Bill Gates, a great man?

What is a great man?

According to me, it’s someone who helps other people, without waiting for something back in return. It’s a person who is successful but who is not arrogant. It’s a person who inspires respect and marked History by his acts. During the last century, there aren’t numerous. For example, Churchill and de Gaulle for their devotion to their country, Nelson Mandela for the fight he realized for black people.

In my opinion, Bill Gates is the great man of modern time.

Here is his story, let’s have your own opinion.

Bill Gates is born in 1955, the same year as Steve Jobs (managing director of Apple). In his high school, he discovers informatics and spends more time with his computer than in classroom. He tries to earn money making bugs on corporation’s computers. In 1975 he leaves Harvard to create Traf’O Data, renamed later Microsoft.

Bill Gates is a visionary man because he sees that in the future each American family will own a computer. So, each computer sold in the world will make him earn money: he create Windows and impose it for each computer. So that Microsoft became the number 1 in the world, Windows equipped 90% of computers of the planet. At 33 years old, in 1986 Bill Gates became the youngest millionaire and 10 years after, the richest man in the world.

In 2000, he creates a foundation with his wife, Melinda to improve health and life conditions of children from poor countries. In 2008, he quit his company to spend his all time to his foundation. At his death, 95% of his fortune will go to it; the 5 % left will go to his children.

However some people criticize his action: according to the Los Angeles Time, Bill Gates and Melinda’s foundation made investments into companies who have bad impact on the environment and health and who is employing children. Then, other people criticize the way Bill Gates has earned money, with his monopole situation: Microsoft was sentence of 1.5 billion $ by Europe.

Recently, Bill Gates goes forward: he encourages other millionaires to give half of their fortunes to his association, as he says, “for a better world”.

My travel in Ireland, by Charles-Hugo.

I went to Ireland for linguistic holidays. I went to Georges and Florence’s house, my father’s friends. I would like to talk to you about this beautifull country.

1) Official symbols and languages

The official symbol of the Republic of Ireland is the Irish harp. You can see it on the money. Others symbols are the “clover with three sheet”, used by the National Rugby Team, the sheep with black head and the Guiness beer!

There are two official languages. The first is Gaelic but most of people speak English.

History and demography

In 1920, the island has been split into two. In the North, Northern Ireland is owned by Great Britain.

In the past (18th and 19th century), Ireland has known greats famines, so, many people emigrated. It is the only country in the world where there is less people in the country than in the rest of the world. Most of them emigrated to USA.

In Ireland, there is more men than women because Irish women are popular in Great Britain to be nuns or teachers in Catholic schools. Today, there are twice more sheep than inhabitants.

3) Weather

Ireland is a very rainy country. It rains up to 250 days a year. Irish people say: “In Ireland, the weather is nice… several times a day!”

4) Sport

Rugby is a very popular sport, part of the Irish traditional culture. The Irish National Rugby Union Team has won 18 times the “6 Nations Tournament”. Foot-Ball also became popular.

Roads

In 2005, the speed limits have been changed from miles/hour into kilometer/hour. Seven percent of roads are made of ground!

In Ireland, I appreciated the beautiful landscapes, nature, and beautiful towns. People are very welcome and friendly.

The things I didn’t appreciate were their food: there is no schedule time to eat and we eat jam at every meal! I didn’t like the bad weather…

I keep a very good souvenir about this trip. I improve my English and I am now able to do more things by myself. In the future, I would like to do new travels to other countries.