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Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Davos, part IV

I love Nordlinger's reports from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The Nord has a way of making you feel good about the future. It is especially interesting to hear what people outside the US are saying.

For instance, a Chinese questioner of labor boss John Sweeney, "Don't you think that workers in China, too, deserve a better life?"

Or the words of Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister to the UN, "The United Nations as an organization failed to help rescue the Iraqi people from a murderous tyranny that lasted over 35 years. Today we are unearthing thousands of victims in horrifying testament to that failure."

And the Polish president, hoping that US-German-French relations will improve - "Why? Because, if not, those European countries will turn to Russia, and an alliance of Paris, Berlin, and Moscow 'is something that would endanger us.' It would be 'a repetition of history that's not very nice to us.' "

Finally, The Nord's comments about some Americans:

Phil Gramm - About "compassionate conservatism": "Freedom is compassionate, dammit!" About Democratic demagoguery concerning Grammite economic policies: "I'm sick of being lectured to about poverty by people who have never been poor."

Steve Forbes - He is a delight, purveying information and opinions in his bright and modest way. If there is a more modest billionaire, I don't know him. (Granted, my list of billionaire acquaintances is not long. Whose is?) Ideally, Forbes would be Treasury secretary in a second W. administration. For that matter, Phil Gramm would be chairman of the Fed. And Wendy [Gramm] could do whatever the heck she wanted.

Thankfully, there's more from Davos tomorrow!

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