Davos, Switzerland
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your fourth installment from Davos — Part IV of these notes on the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum. For the previous installments, please go here, here, and here. The Annual Meeting has been described as a “global summit” — and that’s not too much of a stretch, really.
What were we saying at the end of Part III? It matters not, we’ll just march on with the prime minister of Pakistan, Yousaf Raza Gilani (sometimes “Gillani”). And I’ll tell you how to pronounce his last name: The G is hard — you say (approximately), “Ghee-lah-NEE.”
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As readers may recall, I met him last spring, at the “Middle East Davos” in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. He was new then — almost brand new (in his job). I moderated a panel on Pakistan, on which he was the featured speaker (natch). Outwardly, he is a gentle, mild, serene man. He looks like he would barely swat away a fly. But you cannot have survived, and risen, in Pakistani politics without reserves of toughness, I would guess. Wouldn’t you?
Gilani has a coffee with a group of us journalists. And, as I listen to him answer questions and discuss the problems of Pakistan, I am struck by one thing, forcefully: He sounds just like Pervez Musharraf — the widely criticized and downgraded former president of Pakistan. Musharraf was a reliable attendee at Davos, and he often had these coffees with journalists. And Gilani answers questions in the same way, using the identical language: about combating Taliban and other extremists, about weaning the reachable ones away from violence, about the economic development of the country, about relations with India and other neighbors, and so on.
But he says something that does not sound very Musharraf-like — not to me, anyway: He says that the cause of terrorism is poverty — is deprivation, a lack of development, etc. My own view is that that is an insult to the poor. There are plenty of poor people — very poor people — in the world. And, funnily enough, they don’t have the urge to torture, maim, kill, and subjugate people.
What about the role of radical religion and ideology in terror?
Moreover, as you know, plenty of terrorists come from economically comfortable, or privileged, or even elite backgrounds — think merely of the leader of al-Qaeda.
In the course of our discussion, I ask Gilani how the fight against extremists in Pakistan is going. Gilani says that they are lashing out — staging attacks and so on — because they are “feeling the heat.” Because the government is applying considerable pressure. That happens to be the same thing I have heard Afghan president Karzai say, more than once. I hope it’s true.

Here is something different: a “refugee run.” The following has arrived in my inbox:
Invitation to an event you will never forget: EXPERIENCE LIFE AS A REFUGEE IN DAVOS!
During this year’s Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, we would like to invite you to an experience unlike any other on the agenda: an opportunity to step into the world of conflict and experience life as a refugee.
Just five minutes’ walk from the Congress Centre [the main building in town], you can enter a simulated environment that will thrust you into a war zone. You will meet a rebel attack, navigate a mine field and battle life in a refugee camp. (Spoiler alert: No harm will come to you!)
A debrief will follow in which you will discuss your experience. . . .
Highly interesting, and maybe beneficial to some. But shouldn’t the powers of sympathy preclude the necessity for such a “run”?
In the window of a local establishment, I see a sign I like very much. The Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, is here in Davos, as I mentioned in a previous installment. (At least he was here.) And the sign I see shows his picture and says, “Freedom for Tibet: W(h)en?” Well done.
Here’s a session, a panel, with an interesting title: “Can the World Live with the Frugal American?” “As US consumption begins its expected rebalancing, how will the frugality of American consumers change the face of future global growth?” A good, and worrisome, question.