His call caused a stir: last week on the American channel CNN. David Beasley, the director of the World Food Program, which works under the auspices of the UN, called on billionaires, the super-rich, like Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla, and Jeff Bezos, that of Amazon, for that they give a little of their wealth and help to counter the famine which currently afflicts several countries of the South, the annual budget of the WFP no longer sufficient. “These billionaires must mobilize now, he said. S‘they donate six billion dollars, it will immediately give relief to 42 million people who will literally starve if we do not help them. “
This is the reality for millions of people. I don’t think the world realizes the gravity of the crisis at our doorstep.
42 million people in dozens of countries are marching toward starvation TODAY. #Afghanistan, #Ethiopia, #Madagascar, #SouthSudan, #Yemen and many more. pic.twitter.com/oIoNNeIN0a
– David Beasley (@WFPChief) November 1, 2021
To illustrate his claim, David Beasley gave a specific example: six billion dollars is what the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, earns in one day. That’s 2% of his 300 billion fortune. Tuesday, November 2, the main party responded “Okay” : he will agree to give six billion if, and only if, the UN program can demonstrate that this money will put an end to hunger in the world. Understood, it is impossible, it is useless.
If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $ 6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2021
Phrase that earned him applause on Twitter, his fans saluting his repartee, explaining that not only can nothing solve hunger in the world, but that the boss of Tesla is not accountable. The case could have ended there, but David Beasley returned to the charge. Because to tell the truth, he knows American billionaires very well, and he knows Elon Musk very well.
At 64, before leading the World Food Program, David Beasley was elected to the Republican Party for a long time. As a good conservative, he has always defended the richest, and fought the increase in taxes. He therefore considers himself legitimate to insist. Yesterday, he recalled that all this is not just a verbal contest, that 42 million people, in Afghanistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Madagascar, no longer have any flour, rice or milk.
“It is not a matter, he said on CNN, to eradicate hunger in the world, it is a question of settling this winter famine (…) I am not trying to annoy Elon Musk, I am very happy that he is making a fortune, but Side billionaires made extraordinary sums during the Covid crisis, and on the other side people are dying, we have to answer this, please help us. “ The story does not tell what Elon Musk and the other targeted billionaires will do, but it does at least have the merit of bringing this little-publicized emergency to the table.