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Sunday 24 January 2016

Of News and Other Stuff-9

If there are two things I am extremely suspicious of (apart from displays of extreme religiosity--in my limited experience, the car with a 'Jai Bajrang Bali' bumper sticker is mostly likely to be driven by a lech), they are international agencies and conferences.  So I will admit that I have an inbuilt bias against the World Economic Forum which is a combination of both. Their mission statement confirms my worst fears:
The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests. The Forum strives in all its efforts to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest standards of governance. Moral and intellectual integrity is at the heart of everything it does.Our activities are shaped by a unique institutional culture founded on the stakeholder theory, which asserts that an organization is accountable to all parts of society. The institution carefully blends and balances the best of many kinds of organizations, from both the public and private sectors, international organizations and academic institutions.We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.
 [The bold italics above are mine, and basically represent the stock BS phrases I have learnt to be very wary about.]
       
There also some other FAQs, their website answers:

  1. Why does our work matter? Short answer: It doesn't. Long answer here.
  2. What makes us unique? Short answer: a seemingly unashamed backing of crony capitalism. Long answer here.
  3. How do we do our work? Short answer: We sit around and chat. A lot. Long answer.
  4. What are our focus areas? Short answer: Do you still care? Long answer here.
 

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