In the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland, there is a small quite town called as Davos situated in the district of Prättigau. Besides of the annual World Economic Forum, it is also famous for the winter sports. It’s also famous for the rich and ailing people.
Our President, Bill Gates, and many other rich and (ailing?) people are also enjoying Davos. They are there to discuss and debate the top social and economic problems faced by world today. The format of the meeting is informal, it becomes a haven for journalist, who get some rare liberty to chat face-to-face with some eastern leaders with more candidness.
President Musharraf is also in Davos. As this one is his 80th tour abroad during his whole tenure, doesn’t he yearn to also introduce that kind of debate and dialogue in Pakistan? By the number of interviews he has given to foreign media, and by the number of tours he has made to such dialogue and debate oriented meetings and forums in foreign lands, why doesn’t he allow the same freedom of media in Pakistan? He once did, but it was short-lived, and now we have a skeleton of tasteless private media.
As is the case with such forums, WEF has also accomplished little of substance. What has it done for the third world countries? What change it has brought? What ground-breaking accomplishments are there. WEF earns millions and millions of dollars in membership fees, and that is presumably just spent in showing-off at the annual meeting. Elite people come from all over the globe, harangue and brag, eat and drink, burp and then left.
Instead of arranging such crappy and useless forums, they should just donate that money for education, health and well-being of the children of the third world.
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