These are 2 short articles by Don Tapscott, who was in attendence. I thot you might enjoy them.
There are 10 key issues:
1. The state of the world is not good
The theme of Davos was Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild, which may have sounded a bit grandiose to some people. I doubt many attendees think this now. The world clearly needs fixing.
Figures cited at the Forum show we're a long way from being out of the woods with the global recession. Jobs are and will continue to be a huge issue. Global unemployment is estimated to have jumped by 50 million during the recession, and the working poor increased by 200 million.
But the financial meltdown and recession are arguably symptoms of a bigger systemic crisis and deep institutional failures. There is growing recognition that many of the organizations and institutions that have served us well for decades, even centuries, are no longer working. Many of the pillars of economic and social life have come to the end of their life cycle. In 2009, the American auto industry – the epitome of the industrial economy – collapsed. The upheaval is now spreading to other sectors – from the universities and science, to entertainment and media, to government and democracy. The continuing collapse of many newspapers in the United States is a storm warning.
Many other serious problems loom. Lack of access to fresh water is a catastrophe for humanity, as 2.8 billion (or 44 per cent) of the world's population already lives in high water stress areas. This number is expected to increase to 3.9 billion by 2030. In a world of growing capacity, global poverty is getting worse. Ten children die of hunger every minute and a third of the world's population festers in slums. Climate change is deeply troubling. We need to reinvent our energy grids and transportation systems and reindustrialize the planet. And we're running out of time.
As Bill Clinton said to a few of us at a cocktail party, “The world is too unequal, unstable, and unsustainable.”
- snip -
3. There is a profound rethinking of the financial services industry and its role in society
French President Nicolas Sarkozy put it well: “The banker's job is not to speculate, it is to analyze credit risk, assess the capacity of borrowers to repay their loans and finance growth of the economy. If financial capitalism went so wrong, it was, first and foremost, because many banks were no longer doing their job. Why take the risk of lending to entrepreneurs when it is so easy to earn money by speculating on the markets? Why lend only to those who can repay the loan when it is so easy to shift the risks off the balance sheet?”
The mood at Davos was widespread: Banks need to be reined in, the sooner the better. U.S. banking executives used to be the stars of Davos. Now they are a low-key, humble and dour-looking group. Last year at Davos, during the height of the financial crisis, everyone was in a degree of shock. This year, a better term would be “fed up.” Fed up with banks that are “too big to fail,” with government bailouts, with the human costs of this crisis and with an industry that basically got out of control. For some CEOs the crisis warrants a critical re-evaluation of market capitalism.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-sad-state-of-the-world-and-other-themes-from-davos/article1453817/And from the second article:
6. The world needs better governments
Some governments in Central America and Africa are just holding on and many are dysfunctional. But governability is becoming an issue for G20 countries as well. One leader said the United States is on the brink of being “ungovernable.” When asked to defend his country's lack of democracy, one Chinese executive responded: “So we should adopt the American system where lobbyists run everything and nothing happens?”
Democracy was still seen as an unstoppable force but in many regions of the world it is stalling, and in some cases losing ground. Basic democratic institutions are at risk and in danger of failing partly due to the economic crisis in poor countries. The best predictor of democratic survival is per-capita income. In some countries, portions of the government have been captured by interest groups. Other non-democratic countries are proving competitively stable and economically healthy. And the current economic crisis shows that national governments and domestic regulation are inadequate to deal with the challenges of the global economy . There is also danger of protectionism and isolationism.
-snip-
8. Women and gender: A sea change is underway
There was lots of buzz about women's emerging purchasing power, known as the Power of the Purse. The expected worldwide increase of women's income by 2013 is $5.1-trillion, which is greater than China's expected growth of $3-trillion for the same period.
There is deep interest in the so-called Girl Effect, i.e., the fact that investing in girls offers the biggest return on investment in the developing world. In African countries female illiteracy is almost a third higher than that of men. But every year of schooling increases a girl's future earnings by 20 per cent. And by earning more and influencing how dollars are spent, women would acquire a stronger voice in all aspects of their lives.
Although women are becoming stronger financially, they are still very poorly represented in politics. Countries should be more aggressive in finding female candidates for public office, and look outside the regular channels. But increased financial and political power brings responsibility. Women could be key in refocusing our political and economic efforts away from consumerism.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/it-turns-out-the-internet-does-change-everything/article1454983/
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