The 7th Edition of the World Social Forum iwill be held in
Africa for the very first time at the Kenyatta International
Conference Centre . 70,000 delegates from around the
world are expected to descend upon Nairobi from the 20th of January
to the 25th of January.
The WSF Kenya website says this of the conference:
"From its modest origins in Porto Alegre
in the year 2001, the World Social Forum has mushroomed into a global
counter-force challenging the assumptions and diktats of imperialism
and its associated neo-liberal policies that have over the decades,
imposed colonialism and neo-colonialism; devastated Southern economies;
bolstered the disastrous and repressive reigns of assorted tin pot
dictatorships; marginalized women; disenfranchised youth; intensified
the destruction of the environment; unleashed bloody, inhuman and
needless military conflicts in nation after nation, region after region
and deepened the exploitation of poor peoples around the world.
Rallying around the clarion call of Another World Is Possible,
the World Social Forum has placed social justice, international
solidarity, gender equality, peace and defence of the environment on
the agenda of the world’s peoples. From Porto Alegre to Mumbai to
Bamako to Caracas, Karachi and now Nairobi, the forces and the
contingents of the World Social Forum have collectively expanded the
democratic spaces of those seeking concrete, sustainable and
progressive alternatives to imperialist globalisation."
I don't know what this means. I have
read and reread it several times and I find it difficult to identify
with the words I am reading - probably because I don't understand its
profoundness. I understand that is an infinitely
wonderful thing for Kenya that the conference is coming in - it says we
are doing something right. It says that Phillip Kisia and his team at
KICC, Bwana Meya at his Parlour and the city are doing their jobs well.
I wonder though, about the expediency of
the conference after all is said and done. It sounds to me like a talk
shop that does not have real deliverables at the end of the day. It is
indisputable that the world and especially the Third World has had to
suffer poverty and marginalisation and despots and all. Africa knows
these problems intimately.
But what actual deliverables are
achieved out of these expensive talk shops? What is done that actually
makes a world of difference to our social makeup? I am told that
Dialogue is a central take out from the conferences of this nature and
that the more we talk the more we shall solve our problems. Really?
Will the World Social Forum save
Zimbabwe from Comrade Bob or Southern Sudan from the Janjaweed? Will
the World Social Forum or any other one of the miscellaneous forums
actually change the lives of the Somalis and the other suffering
masses? I suspect it will for the five days or a month after, sort out
a few Kibera dwellers for ugali and a few beers for the more opulent
Nairobians involved but will it change our lives?
In a nutshell, I am not
convinced that this conference has as much utility to Africa and the
world as it is touted to have. Be that as it may, talk shops are a good break and for the people that attend them, a nice experience.
| 
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
