From the World Economic Forum

A Dog´s Day in Davos

Frigid temperatures and the massive deployment of troops reinforce the exclusiveness of the Davos Forum, which has left protesters with few options to be heard – although Brazil’s leftist President Lula will be there in an attempt to serve as their spokesman - and has locals rethinking their support for this annual event.

By Emad Mekay

DAVOS, Switzerland - Holding his helmet in one hand and his baton in the other, a Swiss anti-riot police officer assigned to keep calm around the venue of the World Economic Forum here in this Alpine resort appears nervous as he states his wish for the weekend.

“I hope it will be so cold, below freezing,” he says, “that it will keep the protesters away. But if they make any noise, water hoses will be used on them. Cold water could hurt in this cold. That will keep them away.”

The policeman, who asked not to be identified, is among thousands of police, military and private security guards who are the most visible sign that the often-controversial World Economic Forum (WEF), an annual five-day event that gathers business leaders, economists and politicians from across the globe, is getting under way.

Critics of the meetings, who see it a part of undemocratic gatherings for corporate leaders and government officials who unilaterally chart out economic direction for the global economy, have been given permission to demonstrate in the resort on Saturday.

This year's WEF, Jan 23-28, occurs against a backdrop of a possible U.S. war on Iraq, a stagnant world economy and, evidently but perhaps more importantly, a growing mistrust of how the world economy is being run by the very same institutions as the forum.

Ironically, the official theme of the gathering is “building trust”.

“We want to discuss the issue of trust,” says Justin Blake, a WEF media official. “We want to rebuild confidence in the world economy.”

More than 2,300 participants, including several heads of state, as well as business leaders and representatives from international organisations, are attending the 33rd annual meeting.

The participants include Brazil's new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, U.S. secretary of State Colin Powell, King Abdullah II of Jordan and former Israeli prime minister Shimon Perez.

To protect such dignitaries, water hoses on the cold days of Davos are not the only option on the table.

Troops here are under order to shoot down suspicious aircraft. A no-fly zone has been established over this mountain village. Military helicopters are roaming the sky breaking the silence of the surrounding Alps. Roadblocks are popping up by the hour on the narrow streets.

Security officers, some of them brought from Germany – which explains the different types of uniforms -, are already combing the streets, scanning people’s faces and occasionally stopping passers-by, checking identity cards.

Like dogs sniffing for explosives

“The protesters come here to fight with the police on purpose,” said the officer, still hiding his tension and holding on to his wish that the protesters will vanish. “They come from all over Europe and they know that Swiss police are polite and they want to exploit that. They want the newspapers to take photos of them.”

But the little dream of this policeman, who admits that most of his ideas about the protesters came from his “boss,” and the strong military presence here may actually be revealing attempts by the WEF “establishment” to distract attention from their role in the current volatile global economic situation.

It could also partly be an attempt to demonize the anti-corporate globalisation movement as violent, shut down their accusations of failing capitalism and erring Western democracy and scare away their ideas of an economic alternative.

Although some of the high-profile names justify the extensive security, it also gives a sense of shaken self-confidence among the organisers and the business leaders, that of an ego that needs protection.

The would-be protesters from the anti-corporate globalisation movement, have before blamed many of those business leaders and corporate executives and international organisations officials for similar practices that led to the Enron and Worldcom debacle in the United States, the decline of stock markets, the meltdown in Latin America and the unfolding human tragedy in many parts of the developing world.

The theme that the Davos Forum is probably passing its prime and needs to hold strongly to its glamorous image is now often discussed here among the old hands.

Lance Knobel, founder of the seasonally popular website Davos Newbies, says that other Davos veterans increasingly confirm that idea to him.

The people behind the forum might be feeling the same way themselves.

Forum president Klaus Schwab told the Financial Times on Tuesday that the WEF this year hopes to reach “a better understanding” of world economy – a major step away from the usual mission of “finding solutions.”

“Seven or eight years ago you could propose solutions. But many fewer are possible today. If we can contribute to better understanding we will already have done a lot,” Schwab said.

Locals worry about ‘bad name’

Even local residents say they sense more now that high security and closed-doors meetings do not come off well for a world that is already impatient with the annual event.

A restaurant owner in downtown Davos says he has switched camps and now sympathises with the anti-globalisation movement. It became apparent, he says, that the WEF was not behaving democratically.

"They talk a lot about democracy and liberalisation," he said of the forum officials, recalling how two years ago authorities stopped the trains carrying the protestors before reaching Davos.

"Once they did that, I immediately knew there was something wrong. Otherwise why do they want to take away the right to protest and debate and scare everybody with all those military people?"

Margret Hofstetter, a mother of two who owns a hotel in the village, says she is beginning to feel that the WEF could in fact be a costly business.

"WEF started very small, but now these scenes of the military, the police, maybe fights and maybe killings make all of us uptight,” she says.

“I don't want my children to see the village turned into a military base. This is not the kind of publicity Davos needs. The forum could give us a bad name."