Stop thrashing Mark !!

I write when I am happy and inspired and I write when I am angry and want to express my personal opinion, I am writing this on a sunday morning as all the Mark thrashing going around on social media and news is getting to me and making me truly angry.......

On Dec 1, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he will give away 99% Facebook shares on the birth of his daughter Max, accompanied by a beautiful letter written to his daughter.

What I thought about this ---what a great gesture, I hope more celebrities do more of this to inspire others…..

But I am amazed and shocked by how cynical our society has become. Last few days all I am reading about is

--he is giving shares and not cash, this is a tax saving measure (so what ?!!)

---why is his foundation structured as an LLC and not an NGO

--there is a Zuck Sucks club thrashing him online

---supposedly shareholders are also not happy

----this is a publicity move to distract from the evils of Facebook (really ??)

is this what the world has come to?

Chennai is flooded, Delhites cant hardly breathe due to smog, this morning Pune Newsline had an article about 8500 disabled demanding disability aids (wheelchairs, scooters and others), have not got it for months and given up

Not to mention heart-wrenching poverty staring us in the face every day

So many problems and all we can do is thrash Zuckerberg ??

Separate topic – so many spent hours watching Amir Khan being thrashed a few days back, I can guarantee these very people didn’t watch even 5 min of his beautiful show “Satyamev Jayate” but oh yeah, they found the time to watch him being hounded for hours on national television.

Come on guys, cant we focus on “doing something productive” and not spending hours  “judging”??

Some role models abroad whose work we should follow

·      Warren Buffet has pledged 99% of his wealth

·      Bill Gates has pledged 95% of his wealth

·      Richard Branson has pledged 50%

·      George Soros has given away $11.4 billion

Role models back home whose work we should follow (data as per Hurun report 2014)

·      Azim Premji has donated Rs 12,316 crores (first indian to sign up for the Giving Pledge started by Gates and Buffet)

·      Shiv Nadar, Ashish Dawan, Nandan and Rohini Nilekani, Ronnie and Zarina Screwvala, our very own Any Aga at home

My favorite quote was and will always remain Spidys “with great power comes great responsibility”

Sad reality is we know more details and spend more time discussing the multi million dollar destination weddings or the specifics of a billionaires new yatch or jet rather than giving our time and intellect to reading and working on some good causes. I am no saint, I like glamour and the good life but surely we can balance the two a bit more ???

And most certainly we can as a society stop judging people like Mark Zuckerberg who for gods sake are trying to do something good ???