This week the World Economic Forum is taking place in Davos, Switzerland. Media Tenor is there participating and covering the event for Mediachannel.org. We will be featuring updates and research gathered for the forum here everyday this week.
During this year’s forum a unique study on dialogue between Islam and the West will be released. The results present empirical proof demonstrating the disastrous stage of distrust between both cultures. The research team for the study consisted of Media Tenor, Gallup and Georgetown-University. Mediachannel has published parts of the study in a three-part series. You can view Part I here and Part II here and Part III here.
WEF UPDATE 2: January 24, 2008
By George Vojta, eStandards Forum
Hyperventilating Is Not Appropriate…
No one doubts that current conditions are troublesome. Disorder and decline in the financial markets have been induced by regrettable excess, not adequately checked by regulators, in the financial system. The erosion of confidence in the markets and derivatively in prospects for the economy is compounding the problems. Highly charged media reporting risks a self-fulfilling prophesy of more serious adverse developments.
Responsible, balanced output from the media is sorely needed. The global economy is performing in many areas, significant new capital has been raised in short order by financial institutions in need, Central Bank intervention has been forceful and on the whole timely, and fiscal stimulus is the order of the day in many countries. An agreement on the Doha Round may well be in the offing. We are addressing the problems, adjusting(though painfully)and beginning to move forward.
We should respectfully hope that the media will cease hyperventilating and tone down and balance out reporting of the current situation. What needs to be done is being done, and cooler heads will prevail.
Running out of water
Participants at the Annual Meeting have been made aware of an urgent priority for 2008 - the world is running out of water. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations praised private sector engagement with the problem saying that, “business is becoming part of the solution, not part of the problem,” but he also warned that water is running out and that the world needs to adjust to this reality.
Photos I Webcasts | Press release
Marrying solutions to climate change and poverty
Anti-poverty campaigner Bono and global warming campaigner Al Gore highlighted a merging of efforts to find joint solutions to both problems. “The Millennium Development Goals can only be met if the climate crisis is taken into the fold of that effort.
If the world warms up by two degrees all of the good work done in development will be undone,” said Al Gore, Vice-President of the United States of America (1993-2001).
Photos I Session Webcast
Quest for peace and stability
Commitment to free elections and stable economic conditions under which democratic institutions can function were priorities for panellists addressing a Peace and Stability session at the Annual Meeting. Pervez Musharraf said that Pakistan’s progress was dependent on stable economic growth, defeating terrorism and extremism, and free, fair and transparent elections on February 18. Fakhruddin Ahmed, Chief Adviser (Prime Minister) of Bangladesh, said that his government was working to put in place a stable institutional infrastructure to support elections in the country by December 2008. Barham Salih, Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, said that rolling elections were a priority and Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, said that Afghanistan must assume the challenge to rebuild after four decades of destruction.
Session Webcast | Press release
More YouTube Videos from the forum:
Opening WEF Press Conference with Co-Chairs
Tony Blair, James Dimon, K. V. Kamath, Henry A. Kissinger, Indra K. Nooyi, David J. Oreilly and Wang Jianzhou kick off the 2008 World Economic Forum.
WEF Panel: Myths and Realities of Soverign Wealth Funds
Panel discussion from the World Economic Forum featuring Richard Fuld Jr, Kristin Halvorsen, Muhammad S. Al Jasser, Aleksey Kudrin, Bader M. Al Sa’ad, Stephen Schwarzman, Lawrence H. Summers, Robert M Kimmit with Martin Wolf.
Maqsood Sinha in Davos, on waste management
On the opportunities of carbon trading to solve the waste problems in developing countries.
Riz Khan of Al Jazeera answers the Davos Question
The presenter of Al Jazeera responds to the Davos Question by making a plea for honesty.
Stay Tuned For More Updates…
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