February 8, 2012
The Star-Karim Raslan on Davos 2012-February 7
Davos parties among the gloom
by Karim Raslan
The important deficiency of the vast Chinese commission during the Davos World Economic Forum due to the Chinese New Year deteriorate gave the South-East Asian nations the event to shine.
I'm frequency your quintessential Davos Man though we do enjoy my trips to the World Economic Forum (WEF), where we chair the Global Agenda Council on South-East Asia.It's not usually the probability to hobnob with the global elite, though additionally get the clarity of where the universe is heading.
Davos this year was the blur, though. Perhaps it was since my report was packed, or may be it was since we was recovering from the flu. Whatever the cause, my week in Switzerland was the whirr of images as great as sensations.The clarity of dejection in between the world's players seemed to have become de rigueur after years of delayed growth.
Nevertheless, it didn't put the stop to the vast costly networking parties during WEF. we guess purgation doesn't apply to the rich as great as powerful. Also important was the deficiency of the vast Chinese commission since of the Chinese New Year season.
This gave the probability for other East Asian nations to shine.Thai Premier Yingluck Shinawatra (right) led 
a large, well-received delegation.After the twin distractions of domestic conflict as gr! eat as h ealthy disaster, Thailand appears eager to promote the idea of the mercantile recovery. Shinawatra's great looks some-more than compensated for the hesitation in her delivery.
Indonesia, too, had the vast contingent despite the deficiency of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the acquire pointer which Indonesia's corporate leaders have been ready to engage the rest of the universe alone.
I additionally outlayed time with the tiny Burmese entourage.They were basking in the country's strong rehabilitation, as great as we done plans to encounter again in the future.
We Malaysians additionally hosted our own breakfast. It was attended by the tiny twenty powerful international corporate as great as domestic leaders.The Malaysian star of the Aung San Suu Kyi biopic 
The Lady, Michelle Yeoh (left) additionally done an coming to supplement both glamour as great as comprehension to the event though I'm the fan as great as thus biased.
Still, it was great to see which there was interest in Malaysia, particularly as the services hub. we additionally remarkable which the delegations from African nations were vast although they pulled tiny weight compared to India or Brazil.
The events featuring British Prime Minister David Cameron as great as US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner caused tiny stir. Conversely, Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota had the swagger about him as EU technocrats lobbied the BRICs for assistance to save Europe.
Still, there was an uneasy clarity in the air which Europe's tumble is facilitating Germany's rise.You could see German products everywhere, together with the shiny Audis shuttling the VIPs in between Davos as great as Klosters as great as V! W vans f or everybody else.
I even picked up the special book Stern repository celebrating the 300th anniversary of the bieing born of King Frederick the Great of Prussia, which hailed him as an "uber-Prussian". Indeed, there seems to be the flourishing nostalgia in Germany for Frederick, who solidified Prussia's energy though was additionally eminent for his egghead as great as cultural achievements, together with founding Potsdam as great as patronising Voltaire.
Perhaps he reminds Germans of the time when they as great were on the brink of great power, albeit
perfect by fascism.Is it some-more than the coincidence which Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) has described herself as "very Prussian" as great as has not shied away from promoting "German values"?
Whatever the case, Berlin with the Prussian milieu will almost positively take the place as Europe's premier collateral which equates to which this tukang cerita (story teller) will have to dauntless the Brandenburg winter during the tiny theatre to get the clarity of the city as great as German aspirations.
There were additionally encounters, either planned or chance.At Davos' Indonesia Night, we wolfed down nasi goreng with Mukhlis of Antara as great as Uni Lubis of ANTV, discussing the probability of the republic developing the own "soft power".
At the still club after on, we gossiped with my Financial Times columnist friend Gideon Rachman about the awaiting of the Eurozone collapse.I even recollect trying to locate the Occupy WEF igloos. we outlayed the great hour trudging through the snow (which was metres high, by the way), before giving up since of the cold as great as damp.
One afternoon we slipped away from the discussion as great as took the tiny funicular sight to the! Schaltz alp Hotel high above Davos.There among the echoing halls of the fin de siecle "grand" hotel we illusory the universe of Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann as great as the immense, enveloping silence of the Alpine scenery, swathed in snow as we stood on the hotel's terrace.
Finally, there was the moment when we was pciking up my overcoat during the Morosani Schweizershof hotel's cloakroom.I paused since we remembered which it was here, last year which we saw Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (left), the son of the late Libyan tyrant Muammar Gaddafi.
Back then, Gaddafi was the gadfly of the Arab as great as African worlds, whilst Saif was his modernising son as great as the toast of process wonks everywhere. Today the father is buried somewhere in the Libyan dried as great as Saif is in the jail in Zintan.
It's the pointer of how times change, though additionally how swiftly Davos moves on. You can be everybody's golden child one notation as great as the renegade in the next. But that's how the universe turns.
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