
Bill Gates: What I Learned in the Fight Against Polio - denzil_correa
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303309504579181753580988412?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTTopStories
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denzil_correa
There are many reasons why one would remember William Henry Gates - Microsoft,
technology et al. But, I would remember Bill for his life after Microsoft via
his philanthropy. He's having an unprecedented impact on global society in
energy, health care, education and many more areas which are too many to list.
Even his worst of technology critics (like me) can't hide away from the fact
of his impact on modern society.

I was reading the 2013 Annual letter from Bill Gates as part of Gates
Foundation [0]. Each word in the report is magnificently detailed and precise.
Gates foundation has helped "almost" completely eradicate polio with lesser
than 1000 reported cases in the world. This is pretty amazing! If and when
polio would be completely wiped out of the face of this earth, it would just
be the second disease to be wiped out. Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan are
the only countries with children affected by polio. I also see a sharp decline
in child-birth cases. This report is a MUST read and if possible do your bit
to support the Gates foundation.

Even if he doesn't do a single thing from now on - Bill Gates has earned his
RESPECT with not only his impact in technology but life outside technology.
Personally, I would always remember Bill as the philanthropist rather than the
tech-wizard.

[0]
[http://annualletter.gatesfoundation.org/pdf/2013_AL_English....](http://annualletter.gatesfoundation.org/pdf/2013_AL_English.pdf)

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simonebrunozzi
Link doesn't work.

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pmelendez
This seems to be the document he tried to link:

[http://annualletter.gatesfoundation.org/pdf/2013_AL_English....](http://annualletter.gatesfoundation.org/pdf/2013_AL_English.pdf)

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enraged_camel
I'm deeply disappointed that Gates made no mention of a major contributor to
his fight against polio, Rotary International. Besides the humongous amount of
money they donated, often times it was Rotarians who traveled to these
countries to administer the vaccine to children. In addition, they usually
traveled on their own dime and, in the case of some countries, at their own
risk.

Anyway, I founded a community service organization a few years ago, and
through one of our projects we made a very paltry donation to the polio
eradication cause. One of the major challenges we ran into while fundraising
was getting young people to care. Older folks were very generous, since a lot
of them remembered polio from their own childhood, and even had friends
overseas who were victims. But people in their 20s and early 30s simply did
not know. It was greatly disturbing. As a society we make a great effort to
keep reminding people of the horrors of World War II, and yet we are on the
verge of largely forgetting about this ancient disease.

~~~
k-mcgrady
>> "But people in their 20s and early 30s simply did not know. It was greatly
disturbing. As a society we make a great effort to keep reminding people of
the horrors of World War II, and yet we are on the verge of largely forgetting
about this ancient disease."

Is this not a positive thing? I'm in my early 20's and only know one person
(they are much older and I don't know them well) with polio. That's great. The
fact that we are on the verge of forgetting is because it's largely irrelevant
or gone in most countries. Also great.

>> "One of the major challenges we ran into while fundraising was getting
young people to care. Older folks were very generous"

Was this because young people were not as aware of polio or is this a more
general trend in charity donations (that older people give more)?

~~~
DanBC
> That's great. The fact that we are on the verge of forgetting is because
> it's largely irrelevant or gone in most countries. Also great.

It's mostly a positive thing. The disadvantages are when people say "measles
is a normal disease of childhood, and vaccination against measles weakens the
immune system and causes autism". Vaccinations don't cause autism, and measles
isn't a trivial disease.

But yes, apart from that it's great.

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iconjack
A few people in this thread say they are having a hard time embracing Bill as
a good guy because of the monopolistic business practices of Microsoft in the
90s. To be honest, I've never quite understood the reasoning behind the
charges made against the company brought by the DOJ or by the company's
detractors.

There was a surge of hate for Microsoft back then that was frequently
expressed in forums on the fledging web and in the newsgroups. Very often
you'd see complaints about Microsoft being a monopoly, followed by (in the
same post), a pitch for Linux or Mac or every once in a while some other
system. “Linux is better than Windows, and it's free!” This left me scratching
my head. So there's a superior, less expensive alternative to Windows—what's
your definition of monopoly again? And what of OS/2? Runs Windows apps better
than Windows, says IBM, a not so small competitor. (For the youngsters, IBM
was a large computing corporation of the time, once the very symbol of market
dominance.)

The judgment the DOJ eventually won forced Microsoft to untangle IE from
Windows. While there's no doubt IE had a huge advantage by piggybacking on
every copy of Windows, I say “so what”. Can anyone imagine Apple being ordered
to not ship nor require iTunes on the iPhone?

Gates wanted to kill Netscape Navigator because it made business sense.
Probably every company wants to knock off their competitors, whether they come
out and admit it or not. Look what Jobs did to Flash. I don't mean to pick on
Apple. You should read about some of the dirty tricks pulled by Nintendo, IBM,
Dell, etc. More than likely every company of any size has some contemptible
actions in their history; these are just ones I happen to know about.

I like Bill Gates. At the same time, I can see how some people wouldn't like
him. But let's keep things in perspective. We're lucky to have a hyper-
intelligent, eminently competent man at the helm of the world's largest
foundation.

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bluedevil2k
I think it's a misconception we have in the US that polio is "disease from the
50's that's been eliminated". I know personally, I was surprised just last
week when I went to my travel clinic, told them of an upcoming trip to Israel,
and they recommended a polio booster. There's currently polio virus found in
sewage in a modern country. Though no one has been found to have the disease
in Israel, it's because of their high inoculation rate. In Syria, without
inoculations, they are seeing an outbreak. Health organizers worry that the
virus will spread around, by healthy people, who visit the region. Just shows
how hard it is to completely eradicate a disease.

Also, the book Polio was a fascinating read about the history of the disease
and vaccine.

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arithma
I love what Bill Gates is doing. It seems he will be remembered more for his
health care incursions than his tech-building. You always feel that weird
confusing feeling about rich people donating very little slivers of money for
public reasons. It seems such an "easy" thing to do rather than actually doing
an effort. I can't say that about Bill.

~~~
pyre
IIRC, he was the one that changed Warren Buffet's mind on things like whether
or not the rich should be taxed more.

~~~
jacalata
interesting, got any sources? I had the impression Buffet had always had a
pretty consistent view on this, but I'm not very familiar with him.

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melling
"27 million Indians born each year"

Now the next important thing to do in the 21st century is to educate all these
people. I imagine with more automation, robotics, etc, people will need a good
education to survive. Some people born today will be alive in the 22nd
century.

~~~
marincounty
Too many people period. And no--education is not the answer. The world has to
stop procreating--including Ameicans. Enough is enough. We are ruining this
small planet for all species. The next time she opens the gates of hell--
demand birth control. Yes--you.

~~~
MarkTee
Stop spreading alarmist FUD.

Overpopulation is not a threat[0]; if you really want to prevent further
damage to the planet, start working towards things like sustainable energy, or
better yet, improve the system that rewards irresponsible exploitation of the
environment. What do you need to solve these types of problems? Education.

[0]: [http://overpopulationisamyth.com/](http://overpopulationisamyth.com/)

~~~
ced
I don't know if overpopulation is a problem per se, but since pollution is
roughly proportional to population, most of the environmental issues we face
wouldn't be issues if we had 1/10 as many people.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
nonsense - pollution is not roughly proportional to population. USA 5% of
population, >45 % pollution / use of resources. drop the per capita footprint
of the average American and you have a model for the rest of the world

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test001only
The perseverance and ingenuity of the Indian government and the NGOs needs to
be appreciated. The success of polio eradication programme has been result of
decades of work in India and Bill is trying to replicate the model in other
parts of the world.

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graycat
I still believe that it is his wife that has him doing this and that his wife
got her devotion to such values from the nuns in her schooling. I have to
conclude that Bill _really_ loves, cares about, communicates with, respects,
responds to, and trusts his wife. Smart guy, couple.

Apparently Melinda has, with Buffett and her call for 50% from other wealthy
people, essentially raised $100+ billion. Smart girl.

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apa-sl
Bill's approach to what you can and should do is simply amazing. I respect him
for leaving the comfort zone of IT world (which he ruled at the time) and
going after real people problems (affecting whole populations, no matter how
technologically advanced the society is).

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basicallydan
This is a very inspiring story. If you are even slightly interested in the
fight against diseases like polio, this is an uplifting report which shows
that with hard work, ambitious plans and great support serious, hard problems
can be solved.

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poolpool
I love all the angst shown in some comments about the most successful "hacker"
ever.

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salilpa
am quietly amused by this _Mr. Gates is the co-founder and chairman of
Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation_ does he need
an introduction?

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icecreampain
I'm having a very hard time being as enthusiastic about Bill Gates and his
philanthropy as the rest of y'all are. I keep thinking about how he ran
Microsoft during the 90's: ruthlessly to the point of being found guilty of
abusing his monopoly by the DOJ.

I liken him to a mafia boss, donating money to charity after having amassed a
fortune extorting and threatening people: can the money still be considered an
honest donation or a PR effort to make ensure that the mafia boss is
remembered in better terms than "antisocial criminal"?

Sorry, Bill. You may be far richer than I'll ever be, but my money is made
honestly. I wasn't born rich, haven't built my whole empire on other people's
work (QDOS was bought, Windows comes from OS/2, etc) and I haven't been found
guilt of a crime by the DOJ.

Also: sorry people dying of diseases, that I can help y'all by being rich
enough to buy small islands. The little, honest man is such a powerless pawn
in today's money-centric society.

~~~
btilly
I consider Bill Gates to be the modern equivalent of Andrew Carnegie. Both
good and bad.

I can recognize the one without forgetting the other.

~~~
patrickg_zill
When did Carnegie ship sub-standard steel the way MSFT shipped sub-standard
software? The Bessemer process he invested in produced steel of higher
quality.

EDIT: my point is, one guy advanced the state of the art and the other
retarded the state of the art...

~~~
btilly
The fact that the parallel is not exact does not mean that it is not
illuminating.

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derleth
Bill Gates is an aggressive man. When turned to business, this aggression
leads to the creation and abuse of monopoly powers, especially if there's an
IBM to abuse in the early days. When turned to Public Good, it is just as
fearsome in a more positive direction. It is, fundamentally, the same tool in
both instances.

This reminds me of an old Orwell essay, "A Good Word For The Vicar Of Bray":

[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/vicar/english/e_vicar](http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/vicar/english/e_vicar)

> Thibaw, the last King of Burma, was also far from being a good man. He was a
> drunkard, he had five hundred wives — he seems to have kept them chiefly for
> show, however — and when he came to the throne his first act was to
> decapitate seventy or eighty of his brothers. Yet he did posterity a good
> turn by planting the dusty streets of Mandalay with tamarind trees which
> cast a pleasant shade until the Japanese incendiary bombs burned them down
> in 1942.

> The poet, James Shirley, seems to have generalised too freely when he said
> that “Only the actions of the just Smell sweet and blossom in their dust”.
> Sometimes the actions of the unjust make quite a good showing after the
> appropriate lapse of time.

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notdrunkatall
Amazing.

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wanda
I cannot imagine being Bill's friend. I get the feeling this is the only thing
this guy would ever talk about.

"Hey, Bill, want a beer?" "I don't think that would fit into my plans to cure
the world's diseases."

"Oh. Hey, do you know what this Java programmer said to me the other day?"
"I'm not sure that's really appropriate to discuss, given my other
commitments."

He might be giving lots of money compared to most billionaires and me might
successfully buy a pleasant historical picture of himself next century, but
it'd be fantastic if he talked about something else for a change.

~~~
k-mcgrady
This is an article in a newspaper. What did you expect him to talk about??
It's something he's passionate about and the only reason he is in the
newspaper is to publicise it. If you want to see other things he's interested
in check out his blog[1] (The Gates Notes). He does posts on books he's
reading (not all related to disease) and reviews them among other things.

[1][http://www.thegatesnotes.com](http://www.thegatesnotes.com)

