lingo of my inner voice

Saturday, March 25, 2006

World Social Forum - Day 1

Okay so as you people know I planned to attend the WSF today and I did too. Firstly, I was late so I fetched a rickshaw to reach the venue but the poor rickshaw stopped after every 1 or 2 minute which seriously pissed me off because there was some problem with engine or something like that and with much agony, I finally reached the venue.

What I just hated about the forum was nothing was organized and the volunteers were mere spectators who have come for fun because maybe they had nothing better to do. It is such a shame that the local volutneers doesn't know what is happening and where the allotted seminars are taking place and I had to ask foreigners that can you please guide me where A lane is or where D-103 section is located. On top of it, the distribution of venues inside the KMC Sports Complex is so senseless that you have to move in circle and take a round of the whole ground.. I mean a person who wants to lose 10 kilos in a day should visit WSF because you are required to walk for miles and miles for hours throught the day. The should have distributed according the proposed themes but they have just planned the locations so hap-hazardly.

Another thing that really disappointed me was at most of the places, nothing was going on. I mean half of the tents alloted for seminars were empty or if somebody is speaking about any topic, it was so irrelevant and over-the-top politcal speech type narration that it wouldn't serve any help for practical scenario.

After such misery, a ray of hope invited me to come into the main stadium and the most magical, profound and logial session started. It was about imperialism and basically how a nation can logically defeat America in there evil plans against humanity in whole and what should be long-term strategic vision of poor or opressed countries. Everyone agreed that powerless people didn't have any grudges, it is the people in power who misuse it for many reasons. Tariq Ali(author, filmmaker and historian) and Jeremy Corbyn(Member of Parliament UK) were the heroes of the pelinary. Obviously I won't reveal what they said because after attending sessions throughout this week, I plan to write several articles on the topic discussed obviously backed up by own research and their lectures. One world I was impressed.

After such exhausting and tiresome day, there should be some entertainment too. So we joined a classical dance theatrical performance which talked about deforestation, global harmony, self-propagation and minority rights. It was a nice viewing experience and philosophical too at the same time but unfortunately I only watched two performance and then left as I had some prior commitments.

After first day I know what to expect and from whom to expect because most Pakistani NGOs sucks. They don't have good scholars and intellectuals in their seminars and workshop so I will avoid them. Today I didn't get much chance to interact with foreigners and people from different countries and cultures but tomorrow I will look forward to do this.

Last but not the least, did I tell you that the rallys and their slogans were so hilarious :p

Note: If you are in Karachi, please join in. It is an off-day so everyone can come.
Main Plenaries for 26 March 2006

2:30 PM - Dignity Forum (Discrimantion and oppression, racism and casticsm)

6:00 PM - Politics and Religion (effects on culture expression)
(Speakers: Sania Saeed, Rahat Kazmi, Nafeesa Shah, Nilofar Farrukh, Mehar Afroz and Rahul Bose)

Scented Words posted by Raheel Lakhani :: 11:09 PM :: 4 Comments:

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