By Hugh Carnegy and Lionel Barber in Davos Published: January 26 2001 20:18GMT | Last Updated: January 27 2001 04:51GMT Vicente Fox, Mexico's newly elected president, sounded a clarion call for the world's poor from behind the barricades at Davos on Friday as world business leaders braced themselves for anti-globalisation protests expected on Saturday. With hundreds of armed police ringing the Swiss mountain resort for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Mr Fox called for an end to a world in which 1.2bn people live on less than $1 a day, and where the gap between rich and poor continues to grow. His challenge was made as an air of apprehension hung over the meeting, where threats of violent protest by anti-capitalist campaigners have prompted the heaviest Swiss security operation in decades. It emerged on Friday that security forces had discovered a small incendiary device in a generator near the conference centre after last year's meeting which was attended by President Clinton. Charles McLean, chief spokesman for the WEF, said: "The authorities have taken security measures which will ensure that this kind of thing will not happen again." Mr Fox was greeted with prolonged and enthusiastic applause from delegates as he made clear his view that the process of globalisation created dangers which must be addressed. "Attempts to sugarcoat the present form of globalisation with compensatory policies are not enough - not nearly enough in the very divided and unequal societies that now occupy so much of the globe," the former Coca-Cola executive said. He cast himself as a reformer in his native country, who hoped Mexico's example could be followed by others seeking to bridge the divide between rich and poor nations. He also spoke of a growing "spiritual discontent and restlessness" that was evident on both sides of the global divide. "We now see throughout the world a rejection of crass materialism and an intense, undirected desire for spiritual rebirth." The solution was to find a "new engine for growth" involving "a vast expansion of economic citizenship" that would bring millions currently excluded into the world of computers and the internet. Though there was sympathy for Mr Fox's vision there was concern among WEF participants about the immediate effects of the slowdown of growth in the US, stagnation in Japan and only modest growth in Europe. Laurent Fabius, the French finance minister, called on political and business leaders to win the battle for public opinion and avoid being caricatured by the more extreme forces of anti-globalisation. "We are said to be leaders of people but not representative - but many of us were elected by millions of people," Mr Fabius said. _______________________________________________ Crashlist website: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base
