October 27, 2005 In India, Bill Gates Does Well By Doing "Good" License to Bill
By LILA RAJIVA
To his fans, a Randian free-market hero, an Atlas barely quivering under the Himalayan chain of operating systems, software packages and security patches with which he feeds the hungering cyber-masses. Or as one Indian model squealed orgasmically, "Mr. Gates, you are my idea of the ideal man. You are rich, and you are powerful."
And a philanthropist to...er.. boot.... The Gates foundation, which is worth $30 billion, (£17 billion), is now the largest charity run by a single philanthropist or private company And Gates says he intends to give away 90 per cent of his $50 billion fortune.
On September 22 this year, Microsoft made its latest corporate raid on humanitarianism, pledging to partner with the Indian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in seven crucial areas. The deal, largely unnoticed by the media, was struck at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington headquarters with Minister Dayanidhi Maran.
Microsoft offered a new Windows XP Starter Edition licensed and built just for India in nine Indian languages as well as English; it "adopted" 100 schools in 6 states to provide an interactive learning environment and pledged to support an Indian government program to establish 100,000 rural kiosks with a range of affordable products and services; it also pledged to deliver a broadband and PC package targeted to first time users at an affordable monthly installment, to set up and fund with 2 million dollars an E-governance Center of Excellence for pilot programs, and to collaborate with Indian agencies and scientists to research Indic language computing technologies and increase security. (1)
Shades of Rockefeller, who spent the latter part of his life guiltily giving away the fortune he'd amassed. Maybe His Billness has taken to reading the geek blogs with their unkindest cuts. Or Greg Palast and that crack of his about Blackbeard the Pirate has gotten to him. (2)
Who steals my purse steals trash ...etc. etc.
Or maybe, there's a much simpler answer.
Full at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/rajiva10272005.html