ACQUIRING THE TASTE FOR CRISTAL AND KRUG MAY BE FUN - HOWEVER THE WORLD WILL SEE LITTLE BENEFIT FROM THOSE PARTYING IN DAVOS!
In 1971, Professor Klaus Schwab of the University of Geneva gathered 444 delegates – mainly economists and a few captains of industry for little get together on the skiing slopes of Davos to chew over the financial and political issues of the day. Thus the ‘World Economic Forum’ was born. This international gathering was given immense kudos by Thomas Mann’s book ‘The Magic Mountain.’
42 years later the WEF is now the biggest gathering of business, economic and political glitterati in the world. The Cristal flows like table water. However few believe that the world benefits very much from this litany of meetings, speeches and parties. The ‘good & the great’ attending this year, starting this Wednesday, will have reached 2,600 delegates, including 1600 business dignitaries and 40 heads of state. They will get there – bad weather or not – to press the flesh by raising their networking ability by three notches. The only measurable beneficiaries from the WEF are the shareholders of Cristal, Krug, LVMH, security companies and the hotels in the area, plus of course media armies. This shindig is manna from Heaven for them!
Though my recollections are far from perfect I can only remember two meaningful gatherings – 1992 when Nelson Mandela met with FW de Klerk and in 1994 when Shimon Peres met Yasser Arafat to discuss the Gaza strip. The event has been peppered with luminaries in the past such as Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy, Bill Clinton, George H Bush, George W Bush, President Zuma, Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel, J-C Trichet, Sir Mervyn King, Kofi Anna, Bill Gates and hundreds of others. As I understand it, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has only attended summer meetings in Davos. The subjects for discussion have included politics, climate-change, economics investment and business practices.
This year the main guests of honour are Dmitry Medvedev, David Cameron, President Zuma, Chancellor Merkel and President Aquino of the Philippines. George Osborne arrives on Friday. I am very happy to be contradicted, but nothing meaningful ever gets agreed, though the opinions of successful operators in their field get aired! When the world is ‘hanging in rags’, I think it is discourteous and insensitive to lesser mortals to keep holding garish and vulgar parties. Whatever happened to those splendid inventions of Alexander Graham Bell and John Logie-Baird? They still work for most of us! Friday night’s ‘Google Party’, hosted by Sergey Brinn and Larry Page is the lavish event everyone wants a ticket to!
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