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I can’t find one single word to define the forum. Maybe diversity could fit well, an anthropological experience as many said during the forum. Well it all depends on who’s telling the history I guess, I’m going tell it from my point of view. I’m a 24 years-old guy, with a mind full of dreams, questions, ideas and some knowledge and experience. I’ve worked in many places, mostly related to technology, often I say I’m a computer security and networking specialist, but most often I just say I work with computers. I would never be able to work or have my mind focused on just one thing, so I also work with a youth organization which I’m really passionate about, and I always try to be involved or at least informed about it.
This forum was the second for me, first was in 2002, went there in both years with Grupo Interagir, the youth organization I mentioned above. The first year was the first for all of us, we had no idea of what was waiting for us, not a clue, just that catchy phrase “Another World is Possible”, that was all we need to drop all our previous attachments and jump into the unknown, for about a week.
In January 2002 I was 21 years old, living in the capital of Brazil, and working the average of 10 hours a day. The opportunity to go there was unique and couldn’t be spared, took my yearly month of vacations, packed and jumped into a plane with my friends. Arriving there was nice, we have rented this small apartment a bit far from downtown, but it was ok, a bit of comfort is always good, living together with all your friends is always good, for about a week.
The World Social Forum began, and when it begins its like you’re hurled to a different world, I have now idea of how many languages I heard on my first hours there, how could I , I was barely understanding my own. My mind wasn’t working properly, too much information to process, such a new experience, all this people walking around, should I meet all of them? Rather impossible that was. You must carefully choose who to meet, not the informal way I mean, but where to go. There are hundreds of workshops, speeches, panels, conferences, expositions, performances and lunch brakes happening all at once. You have to opt, and that’s one thing you can’t avoid there.
One of the forum sites was good, a big private university, with many buildings, classrooms and lawns, the last had proved to be a pleasing and disputed space for relaxing in-between activities. Nice first impression, I thought with myself. Thinking that the sort of urban academic atmosphere was ideal for such thing, when you’re talking about the another world possible, I said to myself.
The second site was, well, different. The Intercontinental Youth Encampment is where the real anthropologic experience is. Young people from all around the world moved to a park with little infrastructure, some mud, a few swamps and lots of good vibrations, for about a week.
I’m trying to remember what I did back there in January 2002, the world social forum was such a strong experience, how could I forget what I learnt there? I didn’t. The experience is so burnt down into my brain that I can’t distinguish what I always knew from what I learnt there. Confusing, eh? Yes, that the feeling you get at the world social forum. Lots to do, lots to see, flavors to taste and scents to smell. Its just too much in such a small period. I wasn’t sure if another world was possible, but I sure lived in another world, for about a week. The world social forum in 2002 began and ended with the same weather, sunny and hot. Porto Alegre is a good city, metropolitan, not as Sao Paulo or Toronto, but in its very own way. For me Porto Alegre began its existence that summer, the experiences I had there made it real.
After a week there I was ready to leave. Overwhelmed with the crazy amount of information available, a living internet I could say. When at the world social forum you just have to pick a subject and look it up on the program newspaper, as thick as two Sunday editions together, and you would find someone eager to talk and share experiences about that subject. Or you could just wander around, walking thru the self-organized small islands of people expressing themselves. Anyway, I was ready to leave, and so I did.
Two years and 10 months later I didn’t know much about the next edition of the world social forum. Work had pulled me out of that entire world, the experiences were buried deep in my memories, every once in a while I would have a flashback and remember the feelings I had that summer. Surprisingly, I realized I could have it all again. The year of 2005 was just a couple of months away, and Porto Alegre would once again become the world capital of diversity and dreams.
Caught up in the swirl of life, it wasn’t just about a week before the V World Social Forum that I made the final decision to be there again. Once more I was jumping in the unknown, you really never know what to expect. The world social forum is shape-less, almost abstract, it never happens the way it was supposed to, or the way you wanted it to.
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Diogo Andre
I usually write stuff when I'm high on caffeine.
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