INURA at the WSF in Porto Aleggre, January 2005

INURA seminar

Porto Alegre, Brazil

January 23-25

about programme


programme

 
23/01/05 – SUNDAY - AFTERNOON
SAFARI – Walk around the city centre of Porto Alegre to capture its physical and social dynamics, (Centro, Cais MAUÁ, edifícios culturais, triangulo Matriz/Alfândega/Mercado, etc...) Possible boat ride in the late afternoon.

 

24/01/2005- MONDAY
Bus tour - for a general view of the city, the hills (some are protected natural areas, some are legally or illegally occupied, a sight of the periphery, islands, neighborhoods)
Morning
1-Ilha Grande dos Marinheiros  (informal recyclers – garbage collectors) – visit and conversation with some people of one of the non-official recycling structures in a very impoverished area of the delta.
2-Collective for sorting solid waste (galpoes de reciclagem) official organizations for sorting and selling material from ‘selective’ urban waste, also located in the periphery but usually on the hills, with support of the municipality, now facing problems of shortage of material as the informal collectors get most of the waste before municipal workers. Meet at one of the plants some of the workers, and someone from the program.

Afternoon - In Loco at Vila Cruzeiro
'In Loco' is a group of students that started independently inside the architecture school of UNIRITTER to develop their own project of approaching the impoverished community neighbor to their University, working with them for two years with very interesting projects to get to know their needs, looking for redefining some open areas for communal use.
Vila Cruzeiro – meeting local residents and leaders to talk about the experience with IN LOCO, their projects and outcome.
In Loco will be presenting some material they have produced about their experience and expectations for the future, as they have recently faced a crisis since they have being absorved by the University’s official structure.

 

25/012005– Tuesday
Morning
1- OP (orcamento participativo) Brief critical presentation on the participatory budget experience in Porto Alegre.
2- Boca da rua - Conversation with people from an organization of young homeless people who write and sell a small newspaper with their stories on traffic lights in a way of getting visible, be connected to society, and make some very small money. (still working on this contact).
Afternoon
Time reserved for INURA talk, open for a review of what has been seen, presentations, common projects, etc.

 

26/01/2005– Wedneday

Opening of the World Social Forum

 

 

More information: dalligna@portoweb.com.br

About accommodation:
Because the WSF is a major event for POA there is no way you can get a hotel room if not through an agency. For the forum prices go up, and people have very short time to confirm the bookings, as time goes by. There is an agency taking care of the INURA’s bookings. People interested should contact Pablo at <mailto:macchiturismo@macchiturismo.com.br>macchiturismo@macchiturismo.com.br, to define, dates, rooms, payment.
Pablo Macchi
Macchi Viagens e Turismo
Fone / Fax: + 55 51 3388 2324

INURA / WSF 2005
The World Social Forum came to existence four years ago as an alternative event parallel to the World Economic Forum, open to all those who believed in the possibility of a world different from that discussed and reinforced in Davos. People came to Porto Alegre and last year to India to get together, talk about their alternative visions of this world, show our strength, also to feel this power we can have when we are all together, claiming, fighting, demonstrating, working hard to make a difference and to turn this in a better world for everyone.
Yes, there is also parting, anthropological curiosity, some cosmopolitan felling that we in Porto Alegre can only experience through the Forum which is the city’s major event ever, the crowd, the heat, chaos sometimes. But the atmosphere is of good will, based on the principle that people are around for in a common interest.
In January 2005 the WSF comes back to Porto Alegre. The theme for this year is something like ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE. Sounds Familiar! It is not all set yet as septembre is the date when themes, groups, programs will be defined.
INURA is already in the WSF discussion groups list. You can have a good look into the WSF site (<http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/>http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br) for a better idea of its history, and subscribe for updated information on the 2005 event, in Portuguese, English, Spanish and French versions.
We from INURA, here in Porto Alegre, saw this as a good opportunity to get some more INURA people together again around this major event in order to make easier as possible for people to travel up here, experience the FORUM, possibly running an official INURA seminar within the WSF which will make possible to discuss our actions and get together with groups like us. But also make possible for the people coming over to have a better, closer idea, of what life in Porto Alegre is like, by showing the place around, and most important getting to talk to some people who are taking their actions as different ways of resistance to this excluding, sometimes cruel system in which we all live. In this sense we are preparing a small INURA meeting for the 3 days previous to the FORUM. The WSF goes from the 26th to 31st of January 2005.