MUMBAI - Here, amidst a city of tumultuous yet functional disorganization, with no street lines and more smog than oxygen, the fourth World Social Forum is set to begin; an event well-suited to the atmosphere of the location...

LET THE COVERAGE BEGIN
World Social Forum prepares for influx of journalists
By Darren Shore
Photo: Éric Martin
Tuesday, January 13 2004

MUMBAI - Here, amidst a city of tumultuous yet functional disorganization, with no street lines and more smog than oxygen, the fourth World Social Forum is set to begin; an event well-suited to the atmosphere of the location.

At the NESCO company grounds in the neighborhood of Goregaon, giant empty hangars - like those used to construct airplanes, await between 75 and 100 thousand delegates, as well as 2,000 members of the international and domestic press. They have the option of taking the train to the venue; crammed in like sardines amidst the sweat, sandals and saris, though as there is already no room for the durable locals - let alone us closterphobic caucasians with a pampered sense of personal space - they may prefer the taxi. However this dented, tattered, worn-out vehicle, painted a standard black (thanks to a decision by someone with obvious bureaucratic genius who managed to forget India’s blazing sun), swirve past each other, in between the death-defiant skooters which carry up to three helmetless people, missing one another by mere centimeters at times. All this amidst casually sauntering pedestrians who gamble their lives like frogs crossing a six-lane highway. And yes, these incoming do-gooders and those who will report on them will indeed experience the pleasure of the street: There isn’t a free hotel room for miles.

The dedicated volunteers of the Forum and Intercontinental Youth Camp, some of whom arrived months ago, have been making preparations for this mass arrival in the WSF headquarters on Samani Road in Prabadhevi, about an hour away. They work much in the same way as business happens on the street; a hectic semi-mayhem of people who seem to have no pattern to their actions, yet have strangely managed to get things done. They are ready for the press to come hounding through the door. The registration material is in order. The lists of events are printed. The calls are happening. Every paranoid westerner who fears her or his press-card might not be laminated or square enough is reassured. People work until 4am, sometimes sleep at the office, and get up the next morning for another 16 hours in front of the screen. Emails. Reports. Translations. Instructions… Dedication.

Downtown, at St-Xavier’s college; prep-school for the bourgeois of Mumbai - the English-speaking, jeans-wearing, professionals-to-be – hosts a training for the volunteers who will manage services for the press at the WSF venue. They amount to about 90 students of journalism and tourism and so on, about 85 of which are female, whose professors think this will be a good experience for them. A professor from the school explains a bit about the Forum, and a lot about why it’s necessary; because of the rates of homelessness and poverty and joblessness and joylessness which lurk with increasing strength amidst the potential of this nation. He is greeted with questions about how much this whole thing is really about India?, and how many Indians are participating?, and what would happen to the economy if the jobs left? And he answers with some rough statistics.

Journalists will be given tours of the NESCO grounds as of tomorrow. They will want translations and information in Hindi and Spanish and Bengali and Tamil… The alternative media will be hard at work; producing content for consumption by the activist communities all around the world. Indy-media will radio-cast live all conferences and panels. IPS (Inter-Press Services) will produce a daily publication dedicated to WSF news. “Ciranda