Firstly, the Twitter storm-in-a-teacup that today has been the hashtag #savetheintern. The full story can be found here at Tom Watson's blog. This is the bit I most like about the whole matter:
8. The intern has not been sacked nor was she ever going to be. She’s young. We all make mistakes.This is true. And needs to be said, far more often. Without, that is, the desire to redeem being worn too brightly on one's sleeve. A normal humane instinct to treat people as people. Instead of cattle to be disposed of all too hurriedly.
Meanwhile, another case where redemption seems to be an unspoken driver is the philanthropic Bill Gates of today. Firstly, from the BBC, this quote yesterday:
"If I hadn't given my money away, I would now have more money than anyone else on the planet," he said casually.But it's not quite true. What really makes Gates interesting is that he can publish letters like this - thoughtful, considered, accurate, needed - at the same time as maintaining the monopolistic empire that is Microsoft's Office and Windows operating system software.
And it's the giving away that makes him so interesting.
That is to say, it is true that we must doff our virtual caps in admiration when the BBC points out that:
His philanthropy is on an epic scale. He is seriously planning to eradicate diseases in his lifetime that have plagued humanity for thousands of years.But we must also remember that the money he so laudably donates was often arrived at in a less than seemly way; and perhaps, in some parts of the globe, continues to be questionably obtained to this day.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already given $26bn (£17bn) to fund health, development and education projects.
Even the biggest cynic would have to be impressed by this massive engine of generosity, with Bill Gates working full time on donating the income from an endowment worth $33.5bn (£21.5bn).
So it is that redemption is never simple - even as, in its messy and incomplete manner, it must be a better way than no kindness at all.
0 thoughtful fixes:
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