January 27, 2005; Porto Alegre: I am at the World Social Forum. Its the first day, there aren’t even any formal events except the opening ceremony, a march down the riverfront through the World Social Territory past 11 thematic areas that will host over 4,000 events in the next week.

I spent around 2 hours reading through the program to decide which events to attend and I only made it through day one! The sheer immensity fo the gathering is still hard to understand. All the hotels Porto Alegre are full, there is a tent city set up on the waterfront, and thousands of locals are hosting visitors free of charge in their houses. I am staying with two students.

80,000 people have signed in already and over 50,000 more are expected. All of the events and the structure of the Forum itself exude a grass roots methodology. All events are designed by participant NGOs, the ones no one signs up for get cancelled and the organizers of overlapping events may decided to merge them.

And all the people and all the events here are working toward different means of empowering the people of the developing world to create a world in which they can flourish.

As, Njoki N. Njehu of Kenya, one of the organizers said, “we refuse to participate in our own distraction” Sitting idle in a world run by companies as she sees it would be just that. “we can win our struggles” she continued “we are in it for the long haul” it is a process, not an event. The organizers here see this fifth World Social Forum as a step in a process to empower the people of the developing world, it is not just a gathering of a city’s worth of NGO representatives.