There is a new book that I recently came across written by
the son and grandson of Warren Buffet. The book, "40 Chances -
Finding Hope in a Hungry World," contains 40 stories about Howard Buffett,
the son of Warren, and his travels, along with those of his son, around the
world to deal with issues of hunger.
The book's title comes from what a farmer can expect with 40
growing seasons in his lifetime and that he or she then has 40 chances to
improve the harvest year after year. What I found interesting while
perusing the book is that Howard, who has a love of farming, was told by his
dad, "Here's $2 BILLION, go out and accomplish something great in the
world." Howard has attempted to do just that. He has
gone to 115 countries around the world to address hunger issues, some in
conflict-ridden areas.
In his book, he writes about the projects that he funds that
have changed lives for the better. All this is wonderful, but you can
accomplish a heck of a lot with $2 billion. I guess that I should
read what has been promoted as an inspiring book and the circumstances under
which Howard conducted his business. But, again, we're talking about
$2 billion; that's a lot of money that can solve a lot of problems.
Very true $2 billion is a good amount of money however, there's the human side of things when dealing with improving processes. It is more beneficial to teach people to fish than to give them fish but given human behavior (greed, laziness, ignorance), instability in some of these countrie and even mother nature there exists some variables that money can do little to change. overall though $2 billion should be able to generate some sustainable systems...
ReplyDelete