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World Economic Forum 2003


About this event: World Economic Forum: Annual Meeting 2003 - "Building Trust"
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Well, I'm here in Davos at the 33rd World Economic Forum -- and it's quite an interesting environment to be in amongst such widespread global chaos and fear over war. With tensions building and Colin Powell's speech here this morning doing nothing to settle people down, it seems to have taken over the minds of the world -- the only CNN article on the forum referenced Iraq and Powell's speech -- and protests here yesterday which were actually "invited" were peaceful and relatively small... Little men in orange city of Davos uniforms were dispatched to the streets today with the task of cleaning up all of the fences and areas that were decorated by the protesters with flyers, stickers, and spray paint.

Today in the main Science session I listened as several promiment forces in the science and knowledge arena (including Bill Gates and Ismail Seregaldin from the Library of Alexandria, who many TIG members met at the Youth Employment Summit last September) discussed how to motivate the next generation of scientists to focus on the 90% of the world health issues that currently only get 10% of the focus because they're primarily experiences in developing countries. Bill Gates briefly mentioned a $200m "Grand Challenges in Global Health" project -- so quietly and low-key in fact that most people didn't realize that it was/is a new initiative he actually "launched" in that very session. :)

Tonight I'm off to a dinner discussing philanthropy and some of the future challenges the philanthropy community faces and how to address them... hopefully I'll find some nuggets of insight there as to the types of things that the world's leading foundations are moving towards wanting to fund!

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Comments

nick Nick Moraitis
January 26, 2003 | 5:11 PM Thanks for the update!
It's funny that it's become so common place for Bill Gates to announce a $200M donation that no one seems to notice anymore. It's good! I think it's great that Gates focuses his giving on critical global health problems, rather than technology. It's not about bridging the digital divide increasing the short-term markets for computer software, but instead about solving real underlying problems! I'll be interested to hear whether this focus on major global change - not just small initiatives with local impact - is reflective of other philanthropist's priorities.

Appreciate you being our eyes and ears in Davos Mike -- otherwise, yes, I just have to rely on CNN. And yes, I have been looking out for you in the background of the shots of Colin Powell :)
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