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The "World Social Forum" in Porto Alegre, Brazil
The "World Social Forum" in Porto Alegre, Brazil:
Manifestation of a New Phase in Human History
What I saw and felt in Porto Alegre (PA) is, for me, a manifestation of something that I feel is radically new in the history of humanity, a manifestation of something extremely beautiful and hopeful that seems to be brewing in the hearts and minds of many people around the world waiting for moments and opportunities for it to be active and alive, a manifestation of a dream that I believe embodies this new phase in human existence, a manifestation of something that is already going on by many groups and individuals in various places around the world and that together built the spirit and momentum in Porto Alegre.
The spirit I witnessed and felt and shared in PA is not new. People throughout history created spaces for themselves to act and live as much as possible outside dominant systems and structures, and sometimes in spite of them, such as the Blacks in the Americas, where music, singing and dancing were part of the means which they used to express the freedom in the spaces they created. What was new in Porto Alegre was the fact that more than 100,000 people, from over 100 countries, came together on their own, mainly representing themselves, to say in practice that “another world is possible,” and that this possibility is not a dream but a reality. No one was excluded because of race, color, background, age, country, belief, interest, concern etc. There were no measurements of any sort, and no prizes; no one was first, second or third. No one wanted to own or control the spirit or the event; every one shared in creating it. [What makes this spirit particularly invigorating for me is that it is so much in harmony with the spirit that I currently work with in the Arab Education Forum and qalb el-umour project, which means that many people in various places, around the world, are converging around certain basic convictions and principles related to our perception of humanity, its relation to the world, and how we relate to one another.] The space in Porto Alegre was everyone’s to use in the way they saw fit, as long as they saw that that space belongs also to others. Singing and dancing groups from South and Central America, as well as other places, performed wherever they found a space they could use. There was a lot of happiness, aliveness, tenderness, and hope. It is a very hopeful gathering in a world that tries to convince everyone that the goal of life is security and not happiness, and that any stranger is a potential enemy. In Porto Alegre, we were all strangers and there was so much loving feelings flowing among people, so much caring, so many conversations. Eating simply and healthily was part of the spirit. Eating is a social activity, which involves farming, preparing, sharing, and interacting, and not only ready food to be consumed. In that big tent, which housed “eating,” there was nothing instant, pre-packaged, junk, or some other “global” manufactured food. There were fresh fruits and vegetables, brought by farmers from around Porto Alegre, and prepared or cooked in front of people. Juices were all fresh under that tent, squeezed, prepared and served in front of the person ordering them. Everything was delicious, nutritious, appetizing, and fresh. It made me realize the difference between “food” as a commodity and “eating” as a social human healthy activity.
What was distinctive about the gathering in Porto Alegre, and made me feel that it marks a new phase in the existence of human societies, was the spirit among huge numbers of strangers, and the various small invisible things, which one can only feel by being there. [What I am trying to do here is to convey that spirit but, of course, it cannot be the same as being there.] It was a generous and hospitable spirit. This spirit is common in traditional societies (that is, societies that are rooted in the soil of the land and the soil of culture where people live). What is not common, but was there in the gathering in Porto Alegre was the size, diversity, and aliveness of people who were there, and the hope and good feelings the gathering generated. In a sense, one characteristic of the new phase, which I felt the gathering in Porto Alegre manifested, is people transcending the mentality of big empires, big armies, big corporations, and big budgets. [The fee to enter and attend all panels and workshops, and to share in the spirit, was 3 Brazilian Riais, less than 1 USD! In addition, tents and camps were set up to accommodate tens of thousands of students and young people.]
After the Soviet Union decided not to play the game of big empires any longer, and dismantled itself, many people were depressed or confused, but others felt that it is time to act, think, express, and relate in new ways; that it is time for people to regain their responsibility in making ‘another world is possible’ a reality. Since then, people have been re-discovering themselves and re-gaining their sense of responsibilities and possibilities (witness, for example, the millions around the world who poured into the streets on February 15, 2003, saying that war can never be a way or an answer to solve human and social problems). People are re-discovering the plurality in human existence, in living, knowing and expressing, and in re-defining the words they use. More and more people are realizing that believing in a single, undifferentiated path for progress (referred to usually as universal thinking), has been a major factor in destroying diversity and pluralism, forcing learning to move along narrow paths, equating understanding to acquiring information and technical skills, and pushing wisdom aside. The logic embedded in universal thinking naturally leads to the belief that one person/ people/ nation/ country/ religion/ culture can be absolutely better than another (according to some supposedly universal measure!) and, thus, can impose their ideas and ways on the world at large. The belief that one’s ideas and ways are the best is not new. What is new (and exclusively characteristic of western civilization) is the successful diffusion/ dissemination, through “universal” tools (softly or coercively), of certain beliefs and practices as universal. The most effective tool has been education as it has been conceived and practiced during the past 300 years – through a curriculum taught to all students, and through standards, measures, concepts and meanings that are claimed to be universal. Mathematics and the sciences with their claims to universal truths, and technology with its magical impact on people, have been part of this triumphant march of universal thinking and the belief in a linear path for progress. Ignoring wisdom and pushing it outside people’s consciousness seemed necessary for science and technology to develop at an amazing rate. However, they have been, at the same time, a main cause of the catastrophic situation and trends, which we witness today around us. Life cannot hold together for too long without wisdom.
“Another world is possible” (which is the motto of the World Social Forum) necessarily embodies a change in the way people feel about themselves, their role, their perception of humanity and its place and role in the world. Many who still think that we need another big empire in order to safeguard people around the world fail to see, or consider as significant, the rise of people. It has been a fact throughout history that when structures fall or are weakened, people rise. (I felt it on several occasions in my life and work.) People who met in Porto Alegre were a manifestation of people around the world who are regaining their feeling of dignity and their sense of responsibility to create what they find more in tune with their humanity. In Porto Alegre, there were many worlds in one place, many cultures and worldviews interacting in ways that did not feel the need to come out with one declaration for all. In a world that attempts to put everyone on the same track, the gathering in Porto Alegre was a welcome spirit that not only believes in pluralism but actually lives it, manifesting it in every aspect. In a world that is governed by market values, it is very hard for governments to play an independent and human role, even if they wished so. In order to survive, governments (in today’s world) can only act as employees serving capital and dictated by it. Even in science, faculty and students in the main “science” centers and universities in the world today, seem to follow a path where their main dream is to become consultants. Searching for truth or seeking answers to burning questions and passions is rare in today’s world.
The gathering in Porto Alegre was a sort of United Peoples (in contrast to United Nations), a sort of globalization that embodies different values and spirit. The gathering manifested a different logic; a true manifestation of “another beautiful world is possible.” What I found so beautiful about Porto Alegre was that it gave space to all, a space where people moved and interacted freely and honestly.
Probably what most people seem to share around the world today is that there is something deeply wrong with how the world has developed (at least during the past 100 years), how it is being run, how humanity is perceived, how we relate to the world, how we relate to one another, as well as with the dominant patterns of thinking and consumption, and the values we live by.
For such big and diverse numbers of people to be together, with hardly any police around and no regulations about how people should behave and treat one another, where every one has room to say what s/he wants, where you hardly see anyone pushing or shouting at another; where I didn’t see one face frowning or unhappy, where young people act and behave freely but always considerate of others… is a powerful statement of trust and faith in people. I don’t think there has been anything like this throughout history. [May be the closest I know of is the Hajj to Mecca, where people gather on their own, from all around the world, each representing himself/ herself and goes as an equal to all others. The Hajj is an annual international gathering of hundreds of thousands of people that has been taking place, every year, for the past 1422 years, with not one year missing! I always said that I hope that that spirit is extended to encompass all people and all areas, and not only Muslims and not only religion. I thought that what I was dreaming of, and mentioning it often in my talks, is so far fetched. In Porto Alegre I saw it happening, I saw its seeds flourishing and growing. In this sense, I believe that the gathering in Porto Alegre and its spirit are manifestations of a new phenomenon in the world; a phenomenon that responds to a deep human need of living with love, trust and faith.
One negative comment, which I heard from few people, was that the event was chaotic because there were constantly some changes in the program. I said to one who mentioned that comment, “You are like someone who is standing next to a window and ignoring the wonderful breeze coming through and the beautiful scene outside, and all what you notice is some crack or dirt on the frame of the window!” Caring for the frame over the spirit has been, in my opinion, what marked modern civilization in its industrial capitalist form during the past 300 years. The spirit (along with wisdom) have been imprisoned, ridiculed or made invisible. Porto Alegre helped in liberating this spirit, and made us aware that, in many communities, it really never died or even held prisoner. In Porto Alegre, we discovered that many peoples, across the various worlds, have been developing in a way different from the way Western countries had developed; we discovered that it is a blessing to avoid development along the dominant path. To dream of a world where the values of competition, winning and control have no meaning is probably difficult in today’s world. Some would even say that if we try to retrieve diverse traditional cultures and ways of living, we might perish. May be this is true, but if we do not, we will certainly perish. The path that western countries developed is actually a path that is impossible for non-westerners, because, as one Syrian put it, “If the East wants to be a West, it needs another east to live on” [i.e. to exploit, to wipe out its populations and steal its resources.]
When I speak of the happy and wonderful atmosphere and spirit, it does not mean that those who met in Porto Alegre are blind to the destruction of humanity and environment that has been taking place for at least a century. They were not living a false and wishy-washy dream. Many panels and discussions revolved around such issues. There was a clear awareness that the world is devastated, that a lot of what has been sold as ideals to us is bankrupt, yet there was a lot of healing and a lot of hope. There were many initiatives that embody re-inventing life, after the onslaught on it by claims of creating a perfect tomato, a perfect grain, and a perfect human being. In contrast to past times, where many of the problems and disasters were a result of ignorance, most of the disasters in the modern age, especially in the twentieth century, have been by design, planned and executed by people who are highly educated. When one reads how “chaos theory” in math is used to predict, control, and shape the future according to the interest of the few, or how technology is used to conquer people’s spaces, leaving very little room where people can live and interact without being watched, or how economic development is leading most communities into more injustices and more violence and the environment towards destruction, we need to stop and rethink. Literally, we need to re-invent humanity. In Porto Alegre, I felt that peoples from around the world were re-inventing humanity, not through “think tanks” but through relating to one another and treating each other differently, and by perceiving themselves and their relationship to the world differently. The gathering opened, in the minds of many, new horizons of hope. Vitality was flourishing, the imagination was constantly fed, the senses were continuously nurtured, and the mind was nourished with hope and natural diversity. In Porto Alegre, we learned again that strangers are not to be feared, hated or imitated but to be welcomed, in generous and hospitable ways, to our hearts and minds, so we can all grow.
Yes, the gathering in Porto Alegre was a beautiful dream. There was one thing, however, that I wished was more of, and that I hope will be more of in future as well as in regional WSF gatherings, one thing that I personally believe is extremely crucial: the importance of moving from condemning systems to examining one’s own actions, ways and patterns of living, consuming, relating, thinking, and expressing, and working on changing these in us. No doubt, there is a need under certain circumstances to intervene and try to stop the destruction that is taking place at many levels. But, what we can do daily (without which things would fall apart again) is to live, daily, according to different tunes, values, perceptions and meanings, and to examine our ways and patterns of living, thinking, perceiving, relating, and expressing.
The beautiful drumming and dancing was a daily aspect that added so much to the lively and beautiful atmosphere and spirit. Small children joined real dancers. I thought to myself how different it is between learning through being taught by professionals, syllabi, and tests, and learning that takes place through natural settings, with real people. Learning through exercises lacks aliveness and joy. Most probably, those wonderful dancers in Porto Alegre never took dancing lessons in the formal sense but learned through dancing with real dancers all the time. It was a reminder of the difference between one who learns through formal lessons to get the right steps and movements and one who lives the atmosphere in its entirety; one who dances with the intellect and one who dances with the whole body and soul.
Many felt an amazing flow of loving feelings in Porto Alegre. There was so much love flowing in every direction, but there was also many other beautiful things flowing in all directions, such as the feeling for justice or beauty. There was a flowing sense of justice and of equality, not in the legal sense, but in the sense of plurality in living. [It was so hard to go back to Boston, to the manufactured world, usually referred to as the "developed" world, where everything is measured, where culture is moneytized, existence quantified, and people and knowledge commoditified.
Yes, love, happiness, beauty and justice are very important in life. However, the way I would characterize the spirit that I felt and lived for few days in Porto Alegre is by saying that life is worth living in itself, it is joyful. No need for achievements, winning, and control to make it worthy. Life is abundant with beautiful things – if we share it graciously and generously, if we learn again how to give without analyzing or counting, and if we remain attentive and sensitive to what is happening around us. I feel that gatherings such as the one in Porto Alegre can help end the conquest of our imagination and free it again to entertain and live in ways that are unimaginable under dominant structures in today’s world.
Munir Fasheh
Director, Arab Education Forum
(January 23-28, 2003)
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