This year’s World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland is more than just a gathering of head of states, ministers and economists of which there’s nothing new on their agenda on how to mitigate the third world countries’ economic woes. The cause of the problems of developing countries was overlooked.
Instead of highlighting the causes and the obscured economic strategies of the third world countries, the World Economic Forum served as a junket and pro forma worthless speeches of leaders from the developing countries. And one of them is Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
In her speech, the Philippine president lectured and challenged her fellow ASEAN leaders to bring their acts together to realize an improved and fully developed ASEAN economy. Her speech sounds good but falls flat on the notion that she wasn’t able to fix her own cluttered economy.
She was also all smiles when she announced to the world that the Philippines gained economic growth in 2007. The Philippine currency appreciated against the dollar in years. But in contrast, the Philippine President failed to mention the growing incidence of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, graft and corruptions and other problems that haunted her administration no end.
Her presence in the World Economic Forum is homogenous of all the junkets that she has done. After Davos, the president is off to Dubai and will be checking in Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai’s most expensive 7 star hotel and among the world’s top 10. Obviously, her speeches and junkets is an overstatement of being a third world president.