3.30.2013

Thousands at WSF in Tunis Sing, Dance and Speak Out to Show Us How Another World is Possible


This year's World Social Forum wrapped up today in Tunis, Tunisia. Once again this year thousands of people came from every corner of the globe to celebrate and that 'Another World is Possible'.  The food sovereignty group La Via Campesina, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, was among thousands of groups at the WSF.

More and more people around the world have converted to organic and sustainable practices - the 'People's Solution' - because they work. Ibrahima Coulibaly of Mali, part of La Via Campesina network, said at a news conference, "Agribusiness and transnational corporations are a major threat to the world. They control the best land, and are grabbing even more land everywhere. Instead of producing food for people, they produce crops for export markets– bio-fuels for cars or animal feed for industrial meat factories. But farmers are also uniting globally."

An excellent example of how another world is possible comes from two stories in the news here in BC yesterday. The first, prominent on every lamestream media outlet around Vancouver, was about the thousands of Canadian cars lined up for at least 2 hours at all the Canada/US border crossings. They, the brain-dead consumer class, in their thousands, still are the majority for sure. They still live their lives searching in vain for the right stuff. The second story was about a successful hemp growing and processing industry in 100 Mile House area and how it appears to be just what the economy of that area needs.

Organic. bio-diverse. agriculture works everywhere, including my front yard. Not only does it work to build living soil and produce healthy food but as Vandana Shiva, a fixture at the WSF says, "Biodiversity and soils rich in organic matter are the best strategy for climate resilience and climate adaptation. Forty per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions, which are responsible for climate change, come from the use of fossil fuels and chemical-intensive industrial globalised system of agriculture."

The World Social Forum shows us all that another world, a better world, is possible.


Legendary musician Gilberto Gil, a leader of Brazil’s tropicália musical movement of the 1960s,.sings a Reggae version of 'Imagine' at WSF yesterday.