How to fix the ills of this World

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How to fix the ills of the world Two big privately organized international conferences, with then thousands of poeple involved, are outgoing and starting on the 21 January 2004. · Both are in most subjects diametrically opposed. · Both are competing to a large extent with the government controlled United Nations. They have a somewhat different tune than the government concert. · Both want to better the world at a time when there is large consensus that the present world and the future outlook are the worst since decades. · Both present very interesting discussion points , also for the China Daily Forums So, let me open the discussion with some basic information’s. The World Social Forum WSF started on the 16th January in Mubai, India and will end 21st January. One of the Internet links is http://www.wsfindia.org. The other event starts at the 21st and last till the 25th. It is several thousand kilometers away in the snow coverts mountains around Davos (Switzerland) and calls itself pompously „World Economic Forum". The main link to it is: http://www.weforum.org/ The information on both Internet links is for the moment relatively poor but will certainly improve over the next days and weeks if the organizers will find time to write down the contributions and findings. To make it as short as possible: · The WSF, which is predicated on the belief that ?Another World Is Possible?, brings together mass organizations and social movements to build alliances to create a more just world and to oppose unfair patterns of globalisation. More than 75,000 people are expected to gather in Mumbai for the five day event of which, 71,779 people ? 23,313 of them from outside India, had registered with the forum. The organizers are NGO’s, Non Governmental Organization from all parts of the world . They are called „Alterglobalists" · The WEF set the tone with a expensive study executed by Gallup International on the insecurity in the world: The WEF is financed indirectly by mostly Multinationals and Organizations close to them. The more than 2000 top level participants are protected by 4800 Swiss Police and Army Members at a cost of 18 Million Swiss Francs (12 Million USDollars). Here are some excerpts from the Gallup Study, which I have given already in another tread of this Forum but which may not have had the attention by many of you: · The study Finds that Ordinary People feel "Unsafe, Powerless and Gloomy" about the Future Security and Prosperity. The Survey represents the thoughts of more than ONE BILLION people. · Results from surveys consistently show that individuals feel they have little or no personal impact on the economic, political and social factors that affect daily life, expecting national and international actors to deliver the background stability required to look after and provide for their families. · Uncertainty, lack of confidence and instability in one of these areas has an effect on all the other factors. For example, if people feel international and national security are poor, they will probably also feel gloomy about their economic circumstances, even if these are not objectively or directly linked. · People feel that their country’s economic situation is worse now than ten years ago, although some think they personally have fared slightly better. Many countries, particularly those in the industrialized world, have aging populations and there are genuine anxieties on all continents about people’s security in old age and retirement, particularly in South America, Japan and South Korea. · In questions about the key factors of prosperity and security in the United States, people there are more upbeat in their ratings for both the current situation and the future than is the "average" global citizen. Almost half of those interviewed in the US (45%) say they and their family are more prosperous now than they were ten years ago. Turning to security issues, four out of ten Americans (40%) rated their national security as "good", although the same assessment was only given to international security by one in four (24%). · Recent poor economic performance in some regions, such as in South America or the emergent economies of Eastern and Central Europe and more specifically in certain countries such as Japan, has a disproportionately negative effect on most ratings whether they are allied to economic factors or not. · The converse is also true, so countries where positive changes are perceived to have taken place recently on one front may assess other variables more positively. Consequently, Afghanistan is optimistic about most of the survey topics – those concerning both aspects of security and also economic assessments – a finding also borne out in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Similarly, both Kenya, which last year changed both its president and government after 24 years, and Georgia, where Shevardnadze was recently replaced after a disappointing presidency, have a generally positive outlook concerning most elements of economic performance and security. · Elsewhere, gloom shrouds many countries on all continents. Twice as many people globally rate international security as "poor" (41%) than the proportion who consider it "good" (20%). · National security is also rated "poor" on all continents and few countries expect this situation to improve in the foreseeable future. · In Germany, reunification seems to have led to a lack of confidence in the economy with gloomy ratings of the current economic status, considered less prosperous than ten years ago by three-quarters of respondents (77%), and a lack of confidence about any positive improvement in the future – almost seven out of ten (69%) think the next generation will be less prosperous. In Switzerland, once seen as an economic haven, two-thirds (65%) think they are less prosperous now than they were ten years ago and only slightly fewer (61%) think it will be even worse for the next generation. · Elsewhere in Europe, many countries are also pessimistic about the economic conditions, but generally those in non-Euro countries such as Denmark, Norway, England and Iceland are more positive in their assessments of the current situation and in their predictions for the future. · Other regions have more positive moods – Africa is generally more upbeat than average, although security in old age and retirement in a continent ravaged by AIDS is a difficult concept for many. · People in Japan are depressed about both economic and security factors, but respondents in other countries in the region are less so – Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam all give higher than average ratings to some of the factors examined in the survey. · Many in all countries rate environmental security as poor and this is particularly true in Ukraine, the site of the Chernobyl accident, where seven out of ten (72%) rate environmental security as poor. This finding is echoed by more than six out of ten of their Russian neighbors (61%). In both countries more than half also expect the situation will be worse in ten years’ time. I think that this is enough to start a discussion Yours Montblanc