A Letter from the Gates

As you may or may not be aware of, billionaire Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have a charity foundation. One of the things they do with this foundation is write an annual letter explaining what people, especially young people, can do to improve upon our world. This year’s letter starts with a preface on how the Gates came up with the topic for their letter.

When in Kentucky, several high schoolers asked them what superpower they would like to have. As busy parents, Bill answered “more energy” while Melinda wished for “more time.” They then wrote how these could be powers for good. Bill said with his power of “more energy,” he wouldn’t just have more energy to spend doing things, he would use it to supply clean, reliable energy to the people of the world. Bill presents many facts that make one thing clear: most of the world is still working by candlelight. When Edison presented his new lightbulb, it appeared the entire world would now be able to light up the night. Yet, 100 years later, about 5.7 billion people still do not have access to electricity. He talks about how we need to find energy for these people, but also clean energy. He then goes into detail about cutting back carbon emissions, and presents an interesting math equation on how to reduce said emissions.

Next, Melinda explained her super power of “more time.” She goes into detail about women’s roles over the years, but she takes an interesting perspective on the topic. Instead of just talking about how women need to be better respected, she talks about how most people support the idea of equality between genders. Also, she focuses on how women are spending more time on unpaid work. She gives the examples of women in Africa who walk two miles every day to just get their family enough water to drink and girls in third world countries who have so many chores that they cannot do schoolwork. Mrs. Gates then talks about not necessarily changing households in countries where women are seen as the housekeepers, but about creating revolutionary ideas that would minimize the unpaid workload of everyone on the planet. And yes, this includes mothers and wives getting more help around the house, and men being more involved in this unpaid work.

The Gates’ closed the letter with the message to think of a superpower you would want, but more importantly, think about how you can use it to change the world.