Berichte
WSF 2007 Nairobi Press Briefing January 23
(This mornings briefing started late after a Kenya protest demanding free access to the forum. Here are my notes.)
Philip Thingo, youth Camp Coodinator (Kenya)
Njoki Njoroge (Kenya)
José Chacon, Registration and programme coordinator (Salvador)
Philip : we are learning as we go along. If food is too
expensive, what do we do about it? We need to look at these problems
and try to come up with solutions rather than just holding up a protest
sign. (Also report on activities under way in camp.) I just wanted to
invite you to the youth camp. (Cultural events).
Njoki: WSF is a open space, and I hope people understand the
process and changes. The most important thing is what comes next with
strategizing and networking. People come because of the spaces to talk
about their issues and to network. After the 25th, the work continues.
I have been telling Kenyans that they should be at the forum, because
in my lifetime I do not expect the forum to return to Kenya. There are
52 other countries, and others should have an opportunity to host the
forum. Before people complained that Brazil and India were too far
away, but we
There are 2 gates where people can come in without payment.
Gate 5 and 12. You dont have to pay. We hope you pay to support the
forum, because it is our forum. It is free for people to come in.
People should exercise their right to eat good, healthy, inexpensive
food. I can take you to where you can get good food for 20 KSH. I work
on food sovereignty. We have wide range of people here, from 5-star
hotels to sleeping on floor. People should be able to exercise their
right to this range. Protesting restaurant does not help. Forum
position is NO coke products, but when you have an open space anything
can happen. People bring in Coke and sell it. We have to watch out for
ourselves, otherwise our bags will talk off.
(Woman comes in from outside and says that a vendor had just
been arrested, that press should come because forum says that this is
not happening but it is.)
Jose: Costs about $50 to come in (for room, chairs, etc.).
Weve been asking for a year for people to own this process. We do not
want to rely on donations, becuase that puts us in a compromised
position. We need to own it. The only thing we could agree on is a
North-South division, with people in North subsidizing people in South,
and people from South subsidizing people from Africa. Fees cover about
35% of expenses; rest comes from other sources. We have discussions
with missionaries and other groups who say they can not afford that,
and with groups here who cannot afford 50 KSH. If you own and feel part
of this process, one way is to do that. We decided not to charge 50 KSH
at gate because it causes logistical problems. I have given away 2000
name tags to people who could not afford fee. Anyone who comes and says
that they cannot not afford we give them a tag, because we want
everyone to be identified. Im tagged as staff. 500 volunteers, 150
translators. We are asking you to own the process, and one way to do
that is to share the cost. Some people think we can own it, we can pay
for it ourselves and do not have to rely on government.
Q: Yesterday Western Sahara workshop broken up by Moroccan
agents. This happens at every forumattend from embassy just to
disrupt. Forum should protect from this. Also, we should have
connections between forums.
Philip: memory stick project, how do we remember and build forum?
Q: # of participants, and total deficit. Any support from local
govt? We would ask govt to regulate prices, because they see the forum
as a business and they double prices for attendees.
Jose: I dont have the number on the badges. Cost is $3M USD, but I
dont have a breakdown. We have registered 46,000 people. But there is
another number, for example 2,000 people came in just in the morning
but we dont have details on them. I suspect about that number will
come in every day.
Philip: government support. Weve had a lot of discussions. They could
not give us a monetary contribution. But they give us other support.
Logistics at airport, fixed roads, security. The dialogue has been
there. Also knowledge sharing session. Kenya hosts a lot of
conferences, and we needed a historyhow to organize a forum. Tourism
secretariat has helped us in terms of arranging home stays.
(Man: police arrests a man from peoples parliament.
Q: armed robbery of Indimedia radio station. More armed robbers
around. Have you found anything to do. People are uncomfortable with
armed soldies.
Njoki: On security committee. Kenyans live with this every day. We had
to balance between security and militarizing social forum. Overcharging
in hotels happens in every forum, they see it as an opportunity. I
dont know what to do about it. Secretariat tried to centralized hotel
reservations, but people make some on their own. Dont know what to do
about it.
As for robberies, police take reports and have been very cooperative.
But people do not want to report. As for arms, it is part of their
trade. We cant tell them not to have arms. We dont know what to do
about it.
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