Jambo and Karibu to Nairobi!

On the Air Kenya flight: a five page article on the boom in Fair Trade production in Kenya. First thing off the plane: trees overcrowded with pelicans and other birds you would pay to see in some Western Zoo; and cars that drive in the allocated lanes and wave one another by, much unlike the craziness of Cairo.

The Kenyans I’ve met thus far have all greeted me with an enthusiastic ‘Welcome! Karibu!’ I’ve been discussing the World Social Forum with whomever I can, trying to get at the some of the issues and themes of the forums; but the most common sub topic is logistics: ‘how will Nairobi be able to do it? We can’t fit a 100,000 people here!’ (some estimate 150,000!). But other media sources say the organisers say they’ve been preparing for a long time, and they have the right people and facilities to pull it off. Fingers crossed the participants won't spend most of their time in traffic jams, for there is only a week make the necessary plans to change the world!

One question people ask me is: who participates? In a recent article in Kenya’s newspaper, The Daily Nation, it says that out of the approximate 100,000 participants, there are 15,000 Kenyans registered thus far. This would be quite different to the previous WSFs in Brazil, where the 80-90% of the participants were Brazilian. It means that it would be much more global in its make-up, but also that those attending would largely be part of a global activist cadre that can afford to fly in for the week.

The previous WSFs have also been attended by those with a high level of formal education, with most participants having some sort of university degree. Will the Nairobi WSF be able to attract other members of the population? Or will it be a highly NGOified event, out of touch with social movements and the ‘grassroots’ organisations? Hopefully such a worldly event does not have to become abstract and out of reach from the most real and concrete struggles; many suspect this will be the case.

As for my preparations for the documentary, I have been attempting to meet with some Kenyan activists and NGOs, but they all seem very busy with only one week left till the forum. Like many of these things, it will probably come together last minute.

I will nonetheless begin filming tomorrow during the international volunteer training at the main venue, which is very exciting.

Lights, camera, social action!