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Mette in
Mumbai
"It was a BIG success!"
 Danish
development worker Mette Landau has recently returned from the
fourth World Social Forum, which took place in January this year.
Along with 15 other people from MS Nepal and partner organisations,
Mette spent one hectic week in Mumbai, India. Mette works for MS
as advisor for Dalit Welfare Organisation and Center for Women’s
Development in Nepalgunj in Western Nepal.
"We had brought along everything we could possibly think of that
had a flavour of something Nepalese, traditional and cultural:
bags and purses made by women’s groups, Nepalese food that people
could taste, a big map of Nepal and a huge pile of brochures from
our partner organisations.
- And the response was overwhelming. At places like the WSF, for
some reason some booths seem to get very popular while others are
less frequented. We had put a lot of effort into making our booth
nice and inviting. Among other things, we had put mattresses
everywhere so that people could take off their shoes and come in
and sit for a chat. Furthermore, we were lucky to be presented on
TV two times, and that also helped us get attention.
Caste discrimination on the agenda
In Nepal, the Hindu caste system is still directing discrimination
of Dalits, despite laws that forbid such practices.
“Dalit and caste discrimination were major issues at the WSF this
year, probably because the forum was held in India. One of the
most valuable experiences that we gained from our participation
was a lot of contacts to other Dalit organisations. I think that
for our partners, it was essential to see that many people are
confronted with precisely the same problems as our partners
themselves experience in their everyday lives. I think that it
somehow gives them hope when they realise that discrimination does
not only take place in Nepalgunj. It makes them dare stand up and
say: “But it IS wrong. It IS not fair. And we are many who think
so!”
"Besides all this, it was a tremendous experience for all of us to
be together with more than 100,000 people who all shared the
belief that it must be possible to make this world better. At
times, however, I got annoyed by the somewhat prevailing
conception of globalisation as the big Evil, which must be fought
at any costs. I don’t agree with that conception. On the contrary,
I think it is important to use the globalisation constructively
and to use its possibilities: to globalise equality, education,
human rights… Globalise access to globalisation!”
Heading towards where?
On February 11 and 12, MS Nepal and the partner organisations’ WSF
delegation meet to discuss how best to use the experiences from
WSF and how to follow up.
“The WSF was born as a reaction to the big financial summits where
very prominent and well-educated people meet and pull some strings
that have implications worldwide. Of course, there are also very
prominent and well-educated people at the WSF. But there are also
a lot of others: poor, uneducated and marginalized people without
power. And they are a difficult lot to gather under one hat,” says
Mette.
"WSF is a very young movement. I think this is the reason why its
focus is not yet quite sharp. Our slogan - Another world is
possible! – is fine, but what other world is it that we are
talking about? We say that we want to do this together. Yes, but
what is it that we want to do? Where is it that we want to go?
I think that one of WSF’s future challenges will be to give a
clearer answer to these questions. I know that it is important to
meet and to get to know each others’ problems and agendas, but it
is equally important – or perhaps even more so – that we are
getting somewhere with it.
The interview with Mette Landau took place on February 10, 2004
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