Staff Photographer
About half an hour into the opening plenary at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, I began to get Blackberry envy. My neighbours with smart phones in the packed hall at the Cape Town International Convention Centre were kept entertained as the contents of their inboxes became more fascinating compared to the live proceedings.
Africa needs to find ways to create sustainable economic growth. We have great natural resources. Not to mention potential. The global economic crisis wasn’t our fault (read the developing world). The G20 should let us into their gang. Peace and stability are crucial. We mustn’t let China walk all over us.
The forum’s grand opening started promisingly enough with the ringing of a genuine Swiss cowbell, loud enough to herd us all in. I guessed this to be an old Davos tradition signalling that the chewing of cud is about to commence.
President Jacob Zuma, the keynote speaker, made all the right chewing noises, yet he appeared out of his depth even to me, and I was way out of my depth among the world’s political leaders and pluto-dealers.
He spoke — or rather read — about South-South trade, the need for Doha Accord “closure” and how the 2010 World Cup has opened up 400 000 job opportunities in South Africa. Currently this is the president’s favourite factoid, though by most tallies this is not the same as 400 000 jobs.
He sat down to muffled applause — all hands on Blackberries — and left the rest to the forum’s co-chairs. These included the gravely wise former UN chief Kofi Annan, and a banker I’d be happy to borrow money from — charming, no-nonsense World Bank managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
She managed to turn her own outfit into a lively object lesson on why African leaders should embrace Chinese investment in the continent with cautious optimism and firm partner plans, which may have been as close as this plenary came to a minute-worthy action point.
WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab, clearly pleased with the way things were going, asked the august audience to note that there wasn’t a single European or American on the stage. Then he remembered that he was on the stage and hastily added that he wasn’t a co-chair.
To Schwab went the distinction of introducing a moment of welcome audience participation as people started to edge towards the exit, looking at their watches, pantomime style. He outlined various models of economic crisis then asked us, by a show of hands, to choose the one we thought best described the global money melt.
For instance, did we think the crisis was shaped like an “L” (all the way down with no recovery prospects) or like a “W” (downward bound, recovery to follow, but oops, another economic downstroke on the way). There was also a “U” (in the doldrums for ages before signs of recovery) and a “V” (a yo-yo bounce crisis). You get the picture.
My neighbour put down his iPhone long enough to vote for a “Z”-shaped crisis. But apparently “Z” wasn’t an option.
Not all the highlights were intentional. I almost felt sorry for WEF co-chair and chairperson of the board of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Jiang Jianqing. Thanks to a terrible translator, his main point was framed as a critical question: “How to make the crisis sustainable?”
Understanding that he had been robbed of his meaning, the audience did not hold this statement against him, which is not to say there aren’t things we won’t hold against him in the future.
The last word went to Zuma, who was asked to sum up. “The world has changed,” he said, “and we must do things differently.”
And on that profound bit of received wisdom, the 2009 World Economic Forum on Africa opened for business.