SWITZERLAND: A familiar and pressing theme dominated proceedings on the first day at the World Social Forum. Samuel Loewenberg reports from Porto Alegre
The World Social Forum opened yesterday on a theme that, while familiar, is perhaps now more urgent than ever: debt.
A panel composed of delegates from Indonesia, India, the Philippines and Haiti called on world leaders and lenders to erase the debt owed by south Asian countries following the devastation from last month's tsunami which took more than 200,000 lives and cost billions of euros in damage.
So far the so-called Group of Seven most prosperous nations have promised $6 billion in financial aid, an "outrageous" figure, according to the manifesto issued by the Jubilee South group, a non-governmental group that organised the event.
The burden of debt is already crippling Third World countries, which paid $23.6 billion on interest payments alone, said the group.
The danger following the tsunami is that the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and individual countries will use this an opportunity to saddle the devastated countries with even more interest payments.
"What is reprehensible is that instead of the whole world rising up to help, they are treating this as a business opportunity," said Vinod Raina, the representative from India.
Cancelling the debt of the affected countries would do far more good in the long term than issuing cash advances that will have to be paid back with interest, he said.
Disasters like the tsunami "are very good business for the world of aid and debt", he added.
Perhaps foreshadowing the themes to arise over the next five days of the forum, yesterday's panel brought a strong moral consciousness to issues that are usually restricted to dollars and cents.
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, the Argentine human rights activist, said current lending practices amounted to a form of "social genocide ... The IMF and the World Bank were created to service the people," he said. "But now they are serving the interests of the G-7 governments and corporations."
The delegates acknowledged that total debt relief was unlikely in the near future. But the delegates said they were heartened by British Chancellor Gordon Brown, who has struck a deal to give debt relief to Tanzania and will make similar offers to 70 other countries, for a cost of £1 billion.
Still, Philippine delegate Lidy Napcii said that so far there had not been serious discussions of the proposal with the IMF and other major lenders, and that the Jubilee group had not sent a delegate to the World Economic Forum under way in Davos, Switzerland.
"If the players in Davos really care about what the people think, it is their burden and their challenge to come to Porto Alegre," she said.
In years past the forum was criticised for being heavy on talk about oppression and light on representing the oppressed.
Not so this time, with delegations arriving from India, Pakistan and Nepal, along with representatives from an estimated 100 tribes of Brazilian Indians.
Among the scheduled panel topics is the provision of free software as a way to empower indigenous people.
As of press time, no tribal people could be found to comment on this issue, but at least one person is taking it seriously: Microsoft's Bill Gates.
In addition to rainforest Indians, apparently Brazilian government functionaries are now going to be ditching their Microsoft Windows operating systems in exchange for free systems like Linus.
According to reports in the Brazilian press, Mr Gates has indicated to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that he would be pleased to have some private time with him during the next few days, when both will be at Davos. Mr da Silva has yet to accept the invitation.
The World Social Forum began using free software years ago and now is totally "deMicrosofted".
Brazilian software activist Luciano Brunet told journalists here that the high prices of software did more than credit card damage. It was akin to privatising knowledge and then concentrating it in a few hands, which "winds up blocking the development of humanity", said Mr Brunet.
That may be so, but one reporter, at least, had so much difficulty using the free software in the pressroom that he nearly tossed the computer out the window.
Nobody ever said changing the world would be easy.