I am attending the sixth Polycentric World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela from January 24-29, 2006.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Yesterday (Tuesday) the forum started with a large march. I've put up a sampling of photos on my website. It ended with a speeches and music, including Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin, Lucas Walker, and others denouncing war and neoliberal economic policies.Today, try the real work has started with panels on a wide variety of topics. So far, I've attended sessions on poverty and development, Vieques, and Indigenous peoples. Right now I'm going to try to catch a panel on Venezuela.
Rain showers keep moving thru Caracas, which makes it a bit wet, a bit humid, and a bit cool at times. The metro system is the easiest and cheapest (free for forum participants) way for us to get from place to place, but it becomes a bit overloaded all the time. Events are spread at nine locations across the city, which makes it a bit hard to get from one event to another. I came out to the Carlota airport for the Indigenous peoples panel this afternoon, but it was such a pain (and now I'll probably get wet walking back to the metro) that I'll probably to schedule an entire day's events at one place after this. It's kinda weird having panels right beside a runway--with planes and helicopters landing right behind the tents where we are meeting. </Marc> <!--5:33 PM-->
