The Two Faces of Bill Gates

Posted by VISITOR on Feb 2, 2006 5:29 PM EDT
Linux Online; By Michael J. Jordan
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Though few would dispute the fact that Bill Gates' role as a philanthropist has done a lot to save lives in developing countries, in his role as Chairman of the Microsoft Corporation, according to the New York Times, he is doing little to enrich these same people's lives.

In the public consciousness, Bill Gates has, for the past few years, been playing two roles. One is the role that he's been best-known for for over 25 years - that of the face of the Microsoft Corporation. But in the past few years, since the creation of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, Gates has also become known as a philanthropist. The work of the foundation in helping to eradicate diseases like AIDS, polio and yellow fever earned Gates the title of Time Magazine's person of the year for 2005, along with his wife and U2's frontman Bono. Apparently not one to rest on his laurels, the Microsoft chairman announced last week at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the foundation was pledging almost a billion dollars to fight tuberculosis. It's estimated that this latest Gates Foundation initiative will save over 14 million lives, primarily in developing nations.

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