For reasons as yet unexplained, Google melted down 100 of our co-edited blogs on Dec 9- two of which told a lot of the water stories we had been listewning to from Brazil - it looks nigh on impossible to ressurect whynotfoz from which the post below of Jan 2005 is extracted; we are trying to find the time to connect back http://waterangels.blogspot.com - itself a troubled warrior as we used to co-edit with the EU's www.knowledgeboard.com but then their founders left and with them the mission to be the greatest open space linux type example of community knowledge sharing every experimented with http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=272082005 Lula took part in the official launching of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), a civil society movement that is pushing governments to keep the promises they have made for development assistance. Addressing the 12,000 people packed into Gigantinho Stadium in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, where the fifth World Social Forum (WSF) is under way, Lula expressed his solidarity with the movement, which is made up of hundreds of civil society groups from around the globe. "I'm here because I believe that you are taking an important step, an historic step for the Forum. You are growing from being a mere group of people, each one with their own demands, towards resolving an issue like hunger, which is a social problem and a political problem," he said. The GCAP demands that the rich countries of the industrialised North immediately dismantle their farm subsidies, comply with their pledges to set aside 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product for international development aid, and cancel -- along with all of the multilateral credit institutions -- the foreign debt of the poorest nations. The movement also urges governments around the world to protect public services against the incessant wave of privatisations, to ensure the population's access to food and medicines, to require greater transparency of the big corporations, and to redouble their efforts to achieve by 2015 the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000. "This should be the year in which governments keep their promises and respond to the more than one billion people who are living in absolute poverty, who demand justice," said Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/news/stories/030127s.htmPresident Lula opens World Social Forum /27.01.03Before leaving to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Luiz Lula Inacio da Silva of Brazil took time to open the third World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre. With rousing words of social justice and solidarity, President Lula endorsed the key message of the WSF; 'Another World is Possible'.With an estimated 100,000 people in attendance, activists and campaigners worldwide are seeing this year's forum as the beginning of an important global movement. One of the key concerns of delegates in Porto Alegre is the power and influence of big business, which many believe is as destructive as it is beneficial.Christian Aid joined forces with partner organisations for a seminar on increasing the accountability of multinationals. Entitled 'From Grassroots Struggles to Global Strategies', the session attracted participants from all over the world to discuss common problems of increasing corporate influence and malpractice and the need for legally-binding regulation to reduce both.'What we see more and more in companies is corporate cannibalism with companies putting profit before people,' said John Samuel, a Christian Aid partner from India. 'Many companies make promises of corporate social responsibility but its mainly a whitewash, concealing what's really going on. What we need is rights-based regulation which will make companies legally accountable to the people and communities they affect.'All six panellists involved in the seminar, including delegates from India, the Philippines and Brazil, as well as the UK-based organisation Friends of the Earth International, echoed this same message. 'The importance of the WSF is that people realise that we are all in the same situation with companies' said Ingrid Gorre from the Philippines. 'The strongest message coming out of the WSF is 'no' to corporate control and 'yes' to community-based management of resources.'Porto Alegre 2003Firstly, I’d like you to know that the joy I feel is more than my heart can bear, to be taking part once again in the largest multinational event organized by world society - this World Social Forum.The last time I was here was to take part in a debate of which the subject was "Another Brazil is possible". And I can remember that at that time I wasn’t even sure whether I’d be runningfor President of the Republic of Brazil. And today, taking part in this Forum, I’m here in my capacity as my country’s Number 1 civil servant.I’d like to thank the management of this event. I know that it’s not easy, I’m aware of the sacrifice you’re making for the sake of the organization that’s required, and I’m aware of the trouble you’re taking with security.Right now, Haddad, I’m speaking here in Portuguese and there must be comrades out there - French, English, there must be people from China, and from India, who have no idea what I’m saying.However, those of you who don’t understand what I’m talking about but believe in the World Social Forum, look into my eyes and you’ll understand every word I’m saying.I would like to thank here and now our comrades who are running the Forum, and the ministers too, but in particular I’d like to thank the people from all over the world who have come here without counting the cost, some of whom don’t even have the right to speak, who don’t have the opportunity to speak but who came here anyway just to say, "I exist as a human being. And I want to be respected as such."I always said that my greatest wish, to be elected President of the Republic, was to see if I could meet my own challenges. I’m a man who has taken up many challenges in Brazil. I have made many demands of each government that has held office here before me, just as many of you make demands in your own countries.And my wish to become President of the Republic was to find out whether, if elected President of the Republic, I would be able to meet my own challenges.And so I don’t have to worry about what possible enemies could be saying. I know very well that throughout history, the Brazilian social movement, the Brazilian trades union movement, Brazilian political parties, Brazilian religions and Brazilian NGOs have accumulated a wealth of experience and together with that wealth of experience they have plans, they have challenges, they have brought about amazing things. And now I have four years in which to deal, calmly, if not with everything but with those issues that we can and are in a position to deal with.I still dream of implementing agrarian reform in Brazil. I still dream of ensuring good quality state education for our people so that university isn’t just for the privileged 8% of society but a right that’s within the reach of everyone.I still dream of creating a policy for health in which the poor no longer die on the hospital doorstep through lack of medical attention or lack of help.I still dream of building a society that is fair, jointly responsible and compassionate; a society where the product of the wealth produced in the nation is distributed more equally among all the children of Brazil.However, I have also learnt during my political career - and learnt with you - that a good coach is not one whose team wins the first game but one who can win the end game.I have four years in office during which to deal - calmly and serenely - with the issues that need dealing with in Brazil. I’d like to make this Government the most honest one there has ever been in the history of this country, the Government that has the best relationship with society.I want to treat each of you in the same way that I treat my youngest son, aged seventeen. We can only do what we can do but when we can’t - with the same calmness and the same compassion, comrade - it’s just not possible. And I’m sure that this relationship that’s based on honesty and comradeship will be the key to our Government’s success here in Brazil.And why am I going to do this? Because I’m aware of the responsibility that rests on the shoulders of those who elected me, on the shoulders of my ministers and - above all - on my shoulders. Although I’ve been elected President of Brazil I have the distinct feeling that our victory represents hope, not just here but for the left all over the world and especially for the left in Latin America.I get up every morning and tell my wife, Marisa, that we must think carefully about everything we do. Because any government, in any country in the world can make a mistake and nothing will happen because it’s not unusual for those in office to make mistakes - but I can’t make a mistake. And I can’t make mistakes because I wasn’t elected as a result of the support of a TV channel. I wasn’t elected because of the support of the financial system. I wasn’t elected thanks to powerful economic interests. And I wasn’t elected because of my ability or my intelligence. I was elected on 27thOctober2002 because of the high level of political awareness of Brazilian voters.I’m aware of the expectations I’m building up in men, women and children. Never, in the history of Brazil, have I seen such expectations, such hope and so many people praying that we get it right. And so many people asking, or rather, saying to me, "Lula, what can I do to help our Government to be successful?"It is that kind of people-power and exactly that political capital that enabled us to get through the election and shout out loud, "Hope has finally overcome fear!"I’ve already visited Argentina, Chile and Ecuador and am aware of the expectations that South America is focusing on the Brazilian government. I’m aware of the hope that socialists around the world are pinning on the success of our government.This has added to our sense of responsibility and I would like to affirm once again that we’ve waited so long to win, we’ve lost so much, we’ve suffered so much and so many have died before us trying to get there, that because of this accumulation of commitment I want to look each one of you in the eye and say, "I shan’t make mistakes and I’m going to create a government that’s focused on the poor in this country."I have always told our comrades organizing the World Social Forum that the Forum should be turned into an instrument that firstly, was not dependent on any political party, and secondly, that wasn’t used by anyone.When I was invited to come here, I actually said to my comrades, "You must think about whether I should go to the World Social Forum because I’ll be the first President". And they said to me, "Lula, you should go because you’re the host of the Third World Social Forum." But today I’ve made a public commitment because a comrade from India, where the next World Social Forum will be held, asked me at a meeting I had with the World Forum Board whether I would be going to India next year. And I told him I’d be going. If necessary, I’d go to China and, if necessary, I’d go wherever I was invited because I’m the end result of the work you’ve been doing all those years. I think, therefore, that it’s not just I who should go to the Social Forum but other heads of government should also go to find out what people are thinking, what people want and how people want things to happen.So, what’s new? What’s new this year is that because of you and because of the World Social Forum, I’ve been invited to go to Davos. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have been invited. And I’ve just remembered something: when I started out on my trade union career, my cleverest and most intelligent friends said to me, "Lula, don’t join the trade union movement because the Brazilian union structure is a carbon copy of Mussolini’s "Carta di Lavoro" and if you join the union you’ll end up serving the interests of the employers and achieve nothing." I joined the union and in three years we’d changed the history of the Brazilian trade union movement and it’s now one of the most important in the world.In 1979, we in Brazil were fighting to regain political freedom and I took it into my head to form a party. Those who were in favour of political freedom began to oppose this because their version of political freedom didn’t include the creation of a political party. And there were those who warned me, "Look here, there’s no room in Brazil for a party like the Workers’ Party. This business of saying that a workers’ party can be formed, that a steelworker can lead a party - that’s a thing of the past. There’s never been anything like that in either the Brazilian or world social order." Well then, we were a stubborn lot and managed to form a party that is now the main left-wing party in the whole of Latin America.Now, I’ve remembered something that I’m going to tell you now: in 1978, we came out on strike at the ABC industrial complex and the Chairman of the Federation of Industries rushed off to the 2nd Army to tell General Dilermando that he had to put down a strike by steelworkers. It’s just possible that if I’d belonged to a more traditional political organization I’d have packed my bags and gone off somewhere else for a week until the dust had settled. As I was politically more innocent in those days I just picked up a phone and rang the commanding officer of the 2nd Army, saying: "General Dilermando, I’ve read in the papers that you’ve invited the Chairman of FIESP (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo) in response to a request put forward by him. Well, I’m Chairman of the workers and I’d like to talk to you as well." I then spent three hours with him.Now, when the invitation to Davos arrived, to begin with I said: whatever am I going to do in Davos? And I then took the following decision: I’m President of a country with the world’s eighth largest economy. I’m President of a country with 45 million people who don’t get enough calories and protein. I’m President of a country with a history and a people. And it’s not every day, every month or every century that a metal-worker wins the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil. So I took the decision. A lot of people in Davos don’t like me, without having met me. I want to make a point of going to Davos and saying in Davos exactly what I’d say to a any comrade here on this stage. I’ll say in Davos that it’s impossible to continue with an economic order where very few people can eat five meals a day and a great many spend five days on earth without eating at all. I’ll tell them that a new world order must be established in which the product of wealth is distributed more fairly so that the poor countries can have the chance to become less poor. I’ll tell them that black children in Africa have as much right to eat as blue-eyed children born in the Nordic countries. I’ll tell them that the poor children of Latin America have as much right to eat as any other child born anywhere in the world. And I’ll tell them that the world doesn’t need war, the world needs peace, the world needs understanding.I believe we have things to do in the world. What we can’t do is stay shut up inside our world, believing that all the bad things around us are caused by those who are outside.I’d say, today that this is rather like a family in which suddenly the son’s involved in drugs and instead of the parents talking the matter over with their son and finding out where the problem lies, they start blaming the school, they start blaming a neighbour, they start blaming the girlfriend, instead of the parents sitting down and asking themselves, "What did we fail to do that ledour soninto drugs?"We’re poor. This may be partly the fault of the rich countries. But it may be partly the fault of one section of the elite of the South American continent that has ruled in a subservient way, that has ruled Brazil in such a way as to make it subordinate, perpetrating the most outrageous instances of corruption.In Latin America alone, in recent years, four heads of state - Collor, in Brazil; Fujimori, in Peru; Menem, in Argentina; and Salinas, in Mexico -have left office because of having robbed their countries in broad daylight. And this can’t go on happening. The rich countries can’t help the poor countries by accepting capital deposits or laundering money belonging to those who are robbing the poor countries.I can remember that there was once a President of Zaire by the name of Mobuto. And I remember at the time he was accused of having 8 billion dollars on deposit in Europe while his people were starving.If the rich countries want to make a contribution they shouldn’t take money resulting from drug trafficking or organized crime. And they shouldn’t take money from countries whose leaders are actually involved in stealing - they should give that money back to help their people.Dear Haddad, I’d like to end by telling you all something. Let me say something to you. I want you to know that my single and most important commitment to you is one of which you can be absolutely certain, like the confidence and faith that you have in God, if you’re a Christian: it is that I may make a mistake but I’ll never reject even the smallest detail of the ideals that won me the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil.Each month, each year, I want to be able to look each child, each woman and each man in the eye and say: "We’re building a new nation. We’re building a new country."And I keep on saying every single day that I must make a dream come true, not my dream but the dream of all of you, that one day in this country, no child will go to bed hungry and no child will wake up to an empty plate.The day will come in Brazil when people die because we were born to die, but no-one will die of malnutrition as many in this country are dying nowadays. The day will come when people will realize that this nation I’m dreaming of and that you’re dreaming of can actually be built. It depends on our inclination to do it. It depends on our courage. It all depends on our inclination.And I’m here to tell you something, comrades at the Third World Social Forum: come what may and whatever may happen, I shall try to carry out to the letter the Government Programme that elected me President of Brazil.Running a country is like running a marathon. You can’t set off at top speed because you’d be out of breath by the first corner. You must take sure and deliberate strides in order to end your term in office certain that your obligations have been met. And I want to be able to tell the world: how good it would be, how marvellous it would be if instead of the rich countries making and spending money on so many arms, they spent money on bread, beans and rice to stop people being hungry.I can imagine how many billions and billions of dollars are spent on war. Soldier killing soldier. Soldiers killing the innocent and closer to home, children looking up to beg for food that’s often thrown away without any thought for that child.Comrades of the World Social Forum, I want you who are Brazilian and you who aren’t Brazilian but who are here, I want you to be as absolutely certain as you’ll ever be in your life that I won’t let you down. I won’t shrink from doing what we have to do. And I expect to make my contribution so that other comrades win elections in other countries, so that we can, once and for all, start electing people with more compassion, people with more commitment, people who believe that it is possible to change the history of mankind.For 500 years Brazil has been looking towards Europe. Now is the time to look towards Africa and South America. Now is the time to establish new partnerships so that we can be more independent, strengthen Mercosul and create a political force for negotiating. We cannot accept what has been going on for 40 years, the blockading of Cuba. We cannot accept that countries can be marginalized for centuries and centuries. And we can’t accept that a country the size of Brazil can each year go on having a higher and higher rate of poverty and wretchedness.Therefore I just had to come here. I had to come here and say to you: it’s been worth it. And it’s going to be even more worth the trouble on the Government’s last day in office when we can prove, supported by a mass of data, that we achieved in four years what others have failed to achieve in dozens of years in Brazil.In saying goodbye to you, I want to end by telling those of you who have coordinated the World Social Forum, for God’s sake, don’t give up comrades, because in three years you have managed to build one of the most extraordinary things that the world civil societyhas ever known.Although we are several thousand kilometres from Davos, following on after the Porto Alegre Forum, Davos no longer has the force it once had before the World Social Forum existed. The truth is that the world’s social problems have never been discussed in Davos and now everyone is forced to admit that social problems need to be discussed.You have managed to achieve a place in history. The press, which at the first Forum had started by calling it a "meeting of leftists,"a "meeting of the world’s loony left", now acknowledges on all the front pages that the World Social Forum is the most important political event that has taken place in contemporary history.And I have no doubt whatsoever that it will make a decisive contribution to changing the history of mankind.Thank you very much, comrades - here’s to victory, God willing!"