January 26, 2004
Arise, Sir Bill
So, most people reading this have probably seen by now, Bill Gates has been awarded a Knighthood. If the discussion on various LUGs is anything to go by, the linux-using community is generally disgusted by the idea.
As part of said community, I'm left wondering why the hell we care. OK, so Mickeysoft's products are somewhat on the shabby side, and their business practices dubious, but that's not the issue here. The issue is rewarding Gates for the fact that his company has spent lots of money in the UK, which is didn't (necessarily) need to, including a lot of investment in higher education and research (as I'm sure Ganesh will tell you :-) ), as well as for the money he personally has invested (sure, OK, it's a tax writeoff, but that misses the point too I feel) in combatting poverty around the world, in researching AIDS treatments, and so on and so forth.
So, please, if you're one of the people making a big noise about this, or feel you can explain why they are, leave a comment/trackback, or drop me an email, and tell me why Bill Gates is any less deserving of being a Knight of some defunct empire than George Bush (Sr.), and Rudolph Guiliani. I'd love to understand it, but I don't think I do, at the moment.
(This isn't to say I don't have an inherent problem with the honours system as a whole, mind. I just don't see why Gates getting one is any worse than some of the other awards of recent years, like the entire England rugby team getting honours....)
Posted by James at 15:37
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Comments
It's only natural for special interest groups to get all aggrieved when a natural enemy of theirs receives some kind of public recognition. Think what would have happened if Colin Blakemore had received an honour, for example. The difference is that the government is more scared of annoying animal rights activists than Linux users.
(And yes, I agree that there's nothing wrong with Gates getting an honour, at least given the way the system works now - I'm not sure if I agree with that or not.)
Posted by: Ganesh Sittampalam at January 26, 2004 04:09 PM
I think that I'd probably be pissed off by this if I actually though that the honours system had any meaning whatsoever. But I don't. :)
Posted by: rho at January 26, 2004 04:51 PM
Yeah, erm... whatever.
So what you're saying is that Bill Gates has bought his way into the knighthood? Just like he bought his way into everything else. Yeah, that's fine.
(Just trying to help)
Posted by: x3ja at January 26, 2004 09:30 PM
I see how it looks like that, but, frankly, no. I mean, obviously a large part of his contribution has been to do with choosing how to spend his money, but it would only be buying a knighthood if that was the intent when he spent the money, which I can't imagine it was.
I mean, who makes business decisions on the basis that they might get a royal honour in some distant country?
Posted by: James at January 26, 2004 09:34 PM
Well, when I went to the Philippines, I was certainly thinking about making a good impression over there. Although, to be honest, I could probably have bought a knighthood there for a lot less than Bill Gates did here... not that they have knighthoods, but I'm sure for a few USD they'd have made one for me.
Yeah, OK, it wasn't intent. But I still don't like it. I guess if I thought that Billy had been truly beneficial in the long run to the british economy, then I'd be happier. But I don't think he has... BICBW.
Posted by: x3ja at January 26, 2004 09:43 PM
Even though I've grown to like MS less and less over the last couple of years so far, I still couldn't motivate myself to even fart loudly upon hearing this news.
Yet another businessman gets given an award for services towards making huge amounts of money. Why do we care? It's not like the knighthood says his stuff is any bloody good, just that he sold it well (which he did, devious though his methods might have been). Jesus. Why do people care about this unimportant nonsense?
Posted by: Kyle at January 27, 2004 12:15 AM
But the award isn't for success, it's for creating jobs in the UK and giving money to charity and stuff. That said, I suppose the only people in positions to do that are successful business people.
As you say, who really cares about some rich suit getting a few extra letters after his name?
Posted by: James at January 27, 2004 12:53 AM