic and social theorist, writer, political advisor and senior civil servant. Attali has said in interviews that as advisor to Mitterrand from 1981 to 1991 (and informally for years prior) he wrote up daily reports for Mitterrand to read covering a broad range of topics and advised the President what books and documents to study.
It was Attali’s idea to create the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and he was the first head of that organization from 1991 to 1993. This public bank, located in London, was part of the action swirling around the activities of the countries of the former Eastern Bloc. The EBRD was “intended at its beginning to focus on the switch from centrally planned economy to market based economy in the Central and Eastern European countries by investing in the private sector, mainly banks, industries and businesses, and by promoting policies that would favor them.”
Since 1995, the EBRD has an explicit environmental mandate in its charter, though it has repeatedly come under fire from environmentalists for funding projects which have been deemed environmentally and socially harmful.
According to Wiki, “The EBRD funds come mainly from bilateral donors, from the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the European Union (EU), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).” What this means is that this giant bank has helped emerging markets transition into The New Green Economy and serves as a global slush fund for who knows what.
Interested in the arts, Attali has been on the board of Musée d'Orsay since 2010. He has conducted the Grenoble University orchestra since 2003 and he also directed the Lausanne Sinfonietta in August and Ravel's Concerto in G with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in Jerusalem and then in Paris. He also directed orchestra in Shanghai, Bondy, Marseille, London and Astana. Jacques Attali has written more than 50 books over the years. In 2009, Foreign Policy magazine called him one of the top 100 “global thinkers” in the world.
When you watch interviews with Jacques Attali, he appears an intelligent man with broad and sweeping interests, and what might even be construed as concern for humanity as he states that some of his future predictions he hopes can be avoided if thoughtful people move in a different direction.
Social media has circulated a piece of misinformation about Jacques Attali by claiming that in his 1981 book, Verbatim, he called for the mass killing of the “old” and “stupid” by a global pandemic. This is untrue and can be easily verified by examining the book.
What I am struck by are the similarities one finds in that class of “public intellectual” who promote this agenda through the years, such as Bertrand Russell and Aldous Huxley. One can listen to them lecture and almost convince oneself that they possess a genuine love for all human beings. I don’t suppose it would make sense to unleash a public intellectual who struck the audience as a hateful, genocidal monster.
Rather than listening to Attali to find how his true sentiments might be understood or being overawed by the magnitude of his stated accomplishments, let me focus on one thing that he has done and try to understand it as fully as I can.
In 1998, Attali founded Positive Planet, a non-profit active in more than eighty countries, with over 500 employees, according to Wiki. On the U.S. website of Positive Planet, we learn this:
Positive Planet has been using entrepreneurship to support domestic and international issues of economic, social, cultural, and ecological needs.
We are growing beyond our 11 million beneficiaries in 42 countries throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Partnering with NGOs, public and private training centers, universities, incubators and public authorities to provide Accelerator or Incubator Programs, Vocational Training and Seed Funding.
Working with the financial ecosystem – banks, microfinance institutions, cooperatives, insurance companies and postal operators to provide Financial Education, Income Protection, Health Coverage Expenses and Access to Finance.
Positive Planet in the US promotes inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a historic recession with record levels of deprivation and unemployment, creating an unprecedented human crisis that is hitting the poorest hardest.
With the current economic landscape, Positive Planet’s mission in the US will be to achieve local and international co-operation in supporting international problems of an economic, social, civic, or ecological character. Positive Planet US contributes to the United Nations’ 2030 agenda for sustainable development and in promoting and encouraging gender equality and equal opportunity and inclusion for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.
The main focus of the foundation for international projects is dedicated to creating businesses and strengthening existing ones, creating/facilitating access to financing and supporting the creation of inclusive agricultural value chains benefiting small farmers worldwide.
The U.S. organization tells us that the focus is on small farmers worldwide, but the French version of positive planet speaks of helping many different types of entrepreneurs.
Positive Planet promotes a positive economy and fights against poverty and all forms of exclusion using positive entrepreneurship as a means of emancipation and social inclusion, professional, and economically sustainable integration.
Scrolling through the French site, I stumbled on their most amazing Accelerator Program. This global database connects various types of funds (venture capital, etc.) with the small company or entrepreneur looking for money. Search your area and find millions of dollars of “microfinancing” waiting for your entrepreneurial mitts to grab it.
What is this really? Positive Planet. I carefully studied the following:
Positive Planet est présent dans 170 QPV (Quartiers Prioritaires de la Politique de la Ville) à travers 46 implantations réparties sur 5 régions : Ile-de-France, Hauts-de-France, Normandie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes et Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Elle compte 85 collaborateurs et 150 bénévoles en France.
What was a “Quartiers Prioritaires de la Politique de la Ville?” I plugged the entire block of text into a translator, and this is what it returned:
Positive Planet is present in 170 QPV (Priority Districts of the City Policy) through 46 locations spread over 5 regions: Ile-de-France, Hauts-de-France, Normandy, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It has 85 employees and 150 volunteers in France.
I just recently learned what an Opportunity Zone in the U.S. is, from the work of “Book of Ours.”
Opportunity Zones incentivize investment in poor neighborhoods. Ostensibly created to encourage the development of these blighted areas, in fact they serve as tax havens for the rich. In one visual depiction of the scheme, I saw that each successive year an investor remains in a neighborhood program his tax bill shrinks significantly until on the 10th year, the amount owed is $0. No reason to improve conditions for the poor. Every reason to invest.
This language explains the French version of an Opportunity Zone:
The local tax exemption scheme in QPV: is your company concerned? The local tax exemption scheme is reserved for very small and small commercial enterprises that meet certain conditions.
Tax Relief in Priority City Areas (QPV)
Verified 01 January 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
Very small companies (TPEs) and small companies located in priority areas of the city (QPV) can benefit from exemptions from company property tax (CFE) and property tax on built property (TFPB).
Attali’s Positive Planet focuses on microfinancing for very small businesses, just the type of businesses that fall under the QPV scheme for tax relief. Interesting. Something that initially sounds so ideal, lofty, benevolent suddenly screams “self-serving” if not a cry of outright sinister.
Jacques Attali was born in Algiers to a self-educated Jewish father who achieved success as a perfumer. In the early days of the Algerian war for independence, Attali’s father moved the family to France. Young Jacques and his twin both excelled in school. His brother would go on to head corporations such as Club Med and Air France. Jacques was only twenty-two when he first met François Mitterrand in 1965. Their close association began in 1973 and he directed Mitterrand’s presidential campaign in 1974.
Attali would go on to advise President François Hollande. His eye for talent spotted Emanual Macron. Under Attali’s mentorship and armed with a stellar letter of recommendation, Macron landed a job at Rothschild & CIE Banque, an investment bank owned by Rothschild & Co. “The young Macron rose rapidly up the bank’s ranks to become a managing partner -- and a millionaire in the process.”
***
Attali is a Jewish surname originated from the Arab word "attâl" or "porter." A “porter” is a person stationed at a door or gate to admit or assist those entering. Interesting.
Back to the 2022 program for the Future Investment Initiative Institute, “Investing in Humanity: Enabling a New Global Order” and we see that Dr. Jacques Attali was listed as “HE Dr. Jacques Attali.” What honorific is this? What title has been given to Mr. Attali?
“His Excellency” is an honorific title given to certain heads of sovereign states, of some international organizations or to members of an aristocracy. Catholic Bishops are referred to as Excellency.
His Excellency, Jacques Attali, advisor to heads of state, the Porter, the GATEKEEPER, perhaps some spiritual kin to the Merovingian Keymaker.
© Not Sure
Additional reading/viewing:
Future Investment Initiative Institute – 2022 program
https://fii-institute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/FII6-Program-2022.10.26.1356KSA.docx-1.pdf
Future Investment Initiative Institute – 6th Edition
https://fii-institute.org/conference/fii-6/
Future Flash the World In 2050 with Jacques Attali - #FII6 - Day 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEEohRUCia4
Richard Attias - as much as $20 trillion in investments could be unlocked with new ESG framework
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVzpQQ-LLPk
Positive Planet
https://www.positiveplanet.ngo/
Positive Planet - US
Positive Planet Accelerator Hub
https://www.f6s.com/positive-planet-accelerator-hub-cohort-3/apply