One month ago, it was the tsunami. Today, as the world's most powerful leaders and business captains gather in Davos, Switzerland to improve the state of the world, the calamity of 2004 has become a rallying point for all calamities to come. 

World Economic Forum (WEF) Chairman Klaus Schwab said during the annual meeting that the spirit of global solidarity in the aftermath of the Tsunami must be kept alive and expanding.

Swiss President Samuel Schmid said the aftermath of the tsunami demonstrated that global solidarity of human kindness was possible and that we are all inter-related.

French President Jacques Chirac in a televised address to the plenary of the World Economic Forum spoke of the tsunamis, of famine, infectious disease, violence, revolt, anarchy, uncontrolled migratory movements and rises in extremism.

Actor Richard Gere spoke of the hundred tsunamis that afflict mankind and then focused on the tsunami he has identified himself with, the battle against AIDS.

Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair managed to weave the tsunami into his plea for support to the causes he has identified for himself -- Africa and global warming.

With the support from Star Alliance and Holcim Co, the annual meeting is also being attended by editors from 13 newspapers of the Asia News Network, including China Daily, a national English newspaper in China.

The tsunami, though, brought the world together as few events have in recent times. And lobbyists for individual causes -- heads of state or passionate actors -- were quick to point out that the world needs to exhibit solidarity more than once if problems are to be grappled with.

It was left to a group of some 700 global members of the forum, who met to prioritize the key issues facing the world, to take a broader view and to then put things into sharper perspective.

Six issues were identified and in order of importance were poverty, equitable globalization, climate change, education, the Middle East and global governance.

Poverty eradication got 64.4 percent of the vote because poverty is the link between all social issues and reducing it will reduce terrorism and instability. Equitable globalization got 54.9 percent of the vote because it ensures the fastest means to fair distribution of wealth and the surest track to peace.

Over the next four days, these six issues will form the basis of the forum's deliberations.

Whether the sub-zero temperatures of Davos will raise the heat on the need to tackle global challenges remains to be seen. Forum participants themselves are skeptical; only 39 percent are confident that world leaders would make the tough choices necessary. But an overwhelming majority of them -- 89 percent -- are prepared to raise the level of their own commitment.

Tall promises, or reason to hope? Perhaps Davos 2006 will provide the answers.

(China Daily January 28, 2005)