looking back-
from PWWF to WSF and beyond. . . Part I | by Nicole Jaquis - February 19, 2004 |

I reached New Delhi on Saturday, January 10th; just two days before the People’s World Water Forum, a three-day conference on water privatization and conservation and a precursor to the World Social Forum held the following days in Mumbai. I had only the weekend to re-orientate myself with the area, struggling to navigate and lead my co-pilot (and first timer in India) Cindy, through the new Metro construction around Connaught Place; barely enough time to ignore the jet lag, get a cell phone, a weighty box that would serve as a voltage converter, and round up the rest of our crew (Shalini coming from NYC, via Madras, and Saugat coming from Faridabad, the suburbs just outside South Delhi.

I’m almost embarrassed to admit the jet lag got the best of me and I think I slept through the majority of the Water Forum; good thing we were recording. Highlights I do remember were interviewing Dr.Vandana Shiva of India and Maude Barlowe of Canada, both world-renowned authors and activists. Other synchronicities (reminding us we are all on the right path) included meeting Nia, water activist and real-life incarnation of a fictional character (with the same name) Shalini scripted for an upcoming sci-fi film. (You just had to be there it was truly uncanny). Anyway, immediately after the Water Forum Shalini, Cindy and I headed on the “Rajdhani Express” overnight train to Mumbai, having sent Saugat ahead with the “water brigade” the prior evening.

By now I should have been used to the time zone, but I still was not sleeping properly. Conferences at the World Social Forum began promptly at 9am. We were staying a good 45 minutes to an hour by local train from the Forum site, practically different places each night. Most late evenings were spent mingling among the lingering crowds at Nesco Grounds, listening, over sips of (environmentally-unfriendly plastic) cups of chai, to people’s stories of why they came, how far they traveled, and what NGO or social/ environmental/ anti-globalization movement they represented. Days were spent wandering the approximate few square kilometers of crowded noisy roadways between (surprisingly) un-crowded conference and exhibit Halls; eventually retreating to the air-conditioned lap-top room, in which we ultimately set up daily residence, with the lofty intention of attempting to post semi-life broadcasts of the Forum’s events. (Having been to India twice before as well as having gone last year to the third WSF in it’s birthplace, Porto Alegre, Brazil, I know how chaotic things can get, how nothing really goes to plan and thus should have known better.)

In any event, I could not help but have some expectations, at least some curiosities about how things would be set up here in Mumbai, which countries and what issues will be represented and discussed. Foremost differences were in the layout. In Brazil the Forum was spread out among the city; events were held at a college campus, a soccer stadium, an outdoor amphitheater, and a loading dock. Activists were seen everywhere. Rallies were held outside on the street, out in public, not only with police escorts, but also beer and water vendors on the sidelines quenching the thirst of thousands of activists marching together as if they were all part of the same movement (that is of being Human), all part of the same country (that is of Earth). The residents of Porto Alegre could not help but get exposed to the issues on the table at the Forum. New channels, both cable and local networks broadcasted events throughout the day and night. Newspapers printed stories and photos on front pages as well as in multi-page supplemental inserts. After all (from my limited experience it seems) Brazilians are proud of their activists, not embarrassed by them as they are here in India.

On a typical day in Porto Alegre, you might arrive at PUC searching the entire college campus only to find the conference or workshop you planned to attend has been moved to the loading docks on the other side of town. Now you are stuck in traffic riding the same circular bus route and perhaps a bit irritated. However in that 40 minute ride, you are not only exposing the public to what ever propaganda sign you may be carrying, or t-shirt you may have made or bought from one of the many entrepreneur al street vendors, but also getting the chance to converse with whom ever you are squashed against in that crowded bus. Thus one can’t help but share their ideas, have a bit of cultural exchange, and experience the positive aspects of global networking.

In Mumbai, the 4th World Social Forum was essentially contained in one area, even the street vendors had designated areas. In retrospect this made the spread-out-set-up in Porto Alegre seem more affective in involving the public. The Indian government, no doubt enticed by the very same Multinational Corporations against which they must have been anticipating protesting, seemed to have designed the WSF layout with one thing in mind: let them have their event here, but let’s keep everything hush, hush. Nesco Grounds became a well-secured safe zone for protesters, or “money lacking NGO whiners” as one local paper put it. Armed policemen surrounded the grounds, just to keep the activists contained inside tall, cloth-covered bamboo walls, to prevent any public disturbance; in essence preventing the word from getting out. Ask anyone on the streets outside the Forum, and they didn’t even know what WSF was, much less that was happening right in their own backyard. Rickshaw wallas knew that any foreigner getting off the train at Goregoan was going to Nesco Grounds, but that didn’t necessarily mean he understood for what or why.

Essentially activists inside Nesco Grounds were left only preaching to the choir. Everyone there wanted to be there; it was in their best interested to be there. Everyone left inside had issues to discuss, propaganda to share, and actually wanted to create this other possible world. However their seclusion from those right outside made their efforts fruitless. Rallies were not a collective march of global movements blocking street traffic and encouraging bystanders to join in the chanting; but tiny clusters of well costumed Adi Vasis dancing in a circles to the sounds of their traditional drums and horns, or Japanese students wearing identical t-shirts expressing their disgust with the activities of the US government, or Tibetan monks baring their own flags of a promised future of freedom, all in close quarters and bumping into each other. Demonstrators were allotted few makeshift streets on which to traverse back and fourth, inside the grounds. One could stand in a single spot, viewing several repeat performances, but due to the chaos of multilingual noise, not be able to hear them selves think, much less share ideas with others. Easily distracted by the ornate costumes, the loud drums and the many dancing bodies, it was often difficult to motivate, go inside and hear a lecture, actually listen to someone speak rationally, rather than repeatedly yell slogans. Apparently a common phenomenon, for I found finding seats was unfortunately never a problem. All the action remained outside the conferences halls yet not far enough outside to make any impact on the public.

Aside from the structural enclosure, the lack of proper media coverage also contributed to the word staying among the left inside. Most of the coverage remained on the internet, via indi-media organizations, their stories contributed by volunteer journalists. And unless one is aware of these indi-media urls, those reading their news from MSNBC.com or NDTV here in India, would never come to know. Local and National Indian newspapers and TV networks barely broke the surface at the Forum, almost afraid of the influence of the left. Instead of in-depth articles on rights for sex-workers in India, or land reform and water privatization issues throughout their country, English newspapers wrote blurbs about which celebrities showed up and how the westerners were handling the spicy Indian cuisine served by the very same food vendors, who were selling 15 rupee water bottled by Pepsi-co. In essence making the whole affair a big joke among the right.

Several weeks of digesting and I still question what was actually being accomplished here in Mumbai. If the original organizers in Porto Alegre had any idea how their dreams would follow through, in someone else’s hands. How an event of such controversy would go down in another country, with different standards of censorship, and people in the midst of Privatization and quickly becoming illusioned by the Corporate Elite, that bringing in Subway and their own brand of Starbucks is progress.

Just not sure where to go from here. . .