By  Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

Thousands of prominent political and business figures are congregating in Davos, Switzerland, this week for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), whose theme, “Cooperation in a Fragmented World,” focuses on the “cost of living crisis.”

In recent years, the WEF and its founder and chairperson, German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab, generated controversy by promoting ideas such as the “The Great Reset” and the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

In promoting ”The Great Reset” in 2020, Schwab said the COVID-19 “pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world.”

The WEF’s 2016 vision for the future — “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better” — has also raised eyebrows.

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However, critics describe the WEF as a “fanatical political organization masquerading as a neutral entity” with the goal of “centralizing power into the possession of hand-picked global elites” and for operating with no public input or accountability.

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Statements emerging from this year’s meeting have done little to quell concerns about the WEF’s real agenda.

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Key themes this year include “combating misinformation,” promoting “public-private partnerships,” “green” politics, buzzwords such as “DEI,” “resiliency” and “sustainability,” “health security,” and continued digitization via the metaverse and “smart” technologies.

Schwab opines on the importance of ‘mastering the future’

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In his opening address, Schwab said that current crises around the world, ranging from COVID-19 to the high cost of living, are “serving as catalytic forces for the economic transformation,” adding that “through collective responsibility, innovation and human goodwill and ingenuity, we have the capacity to turn such challenges into opportunities.”

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Schwab also used his opening remarks to address criticism levied against the WEF in recent years. However, he said the WEF and its global partners must “overcome” such “negative critical and confrontational attitudes.”

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‘Annual pilgrimage to genuflect to Bill Gates and Klaus Schwab’

The roster of speakers at this year’s WEF meeting represents a proverbial “who’s who” of the global political, business, journalistic and nonprofit elite.

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Among this year’s WEF meeting speakers are 52 heads of state and government, including representatives of royal families, and 56 national finance ministers, 35 ministers of foreign affairs, 30 ministers of commerce and 19 governors of central banks.

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The U.S. contingent at this year’s meeting includes key Biden administration and intelligence community figures, including FBI Director Christopher Wray, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, Secretary of Labor Martin J. Walsh, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and several members of Congress from both parties.

Schachtel said the U.S. delegation is smaller than last year’s, which he attributed to “the massive blowback the World Economic Forum has received.”

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Five representatives of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are on the speaker’s list, as are editors and journalists from outlets such as The Associated Press, Reuters and The Washington Post, and Axios, Bloomberg, CBS, CNBC, CNN, Deutsche Welle, The Economist, the Financial Times, Forbes, Foreign Affairs, Fortune, Fox Business, NBC, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Politico and The Wall Street Journal.

There’s also no shortage of Big Tech and fintech representatives on the WEF speakers lineup, including executives from Google, LinkedIn, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok, alongside Mastercard and Visa.

In all, more than 2,700 participants from 130 countries are listed.

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‘We are a select group of human beings’

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According to Lawton, corporate executives view the benefit of participation in the WEF meeting as “face-time with politicians,” while NGO leaders focus on getting “an audience with business leaders (potential donors) and policy-makers.”

However, Lawton noted that attendance at speeches by world leaders in Davos is “sparse.”

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This theme of “saving the planet” is evidenced by the titles of some of the panels at this year’s WEF meeting, including “Leading the Charge through Earth’s New Normal,” “Tackling Harm in the Digital Era” and “Why We Need Battery Passports.”

Leaders tackle ‘clear and present danger’ of ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’

One of the key themes permeating this year’s WEF meeting is the perceived need to tackle so-called “misinformation” and “disinformation.”

This was evidenced, for instance, by a panel “The Clear and Present Danger of Disinformation” panel, which included former CNN personality Brian Stelter, Times Publisher Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Internews CEO Jeanne Bourgault.

During this session, Moulton blamed “mis info” for not “get[ting] people to take a COVID vaccine,” while Sulzberger described “disinformation” as “the most existential” challenge society faces, and Jourová suggested “disinformation” could be fought via enacting “increased regulations,” calling on the U.S. to pass hate speech legislation.

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Public-private partnerships: solutions to the world’s problems or ‘top-down vision for technocratic tyranny’?

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A Jan. 17 press conference at this year’s meeting, for instance, was titled “Philanthropic-Public-Private Partnerships for Climate & Nature,” and included participants from the Bezos Earth Fund and McKinsey & Company, as well as Børge Brende, former Norwegian foreign minister and current WEF president.

Brende said, “Time is running out to address critical global challenges” and he introduced the concept of “stakeholder geopolitics” as a means of tackling them.

Also on Jan. 17, Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares Bueno, said the COVID-19 and Ukraine crises “have shown us that the best method is to do things together,” as “we get out of crises quicker and in better shape.”

Schachtel described this focus as “a public-private fascist movement,” where the WEF partners with the “most influential individuals in business, along with central bankers, governmental head honchos, and international organizations, in order to facilitate their top-down vision for technocratic tyranny, or what they call ‘stakeholder capitalism.’”

Leaders arrive in ‘droves of private jets’ to talk ‘Green’ politics

Lawton reported that multiple participants at this year’s conference discussed ideas for how we can transition to a “climate positive lifestyle.”

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In a press release preceding the start of this year’s g[athering, Greenpeace criticized the “hypocrisy” of the WEF delegates, who “arrive in droves of private jets.”

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Future ‘pandemics’ and ‘global health security’: Will tuberculosis be the next pandemic scare?

Another prominent theme at this year’s WEF meeting is how to deal with “future pandemics” and “global health security.”

One panel discussion, “State of the Pandemic,” included Bancel and representatives of the Gates-affiliated GAVI, The Vaccine Alliance, the Harvard School of Public Health and European news outlet Euronews.

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The ‘metaverse’ and ‘smart’ technologies: global ‘cooperation’ or global control?

This year’s meeting continues the WEF’s promotion of digital technologies such as the “metaverse” and other “smart” technologies, as solutions for multiple global challenges.

According to Schachtel, the WEF will announce “the first, and long-awaited, outputs of the Defining and Building the Metaverse Initiative,” including briefing papers on “Interoperability in the Metaverse” and “Demystifying the Consumer Metaverse.”

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Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/davos-gates-schwab-master-the-future-wef-agenda/