I'm kinda torn on Hitchens. He's like a troubled but fiercely talented relief pitcher: when he's on, he's unhittable, but when he's off he's a walking disaster. Hitchens can do some mighty fantastic investigative journalism but can also do sloppy hatchet jobs (more so now than in years past- I think the guy's completely off the wagon and slowly going bonkers). I've read "The Missionary Position"- which I'd lump in the former category of "fantastic... journalism"- and it includes many more details than that interview, enough to realize that not only was Mother Teresa not such a holy woman, but in that bejeweled Catholic way a rather evil woman. Whether Hitchens is a secular humanist is irrelevent; he has shown respect for other religious leaders, but this particular religious leader needed much more criticism than she got.
The book generally paints a portrait of a woman who really wasn't all that holy or helpful- the people in her missions weren't being saved or helped, they basically were death houses where the poor and sick would lay there, getting surreptiously baptised even if they didn't want to be, while tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars poured into the coffers of Mother Teresa, Inc. Further, she embraced that sycophantic double standard of condemning the poor as meant to be poor, even celebrating their poverty and misery, while having a wholly different view and moral judgment for her wealthy friends- be they Princess of Wales, millionaire bilco artists, or third-world murderous dictators.
posted by hincandenza at 9:50 PM on September 5, 2001
That Sarah Lawrence is a character; the TCS movement was referenced in a thread a few weeks ago about home-schooling, and she's certainly intriguing. Gonna have to check out more of her site...
posted by hincandenza at 12:40 PM on September 6, 2001
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is [I believe] the largest charity endowment in the world, almost exclusively from Bill's own pocket with around $22 Billion Dollars; Gates has repeatedly said in the past that over the course of his lifetime he plans on giving virtually all of his vast fortune to this foundation. On a regular basis, grant money is dispersed to worthy causes, and Bill's goal with this foundation isn't as you might think just some self-serving faux "techie" charity like putting computers in every school. Rather, his focus is attempting to end the downward cycle of poverty and disease in third world countries that prevents them from achieving stability and prosperity, as well as funding educational initiatives at home and abroad. From Bill's own words:
Our focus on global health equity was born of a growing realization that many of the diseases that have been all but eliminated in this country, such as measles, kill and disable nearly 1 million children in the developing world each year. Our grant making is grounded in the belief that the death of a child in Africa is no less tragic than the death of a child in America, and the understanding that those of us who were born in rich countries have a fundamental responsibility to help those who weren't.Improving health is key to reaching other development goals, such as reducing poverty. Some worry that by reducing the burdens and deaths caused by disease we may be inadvertently contributing to another serious problem: rapid population growth and high fertility. Actually, the reverse is true. Studies show that mothers voluntarily limit the number of children they have when they have confidence that existing children will survive. We need to empower women by providing voluntary family planning services to the 150 million women in developing nations who want to prevent or delay their next pregnancy, but lack access to contraception.
Some of his giving includes $750 million dollars to fund immunizations and inoculations for an estimated 42 million children in 68 countries, several hundred million (in various grants over the years) to fund AIDS vaccines, treatments, and education programs in Africa and other poverty stricken locations, a BILLION dollars (over 20 years) to the United Negro College Fund... and those are just some of the biggest grants. The list goes on and on and on and on, and you can check out the site to find more, so much more.
So yes, whatever you or I might think of Microsoft's business practices or their software programs, I do believe it's fair, reasonable, and justifiable to say that Bill Gates' charitable giving eclipses by an incalculable margin anything the Holy Momma has done, whether in total or even pro-rated to a daily basis. Quite frankly, I used to think of Gates as just another unfeeling overly geeky tech billionaire, albeit the most wealthy. I've come to have incredible respect for him, and for his maturation into someone who sees that his wealth and influence comes with a responsibility that he uses well. If Mother Teresa were still alive, she could learn a lesson from Bill Gates...
posted by hincandenza at 5:23 PM on September 6, 2001
While there's something to be said for compassion- literally speaking, a compassionate person actually puts themselves in the same situation as the person(s) for whom they feel compassion- and it's true that Gates doesn't a significant portion of his time among the poor of the world, it's not "compassion" to simply hang around poor people and exploit them for the glory of yourself and your Church. This is what Teresa essentially did: the hundreds of millions raised by her high-profile persona went to fund two things:
So basically what you have here is a woman who rode around in private jets owned by her friends (the Duvaliers and Charles Keating being two often cited examples), hung around with Princesses and Kings and Celebrities, and occasionally dropped in on her convents and hospitals for photo-ops where she used the dying and starving of the world- again, whom she wasn't helping- to bolster her image as this Catholic "saint".
You really should go to the library and read Hitchen's "The Missionary Position" for more information; the truth is this woman did no more to "help" the poor than the average person, perhaps less- since the average person doesn't have worldwide acclaim and piles of riches to do something- most average people, if they win the lottery, give something back to charity. Apparently Momma T was too good for that...
As for the "philosophical" issue of time v. money: Gates money is the best way for him to help; those millions and billions will ensure that tireless volunteers and charitable workers can do the great work they do, far more than Bill could ever do by getting on a plane and going there himself (although he does travel to these places and help out every now and then- he's not just handing over cash). But yes it's true, his money alone wouldn't be sufficient, since there need to be people to translate that money into real changes, to "spend time" with the downtrodden, and those people are every bit as heroic as Gates himself- I'm not saying otherwise. But a person like Gates can do a tremendous amount because he happens to have been blessed with the financial resources to make broad, organized change with one swoop of his check-signing pen. Here's the thing though; so was Teresa, yet she didn't do a fraction of what he does.
Finally, rather than compare Gates and Mother Teresa, what if I said instead that the average American does more to help the poor than Teresa did? Do you know see that what I and her critics are saying is that Teresa not only didn't help these people, she clearly exploited their suffering for her own glory without lifting as a much as a finger to aid them with the millions of dollars raised by those heart-rending photo-ops with her among starving brown children. Sure, she "spent time" with them, but on the whole those people would have been better off if she had just stayed at home and done nothing to "help" them.
posted by hincandenza at 11:40 PM on September 8, 2001
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Best. post. header. ever.
posted by jpoulos at 7:44 PM on September 5, 2001