back to article 'It's a joke!' ... Bill Gates slams Mark Zuckerberg's web-for-the-poor dream

Microsoft mogul turned global healer Bill Gates has had some harsh words for Mark Zuckerberg's plan to improve humanity's lot by expanding internet access into the developing world. In August, Facebook supremo Zuckerberg published an extended screed [PDF] online in which he described the need to get everyone in the world …

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    1. Getriebe

      @AC10.33

      "Both of them are sitting on huge piles of cash which would make a huge difference.

      Bill claims to give away his fortune yet he's still the worlds richest man."

      That took a lot of thought and analysis didn't it. I guess as much as you put into your daily work.

      Firstly, as point out on this thread he is not richest - Slim is supposed to be - and if you check out the other in the top ten - tell me how many of them are spending time and effort to get money to areas that can make a difference?

      Sultan of Brunei, Saudi Royal family - compare and contrast? - they are of course surrounded with philanthropic actions.

      Closer to home, what is your annual donation to actions that help others and do not return any value other than a feeling of moral well-being?

      As a lot of the discussion on this thread has been about Africa I shall give my experience/view

      I went to South Africa in the very early 70s to work at a mine (white coated engineer, not 2 miles down in the heat and dust, then working for an NGO before they were called that in the 80s and then a few years ago back to SA to as a very highly paid contractor something to do with cell phones. At each time I went 'bush' and had a great time in the red dust and meeting wonderful people who whatever their status were warm and welcoming. In a village deep in the savannah or in a township. And my overall PoV they are educated (not in a mid-western university way - in an appropriate local way) and they know how to conduct their lives (surprising innit, they been doing for 000's of years) and don't need some dumb fuck like me telling them what to do they just need in some cases the freedom to do what they need and in some cases help because the western world has come in and changed their circumstances - ie the malaria nets as they have moved to an unsuitable area.

      As for cell phones and computers they do not need a white geek helping them, the take up is massive and organised locally by small firms using local distribution methods.

      As you are all computer nerds, one of the best things you could do is find a local (in Africa) company and ship your used but newish computers out there where they are stripped down and rebuilt

      Yes they do use Windows but let us say the licensing is floral - I guess Bill will know as he has travelled over there.

      I send my company's 'excess stock' to a one man band in Alexandra township outside of Johannesburg (they are all just outside Johannesburg) where he is connecting all the tin huts.

      The above is a massive generalization and so is wrong mostly – a bit like trying to sum up South America, Cancun to Terra del Fuego

  1. ecofeco Silver badge
    Pirate

    Says the 2 biggest...

    ...examples of wealth inequality in the world.

    It a joke alright and it's on us.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    please

    FB is public company whose purpose is to make money. Do you really think their desire to give internet to all is through some altruistic intent? Or do you think it may be a way of getting more FB users signed up and monetised? Look it another way, if it was suddenly deemed that removing the internet from the third world would be a benefit to the third world, do you think FB would financially support the initiative? My suspicion is no.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Right sentiment, wrong way of going about it?

    I've long argued that if you prioritise education for the third world, people will work out a lot of things for themselves, therefore needing less aid in the long run (i.e. 'the teach a man to fish' principle). In this sense, both Gates and Zuckerberg are right, with Gates approaching third world problems from the top down, Zuckerberg from the bottom up. There's plenty of room for both approaches.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Right sentiment, wrong way of going about it?

      Your premise is right but the actors are not.

      Both Zuck and Gates are totally out-of-touch billionaires.

  4. No such thing as an Anonymous Coward
    Childcatcher

    Bull...

    When your young, and have lots of $$$$, it's me, me, me.

    When you near to death, you contemplate your mortality and try to make up with a legacy.

    Doesn't hurt if that legacy, also makes you a bit more money along the way.

    For Bill, think: Intellectual property rights play in the pharmaceutical sector. Old dog, same old tricks - just in a new market.

  5. plrndl

    This malaria vaccine is just a vanity project for the Gates ego.

    If we make the bold assumptions that the project is totally successsful in eliminating malaria, and also that the law of unintended consequences fails to rear its ugly head, so what? The people who would have died from malaria will instead die from whatever is the next most communicatable disease in their environment.

    On the other hand, if we give them the means of doing business with the outside world, they have the chance to prosper and rise above their disease-ridden environment, just as we in the developed world have done. Necessity is the mother of invention, and hunger and imminent death are great motivators.

    1. ShadowedOne

      That was the *stupidest* comment I've read so far, and considering that I've read through all the comments so far, that's saying a fair bit.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You are an example of one of the worst traits of modern life, and especially Internet forums: The corrosive cynicism which means that in the mind of people like you no-one can truly do anything for the good of others, it's always for their own gain in some way.

      Try to think good of others, give the benefit of the doubt by default, rather than as the last option (or not at all). You'll find that you may become happy seeing good in others, I daresay you're generally pretty a miserable person, because I was you about ten years ago. I didn't realise it at the time, but I'm so much happier now.

    3. rh587

      If we make the bold assumptions that the project is totally successsful in eliminating malaria, and also that the law of unintended consequences fails to rear its ugly head, so what? The people who would have died from malaria will instead die from whatever is the next most communicatable disease in their environment.

      Which is starvation.

      Far more people die from lack of food than from malaria, aids or any of the in-vogue afflictions (famine is so 1984), but eradicating malaria only makes that problem worse.

      Broadly speaking (and mileage will vary from country to country) there is sod all point vaccinating against Malaria unless a country has reasonable levels of nutrition and food security, or is adequately investing such that they'll have reasonable security in 5-10 years, because otherwise you're just accelerating the growth of a population which you're already struggling to feed. That doesn't mean you shouldn't but "we'll eradicate malaria in Africa" is just laughable. Not until you've eradicated famine first. It's only going to work in specific locales where the local population can keep it going on their own and westerners are just getting the ball rolling with seed funding if you will. If the Gates Foundation has to set up a permanent clinic there for the rest of time then that isn't sustainable and isn't achieving it's goals.

      The development of non-subsistence farming goes hand in hand with the formation of industry and local economy. Farmer now has cash (instead of eating what he grows), so he can buy mosquito nets from a local weaver (instead of being given foreign-made ones by aid agencies), and all of a sudden you have a functional economy. Hand in hand with that goes education, the resources and ability to learn new farming techniques, construction techniques, etc.

      It's a funny one because we see modern buildings or infrastructure go up and think "that's a solid growing economy that", but that doesn't mean the local population fully understand the imported technology. A classic example was provided by a natural hazards lecturer at uni - he was working in an african earthquake zone and a local community were very interested in reinforced concrete as they'd heard it stayed standing better than their brick/masonry buildings had done in the recent quake. One of the other agencies working in the area thought this was a jolly good idea and procured some funding. The locals proudly rebuilt their school and core community buildings in reinforced concrete. Panels.

      On close inspection it was found they'd formed the walls and ceilings with pre-cast panels and lifted them into place. None of the walls was attached to it's neighbours, nor the ceiling beyond some dubious screwed-in cross-ties that probably wouldn't hold up a shelf of textbooks. A concrete house of cards, substantially more dangerous than the previous brick and thatch-roofed affair it replaced. In the previous jobby you might get pinned under a beam, but most people would climb out from under the collapsed roof with minor injuries. By contrast you were into strawberry jam territory for any unfortunate soul trapped inside the concrete building (i.e. all the kids if school was in session). The panels themselves were immensely strong, but not attached to any other immensely strong thing...

      So food/water, and education, education, education. Because a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and all the drugs in the world won't help you if you're so malnourished your body can't fight off an infection even with antibiotics.

  6. phil dude
    Unhappy

    artifical scarcity...

    I hate to be negative, but this smacks of the elephant in the room, artificial scarcity. The same cause of famine...

    Malaria, for example, is treatable and relatively well understood. It kills so many people because of their socioeconomic circumstance and the ineffectual states that cannot arrange living conditions that limit access to the vector i.e. the mosquito. Not getting a disease is the easiest way of not needing to treat it....

    The problem is a solution "product" is known (e.g. meds, treated nets, drain swamps etc.. ), but the means to implement it are not available for whatever reason. This occurs everywhere in the world, but when you are rich, you can spend money to adapt the environment by producing the infrastructure. When you are poor all there less infrastructure and individuals/small groups are limited in scope.

    Hence, access to knowledge is most valuable when there are the means to apply it. Education is needed for both of these activities, and a society that supports the development of STABLE infrastructure. We have may have phones and computers. But we have hospitals and pharma and a whole raft of tech *industry* to support our ability of live as individuals, within the system.

    These are rich, and by extension, powerful people, and so in practice their words can lead to considerable action if so desired. If the internet were truly ubiquitous,freely accessible and effectively constant around this planet, would we be very surprised if some of these problems would be solved by the individuals in these countries?

    I can't help thinking the "artificial scarcity" which is *partly* economic but is largely political is largely the problem...

    P.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: artifical scarcity...

      There is artificial scarcity everywhere, even where you live.

    2. Denarius
      Meh

      Re: artifical scarcity...

      @Phil. Not the same issues. Agreed that all famines in recent decades are a political creation. There is artificial scarcity in some things, but not in malaria control. Despite the small world thinking of the city dwellers, there is so much "nothing" consisting of swampy to seasonally wet areas where mossies carry malaria. Humans live there in same wet areas. No amount of affordable technology or supply is going to change that. A vaccine will affordably fix the human health problem. In low density locations the internet is irrelevant. Mobile phones and aircraft are more useful. A phone for cheap flexible comms and a plane to haul sick person to distant hospital.

      1. phil dude
        Boffin

        Re: artifical scarcity...

        Well that is sort of my point about scarcity. A solution does it exist, but it cannot be afforded by the local population. If you want to see transformed swampy go to Florida. Or Jamestown Virginia where the first English colony was. Swampy and if untreated you will get bitten raw (the colonial theme park there is still like that).

        However, malaria did not exist in the US before the Europeans who brought it with them. It has however, been kept from spreading (http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/facts.html).

        In Sicily they spray(ed) the streets every week for mosquitos, doled out quinine and so Italy tamed their mosquitos (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3340992/).

        That doesn't mean malaria cannot re-emerge.

        But that is why you need some sort of infrastructure to live a Western lifestyle, without the "northern European" climate. Do you think living in Florida (or Texas/Arizona/) would be possible without air conditioning without drastic economic consequences? I would suggest that the USA is anything other than small world, it has had truly massive geo-engineering in the last two centuries to make it what it is.

        There are also human mutations (the hetero-thals) that have been selected to give inate resistance to the malaria parasite, but has horrible consequences for homozygous occurrences.

        The point about the internet availability is not only that a vast number of our modern benefits depend upon it. I think it is cynical to suggest the "developing world" could not benefit from its advanced use. If Google is demonstrating anything, it is connectivity is a crucial advantage.

        If the Internet has shown our species one thing that is once a discovery is made somewhere, it is possible to access everywhere. Putting quotes on the "possible", is perhaps underlines my point.

        P.

  7. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    "Working landlines are very different from mobile Obama phones. Try news stations instead of lunatic left echo chambers."

    So-called news sources are not the place to get information on programs like this. Due to the US's broken political system (with two nearly-identical parties which people swear are polar opposites), the news coverage of political programs is poor at best. That said:

    1) Calling subsidized mobile phones "Obama phones" is ridiculous, the universal service fund, subsidizing phone service for the poor, as well as for people too far out in the sticks for the phone co to provide service otherwise, has been around for DECADES. Obviously they were not handing out bag phones in the 1980s, it did not make technological or economic sense. But nevertheless the cell phone program is an extension of these same programs.

    2) *CELL PHONES COST LESS THAN LANDLINES*!!!! If I want a BASIC landline from the CenturyLink, it's like $20-25 a month, with no long distance. The companies providing "free" cell phones are getting about $10 a month in subsidy. So, if they buy the higher minute plan, the person getting the phone service chips in $10 and the subsidy $10.

    3) Employability. The people that speak against these phones, that say a landline is good enough (ignoring point 2), are usually also the same ones that want people off subsidies as fast as possible (i.e. back to work)... which is definitely a good goal. Well who is more employable? Someone who the potential employer dials up and it rings through to their cell? Or the other person with the landline, where it just rings and rings if they happen to be out looking for work, or buying groceries, or whatever (landline service does not include voicemail, and as a broke individual they probably won't have an answering machine!)

    ------------------------------------------------

    Back on topic -- I've read about startling changes in some of these countries from technology. A few have seen great economic growth, they effectively did not have banks out in the sticks, or any way to hold onto money (they'd probably be robbed eventually if they just had all this cash around), which made any kind of normal economy impossible. Now, it's done via phone banking, they can store their wealth, business all accept phone transfer, and there are places they can locally get some of that on-phone money turned into hard currency when they'd like. In places where there's some farming, better contact between producers and sellers so they can find out which markets are providing better pricing. Rural people are getting medical information they never had access to before.

    That said, I do think it's naive to assume these people will be making widespread use of PCs and using these services similarly to how they are used in the US. Even Japan uses services radically differently than here. Google's plan seems a bit naive.

    I think what Gates is doing is very important too. I just won't dismiss people who think they can bring about change via better communication either.

  8. Dropper

    Robbed the rich..

    From what I can tell the argument appears to be "all well and good Bill, but pot, kettle, black."

    While I agree with the basic argument, the reality is America's kids are (not universally, but in general) little shits, growing up to become gang bangers and wasters. Taking their money hurts no one that matters.

    I suppose my opinion is biased as I have 2 of my own.. both despicable little fuckers who refuse to get jobs. At their age they're the ideal size to fit down chimneys or the small spaces in coal mines..

    But the reality is the money he (and Jobs) "stole" is tax money. As no one pays taxes in America, that equates to free cash.

  9. messele

    He's got that wrong.

    Bill Gates - encouraging the world to overbreed, one ignored johnny at a time.

    1. ShadowedOne
      FAIL

      Re: He's got that wrong.

      "..encouraging the world to overbreed.."

      Judging by your comment I have to say that you are certainly a compelling argument for birth control..

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    did a bit of research

    looked at the http://www.goodgifts.org/ website which lists gifts which benefit the needy

    And strangely there wasn't "internet access for sub-Saharan Africa" between "Health checks for 50" and "Knitting for children in refugee camps" nor "laptop for the third world" between "Knives that save lives" and "Let no child go hungry"

    There are educational gifts eg "Give a library to a village or poor area or town in India." or "Teach a [African] mother to read" and infrastructure ones "Water tank for an African school" but nothing involving computers came up using their search function,

    I did find buy a malaria net for £8.

  11. Mikel

    If you want to spend company money

    There has to be at least a plausible benefit to the company in it if you want to use shareholder assets to do some good for the world at a significant level. I don't have a problem with companies spending some thought on how to achieve a social good in the course of business. The very idea that it can be profitable to lift the poorest of the world's poor out of poverty and misery deserves its own Nobel Prize.

    Eradicating Malaria? That's not going to fit in the P&L. A worthy, laudable ambition with the scope perhaps only the B&M Foundation can reach. But the Foundation doesn't have to worry about shareholder lawsuits. This is a better pursuit for a nonprofit than the other.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: If you want to spend company money

      Mutating diseases carried by airborne vectors that can easily cause world wide mortal pandemic aren't very profitable either.

      But maybe that's just me.

      Hard to be rich when you're, well, dead. (and so are your customers... and suppliers)

      I did up-vote you, BTW.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Poor form to make fun of other peoples' charitable contributions

    Apparently Bill Gates thinks he's narrowed down the only legitimate use for a charitable dollar, and it's curing malaria in Africa, or whatever he's doing.

    I guess he would also think that the entire list of charities that I contribute to is a "joke." Jokes like researching and treating Alzheimer's or finding organizations that are trying to free prisoners in Guantanamo. Ha ha.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Poor form to make fun of other peoples' charitable contributions

      The Gates foundation does a hell of a lot more than just curing malaria, they work in HIV in particular, but I'm pretty sure that they also do work on Alzheimer's. You could, you know, read about what they do before criticizing.

      Delivery of Internet access to areas where the most technologically advanced item is a solar powered light is useless.

  13. heyrick Silver badge

    Gates' PR handlers tried to get stricken from the interview

    Bloody hell, grow a backbone.

    He's right. There are some places in the world where people can exist quite happily without the slightest hint of IT in their day to day lives. But they might not live at all without vaccinations, sanitary water, and something resembling a stable food supply.

    Oh, and Zuck, you going to roll out connectivity before or after you roll out electricity? Oh, didn't you realise? Not everywhere on the planet has a place you can plug into...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Gates' PR handlers tried to get stricken from the interview

      In many of the poorer parts of Africa, people rely on cheap, obsolete cell phones for communication, banking, etc. No electrical grid necessary--the phones are easily charged with solar panels or a hand crank or similar.

      Pretty soon they will be getting obsolete cell phones that have wifi and pretty capable web browsers. Internet will be valuable.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Internet: not just the best library in the world

    Bill G wants malaria vaccination does he? So, how exactly are you going to ensure that all the people get that vaccine? Hmm, I guess you'd need some kind of effective census and tracking program. I wonder what technologies we can use to help.

    Want to educate people on key points of information that can radically help improve their lives? Oh, if only we had a way rapidly to disseminate up-to-date information (bypassing layers of bureaucracy and corruption) to key agents of change who can communicate that information at a local level.

    Yes, I know malaria's horrible, but I also know that the Internet (and mobile communications) are absolutely fucking awesome and have helped make the world a much better place for billions of people. That includes the use of Internet and mobile technologies __already__ for health census and vaccination programs.

    I just don't get how people on an Information Technology site can fail to understand the awesome power of Information and Technology.

    PS I shall never, ever forgive MS execs, including Bill Gates, for the original Outlook Express. I mean, just how much of a greedy, uncaring cunt would a person have to be to think that that was OK to put in the hands of millions of naive Internet users?

    PPS I do not use Facebook.

  15. Chris G

    Think a little

    However BG made his money originally is a lot less relevant than the fact that he is using using it now to do some good in the world.

    Vaccinating to wipe out polio and attempting to fight malaria are not things you can slag a guy off for.

    Malaria may be treatable but there are resistant strains and now vaccines are being developed in an attempt to reduce the incidence of the disease

    "In November 2012, findings from a Phase III trials of an experimental malaria vaccine known as RTS,S reported that it provided modest protection against both clinical and severe malaria in young infants. The RTS,S vaccine was engineered using genes from the outer protein of Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite and a portion of a hepatitis B virus and a chemical adjuvant to boost the immune system response.[8] It is being developed by PATH and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which has spent about $300 million on the project, plus about $200 million more from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation[9]"

    More from Wibblypaedia

    Something I find amazing here is the number of people who appear to think that all of Africa and India have access to a means of supplying energy to whatever devices they are going to connect with. The idea of everyone getting an education so that they can help themselves is laudable but the practicalities are very difficult to achieve in places where a persons first concern is where to get food and drinkable water from, then getting it without being attacked by crocodiles, hippos, lions and or attacked and raped in the bush; something that is prevalent even in relatively well developed countries like Kenya.

    With problems like those, getting the infrastructure (telephone lines, power lines, power stations, people who can operate the equipment) to support wide spread internet access is going to be a ways down the list.

    If you can't get out more try reading about the world more, apparently there is a lot of information about these things on the internet .

    Incidentally Malaria really is horrible, a good friend of mine was driving up through India at the end of last year and even with the prophylactics he was taking he got a severe attack of Malaria by the time he had reached Nepal. Three weeks later in after lying in a hospital bed most of you would not even want to touch he was weak, wobbly and over 40 pounds lighter, almost a year later with the benefits of British medicine he is still getting over it. Many people in the endemic areas of the world suffer on and of from attacks for most of their lives if it doesn't kill them and a Farcebook account is unlikely to help much.

    1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      Re: Think a little

      "Something I find amazing here is the number of people who appear to think that all of Africa and India have access to a means of supplying energy to whatever devices they are going to connect with."

      Yeah, they do. Solar, wind, muscle power. The basic device is a cellphone. You just need a charging system.

      It's -our- money that Bill Gates is giving away. Big of him, but he got it from us, and sometimes by abusing his industry monopolies.

      Could they distribute vaccines by putting them on the Google balloons and dropping them off at appropriate locations? Such as the places where you go to get your phone charged?

      Wikipedia passes on reports that lions turn to attacking humans when they have bad teeth and their usual killing and feeding process can't be done any more, although there are doubts about this. Nevertheless, with this information, I suppose it's worth smacking the lion in the mouth to make its toothache worse. With the phone that you used to look it up.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Think a little

      "Many people in the endemic areas of the world suffer on and of from attacks for most of their lives if it doesn't kill them and a Farcebook account is unlikely to help much."

      So the best they can aspire to in their lives is to sit around and try to not get sick?

      Before the advent of modern vaccines and antibiotics and whatnot, people got sick and died "prematurely" all the time. That didn't stop them from writing literature, making music, advancing science, etc. Also, news flash, you're probably going to die of heart disease or cancer or something. Does that mean you might as well not have a Facebook account either?

    3. Getriebe

      Re: Think a little

      Chris G - I make you right on all you have said there.

      On power - the as the ironically moniker's Carniege says - there are local was of generating it but AFAIK there is a direct relationship to poverty and malarial breeding grounds in India. And if you come from some Pradesh the chance of you having a solar panel is small. The Indian states governments are trying to get these means of generating power out to the villages (with help from western benefactors) but as usual corruption is screwing it. And again AFAIK the power is being used for TV as it has been found the best way of getting information to rural poulations

      On malaria, a few years ago my climbing friends did something in the Himalaya, came back via India and one went travelling. He caught malaria, ended up in hospital and was airlifted out. A guy who had summited an 8,000 meter peak was reduced to being unable to get out of bed. He still has not recovered completely 20 years later. Its not man flu.

  16. cyclical

    I actually work with a company that provides connectivity (internet and mobile) to rural parts of various third world African countries, and connectivity absolutely does help improve the lives of people there, especially through education. I've worked on projects that provide market prices to farmers (via website, WAP, SMS etc.) to allow them to maximise their profit, educational websites for AIDS & malaria, educational cartoons aimed towards illiterate farmers children teaching basic irrigation, crop rotation, animal care.

    For the price of a handful of low-spec PC's (and low cost tablets that the company have just launched), a satellite connection and a few days on a bumpy road with an engineer or two you can transform the ability of a school to educate their pupils for years to come. Some of these schools were running on a handful of ancient textbooks - now they have access to courses specifically designed for rural african markets, in addition to the educational resources of the entire internet.

    1. Chris G

      This is genuine interest.

      Can you give us an idea of how difficult/easy it is and how much on average it costs to provide each unit?

      The reason I ask is people tell me Gatesy is trying to get other billionaires to spend a bit of their billions in the same way as he does, I'm wondering how many satlaps 200 million would provide?

      1. cyclical

        It varies considerably - the main cost is the satellite/microwave connection because the infrastructure (power and security mainly) varies massively from area to area, and different levels of work are required for each school. I'm mainly involved in content delivery rather than the actual installation, but I do know that it's done on massively tight margins and even a donation basis with costs being offset in the poorer schools by turning the school building into an internet cafe after-hours, and costs to the school can be a low as $1/pupil/month.

        1. Chris G

          I'm impressed, that really is worth an IT billionaire putting some cash into.

          It's also worth a lot of governments who donate foreign aid looking into that money being genuinely spent on projects like this.

          Worth much more than an upvote for you.

  17. Sebastian A

    I wish

    every rich person eventually matured into a person like Gates. He's come right over time. Respect.

    1. Roger Greenwood

      Re: I wish

      I think at some point people that rich have to choose.

      20 years ago BillG didn't say or do the same things, but don't be surprised if 20 years from now Mr Z is.

  18. W. Anderson

    Quit meaningless emphasis on personal wealth

    TheRegister, as well as Forbes Magazine and other Western societies addicted to accounting for and predicting the "most wealthy" persons on the planet, need to immediately stop this charade, since it is not possible for Fortune, Forbes or any other American or Western media to "know" the true wealth of many very wealthy people in other nations, especially in places like Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, South American countries or even in next-door Mexico, home of Carlos Slim.

    It is an infantile and futile exercise in American posturing and self importance, particularly with millions of “truly needy” US citizens losing their food assistance.

  19. rh587

    Vaccines... the only thing the world needs right now huh?

    "Take this malaria vaccine, [this] weird thing that I'm thinking of. Hmm, which is more important, connectivity or malaria vaccine? If you think connectivity is the key thing, that's great. I don't."

    Well thats fine Bill. You go and do your vaccines and other people can deal with other problems. We don't all have to focus on one specific problem - there's enough issues in this world for people to have a bite at different apples. There is no "key thing". It's a big puzzle with lots of pieces. Vaccines are one big piece but there are lots of others...

    All power to Bill's foundation, he does a lot of good. That said he does seem obsessed with vaccines, and it seems like an expensive way to go - keeping people alive from disease so they can die of starvation. Pumping modern medicine into countries that can't feed/house the existing population, and dropping the mortality rate seems a bit counterproductive. Most of the western world developed a stable system of farming before modern sanitation and medicine was discovered, meaning you could feed the resultant population boom when kids stopped dying before their first birthday.

    I recently visited India and it was a bit odd seeing shanty towns wth sky dishes hanging off the sides of tin shacks! As little love as I have for Zuckerberg, and as cynical as I am of his motives, something my mum mentioned stuck with me (Dad works over there for a UK company. Having become a lady wot lunches with an Agri degree she has taken an interest in such matters to fill her time) - current estimates suggest India could triple it's food output just by improvements in farming practices - not biotech, chemicals or buying Monsanto seeds, just purely improving transport to cut the 25% of food that gets wasted, and improving farming habits to improve yields and crops/yr. That requires education, which requires some sort of communication to those out in the sticks.

    There's also things as simple as disseminating accurate weather forecasts - "Monsoon season is bulding a fortnight earlier than usual, get your harvest in sharpish".

    If Gates wants his vaccines to work, he needs someone to feed those kids for him once he's done propping up the pharmaceuticals industry. Facebook won't do that but commnications infrastructure is absolutely part of the picture, so whilst I take Zuck with a pinch of salt, I think Gates' outright dismissal of him is a bit narrow minded. Vaccines won't solve the world's problems on their own.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Vaccines... the only thing the world needs right now huh?

      Of course bill g is interested in vaccines - he's simply applying all his Windows experience in another direction.

  20. king of foo

    tinterweb pron

    ...the cure for aids

  21. Denarius
    WTF?

    this is weird

    Now I am agreeing with Bill Gates. What happened to the old certainties ?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This at least explains why Microsoft software is late, buggy and badly written - all Billy G's best people are out saving the world. With your cash, like it or not.

  23. pyite

    Obviously Zuckerberg's idea is self-serving, but there would be some benefit to everyone in the world having access to, say, WebMD. It isn't as good as proper medical care but it would certainly help.

    Mark

    1. JamesTQuirk

      @ pyite

      iF they could reach the phone from their death bed, or have the energy to dial due to starvation, I suppose ...

  24. CyrixInstead

    Say what you like, but...

    Outside of the tech industry, Bill Gates is a fabulously benevolant man. If half the world's rich people funded the world's genuinely needy problems, like he does, the world would be a much better place. For better or worse, Gates has donated towards the advancement of the planet for the last two decades. In that time his products have been used the world over, in everything from cash machines to stopping alien invasions. It's good to see he can continue with it now he's made his riches.

    At what point does a personal fortune become so great that you are fine with spending billions on charity?

    It's good to see someone posting about beneficial tech projects, in rural Africa. Education can be as important as personal wellbeing in the grand scheme of things.

  25. Jo 5

    yeah right

    He said no one would be using paper in offices and all would be using MS tablets by now. Was he right?

    No, he is laughably wrong.

    So if all those 1st world teens using FB are busily self harming then lets not worry too much about some pot-bellied-covered-in-flies-malaria-cholera-stricken kids getting some FarmVille action in!

    /irony alert.

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