New diplomacy; the DAVOS question

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Re: Davos Question - Mobilise the Public

As you read what's below - remember that Schwab is about to hauled in to solve America's fiscal crisis!! My o my! The hits from the neocons running the world, never stop coming!!

At Davos, Mothra versus Godzilla

Terence Corcoran, Financial Post Published: Thursday, January 24, 200

It's the battle of the catastrophic monsters. Will it be the looming life-threatening climate crisis or the looming economy-threating growth crisis? Which poses the greater threat to life on Earth has suddenly become an open question.

Until perhaps this week, the global-warming scaremongers seemed to hold the upper hand. What could possibly trump the escalating claims of imminent doom from the likes of Al Gore and United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon. "We are at a crossroads," Mr. Ban said last year. "One path leads to a comprehensive climate-change agreement; the other to oblivion."

At the Davos World Economic Forum, climate change has suddenly been overtaken by the world economic crisis. At a session of business and economic people, global currency speculator George Soros declared: "Central banks have lost control." The Egyptian Finance Minister, Youssuf Boutros Ghali, said his panel wanted to discuss world poverty and inequality in the future. "But there is no point looking beyond this year if the patient is already dead."

It must be tough being a leader, but surely the power players who populate the Davos event, an annual monument to self-aggrandizing business leaders, can do better than this report yesterday from Reuters: "Business leaders appeal for crisis leadership." Isn't that great: Just as the going gets rough, with markets falling and economic prospects looking grim, business leaders head for the exits and call on others to clean up the mess.

What it amounts to is another reason to ignore the world forum, now underway in the Swiss resort town of Davos. It also shows up the empty futility of the forum's mission, as stated yesterday by Klaus Schwab, the event's founder and executive chairman. He urged business leaders to "show that true leaders solve crises and create opportunities in a changing world."

Not this year, apparently. Mr. Schwab tried his best to maintain the high ground, to rise above the aura of panic sweeping the world and threatening his well-planned sessions around the watery shibboleths of global corporate do-goodism and citizenship. "This year we are experiencing doom and gloom as the world enters uncharted territory. Irrational pessimism is as damaging for us all as irrational exuberance."

That's probably a good way of looking at the current state of affairs and the wildness sweeping the markets. But then Mr. Schwab wandered off from the doom and gloom track and into the strange land of Davosism. "But if we are prepared to collaborate -- on a global level and incorporating all stakeholders of society, and if we truly look for innovative solutions -- answers taking into account the new power equations which are shaping global society --only then do we have the capability to bring the risks under control and to restore sound global growth conditions."

No wonder the world's business leaders are confused. At Davos, moreover, the process is singularly incapable of dealing with anything that relates to the real economy.

It's a Coke versus Pepsi world, literally. The heads of both global soft-drink companies took somewhat opposing views of the economic world. Pepsi chief Indra Nooyi -- who is co-chair woman of Davos -- said her company and products are well placed in economic good times and bad. When times are good, people drink Pepsi to have a good time. When times are bad, they drink Pepsi to have a good time. She refused to complain about central-bank policy or the the state of the global economy. Coca-Cola CEO Neville Isdell said there is a greater than 50% chance of a recession in the United States this year.

The Davos event may be a bit of a bellwether, however, on how the the world will come to deal with what is shaping up as a great battle of the looming catastrophes. Which is the greatest crisis facing man: climate change or economic turmoil? A test run of that great Godzilla-Mothra conflict appears set for Friday, when a session will be devoted to coping with high oil prices.

Officials from the United States, Japan, Britain and Europe are apparently going to discuss what they can do about high oil prices. At US$100 a barrel, oil prices are draining cash from the world's major economies and smaller nations, causing economic hardship. Once they've finished with Mothra, will the same officials then rush across the hall for another meeting to hail plans for new carbon taxes and emissions-trading schemes to ward off Godzilla?

Hard to see how all these and other conflicting issues will get resolved by the business leaders meeting at Davos. One thing is certain. They won't get much help from Mr. Schwab, who said yesterday that: "With the right values in our hearts, and by replacing divisions and stereotypes through collaboration and innovation, we shall create here in Davos the sources allowing all of us to energize our organizations to do what needs to be done."

Based on that note, it is fair to conclude that neither Godzilla nor Mothra have anything to fear from Davos.