Topless activists pop in on elite Davos forum, protesting male economic domination

Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2013-01-26 23:37

Story here. Excerpt:

'DAVOS, Switzerland –  Three women angry over sexism and male domination of the world economy ripped off their shirts and tried to force their way into a gathering of corporate elites in a Swiss resort.

Predictably, they failed. The ubiquitous and huge security force policing the World Economic Forum in Davos carried the women away, kicking and screaming.

The women, from Ukrainian feminist activist group Femen, scaled a fence and set off pink flares in the protest Saturday. Their chests were painted with "SOS Davos," as they sought to call attention to poverty of women around the world.'

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Comments

First, it's true the world is definitely not a place where wealth is "equally distributed" across groups of people. Wealth itself exists as a consequence of two things: Availability of resources and organization of society. There has to be a relative abundance of resources. Then, there has to be a socio-political system that allows people to have stuff and be sure it can be safely kept; i.e., property rights. Further, protection of the right to do business (i.e., to seek to make profit) and retain rights to use one's own innovative ideas at least for some length of time exclusively (patent/trademark rights). These three rights together with relative abundance allows wealth to be created.

Parts of the world where all these factors are not in place will see less of a wealth- producing effect. To the degree these factors are reduced, wealth will be found less and less. It's that simple. To what extent can anyone or group of people change that without effectively taking on the role of "cultural imperialist"? Sure, you can always just give a group of people some stuff (food, medicine, etc.), and as wonderful a humanitarian action as this is, it's the giving-a-man-a-fish scenario. The long-term doesn't get changed.

The Davos meeting is indeed attended by wealthy political and corporate elites. What they talk about for sure, well, only they know. And are they as movers and shakers not doing enough to reduce worldwide poverty? Maybe. Guess it depends on what you think a good use of their time is! But one thing I wonder is this: If relative poverty is a problem all over the world (and personally, I think it is), the next question is this: Why care more about women living in poverty than men? Last I checked, feeling really hungry or having little or no access to health care sucked really bad for everyone regardless of gender.

Hunger: It's only a problem if it affects women.

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Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2013-01-27 00:02