Davos, day 3: Climate changers, luddites, and saviors

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Mark 10:25. For some observers, the World Economic Forum is ruled by the god of money. A camel is he or she, who can be seen lugging multiple bags across the Congress Center. Ubiquitous security checks constitute the eye of the needle, creating long lines at various times of day.

At the WEF, even the devil is visiting heaven, as WEF-chief Klaus Schwab in a smaller briefing reportedly characterized Donald Trump’s Friday appearance allegorically. By that point, the angels of this year’s forum will have left already. Trudeau and Macron both flapped their wings loudly but elegantly, then soared and took off.

This devil is a vain one. It might have irked him to know that German chancellor Merkel did not waste a single word of her speech on him. This void is also a message. And the addressee of Merkel’s opener was crystal clear: “As a lesson from crises of the 20th century, we have tried to advance global cooperation and strengthen multilateral organizations.” In the fights against climate change “we have already had to draw our conclusions without the US.”

But preemptive payback had already been paid. There is “much free trade rhetoric by countries that act quite protectionist,” said US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and accused European Trump critics of hypocrisy. Secretary of Finance Steven Mnuchin added: “Trade wars are fought every single day. The difference is US troops are now coming to the ramparts. “Any hope that Trump might present a moderate version of himself to the Davos crowd died an involuntary death at the hands of Mnuchin: “The president makes all the changes to his speech himself. It'll be driven by his thoughts and his agenda.“ ??

 "The first technology revolution caused the First World War and the second technology revolution caused the Second World War - and now we have the third”. Jack Ma, founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba

Digit of the day: 0. Those are the odds, according to Yuval Noah Harari, for mankind to survive as homo sapiens. ?We are probably one of the last generations of Homo sapiens,“ the Israeli historian and author surmised. Soon we cannot only hack computers but humans, too. So should we turn back time? No way. ?Nostalgic fantasies are no solution. Because of two reasons: History wasn‘t fun, and it won‘t come back.“

CEOs don’t often publicly offer to voluntarily pay more taxes. Google CEO Sundar Pichai did just that. "Tax is a big question,” he said, “we pay close to 20% in tax, we’re happy to pay a higher amount, whatever the world agrees on. It’s not an issue of what tax you pay, it’s how you divide it.”

Google’s chief problem solver describes himself as an optimist. It seems to have ignited a spark: Last year, more people asked the search engine to solve questions beginning with “How..?” than ever before [https://trends.google.com/trends/yis/2017/GLOBAL/]. The world is looking for answers.  

As is the German chancellor. Not only with regards to forming a government. She does “not want to be pitied” by the Davos community for it, and instead hopes for many fingers crossed. Germany’s digital transformation keeps her up at night. It doesn’t seem to be progressing. “Let’s just say our willingness to adapt to changes due to digitalization is not very profound.”

What followed was an appeal rather effusive for Angela Merkel: “Ladies and gentlemen, you, too, live off pre-conditions you did not create yourself. […] If we do not achieve an ethical management of this development, we will end up with a situation like in the 20th century. We will have luddites again.” Quick, said all Germans, let’s build a task force! Which is exactly what Merkel demanded: A platform fusing business, politics, and society to manage the digital transformation in a socially inclusive manner.

French President Emmanuel Macron had a more concrete vision. He wants a new social contract on a global level, a strong Europe and a 10-billion-fund for disruptive innovations. Why start small, when you can go really big? And to make sure that everybody in Davos understood him literally, he gave his speech in English: “My first message is that France is back. It‘s back at the core of Europe.“

Macron’s is the speech a chairman of Europe Inc. might give. Enthusiastic and decisive. In comparison to Monsieur Le Président, other European heads of state seem more like mere managers of inventory divisions. Out of Macron’s many words, “competitiveness” might take the crown for most counts. But humor’s not amiss in his repertoire either: “In France you were not allowed to fail. But you were not allowed to succeed either” And: "When you arrive here and see the snow, it could be hard to believe in global warming. Obviously, you don't invite anyone skeptical about global warming this year."

When listening to Emmanuel Macron, you might believe every word of Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker. His new book “Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress”, to be published in February, dishes out a message of hope to all the pessimists out there. “Secular liberal democracies are the happiest and healthiest places on earth and in the history of our species. Applying knowledge and sympathy to enhance human flourishing is heroic, glorious, spiritual!”

Might that have been a message to the US delegation, scheduled to arrive tonight? Or to British Prime Minister Theresa May, set to speak today?

May your day start off illuminated!

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