Monday, August 09, 2004

hasta la proxima...

And as I begun I’m back on the plane again. Flying over land to a country strange to me, though this time not for what I don’t know about it but for what I do. I’m returning home to the UK. These past few weeks have been crazy. The last days in any place normally are. Last night I was in Bogotá and it felt weird to be back in familiar place but with a different head upon my shoulders. A lot has happened in these four short months.

Last week I was Quito for the first Social Forum of the Americas, a gathering of some 8000 representatives of social organisations and civil society from across the world modeled on the famous World Social Forum originating in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The aim to come together and discuss, put forward proposals, share solutions and strengthen links in recognition of the fact that although our methods are diverse and actions disparate that we are many and we are everywhere. The atmosphere was positive, powerful. It was inspiring to see so many people and useful to make contacts and learn about similar processes in other places. Such events can be frustrating for their claim to alternatives and seeming lack of singular concrete propositions. It’s a characteristic in my view that is not a flaw but a facet, integral to the movement itself in the sense that what we are opposing is a singular prescription for the entire world (the neoliberal model). That’s not to say that we can’t put forward alternatives but that they will vary. It’s also easy to view the forum as the culmination of work, finality in itself when really it’s just a meeting to recount what we have been doing and what we can share of the progress or successes achieved so that more can benefit from it.

I went with two buses form the University of Valle and we stayed in the Camp set up for youth participants in a large wooded park about fifteen minutes bus ride from the event. Camping with a large group demonstrated some striking cultural differences in comparison with the trips I've done with English groups, both positive and negative. There is an often frustrating desire to everything in the group. It requires a huge amount of time negotiating what we are doing that reminded me in fact of family outings at home. The benefit of this is the focus on consensus and participation. For the preparation of food and security of the tents for example, rather than being a case of each for their own, we organised at the start to divide ourselves into groups of ten who would be responsible each day for all forty of us. The camp had its logistical flaws but to me it seemed good to be putting into a practise, though only on a small scale and temporarily, a more comunitarian way of living if we are claiming in the conference that another worls is posible.

Returning to Cali left me just enough time to finish up on a translation for a video we’ve made for the campaign and to say my goodbyes before heading to Bogotá to meet with the Association of Colombian Students and to get my plane home.

It’s affected me deeply this trip. Before hand I was doubting whether it was really useful for me to go and work out of the UK, if really it would be better to employ myself pressurising my own government. I was skeptical of westerners, social science graduates, leaving our countries to “do good” in some part of the world while the problems go on and often are funded by our way of life back home.

I don’t think I could have grasped the urgency the magnitude had I stayed in my university library, regardless of how much I would have read and theorized. After four months in Cali I 'm convinced that there is a role for international workers, indeed there’s much to be done, from doing research and informing the rest of the world on the situation, to building solidarity, acting as observers, making the national government aware of your presence to helping with the more practical community work short of volunteers. It’s been an eye-opener this trip, a kick up the ass politically. I’ve glimpsed how much I’ve got to learn and been humbled by the dedication of my friends, motivated by necessity and in real danger for trying to improve the situation of their country and its people. Will I return? Unquestionably but meanwhile much work remains to done the UK.
The process continues.