Microsoft pledges $1.25M in support for Haiti relief aid

medicnick83

medicnick83

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I don't care if you love or hate MS, I'm so happy they did this, thank you MS! :)

Microsoft has confirmed it plans to make an initial commitment of $1.25 million to support the relief efforts in Haiti following a massive 7.0 (on the richter scale) earthquake on January 12.

The software giant is providing support via cash and in-kind contributions and said it will match US based employees donations up to $12,000. It also plans to assist the relief efforts in the following ways:

* Disaster Response team - Microsoft's team is currently engaging with humanitarian relief organizations to assess how they can make a difference. The Disaster Response team plans how Microsoft's company, people and partners can be mobilized during issues such as Earthquakes - through outreach to lead government, inter-government and non-government agencies involved in leading local and global response efforts.
* Working with impacted customers and partners to help get critical systems up and running.
* Helping drive awareness and donations for relief efforts through MSN and Bing.
* The NetHope Emergency Working Group was activated last night to set up the basic telecommunications communications between the relief agencies operating in the affected areas.
* The NetHope Haiti Emergency Center (a secure Sharepoint application used by all of the NetHope members) is active and serves as a focal point for all reports, events, contact lists and collaboration.

The scale of destruction and death from this tragic incident is still not fully known. Reports suggest as many as 100,000 may have died as a result of the powerful Earthquake on Tuesday. The US government is sending 3,500 soldiers and 2,200 marines to help with relief efforts and many companies worldwide are also offering donations and aid. There are many ways to help, through donations of your time as a volunteer, and through financial contributions if you wish to do so. Microsoft invite you to consider supporting the relief organizations who are working in Haiti:

American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/
Care: http://www.care.org
NetHope: http://www.nethope.org/
MercyCorps: http://www.mercycorps.org/
Save the Children: http://www.savethechildren.org/
Unicef: http://www.unicef.org
World Vision International: http://wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf
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http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Eng...ch-Companies-Pledge-Support-For-Haiti-531991/

Updated: Google, Microsoft, Apple and a variety of other tech companies have signaled that they will donate funds and employee skills to help Haiti recover from the massive earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people Jan. 12. Google has been updating satellite imagery available through Google Earth and Google Maps, while Microsoft has activated its Disaster Response Team. Other companies are using their home pages to encourage donations to the Red Cross and other organizations.
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Its amazing how its generally only the big bad evil Western countries that are going all out for this aid. All the poor victim and poor angel countries of the middle east and far east that blame the west for being so evil... are not doing squat. Bad west for being so good!
 
That's like one of us donating 5cents. :erm:
 
w1z4rd said:
Its amazing how its generally only the big bad evil Western countries that are going all out for this aid. All the poor victim and poor angel countries of the middle east and far east that blame the west for being so evil... are not doing squat. Bad west for being so good!
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and drop a few billions$ of bombs on them, hopefully they'll appreciate that.
or blast them with a $280 million F22 Raptor if they don't want to listen.
 
obs said:
and drop a few billions$ of bombs on them, hopefully they'll appreciate that.
or blast them with a $280 million F22 Raptor if they don't want to listen.
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Absurd comment.
 
obs said:
and drop a few billions$ of bombs on them, hopefully they'll appreciate that.
or blast them with a $280 million F22 Raptor if they don't want to listen.
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"Or blowing themselves up in a public place ... or firing rockets at them ..." See what I did there?

The point is that MS donated a 'drop' which is more than what others both good and evil (depending on what side of the proverbial fence you are on) have done thus far.

So c'mon Linux users, reach deep! :D
 
That's pathetic!

Microsoft 2009 earnings:
1st quarter earnings: $15.06 billion
2nd quarter earnings: $16.63 billion
3rd quarter earnings: $13.65 billion
4th quarter earnings: $13.10 billion
Total earnings for 2009 financial year: $58.44 billion

$1.2 million is 0.00214 percent of $58.44 billion !
It's equivalent to me donating 21 cents (ZAR) if I was earning R10000 per month.

It's nice of them but why did they even bother to go through the hassles of the paper work?
 
Paul_S said:
It's nice of them but why did they even bother to go through the hassles of the paper work?
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You are quite correct, tell the Haitians (?sp) to refuse the relief from MS.

This has nothing to do with what MS makes. It probably is fantastic PR. It probably is tax deductable.

The point is that they did not HAVE to donate it.




Oh, btw, I am not a MS or Apple fan (I use MS because I suck at Linux).
 
w1z4rd said:
Its amazing how its generally only the big bad evil Western countries that are going all out for this aid. All the poor victim and poor angel countries of the middle east and far east that blame the west for being so evil... are not doing squat. Bad west for being so good!
Click to expand...

When Katrina Hit the US 3rd world countries including Iran and other countries offered assistance. The US rejected it of course and only a week later decided to accept European aid.
 
w1z4rd said:
Its amazing how its generally only the big bad evil Western countries that are going all out for this aid. All the poor victim and poor angel countries of the middle east and far east that blame the west for being so evil... are not doing squat. Bad west for being so good!
Click to expand...

The publicity MS gets from its $1.25bar far exceeds the donation anyway, it's in effect very cheap advertising if you think about it.
 
Aqua_lung said:
When Katrina Hit the US 3rd world countries including Iran and other countries offered assistance. The US rejected it of course and only a week later decided to accept European aid.
Click to expand...

Yip, even SA offered support but it was all rejected.
 
I say screw the assistance.

Countries like that need to be wiped off the planet.
The asistance given will go to waste.

They hardly had a government. The country was/is ruled by a few warlords/gangsters - why bother?

/ ... pretty much goes for every other failed state */

/ rant over.
 
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