"I certainly love the IT thing," Bill Gates says, "but when we want to improve lives, you’ve got to deal with more basic things like child survival, child nutrition."
The "IT thing."
This is the Bill Gates of 2013: one less focused on technology and the Internet, and more concerned, passionate, even, about treating malaria and bringing health aid to countries in need. In an interview with the Financial Times, Gates opens up about his feelings toward companies like Google attempting to bring Wi-Fi to third-world countries. “As a priority?" he asks. "It’s a joke.” Technology has fell from his view of essential human needs, and though technology has opened up many doors for people to better their lives, Gates believes tablets and PCs aren't as essential as vaccines. “The world is not flat and PCs are not, in the hierarchy of human needs, in the first five rungs," he continues.
In the interview, he's asked about India, which has gotten a lot of attention for slowly growing into tech hub, and where his organization has helped eradicate polio. “Fine," he says, "go to those Bangalore Infosys centers, but just for the hell of it, go three miles aside, and go look at the guy living with no toilet, no running water."
Though Microsoft might be in a little trouble without Gates as CEO, the rest of the world seems to be better off for it.
[via Financial Times]
