It seems there is a really good reason to buy a legal copy of Windows. A substantial chunk of that money might go to ridding the world of Polio.
Bill Gates Foundation, Rotary International and the British and German governments today pledged $630 million over the next five years to vaccine and other programs designed to wipe out polio.
Since 1988, the WHO, the U.S. and other governments as well as charitable orgs such as Gates and Rotary have contributed $6 billion to eradicating polio. The international effort has cut polio cases by over 99 percent, from some 350,000 in 1988 to about 1,600 last year.
Full Story here:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=bill-gates-hands-over-millions-more-2009-01-21
Getting a stadium or a school named after you is cool, but really that’s more of an egotrip legacy thing than a true good to society. Eradicating a disease that has destroyed millions of lives last century, and untold millions before that? THAT is cool.
But I think that Bill’s greatest contribution isn’t contributing moral, organisational and financial support for this. Nor even MS Products that make my life easier. It’s that he made it cool for the mega rich to become real philanthropists. Warren Buffet, for a long time the second richest man in America, after dear Bill, is going to contribute the bulk of his wealth to support the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (story here). I imagine he won’t be the only one.
Whether you took a note from George Soros’ OSI (that gets 10 times the efficiency in project spending compared to the EU), or just did it on your own, it’s good stuff Bill. Well done.