Into the wood chipper

I am reading “Into the Wood Chipper” and hope Elon Musk never sheds that phrase of endearment. Musk’s shockingly ignorant, callous, and bigoted perspectives about America’s humanitarian institutions seep through the 209 pages of this page turner. Pulling back the cloak of anonymity in his preface, Nicholas Enrich publishes three pages of key officials like Musk who watched the systematic dismantling of USAID.

I've worked with loyalists before and felt my hands tense up as Nicholas recounted how career public servants were defrocked.

Forty years ago, I flew tonnes of life-saving equipment into Africa several times a year in support of State Department missions. Some of the palletized cargo in the back of my aircraft, often accompanied by handlers who would drive the medical equipment to flash points, would have been organised by USAID response teams.

Musk will deny anybody died after he fed USAID into the wood chipper. So I’m writing some of the names of the Ebola victims into the margins of chapter 20 “Millions of Lives”. And then I will check to see if Musk lets me post the items I’ve saved inside Readwise on Xwtitter.