Davos in New York
Almost 150 days to the day that the Sept 11 horror struck New York, the 31st Annual World Economic Forum (WEF) opened in the Waldorf Astoria, the first time the annual gathering had travelled outside the ski-resort of Davos. As a vote of solidarity and sympathy, Klaus Schwab rang up (then) Mayor Rudy Guiliani to initiate the logistics feat of shifting the world’s “movers and shakers” to be able to discuss tangible issues under tight security. Seattle New York is not, New York Police Department (NYPD) outnumber Seattle’s 6,000 cops by many multiple times. Well trained, the city’s finest handled protesters without resorting to violence. Over 3,000 important figures from the world of business and industry, at least 30 Heads of State and Government (including a handful of monarchs), government functionaries, academics, media persons, NGO representatives, etc ran the gauntlet of protesters on Park Avenue and stringent security checks to discuss the theme of the Meeting, “Leadership in Fragile Times”.