September 20, 2006. Copyright 2006, Graphic News. All rights reserved

George Soros: Financier-philanthopist with a strong political agenda
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, September 20, Graphic News:  Above the confusion and clamour to assign blame for recent events in the Middle East, the voice of George Soros was clear as day. The financier and philanthropist was immediately on hand to offer a cogent theory as to how U.S. policy had contributed to an escalation in violence, echoing views expressed in his new book. As usual, Soros was one step ahead.

The Hungarian-born Soros has not one but many cult followings. To some, he is an idealistic philanthropist whose backing has helped causes as diverse as the fall of communism and black education in apartheid South Africa. To others, his chief value is as a thorn in the side of George Bush, whose removal he has said is the ÒfocusÓ of his life, and to whose end he has donated millions of his estimated more than $5 billion fortune.

To yet more, Soros is foremost a legend in the world of investment. The financier, who currently heads Soros Fund Management, helped to build the Quantum Fund into the worldÕs best-performing investment fund, but is best known as the Òman who brought down the British poundÓ, when on September 16, 1992 -- Black Wednesday -- his currency speculation forced the Conservative government of the day to withdraw sterling from the ERM.

As an investor, as in other professional activities, Soros has adhered to a philosophy he developed as a student of Karl Popper, and has reiterated in his new book, The Age of Fallibility, Consequences of the War on Terror. Based on the principle of ÒfallibilismÓ, it is the idea that anything he believes may be wrong and can be questioned and improved. But his core belief in democratic ideals has also been shaped by personal experience.

By now the facts are well known. Born on August 12, 1930, in Budapest, Soros was the son of a lawyer who saved his children from the Holocaust by bribing others to pass them off as Christians. Soros was taken in by an official of the facist government whom he accompanied to hand out deportation orders to Jews in the Nazi-occupied land.

In 1946, Soros defected to the West by travelling to an Esperanto youth congress, having been taught to speak the international language from birth by his father, a devotee of, and writer in, Esperanto.

The following year Soros moved to England, where he studied at the London School of Economics under Popper, working in menial jobs to support himself. It was only after a move to New York in 1956 that he began to put his ideas into practice in the field of investment, setting up first the Eagle Fund for his then-employers and then his own Quantum Fund in 1970.

Considering that Soros once said he became an investor to support himself as a writer and philosopher, itÕs fair to say that his success probably outstripped his expectations: for decades he has ploughed millions into promoting democratic ideals and equality around the world, including funding dissidents in the former communist bloc. Today his philanthropic empire employs more than 1,000 people in more than 20 countries.

He came under fire for spending generously on opponents of George Bush before the last presidential election in 2004. Hailed by some as a possible saviour of the Democrats, he was criticised by others for exploiting legal loopholes to donate an estimated more than $23 million to various groups devoted to the cause. Since then Soros has attacked what he calls BushÕs ÒsupremacistÓ regime at every opportunity.
 
He has been called a hypocrite for preaching opposition to globalisation despite having built his fortune through working as an investor. In recent times he has expressed his view that financial speculation harms the prospects of underdeveloped countries to make economic progress. At 76, he shows no sign of mellowing with age.

He has five children from two former marriages, to Annaliese Witschak and Susan Weber Soros.
/ENDS