Davos World Economic Forum

Recently was held the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland like every year since its creation in 1971 by Klaus Martin Schwab.

What is World Economic Forum?
The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Over the course of its 38-year history, the World Economic Forum has achieved a proud record of accomplishments in advancing progress on key issues of global concern.
Now that we know what world economic forum is, I can talk more deeply about this organization.

WEF useful or useless?
The WEF brings the most brilliant minds to the forum to exchange ideas and opinions. I believe that this kind of activity is beneficial in the way that all these minds get solutions to problems.
This forum is always a review all the problems that affect the world. This year the central topic was the global financial crisis. This kind of event is very important due to its nature. It means the best path to solve the problems that affect the entire world.
As I can perceive, in these kinds of events about global problems, the assistants have to reach agreements and aims. Once they have all the documents ready to be sign, also there is a big ceremony when they are signing. When this happen I think: “another waste of money and paper” “they are not going to do anything to improve things in life”. Maybe this is a pessimistic point of view but for me is the reality of these organizations that always promise that things are going to change but never happening.
Perhaps I am judging precipitating, but the experience of all past events show me the useless nature of this “signing shows”. I have to admit it, this kind of organizations make some programs and projects that works and help to improve life’s people. But the programs that they do represent a small percentage that is not very significant and do not fill all the expectative that they promised.
This WEF is annually, I mentioned this because every year they make different commitments to improve the deficiencies of the people around the world. But as every year I never see a significant change due to this Forum. When there is no change I start losing my faith in people because this organizations gather the smartest people in the world and with all these brilliant minds thinking, there is no way to get a better life for everyone of us.

Globalization: Good or Bad?

I choose this title because of the controversy that is around this particular theme. This theme causes division between societies: business man and politicians, conservationist and liberals.
First, I think is important to know what globalization is, in order to understand why this topic is so controversial.

What is Globalization?
Globalization is a process that combined social, political, economical, technological and cultural factors. It is the transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. People are unified into a single society and function together.
Now that you and I know what the meaning of globalization is, I can start writing about the positive and negative side. Let us start with the positive side.

Good Globalization?
Searching about this topic, I found that many documents refer to multinationals and how these powerful and international companies are important for the globalization process.
Globalization is good for business and trade, especially for multinationals. They are the most powerful force for good in the world.
Now I am going to focus on how these multimillionaire companies help communities to get different and better life styles.
Multinationals can impact in communities in many aspects. First, they look to establish operations such as production, service and sales in countries where they can get cheaper labor and also resources. The meaning of this is the flowing of money in these communities.
Also, multinationals are always looking for new markets. They want to increase sales by trying to create new needs among different target groups. The best examples that have been the principal targets of multinationals are the market of children and young people. These markets have grown into one of the most profitable sectors.
Another way that multinationals help communities is through the construction of public spaces or areas of leisure. Especially for young people; places that they can hang out and feel safe of any kind of danger.
Then, multinational companies have influence with the creation of policies in governments and international organizations such as The European Union and The World Bank. They are also influence in privatization and the opening up of services. They can promote the construction of hospitals, roads, etc. Things that benefit communities, those need these kinds of services.
So, as we can see multinationals spread wealth and work that help to raise people’s life and better ways of doing business.
For this reason, countries around the world are competing fiercely to attract their investment. Especially, developing countries that want to improve the quality of life of every citizen.

Bad Globalization?
The World Economic Forum has been seen as part of the negative side of globalization. Its influence over governments in shaping the global economy has seen as a disadvantage of globalization.
Governments around the world have to follow two rules from WEF.
First, deregulate and privatize. Around 90 countries have been doing it through policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The consequences of these two actions have been the growth of poverty in the regions of the developing countries.
Second, business can regulate itself. Every corporation has to practice ethical standards in social issues and environmental damage. Unfortunately, these kinds of practices are only seeing as a public relation exercise not as ethical practice.
With all these points for and against globalization I cannot say if is good or bad. It looks to me that like everything in this life, has positive and negative side.
For some people, it is very good. I present the case of the multinationals that take a lot of advantage of this process and get a lot of money. I wrote examples about how these companies help communities. This is a good example to realize that not only big business get benefits, this also help to integrate poor people to this phenomenon to get also benefits.
When companies go to different countries to build factories, they employ local workers. So, as I mentioned before globalization brings work and this brings all kind of benefits to get a better life.
On the other hand, I found this negative side about globalization that blames the World Economic Forum because of its policies that impose to the governments of every country. According to the detractors, these policies like deregulation and privatization are responsible for the impoverishment in the developing countries.
So I cannot say that my opinion about globalization is god or bad. Maybe if I get something good about some benefit. Probably I am going to support it, but if I do not get anything or get something that I consider is not enough for me, I am going to be against it.