Sir, – Elon Musk has acquired Twitter for the princely sum of €41 billion. Is it even possible to comprehend such a large fortune?
Are there other uses to which it could be put?
By way of context, a 2019 Lancet study found that about €4 billion is spent globally each year on efforts to eliminate malaria. Malaria claims about 600,000 lives each year, and 80 per cent of those deaths are among children under five.
Sanitation is not glamorous, but every €1 spent on water hygiene in poor countries yields a saving of €25 – an impressive return on investment, even by Silicon Valley standards. Around 1.6 million people die each year from diarrhoea, 500,000 of whom are children.
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Then there are the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) – exotic maladies like dengue, lymphatic filariasis and trachoma, which cause death and disability for about 1.7 billion people, almost entirely in poor countries. The World Health Organisation has estimated that entirely eliminating NTDs by 2030 would cost about €2 billion per year. The frivolous uses to which Elon Musk puts his fortune are his to choose but it is grotesquely immoral that individuals should be allowed to accrue such wealth when billions of people continue to suffer worldwide from avoidable poverty and illness. – Yours, etc,
Dr DOMHNALL
McGLACKEN-BYRNE,
Boston,
Massachusetts, US.
Sir, – The declaration of Elon Musk that he is totally committed to freedom of speech and freedom of expression is most encouraging.
In leading Twitter, he could not do any better than remain close to the current PEN charter.
PEN, a worldwide association of writers to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers, declares for a free press and opposes arbitrary censorship in time of peace.
It believes that the necessary advance of the world toward a more highly organised political and economic order renders a free criticism of governments, administrations and institutions imperative.
And since freedom implies voluntary restraint, members pledge themselves to oppose such evils of a free press as mendacious publication, deliberate falsehood and distortion of facts for political and personal ends. – Yours, etc,
J ANTHONY GAUGHAN,
President,
Irish PEN,
Blackrock
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Finally, they’ve figured out how to make money out of Twitter. Sell it. – Yours, etc,
CHRISSIE BYRNE,
Sandycove,
Co Dublin.