15 Minutes of Stupidity

“The horror! The horror!,”  uttered my Haitian-Canadian friend when I asked her about the devastation in her native land.  This pithy expression — so overused and over-abused in today’s cavalier and pop culture crazed society — if ever meant to rightly articulate one’s sentiment regarding a situation or event, is most à propos here. The devastating images continue to fill our screens every minute of every day, as they should. At the same time, it is during epic catastrophic events like these that we are also reminded how generous and empathetic a species we truly are. Millions of dollars are being raised every day by ordinary people around the world, using their credit cards, cell phones, Twitter and Facebook accounts to express their desire to help those in greatest need.

Many celebrities, wealthy people and corporations are frequently announcing their donations to the relief effort.  Now I am not going to question the motives behind why certain people and companies feel the need to publicize exactly how much they are donating.  After all, there is nothing wrong with a company having a Corporate Social Responsibility department or a celebrity having a Public Relations team. They are just doing their job.  However, when one looks at who is donating what, something very curious emerges.  Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems as if wealthy individuals are donating far more, and I mean FAR more, than even MUCH wealthier corporations.  Let’s have a quick look:

Wal-Mart:  $500,000 to the Red Cross and $100,000 worth of food

My monthly statement is almost as much as they donated

Visa:  $200, 000 to the Red Cross

Sprint:  $50, 000 to the Red Cross

Unilever:  $500,000 to the World Food Programme

The Walt Disney Company:  $100,000 to earthquake victims

UBS:  Said it will match employee contributions up to a maximum of $500,000

Tiger Woods:  donating money to send a cargo plane with mobile hospital

Lance Armstrong:  $250,000

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie: $1,000,000 to Doctors Without Borders

The Rothschilds: $2,500,000

The NHL could even match what she donated.

Giselle Bundchen: $1,500,000 to the Red Cross

Madonna: $250,000 to Haiti’s Partners in Health

Now this is certainly not an exhaustive list, not even close, but I am flabbergasted at the trend.  Wal-Mart, Unilever, UBS….the world’s largest corporations, with market capitalization values in the billions of dollars, even hundreds of billions of dollars, being less generous than individuals worth 100 times less???

To parrot my friend, Kurtz and Marlon Brando, “The Horror! The Horror!”