Davos, World Economic Forum and Xenophobia?

 

This is the week when the bigwigs of finance, business and government meet in Davos to find solutions to problems that they helped create.

Reporters, such as CNN's Richard Quest, will interview the participants at the World Economic Forum in front of snow-covered pine trees.

My husband Rick and I went to Davos, not for the Forum but when the weather was beautiful, and for a hickory golf tournament. He had become enamored of playing with the old-time clubs and participated in tournaments in various countries where the players dressed in 1920s clothes.

When we travel for golf, pleasure or business, Rick loves to find interesting hotels. We stayed in a converted schoolhouse in Dublin where every room was named for an Irish writer. In the Austrian Alps we fell asleep in a bubble on a rooftop enjoying the stars overhead.

The hotel he selected in Davos had hosted Obamas, Clintons, Merkles and other people whose names were in the headlines regularly. I don't know if our room had been one of theirs.

Our dog Sherlock was not Canine Non Grata but treated as visiting royalty. The embroidered dog bed and decorated ceramic food and water dishes were waiting for him. We had the normal hotel teas, coffees, biscuits plus Swiss chocolates laid out for us, but Sherlock was offered a ribbon-tied bag of dog biscuits. Walking through the corridors and lobby, he was greeted, patted and complimented.

While Rick played his rounds, I poked around Davos, a town of just under 11,000 people. One of my missions whenever I travel is to buy a mug with the location for my daughter's cup collection. She has more than 100 from all over the world.

The shopkeeper, a man in his sixties, had not taken any customer services courses. The inside of the store was chilly, but not from air conditioning.

My German is what I term shopping German. A woman customer ahead of me asked if he spoke English. He did not.

She and I began to chat and discovered we both lived in Geneva and were Swiss.

The temperature in the store warmed instantly with this information as the shopkeeper switched to French and even found smiles in his repertoire. He could not be more helpful even adding a bow to our purchases. 

Outside, we concluded if he did not speak English, he had understood our conversation.

I regret that I had resisted the temptation to ask him what he thought of people coming from all over the world to the Forum. People swamp to Davos to ski as well. Maybe he wasn't xenophobic, although I suspect he was. Maybe was tired for his town being inundated with foreigners even if they contributed to his income.

I'll never know.