Bill Gates, the Philanthropist

I some how got to read a special anniversary issue of the “Smithsonian”. It covered the “35 Who Made a Difference”. One article was “Bill Gates: the king of software takes on his biggest challenge yet” by Former President Jimmy Carter, who co-founded “The Carter Center” with his wife and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Gates was recognized not for his entrepreneurship in software, but for his “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation” dedicated to public health on a global scale.

The article shows that no matter what our fields of study are, or what careers we choose, we can make a difference. It also triggers a thought about how effective Muslim charity organizations are, and the degree to which our rich Arabs are involved in serving citizens of their countries and all the world. I study engineering, but really have nothing to do with it... the article really touched me.

The first paragraph reads: “As a former engineer and businessman, I’ve long admired Bill Gates’ innovative entrepreneurship: while we share a high regard for the vision it takes to achieve far-reaching goals, he far surpassed anything I accomplished in engineering and business. He sees how the world can be made better with the strategic and daring use of time, talent and resources."

The last paragraph about the couple’s foundation reads: “Bill and Melinda’s foundation has set a major change in motion, elevating the potential of public health research and policy to improve life on earth. It has energized research into global health, made that work a credible career choice and attracted politicians to the cause. Perhaps, most important, the confidence Bill has brought to the field has stimulated much more funding. As a result, we can see a day when sufficient resources are applied to global health to prevent the suffering and deaths of tens of millions of people.”

To read the full article, please click
http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues05/nov05/35_gates.html
To read an article about Bill Gates by Ahmed Al Rabi'i, please click
http://aawsat.com/leader.asp?section=3&article=332488&issue=9843