Washington, U.S.A. - Latino leaders from across the United States gathered to announce that they are taking on Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, by exposing the alleged predatory, monopolistic practices with which he has amassed his fortune.

The growing coalition point to the fact that Mr. Slim’s wealth has come at a huge cost to the people of Mexico and that his business practices have crippled economic development in Mexico and throughout Latin America.

“We have come together to speak out on behalf of the people in Mexico and Latin America who do not have recourse to speak out for themselves,” said Juan Jose Gutierrez, one of the coalition leaders and affiliated with Vamos Unidos USA.

“Carlos Slim’s monopolistic practices have imposed significant costs to the Mexican economy and burdened the people of Mexico and Latin America. We are exposing his abusive practices so that the harm he has caused can be rectified and that those who might throw praise and honor at this man might know the truth.”

In the first of many planned actions, Two Countries One Voice announced it was calling on George Washington University to sever ties with Carlos Slim and demanded that George Washington University officials disinvite him from the graduation commencement ceremonies on the National Mall and revoke his honorary degree.

Two Countries One Voice will announce additional actions against other American institutions and corporations with strong ties to Slim in the coming weeks.

“It would be a travesty for a respected American institution like George Washington University to honor a man who is a modern day robber baron. His empire has helped keep millions in poverty while he has lined his own pockets,” said Andres Ramirez, one of the coalition leaders who is based in Nevada. “We can not ignore how Slim has made his billions and this is why our first action is to call on George Washington University to sever ties with him immediately.”

Carlos Slim’s power and fortune is made up primarily from his monopoly in the Mexican telecommunications system.  According to the independent and highly respected Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Slim’s company, America Movil, which controls 80% of the total Mexican telecom, cell and internet industries, charges exorbitant prices and provides inadequate services.

Their report also shows that Mexico’s phone industry dominated by Slim’s companies’ overcharged customers a total of $13.4 billion a year for basic telephone and Internet service from 2005 to 2009.  The OCED report points out that those specifically and most profoundly affected by these business practices are rural and poor communities.

Last week, Slim and his company admitted to overcharging under pressure from a proposed one billion dollar fine. The Mexico’s CFC (Federal Competition Commission) had unanimously ruled that one of Slim’s companies, Telcel, holds too much power. Earlier this year the antitrust agency also served Telcel close to a billion dollar fine for “monopoly practices.”

The impact of Carlos Slim’s monopoly has resulted in Mexico ranking LAST in public investment in telecommunications compared with the 33 other OECD countries while Slim’s company Telemex had a profit margin of 47% - one of the highest of the OECD countries.

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The World Economic Forum (WEF), based in Geneva, have been meeting up for their yearly convention on January 25 and will be concluding the exclusive gathering on January 29. The WEF was established in 1971 and is an independent international organization formally designed to improve the state of the world and organize annual meetings in Davos to discuss, debate, redefine, and rebut many of the world’s most pressing economic and political issues.

Every year in snow-covered Davos, WEF organizes a meeting hailed as a convergence of the elite, from the world of business, governance and academics engaged in finding strategic solutions to global economic problems and perhaps acting as a counsel of change.

This year, the theme is “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models” which have be organized in the backdrop of eurozone fiscal fissure, tussle for reform and installation of democracy in the Arab world, slow and sensitive global growth, and lastly, the unending enigma of capitalistic disorder.

Assume the world is a stage. We have seen many despotic characters fall in the Arab world, and many characters emerging with ponderous levels of debt on their backs, casting a shadow of  imminent instability to the global economy. Also, the world witnessed a few Asian players taking the lead in the economic game, and there has been a transformation in the totality of the economic and political picture of the world.

Nonetheless, it will be intriguing to see at this juncture, as the European monetary union is on the verge of collapse due to fiscal disorder and as capitalism is brutally blamed for excessive greed, what transformation WEF can bring or advocate in Davos.

The co-efficient of congress 

Due to several fundamental changes occurring in the world, we have lost sight of where the world is going. Professor Klaus Schwab, the founder of WEF, stated that we clearly need new models for global, regional, and national business decision-making. According to him, new models are needed to account for the fundamental power shifts that have already happened and continue to take place. Additionally, the following are also needed:

1. New models are needed to acknowledge that we live together in a multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious world.
2. A model is needed to seriously address the social impact of globalization and new waves of technological innovation.
3. Another model is needed for job creation.

As correctly recognized by Professor Schwab, there is a need to review the distribution of power in the world, such as new shifts in balance of economic power from west to east, so there can be a greater variation in attendees. Countries which were not a part of this gathering in the past have been invited for the 2012 edition and this time around, the WEF is welcoming people from the Arab world, including Egyptian presidential candidates, the Tunisian prime minister, and the Libyan interim prime minister.

Speaking to journalists near the forum’s headquarters, Professor Schwab stated recently, “Capitalism, in its current form, has no place in the world around us.” Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation said, “It is too optimistic to say we need a new system. The system is not working because of extraordinary greed, extraordinary inequality and attacks on workers’ rights that are leading to a crash in demand.”

Income inequality is rampant in the world today, according to a report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED). Wage gaps between the rich and the poor have reached their highest point in 30 years.

It has been observed that job creation is the key to eliminating the disparities in people’s incomes as well as sluggish growth rate and most importantly social unrest, so there is hope that the WEF meeting at Davos can inspire the reconstruction of a defunct system of capitalism by introducing far reaching changes.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/

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