It is often said that a small portion of the wealth of a few could change the world for the better if they agreed to give it away. Previously, CNN published an interview with the director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), David Beasley. In it, Beasley says that it will take “only” $ 6 billion from the world's richest people to avoid an impending catastrophic humanitarian crisis in many parts of the world.
While Beasley's remarks are likely to apply to anyone who has been the richest person on Earth at this point in time, Musk took it personally and said that under certain conditions he would provide the necessary money to solve the problem. His tweet also overlooked the fact that world hunger is not something that can simply be fixed permanently. It will take "peace, love and understanding" to rule the world, as Elvis Costello once wrote. It doesn't depend on money.
It can alleviate emergency situations in which people can die if they don't get something to eat. The WFP director noted Musk and shared a link to what can be done to prevent 42 million people from starving to death in 2022. The page summarizes the plan and leads to a more detailed website where WFP is also requesting donations.
The organization said it needs $ 3.5 billion to buy food and ship it to locations where food supply is completely disrupted. In areas where hungry people can buy something to eat, WFP wants to offer $ 2 billion in vouchers. In addition to catering to those in need, this system helps support the local economy.
Managing this effort will require $ 700 million in each of the 43 hunger emergency countries, and an additional $ 400 million for global and regional coordination. Adding up all of these costs, you get the $ 6.6 billion that WFP will need to fight hunger in 2022 if the situation remains as it is today. A hurricane, volcano, earthquake or war can suddenly break out and increase these needs.
Beasley stressed that "Transparency and accountability are important to us and our donors." In that sense, the WFP director said that its “financial statements, operating plans, audits, annual reports, etc. are publicly available. We have open books. " Musk has expressed concern over whether he is actually going to help.
Now that the plan is available, we wonder if the Tesla CEO will stick with what he said on Twitter. What's more, we wish other billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Bernard Arnault, Larry Page, and Mark Zuckerberg would also feel like helping. Musk has already sold $ 8.8 billion in shares just to pay taxes - at least that's what he said. Musk will have to sell even fewer shares to pay to tackle global hunger in 2022 alone.
