Stories & Reflections
DAVOS, January 25 (RIA Novosti) – Famous Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho said on Friday the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort town of Davos was more about talking than predicting.
Political and business leaders from more than 80 countries started annual talks in the Swiss Alps on Wednesday amid fears that U.S. economic problems could spark a global recession.
A regular at the Davos, Coelho, 60, described it as a "neutral forum where you can talk openly about any important issue without being bound by protocol."
"Nostradamus was even more accurate than economists today. Nobody knows. They are here to talk, though nobody really can predict what will happen in six months from now," the Brazilian author said.
Coelho praised the forum’s founder, Professor Klaus Schwab, for adapting the forum to the moving world.
Professor Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, set up the forum in 1971, which is now "a powerful intellectual group" and one of the world’s largest annual political and business summits.
Sharing his impressions of Russia, where the writer recently travelled from Moscow to Vladivostok in the country’s Far East, Coelho said, "Russia has recuperated its entity now,…and of course this may be considered as a threat, but who thinks like this is so stupid."
Asked about his artistic plans, Coelho said he was not currently writing anything and was just planning "to stay alive."
Coelho’s new book Brida will be published in Russia in March 2008.
From : en.rian.ru