"CHARLIE" at the "GATES" ??

Another Perspective?

In case you missed them, Google Charlie Rose's interviews of both Bill Gates and Bob Gates in recent days.

Listen carefully as Charlie goes "for the hour", one-on-one.  I don't know if he realizes it, but Charley reveals surprising bits of himself as he confronts his guests.

These two guys named Gates represent a cross-section of currents in my life; one the military, the other,   Cold War technologies that we were able to create to win the Cold War.  My military experience, between the years of 1962 and 1982, was centered on emerging technologies that are found in virtually all Tech companies today.  We were instrumental in creating what became Silicon Valley.  NASA is popularly credited for many new technology advances that were actually achieved by the Department of Defense.  The dividend to the Taxpayer for their "investment" may be Silicon Valley and its many "clones".

When I arrived in Seattle 25 years ago, a much younger Bill Gates was often spotted about town and, often, seated in a theater with you as you took in a movie.  We all are aware of the Media accounts of the exploits of both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs; those accounts ignore the role played by the military in the creation of their respective tech empires.

The Defense Department that Bob Gates is "telling all" about in his recent book, is one that took new directions, beginning in the early 1960s;  fighting the Cold War by expanding our technological knowledge and capabilities, while simultaneously acting as a "social  laboratory" for the integration of black and white races in this country.  Bob Gates has served in government many years; some of those were served in the Air Force during my tenure.  

Charlie, betraying his Carolina up-bringing, pushed both "Gates" on their views of our first black President; seemingly hoping of finding some new "dirt" to feed to our Virulent Right.  Bill Gates was more successful than Bob Gates in evading Charlie's traps.

Bill Gates spent the hour expanding on his view of what is happening in the "Developing" world, and the works of his Foundation in that part of the world.  In this new age of BIG MONEY, Africa looms large again on the "radar" of these guys.  We may be on the verge of another "colonization" -- this time by dollars, backed up by military troops and a myriad of "financial missionaries" touting their Charities and Foundations. Of the fastest growing economies on our planet today, many are in Africa.  Does Big Money "smell" Big Money?   Big Money drives out Little Money in our global economy.   Pray for the Africans (if you can find a God that will do better for them than any have thus far).

Stay Vigilant!  We may be repeating the global economy that followed WW I.
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