WSF 2007: No agenda

The organisers of WSF 2007 planned to address 12 topics including HIV/AIDS, women, public service privatisation, conflicts and peace, immigration, youth, debts, free trade, labour and housing.

Yet, the organisation committee had announced that the forum wouldn’t have any agenda. About 1,000 speeches would be delivered freely. The result was disorder, which one member of the organisation committee described as the inherent characteristic of things.

The committee had hoped at WSF 2007 there would be 160,000 participants. When it opened, only 46,000 representatives had registered. Another estimate was 50,000 people. At the end of the forum, no one knew exactly how many had attended.

The “Everything is free” song

Perhaps disorder as an inherent characteristic of things was taken too far at WSF 2007.

The first accident: though the attendance fee was only 0.7 USD for local people or 7 USD for foreigners, local people protested against this “exorbitant” fee. The WSF organisation committee had to yield, letting local people in free of charge as of the 2nd day of the forum. But demonstrators had forced their way in right on the opening day.

On the contrary, companies wanting to take part in WEF have to pay 12,500 USD/year, and another 6,250 USD/year as the meeting fee. And in order to attend important conferences, they have to pay an additional amount of 78,000 USD to 250,000 USD/year.

The second accident: A group of demonstrators sang the song “Everything is free” and ravaged all the food items at Windsor Company’s forum stall. They claimed that the prices were too high and that the stall belonged to one of their ministers. These demonstrators then went to the Norfolk’s stall but the police stopped them. In 2001, a crowd destroyed Monsanto’s experiment plant gene unit Raxin. In 2004, race conflicts broke out among participants at the forum.

The third accident: The organisers announced that the forum would end with a 14-km marathon. When the starting time approached, they realised that by mistake, people had been informed that the marathon was to take place at a park, rather than at a ghetto as planned. So what ensued was confusion.

Why didn’t Southeast Asian countries attend WSF?

At WSF 2007, no Southeast Asian country was present. Yet, on the regular representatives’ list, there is the name of Mr. Walden Bello from the Philippines, director of Southern Hemisphere Focus.

Before Vietnam joined the WTO, Mr. Walden Bello had visited Vietnam 3 times to warn it not to join the WTO. Another member of this organisation, Ms. Aileen Kwa, in 1999 advised Vietnam not to be a WTO member, because Vietnam would be like a 5-year old football team playing against 20-year-old players.
Southeast Asia is considered one of the fastest developing and active regions in the world. All Southeast Asian countries except Laos and North Korea have become WTO members. But even these two countries didn’t attend.

Vietnam’s choice

Despite warnings, Vietnam joined the WTO. And Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is leading a team to WEF.

In July 2006, Mr. Walden Bello happily stood before the WTO headquarters in Geneva, announcing that the WTO’s Doha round had collapsed. With the motto “A world without WTO,” his organisation protested against the reopening of negotiations.

If WTO is considered a sort of symbol of free trade, there are two groups of racers joining it. One group tries to get ahead in the game. The other group is desperate, asking the winners to yield, or at least waiting for the rules to be fairer.

But it will be a long time when the world is perfectly just. The concept of justice can be seen from many angles. Vietnam decides she can’t wait. She has made her choice.

Source: VietnamNet