Almost all the local papers in Nagaland picked up the story about how one of the richest men in the world 'Bill' Gates was quoted as saying that he had no use for money. As reported Bill Gates has an estimated wealth of $65 billion. Having already given away $28 billion, the 57-year-old Microsoft co-founder now intends to eradicate not just his fortune but also diseases like polio. Off course all of us now very well about how Gates and his wife Melinda have so far given away $28 billion via their charitable foundation, more than $8 billion of it to improve global health. Not many people can emulate the likes of Gates because not only not only do others don’t have that much personal wealth but more importantly there are not too many people with a giving heart. Bill and Melinda Gates are truly God’s answer for the world’s poor and sick. Through their foundation, they are doing yeoman service to humanity. Many of us who enjoy manifold blessings are not willing to give or share with other less fortunate. But just look at what Bill Gates has to say about his riches. According to him, “money has no utility to him beyond a certain point” and its utility is “getting the resources out to the poorest in the world”. Clearly Gates wants to give to the needy, the less fortunate ones. And he doesn’t have to necessarily give away cash, which may end up getting misused or misappropriated. Gates is spending his money in research to develop cures for some of the world’s most common yet deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, polio etc.
How many of us are willing to offer our wealth for the cause of the poor, downtrodden and sick? Perhaps there will not be many takers. We care only about more and more and to spend it for selfish ends. We have no desire to work for the common good. Forget about our personal money, even the public funds meant for development, we are not able to utilize properly. In fact we misuse funds meant for common welfare on our self. This is the kind of corrupt ethics we daily indulge in. As we learn the generosity and humanness of people like Bill Gates, perhaps we should also emulate the honesty and hard work which is behind the success of Bill Gates and his world renowned company Microsoft. Among the Nagas we have very few stories of success that was as a result of hard work, honest effort and ingenuity. Most of the people who have accumulated wealth and achieved success have done so through dishonest means. Nagaland has not developed commensurate to the amount of funds we have received in the last fifty years. This is the tragedy of our people. We continue to suffer because of the corruption and abuse of power that has percolated from the top to all levels of our society. Let us hope that many more Nagas are able to hear the story about Bill and Melinda Gates and be inspired to work hard with honesty and also help others by spreading their generosity, goodwill and compassion.
