• by Lucio Flavio Pinto
• Tuesday, March 17, 2009
• Inter Press Service

The ninth World Social Forum ended on February 1 in Belen, one of the cities with the least green space in Brazil despite the fact that it is the gateway to the Amazon, writes Lucio Flavio Pinto, director of the Jornal Pessoal, which denounces corruption, impunity, and the economic and ecological consequences of the exploitation of the Amazon.

In this article the author writes that the Forum did not address any of the problems of the immense and chaotic outskirts of Belen, though it is here that Brazil's largest horizontal favela (with 140,000 inhabitants) is located. The Forum was held cloistered on two federal university campuses surrounded by the most crowded and dangerous neighbourhoods of the city.

It was the culinary needs of the thousands of participants that provided the bridge between those who were expressing their solidarity with the world marginalised by globalisation and who trusted in another, better world, and those who should be the materialisation of these utopias. The grim reality that preceded the Forum can reinstate itself now that the prophets, gurus, disciples, and other well-wishers have gone back to their homes, carrying with them the same thoughts and images they took to Belen.

(*) Lucio Flavio Pinto is director of the Jornal Pessoal, which denounces corruption, impunity, and the economic and ecological consequences of the exploitation of the Amazon. He has faced dozens of court cases and numerous physical attacks and death threats.

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, NEW ZEALAND, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM//

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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