An Audacious Goal

This week in Seattle, an extraordinary group of people -- scientists, policymakers, and advocates - came together for three days to discuss what can be done to stop malaria. Melinda and I issued a challenge to those attending the meeting. We asked them to begin charting a course to eradicate malaria - not just to control or reduce it, but to work toward a time when no one on earth is infected with malaria, and no mosquitoes carry the disease.

Today, malaria kills more than one million people every year, most of them children in Africa. That's the equivalent of losing every student in the New York City public school system in one year.

We know that eradicating malaria is an audacious goal. But advances in science and medicine, new political commitments, and the dedication of people like you have given the world an historic opportunity to conquer malaria. It won't be easy and it won't happen quickly, but I'm optimistic that we can make this disease history.

At the forum in Seattle, Melinda and I called on the U.S. presidential candidates to commit to expand the President's Malaria Initiative, a great program started by President Bush. I hope you will join us in asking all of the candidates to make this pledge and keep the fight against malaria on the national agenda.

I am confident that together, we can produce the energy, compassion, and commitment needed to win the fight against malaria.

To view a webcast of the Seattle malaria forum, visit here. For more information about how you can help fight malaria, visit here.

This post first appeared at the ONE campaign.

Comments

[BRUMALIA]

Great work !!

[BRUMALIA]

Great work !! keep it up!

[TheyAllSuck]

You are doing a wonderful thing for the people of Africa. Its sad that there are people here so petty that they feel compelled to demonstrate their spiteful and worthless natures by criticizing you when you do a good deed. I hope it doesn't discourage you from coming back in the future when you have thoughts you'd like to share with the public.

[TimtheDemocrat]

Do a few good acts make up for a lifetime of malservice?


Are monopolies anything but bad?

[TimtheDemocrat]

Didn't Microsoft cooperate with the Chinese government by revealing code and assisted it in instituting the most monitored internet system in the world? One that imprisons millions and executes over 5000 people annually?


How much money did Microsoft make on that?

How much did you make personally?

[TimtheDemocrat]

I know,


why not make a PC operating system that works well instead?

[Wilburrr]

Want to help the world?

www.kiva.org

enjoy helping someone improve their life

[Norge]

Your time would be better spent eliminating nuclear weapons, biological and chemical weapons. The use of those will not kill 1 million innocent a year. The use of those weapons will kill 100 to 500 million innocent within one month.

[bobh]

Thanks for all you have done. Ever think of getting into politics? I see a natural, provided you are on the right side, of course.

[sparkandy]

The very fact that someone this rich is doing SOMETHING to make the world better is good. Everyone has an agenda, some place they'd like the Gates' money to go. I think all victims of domestic violence should get 10000USD to get back on their feet. Some want the money spent on education, save the rain forests, whatever. It's THEIR money. And whatever they spend it on for a better world is money well spent.

[hozer]

President's Malaria Initiative, a great program started by President Bush.....

huh???......(;-P)

...hmm, I can't imagine bogus-bush actually mustering the personal insightful initiative for authoring and implementing a successful program to tackle the malaria problem.

It seems more likely he just endorsed somebody else's initiative after he "labored" through a powerpoint presentation on the subject.

..certainly there was hairpulling and haggling involved.

such a tragic lame duck..

maybe if you toss the drowning duck a lifesaver he'll make you chairman of his pirated trust funds??
..or maybe he'll make you an honorary pirate?
Be careful of the company you keep.

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=bush+fslic+resolution-trust&btnG=Search

==

Malaria won't be totally eradicated..
..for the same reason smallpox wasn't totally eradicated...
gotta save some of that stuff for killing terrorists, liberal humanists, and nasty space aliens.
...if you wipe the PENTAGON off the face of the planet, then you might hope to be successful with your audacious endeavor.

I don't see dollars doing anything truly positive.. the dollar has lost it's soul.. it's a dead-currency from a dead culture.
err, dunno if you noticed, but you're just as poor now as you were in 1972.

ONE...
...the campaign to make poverty history.
http://www.one.org/

Ok Bill, you work on that one for a while..

..I'll keep working on decentralization and functional electronic autonomy.
[democracy is almost dead]
http://www.ni4d.us/links.htm

end anonymous voting..
Vote Early
Vote Often
vote by using your blog-wiki

..and don't ignore the teenager at the next Comdex from Rawalpindi who demos a gizmo that looks like an ipod but cures blood parasites with biofeedbac­k-superhet­-electroch­emistry.

[nfse]

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Gates:

Great effort and the malaria plan will be help by the suggestion below. Hope you and all 112 people that gave suggestion will join us!!!

Open Letter to Bono, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Bob Geldolf, Nelson Mandela, Oprah and Randall Robinson (Short Version)

Dear Friends of Africa:

One of our goals is a Nigeria with 50,0000 Megawatts in a well planned grid system. Nigeria today on a good day is producing only 3,000+ megawatts. In January this year the power fell to 1,320 megawatts in a country of 140 million people. If you compare that with New York city with a population of 8 million people which consumed 13,400 megawatts last summer, you know the situation is bad.
The new government has promised to propose to declare a “state of Energy emergency” in that faith, we have proposed that all the excess revenue funds to be invested in power generation and transmission among other things.

What we need is your help in replicating what you did with the AIDS agreements model where you were able to have “Agreements with Nine Companies Will Lower Prices of HIV Diagnosis and Two HIV/AIDS Medicines by 30-50 Percent for 50 Countries” This program has been excellent at saving precious lives. We believe that electricity will have the same effect at saving lives by providing things like good drinking water and hospitals with electricity. Our Friends, unlike AIDS where there were several companies to negotiate with in the electrical sector we are looking at at two main companies(GE and Siemens) that can have tremendous effect in accomplishing our goal. The main form of help could come in form of providing turbines to the power stations in our 50,000 megawatts goal. The funding of the turbines will be the Federal, State and Local governments contribution to the plan.
We believe that this agreement will help save lives and provide 140 million people a way employ themselves with no need for handouts.

God Bless,

Joseph Inyang
President - Nigerians for Super Energy
joe@nigeri­ansforsupe­renergy.co­m
http://nigeriansforsuperenergy.com

[Mariel]

As a Seattle native whose son went to the same prep school as Bill Gates, I suggest that the Gates Foundation do some serious support for Seattle Public Schools. I agree with the previous poster. The public schools need help. Seattle needs help with mass transit. The floating bridges between Seattle and Microsoft have death trap off ramps. A little money spent at home would be much appreciated.

Seattle was a very nice small city when I was growing up. Now its polluted and traffic-jammed. And, as stated before, the schools are badly in need of help.

[Tator]

See what happens when you have total Liberal control.

[Mack20]

I'm sure your heart is the right place, rml. Did you stop to think his foundation's employees may have a higher, less greed driven motivation than cut-throat business practices? Not everyone graduating from such-and-such business school is a profit driven, self-cantered, evil capitalist.

Besides, if you wanted to raise a lot of money for a worthy cause, wouldn’t you want the best salespeople available? If they raise more money is it not worth it? Business people are compensated for performance. Something our public school employees need.

[Pdubya]

Thank you Bill. I applaud your efforts as a private party, contibuting your hard-earned dollars in charity, to those less fortunate than you. That is what America is all about!

And I'm confident your efforts have been more effective than a Federally subsidized "corrective action" or "war on *".

Keep up the great work.

[TommyMcCarthy]

What a pleasant surprise to see this positive and completely accurate comment (by "Pdubya",above) I have great admiration for the phlantropic works of the Gates' and can't for the life of me understand HOW it became fashionable to bash them for "secret agendas" and all manner of other shortcomings. This is indeed what America SHOULD BE all about..........tm