February 7, 2001
		Corporate "Spin" Reaches New Depths at Davos McDonald's Plays the Victim Card; Monsanto gets Warm and Cuddly At the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, McDonald's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jack Greenberg said during a panel discussion that his company's mantle as "poster child for anti-globalization sentiment" was unjustified and McDonald's is merely the arbitrary victim of publicity seekers. On the bad reputation of his company, Greenburg said, "In fact it is absurd. We are probably the least likely company that should be selected for such a target... We are an amalgamation of small businesses owned and operated in the local country." At last year's Davos forum, some 2,000 anti-globalization activists broke shop windows and smashed car windows at a local McDonald's restaurant. Earlier, José Bové, a French activist, gained national attention when he ransacked a McDonald's in a protest at U.S. tariffs on European food imports Greenburg still thinks it's just a way to get attention. "I hate to be so cynical, but some in the business of attacking globalization have said privately that they know that picketing or breaking windows is not appropriate given how we run our business, but that's the only way to get their picture in the New York Times. " Greenberg was speaking during a panel discussion on relations between grassroots groups and corporations. Monsanto Chief Executive Hendrik Verfaillie was also participating in the discussion. Verfaillie claims that Monsanto is handling its critics differently than they had in the past. "What we did two or three years ago is certainly not what I would recommend to be the best approach. We basically didn't listen. We tried to convince the opponents or the activists that we were right and they were wrong, that they should listen to us and that they basically should shut up." Part of the new touchy-feely approach is admitting that they were too forceful - err, enthusiastic - in the past. Verfaillie said that if corporations worked cooperatively with activist groups "it's a winning proposition for both sides and for society as well." This year, the controversial meetings were held without interference from anti-globalization activists, after Switzerland launched its more rigorous security crusade in its history. Thousands of potential demonstrators were turned away at the border or held up in other Swiss cities. The few hundred who managed to squeeze through the gauntlet and reach Davos started a march up the two mile slope to the exclusive Alpine resort that housed the forum, but were attacked by policemen wielding water cannons forcing them to retreat in the freezing cold. Protesters in other Swiss cities were treated with similar force. Meanwhile, José Bové led 16,000 anti-globalization activists in a rival World Social Forum in Brazil. At one point thousands of the protesters descended on a Monsanto test plot and uprooted all the genetically engineered plants being grown there. As draconian as the Swiss security measures were, however, they weren't thorough enough to stop computer hackers from downloading more than 80,000 pages of sensitive data from the conference, including credit card numbers, passport information, and cellular phone lists form some of the world's most prominent people, including Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, Bill Gates, and many other top business and political leaders.