Bill Gates Publishes First Annual Letter
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who ended his tenure as top dog at the high-tech company last year to devote his time to the charity he started with his wife Melinda, released his first annual letter on the work of the foundation Monday. In the 20-page document, Gates explains why he remains optimistic about the ability of government, business, nonprofit organizations, and individuals to expand opportunity and equity in the years to come. He said hoped his letter will begin a dialogue and inspires action on some of the most pressing issues on the world stage.
In the letter, Gates outlines new, ambitious goals for the foundation's work to improve global health, address hunger and poverty, and improve education in the United States including: cutting childhood deaths from rotavirus in half; helping millions of the poorest farming households in Africa and South Asia triple their incomes by 2025; and by 2025, helping 80 percent of U.S. students graduate from high school. "The wealthy have a responsibility to invest in addressing inequity. This is especially true when the constraints on others are so great," Gates said. He added that if investments are not made, "we will come out of the economic downtown in a world even more unequal."
On the high-tech front, his letter states: "Our optimism about tech¬nology is a fundamental part of the foundation's approach. Ad¬vances in science have played a huge role in improving the living conditions in the rich world over the past century. Technology is also a personal passion of Melinda's and mine. So we try to point scientific research toward the problems of the poor, like agriculture. This is why we tend not to fund other important things like building health clinics or roads, which are better left to governments... Technology is only useful if it helps people improve their lives, not as an end in itself."
Join the Discussion
The National Journal Group has the right (but not the obligation) to monitor the comments and to remove any materials it deems inappropriate.
Comments powered by Disqus