Mike C Sees

Hard to believe Bill Gates has moved on from Microsoft.

As Gates sheds the role of monopolist for that of philanthropist, it could be that he will ultimately go down in history as one of the greatest charitable figures of the 21st century. He leaves Microsoft at the relatively fresh age of 52, and could conceivably spend as much time giving away his fortune as he did in making it.

His stated aim to give away the bulk of his estimated $66bn in personal wealth has inevitably drawn comparisons with Andrew Carnegie, the cut-throat steel magnate who ruthlessly built his empire in the latter part of the 19th century, then gave nearly everything away to charitable causes. [Bill Gates: Life after a legend finally logs off - [Scotsman.com]

The Gates Foundation’s mission is to bring innovations in health and learning to the global community. What is it like to be part of that team, and other foundations like it?

Let us go from this place and listen for angels and look for a star; to see in every humble face a shepherd, and in every act of kindness, the gift of kings. We have made our pilgrimage, if not to Bethlehem of old, then to the Bethlehem of the heart, and welcomed the Holy One….

We go as a Christmas people, for to such God has called us.

[Traditional Christmas Eve blessing, Woodlawn United Church, Dartmouth NS Canada]

I think we all wonder from time to time about “switching careers” to really make the world a better place.

I’m reading The Lexus and the Olive Tree and reflecting on globalization. It would be easy to feel a bit sorry for myself … here I had this nice thing going as a software consultant in North America, and now smart folks in India, China, Malaysia and Bosnia are competing with me. Here I worked all these years to understand software, middleware and networking, and those very technologies have opened up the world to be my competition. My standard of living is coming down, I’m working harder, and the quality of life for those smart folks is rising rapidly.

All along I’ve been a bit challenged by how I’m serving big business, but not my local community or those most in need in the the world. Perhaps it will turn out that advancing the use of these technologies is indeed what levels the playing field for those most in need, and goes the furthest to reducing hunger and poverty globally.

NPR : This I Believe is a series of short essays on life values, from people you’ve heard of (John McCain, Bill Gates, Colin Powell) and ordinary people. Boiling down a core value to 3 minutes is a good exercise in remembering what’s important.

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Saw a video on Accuweather with a nice shot of the five planet alignment thing that’s going on overhead this week

“Patron saint of Finland has his day, too — right before St. Patrick’s… ‘It’s really just a MYTH — in capital letters, ha ha,’ says Ottawa’s Ida Capern, born in Finland … We latched on to this goofy thing four years ago, when we started a St. Urho festival at the Arrow and the Loon in the Glebe’ in Ottawa, Canada.”

Mike Hendriks writes in the Kansas City Star that ‘Whereas St. Patrick allegedly drove the snakes from Ireland, what St. Urho did was rid Finland of locusts by shouting “Heinasirkka, heinasirkka, menetaalta hiiteen.” Which is Finnish for “grasshopper, grasshopper, go away!”’

Clearly Finland, Canada and Minnesota share a terrific talent to fire imaginations in the cause of late winter parties! Nice choice of Finnish recipes included in the original [Ottawa Citizen, Canada - Mar 10, 2004] article. Too bad its not online anymore, but there are lots more good recipes at the Canadian Friends of Finland. Lots of background on St. Urho by Googling Urho Minnesota. The University of Toronto Finnish Club has “The St. Urho Legend as of March 18, 1995: A Semi-Humorous Finnish Critique, by Prof. B. Vahamaki.”