WEF Annual Meeting 2010: Disillusioned Gods Deciding What To Do For Mortals by Lishia Erza
Between President Zuma of South Africa s endorsement for polygamy, Eric Schmidt s statement that Google is staying in China, renewable energy, vaccination of neglected diseases, and Shakespeare s Heritage, there is an aura of optimism in the 40th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. It is in WEF s Annual Meeting that the world s rich, famous and powerful compare notes last January. The result, is a homework to rethink, redesign and rebuild our world.
Since 1971, WEF AM has been the annual event where capitalists, social entrepreneurs, politicians, technology pioneers, artists and religious leaders come to converse about the economic and social challenges of the world. This year, they continued 2009 s theme of “Shaping The Post-Crisis World” to a more positive and actionable theme of “Improving the State of The World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild”. Although not limiting brainstorming on money, discussions produced insights on interdependencies, governance gaps and risks that call for the world to rethink business models, financial innovation and risk management. Innovative redesign of institutions, policies and regulations are called upon to close gaps, prevent systemic failures and restore growth. One of the highlights was President Nicholas Sarkozy of France s proposal for a new form of Bretton Woods system to stabilise global exchange rates, save capitalism and market economy by increasing the role of government, and draw up global standards and regulations. Failures that have resulted in the current dire consequences require efforts to rebuild trust. Trust as legitimacy to new designs and trust as means to build confidence in future success. All things praising free trade, free society, and free speech are never sterile from opposition. Pressure groups viewed the forum as a symbol of globalization s destructive power. The participants were seen as people who have low regard for national boundaries and were naive to have thought that business-led processes can solve the world s problems. The Gods are not Gods after all. There is a crisis of trust and legitimacy that the they feel the need to rebuild it. What came out of the forum is a reflection of the needs of the members, not of the world. Business, culture and scientific advances do not represent voices of minorities and societies in most need of development. For instance, rethinking business models, financial innovations and risk management shows that rethinking is geared towards how capital owners can mitigate risks and ensure sustainability of their ventures. It does not explain the trickle down effects for people who suffer from busts, not even thinking about including these people into the system that is believed to be able to provide prosperity. Prosperity and sustainable growth is only for those who are already on top. So what good does a forum like this do? For all it is worth, the forum offers opportunities for different stakeholders to meet and exchange ideas. Albeit the corporations having the bigger stake in the forum, maybe next year they will be more mortal oriented. At least for now, we get to see what the Gods see as risks and their severities for the next ten years in a colourful and interactive interface. Here s the link: http:// www.weforum.org/documents/riskbrowser2010/risks/#