Last week I was surfing the Internet and came across a headline on Yahoo! that said Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates, opened a jar and unleashed a swarm of mosquitoes on the audience at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference.
Gates released the mosquitoes to make a demonstration about malaria, a disease carried in mosquitoes. When I first read it, I thought Bill Gates had lost his mind. I thought to myself, "it's just cruel to release mosquitoes on people."
In the article on Yahoo! News, it was reported that Gates began to open a the jar full of mosquitoes and said, "Malaria is spread by mosquitoes. I brought some. Here I'll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected."
Luckily for him and the audience, the mosquitoes were malaria-free. Gates has been known for his philanthropy, one of the latest is finding a cure for malaria. I understand what he was attempting to do, but mosquitoes are still pests. If they get a chance to suck your blood like the flying vampires they are, you'll get an itch and a bump wherever the mosquito decided to drink blood from your body.
As a PR professional, I'd definitely tell Bill to not do that. There are ways to make a demonstration without putting people's lives in danger. I don't care how much money one has, it is absolutely cruel to release mosquitoes, or any bug, on an audience. That demonstration has now gone overboard. What would you advise Gates to do?
-Marlon Williams
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