Davos
in New York, like Davos in Davos, resembled a big
pastry shop with a huge window displaying all sorts
of baked goods and delights that whet one's appetite.
So I go inside to pick out a few sweets, and find
that they are all spoken for. That happened to
me often last week when I tried to sign up for
a session and found that it was already filled,
even at 12:30 am, a tribute to the planners for
picking compelling topics.
New
York City police continued to impress me. Ubiquitous,
they were always ready to assist, for example opening
a door battered by the wind to let me in and out. And
the smiles never failed. Without the snows of Davos,
this year's meeting did not have that jingle-bell,
dream-like quality about it. But where, in a matter
of just a few days, could I have short but meaningful
conversations to advance the serious issues I am working
on with Madeline Albright, Senator Clinton, the President
of Peru, former Mayor Guiliani, Muhammad Yunus, the
Indian Finance Minister Sinha, and my dear friend Jim
Wolfensohn?
On Saturday,
business leaders from 30 major international
companies called on all corporations
to become more involved in the fight against
HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, with a "massive
mobilization of private sector resources" where
they are most needed. That is very good and
we definitely need more financial resources,
but we have to balance this 'top-down' effort
with a reciprocal 'bottom-up'. We have to find
ways so that local community groups and NGOs
working at the grass roots can explain to business
leaders and international organizations what
their real specific needs are and the best
way to put culturally sensitive programs into
place. This is not a quick and easy process.
The process requires that we go to remote
areas suffering from war or AIDS and meet with
pain-afflicted communities of women, men and
children, and sit on the ground among them
and share their drink and food. Engaging in
their sense of time, we have to establish good
communication and from there trust which is
the only real way to share ideas and solutions.
Verbal communication may often have to be facilitated
by bilingual speakers, but the universal language
of the heart through eye and hand contact is
possible. And this says more on levels of solidarity
based on a deeper communication. I spent a
year and half doing that in Uganda, trying
to find the best ways to assist the orphans
of the AIDS pandemic. Because I followed the
wise suggestions of the communities, in the
past 12 years our FXB program there has become
a sustainable model for others that we have
replicated several times.
There was one
thing that I missed at the meetings. The
last time I attended Davos, I was fascinated
by and involved in a session titled "And
What About My Soul?" After all, the topics
we deal with at Davos are pointless unless
they put the 'bottom line in the economy' into
a much higher context of giving a deeper meaningful
sense to our time, activities, and sweat and
tears while we spend a few decades on this
planet.
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