Bill and Melinda Gates Share "Impatient Optimism" Via Webcast

Although the U.S. sends billions of dollars to other countries in foreign aid each year, Bill and Melinda Gates understand it's hard to wrap our minds around what that means for a single person on the other side of the world.

That's why they've launched "The Living Proof Project: U.S. Investments In Global Health Are Working" through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The project comprises an ongoing collection of personal stories, multimedia and progress sheets that document the success of the U.S.'s global health initiatives.

"Our hope is that if more people see this impact they will be moved to share these compelling stories and support America's continued leadership in global health," Melinda Gates wrote in a blog post on Monday. "I know that for Bill and for me, these stories have had a profound impact on the way we look at the opportunities in the years ahead. At our foundation, we have come to believe that sharing stories of success is one of the most important things we can do to motivate and inspire others. Through our work, especially our visits to the field, we have been deeply touched by personal stories of lives changed for the better."

To launch the project, Bill and Melinda Gates spoke live via webcast. The Why We Are Impatient Optimists presentation highlighted some of the remarkable success stories from U.S. global investments and outlined those that are yet to come.

WATCH THE WEBCAST NOW:

Visit The Living Proof Project to start learning more about global heath success stories.

Comments

[piggybackmom]

10/30/2009
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Thursday announced it's giving $4 million to help families who have been broadsided by the economic downturn here in Washington state.

The Gates Foundation is better known for its global health work to end poverty and disease in other countries. But Bill Gates, Sr., says this money will help those closest to home. The new funds will help disadvantaged families across the state get basic services, such as food, housing and legal aid.
http://kuow.org/program.php?id=18702

THANK YOU

[MarcusT]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKcPx2jD5to&feature=related

[jsijason]

I think what they are doing is good. Could it be done better? Probably. But they're doing a lot with their fame and fortune, and that's noble.

I wonder if there is something to be said about providing more charity in the nations that house their customers - you know, the people who made them rich?

Focusing their philanthropy on education, public technology infrastructure for the people that voted with their dollars to make them insanely rich seems to be a more suitable reinvestment.

Maybe they see it as helping the people who need it most in their own way.

[RightsGuy]

WHAT ABOUT THE USA?

We pay twice what other countries pay for healthcare, yet 50 million Americans have no healthcare coverage and 87 million were without health insurance in the past 2 years. 62% of bankruptcies are due to medical bills.

The US ranks LAST of 19 industrialized nations in preventable deaths, and 29th of 37 in infant mortality. The World Health Organization ranks the US at 72nd for healthcare accessibility and efficiency. We can no longer maintain the status quo.

Millions have died due to lack of health care.

[hypnotoad72]

But they can.

[audadvnc]

Yeah, and we're optimistic that Win 7 will be better than Vista...

[hypnotoad72]

Some pundits say it is solidly engineered. Of course, if they're not bought and paid for I'd call them "dilettante parrots".

I'm not the only one with this technical issue, but I upgraded a client's XP machine to Win7. Had to reformat, of course. He set up his user profile... the next day, the local profile was recreated. This sort of garbage started with Win XP and continues to this day. Along with registry bloat, file fragmentation, and a slew of other problems, I honestly doubt Microsoft fixes anything. (Well, apart from being told to wait for the next version of their web development app, despite the version I had purchased being the newly released one and yet they tell me to wait for the NEXT one to have it fixed? I can't tell my clients "Sorry it won't work in non-IE browsers despite Microsoft's claims". At this point, I moved to the Mac. 20 years of Windows and I was more than patient. (And with years' worth of Linux, OS/2, BeOS, and other PC operating systems, there are plenty of stories to share about MS's predatory nature. Amongst other things. But to be frank, MS has little that's of solid, professional quality. They did "quantity over quality". And everyone else gets to be the scapegoats for THEIR mistakes. It's called "delegation".)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcWjOodAtoE
(reenactment of a very true story)

[charon]

"Share their impatient optimism"? Why don't they share their wealth with poor Americans? The government spends trillions on aid to other countries' militaries around the globe instead of helping poor Americans at home. Maybe the Gates could help fill in the gap left by our insane government and do things for poor people, like help with housing and food. Buying land for urban gardens where city dwellers could grow their own fresh vegetables might be a possibility. It could be sort of like what Carnegie did for libraries, so every city could get a grant to set up a "Gates Garden."

Just an idea. But impatient optimism? They can keep that. I'll even send them mine, though it's turned a little towards becoming angry cynicism.

[weebils]

Good post.

[piggybackmom]

I think the US is in need of a philanthropist that could help the poor by setting up some type of jobs.

[hypnotoad72]

Yup. Ig globalization meant expansion, no American worker would have lost his/her job. Meanwhile, he wants double the H1Bs despite there being more H1Bs than there are unemployed US tech workers.

He's as philanthropic as a flea. He's probably doing his "work" just to keep more cheap labor alive. Sorry for the cynicism. Been around in this industry to believe anyone at face value anymore...

http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/h-1b-workers-outnumber-unemployed-techies-859
(2009)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2711677
(2004)

[SEQUOIABISON]

HuffPost's Pick

The only problem with all their charity is that it goes to the wrong people. The Gates foundation gives millions of dollars to the pharmaceutical industry to administer all types of unnecessary injections. What the people in hard stressed areas of Africa need is more fresh fruits and vegetables not powdered milk and pharmaceuticals.

The money would be better spent planting fruit trees and teaching them modern agriculture. The root cause of their physiological problems is a lack of decent nutrition, which leads to all sorts of debilitating diseases, thus the need for pharmaceuticals, go for the cause of disease not the palliation. It is not the germs that are causing such widespread problems, but malnourished bodies whose immune system is unable to fight off a simple invasion.

[Angie Cordeiro - Huffpost Blogger]

Right on SEQUOIABISON!

Fanned and favorite!

[hypnotoad72]

Fanned!!!

[Xavier Giles]

Yes the Gates's give some of their money to charities but they also get a generous tax deduction for doing so, yes they donate money to other countries but the get political clout and a financial stake in that country for doing so. I have checked out their foundation site and am still not impressed. Everything they do with the foundation is with and eye on future proifits and business deals. the fact that he had the audacity to go before congress and lobby for more insourcing of labor when our people clearly need jobs strikes me as uncharitable. America needs it's rich to to subscribe to the old adage "I am my brother's keeper", charity starts at home. If these people took a look around our country I am sure they could find enough that needs to be done to keep them and their money busy for quite some time. So while I agree that they should get a pat on the back for helping these other nations with their issue, What about healthcare, foreclosures, poverty, corruption in our government, the income equality gap, corrupt business practices on wall street that need to be adressed. How about putting the money and clout behind those issues and making a difference right here at home.

[Angie Cordeiro - Huffpost Blogger]

Nice try Bill & Melinda. Here is how it is accomplished on a shoe string. Here are the stories that make a difference and all these good folks do this work 100 x's better than your billions...

http://www.globalresourcealliance.org/

[pharmmajor]

And Angie, what are YOU doing to help people in need?

[Angie Cordeiro - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for asking...

I volunteer twice a week at the library.

I donate what little funds I have to several non-profits.

I have housed at risk children in my home through a government program while the courts where placing them in permanent homes.

Care to share what you are doing?

[hypnotoad72]

Perspective ratio:

A nickel we donate is comparable to the $100,000 they donate.

We donate more than a nickel... in money and in time.

Maybe if they made quality products I wouldn't be so harsh in my postings (which, BTW, I ensure to put in detail -- and link references when it's not from personal experience. The truth is out there and Windows is a slipshod product -- at best.)

[GravitonX]

I wonder how many factories the !Gates Foundation! has helped Africans build or how many construction machinery units they're bought to actually help them help themselves...

Zero.

It's better to hand them fruit and medicine from the back of a truck. If they ever rose out of their desperate state, they may not need you anymore, and no one could tell you what a great person you are.

[PlanetKansas]

Bill Gates and MS was notoriously stingy on charity until the Clinton Administration went after them for antitrust violations in 1998. After he lost, he left Microsoft and created the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to repair his image.

[Okeif]

Way to revise history there, buck. Wanna give it another try?

[PlanetKansas]

Love to Okeif, read it here in Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_gates

Most billionaire charity is about them, their legacy and controlling negative publicity so politicians or the public won't go after them. There are many critics of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and NPR challenged them on it this week.

Just remember, he got rich because of his ruthlessness and his charities can't help to be an extension of that ego. His charity shifts the unspent dollars into a tax free foundation, dodging the taxes.

Personally, I'd rather see something along the lines of a MacAuthor Genius Prize, or actually investing in jobs and industry in America's poor neighborhoods.

[GravitonX]

The developing world would do well to be wary of Baron and Baroness Munchausen and their philanthropic vanity.

[PrairieView]

What about the trillion$ the US spends killing poor people around the world? Their health is not doing too well after they are blown to bits (no pun intended). Just think, all the laptop computers of the US military running Windows.

[bramapanzer]

US military mostly uses a in house version of secure debian (linux). Windows is not secure enough for DoD standards, but it is fun to denigrate those EVIL windows guys.

[lastpost]

Insurance and nature operate by spreading risk. For example, it is unlikely that every vehicle operator would be involved in an accident at one and the same time. Therefore a small payment from each can more than cover the costs of the relative random few who are affected. The same system might be applied to funding mortgages. Except that if an economic downturn occurs, there will be far more simultaneous claimants than the fund can support.
Similarly, if a disease occurs capable of destroying one plant in a field planted with a monoculture crop, every plant in that field is at risk of succumbing. The consequence would be akin to that of the Irish potato famine. Where plants of a similar type, though not actually identical, were decimated.

[etiennemacchias]

I, for one, am glad these two officious philanthropists are channeling some of their massive wealth to foreign countries.

Some of these commentators here make it sound like America is in dire need of health-care reform -- and, please, none of you pushed or even knew the need for such reform until last year so let's cut the crap. Compared to those countries where people are dying from something as minor as a fever, we have it pretty good.

In regards to the MS versus Apple debate, I, personally, prefer MS because of its truer competitive nature than Apple. I understand MS bought out some of its competitors but compare that the greedy Apple who is explicitly demanding and prompting a monopoly; they create their own OS, machines, software... and now they're even fighting -- through a frivolous lawsuit -- the free flow of hackintosh knowledge. Which is worse? For me, the latter. Also, I never hear about Apple's contribution to the society. Where is Jobs Foundation? What has he done for me or us? (Someone enlighten me please, WITHOUT researching it.)

[weebils]

There are people in America dying from increasing levels of fevers and infections contracted from hospital stays. Even when they enter for minor surgery . One reason being that qualified nurses in this country have been undercut and displaced by cheap, foreign and ill trained nurses. The type of policies that Bill Gates has lobbied heavily for. Then there are Americans dying because they cannot afford continuing treatments for certain diseases or to fill prescriptions. Take a good look at our country and you will see things are very bad for many.

[etiennemacchias]

Okay, let's compare that to regions around the world where they have no access to any treatment at all.

[GravitonX]

Just think. You could all be strugging with polio or leprosy. Be grateful. Haha!