WEF update

[Rob Schaap]

Bill Gates got his turn at the WEF - assuring everyone that IT was closing
the gap between the poor and the rich.  He got into the casino thanks to a
mounted police charge on the front door that injured several dozen
protesters.  The unions (well, the two best of 'em) duly joined in after
the aggro was past.  One interesting moment was when the crowd parted like
the biblical sea when its Moses, Vandana Shiva, wanted to get in.  She's
been getting a lot of coverage, too - and her possie within the trenches
and fortifications has lent much credence to the
'I-know!-Let's-have-some-democratic-content-in-globalisation!' case.

For the rest of the suits (bar our ACTU boss, the only other woman,
incidentally), it was all just a problem in public relations, and they
smugly said so.  The protesters didn't understand, and the message merely
needed better 'selling'.

David Hale was probably the most appallingly arrogant of an appallingly
arrogant bunch of suits - but that's hardly news,I s'pose (he spoke for the
less diplomatic half of the convocation, to the effect that all outside
were thugs who 'just didn't like life').  Fortunately, he was so
sumptuously reclined, exquisitely dressed and smugly smiled that the
majority of viewers could not help but detest him on sight.

Anyway, I won't go on about it - just a note for Doug and the odd
non-American Observer who might be interested in the unfolding of a
world-wide phenomenon ...

Cheers,
Rob.