Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
I grew up in India. During my childhood, it was still a protectionist country. It was poor then; more so than it is now - if that's even possible.
My grandfather owned a Fiat. It looked like a car from the 1940s. We had an Indian Car company - Ambassador - which made little replicas of Fiats from that era. No foreign car makers were allowed in those days in India. So Ambassador continued making Forties-looking cars well into the 1980s. There was no Coca Cola in India, there was just a local brand called "Thumbs Up!" (yes, with the exclamation). I could go into the details of the local chalky toothpaste and other products, but I will spare you the details.
Then came the 1980s, where India started opening up to foreign competition. Two icons made a huge impact on the country.
The first one was Mother Teresa. Selfless and merciful, she spent her entire life devoted to taking care of the poor and the sick. She personally helped thousands. She increased awareness of HIV/AIDS. She brought foreign aid to India. She was a truly noble woman who sacrificed her life helping other people.
The second is Bill Gates. Bill Gates could probably care less about India or Indians. But he revolutionized the world by pulling personal computer out of the hobby market and into every small business, and by making software profitable. How did he help the Indians? Well, for one, we discovered that, for some odd reason, we are good at IT. India could produce educated, English-speaking engineers by the thousands and help multinational companies run their business for much cheaper than the West.
Suddenly, the Indian standard of living rose. No one buys Ambassadors anymore. Coca Cola is readily available and every multinational company wants a piece of Indian consumer business. Tata is now manufacturing the cheapest car in the world - the Nano. Because every Indian deserves a car.
So the question I have is - who helped India more? Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
One was a deliberate, sacrificial, noble, intentional life spent in the service of fellow human beings. The other was a mostly selfish venture to increase value and self-worth, that ended up lifting the standards of not only Indians but the entire world; indeed, it ended up adding value and self-worth for most of the humans alive today.
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Comments:
May '10
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Great question, Barkha. It reminds me of parables in that the answer doesn't matter as much as the thinking it provokes.
I suppose it's like asking someone to choose between the body and soul. We are both. The soul is expressed through the body. The body is ennobled by the soul.
Mother Theresa attended both. She fed and mended bodies, but she did so with smiles and laughter and personal attention so that every person knew that he or she was loved.
On the societal level, she did something similar. She ignored the tradition of castes and treated Untouchables with individual concern. She provided an example of loving people who were regularly demeaned or ignored. In this way, like Gates, she helped many people beyond those she directly served.
Gates' labors are not different in kind from that of the average farmer, except that he brought his creativity to bear. The wealth he produced helped people he never met.
Mar '12
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Why does it have to be one or the other? You say Mother Teresa went looking to open India to raise awareness, and to bring the care of the world to a needy people. Do you believe that God placed it on her heart to do so? For those of us who believe that, why would we limit God? Could God have put it on Mr. Gate's heart to use his strengths to help as well? Certainly! -- whether Mr. Gates understood from whence came "his ideas" or not. We do not have to choose either/or any more than we should limit ourselves. God bless both of them -- and you.
Dec '11
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
I have the writings of Dinesh D'Souza backing me up on this one- Indians absorbed a thorough understanding of the benefits of Western Civ during the "evil" colonial occupancy. Give credit where credit is due.
Jul '11
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
EThompson
I have the writings of Dinesh D'Souza backing me up on this one- Indians absorbed a thorough understanding of the benefits of Western Civ during the "evil" colonial occupancy. Give credit where credit is due. · 0 minutes ago
Yes, yes... All your success are belong to us, and You Didn't Build That, etc., etc.
I didn't know that Dinesh was representing all billion of us - good to know.
Dec '11
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Barkha Herman
EThompson
I have the writings of Dinesh D'Souza backing me up on this one- Indians absorbed a thorough understanding of the benefits of Western Civ during the "evil" colonial occupancy. Give credit where credit is due. · 0 minutes ago
Yes, yes... All your success are belong to us, and You Didn't Build That, etc., etc.
I didn't know that Dinesh was representing all billion of us - good to know. · 8 minutes ago
India was given a great example by an honorable group of Westerners. (For heaven's sake, Indians were still practicing "sati" before it was outlawed by colonialists.) Even Gandhi admitted he never would have dared to lay his body across a train track in protest without the belief that the Brits would stop the train. Which they did.
Edited on September 22, 2012 at 3:30amDec '11
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Mel Foil
...because without love, wealth is just materialism, and materialism always leaves lots of collateral damage behind, much of it human.
Did you attend Woodstock '69?
Jul '11
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
EThompson
India was given a great example by an honorable group of Westerners. (For heaven's sake, Indians were still practicing "sati" before it was outlawed by colonialists.) Even Gandhi admitted he never would have dared to lay his body across a train track in protest without the belief that the Brits would stop the train. Which they did. · Sep 21 at 4:27pm
Edited on Sep 21 at 6:30pm
And India did something good with it, as opposed to - say, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, etc., etc., etc.
The thread had three players in it - Indians, Mother Teresa and Bill Gates. If we are going to start crediting everyone, let's start with the caveman that discovered fire, then the one who created the first weapons, the ones who crossed oceans to inhabit new lands, etc., etc., etc...
OR if you goal it to glorify Britannia, by all means let's start a new thread. We can start with Magna Carta, extoll the virtues of Adam Smith and go on from there :-D.
Dec '11
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Barkha Herman
EThompson
India was given a great example by an honorable group of Westerners. (For heaven's sake, Indians were still practicing "sati" before it was outlawed by colonialists.) Even Gandhi admitted he never would have dared to lay his body across a train track in protest without the belief that the Brits would stop the train. Which they did. · Sep 21 at 4:27pm
Edited on Sep 21 at 6:30pm
And India did something good with it, as opposed to - say, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, etc., etc., etc.
You'll get no argument from me. :)
Edited on September 24, 2012 at 1:30am