Uncle Sam refuses to be everyone's favourite aunt Sally, writes Gamal Nkrumah The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) is a weird and wonderful forum where the rich and powerful ponder the plight of the poor and peripheral. Participants talk big business and politics. Deals are sometimes clinched but most discussions are invariably pretentious. This year, participants in Davos, Switzerland, even dared to question market solutions -- half-heartedly, of course. This year the onus was ostensibly on "building trust" between nations and cultures, between haves and have-nots. Cultural celebrities like the Senegalese singer Yousou N'Dour spoke out against the plight of Africa's poor. One unprecedented session was all about love, about whether love can benefit society at large. Perhaps a sign of the times. Another was about Islam. Can Islam become a democratising force instead of being used as a tool to express discontent? Artists urged more assertive deployment of the so-called "soft power" -- art and culture -- in fostering a spirit of international solidarity. "Even in the China of Mao, rock and roll reached and spoke to young people," cited Egypt's Ismail Serageddin, the director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, as an example. But others protest that McDonald's, Levi's and rock are precisely the outstretched cultural tentacles of rapacious Americanisation that so disturbs them. The American cultural baggage is inextricably intertwined with an unjust world capitalist system. "Armani shops in Sao Paulo sell more than in New York," observed Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, author of the recently-released Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking Glass World. Spotlighting the rising tide of anti-Americanism, thousands of anti-globalisation protesters clashed with Swiss police on the outskirts of the exclusive mountain resort and its environs. But few anti-war and anti-globalisation protesters managed to break through the tight Swiss security apparatus to get to the heart of the chic Alpine resort and its 23-28 January deliberations. It is against this chaotic backdrop that the drums of wars were being sounded loudly in Davos. US Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed Iraq with world leaders and the rich. "The nexus of tyrants and terror, of terrorists and weapons of mass destruction, is the greatest danger of our age," raged Powell from his podium. But Galeano explained the Bush administration's logic this way: "to save the people of Iraq, we will bomb it to a pulp." The 2002 WEF meeting was convened in New York in sympathy with the victims of the 11 September attacks. This year, the WEF was back in Davos. And any lingering sympathy for the Americans had long evaporated. US Health Secretary Tommy Thompson's warning of an imminent "bioterrorism attack" was a perfect example of why anti-America sentiments are on the rise everywhere. At a time when millions are dying of HIV/AIDS in impoverished African nations because of a lack of access to cheap generic drugs, the US is spending $4.5 billion a year in its fight against bioterrorism. And with its formidable arsenal of biological weapons and long history of deploying anthrax, encephalitis and other forms of biological warfare in the Korean and Vietnam wars and other conflict zones, the US has no leg to stand on. But there is a powerful premonition that, like it or not, the future of the US economy, and hence the world's, hangs in the balance, although participants at the largely informal gathering expressed grave concern about America's so-called "w-shaped" or "double dip" recession. "No business over dead bodies," read the placards of anti- war protesters. The US, they argue, is the real tyrant and terrorist state. Anti-globalisation protesters also demonstrated against "the terror of free markets". In the wake of the 11 September attacks, global foreign direct investment (FDI) plummeted. FDI, which had peaked at $1.3 trillion in 2000, is back to the more modest mid-1990s figures. The emerging markets were hardest hit. World trade, too, has shrunk. Still, the optimists were undeterred. "This is the best WEF I've been to," Carol Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said. "The topics are extremely relevant. The discussions around economics are more vital now than years ago when the economy was so hot." Bellamy's upbeat assessment was shared by Horst Köhler, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who was "cautiously optimistic" about the global economy. Köhler said that signs of a global upturn are growing clearer by the day. "The global economy has proven more flexible and resilient than expected," he said. Köhler's views were shared by several other high-ranking participants. "Economic fundamentals are very strong," optimistically trumpeted Carly Fiorina, the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest computer manufacturer. At Davos 2003, there was a great deal of talk about dialogue and cultural exchanges. Overtures were made to Arab and Islamic nations. Representatives of oil-rich Gulf Arab states were courted by Western business and political leaders. The Arabs were, in turn, calling Davos a "good opportunity to exchange views about our common desire to start a dialogue for a future of more understanding and rapprochement", said Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al-Nahyan, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It was clear that the West's main worry was the steady rise of oil prices and its implications for the producers of consumer goods. Whole sessions were devoted to discussing oil politics. Questions were raised concerning oil as a source of conflict, be they internal, regional or international. Is there always a correlation between oil and war? "Regarding the challenges of globalisation, we believe that by giving small countries a chance to restructure their economies and social systems, they will become a supporting factor for globalisation in face of those challenges rather than becoming part of the challenges," Sheikh Al-Nahyan said. Developing countries, some participants urged, must learn to negotiate effectively and should be assured of the benefits of trade. "We want free trade but a free trade that characterises itself by reciprocity," the charismatic Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who charmed his listeners, answered back. He criticised rich countries for preaching free trade and practicing protectionism. India's Finance Minister Yashwant Singh agreed, urging industrialised countries to drop trade barriers that discriminate against emerging economies and warned that agricultural subsidies in the US and Europe were "devastating" the developing world. The truth of the matter is that Africa, for example, is "so heavily indebted that no amount of trade can lift us out", said Tanzanian President Benjamin Mpaka. "One of the issues that we need to understand is that there are vast gaps between countries that have globalised early and those who were left behind. On the African continent, too many have been left behind," said South African Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel. "We haven't addressed the issues that are blockages to global growth," warned South African Minister of Trade Alex Erwin. Speaking at the session on international trade and capacity building, Erwin said that the global economy was "going into a tailspin" because of the international community's failure to come to grips with the plight of the world's poor, powerless and politically marginalised. "Let us compete fairly in a global world," pleaded Mozambican President Joachim Chissano. But is it really possible to "compete fairly" nowadays?
