Experience life as a refugee in Davos

On his brand new blog, Bill Easterly posts the following totally absurd invitation he received to a “refugee run” for participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos, sponsored by the UN High Comission for Refugees:

Here’s what the VIPs are in for:

Just five minutes’ walk from the Congress Centre, you can enter a simulated environment that will thrust you into a war zone. You will meet a rebel attack, navigate a mine field and battle life in a refugee camp. (Spoiler alert: No harm will come to you!)

As good as UNHCR’s intentions may be, the idea of the Davos elite playing refugee between a talk by Larry Summers and an afternoon roquefort reception seems like something out of a Monty Python sketch. Easterly asks:

Can Davos man empathize with refugees when he or she is not in danger and is going back to a luxury banquet and hotel room afterwards? Isn’t this just a tad different from the life of an actual refugee, at risk of all too real rape, murder, hunger, and disease?

Perhaps Ian Bremmer could let us know.