West Indians shut out at Davos

How the world looks from Davos, Switzerland

Tomorrow, world leaders gather in Davos for the annual meeting of the "bigwigs" who "run" the Earth (officially called the World Economic Forum). Although the fundamental ethos of the conference is the convergence of the "collective wisdom" of leaders from "all walks of life" (ie it is not the Bilderburg Group), NONE, I repeat, NONE of this year's participants are West Indian, or natives of any part of the Archipelago for that matter.

I am no fan of tokenism, or disproportional representation. Let's face it, the entire Archipelago makes up about 0.5% of the world population. Therefore on a list of 200 representative names there should be at least one from the Region, right? And if we're not going to participate in the World Economic Forum, are we really in the World?? hmm....

I urge all of you West Indians out there -- take matters into your own hands. Participate by answering "the Davos Question": an ingenious extension to this year's conference that allows us to make suggestions to said world leaders using YouTube. Kind of like the US presidential primaries' CNN-YouTube debates.

As usual, we'll hear from Africa. Latin America has seat at the table. Even Palestine will chime in. Another disappointment, however, is the absence of minority-North Americans. Secretary Rice is the lone heterogenote among a lily-white United States delegation. This is despite an abundance of members of the reputedly multicultural Bush cabinet and a host of other Bush-nominees such as World Bank President Zoellick. The problem is not that there are no appropriate community leaders to choose from. It's great that one of my US Senators (Kerry) and two Massachusetts Congressmen who represent districts adjacent to Cambridge are among the chosen few; but it would be to everyone's benefit if Rep. Frank or Rep. Markey was replaced by someone like Rep. Charlie Rangel, the all-powerful Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

As for the lowly West Indies, let's hope our OAS and SIDS allies remember us.