Richest man is the poor's best hope
Odd as it may seem, it took the richest man in the world to remind us that when most of the world's population lives on the edge of extinction, it mocks the rosy predictions for our common future on a wired planet.
Bill Gates apparently shocked a recent conference of computer industry wizards with the news that the billions of people who subsist on a $1 a day are not in a position to benefit from the information age.
The premise of the conference was that "market drivers" could be used "to bring the benefits of connectivity and participation in the e-economy to all the world's six billion people". But as Gates sarcastically asked, what are Third World mothers with dying children going to do? "Browse eBay?".
Makes you think doesn't it? If the world's richest man can lose faith in the promise of global capitalism maybe there is some hope that the corporations can mend their ways.
But in commenting on Gates' new found love of humanity, Robert Sheer writing in the Los Angelus Times was keen to point out that we shouldn't let our emotions run away from us: "Poverty is the major security problem in the world today. The have-nots have many windows to the haves, and resentment is inevitable. It is the breeding ground of disorder and terror, and it is absurd to think a stable new world order can be built on such an uneven foundation."
Indeed, the irony is that "those terrorists in their remote mountain camps are wired to the Internet, which has facilitated the coordination of their evil plans. The terrorists have all the laptops and cellular phones they want, but they depend for their effectiveness on recruiting from the ranks of the alienated poor who don't have medicines, food or a safe source of water."
So what is a new age capitalist like Gates to do if he wants to be the poor's best hope? Leading with a call for greater philanthropy and more government-funded foreign aid, Gates has got it all worked out.
What we really need is to merge Gates with the US government. Let corporations like Microsoft run the show from the Oval Office. They already rule the world from Wall Street.
BY DAVE RILEY
<dhell@ozemail.com.au>