Happy birthday Haiti: 'Robin Hood' millionaire shows his birthday guests a 'poor' time
- added July 13, 2008
- 1 response
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- LindseyIndigo
- added this
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American property tycoon Frank McKinney showed the world just how the super-rich *should* behave when he surprised guests at his 45th birthday party by taking them to the slums of Haiti to see how the other half lives.
He first took party guests on an extravagant tour of his latest construction — a $29 million (£15 million) building in Manalapan, Florida, with glass staircases, fish swimming in the ceiling, indoor waterfalls and two wine cellars, one for red and one for white — followed by dinner and champagne at his beachfront estate near by.
But there was barely time for the maverick millionaire’s 55 guests to sleep off their hangovers before they were whisked away for the next phase of his $5,000-a-ticket birthday experience — a sobering trip to the festering slums of Haiti.
The Tour of Extremes took them from Florida’s Palm Beach County — among the nation’s wealthiest communities — to Cité Soleil, the poorest suburb of the poorest city in the western hemisphere’s poorest country.
There, McKinney has built more than 500 homes for 4,000 people living in abject poverty through his charity, the Caring House Project Foundation. His guests’ ticket money will fund the construction of 55 more houses.
“It’s not everyone’s idea of a birthday, but it is mine,” he told The Times. “I’m a modern-day Robin Hood. Here I am providing property to the world’s most wealthy; should I not be providing it to the world’s poorest and homeless too?”
Doesn't this restore your faith in humankind a little? It just goes to show, the super-rich don't have to be super-aresholes. Hooray!
He first took party guests on an extravagant tour of his latest construction — a $29 million (£15 million) building in Manalapan, Florida, with glass staircases, fish swimming in the ceiling, indoor waterfalls and two wine cellars, one for red and one for white — followed by dinner and champagne at his beachfront estate near by.
But there was barely time for the maverick millionaire’s 55 guests to sleep off their hangovers before they were whisked away for the next phase of his $5,000-a-ticket birthday experience — a sobering trip to the festering slums of Haiti.
The Tour of Extremes took them from Florida’s Palm Beach County — among the nation’s wealthiest communities — to Cité Soleil, the poorest suburb of the poorest city in the western hemisphere’s poorest country.
There, McKinney has built more than 500 homes for 4,000 people living in abject poverty through his charity, the Caring House Project Foundation. His guests’ ticket money will fund the construction of 55 more houses.
“It’s not everyone’s idea of a birthday, but it is mine,” he told The Times. “I’m a modern-day Robin Hood. Here I am providing property to the world’s most wealthy; should I not be providing it to the world’s poorest and homeless too?”
Doesn't this restore your faith in humankind a little? It just goes to show, the super-rich don't have to be super-aresholes. Hooray!
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- LindseyIndigo
- 1 month ago
1 response // Happy birthday Haiti: 'Robin Hood' millionaire shows his birthday guests a 'poor' time
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This is really good, but wouldn't it be even better if the guy did not feel the need to refer to himself as a 'modern-day Robin Hood'? MODESTY!
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- JanaPokana
- 1 month ago
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