WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: ARISE AND WALK

The World Social Forum (WSF) movement has already won a moral victory. \'\'The world is not for sale\'\' and \'\'Another world is possible\'\' are not empty slogans but calls to action that have won over public opinion around the world. In this column, based on a document addressed to the WSF International Council, Amin calls for the orchestration of major world effort comprised of: a campaign against the so-called preventive wars of the United States, and, subsequently, for the evacuation of all of its military bases; a campaign in favour of the right to access to land, the recognition of which is vital for three billion peasant farmers on three continents; a campaign to regulate industrial relocation; and a campaign to cancel all Third World foreign debt. The WSF today faces a crucial choice. It has the possibility of becoming a place for the patient construction of fronts capable of bringing about the convergence of the myriad progressive forces worldwide. To achieve this I would suggest the definition of common platforms articulated around the rejection of both neoliberalism and of the militarisation of globalisation under the control of the United States. The broad and open alliance of movements that share this perspective would make it possible to construct positive alternatives.

THE ENVIRONMENT: MORE AWARENESS BUT NO PROGRESS

The greatest environmental challenge the 21st century is water, writes Boutros Boutros-Ghali, secretary-general of the United Nations between 1992-1996. In this analysis, the author writes that the problem is not so much a lack of water on a global scale but inequities in its distribution. Brazil, Russia, Canada, the US, China, Indonesia, India, Colombia and the European Union monopolise almost two-thirds of global water resources. In the developing world, 90 percent of the water used has not been treated for impurities. In the poorest countries all of these problems accumulate and compound each other. The illnesses caused by contaminated water constitute a serious obstacle to economic development not only by causing millions of deaths but also by rendering hundreds of millions of people incapacitated In addition to the problems of pollution and waste is the fact that many countries depend for their water on sources outside of their countries. Therefore, the challenge, here as in many other areas, is to replace relations of force with relations of solidarity, cooperation, and collective administration. Education, particularly about the environment, must be made universal, for this is the only way to bring about the development of awareness and engender a sense of responsibility and commitment to safeguard the common patrimony of the earth.

JUSTICE LONG OVERDUE FOR KOREAN “COMFORT WOMEN”

Surviving Korean \"comfort women\", forced to serve as sex slaves to Japanese military officers during WWII, have waited over half a century for an apology from the Japanese government, and with mounting international pressure, they just may get one, writes Elisa Gahng, a senior at the University of California at Berkeley and intern with the Women of Colour Resource Centre in Oakland, CA. In this article, Gahng writes that these women, now aged 65 to 80, were among 200,000 young women kidnapped from Korea\'s poorest regions. In three years, the average comfort woman was raped 7,500 times and some by as many as 30 military officers a day. Their quest for justice began in 1991 when a group of Korean grandmothers publicly told their tragic stories and filed a class action law suit against the Japanese government demanding reparations. Japan\'s government still refuses to assume responsibility and even denies the existence of comfort stations. But growing global pressure may turn the tide. Multiple inter- governmental agencies, such as the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), have urged the Japanese government to make an official apology and assume responsibility.

EU CONSTITUTION: GOOD FOR EUROPE AND THE WORLD

A \"No\" vote on the EU Constitution would not be a mere pause in the path forward but a giant step backwards, desired only by those who always wanted a Europe that was no more than a free-trade area, writes Mario Soares, President of Portugal from 1986-1996. In this article, Soares argues that rejection would introduce a tremendous risk of disintegration and spell the end of a political, social, and environmentally-committed Europe. Worse, it would mean the rejection of the EU as a \'\'global power\'\', a counterweight in European-US relations able to resist efforts at imperial hegemony by forces that consider the UN just a stumbling block. The hawks who advise George W. Bush would certainly be pleased by a \"No\" win. The \"No\" forces, in France and elsewhere, are a contradictory mix. Many are inspired by nationalistic notions. There are leftists and communists guided by immediate and ideological criteria. Then there are the neo-conservatives, ultraconservatives, economic neo-liberals, and religious fanatics. And among the French socialists, who are divided on the constitution, the group headed by ex-prime minister Laurent Fabius is for a \"No\" vote with the idea of using the referendum as a means of protesting the centre-right government of Jacques Chirac. All are partisans of the notion that \"the worse things are, the better they are\", which historically has tended to backfire on those who live by it.

THE ENVIRONMENT IS CENTRAL TO FIGHTING POVERTY IN AFRICA

While the new focus on Africa\'s development is welcome, the essential role of the environment is still marginal in discussions about poverty, writes Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate and Kenya\'s Assistant Minister for Environment and Member of Parliament. In this article, Maathai writes that while we continue to discuss these initiatives, environmental degradation, including the loss of biodiversity and topsoil, accelerates, causing development efforts to falter. Without better management of resources the achievement of the MDGs, especially the elimination of poverty, could easily remain a dream. Africa lags behind other regions in progress toward the MDGs. If we do not acknowledge that the environment is central to sustainable development and ending poverty, we run the risk degrading the resource base on which future development depends. To make poverty history, we have to put the environment at the centre of policy and decision-making.

JOHN PAUL II: THE GREAT RESTORER

The fundamental characteristic of the long and complex pontificate of John Paul II was a restoration of traditional conservative values and a return to internal Church discipline, writes Leonardo Boff, a liberation theologian who was punished by the Vatican doctrinal authorities in 1985 with \'\'obsequious silence\'\'. In this analysis, Boff writes that the pontificate of John Paul II was not a reformation but a counter-reformation, an attempt to halt a process of modernisation that erupted in the church in the 1960s . A major contradiction lay between his actions and teachings. To the outside, he presented himself as a champion of dialogue, of liberty, tolerance, peace, and ecumenism, but within the Church he shuttered the right of expression, banned dialogue, and created a theology with powerful fundamentalist overtones. In John Paul II it was the religious mission of the church and not its social mission that was dominant. He had a limited and simplistic understanding of the liberation theology prevalent in Latin America when he became Pope. He saw it as a Trojan horse for marxism, which he was obliged to denounce because of his experience of communism in his native Poland. He convinced himself that the danger in Latin America was marxism, when the real danger has always been savage and colonialist capitalism and its anti-populist and retrograde elites.

WILL THE NEW POPE MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE FOR AFRICA?

Will the election of Joseph Ratzinger as Pope make a difference for Africa? asks Neville Gabriel, coordinator of the Justice and Peace Department of the Southern African Catholic Bishops\' Conference, based in Pretoria, South Africa. In this article, Gabriel writes that the most urgent challenge facing the world today has more of a North-South than an East-West axis. The danger for Africa today is that intra-Northern competition for global economic and political dominance may mean another century dominated by East-West rivalry and conciliation, while the poorest of the world in Africa remain forgotten. While colonial political relations may have ended for Africa, colonial patterns still characterise Africa\'s economic relations with the world. The church under a new pontiff must actively work to at once transform Africa and its situation in the global community. The unmatchable popular pulling power of a pope with a pervasive social justice concern for Africa could make all the difference. However, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in his time as prefect of the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith has not demonstrated such a concern. His immediate concern has been the orthodoxy of internal church teaching. If Pope Benedict XVI continues in this vein, his papacy will change nothing in Africa\'s future.

THE DILEMMA OF THE CONCLAVE: REFORM OR COUNTER REFORM ?

As the Vatican Conclave meets to select a new Pope, the overriding question is whether the cardinals will elect a man who will return to the path of Vatican II, or one who will prolong the Catholic Counterreformation. In other words, who will prevail: John XXIII, or John Paul II? asks Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian and writer. Pope John XXIII convened all of the bishops in the Vatican II Council (1962-1965) in order to undertake the Catholic Reform, which with great hope and new life swept the world. Like all processes of change, this also aroused resistance and opposition, which predominated in churches that suffered persecution --like the Polish church-- and in important sectors of the notoriously conservative Vatican Curia. It is from this area of resistance that John Paul II emerged, setting in motion a Counterreformation of the Catholic Church. For this reason, the challenge today is whether the cardinals will chose a Pope who returns to the path of Vatican II with the contributions of the Third World churches that will restore the centrality of justice and the poor, or whether they will chose a Pope who prolongs the Counterreformation using media dramatisation, the strengthening of the figure of the Pope and the Curia, and a merely moralising discourse on the poor and justice.

EUROPEAN UNION IN THE BALANCE

The delicate point at which the EU currently finds itself could develop into one of the most dangerous crises in its half-century of history, writes Joaquin Roy, Jean Monnet Professor and director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami. In this article, Roy writes that the drama will unfold in May. First, on May 5, British prime minister Tony Blair stands for re-election. If the conservatives prevail, which is improbable, they will seek to halt the euro-train and force it back into the station of pure free trade, far from the federalist path. If Blair wins, he will have to convince the British to enter Europe for real. France presents a different problem if on May 29 it rejects the Constitution. A French rejection would unleash a torrent of collateral damage: a bad example for the new members, deception in Germany, slow erosion of the euro, and a death blow to foreign policy. Not even the alternative of an economic Europe would be safe, tied as it would be to political commitments. Without the prospect of a real EU, the justification of the common currency would collapse of its own weight. The richest countries, with Germany at the top, could not only consider the euro as a temporary mechanism but also oppose it on the grounds it only serves to protect the new, and poorest members. And without a constitution, a common foreign policy, not to mention an autonomous defence system independent of NATO, makes little sense.

THE WORLD MUST CHOOSE: ARMED SECURITY OR HUMAN SECURITY

Today\'s world faces an existential choice between armed security and human security, writes Sylvia Borren, Executive Director Novib/Oxfam Netherlands. In this article, the author writes that armed security means the elite of the world defending its privilege with guns, gates, and walls against the great majority of the world who live in abject poverty. Three figures give us a clear indication of where we are heading: 50 billion dollars a year are spent on aid, 350 billion dollars on agricultural subsidies in rich countries, and 900 billion dollars or more spent on arms. Borren calls for building a deeper democracy and local leadership; creating a national governance system which creates an enabling environment; and providing global justice, coherence, and stability. The Millennium Development Goals can actually be met quite easily if we approach them in a rights-based and gender-based way, eliminating agricultural subsidies and dumping, freeing indebted countries from debt, increasing development to 0.7 percent of GDP, and a number of other actions.

This column is related to World Press Freedom Day, which is 3 May: NEPAL: JOURNALISM IN A TIME OF EMERGENCY

On February 1 Nepal\'s King Gyanendra sacked the prime minister he had appointed, took power himself, and declared a state of national emergency, and Nepal\'s vibrant and free press was suddenly muzzled, writes Kunda Dixit, editor and co-publisher of the Katmandu-based weekly newspaper, Nepali Times. In this article, the author writes that constitutionally the emergency will lapse next week unless reimposed by parliament. But there is no parliament and no elected prime minister. There are strong calls from political leaders, activists, the media and the international community to have the emergency lifted and the press freed. King Gyanendra said his army needed the emergency to concentrate on defeating the Maoists. But muzzling the media has actually helped the Maoists because the censored press has lost credibility and few believe it even when the government is telling the truth. In addition, the media\'s reporting of Maoist atrocities are also not getting reported, and in the absence of facts wild rumours are rife. Prolonging the emergency will just bolster the argument of those who believe that it was not really designed to curb Maoism, but to put down pluralism. Lifting the state of emergency is in the interest of this country, its people, and its monarch.

THE ACEHNESE MUST GUIDE THEIR OWN RECONSTRUCTION

As the response to the overwhelming destruction in Aceh from the December 26 tsunami enters the reconstruction phase, the Indonesian government and foreign aid agencies must limit their roles in providing financial and technical assistance to the Acehnese, writes Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia\'s leading novelist. In this article, Toer writes that the reconstruction work, including the generation of designs and setting of priorities, must be left to the Acehnese themselves, who know their territory best and what they need and how to achieve it. The Indonesian central government must respect what they say. This does not mean, however, that the money allocated and donated by foreign countries for reconstruction should be managed by the Acehnese. Corruption in Indonesia, whether in Aceh or in other parts of the country, is rampant. It should not be surprising if funds donated by foreign countries for tsunami victims are embezzled or stolen. To prevent this from happening, foreign donations for the reconstruction of Aceh must be managed by international non-governmental organisations.

CRISIS OF THE CIVIC NATION?

For US historian Samuel Huntington the greatest threat to the national cohesion and identity of the US is Hispanic immigration. For Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, demands for autonomy for the Bolivian region of Santa Cruz presents a danger that must be promptly nipped in the bud. For some, the greatest threat to the cohesion of the Spanish government is the possible approval of a proposal for a new Basque state, writes Joaquin Roy, Jean Monnet professor and Director of the Centre of the University of Miami. What these three cases have in common, Roy writes in this article, is the failure of, or the perception of disappointment with, the civic nation, and irritation at persistent intransigency, the marginalisation of the different, and irresponsible centralism. In any case, they are the product of a globalisation that pressures each to conserve his particular signs of identity, whether beneath the various configurations of the nation-state or the more varied experiments in international integration and cooperation. The United States may have reached the exhaustion of its model and doubts about its cohesion, and as a result is trying to invent for itself an identity-based nation (based on a race and an ethnicity, when not on a denomination of Christianity as well) that never existed. In Latin America the failure of the civic model is more scandalous because it is easier to adopt but is more expensive.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: ANOTHER MODE OF COMMUNICATION IS POSSIBLE

Analysis of the world media carried out after the Fifth World Social Forum (26-31 January) showed that coverage of the Forum\'s activities has shrunk, writes Mario Lubetkin, director-general of IPS. This development seems to jar with the fact that the WSF is the largest and most representative forum of civil society, with higher attendance this year than ever -- about 150,000 -- as well as more than 4000 accredited journalists present from around the world, Lubetkin writes in this analysis. We must pay attention not only to media coverage but also to gaps in coverage caused by media policies, the author argues. It is a question of understanding who decides, and why, to limit coverage of the major themes of civil society, in particular those related to development, which though extremely important to the future of humanity are too often pushed aside by frivolous stories. Only a combination of serious, creative, and participatory initiatives will make it possible to move from the simple assertions and critiques regarding what is covered badly or not at all to a process that provides citizens with the information they need to understand, make decisions, and act. Lubetkin outlines three initiatives by World Forum on Communication and Information to address the situation: the creation of a world network to connect the media present at the forum; the organisation of a virtual global community of journalists; and the creation of a virtual university for journalists. One of the challenges presented by the WSF is to forge another form of communication which can give rise to another form of participation. Without this, the objective of creating \'\'another possible world\'\' will never be more than a wish planted in the imaginations of millions and millions of people.

PORTUGAL: THE CARNATIONS ARE BLOOMING AGAIN

When the Portuguese Socialist Party and its leader, Jose Socrates, take office on March 12, they will assume a tremendous burden of responsibilities.The country\'s crisis is profound, has many different ramifications, and cannot be resolved magically by a fortunate election, writes Mario Soares, former president of Portugal. I expect that the new prime minister will take advantage of his first days in office to make a clear break with the past, giving clear signs that he grasps the hopes and expectations of the voters. He must make it understood in word and deed that Portugal will be ruled by the government selected by popular vote and backed by the majority of the Assembly of the Republic -- and not by the main economic powers or corporations or lobbies which seek only to use the government for their own ends.

INTERVIEW WITH FERNANDO SAVATER: “THE WORLD, HOW MUCH MORE JUST, HOW MUCH SAFER?”

Basque writer and philosopher Fernando Savater gave this interview shortly before the anniversary of the March 11, 2004, bomb attacks on three passenger trains in Madrid, Spain, which killed 192 people and wounded two thousand. Savater (born in San Sebastian, 1947) is a philosophy professor and the author of numerous essays, which have been translated into a dozen languages. He leads the Basta Ya movement, which represents the victims of terrorism in the Basque Country. The previous Spanish government, of Jose Maria Aznar, stated that there should be no discussion of the causes of terrorism because there could be no possible justification. What is certain is that there is still no internationally-accepted definition of terrorism today. Why is this important? I think there is a mistaken notion that all terrorism is equal. This is the same as saying that all fatal diseases are equal. But cancer is not the same as AIDS. They may both kill you, but they are not the same. Their causes must be understood for them to be treated. Similarly, and with no intention of justifying terrorism, the causes of terrorism must be understood. Ethnic terrorism is not the same as religious terrorism, or the terrorism of the poor against the rich.

THE ROAD TO DEVELOPMENT PASSES THROUGH TRADE AND SO THE WTO

Only the WTO can improve global rules for the conduct of trade, which is so necessary to complement development and poverty-reduction strategies, writes Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of the World Trade Organisation. The WTO\'s Doha Development Agenda is a single undertaking which we will not be able to conclude unless we make progress across the board, the author writes in this analysis. We cannot afford to wait for results in agriculture before making further advances in tariffs on industrial products, services, rules, and the other areas. With respect to agriculture, while far-reaching commitments were agreed on domestic support, export competition, and market access, there remain a number of gaps to be filled and thorny issues to be resolved. On export competition, despite the important commitment to eliminating export subsidies, we still need to fix an end date. With respect to domestic support,the actual level of commitments still needs to be carefully negotiated. On market access, we still need to negotiate the actual percentage of reductions. We also need to establish which products can be designated \"sensitive\" and \"special\" and agree on disciplines to ensure that flexibility in this area is not used to circumvent market access commitments. The road ahead could still be a rough one. The DDA is still behind schedule and every new delay weakens its credibility and value. We need to approach our work over the coming months with a sense of urgency and determination.

DIGITAL DEBRIS: ELECTRONIC WASTE AND THE HAZARDS OF COMPUTER RECYCLING

Electronic waste is the fastest growing disposal problem in the world. From the industrial backwaters of mainland China to rapidly industrialising regions of India and Pakistan, a wide range of electronic devices and appliances are being received and recycled in conditions that imperil the health of the recyclers, their communities, and their environments, writes Mark Sommer, who directs the US-based Mainstream Media Project and hosts \"A World of Possibilities\", an award-winning internationally-syndicated radio programme, where a three-part series on electronic waste can be accessed and downloaded.. In this article, Sommer writes that most of the components in these devices are recovered by poor, often migrant scavengers and sold for reuse. But in the process they and the environments around them are exposed to heavy metals like mercury, lead, beryllium, cadmium, and brominated flame retardants that leave lethal residues in bodies, soils, and watercourses. Governments and electronics firms have long known about the hazardous effects of this \"effluent of the affluent\" and as early as 1989 drafted the Basel Convention, an international treaty dealing with the global trade in toxic wastes. In 1994 it was strengthened to ban the export of all hazardous wastes from rich to poor countries, even for the purpose of recycling. Alone among developed countries, the US has refused to ratify the Basel Convention and has consistently sought to undermine its implementation. Yet as with so many other global agreements, the rest of the world has ceased waiting for the US to lead and has instead taken the initiative itself. The EU has already implemented the Basel Convention, banning the export of all hazardous wastes to developing countries for any reason, while readying a comprehensive set of regulations that will require electronics manufacturers selling to its 25 member countries to bear the responsibility for the entire life cycle of their products, taking them back at the end of their useful life and phasing out their toxic components.

IRAQ: THE MOTHER OF ALL CORRUPTION SCANDALS?

When the new Iraqi government takes office in the coming weeks it will face the daunting task of reversing decades of state-sponsored looting, writes Peter Eigen, Chairman of Transparency International, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the fight against corruption. Transparency International\'s Global Corruption Report 2005 (www.globalcorruptionreport.org), released March 16, features a special section on post-war reconstruction. In this article, the author writes that infrastructure development has suffered greatly at the whims of dictatorship, the scheming of the Oil-for-Food programme, and the opaque contracts of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which doled out billions of dollars worth of construction and engineering contracts at break-neck speed in the aftermath of the war. The potential for abuse remains immense. The safety and prosperity of future generations, and by extension the success of peace and democracy, will rest, literally, on the foundations built today. It is indispensable that Iraqis see the new government as legitimate and accountable. The scene unfolding, however, does not bode well. The government should decentralise aid and reconstruction projects where possible, shortening reporting lines and strengthening a sense of ownership. A strong and independent local media is also vital to keep a watchful eye on those in power. Competitive and transparent bidding must be ensured. With unprecedented sums earmarked by the US government for Iraqi reconstruction and an oil industry and infrastructure still in tatters, the opportunities and the risks are immense. If urgent steps are not taken, Iraq will not become the emblem of democracy that many of us hope for; it will become the mother of all corruption scandals.

BEYOND IDEOLOGY: US “SILENT MAJORITY” SEEKS NEW POLITICS

Domestic divisiveness within the United States represents a far greater danger to the American democratic republic than any threat from foreign terrorists, writes Mark Sommer, host of the award-wining internationally syndicated radio programme, \"A World of Possibilities\" and co-creator, with William Ury, of BothAnd (www.bothand.org). In this article, Sommer argues that as currently framed, the war on terror is the ultimate either/or paradigm: \"You\'re either with us or against us.\" But this frame has divided Americans both from one another and the rest of the world in ways that could prove fatal to the country\'s future if it does not soon reframe the struggle in more inclusive ways. A different kind of Middle America - both principled and pragmatic, strengthened rather than weakened by its differences -- could bring fresh energy to a paralysed body politic by creating a vibrant new process outside the dead zones that are the White House and Congress today. By combining the best of many perspectives into creative, effective syntheses, they may yet produce hybrid solutions with the vigour to withstand our all-too- human fractiousness.

POVERTY, WATER, AND GLOBALISATION

On March 22, World Water Day, the UN will launch the second International Decade for Action \"Water for Life\" (2005-2015), writes Riccardo Petrella, a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain. In this article, Petrella writes that the goal of first decade (1981-1991) was to assure access to potable water to all inhabitants of the planet by 2000. As we know, this goal was not achieved - far from it. This failure was due primarily to the fact that the leaders of the rich and powerful countries did not implement the measures that they themselves considered essential, particularly allocating 0.7 percent of GDP per year for aid to underdeveloped countries. Instead, between 1975-2000, they provided on average 0.23 percent, or less than a third of what they had promised. With the ascendance of the vision of today\'s financial globalisation, the eradication of poverty came to be considered impossible. Were it to happen, it would be achieved not through public will but by market mechanisms. Creativity, life, identity, and even individual survival are all vetted in the arenas of the global competitive markets, whose specific function is to select the \"best\" products and services, the more \"profitable\" places for investment, production, and consumption, promising the most \"competitive\" success. The fundamental question, Petrella writes, is whether the right to life of billions of human beings can be squared with the prolongation of the present human disaster by another ten years. I do not believe that the majority of Europeans, Africans, Asians, and North and South Americans think so.