Gates 'optimistic' about Africa

News24 ^ | 1/27/2005 | News24

[KwasiOwusu]

Davos - Rock star and anti-poverty campaigner, Bono, and computer billionaire Bill Gates, united with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday to warn that 2005 must be a turning point for poverty in Africa.

Bono emphasised that leaders of the Group of Eight industralised countries were carrying the hopes of a generation, as Blair reiterated pledges to implement massive financial help for Africa this year.

........................................

Gates and Bono praised efforts by the G8 - which is led by Britain in 2005 - to finance more aid, trade and health care for Africa in recent years.

"I'm very optimistic about what will happen, but I agree it will be a turning point this year," Gates told journalists.

[KwasiOwusu]

Once again, Bill Gates is in the forefront of bringing aid and comfort tothe world's poorest.

Now lets just see how long it takes for the open source lunatics to come pollute this thread with their usual brain dead and stupid whine that goes: "Bill Gates kills babies"

[Bikers4Bush]

Gates' heart may be in the right place but his mind isn't.

Africa is a lost cause.

[Joe Bonforte]

Hey, I respect Gates for putting his money where his mouth is, and I'm a long time Microsoft defender on the MS-bashing threads, but...

Aid to Africa is not going to do any measureable good. Until their political structures change to have rule of law and allow people responsibility for their own lives, sending money there is like throwing it down a rat-hole. NGO bureaucrats end up with a large chunk, and local kleptocrats in the government end up with most of the rest.

Save your money, Bill. All this is doing is making you feel better.

[ikka]

Won't be very long before someone points out that Gates supports lefty-liberal causes with huge amounts of cash. Cash that could be better spent on fixing MSFT products. And yes, Gates does in fact support population control and pro-abortion organizations.

Did you know that for SP2 , the main group of programmers numbered SEVEN? That was it... 7 programmers for maybe 1.5 years.

[KwasiOwusu]

"Africa is a lost cause"

Naturally I don't agree.
And I could debate you all day on that topic too, using my own country of origin, Ghana, as an example, but I'll leave that for another day.

[FormerACLUmember]

Gates' heart may be in the right place but his mind isn't. Africa is a lost cause.

Enslaved by universal socialist/marxist thug regimes, dying of unchecked AIDS, and vulnerable to rampant IslamoFascism, Africa is utterly hopeless. The best we can hope for is to keep African endemic diseases and illegal immigrants from this hellhole continent from spreading to the rest of the world.

[KwasiOwusu]

As predicted,the open soure vermin have come out of their stinky holes,tospew out their normal daily ration of anti-Moctosoft hate, which makes them look more stupid by the minute.

"Cash that could be better spent on fixing MSFT products"

That has got to be one of the most stupid statements ever.

# 1, Microsoft spends more on R & D than almost every other US company out there.
If you talk of raw dollars of R & D per dollar of revenue,Microsoft is far far ahead of IBM.

and # 2, This money is the PRIVATE money of Bill Gates.
Its NOT Microsoft's money to spend
Can you get that into your thick open source head?

[Bikers4Bush]

Agreed.

[Mr. K]

How is AIDS spread in africa? dont tell me man-woman sex- that is the LEAST likely way to contract the desease.

Are they re-using needles still?

[KwasiOwusu]

"And yes, Gates does in fact support population control and pro-abortion organizations"

Detailed and a complete breakdown of facts and figures on that one, showing Gate's money being used to carry out abortions??

Plus of course teaching African teenagers about the use of condoms is absolutely essential,exactly the same as it is for teaching British,Dutch and American teenagers about safe sex.

#! , condoms prevent or reduce the spread of STD's and AID's.

AND #2, it prevents unwanted pregnancies , especially for teenagers who need to finish their secondary scooleducation and go on to university if they have the ability to do so.


Ant fool (like you) who thinks teaching African(or any other) teenagers about safe sex is bad thing, is clearly smoking something that has messed with his head.

[HairOfTheDog]

You know... I posted in support of Gates's efforts in the last thread you posted about him.

You seem to just like to bait people, repeated threads trying to use Gates's personal charitible contributions as an argument against open-source. You call them lunatics, but you're just the equal and opposite kind of looney.

This kind of agenda-driven spamming is gonna get you banned. It's trolling.

Previous thread: Microsoft boss is the biggest donor in history

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

as Blair reiterated pledges to implement massive financial help for Africa this year.

More money isn't going to help Africa. Economic, political and social reform will.

[KwasiOwusu]

"Aid to Africa is not going to do any measureable good"

Gate's money to Africa has already done plenty of good.
In Ghana, Gate's money is being used to update and expand our second Medical School at Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi which is attached to the medical school at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science andTechnology (my alma mater), so we can train even more badly needed doctors.

We haven't even talked about the thousands of children , whose lives have been saved by Bill Gate's money when the got treatment for malaria and other diseases.

Anytime I go back and see some of the great works being done by the Bill Gates foundation,it brings me plenty of joy.

[Fritzy]

While I believe that Gates is very benevolent.. the answer is to create nations that stand on their own..while connecting to a global economy.. history has proved that just giving money does not create stability and democracy.. I am working with the King of Morocco and his cabinet.. helping to design a new model nation with vibrant economic ties to the US.. private US investors have provided over $30M to establish new citrus and fishing industries.. tying them to US corporations in Florida and Washington State.... with US mentoring and using our own expertise to help them with commerical reform..these Industries will provided products to the emerging Middle East/North African consumer.. with strong profit lines back to US Corp... and 25 - 30% ROI for initial investors.. this provides opportunities for people to realize their own dreams and provide for their communities.. not just to give them money for food/etc.. it has to be a duel strategic approach.. immediate help.. long term stability.. Bush's new State Department will be endorsing these strategies...

[KwasiOwusu]

"You seem to just like to bait people, repeated threads trying to use Gates's personal charitible contributions as an argument against open-source"

Listen, I have put in about 4 threads so far about Gate's charitable work in Africa (where I come from), and every single occasion, the open source crazies pop out of their stink holes to come and spew out their normal Microsoft hate.
Now I will continue to call them lunatics so far as they continue to behave like lunatics.
And of course I will continue to post about Bill Gates good works in my continent of origin because it is very important to me.
African children's lives are being saved ever single day.

Am I going to stop such posting because some open source crazy finds it painful? Nope.
I am more interested in our children's lives being saved, rather than the mindless rantings of empty open source, Gates-hating fanatics.

[HairOfTheDog]

You ARE trolling for the argument you get... You aren't disappointed when these 'lunitics' show up, you're laying out bait in hope they show up. It's just equal and opposite looney.

[KwasiOwusu]

"You ARE trolling for the argument you get... "

Rubbish.

"You aren't disappointed when these 'lunitics' show up, you're laying out bait in hope they show up"

When did pointing out that for the first time in a very long time, an rich American philanthropist is making huge efforts to save the lives of African children( including my own relatives and flesh and blood), become "laying out bait"?

" It's just equal and opposite looney"

That's like saying fighting Hitler make you are as mad as he is.
You are not making any sense.

[HairOfTheDog]

When did pointing out that for the first time in a very long time, an rich American philanthropist is making huge efforts to save the lives of African children( including my own relatives and flesh and blood), become "laying out bait"?

Your initial post: "Now lets just see how long it takes for the open source lunatics to come pollute this thread with their usual brain dead and stupid whine that goes: "Bill Gates kills babies""

You polluted the thread when you spawned it. You have managed to pollute your message with not one but two completely unrelated lightning rod issues you know to be hotly debated on this forum, open-source, and right to life. You are hoisted on your own petard.

[KwasiOwusu]

"the answer is to create nations that stand on their own"

Agree.
Question is the way you go about creating these nations.

"history has proved that just giving money does not create stability and democracy"

I think you need to bone up on the Gates Foundation.
They never just "give money" to anybody.
They have very specific, highly targeted, ways they fund anything, with strict guidelines before you qualify for any money.
Plus they keep a very tight rein on the money and have in place effective means of making sure the money gets spent on what its supposed to be spent on.
I'll bet you Gates's money has probably far less waste than for example US Government aid.
Another thing, most of Gates's money to Africa goes directly to saving the lives of new born babies and infants who were dying at the rate of 2 million every year from very easily and cheaply treatable diseases like malaria for example.
Try telling those suffering babies that they should continue to suffer because giving them medicine to cure them "is not the way to create stability and democracy"


BTW, we have had democracy in Ghana (where I come from for over 15 years), but a lot of the people in the rural areas are still lacking basic medical needs for their children.
This is where Gates is doing great good.

[KwasiOwusu]

"Your initial post: "Now lets just see how long it takes for the open source lunatics to come pollute this thread with their usual brain dead and stupid whine that goes: "Bill Gates kills babies"""

Because that's exactly what happened the last 4 times I put in a post on Bill Gates'scharity work.
Its called facing reality.
If they did it the last 4 times,of course they will do it this time again.
It just plain common sense.