Ashley McKenzie

10-22-15
Citizenship
Learning Journal Entry #3
In Bill Gates 2014 Annual Letter the myth that stood out to me the most was the very
first one: Poor countries and doomed to stay poor. The proof Bill Gates used against this myth is
hard to argue with; a lot of past poor countries have clearly not stayed poor. Using examples
such as in Mexico City, Nairobi and Shanghai he demonstrated the progress that all of these
places have made towards becoming more developed. The pictures provided are almost all of
the evidence one needs to see improvement.
I must say I agree with his observations. Even if their progress is slow, it is surely
coming along. I think Bill Gates might be a little brave in his claim that by 2035, there will be
almost no poor countries left in the world, but it could be possible. Not much of my opinion on
poverty has changed from this article but it does show that change for these countries is possible
and there is hope. This shows that the efforts that people put out that are not living in thirdworld countries are truly helping. While a lot of the effort needs to be accomplished by the
countries themselves, this article shows that every little bit counts and this reassures me to just
how much we can be helping Optimist Park in improving. I feel good about our work in
Optimist Park and can see more of how we are making an impact.