Every day in Davos gets its own dominant note. Yesterday was very political as leaders from the Middle East and the subcontinent spoke out, with Pakistan President Pervez Musarraf setting out his hopes for the elections, and the Palestinians and Israelis appearing on the same stage to review the peace process.
What was unusual about the various sessions with these leaders was a style of questioning that was much tougher in substance than I have normally heard, yet put in language that was a lot more polite, conspicuously lacking in rhetoric.
Yesterday moved onto the big picture. Bill Gates, Bono and Queen Rania all brought their own star qualities to talk about the vital issues of eradicating poverty and malnutrition through reviving and implanting the failing Millenium Development Goals.
These targets were adopted with great eagerness seven years ago, and now everyone is aware that they are not going at all well. As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon committed to holding a special session of the UN General Assembly on the Millenium Goals, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also spoke of the need to make particular agencies responsible for chasing up the various goals and making sure that every-one delivers.
A very special moment came at the end of the press conference announcing the new efforts to get the Millenium Goals back on track, when rock star Bono asked us all to honour Bill Gates, who is attending his last Davos summit as head of Microsoft, and will now move on to focus his formidable energies on working to eradicate poverty. Bono's standing ovation was joined by Queen Rania, Gordon Brown and Ban Ki-moon, as well as many others.
Powerful reminder
Meanwhile, I have a powerful reminder of how important the rest of the world thinks this Swiss village is for these few days whenever I go into the press room.
It is organised bedlam as hundreds of people struggle to find room for their laptops and sit tightly crammed together, shoulder to shoulder as they piece together their thoughts. It is good that this large room is for newspapers, since the TV and radio people have their own noisy requirements and they are housed elsewhere.
On the table where I was working I shared space with a chatty Korean financial analyst, two Japanese business reporters who worked as a team, the correspondent for The Indian Express, an impenetrable Swedish gentleman who did not talk, and a Mexican radio reporter who was plug-ged into her headphone all the time while editing the sound on her laptop.
The various time zones affect everyone's deadlines so in the early mornings the tense groups of Chinese and Japanese journalists dominate the room as they crouch over their keyboards, sending stories and pictures for their evening deadlines. By mid to late morning the correspondents for the Asian and Middle East papers are working hard, and just as we get our first edition stories in the early afternoon, the European financial papers come in and get themselves organised.
Unique plugs
A particular example of our Swiss hosts' determination to go their own way in the world has emerged with a ven-geance, which is their unique electrical plugs. I have never understood why the world cannot agree on one standard type of plug, but I have got used to a world where we have to match both the large three square pin plugs and the smaller two round pin plugs. My home in Dubai is full of adaptors and that is just how things are.
But not in Switzerland, where they have their own unique extra-small three pin plugs. This means that Swiss shops do a roaring trade in special adaptors, and every visitor's electrics have perch precariously out of these small sockets.
Nonetheless, everyone seems happy and we just have to get used to yet another bizarre example of how the world is divided into so many different zones of political and social, as well as electrical, practices.
