SEOUL -- If you missed Davos in New York last month, you have a rain check coming via the miracle of Webcasting. The more important panels will be broadcast at the World Economic Forum's Web site ( www.weforum.org ), starting Monday. Don't pass up this intellectual cyberfest for the netizen!
What's so special about the WEF? Plenty, considering that world leaders have just finished meeting in Monterrey, Mexico to grapple with the same problems -- poverty, globalization, and their causes and consequences -- with the heads of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organization in attendance.
The good news is that leading powers, including the United States and the European Union, have opened their checkbooks, committing themselves to double-digit increases in aid over the next several years, although, according to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, the levels are still well short of the U.N. target for halving poverty by 2015.