To Prince Salman: Switzerland Want’s Its Davos Name Back

To Prince Salman:  Switzerland Want’s Its Davos Name Back

The prime steak of economics conferences, nicknamed “Davos In The Desert”, is now a leading embarrassment for the rest of the world, following the accusations of Saudis murdering Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi in their Turkish embassy, at the possible orders of the Saudi government.  Davos is a pretty alpine city in Switzerland, which country is trying to maintain their reputation as the leader in banking in the world.  They undoubtedly want their name “Davos” back.

There are also 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, and Saudi Arabia is charged with management of their holy cities of Mecca and Medina.  All Muslims wish to someday make a pilgrimage to the Kaaba in Mecca.  It is embarrassing for them to have to deal with an intolerant and totalitarian Saudi government, and to be associated with it.

Furthermore, the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, where the conference is taking place, is the site where Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) imprisoned Saudi Royalty to extract billions from them.  Ritz-Carlson wants its name back, even if Saudis own the luxury hotel.

According to the movies, the Prince heir should be determined by a camel race in the desert.  Today, that would be translated into a race between black armored Mercedes Benzes.  Mercedes Benz wants its name back, as well as the peace symbol that designates all of its cars.  The “desert” therefore also wants its name back from the conference’s title.

US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is still going to the conference.  Munchkins are upset since he has too easily been mistaken for one of them.

Donald Trump’s “deal of a century in the desert” of 110 billion in arms sales are far in the future, and were mainly arranged by President Barack Obama.  Little is signed of them, and only 4 billion seems currently operative.  A lot of that is in bombs that we would like our name back from.  Many Americans do not want to be making bombs for “Despots in the Desert”.

Saudis have bailed out the falloff in Trump’s Manhattan Tower sales this year, and booked a lot at Trump’s D.C. hotel.  (Yes, the city is no longer Washington’s D.C. but Trump’s D.C.). “Hidden Genius” Jared Kushner, with the Middle East Assignment, is strongly embedded with the Saudis and MBS, as well as getting lots of financial backing by Qatar for his failing 666 5th Avenue building.  These two could not be more backed by Middle Eastern emoluments.  Trump is also indebted to America’s largest oil oligarchs and political donors and fund raisers, the Koch Brothers, who keep him in denial about climate change.  

The kicker is that the conference, the Future Investment Initiatiive, was started last year after OPEC oil had fallen to $41 a barrel.  That was a crises for the Monarchy, and would not support jobs for the educated young people.  But now that oil has risen to $80 a barrel,  they have enough to run the Monarchy on.  It may even continue higher.  So they don’t need the Initiative, which wasn’t working anyway, and they may not need MBS.  Now that he is becoming an embarrassment, he has probably destroyed his own Initiative’s ability to attract outside investment.  This privatizing of added industries, has been the Saudi’s goals for decades.  Plus, internally, he has lots of enemies that he shook down, and people are afraid to speak freely.  Half of the country is also on the internet, so there is no hiding behind propaganda.

This is a great place for Congress to impose sanctions, since Trump’s hands are tied by his emoluments.  

By the way, when Trump posed at the inauguration of the Saudi’s “anti-terrorism facility”, I pointed out that it could be used to track dissidents in Saudi Arabia.  This apparently is its use now.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
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