Watch out, wolves of Wall Street! It’s time Davos had a World Decency Forum

Gstaad

If a catastrophic avalanche were to crush the Davos convention hall, where the fat cats of this world were meeting recently, I’m afraid there would be a lot of discreet raising of glasses by many so-called populists, basically envious haves who have plenty but don’t particularly like people who have more than they do. This Ed Miliband chappie is a populist, as are Bill and Hillary Clinton, not to mention a lot of white, brown and black trash one sees in glitzy nightclubs nowadays. I’m no fan of the types that frequent Davos, people like Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster and a partner of the ghastly Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, but I don’t wish them to perish in an avalanche while they’re busy telling us how to improve the state of the world — far from it, in fact. Apart from being one of the seven deadly sins, envy is what splits nations, races and people apart, and, envy being an ancient Greek trait, believe me, I know all about it. Newspapers, especially lefty rags and tabloids, thrive on envy, making the reader feel a have-not and then some. Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum’s founder, is a serious man who means well and tries to keep the bling and glitz out of his forum, but with people like Sean Parker throwing non-stop parties in order to self-promote, his is a Sisyphean task. It now costs 70,000 greenbacks just to be invited to attend meetings in Davos, and you’d be surprised how many people are willing to pay this amount just to be able to say they were there. Basically the people who do this try to network with bigger fish, and there are even some who go there just to attend gatherings not under the auspices of WEF. I remember the American tycoon Barry Diller stopping over in Gstaad on his way there some years ago and sort of boasting where his next destination was.