A BETTER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

In today\'s world, security and prosperity have become two sides of the same coin, writes Jose Maria Figueres, co-CEO of the World Economic Forum and former president of Costa Rica. In this article, Figueres writes that we all deserve to live and work in a secure environment. And technology has advanced to the point were if we set our minds - and hearts - to the task of effectively combating poverty, we can succeed in improving the living conditions of millions. It will of course take a determined effort by all of us to make this possible, which is why at the World Economic Forum we chose \'\'Partnering for Security and Prosperity\'\' as the theme for our Annual Meeting 2004. I would hope we could all agree on the need for action to address the underlying causes of our problems, and this is where partnerships come in. The World Social Summit taking place in India has come a long way from its first session in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2000. From constituting an opposition to the present wave of development, it has moved to proclaiming that \'\'another world is possible\'\'. We salute this transition, and welcome even more interaction with Porto Alegre.

CHALLENGES, LIMITS AND POSSIBILITIES OF THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM

The World Social Forum (WSF) has headed to India. Mumbai will be the epicentre of the annual global encounter of the planet\'s emerging citizenry that opposes neoliberal globalisation and the logic of domination that feeds it: imperialism, terror and war, writes Cándido Grzybowski, sociologist, director of Ibase and member of the International Committee of the World Social Forum. What exactly is the force that drives the Forum? What is its secret? What does it mean to be a part of it? The answer perhaps is simply to dream of what is possible, to act with faith in the potential of action itself, to seek with others, in the equality of our numerous differences, the possibilities of changing the relations, processes and structures that oppress and exclude. The most radical experience of participating in the WSF is to feel that one is in a space of freedom to think, to speak, to propose, to be heard -- and to be respected for this. It is a joyful, colourful and boisterous forum for thinking about the actions we will develop in the places we live, making us part of a powerful global movement of citizens. That said, we should take a closer look at the principal challenges of the WSF today. To be global, the Forum must galvanise the world, feed itself on the most vital strengths of the different civil societies, in the framework of the Charter of Principles, maintaining the goal of re-creating globalisation on radically democratic and sustainable foundations. Beyond being against neoliberal globalisation and getting involved in imagining a different possible globalisation, another world, it is essential to recognise the major deficits in the WSF process.

DEMOCRATISE GLOBALISATION BEFORE GLOBALISATION DENATURES DEMOCRACY

While globalisation has generated great hope for much of the world, it has also given rise to numerous threats, writes Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1992-1996. The author writes that we must democratise globalisation before globalisation denatures democracy. To begin with, the UN system itself needs to be more thoroughly democratised, specifically the Security Council, which remains Eurocentric and does not take into account the emergence of new major powers over the last 50 years. The push to democratise risks undermining the logic that drives it if it results in the location of global power beyond the reach of the states, and if the new sites of power do not operate according to democratic principles. Only a new conception of solidarity can prevent or at least attenuate the inevitable exclusions that global society carries within itself. But solidarity cannot be decreed. It must arise out of a collective engagement, that is, the participation of states as well as the non-state actors of contemporary international society.

NEOLIBERALISM HAS FAILED

Neoliberalism, the economic dogma that has been the rage for the last few years, has clearly failed to solve the world\'s problems, writes Mario Soares, president of Portugal from 1986-1996. Whether in the US, Europe, or Japan, or particularly in emerging economies, the sanctification of the market, particularly as practised in the 1990s, gave what it had to give and sank the world into what Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz described as \'\' the first major planetary crisis of globalisation\'\' , Soares writes in this analysis. Especially in the Third World, the free market, when untempered by any governmental regulation, leads to the creation of deep social injustices, systematically refuses to respond to the undeniable ecological needs of our day, and in the current phase of speculative capitalism has led to grave vices, as seen today in the scandals of Enron, Vivendi, etc. Bush has crowed that since the invasion of Iraq \'\'the world is much safer\'. All we need now is for him to abandon Iraq to its sad chaos and the world to an unprecedented economic crisis. Speculator-philanthropist George Soros was right to commit a large sum to the fight against Bush\'s re-election.

THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

Few seem willing to question what seems unobjectionable, namely that the US, victor of the Cold War, is now the single global superpower, writes Augusto Zamora, professor of international public law and international relations at the UAM. However, is the US in fact the only pole of power, or does its hegemony rest on an array of circumstantial facts that will disappear in the years to come? the author asks in this article. The danger of today\'s militaristic whirlpool is that to hold onto power the right-wing that rules the US will have to keep the country and the world in a continuous state of war, in the purest Orwellian sense. Europe (and the world) should understand that guaranteeing any more of Washington\'s military imperialism could generate an interminable conflict combining religious fanaticism, 19th century geopolitics, and lite fascism. As Henry Kamen said, \'\'The preservation of the Spanish Empire was due to the general passivity of all other powers.\'\' The same holds true for the hyperpower of the US. But as with Spain its hegemony will be ephemeral. Questioning the heretofore unquestionable power of the US is the price humanity will pay for a safer, multi-polar world.

TRADE MUST BE BOTH FREE AND FAIR

The current process of globalisation is incomplete, unequal, and characterised by a deficit in democratic governance, writes Erkki Tuomioja, foreign minister of Finland. Tuomioja writes in this analysis that as with elections, it is not enough that trade is free: it has be fair as well. In many developing countries the formal economic sector constitutes a tiny part of the society, the majority of which is either left out of the globalisation process or experiences only its negative effects. Most of the world\'s population lacks protection of the law or social security. It is necessary to expand the space for local initiatives and solutions as a way of limiting the negative effects of globalisation. But this can be done effectively only through multilateral support and rules. We need global social and environmental policies. We have to ask how to democratise the global governance and how to redistribute global assets.

THE HORN OF AFRICA NEEDS LONG-TERM INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION

Jumping from crisis to crisis is becoming unbearable for the people in the Horn of Africa, for the humanitarian community, and for donors as well, writes Martti Ahtisaari, the president of Finland in 1994-2000. As a result of failed rains in 2002, both Ethiopia and Eritrea face serious food shortages and the humanitarian consequences of increased destitution among the most vulnerable segments of society. Between six and ten million people will require food and other forms of assistance this year. We are entering a period in the Horn of Africa in which the underlying causes of these problems must be addressed urgently and properly, the author writes in this analysis. It is generally agreed that the time has come for the World Bank to take the leading role in the long-term development efforts and for the international donor community to concentrate its efforts in the Horn of Africa. It will be much more cost effective if we manage to shift the development towards increasing independence in the production and food security.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM AT TURNING POINT: REFORM OR BECOME IRRELEVANT

At its January meeting in Mumbai, India, the World Social Forum (WSF) will reach its maximum expansion, writes Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of the IPS agency, and member of the International Committee of the World Social Forum (WSF). Each of the preceding three Forums greatly exceeded all expectations raised when the decision was first taken to hold in Porto Alegre, Brazil.. The numbers tell the tale: 10,000 were expected to attend in January 2001; 50,000 came. Attendance rose to 75,000 the next year and to 100,000 in 2003. More important than the number of participants was the galaxy of organisations of every type and level that came together to assert that \'\'another world is possible\'\'. The Forum provides an occasion of enormous gratification for its participants. The days are full of intense debate where no differences separate the rich and poor, farmers and intellectuals, men and women, and a stunning range of political positions are presented and countered. All leave with their commitment to idealism strengthened and deepened. And yet none of this succeeds in producing an impact on the political world and the international institutions.

BAD HABITS

A small gesture of national dignity set off a raging scandal early this year: Brazil required of US visitors what the US required of Brazilian visitors: to obtain a visa and have their picture and fingerprints taken at the border, writes Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and novelist and author of \'\'The Open Veins of Latin America\'\' and \'\'Memories of Fire\'\'. In this article, Galeano writes that everything was explained by September 11, which President Bush continues to use as a shield of perpetual impunity. However, though no Brazilian had anything to do with bringing down the World Trade Centre, the most serious terrorist act in Brazilian history, the coup of 1964, took place with the political, economic, military, and media participation of the United States. It is inconceivable for us to imagine the story the other way around. What would have happened, Galeano asks, if Iraq had invaded the US on the pretext that it had weapons of mass destruction. Or if the Venezuelan embassy in Washington had pushed and applauded a coup against George W. Bush? And what if the countries of the South refused to accept a single condition imposed by the IMF and World Bank unless they began imposing them on the US as well, the major debtor of the planet.

WHY THE MILLENNIUM GOALS ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR

My message to both the World Economic Form and the World Social Forum is the same: we won\'t achieve human security for all without taking global commitments to human rights and human development more seriously, writes Mary Robinson, executive director of The Ethical Globalisation Initiative, former president of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In this article, Robinson writes that we must first be more rigorous in holding governments accountable for the obligations they have made, most recently in the UN Millennium Declaration, adopted in September 2000. The Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development estimated that an additional USD 50 billion a year in global development spending would be needed to achieve the MDGs. Given the current budgets for military spending in nations around the world, that figure shouldn\'t daunt the international community. The MDGs should not be perceived as ends in themselves but as benchmarks of progress. They can be powerful tools for change because they are recognised by the UN and by the international financial institutions --the World Bank and IMF. Now we need to embed them solidly in the broader framework of human rights.

STRIKING A NEW BALANCE, NATIONALLY AND GLOBALLY

The 4th World Social Forum in Mumbai, India, comes not a moment too soon: as 2004 begins, conflict and terrorism continue to grab the headlines, while issues of inequality and injustice are not given the urgency they require, writes James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank. The dialogue in Mumbai can help restore a development oriented global agenda. Tackling with all our collective might the HIV/AIDS pandemic, coming to grips with climate change and our degraded oceans and freshwater supplies, seeing to it that all children everywhere attend primary school are front-burner issues. They need to be on a par with pensions, health care, unemployment, and other domestic issues that government leaders tend to focus on. We can begin to solve the problems of imbalance only if we forge a new development path linking economic growth to social and environmental responsibility. Without enlarging the real opportunities available to all citizens, markets serve only the elites. This means providing everyone the chance for a life that is secure -- with a right to expression, to learn, to a clean environment, to development, for women, and for the disabled and disadvantaged.

WILL LULA MAKE LAND REFORM A PRIORITY?

On November 21, Brazilian president Lula announced a programme of agrarian reform that will settle 400,000 peasant families by the end of his term in 2006, writes Joao Pedro Stedile, leader of the Landless Peasant Movement (MST) and Via Campesina-Brazil and member of the organising committee of the World Social Forum. The government did not consider a more ambitious plan that would have settled a million families in the same period. However, Stedile argues in this article, the definition of goals and numbers it is less important than knowing whether the government will make agrarian reform a priority. We believe that the Lula administration should redefine its priorities: first, it should cease it preoccupation with making interest payments on the national debt and generating a budget surplus. Instead its priority must be to use public funds to solve social problems. If it doesn\'t the people will begin to protest and mobilise against the administration. There is a limit to patience, especially when people are hungry. Now it is Lula\'s turn. The President knows all too well that if he doesn\'t implement a broad programme of agrarian reform, his government will founder.

FOR A FREE AND DEMOCRATIC IRAQ

Certain that they had won the war in Iraq almost without fighting, the Americans now seem to be mired in a \'\'peace\'\' for which they clearly failed to devise a strategy or a plan, writes Emma Bonino, Emma Bonino, member of the Transnational Radical Party and deputy in the European Parliament. In this article Bonino writes asks, Is it really wrong to have gone in to and remain in Iraq? Today, to be \'\'pacifist\'\' is to pursue the cynical, wait-and-see policy of those who say, \'\'After all, the Americans got what they were looking for.\'\' Many have raised the spectre of the Vietnam syndrome, but today the greatest risk is not \'\'Vietnam syndrome\'\' but the \'\'get-out-of-Vietnam syndrome\'\'. We must do everything possible, whatever our past positions might have been, to make sure that the efforts now underway in Iraq are successful. If the current state of affairs is to be corrected, everyone, beginning with the European countries, must put aside the wait-and- see politics and do everything possible to make Arab countries participate in the reconstruction, whose populations, regardless of the rhetoric of the ruling class, are finally beginning to ask themselves the right questions about terrorism, particularly after the attacks in Riyadh, Casablanca, and Istanbul.

THE CHURCH IN THE NEW CENTURY

While inter-church relations have changed for the better, trends that see the ecumenical movement as threatening are gaining momentum, writes Konrad Raiser, member of the Evangelical Church of Germany and general secretary of the World Council of Churches through 2003. Such fears are linked to the breakdown and fragmentation of religious identity, secularisation, and the growing relativism at the heart of our society, Raiser writes in this article. Fears linked to the identity or integrity of each community - among Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, or Orthodox - are increasing. Religious renewal in former Communist countries is impressive but their terms of reference remain to some extent involved in the distinction between \'\'enemies\'\' and \'\'friends\'\'. In addition, today there is an indigenous, a black, and an Asian Christianity, a profusion of charismatic, Pentecostal, and prophetic communities This is the background against which the question of a new configuration of the ecumenical movement is being posed. If there is no structure of reference, nor any discipline regarding participation, we may encourage the rise of a militant, populist, and fundamentalist Christianity.

COMMUNICATIONS SUMMIT MAY BE DOMINATED BY MULTINATIONALS

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an organisation which defines itself as being \'\'specialised in technologies\'\', has received a mandate from the UN to organise a World Summit on the Information Society without co-organisers that have greater competence in social matters, writes Antonio Pasquali, former Assistant Director General of UNESCO for Communications. In addition to the socio-political inexperience of the host there is another shortcoming to this event: the role in the Summit ceded to the multinationals of this sector, writes Pasquali in this article. If the Summit produces any universally beneficial decision it will be due to, for the first time perhaps, the intelligence and tenacity of the NGOs. As a show of democracy, the ITU has invited governments, companies, and civil society to participate, though the latter were ostracised to such a degree during the three preparatory sessions that some are weighing withdrawing loudly from the Summit.

ILLUSION OF ISOLATION FEEDS TERROR

If the first casualty of the US war on terror was truth, the second was trust, writes Mark Sommer, director of the US-based Mainstream Media Project and host of award-winning syndicated radio programme \'\'A World of Possibilities\'\'. In this article, Sommer writes that telegraphed through the policies and pronouncements of an imperial but increasingly isolated superpower, mistrust is spreading like a virus through the global body politic, infecting not only trade relations, diplomacy, and public life but personal and professional relationships. The decades-long decline in civic participation in democratic countries is both a symptom of this fearful isolation and a boon to authoritarian leaders as it fragments all opposition and undermines confidence in its capacity to reverse the course of history. While in itself this reaching out is a purely personal act, it has enormous political implications, opening up a horizon of shared life and shattering what is in fact the mere illusion of isolation. To say that we are all connected is not a merely a wish or spiritual aspiration but a simple material fact. Recognising this is itself a source of profound reassurance.

HUMAN RIGHTS: A HUMAN DUTY

Modern governments acknowledge that they have a responsibility to work actively to end international poverty, protect humanity from dangerous diseases, provide children with education, preserve the environment for our descendants, and ensure that everyone has access to reasonable housing and clean water, writes Mary Robinson, Executive Director of The Ethical Globalisation Initiative and former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Most recently, all 189 United Nations member states signed the UN Millennium Declaration in 2000, which formally commits them to take practical and co-operative action in these and other areas. Robinson writes that there has never been a greater need for simple and convincing arguments that explain, to governments and people alike, why action to end poverty, illiteracy, oppression and disease is right, is in the interests of everyone - richer and poorer - and requires combined and persistent effort from all parties. Political leaders, in their public capacity, and citizens in their private capacity, act to help others because they believe it is right to do so. Ethical commitment is an essential component of any strategy to make the world a safer and better place for all who live in it. Action to end poverty, illiteracy and oppression will not succeed in the absence of such values.

INFO SOCIETY SUMMIT TO AVOID ISSUE OF MEDIA

The conspicuous absence of any real reference to today\'s media in the draft Declaration or Action Plan of the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society is indicative of the power and impact of the media, writes Seán Ó Siochrú, a founder and spokesperson for the CRIS campaign (Communication Rights in the Information Society) and author of \'\'Global Media Governance: A Beginners Guide\'\'(2002). The features of today\'s media landscape were not predetermined by the nature of new technologies nor by globalisation per se but rather by the systematic application of market principles to media across the globe, the author writes in this analysis. In few places was this force local. Rather, the strategy was pursued by a handful of Northern corporations, strongly backed by their governments, who tailored global governance mechanisms to suit their needs and persuaded national regimes to adopt their ways. The CRIS campaign along with others in civil society have taken up the challenge to broach the issue of the media and its impact at their parallel summit, the World Forum on Communication Rights, which will take place at the same time as the WSIS and focus on issues such as poverty and the media, peace, conflict and communication rights. A people\'s movement is gradually rising to the challenge of initiating this change, on local, national and global levels, and turning our concerns into concrete action.

DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT: TWIN ENGINES OF PROGRESS

A key challenge of the 2003 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, from 5-8 December, is understanding how democratic values and practices can be harnessed to help communities achieve more growth, develop better health and education systems, and increase their living standards, writes Don McKinnon, Commonwealth Secretary-General since April 2000. In this article the author writes that one important way of achieving progress in both democracy and development is through consensus-building. The process of global dialogue on which the Commonwealth is based allows leaders to develop joint approaches to problems of common concern. We use the power of consensus in the area of trade and economic development. Because it embraces such a great diversity of states -- large and small, rich and poor, island and land-locked -- the Commonwealth is strategically placed to ensure that the voices of its smaller and developing members are not ignored. The greatest obstacle to effective consensus-building is often the lack of common ground. Here lies the Commonwealth advantage: our nations are not only united by self-interest; they also share common values, similar political, judicial and administrative structures, a common language and a similar business culture.

TERRORISM: FIGHT THE ROOT CAUSES OR FIGHT FOREVER

Hopefully President Bush and Prime Minister Blair in their summit talks in London will realise the need to attack the root causes of terrorism, writes Kaare Willoch, former leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of Norway from 1981 to 1986. In this article, the author cites former US president Bill Clinton who, during a recent visit to Oslo, asserted that \'\'in a world where it is impossible for us to occupy, capture, or conquer whoever aims to harm us, we need to work harder to achieve a world with more friends and fewer terrorists\'\'. And Ami Ayalon, former head of Israel\'s security service Shin Bet: \'\'Those who want \'victory\' against terror without addressing the underlying grievances want an unending war.\'\' One cannot expect non-Westerners to consider it more a more heroic act to bomb Palestinian homes from airplanes than to blow oneself up. US-financed missiles and shells are inflicting a much higher death toll on innocent civilians. It is only natural that many outside the West believe that we oppose only certain forms of violence and condone other far more lethal ones by ourselves and our allies.

DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT MUST GO TOGETHER

At the heart of the international debate is the relation between development and democracy, writes Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary General of the United Nations from 1992-1996. In this article the author writes that these two concepts are inherently intertwined but have all too often been treated as separate. The achievement of both is fundamental to the future of world peace. Development is essential to complement and reinforce democracy. It represents the set of economic, social, and cultural aspirations to which all societies aspire. The right to development is a human right. It should involve all aspects of human life. Inequality, poverty, exclusion, religious fanaticism, racism, xenophobia, and lack of dialogue are all impediments to development which ought to be overcome if we are to work towards the establishment of a more global democratic culture. The mere fact that these are still common traits of modern societies highlights the need for participation and involvement in the democratic process. It reveals that freedom of opinion and expression are not only rights that are to be taken for granted, but rights that must be put into practice.