30.01.2025

Otto Dix ‘Three prostitutes on the street’ (1925)

Sex, drugs and Davos

In the bars and bedrooms, government tops, business executives and other members of the global elite reveal what they actually think about climate change, writes Eddie Ford

Last week the World Economic Forum had its annual conference in Davos of the great and not so good, such as Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump (virtually). We are told that this merry-go-round of the global elite is about “improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society” and brings together for five days about 3,000 paying members and “selected” participants - like investors, economists, journalists and celebrities. Like will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas fame who won the 2016 Crystal Award for artists who embody the “spirit of Davos”, Sting (if anybody remembers him), actor Michelle Yeoh of Crouching tiger, hidden dragon and, er, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.¹

As you can imagine, though it is slightly shrouded in mystery like everything else, the conference does not come cheap. Unless you are one of the lucky guests, you have to be an actual member of the WEF, which costs about £52,000 a year, and a basic ticket to get into events is around £20,000, plus obviously the extremely high costs for accommodation, food and transportation in the exclusive Swiss Alps resort. They can afford it, of course: hence the talk of ‘Davos Man’ - and we are talking mainly about men - a tribe of globe-trotting, wealthy, global citizens who live in an almost separate universe to you and me.

Boom trade

Yet there is one aspect of Davos that barely got a mention in the respectable mainstream press. However, for that we have to thank (not something this writer often does) undercover reporters from the Daily Mail - for revealing details about economics of another sort: the boom in escort services, or high-class call girls, to use a euphemism, who were in great demand.²

Or, if you prefer the language of the Mail, “cocaine-fuelled parties” and the “secret depravity” of the Davos global elite, which involves “more sex parties than ever, NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) for prostitutes, transsexual women” and the “most commonly-requested sex act revealed” - which is anal, by the way. Now, “cocaine-fuelled” frolics are hardly new, when it comes to gatherings of the wealthy and entitled - just go to a Tory Party conference, for instance. Nor are call girls and prostitution. After all, to one extent or another, these are features of any gathering of powerful men, whether in politics or business - something similar must happen at climate Cop meetings. One of the creepiest guys this writer ever met was a British United Nations official employed to do something ‘worthy’ in southern Africa, who openly talked, if not boasted, about his extensive use of prostitutes - probably the only reason why he went.

But the nature of the escort services offered at Davos gives us a valuable glimpse into the ruling class at work and play, and their world outlook in general - though, of course, the likes of the Mail love to linger on the prurient details. As reported by Andreas Berger, spokesperson for the Titt4tat escort agency, it was a record year when it came to the number of bookings for “commercial intimacy” - with around 300 women and trans women getting booked in Davos and the surrounding area, compared to about 170 women in the previous year. What was noticeably different this year, according to Berger, was that a lot of these women in and around Davos had to sign NDAs, showing that these powerful clients are going to increasing lengths to keep their sexual activities secret - while all the agencies report a rise in the demand for trans women and those wanting to live out certain BDSM fetishes or fantasies.

Susann from the Swiss Escort Avantgarde agency said the escorts employed by her offer a “particular skill set” to appeal to clients, saying that her agency “operates in the high-class segment, which also reflects our typical customer base”. That is, very wealthy individuals, who jet around the world as a matter of routine, and therefore expect a certain amount of sophistication. The call girls are usually educated to a relatively high level and are bilingual at the very least, with English, unsurprisingly, the most in-demand language, followed by German or French. They wear normal clothes - say a purple suit and a black coat - to make it look like they are actually part of the conference scene,

Typically, the clients pay for several hours of ‘company’ with the women. Titt4tat’s Andreas tells us that that the average booking duration at the WEF is four hours, which, combined with the average hourly rate and the 300 bookings on Titt4tat’s books during the first three days of the WEF, would amount to about 300,000 Swiss francs (£270,000). But, once you include the other providers and agencies, an income of nearly £1 million in total is generated at Davos.

Untouchable

Far more interesting than the sexual kinks of various delegates to Davos, which at the end of the day are fairly standard, is what the prostitutes are reporting about the views of their clients, as it reveals what they actually think.³ This is something that they normally keep guarded, in fealty to the standard niceties, especially when their inhibitions are lowered by the copious use of various drugs like alcohol and cocaine. As Susann from Avantgarde remarks about her clients, “these types of people consider themselves untouchable, which they often realistically are”.

This is particularly revealing in the context of the climate crisis, which, of course, the delegates were talking about all the time inside and outside the meeting rooms - especially those hours that they have paid for in the bedrooms. In fact, the Mail quotes Salomé Balthus (or Hanna Lakomy) - founder of the Hetaera Berlin escort service or feminist collective - saying that global warming is “the elephant in the room”, the newspaper describing her as a high-end escort from Berlin, while Wikipedia lists her as a “prostitute, entrepreneur, columnist and writer”.⁴

Anyhow, mentioning that “there’s obviously also some very intelligent people” at Davos, she makes some fascinating comments about how her super-rich clients could be divided into two groups, when it comes to global warming. One half is in despair, knowing that, even though they are among the most powerful men on the planet, they cannot do anything about it - so they might as well “enjoy a few more nice years on earth” following the mantra, “After us, the deluge”. Or, as the Mail summarises with admirable brevity, the wealthy know the world is doomed, “so may as well go out with a bang”. For her part, Balthus thinks this group is “very cynical and somehow deeply sad” - which seems accurate enough, though they would doubtlessly regard themselves more as realists than cynics.

As for the other half, calling them “dumber” and the uber wealthy, they think that global warming will only affect the poor or “not-white race” in the global south - so they will be alright, Jack, as they live in the north and can easily move from one mansion to another. So party on, as our cities will never be drowned by rising sea levels! This bunch is “celebrating future mass deaths”, she remarks, and not just at Davos, it goes without saying - but this ethos happens to be more “concentrated” during Davos.

But, seeing that we live in a democracy of sorts, no matter how regrettable that might be, “you have to sell it”, which requires that you “lie to people” - telling them that we never thought “it would get this bad”, when we knew all along, but did not give a damn. She recalls an obnoxious guy from this grouping at the bar shouting, “Tax the rich!” as a joke with every new shot, as they “feel untouchable” - just as Susann said about her clients. Balthus also said that client meetings are often about “the passion of erotica and the passion of power”, although the latter so much more “that it can even erase the former” - maybe scorching the myth that power is an aphrodisiac.

Lies, lies, lies

Reading these accounts of Davos, it is impossible not to be reminded of parliamentarians in Britain and in other western countries. Why the political establishment did everything they could to prevent the press from reporting on its proceedings and conversely why the left has considered it important to disclose what they are saying about us. Prior to universal suffrage MPs and members of the ruling class used to tell the truth to each other and what they thought about the great unwashed: the wage slaves who laboured in their factories, mills and mines, the maids and footmen who served them in their town houses and country estates, the young men recruited as cannon-fodder in endless colonial wars.

But, as the suffrage expanded, the political class got increasingly used to lying. Honesty became an even rarer commodity - selection relied on how skilled you were at dissembling. In fact, parliament was far more of a decision-making body prior to universal suffrage.⁵ As a consequence, back then, when parliament overly represented the possessing classes, they could be quite frank about their class interests and openly contemptuous of democracy. Unlike now, when honeyed phrases and empty cant are the order of the day, and directly calling a fellow MP a liar is castigated as “unparliamentary language” that can see you booted out of the house.

Some people on the left still angrily say that Sir Keir Starmer lied to them, when he said he was going to carry out Jeremy Corbyn’s programme. Of course, he did - and more fool you if you ever believed him.