I have grown reading Greek mythology. The character of Cassandra fascinates me the most in Greek mythology. Cassandra is a priestess of Apollo. She can utter true prophecies, only not to be believed. Cassandra was a Trojan princess. Her parents were King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Hector was her elder brother. Cassandra is a tragic figure like Macbeth and Hamlet. Their fates had been sealed, but they still put futile fights to escape their fate. What makes Cassandra interesting? Apollo gifted and cursed  Cassandra. Apollo gave Cassandra the gift of prophecy, and she was able to see the future. However, he also cursed her, so none believed her. According to some versions of the myth; she incurred Apollo’s curse for refusing sex with Apollo. Cassandra predicted the fall of Troy, but no one believed her. We now used her as a rhetorical device to indicate a person’s accurate prophecies as unbelievable.

Bill Gates is a co-founder of Microsoft, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Microsoft is a giant in the tech industry. Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft on April 4th, 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bill Gates used Microsoft as a vehicle to became a very wealthy man. His company dominated the IBM PC compatible system market and office suite software for decades. The US Government sued Microsoft for Antitrust practices. Bill Gates’ first act was one of ruthlessness, cunning, and calculation. He stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2000 and established the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with his wife. Bill Gates finally stepped down as the chairman of Microsoft in 2014. I see the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as Bill Gates’ second act. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the vehicle through which Bill Gates became a major “philanthropist”. He uses the foundation for grants in healthcare, education, and his campaign to end poverty.

What does Bill Gates and Cassandra have in common? They both predicted disasters and no one believed them. Cassandra made a prophecy of the fall of Troy, and the Trojans thought of Cassandra as a crazy person. Bill Gates gave a TED talk in 2015 about the next outbreak. His TED talk came after the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. He told his audience; an outbreak was around the corner, and we are not ready. His TED talk is on the link below.

Bill Gates showed a model similar to the 1918 Spanish flu which decimated scores of human beings after the Great War. He told President Trump about the possibility of a Pandemic, but we know where his warnings went. As the world is now struggling with COVID 19 pandemics, Bill Gates has been villainized by conspiracy theorists. Some people believe Bill Gates is out to implant nanotechnological tracking device on human for population control. Bill Gates is a modern Cassandra. Bill Gates can actually defends himself from conspiracy theorists, but it is like a game of whack a mole. We will get to the other side of the Pandemic, but it will definitely be a pyrrhic victory. Many lives would be lost unnecessarily.