Published by El Nuevo Herald on Sept. 27, 2015
In his recent speech on Capitol Hill, the Pope argued, among other things, to combat poverty and disease using all available resources, including technological advances. Bill Gates certainly exercises this humanitarian work for years.
Never another Pontiff had expressed in the same way that the pope Francisco.
He declared himself as an immigrant. This is neither more nor less than an antidote to the poison spread by Donald Trump.
He called for better control of weapons, which end up in the wrong hands with innocent lives.
He said that a golden rule is to monitor and support human life at all stages of their development. This determined its position regarding the death penalty and abortion.
He expressed the urgent need to combat poverty, unsanitary and dangerous climate change.
He emphasized that the entrepreneurial individual must be eligible for aid, because people like them are those that generate employment, improve and change the world.
Entrepreneurs are really the quintessential job creators and effectively validate capitalism as the best known system; Indeed, in those places where capitalism is absent, poverty, repression and widespread crime they are present.
The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, exemplifies the successful businessman, concerned about combating poverty, while fighting the endemic scourges using their vast resources, including technology, of course.
Since the United Nations launched its Millennium Development Goals in 2000, Bill Gates has been a determining factor in the successful achievement of the same, namely: in the last 15 years extreme poverty has been halved; two billion people have clean water; 43 million go to school; AIDS infection has decreased by 40%
Smallpox and malaria were practically eradicated by Gates.Similarly, polio has decimated by 75%.
The vision changed when Gates with his wife Melinda began to travel by poor countries. Realizing that one billion people still live without electricity and estimating that by 2050 the demand for food will increase by 60%, he decided to get involved fully in the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.
Today, Gates is investing billions of dollars in clean energy innovations, free carbon dioxide, which would help improve climate change while combating poverty by reducing the cost of transportation, electricity and use of fertilizers.
Undoubtedly, incentives for innovation funded by Gates have decreased the costs of photovoltaic solar cells and manufacturing have become cheaper for batteries that retain that energy.
At the same time, Gates also recently created two corporations: Global Disease Burden, a company that uses information from all the world researchers to fight particular diseases; and Global Citizens, a portal that aims to reduce poverty in all its forms.
As we see, the statements of the Holy Father on Capitol Hill have their followers.
It's not just about making money. For our system endures is necessary to contribute to the environment in all its aspects, that is; better living conditions for people, in other words, wages in line with actual costs, reasonable access to health services and an appropriate retreat for your retirement years.
And as the most important scientist of recent times, Stephen Hawking, "to save the world, each must tell others that our goal is to eradicate poverty and protect the environment," he said.
BENJAMIN F. DeYURRE
Economist and journalist.
