A new Gate Way?

[Meg Salter]

Well, I guess there's hope for us all, after all!!

I read somewhere that the Internet (and, by extension, computers) do for
brain power what steam, railroads etc. did for muscle power in the
Industrial Revolution. Picking up on notions like Maslow's hierarchy, and
Spiral Dynamics, and even Owen (!), you have to satisfy basic body needs-
survival and safety, before you can address mind-type intellectual needs.
i.e. feed the body before you feed the soul! I choose to interpret Gate's
comments as a major opening beyond short-sightedness and arrogance (typical
pro-active??) Yeah!!!!!!!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Judi Richardson" <Richarjl at akerley.nscc.ns.ca>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 10:15 AM
Subject: A new Gate Way?


> Gates loses faith in computers
> They can't cure world's ills, admits Microsoft boss
>
> by Edward Helmore in New York and Robin McKie in London Observer
>
> Sunday November 5, 2000
>
> Microsoft boss Bill Gates has renounced the machine that has made him the
> world's richest man. In a startling proclamation, Gates has announced that
> computers can do little to solve the planet's gravest social ills.
>
> 'The world's poorest two billion people desperately need healthcare, not
> laptops,' he said.
>
> The declaration represents a major personal transformation for Gates, and
has
> sent shockwaves through America's high-tech business community. Had the
Pope
> renounced Catholicism, the surprise would not have been greater.
>
> Speaking in Seattle at a conference on using computers to help the Third
> World, Gates said he still had faith in the ideal that technology could
bring
> about a better world, but added that he doubted that computers - or global
> capitalism - could solve the most immediate catastrophes facing the
world's
> poorest people.
>
> People who thought that developing countries could benefit from the
e-economy
> had no idea what it meant to live on $1 a day with no electricity, said
> Gates. 'You're just buying food; you're trying to stay alive.'
>
> The billionaire technologist became positively vitriolic about the idea of
> using computers in the Third World: 'Mothers are going to walk right up to
> that computer and say, "My children are dying, what can you do?" They're
not
> going to sit there and, like, browse eBay or something.
>
> 'What they want is for their children to live. Do you really have to put
in
> computers to figure that out?'
>
> For a man who has benefited more than anyone from the IT revolution, this
> reappraisal is extraordinary and comes after several months of growing
> disillusionment in Gates about the state of the planet, and the potential
for
> technology to help it out of its current crisis.
>
> He confessed he had been 'naive - very naive' when he began giving away
his
> fortune six years ago. At that time, he said, he expected that computers
and
> information technology would make up the bulk of his philanthropic
donations.
> 'Computers are amazing in what they can do, but they have to be put into
the
> perspective of human values,' he said.
>
> Having visited Africa and other Third World countries his priorities had
now
> shifted, he said. At least two-thirds of the grants offered by the $21
> billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would now be devoted to Third
World
> healthcare and the development and distribution of vaccines.
>
> In the past year the Gates Foundation has given more than $200 million to
> health-related causes, including $25m for the International Aids Vaccine
> Initiative, $50m to prevent maternal and child mortality, $20m for
> international family planning efforts and $100m towards children's
vaccines.
> 'As a father of two children, thinking about the medicines that I take for
> granted which are not available elsewhere, that sort of rises to the top
of
> the list.'
>
> These remarks have angered many of Gates's wealthy, hi-tech philanthropist
> counterparts. They say he has unfairly placed computers at odds with
> providing food and healthcare in developing countries. Others argue that
> Gates is wrong to think that technology cannot help improve even the
poorest
> people's lives.
>
> 'After listening to three days of serious analysis and work, and then to
have
> Gates rather flippantly say, "You've got to have clean water and food" -
that
> wasn't exactly furthering the point of the entire meeting,' said Sun
> Microsystems chief research officer John Gage, who heads Netday, a charity
> committed to wiring the world's classrooms to the internet.
>
> Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2000
>
>
>
> ? Judith Richardson
> B.A., B.Ed., C.N.E.
> M.A. Candidate
> Paralegal Studies
> Akerley Campus
> Nova Scotia Community College
> 21 Woodlawn Road
> Dartmouth, N.S.
> B2W 2R7
> (phone:  491-4864
> (fax 491-4903)
>
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