Open letter to economic and political leaders in Davos
World Economic Forum

Dear “leaders”,

Let us start by saying that we do not find “leader” to be the appropriate term for quite a few of you.

Too many of you are not really leading us, but on the contrary make many people around the world suffer. What follows will clarify it.

Your politics and economics leave too many out in the cold. Look at half of the world’s population living in poverty. Or look at the many poor people living in the so-called rich countries.

Too many of you are focused solely or predominantly on finances or money, instead of on humanity.

The number one priority is money and people are often played with or manipulated as if they were just numbers in statistics. Just for the sake of financial results. Yet, people are much more than numbers. They have feelings and deserve to be treated fairly.

So, the number one priority should be humanity or human values.

We often wonder whether many of you know what human values are?

Is it defining wealth as “the ability to say to the world to get lost?” as one global banking group put it in an advert in a respectable magazine. Some time before the financial and social crises of 2008.

Gurus

Some of you are considered to be brilliant gurus in finances, but gurus are supposed to be men or women of wisdom and guidance, especially on a spiritual level. Your politics and economics have most often not even the slightest connection to what can be called spiritualism. Though some of you invoke the help of God. But, quite often, it seems to us he is treated as if he were a consumer product.

Concentrating huge wealth in the hands of speculators that can keep the world economy hostage while doing little or nothing about the many millions of people that live in poor countries does not really represent wisdom or guidance.

It is a form of violence. Commercial exploitation is still very much present, especially in less developed countries. But in other countries as well. Money rules supreme… Which results in huge inequalities and other injustices, as well as in conflicts and worse.

Paying less developed countries little for their work force and for their raw materials or not taking up one’s social and environmental responsibilities or even hiding one’s true identity is all part of the commercial exploitation that is untenable.

The driving force behind the exploitation is money. Yet again! It is worshipped as a golden calf. The problem is that it is rotten inside and it produces odours that make breathing difficult if not impossible for an increasing number of defenceless people world-wide. Social protests around the world are indicative of the growing rottenness.

Blind and out of touch

Money is blinding too many of you and is making you lose touch with humanity.

Make your congress at Davos – and elsewhere – a meeting about humanity and a new form of politics and economics based on human values. That would make for a change worth a global applause.

The way things go today is like all of us being on board of a train heading for a ravine with drivers or leaders having the wrong driving instructions.

It is time to change the instructions. It is time to change many of the leaders or at least re-educate them from being money-driven puppets to humanity-driven true leaders.

Sorry, if we have been a bit rude. We might have exaggerated a little, but we only want to prevent the train from diving into the ravine. So, in actual fact, we are caring about you too. Indeed we do and, besides – everybody is on the same train.

Biggest capital

Most of you can be excused for what you do. You were brought up in what we call capitalism. However, the biggest capital we have on Earth is its people and not money. We may gather all the money in the world. Without people it is worth nothing. Without Nature either.

So, please, cherish the real capital and relegate money to the position it deserves: a mere means and not an aim in itself. Take care of Nature and of people and use money to obtain noble goals and do away with policies that hurt people and/or Nature.

Cherish humanity and human values to create a world which we can all enjoy to live in and which we can be proud of when leaving it to the generations to come.

Many thanks and warm regards,

Ambassadors or Nature and Peace
www.newworldpact.org