Dear Niyam, I was going to ignore this, but feel compelled to reply as I strongly disagree with what you have to say. Please understand that this is by no means a personal attack on you.
On Thu, 2008-02-07 at 02:54 +0530, Linux Lingam wrote: > [snip] > > a) bill has no choice but to defecate his billions. he can't digest it > all in this life. he can't take it with him to his grave. he can't > give it to his children and devastate them. too much wealth can > sometimes be a dreadful burden. > > b) he's taking the most measured approach yet in recorded history, to > bring principles of capitalism to charity. I have a question for anybody I hear declaim about the so-called dangers of wealth. What are you personally doing about this? There are several hundred million Indians waiting for your spare wealth, several thousands in Delhi alone. For many of these people, spare wealth is anything beyond a few rotis, salt, and if they are lucky, chillies, to sort of fill their bellies for today. If these do not meet your criteria, I am willing to be the glad recipient of any wealth that *you* have to spare. In the meantime, please spare me your crocodile tears. I have been thinking seriously about such issues, and feel that one could make a convincing case that Bill Gates, through the work of his foundation has done more tangible good than the free software movement. Read up also on robber barons in the US; Nelson Rockefeller in particular. While I do not at all accept Microsoft's predatory policies, nor the attempts of institutions like Microsoft India to claim that somehow the charity of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation means that governments should buy more Windows desktops, this absolutely does not mean that anything Microsoft, or anyone associated with it, does is automatically bad. > c) gautam buddha, mahavir, and a few saints who thought hard about the > inequality of wealth always found an easy way to equality: donate > wealth and become poor themselves. alas, all the wealth given away > through thousands of years by hundreds of wealthy people has not > eradicated poverty. yet. it has only made the wealthy poor by their > own choice, and helped quite a few assuage their 'money guilt' perhaps > because, as mario puzo once said 'behind every fortune there is a > crime.' Double bah! Anybody who hides behind any kind of -ism, or resorts to invoking the names of great people, has already abdicated any personal responsibility. It does not matter whether it is Hinduism, Buddhism, capitalism, Marxism, or even Gora-ism. Not that there weren't great people that did great things. However, the world is a living, breathing, dynamic, thing, and at every moment poses unique challenges. If your response is driven by any kind of ideology, it is bound to be inadequate. Gautam Buddha never had to contend with the Internet, though I would have liked to see his response to the ubiquitous availability of pr0n. Regards, Gora _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Next Event: http://freed.in - February 22-24, 2008 Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
