During the latest Saturday Night Live, Starbucks did its best to tempt people get off their asses and vote on Tuesday with a simple message delivered in the soothing Starbucks colors:

“What if we all cared enough to vote?”

The better question is “Why don’t we all care enough to vote?” . Its something I have never understood, the apathy that so many people have for something so simple, yet so radically important. But that’s a question for another time.

The message ends with an offer —

“If you care enough to vote, we care enough to give you a free cup of coffee. You and Starbucks. It’s bigger than coffee.”

So there you have it, vote Tuesday and get some free drip coffee from Starbucks. As far as I can tell its an honor system, so I imagine some people will lie to just get some free coffee. But I imagine a certain percentage of people will go out and vote because of this offer of free coffee

“I was going to jump out of a cranberry scone, but maybe not.”

Bono went on to say that his appearance was even kept secret from the rest of his U2 band members. The cause for all of this hoopla was Starbucks’ decision to partner with (RED), a private organization that benefits AIDS programs in Africa.

(RED) was founded in 2006 by Bono and Bobby Shriver to benefit the Global Fund. The Global Fund, created in 2002, provides money to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. With approximately 4100 people dying daily in Africa from these diseases, the addition of Starbucks to the list of companies partnered with (RED) will result in lives being saved.

Starting November 27th through January 2nd, Starbucks will donate 5 cents to the Global Fund for each holiday beverage it sells. Following the holiday season Starbucks will designate certain products as (RED) of which similar donation be given from their sales.

Bono was quoted as saying:

“Here we are, talking about the economy tanking. People are saying, ‘Maybe the world doesn’t need more coffee houses.’ And what do you do? What does Starbucks do? You decide to give your money away. This is not charity. This is commerce.”

According to Starbucks, if every Starbucks customer bought one (RED) Holiday Exclusive (beverage) for a week 15,000 lives could be saved in Africa.

The question I raise, is this:

Drink Cost (Estimated $4 per Drink) x 7 = $28.00
Money Donated by Starbucks to (RED) = $.05 x 7 = $0.35

If $0.35 x All Starbucks Customers = 15 thousand lives saved
Then $28 x All Starbucks Customers = 1,200,000 million lives saved

I ask you, why not skip spending that money at Starbucks and just giving it all directly to (RED)? This kind of charity is sugar coated goodness, it doesn’t require one ounce of sacrifice, and when you consider that you are drinking an overpriced cup of coffee, its really quit sad.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the (RED) project should be commended for trying to help in whatever way it can, its the rest of humanities blind eye and dedication to self that I have a problem with, mainly because this kind of thing makes me realize how little I am doing. But then again, maybe that is a good thing.

The villain in the situation isn’t even the company that caused the access to be removed (T-Mobile).  The villain is Starbucks who failed to honor the exclusive contract that they had with T-Mobile.  Contracts! We don’t need no stinkin’ contracts.

The kicker is that the access is only available at U.S. Company owned Starbucks.  That equates to roughly 40% of all the Starbucks in existence.  Not the greatest odds, but better than before for sure.  So, what would this news mean for me?

Well nothing since I don’t have an iPhone, but in the interest of coffee I popped over to the Starbucks Wifi Locator Service and pulled up the store locations for my zip code that have wifi.   Bear in mind, that there are three Starbucks within 2000 yards of each other outside of my subdivision.

The results — “No Stores Found”.  Ah well.

Even the staunchest of independent coffee house supporters cannot argue that this is nothing but a good thing.  Starbucks is already the biggest importer of fair trade coffee which a lot of people don’t know.

According to Business Week, Starbucks’ move is:

… part of the company’s “Shared Planet” initiative to do business “responsibly,” the company has said, by focusing on areas such as volunteerism and going greener, including using recyclable cups and reducing water usage.

Starbucks will be working with two fair trade certification organizations (TransFair USA and the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International) in an effort to further the advancement of agricultural/environmental practices.

Investors reacted favourably to this announcement and Starbucks shares rose 6 cents to $9.65