• by Johan Galtung
• Tuesday, January 24, 2012
• Inter Press Service

The self-appointed "World Economic Forum" will meet again in Davos, Switzerland, 25-29 January 2012. We can expect a new load of gratuitous advice to emanate from the meeting, the invited participants of which were utterly unable to comprehend the September 2008 manifestation of the world economic crisis when they met three years ago. So, what are they going to talk about now? asks Johan Galtung, Rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University and author of "The Fall of the US Empire-And Then What?"

In this analysis, Galtung writes that WEF managing director Lee Howell cites three risk cases with a common theme -"governance failure in a hyperconnected world": first the "seeds of dystopia", the worry that globalisation is not delivering on its promises; second, "How safe are our safeguards?" and the issue of whether governance is lagging behind accelerating complexity; and third, the "dark side" of Internet connectivity, "the potential of terrorism, crime and war", in the virtual world.

In what world are the authors of such a report living? asks Galtung. The top one percent world! Today the real-world clouds are darker than ever. How are the top 1 percent going to handle the US -the country that has attacked more countries and peoples than any other, mainly in defense of hyper-capitalism? It still has a monopoly on the world reserve currency exercised by a club of private banks, especially the Federal Reserve. How are they going to handle the US hold on the rating agencies, and the growing inequality, from their comfortable seats at the top? Answer: the same way as the feudal aristocracy in 18th century France: by not handling it.

(*) Johan Galtung, Rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University, is author of "The Fall of the US Empire-And Then What?"

© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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