Re: [liberationtech] Bill Gates on Project Loon vs malaria
I think it might be important to realize that access to information and famine and disease are not mutually exclusive to each other. For instance if Amartya Sen (the Nobel award winning economist) analysis is right famine is not caused by lack of food but by lack of knowledge about access and location to food - something I believe is much more easily overcome through Internet access perhaps. Dysentery is caused both by lacking access to to potalble water and by not trusting or assimilating methods for water purification (e.g., convincing individuals to use precious resources on boiling water). Even when clinics are built the individuals have a hard time absorbing them into their everyday lives. What Google is doing may do more to help the problems Gates is talking about than one off helicopter drops. Or it may not. But to consider eradication of famine and disease as separate from information seems more destructive than constructive. Michael From: liberationtech-boun...@lists.stanford.edu [liberationtech-boun...@lists.stanford.edu] on behalf of Tom O [winterfi...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, August 09, 2013 11:25 PM To: a...@acm.org; liberationtech Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Bill Gates on Project Loon vs malaria I think project LOON serves Googles purpose well. Whether it's altruistic, I'll wait and see. Certainly disease and famine are a more important and pressing concern in Africa. I will happily stand with Bill Melinda re this. I don't think the two issues are comparable, which is where I think Bill goes wrong in his criticism. On Saturday, August 10, 2013, Andrés Leopoldo Pacheco Sanfuentes wrote: Those comments by Bill Gates are no more than blows below the belt. Despicable. He should complain about spending on erectile dysfunction (and so many other rich people ailments) research vs. eradication of malaria, not Internet access, which also is a human right! Best Regards | Cordiales Saludos | Grato, Andrés L. Pacheco Sanfuentes a...@acm.orgUrlBlockedError.aspx +1 (817) 271-9619 On Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 12:23 PM, Richard Brooks r...@acm.orgUrlBlockedError.aspx wrote: On 08/09/2013 12:25 PM, Kyle Maxwell wrote: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/09/bill-gates-google-project-loon === Bill Gates criticises Google's Project Loon initiative Former Microsoft chief says low-income countries need more than just internet access === On the one hand, clean drinking water is important and the fact that little work is done on malaria because it effects mainly poor people is disgusting. On the other hand, I've heard lots of people in the countries that would benefit from a cure for malaria this year asking about what they can do when their government shuts down the Internet. The idea that information can still go in or out against government wishes is important to them. I guess people may want to be healthy and free at the same time. -- Liberationtech list is public and archives are searchable on Google. Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.eduUrlBlockedError.aspx or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech -- Liberationtech list is public and archives are searchable on Google. Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.eduUrlBlockedError.aspx or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech -- Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. Persistent violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
Re: [liberationtech] Bill Gates on Project Loon vs malaria
That is an excellent point, Michael!! Also, there are many ways to help people. And not everyone has to do the same thing. People help where they can or feel comfortable. Being made to feel they have to try to fit someone else's model is never the best way for folks to do what their hearts lead them to do. Each area has its place. There is a real need for the things that the Gates foundation is doing, and just as much a need for knowledge -- and -- the possible ways of making money online (Entrepreneurship) that could help to raise the bar for some folks in these countries dealing with famine and disease. It may just help them gain back some feeling of control and make strides in overcoming the helplessness of famine and disease. And there is always a place for the many small organizations that also are trying to help in these areas. The need is great. No amount of giving, or types of giving should be poopoo'd unless they are a scam or the percentages are so low getting to the actual cause as to make it useless and makes the donor's money wasted. The big thing to me is that wherever I give, it has to be able to do as much as it can with the money I give. That it mostly goes to the cause itself. On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 7:32 AM, Glassman, Michael glassman...@osu.edu wrote: I think it might be important to realize that access to information and famine and disease are not mutually exclusive to each other. For instance if Amartya Sen (the Nobel award winning economist) analysis is right famine is not caused by lack of food but by lack of knowledge about access and location to food - something I believe is much more easily overcome through Internet access perhaps. Dysentery is caused both by lacking access to to potalble water and by not trusting or assimilating methods for water purification (e.g., convincing individuals to use precious resources on boiling water). Even when clinics are built the individuals have a hard time absorbing them into their everyday lives. What Google is doing may do more to help the problems Gates is talking about than one off helicopter drops. Or it may not. But to consider eradication of famine and disease as separate from information seems more destructive than constructive. Michael -- Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. Persistent violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
Re: [liberationtech] Bill Gates on Project Loon vs malaria
I actually agree with Bill Gates here. If I had his money, I would make sure people have clean water, toilets, condoms, before even starting to consider working on Internet access. Sure, his comments are below the belt as Andrés says below, but this is only because he is unfairly attacking a noble, unrelated project. But the question he raises is: if you have unlimited money and want to tackle what you perceive as a human rights necessity, what do you go for? From my perspective of the world, the Internet should be on the bottom of this list. Sure, it should *be* on the list, but people who think that it's a priority really need to examine the kind of awful problems that the world has right now. No water, no food, no shelter, no hygiene, no toilets, no education, no condoms, no medication… all of those things need to be solved before we start worrying about the lack of Internet. Michael Glassman notes (also earlier in this thread): Famine is not caused by lack of food but by lack of knowledge about access and location to food - something I believe is much more easily overcome through Internet access perhaps. It doesn't just work like that, I don't think. You don't just open Internet access and fund Internet centres and expect knowledge problems to work themselves out. Basic necessities need to be fulfilled first, and in that scenario, that deeply includes education. And in order to focus on education, you're going to need less malaria and more shelter, toilets and hygiene… I hope I'm making my point clearly here. This is a super interesting issue! I guess I'm going to stick to the conservative side here, though. The Internet is the current human rights issue for developed regions of the Middle East and North Africa (and deservedly so!!), but in some other parts of the world, we're just not there yet. There are more basic problems to solve, and this is only a testament to how harsh the world can be. NK On 2013-08-09, at 7:25 PM, Kyle Maxwell ky...@xwell.org wrote: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/09/bill-gates-google-project-loon === Bill Gates criticises Google's Project Loon initiative Former Microsoft chief says low-income countries need more than just internet access === Google's Project Loon initiative wants to provide internet access for the developing world from a network of balloons floating in the stratosphere. Former Microsoft boss Bill Gates isn't keen on the idea. When you're dying of malaria , I suppose you'll look up and see that balloon, and I'm not sure how it'll help you. When a kid gets diarrhoea, no, there's no website that relieves that, Gates told Business Week, in an interview about the work of the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation. Certainly I'm a huge believer in the digital revolution. And connecting up primary-healthcare centres, connecting up schools, those are good things. But no, those are not, for the really low-income countries, unless you directly say we're going to do something about malaria. Gates also questioned Google's commitment to projects in developing countries through its Google.org arm and related initiatives. Google started out saying they were going to do a broad set of things. They hired Larry Brilliant, and they got fantastic publicity, said Gates. And then they shut it all down. Now they're just doing their core thing. Fine. But the actors who just do their core thing are not going to uplift the poor. Project Loon was announced in June as Google launched a pilot scheme with 30 balloons above New Zealand, providing internet access through receivers on the ground. We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below, explained project lead Mike Cassidy at the time, suggesting speeds could eventually match today's 3G networks. As a result, we hope balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote, and under-served areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters. The idea may sound a bit crazy – and that's part of the reason we're calling it Project Loon – but there's solid science behind it. Google has worked with organisations trying to tackle healthcare in developing countries through its Google for Nonprofits initiative, with case studies on its website for Direct Relief International , Unicef and Charity: Water outlining some of its efforts. Meanwhile, Google.org's webpage for its Crisis Response activities makes prominent use of a photo of someone using their mobile phone in the aftermath of a disaster in Haiti, supplied by the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates' views on malaria are heartfelt, though. It's described as a top priority for the Foundation , which has so far committed nearly $2bn (£1.3bn) in grants towards research into treatments, diagnosis and mosquito-control
Re: [liberationtech] Bill Gates on Project Loon vs malaria
Nadim, I think it is good that Bill Gates is working to solve health issues that have been ignored because the people involved are mainly poor and dark complected. I think freedom of information, though, may be more important than you think. Take, for example, The Gambia, one of the poorest countries on Earth with all of the problems you mentioned. Oddly enough, the dictator running the country seems to be making a lot of money off the country's mineral riches while letting the majority of the people rot in poverty. It is not a coincidence that many of the poorest countries are the least well governed. Those governments also tend to have very restrictive information controls. In many ways, creating freer access to information may do more to to help some of these problems than anything else. Once people can know what is going on and control their destiny, they may be able to find a way out of poverty. Once dark complected people have money, the medical industry may be willing to invest in solving their problems and invest less in botox and erectile dysfunction medicines. -Richard On 8/10/2013 7:48 AM, Nadim Kobeissi wrote: I actually agree with Bill Gates here. If I had his money, I would make sure people have clean water, toilets, condoms, before even starting to consider working on Internet access. Sure, his comments are below the belt as Andrés says below, but this is only because he is unfairly attacking a noble, unrelated project. But the question he raises is: if you have unlimited money and want to tackle what you perceive as a human rights necessity, what do you go for? From my perspective of the world, the Internet should be on the bottom of this list. Sure, it should *be* on the list, but people who think that it's a priority really need to examine the kind of awful problems that the world has right now. No water, no food, no shelter, no hygiene, no toilets, no education, no condoms, no medication… all of those things need to be solved before we start worrying about the lack of Internet. Michael Glassman notes (also earlier in this thread): Famine is not caused by lack of food but by lack of knowledge about access and location to food - something I believe is much more easily overcome through Internet access perhaps. It doesn't just work like that, I don't think. You don't just open Internet access and fund Internet centres and expect knowledge problems to work themselves out. Basic necessities need to be fulfilled first, and in that scenario, that deeply includes education. And in order to focus on education, you're going to need less malaria and more shelter, toilets and hygiene… I hope I'm making my point clearly here. This is a super interesting issue! I guess I'm going to stick to the conservative side here, though. The Internet is the current human rights issue for developed regions of the Middle East and North Africa (and deservedly so!!), but in some other parts of the world, we're just not there yet. There are more basic problems to solve, and this is only a testament to how harsh the world can be. NK On 2013-08-09, at 7:25 PM, Kyle Maxwell ky...@xwell.org wrote: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/09/bill-gates-google-project-loon === Bill Gates criticises Google's Project Loon initiative Former Microsoft chief says low-income countries need more than just internet access === Google's Project Loon initiative wants to provide internet access for the developing world from a network of balloons floating in the stratosphere. Former Microsoft boss Bill Gates isn't keen on the idea. When you're dying of malaria , I suppose you'll look up and see that balloon, and I'm not sure how it'll help you. When a kid gets diarrhoea, no, there's no website that relieves that, Gates told Business Week, in an interview about the work of the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation. Certainly I'm a huge believer in the digital revolution. And connecting up primary-healthcare centres, connecting up schools, those are good things. But no, those are not, for the really low-income countries, unless you directly say we're going to do something about malaria. Gates also questioned Google's commitment to projects in developing countries through its Google.org arm and related initiatives. Google started out saying they were going to do a broad set of things. They hired Larry Brilliant, and they got fantastic publicity, said Gates. And then they shut it all down. Now they're just doing their core thing. Fine. But the actors who just do their core thing are not going to uplift the poor. Project Loon was announced in June as Google launched a pilot scheme with 30 balloons above New Zealand, providing internet access through receivers on the ground. We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet
Re: [liberationtech] Bill Gates on Project Loon vs malaria
There are two big problems with Gates' position (at least). 1. The solution of massive social issues such as, famine and clean water, are definitely beyond the reach of single individuals. As wealthy as Gates is, his resources are nothing when compared to the resources of states. Thus far in history, famine and clean water have been provided exclusively through broad, deliberate, and conscious application of state power. This is not the domain of bratty and wealthy individuals, who think they can take on the mission of states. 2. Famine is not caused by a lack of knowledge. It is caused by larger, overarching political issues such as, civil war, imperialism and colonialism, massive natural disasters and ineffective response to such disasters. The solution has to be political, not a function of knowledge, or the cash of wealthy individuals. Bono doesn't understand this, and neither does Gates. Thus, their efforts are essentially meaningless on a global scale. Or, some might argue, actually harmful. On 08/10/2013 05:38 PM, Richard Brooks wrote: Nadim, I think it is good that Bill Gates is working to solve health issues that have been ignored because the people involved are mainly poor and dark complected. I think freedom of information, though, may be more important than you think. Take, for example, The Gambia, one of the poorest countries on Earth with all of the problems you mentioned. Oddly enough, the dictator running the country seems to be making a lot of money off the country's mineral riches while letting the majority of the people rot in poverty. It is not a coincidence that many of the poorest countries are the least well governed. Those governments also tend to have very restrictive information controls. In many ways, creating freer access to information may do more to to help some of these problems than anything else. Once people can know what is going on and control their destiny, they may be able to find a way out of poverty. Once dark complected people have money, the medical industry may be willing to invest in solving their problems and invest less in botox and erectile dysfunction medicines. -Richard On 8/10/2013 7:48 AM, Nadim Kobeissi wrote: I actually agree with Bill Gates here. If I had his money, I would make sure people have clean water, toilets, condoms, before even starting to consider working on Internet access. Sure, his comments are below the belt as Andrés says below, but this is only because he is unfairly attacking a noble, unrelated project. But the question he raises is: if you have unlimited money and want to tackle what you perceive as a human rights necessity, what do you go for? From my perspective of the world, the Internet should be on the bottom of this list. Sure, it should *be* on the list, but people who think that it's a priority really need to examine the kind of awful problems that the world has right now. No water, no food, no shelter, no hygiene, no toilets, no education, no condoms, no medication… all of those things need to be solved before we start worrying about the lack of Internet. Michael Glassman notes (also earlier in this thread): Famine is not caused by lack of food but by lack of knowledge about access and location to food - something I believe is much more easily overcome through Internet access perhaps. It doesn't just work like that, I don't think. You don't just open Internet access and fund Internet centres and expect knowledge problems to work themselves out. Basic necessities need to be fulfilled first, and in that scenario, that deeply includes education. And in order to focus on education, you're going to need less malaria and more shelter, toilets and hygiene… I hope I'm making my point clearly here. This is a super interesting issue! I guess I'm going to stick to the conservative side here, though. The Internet is the current human rights issue for developed regions of the Middle East and North Africa (and deservedly so!!), but in some other parts of the world, we're just not there yet. There are more basic problems to solve, and this is only a testament to how harsh the world can be. NK On 2013-08-09, at 7:25 PM, Kyle Maxwell ky...@xwell.org wrote: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/09/bill-gates-google-project-loon === Bill Gates criticises Google's Project Loon initiative Former Microsoft chief says low-income countries need more than just internet access === Google's Project Loon initiative wants to provide internet access for the developing world from a network of balloons floating in the stratosphere. Former Microsoft boss Bill Gates isn't keen on the idea. When you're dying of malaria , I suppose you'll look up and see that balloon, and I'm not sure how it'll help you. When a kid gets diarrhoea, no, there's no website that relieves that, Gates told Business Week, in an interview about the
Re: [liberationtech] Bill Gates on Project Loon vs malaria
In fairness to Gates, his main focus is tackling malaria and finding a vaccine for it. This is something where money is, in general, the main requirement for the most part. Famine, clean water, political instability are not easily solved by money. On Sunday, August 11, 2013, h0ost wrote: There are two big problems with Gates' position (at least). 1. The solution of massive social issues such as, famine and clean water, are definitely beyond the reach of single individuals. As wealthy as Gates is, his resources are nothing when compared to the resources of states. Thus far in history, famine and clean water have been provided exclusively through broad, deliberate, and conscious application of state power. This is not the domain of bratty and wealthy individuals, who think they can take on the mission of states. 2. Famine is not caused by a lack of knowledge. It is caused by larger, overarching political issues such as, civil war, imperialism and colonialism, massive natural disasters and ineffective response to such disasters. The solution has to be political, not a function of knowledge, or the cash of wealthy individuals. Bono doesn't understand this, and neither does Gates. Thus, their efforts are essentially meaningless on a global scale. Or, some might argue, actually harmful. On 08/10/2013 05:38 PM, Richard Brooks wrote: Nadim, I think it is good that Bill Gates is working to solve health issues that have been ignored because the people involved are mainly poor and dark complected. I think freedom of information, though, may be more important than you think. Take, for example, The Gambia, one of the poorest countries on Earth with all of the problems you mentioned. Oddly enough, the dictator running the country seems to be making a lot of money off the country's mineral riches while letting the majority of the people rot in poverty. It is not a coincidence that many of the poorest countries are the least well governed. Those governments also tend to have very restrictive information controls. In many ways, creating freer access to information may do more to to help some of these problems than anything else. Once people can know what is going on and control their destiny, they may be able to find a way out of poverty. Once dark complected people have money, the medical industry may be willing to invest in solving their problems and invest less in botox and erectile dysfunction medicines. -Richard On 8/10/2013 7:48 AM, Nadim Kobeissi wrote: I actually agree with Bill Gates here. If I had his money, I would make sure people have clean water, toilets, condoms, before even starting to consider working on Internet access. Sure, his comments are below the belt as Andrés says below, but this is only because he is unfairly attacking a noble, unrelated project. But the question he raises is: if you have unlimited money and want to tackle what you perceive as a human rights necessity, what do you go for? From my perspective of the world, the Internet should be on the bottom of this list. Sure, it should *be* on the list, but people who think that it's a priority really need to examine the kind of awful problems that the world has right now. No water, no food, no shelter, no hygiene, no toilets, no education, no condoms, no medication… all of those things need to be solved before we start worrying about the lack of Internet. Michael Glassman notes (also earlier in this thread): Famine is not caused by lack of food but by lack of knowledge about access and location to food - something I believe is much more easily overcome through Internet access perhaps. It doesn't just work like that, I don't think. You don't just open Internet access and fund Internet centres and expect knowledge problems to work themselves out. Basic necessities need to be fulfilled first, and in that scenario, that deeply includes education. And in order to focus on education, you're going to need less malaria and more shelter, toilets and hygiene… I hope I'm making my point clearly here. This is a super interesting issue! I guess I'm going to stick to the conservative side here, though. The Internet is the current human rights issue for developed regions of the Middle East and North Africa (and deservedly so!!), but in some other parts of the world, we're just not there yet. There are more basic problems to solve, and this is only a testament to how harsh the world can be. NK On 2013-08-09, at 7:25 PM, Kyle Maxwell ky...@xwell.org wrote: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/09/bill-gates-google-project-loon === Bill Gates criticises Google's Project Loon initiative Former Microsoft chief says low-income countries need more than just internet access === Google's Project Loon initiative wants to provide internet access for the developing world from a
[liberationtech] Bill Gates on Project Loon vs malaria
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/09/bill-gates-google-project-loon === Bill Gates criticises Google's Project Loon initiative Former Microsoft chief says low-income countries need more than just internet access === Google's Project Loon initiative wants to provide internet access for the developing world from a network of balloons floating in the stratosphere. Former Microsoft boss Bill Gates isn't keen on the idea. When you're dying of malaria , I suppose you'll look up and see that balloon, and I'm not sure how it'll help you. When a kid gets diarrhoea, no, there's no website that relieves that, Gates told Business Week, in an interview about the work of the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation. Certainly I'm a huge believer in the digital revolution. And connecting up primary-healthcare centres, connecting up schools, those are good things. But no, those are not, for the really low-income countries, unless you directly say we're going to do something about malaria. Gates also questioned Google's commitment to projects in developing countries through its Google.org arm and related initiatives. Google started out saying they were going to do a broad set of things. They hired Larry Brilliant, and they got fantastic publicity, said Gates. And then they shut it all down. Now they're just doing their core thing. Fine. But the actors who just do their core thing are not going to uplift the poor. Project Loon was announced in June as Google launched a pilot scheme with 30 balloons above New Zealand, providing internet access through receivers on the ground. We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below, explained project lead Mike Cassidy at the time, suggesting speeds could eventually match today's 3G networks. As a result, we hope balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote, and under-served areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters. The idea may sound a bit crazy – and that's part of the reason we're calling it Project Loon – but there's solid science behind it. Google has worked with organisations trying to tackle healthcare in developing countries through its Google for Nonprofits initiative, with case studies on its website for Direct Relief International , Unicef and Charity: Water outlining some of its efforts. Meanwhile, Google.org's webpage for its Crisis Response activities makes prominent use of a photo of someone using their mobile phone in the aftermath of a disaster in Haiti, supplied by the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates' views on malaria are heartfelt, though. It's described as a top priority for the Foundation , which has so far committed nearly $2bn (£1.3bn) in grants towards research into treatments, diagnosis and mosquito-control technologies, as well as $1.4bn to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This sits alongside the foundation's work towards eradicating Polio. If we get credibility from the polio success, we can be more articulate about a malaria or measles elimination plan, Gates told Business Week. The big one would be malaria, but that's a long-term, in-my-lifetime-type thing, not imminent. -- @kylemaxwell -- Liberationtech list is public and archives are searchable on Google. Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
Re: [liberationtech] Bill Gates on Project Loon vs malaria
On 08/09/2013 12:25 PM, Kyle Maxwell wrote: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/09/bill-gates-google-project-loon === Bill Gates criticises Google's Project Loon initiative Former Microsoft chief says low-income countries need more than just internet access === On the one hand, clean drinking water is important and the fact that little work is done on malaria because it effects mainly poor people is disgusting. On the other hand, I've heard lots of people in the countries that would benefit from a cure for malaria this year asking about what they can do when their government shuts down the Internet. The idea that information can still go in or out against government wishes is important to them. I guess people may want to be healthy and free at the same time. -- Liberationtech list is public and archives are searchable on Google. Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
Re: [liberationtech] Bill Gates on Project Loon vs malaria
Those comments by Bill Gates are no more than blows below the belt. Despicable. He should complain about spending on erectile dysfunction (and so many other rich people ailments) research vs. eradication of malaria, not Internet access, which also is a human right! Best Regards | Cordiales Saludos | Grato, Andrés L. Pacheco Sanfuentes a...@acm.org +1 (817) 271-9619 On Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 12:23 PM, Richard Brooks r...@acm.org wrote: On 08/09/2013 12:25 PM, Kyle Maxwell wrote: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/09/bill-gates-google-project-loon === Bill Gates criticises Google's Project Loon initiative Former Microsoft chief says low-income countries need more than just internet access === On the one hand, clean drinking water is important and the fact that little work is done on malaria because it effects mainly poor people is disgusting. On the other hand, I've heard lots of people in the countries that would benefit from a cure for malaria this year asking about what they can do when their government shuts down the Internet. The idea that information can still go in or out against government wishes is important to them. I guess people may want to be healthy and free at the same time. -- Liberationtech list is public and archives are searchable on Google. Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech -- Liberationtech list is public and archives are searchable on Google. Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
Re: [liberationtech] Bill Gates on Project Loon vs malaria
I think project LOON serves Googles purpose well. Whether it's altruistic, I'll wait and see. Certainly disease and famine are a more important and pressing concern in Africa. I will happily stand with Bill Melinda re this. I don't think the two issues are comparable, which is where I think Bill goes wrong in his criticism. On Saturday, August 10, 2013, Andrés Leopoldo Pacheco Sanfuentes wrote: Those comments by Bill Gates are no more than blows below the belt. Despicable. He should complain about spending on erectile dysfunction (and so many other rich people ailments) research vs. eradication of malaria, not Internet access, which also is a human right! Best Regards | Cordiales Saludos | Grato, Andrés L. Pacheco Sanfuentes a...@acm.org javascript:; +1 (817) 271-9619 On Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 12:23 PM, Richard Brooks r...@acm.orgjavascript:; wrote: On 08/09/2013 12:25 PM, Kyle Maxwell wrote: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/09/bill-gates-google-project-loon === Bill Gates criticises Google's Project Loon initiative Former Microsoft chief says low-income countries need more than just internet access === On the one hand, clean drinking water is important and the fact that little work is done on malaria because it effects mainly poor people is disgusting. On the other hand, I've heard lots of people in the countries that would benefit from a cure for malaria this year asking about what they can do when their government shuts down the Internet. The idea that information can still go in or out against government wishes is important to them. I guess people may want to be healthy and free at the same time. -- Liberationtech list is public and archives are searchable on Google. Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu javascript:; or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech -- Liberationtech list is public and archives are searchable on Google. Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu javascript:; or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech -- Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. Persistent violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
