Who Came To Michael Dell's Defense?

I just wish that when someone gets verbally attacked, others would come to that person's defense. Why do most people just sit back relishing that it is not them? We need more people with self confidence, a big set of you know what and the moxie to speak up when someone is being unfairly criticized. I realize that Michael Dell does not need any help, but instead of letting the press report that he got slapped by Putin, it would have been better if someone else intervened telling the Russian leader that a world without "entrepreneurs" would be a world that was stagnated and paralyzed. Politicans are a dime a dozen.


http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/28/news/companies/dell.davos.fortune/index.htm

Putin-Dell slapdown at Davos
The Russian prime minister tells the Dell CEO: 'We don't need help. We are not invalids.'

January 28, 2009

DAVOS, Switzerland -- Ever since Vladimir Putin rose to power in 2000, his political opponents and entire countries have learned to their cost that he has a tough, demeaning streak. Wednesday it was Michael Dell's turn. At the official opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Putin, now Russian Prime Minister, delivered a 40-minute speech touching on everything from why the dollar should not be the sole reserve currency to how the world needed to enter into a smart energy partnership with Russia. Then it was time for questions. First up: Dell. He praised Russia's technical and scientific prowess, and then asked: "How can we help" you to expand IT in Russia.
Big mistake. Russia has been allergic to offers of aid from the West ever since hundreds of overpaid consultants arrived in Moscow after the collapse of Communism, in 1991, and proceeded to hand out an array of advice that proved, at times, useless or dangerous.
Putin's withering reply to Dell: "We don't need help. We are not invalids. We don't have limited mental capacity." The slapdown took many of the people in the audience by surprise. Putin then went on to outline some of the steps the Russian government has taken to wire up the country, including remote villages in Siberia. And, in a final dig at Dell, he talked about how Russian scientists were rightly respected not for their hardware, but for their software. The implication: Any old fool can build a PC outfit.