Re: [Marxism] Bill Gates's "gift" to India

[Horacio Oliveira <horaciooliveira@xxxxxxx>]

Hmmm let's see: The thief steals the intellectual property of many,  
repackages it in a sweet-heart deal with an icon of North American  
business and lands a monopoly. They (Microsoft) continue to thieve  
ideas, buy out any smell of competition, or through intimidation and  
other unlawful acts to destroy the innovative potential of others.  
Microsoft is the antithesis of innovation.

He "gives away" nothing. He is merely securing the domination of  
Microsoft products. Note the words "support an Indian Government  
effort" does not mean he is giving away anything, India is paying for  
all this! It would be better to call this a "discount" and not a  
donations. Gate's is still asking for India's soul--he is just giving  
India a volume discount.

And the why does one give a discount? In the Faustian world of  
capitalism he is merely baiting the hook.



On Oct 27, 2005, at 9:27 AM, Louis Proyect wrote:

> Counterpunch, October 27, 2005
> In India, Bill Gates Does Well By Doing "Good"
> License to Bill
>
> By LILA RAJIVA
>
> To his fans, a Randian free-market hero, an Atlas barely quivering  
> under the Himalayan chain of operating systems, software packages  
> and security patches with which he feeds the hungering cyber- 
> masses. Or as one Indian model squealed orgasmically, "Mr. Gates,  
> you are my idea of the ideal man. You are rich, and you are powerful."
>
> And a philanthropist to...er.. boot.... The Gates foundation, which  
> is worth $30 billion, (£17 billion), is now the largest charity run  
> by a single philanthropist or private company And Gates says he  
> intends to give away 90 per cent of his $50 billion fortune.
>
> On September 22 this year, Microsoft made its latest corporate raid  
> on humanitarianism, pledging to partner with the Indian Ministry of  
> Communication and Information Technology in seven crucial areas.  
> The deal, largely unnoticed by the media, was struck at Microsoft's  
> Redmond, Washington headquarters with Minister Dayanidhi Maran.
>
> Microsoft offered a new Windows XP Starter Edition licensed and  
> built just for India in nine Indian languages as well as English;  
> it "adopted" 100 schools in 6 states to provide an interactive  
> learning environment and pledged to support an Indian government  
> program to establish 100,000 rural kiosks with a range of  
> affordable products and services; it also pledged to deliver a  
> broadband and PC package targeted to first time users at an  
> affordable monthly installment, to set up and fund with 2 million  
> dollars an E-governance Center of Excellence for pilot programs,  
> and to collaborate with Indian agencies and scientists to research  
> Indic language computing technologies and increase security. (1)
>
> Shades of Rockefeller, who spent the latter part of his life  
> guiltily giving away the fortune he'd amassed. Maybe His Billness  
> has taken to reading the geek blogs with their unkindest cuts. Or  
> Greg Palast and that crack of his about Blackbeard the Pirate has  
> gotten to him. (2)
>
> Who steals my purse steals trash ...etc. etc.
>
> full: http://www.counterpunch.com/rajiva10272005.html
>
>
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