World Economic Forum – Does it Mean Anything?

The World Economic Forum 2017 starts in Durban today, boasting a bevy of ‘economic leaders’. This forum is designed to permit world leaders and thinkers to talk about the problems the world’s economies face, to and find ways to solve them, and to talk about crucial inclusive and sustainable progress, particularly for Africa.

In a Moneyweb article today, presenting a radio discussion on the meeting, it was reported that it is expected that notables attending the meeting will be the Prime Minister of Namibia, the president of Senegal, the president of Uganda, and the King of Swaziland as well as his prime minister and possibly the President of Zimbabwe. The meeting will also be attended by the President of South Africa, who will make the opening address.

And therein lies the problem.

The people attending, with the possible exception of the Prime Minister of Namibia, are all leaders of nothing nations, nations brought close to poverty by the policies and actions of their leaders. One could hardly be expected to show respect for the King of Swaziland in his role as an economic leader. He demanded a 25% finder’s fee for a loan of R2,4 billion granted to his country by South Africa, in the form of a bail-out. Readers will remember that the South African Minister of Finance explained to infuriated South Africans that the loan would not cost South Africa anything, as it was borrowed and lent on. That sort of bush accounting goes a long way to explaining why South African bonds now enjoy a junk status! Uganda is enjoying a boom at the moment, probably because the huge sums flowing from the location there of the African Union are largely provided by Europe, a continent which is roundly condemned by most African countries, except when they make their begging bowl presentations. Zimbabwe presently holds the lowest ranking in the world, apart from North Korea (a country highly respected by Namibia as an example of economic and democratic excellence), in the fields of corruption, repression of democracy, lack of transparency in government, honest elections (with the notable exception of South Africa, whose Electoral Commission, in its capacity as an expert observer, declared the most recent election to be free and fair, the only observer believing that), incredibly poor economic policies and practically any other metric related to good governance. And, of course, the geriatric President, Robert Mugabe, will spout his usual diatribe about America and Britain as the examples of everything that is wrong. That will delight Jacob Zuma, the equally crooked President of South Africa, who enjoys the distinction of having brought down the most powerful economy in Africa while building his personal wealth. Zuma dotes on Mugabe, seeing in him the example of what he is striving to be, a dictator of a banana republic.

It is worrisome that a meeting of this nature should be lauded as worthwhile, even valuable to the development of the African and world economies. That shows just how far the world economy, with the exception of the Western nations, which are viewed as having value to Africa only as donors and supporters, has slipped.

In times such as these, the world has need of great men and women as leaders. Few are to be seen, and the nations in a large part of the world seem to be turning to people whose sole interest seems to be personal wealth and aggrandizement, rather than the pursuit of sound economic management. Even the United States has slipped down the ladder of leadership, with the new President Trump being elected on the basis of hatred, arrogance and grand-sounding promises. There are few leaders in the world who can lay claim to the heritage of careful thought, considered action and application of democratic principles that was handed down by their predecessors only a few decades ago.

Why do the people accept this? Can it be that the citizens of the world have lost so much intelligence and perception that they cannot understand what is being done to them by the people they have chosen to lead them? What has happened to the grand experiment of democracy?

It seems that the succession of failed leaders in so many countries has created the view that democracy is not worth fighting for, that empty slogans appealing to uninformed and unthinking populaces have greater value than important principles, that the amassing of personal wealth, at the cost of the world economy and environment is more important than providing the basis of a good life for our children and grandchildren. The continued abdication of their rights of control by the citizens of the world to ‘leaders of no apparent worth will surely result in a growth of a new form of dictatorship by those hungry for wealth and power. Perhaps the citizens of the world will deserve what they will ultimately get.

The World Economic Forum promises to be no more than another talk shop, at which empty slogans will be mouthed for the purpose of gaining newspaper headlines glorifying the participants, to be reported in their home countries in glowing terms by sycophantic reporters, while the business leaders build their circles of conspirators at the elevated levels of government, with the prime objective of each feathering their personal nests, while they lay the foundations for the next world war.

Is this what we, the citizens of the world, want?