Elon Musk responds to challenge for $6 billion donation to end world hunger

by mcardinal

Lauren Moye, FISM NEWS

 

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, took up a challenge to help end world hunger as long as his one condition was met. He requested that the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) provide “open source accounting” for his potential $6 billion donation.

The challenge began in an interview with WFP Director David Beasley on CNN’s Connect the World with Becky Anderson that aired on Oct. 26. Beasley named both the Tesla CEO and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as billionaires who needed to use their wealth to help end world hunger. Beasley said, “$6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them. It’s not complicated.”

The requested donation is roughly 2% of Musk’s $289 billion net worth. When Tesla stocks soared on Oct. 28 due to the announcement of a deal between the company and Hertz, Beasley seized the chance to double down on his pointed donation solicitation:

Beasley quickly drew backlash from members of the public who felt that Musk was being unfairly harassed over his wealth. Others criticized the WFP, including Dr. Eli David who tweeted a fact check, stating, “In 2020 the UN World Food Program (WFP) raised $8.4B. How come it didn’t “solve world hunger”?”

Musk replied into this same thread on Sunday, promising to donate the named amount if his conditions were fulfilled:

Musk added, “But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent.”

Beasley replied, “Headline not accurate. $6B will not solve world hunger, but it WILL prevent geopolitical instability, mass migration and save 42 million people on the brink of starvation.” Other Twitter users quickly identified this as moving the goalpost.

Beasley offered to meet Musk in person to discuss how the money would be spent, but the tweets never amounted to a full plan.

In the exchanges back and forth, Musk also tweeted an article about a recent sexual exploitation scandal where UN workers sexually abused hungry children before giving them food, asking Beasley, “What happened here?”

Beasley returned to CNN’s Connect the World this morning to respond to the Twitter exchanges. Beasley said, “Simply put, we can answer his questions. We can put forward a plan that’s clear. … I will show him. We will put it out in front of him. We have all the costs accounting, public transparency, any and everything he could ask we will be glad to answer.”

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