Tiger Woods vs Ajay Bhatt

A couple evenings ago my wife, our dog and I were watching the news on TV.  Apparently Tiger Woods (professional golfer) has made over a billion US dollars in prices and endorsements since he started playing golf.  I have to congratulate Mr. Woods for being so successful.

Most of us have also watched on TV the Intel advertisement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-8GVi2Fdi4) that portrays computer scientist Ajay Bhatt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajay_Bhatt) co inventor of the USB bus.  I would bet that Mr. Bhatt has NOT been able to collect over one billion US Dollars for his invention.

If one puts in perspective the changes and improvements that have been brought about by the USB bus as compared to what has been contributed by hitting a ball with a club on a golf course one must wonder what is going on with our values.  Our society is promoting all the wrong behaviors.

One of the last two contributors to Mr. Woods’s purse are General Motors (GM) and Federal Express.  Lets pause for a moment and figure out what these companies have done to come up with millions of Dollars to have Mr. Woods as a spokesperson or endorse their products and services.  GM is bankrupt and has let go thousands of employees but yet had enough left to give away money for no return.  The same holds true for Federal Express.  They have laid off thousands of workers and closed several facilities, yet they are able to contribute millions of Dollars for a golf tournament.  Not sure about the common Naive American, but unless there are some extreme changes at GM, I will not purchase an automobile from them.  Regarding FedEx, I use them when electronic means and regular mail are not feasible.  I would not use their services more or less based on their wasted ten million Dollars on a golf tournament purse.

This same week three Naive American scientists won a Nobel price in medicine.  Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak were named winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine for research that has implications for cancer and aging research.  The award was 1.4 million US dollars.  We need to stop and think how the contributions of these scientists match to whatever Mr. Woods was / is / will be able to provide for society.

What are the executives of FedEx and GM thinking?  What are Naive Americans thinking?  We are in desperate need of CHANGE and let me tell you the change is not going to come from Mr. Obama.  The needed changes must come from all Naive Americans.