A simple question for the charmed elite at the World Economic Forum (WEF) as their exalted annual meetings in the Swiss Alps resort of Davos draws to a close: What were you doing when Russian President Vladimir Putin was preparing to invade Ukraine? A mumbled answer might be something like “We were preparing to revive the global economy hit by the Covid-19 pandemic” or something like that.
But the simple fact is that the world’s most rich and powerful people representing the uber-elite of global capitalism could not foresee either the Covid-19 pandemic or the Ukraine war, both of which have cut deep wounds into the world economy, hitting literally hundreds of millions of poor people they claim to be helping.
We are not even mentioning climate change or climate justice or climate emergency. All we have done is to come up with fancy new terms meant to impart an urgency to what used to be called the global warming problem, the solution to which has moved at a glacial place while real glaciers are melting faster.
WEF is just another talking shop. More words. Fewer insights. Even less action. More billionaires. More blue suits. More “elite-splaining”– if I may twist the feminist phrase “mansplaining” for the benefit of the powerless and the resourceless who are forever condemned to listen and not be listened to.
But wait. We have in Davos this year Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate justice activist who stepped out of her teens two weeks ago. Yay! Not that there is any significant ground action to address her concerns visible to the naked eye. We shall hold our breath and wait for the high priests of capitalism to say that they shall abandon their limos for public transport next month. Because Greta says so. We shall dream on.
It is symbolic that loads of fossil fuels are burnt to keep the Swiss Alps warm in Europe’s biting winter to help the Davos gathering even as Putin’s grandmaster move on the European chessboard has sent gas prices up, worrying the continent’s striking nurses and cerebral central bankers alike. Lip service has been done.
Greta wants lifestyle changes. Ethical capitalism is about knowing how to put a price on things (Read: people) to make human behaviour aligned with social and/or environmental goals. But political economy of the kind we see in Davos is about the rich and the powerful who sometimes collide but often collude to make the rules of the game in which they are themselves, players. Nice try that lacks credibility from Square One.
The WEF was founded by Klaus Schwab in 1971 as a not-for-profit organisation to help public-private cooperation. It has since become a code word for big businesses and power brokers to sup together.
Here’s what WEF says about itself: “Deeply anchored in the public and private sectors, the Forum is the only global organization serving this role, bringing together the world’s foremost CEOs, heads of state, ministers and policy-makers, experts and academics, international organizations, youth, technology innovators and representatives of civil society in an impartial space with the aim of driving positive change.”
So, we are to assume that “representatives of civil society” this year is meant to be the presence of Ms Thunberg, not the protesting activists outside the high-security zones where everything from natural disasters and artificial intelligence is being discussed by people as problems to be solved. Among those inside are those responsible for some of those very problems.
Fact is WEF and its many aficionados do not put even a fraction of their resources into a framework for equity, justice and the intelligence required to face some of the environmental, health, and social challenges facing the world. It is a forum that preaches to the converted, whereas what we need is a dialogue between those who disagree to raise the bar of intellectual discourse on the profound crises facing the world economy and the planet that holds it.
Heard of the World Social Forum? Founded in 2001, it is an annual meeting of civil society organisations and Wikipedia describes it as a “self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization.” It is symbolic of the WSF’s weak base that the official website of the forum is not easy to trace. We believe a WSF meeting was planned to be held in Mexico last may. The Wiki page stops mentioning WSF meetings after 2018. On the other hand, a news search on Google about the WSF only throws up WEF stuff, including eloquent admissions of inequality.
Here’s what WEF said earlier this month ahead of its Davos jamboree, describing global inequality as a “failure of imagination”
“Global inequality has gotten worse, with the richest 1% grabbing nearly two-thirds of the $42 trillion of wealth newly created since 2020,” says the WEF (NOT the WSF) and goes on to add: “Inequality is destroying society and it is not inevitable; it is a choice that reveals us as lacking in both empathy and imagination. Our leaders need to imagine new economic processes and structures to create a fairer, more equal world and to save our planet.”
ALSO WATCH | WION Climate Tracker | Davos Summit 2023: Climate change on agenda at the Summit
But the very structure and process of WEF are such that the media focus, the much-listened-to elites and the general air of the place combine to form an atmosphere that favours the continuity of unjust growth over positive change that may inconvenience those who fund the forum and brag about visiting it. To paraphrase investor Warren Buffett’s memorable phrase, it is like a congregation of barbers wanting to end haircuts. You get the picture.
Greta T, meanwhile, will hopefully be photographed with the folks who laid the ground for the problems she is trying to solve.
Whatever they do, democracy, equity and activism can wait. We can take a break with titillating stories on Davos.
“Scores of sex workers have swarmed to the Swiss ski resort town of Davos to offer their services to the rich and powerful this week — with some said to be charging up to $2,500 a night,” says one news item.
At least one profession is insulated from the depressing talk of recession at Davos. No wonder they call it the world’s oldest.
(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)
