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Bill Gates to Receive Honorary UK Knighthood
jolyon writes "Yahoo is reporting that Bill Gates will receive his honorary UK knighthood on Wednesday. He doesn't get to call himself 'Sir' though. He becomes a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire."
I swear he received this like a year or two ago.
AHA!
and I was not wrong.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3428673.stm
You can't buy such an honor because it's impossible to attain (at least for Bill). I'm not sure if naturalized citizens of GB can be called "Sir", but you can't be knighted at all if you're an American (or any other nationality) like Bill. As the article stated, you can be given an honorary title, but it's not the same thing at all. It pretty much just means that you've been honored by the crown.
An explaination of who gets to call themselves sir.. For those not quite in the know of how the Brittish Knighting system works.
Quoting Wikipedia: "Citizens of other countries, however, may be admitted as "honorary members". They do not count towards the numerical limits aforementioned, nor are they addressed as "Sir". (They may be made full members if they subsequently become British citizens.) Notable foreign members of the Order have included Pelé, Bob Geldof, Bill Gates, Rudy Giuliani, Alan Greenspan, Steven Spielberg, Tommy Franks and Wesley Clark (all Knights Commander)."
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
Actually, you can be knighted if you're from another nationality, just not American. As long as you're from a country that is in the Commonwealth, you can be knighted. For some reason the United States aren't part of it, so Americans can't be knighted, not that it means much anyway...
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- The Tao of Programming
The Queen Mum is dead, you insensitive clod!
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Not to sound like a smartass (ok, yes I am), but since the U.S. isn't part of the Commonwealth then obviously Americans can't be knighted.
However, there are other reasons why U.S. citizens cannot be formally knighted (as opposed to honorarily like Bill). Please see this link which talks a bit about nobility in America and why it is not granted and why people wanting to be naturalized citizens must renounce titles of nobility, and this link which talks about the missing Thirteenth Amendment.
The last link (a very long read) mentions something which goes to the crux of why Americans cannot be formally knighted: to do so would mean they would have to answer to a foreign ruler. In the current case there is no expectation that Bill, or anyone who receives an honorary knighthood, will owe allegiance to the crown.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I'm a rabid Linux fan, and I detest every moment I have to test my work in IE. However, I have to say that what Bill Gates is doing outside of the computing world is nothing short from wonderful.
I have a deep interest in education, in particular, how to solve the problems we are facing without throwing more money at them. So I am heavily involved in the school issues in my neighborhood, and I am organizing people to research things we can be doing to help out the district. What Bill Gates is doing to the education field is nothing short of amazing. Most recently, he said that the current high school system should be scrapped because it is a complete waste of time. I don't know any Linux fans that would disagree with that.
He is also putting his money where his mouth is. I know that we are looking at getting some of his money to implement his plans in our own district, or at least in the final stages of getting the grant. I don't think there is a district in the US that isn't getting some benefit from what he is doing.
And he does more than that. I don't know the specifics, but I know he is working in Africa and South America trying to help raise the living standard from sub-human to at least what we would call "poverty" in the US.
That is what he is getting knighted for, and not for his achievements in amassing a huge amount of wealth. It is how he is using it that really counts.
Now, I also realize that what Bill did to the computing world was nothing short of amazing as well. Before Bill, we were a sub-culture to be derided and spit upon. Now we are cool, and our skills have street-cred. We have Bill Gates to thank for that.
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