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Back in Belem the serious business starts with the series of meetings organized in the framework of the Amazonas Forum. However, before I can access the Forum, I need to register, which is no small task when confronted for the first time with the enormity and complexity of the WSF territory.
The vast majority of the 2400 workshops, seminars, etc, proposed by the close to 6000 participating organizations, take place in two main locations: the huge campus of the Federal University of the state of Para and the even huger grounds of the Federal Rural University of the Amazonas. And even though things sound concentrated, going from one session to another still involves walking miles in the face of two conflicting challenges: the oppressive heat and the drenching rain.
Noteworthy points of the first days: packed workshops, meetings with remarkable men and women and a party.
In the first meeting organized by CLADE, representatives from various education CSOs (including CEAL, REPEM, Fe Y Alegria) confront the notions and terms which are constitutive of the educational debate: inclusion, participation, rights, quality… These buzz words cover very contradictory interpretations, meanings and practical concrete realities. Even though most of the participants share common fundamentals in terms of defining these words, the main problem is the way the dominant normative forces manage to capture some of these concepts, rearrange them and impose their own meaning and agenda. An interesting example is given on the question of the rights to education being hijacked to become a liberal theme: the issue is in fact reoriented to become the right to “scolarisation” (is that schooling in English?) rather than the right to education. The same with the totally non-emancipatory and rigid sense given to the term evaluation which becomes a competitive standardization and not an enriching process: a substraction of meaning said one speaker.
The second meeting was organized by the Brazilian coalition (National Campaign for the right to education) with presentations made by several authors of a new book on the financing of education under the Lula Government. I won’t attempt to give any precise account or facts and figures given by the speakers, my Portuguese being much worse than my Spanish, I think I’ll wait till I get some time to go through the book which I was kindly given. What did come out was the incredible complexity of the Brazilian situation with education being submitted to up to 3 different authorities, the federal, the state and the municipal. But once again, the issue of the false hopes of decentralization and autonomy necessarily bringing more democratic participation to the people was raised. Also that the government which is sometimes praised for its good record on education, has indeed passed some positive laws after being put under intense pressure by a lengthy and very wide civil society campaign; but it could be doing more, a lot more… I heard that somewhere.
Before I sign off, forgot to talk about the nice party organized at the occasion of the opening of the new offices of the Consejo Nacional de Seringueros: the rubber dubbers (not sure that’s how you write this, anyway the Trade Union of the Amazonian Indians who collect rubber from the trees in the rain forest). This organization is quite strong and a historic actor of the indigenous resistance movement against deforestation and the struggle of the Indians against the big land owners: many trade union members have been killed in the course of this struggle, the most well known being Chico Mendes. So it was indeed a great honour for GCE to be invited there and with the help of traditional Cachaça (strong Rhum), beer and music (a great live band which got most of the crowd shuffling their feet), turned into quite a magic experience. I took pictures which unsurprisingly turn out a lot more dynamic than stills of the meetings, in part thanks to the wild Brazilian dancers, but I’m afraid you’ll have to dream them up coz I have to idea how to download the stuff on the web…
Bom Dia a todos,
Abraços,
Patrick
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 The WSF kicked off with a huge march through the city of Belem. Difficult to count the number of people involved in the march as I walked through trying in vain to get to the beginning of it. What is certain is that there have been close to 100 000 registered participants to the 5 days of workshops, conferences and action events planned throughout the FSM tertritory. All major players who believe this world and the capitalist system ruling must be changed sooner than later, are here, plus a selection of more reformist organizations who agree that with the economic and social toll on the poeple and the planet business as usual is no longer an option.
Special mention in the march to the Batucadas, we wouldn't have expected anything less as this is their homeland. The indigenous and women rights groups were perhaps the most remarkable bunch, with first prizes for music, crazy costumes and fun slogans, well they sounded lots of fun to me although I didn't understand what they were saying as my portuguese is still a bit weak, obrigado vey much. I did make out many references to the economic crisis with people shouting how fed up they were that the people should pay for the financial corruption while the bankers are bailed out.
Although very hish in political content, the whole march was a very joyous and relaxed affair, and even the heavy rains (I mean those huge bomb drops of rain) didn't manage to dampen the high spirits. The only visible sign of tension occured when the march passed in front of the inevitable Mac Donald, with a large contigent of police force deployed to dissuade any customers from complaining against junk food for a junk consumer world.
Today, is amazona day, with highlights on the culture, people of the region as well as the political and environmental challenges they face. Tomorrow, the FSM BELEM 2009 will open with a record number of more than 2400 meetings on all the issues that count. If in the middle of all that, if I have a few seconds to come back to this blogging activity I will, but you must of course remember that this country is also very well known for the warm human exchanges boosted by the traditional Caipirinhas all of which takes up some of the more militant time...
Abraços,
Patrick
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Hello,
My name is Taylor and I'm GCE's strategic partnership coordinator. Some of you read this message from One Laptop Per Child's Matt Keller in the newsletter. But I wanted to post it here on the blog as well for those of you who might have missed it. One Laptop Per Child is an amazing program that I've had the opportunity to learn more about in recent months. Please visit them at laptop.org.
From Matt:
People ask all the time why One Laptop Per Child in developing countries is a good idea. Education is why. Our group is a non-profit based in Massachusetts, and we make a rugged, low-cost, open-source, solar-powered, connected laptop.
The XO laptop allows children to write, play music, access thousands more books than are in many villages, and learn basic programming. They can collaborate online or share an internet connection. The XO involves teachers, and gives their students incentive and ability to learn at home at night.
In Peru, where 35% of people live on less than $1 a day, the XO is part of the national effort to upgrade education, along with comprehensive teacher training. Programmers there have created a new application, and Peruvian teachers wrote a users’ guide. They are used as far as 3 days’ walk over jungle streams and mountain paths from Lima.
In Bonsasso, Ghana, seven hours north of Accra, a successful pilot convinced the government to buy 10,000 laptops for schools in rural areas, the first sub-Saharan African country to buy them. Peru is planning to buy 750,000 over the next year, most at cost, with many donated as well.
“Through it they are becoming aware it is possible to hold the future in their hands,” is what President Garcia of Peru said about the XO. If you’re interested in giving a laptop to the efforts in Peru or Rwanda, or choosing a school anywhere in the world, see what you can do at laptop.org.
Matt Keller, One Laptop Per Child
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This year's G8 communiqué wields a double edged sword in our fight for everyone to have an education.
The G8 pledged to fill the long-awaiting $1 billion financing gap on the Education Fast Track Initiative, and do a review of this financing mechanism by the next G8 in Italy - which is all very welcome although we need to make sure that Italy start showing some leadership, having been one of the worst performing funders on education to date.
The communiqué has also taken out a line that's been there for the last three years - that states that no country will not meet the education goals for lack of resources. The amount that is needed to pay for all the Education for All goals is $16 billion a year - of which $13 billion is the amount that the G8 is due to pay. So their pledge of $1billion is less than the 10% that is needed to get everyone a quality education.
Given that this commitment was there in previous communiqué’s this is effectively a step back for the 72 million children and 774 million adults still without an education.
Whilst there's been leadership on education from the UK and Canada others are lagging far behind on their promises such as the USA and Italy. And when they do give money to education others like it to come back to them – such as France which uses their overseas aid to education budget to pay elite Africans to come and study at their top universities.
So as campaigners move away from another exclusive, wordy G8 meeting, we start looking towards the future and our next international opportunity seems set to be the UN high level meeting in September. Ban Ki Moon called this meeting as a moment to set a road map to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
We know we can meet the education goals. But we know we need resources, and will power from around the world to make it happen.
Read the G8’s communiqué on Africa and Development http://www.g8summit.go.jp/eng/doc/doc080709_03_en.html
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Tanabata wishes from a million campaigners (including the Global Campaign for Education) have handed in to the G8 leaders.
Today’s Financial Times has a whole page advert with the headline: “G8 Leaders the World – the world’s wishes are in front of you – don’t cut them down”. The advert depicts a samurai chopping down bamboo trees, drawing on the imagery of the Tanabata Festival -- a holiday beginning today when Japanese people write their wishes for the next year and tie them to decorative bamboo trees. G8 leaders will attend a Tanabata-themed dinner tonight to mark the festival. http://www.avaaz.org/blog/en/g8/
Yesterday thousands of balloons with ‘Tanabata’ wishes tied to them represented the more than one million demands that campaigners had made to world leaders. These included the wishes sent from GCE’s site. They were displayed outside the Alternative Summit in Sapporo, Japan, to international media and delegates as they arrived at the conference.
It was no easy task setting up this installation, as the wind picked up and a hundred balloons bursting. However with each balloon having a message of Education, HIV/AIDS, Health, Climate Change or Aid – we interpreted this to represent the broken promises by the G8 on the world’s poorest countries.
Activists from around the world held up the giant ‘Tanabata’ wishes including Kumi Naidoo GCAP co-chair from South Africa, Dian Kartika Sari from GCAP Indonesia, Chona Ramos from GCAP SENCA, Anil Singh from India and Shukria Barakzai.
Click on the title of this Blog to view more images...
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So the current G8 draft communiqué looks set to back track on aid commitments made at previous summits. Progress made in Gleneagles in 2005, and subsequent summits risks being washed away overnight. The consequences would be disastrous to the world’s poorest, the 72 million out of school children. and the millions more sitting in classrooms waiting for their teacher – that hasn’t yet been recruited for lack of resources.
So time is tight but we’re not giving up – GCE campaigners have been busy trying to challenge this decision up until the last minute. At this moment the world’s richest countries should be filling the funding gap not exacerbating the situation.
Campaigners have been sending in their ‘wishes’ for education in the form of a virtual Tanabata ceremony (this is a ceremony that happens at this time of year in Japan where people tie their wishes to a tree). But there’s nothing wishy-washy about their demands to what’s a basic human right. We need to see much more progress in providing education for all – we need the funding gap filled, and 18 million more teachers trained and recruited. www.campaignforeducation.org/eaction
More made than one million wishes have now been made by civil society around the world – asking the G8 to deliver on education, health, water, climate change and aid commitments. Yasuo Fukuda, Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, Stephen Harper and Dmitry Medvedev are all receiving these demands this week.
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