The Crooks of Davos
Dictators, presidents, CEOs and escorts gather this week in the Swiss resort town.
Davos, Switzerland, is the focus of media attention this week as the World Economic Forum (WEF) is hosting its annual meeting there. Lots of things have been said about the WEF, some of them being nothing more than a bunch of conspiracy theories. But what is certain is that WEF’s managers are not too fussy about the choice of their guests. Each year, dictators, crooks and other shady figures parade in Davos to tell the world they only have good intentions.
The complete guest list for this year’s meeting hasn’t been published, but a look at some of those who were invited to the Davos Agenda 2022, which included a series of virtual plenaries from 17 to 21 January last year, gives us a good insight into the phenomenon.
WEF’s chairman Klaus Schwab had then insisted that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping deliver the inaugural speech. In some circles, the move was felt as a slap in the face since Jinping’s government caused the worst pandemic in the last 100 years by dragging its feet for weeks if not months before developing a coherent strategy to fight COVID-19 at the beginning of 2020. Above all, Jinping’s status as an enemy of the West was long-established at the time.
Another “guest of honor” was expected at the Davos Agenda 2022: Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda. Kagame’s country is ranked 142nd among world democracies, according to a list compiled by the University of Würzburg (UW), Germany. It’s worth mentioning that Kagame, who has been linked to a number of political assassinations since entering politics, was the de facto leader of Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.
In a 2014 report, Human Rights Watch had identified at least 10 people who had been attacked or threatened outside of Rwanda since the late 1990s. Let’s only refer to the case of a Canadian journalist, Judi Rever, who had to be placed under high protection in Brussels, Belgium, because the Rwandan embassy had sent a henchman, Didier Rutembesa, to kill her. Fortunately, she escaped unscathed thanks to the vigilance of the Belgian authorities.
Other WEF guests last year included Yemi Osinbajo, vice-president of Nigeria, a country that ranks 100th among democracies according to the University of Würzburg. Nigeria has been the scene of massacres against Christians for several years, and many argue that members of the government are complicit.
Among the other “great democrats” who were invited by the WEF last year are Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia, whose country ranks 77th among democracies according to the University of Würzburg, Yasmine Fouad, Minister of the Environment of Egypt, and Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia (173rd on the University of Würzburg’s list of democracies).
This year, the WEF invited about 2,500 members of the elite, but many more are expected. Of course, climate change is one of the main topics discussed at the meeting, which is kind of ironic because “1,040 private jets flew in and out of airports serving the Swiss mountain resort of Davos” last year, “causing CO2 emissions […] four times greater than an average week”, according to a new analysis commissioned by Greenpeace International.
A Highly Profitable Week for Escorts
Useless to say that sex workers are in high demand this week in Davos. According to the Times, at least 100 prostitutes had traveled to the summit in 2020. “Bosses book escorts in the hotel suite for themselves and their employees”, a manager of an escort service told the Swiss newspaper 20 Minutes.
As a general rule, the client orders the desired services directly from the hotel reception, which then contacts the escort agency. It takes 2 to 3 hours of preparation for the girls and boys of the agency to respond to the needs of the client, again according to 20 Minutes.
Escorts can charge around €700 ($760) for an hour and €2,300 ($2,500) for the whole night, plus travel expenses. The Daily Mail reported that a manager of an agency said that “she has already received 11 bookings and 25 inquiries — and expects many more to follow this week.”
Sources
20 Minutes, 24 Heures, ACN United States, Eric Pilon, Foreign Policy Journal, Politics, The Daily Mail, University of Würzburg, WEF #1, #2, Zero Hedge
