Associated Press Worldstream | By NEELESH MISRA | January 16, 2004
Activists from around the world who have gathered to protest big business and big government at the World Social Forum have put their beliefs into practice, from food and drinks to computer operating systems.
That means there is no Microsoft Windows, but the free software Linux, on the computers used by journalists and attendees.
It also means that the organizers of the 85 million rupee (US$1.8 million) event in Bombay have taken money from Britain's Oxfam group and Canada's state-run humanitarian agency - but not from the U.S. Ford Foundation.
At the food stalls, there are no McDonald's burgers. Instead, there is Bombay's favorite "vada pao" - fried balls of mashed potato sandwiched in chunks of bread. There is freshly squeezed sugarcane juice, popular in villages across India, instead of Pepsi or Coke.
"It was a deliberate decision," said W.R. Warda Rajan, one of India's top Communist trade union leaders and one of the organizers. "If 100,000 people gather and it doesn't hurt the multinational corporations a wee bit, it sends a wrong message."
The bottled water is not the otherwise widely sold Kinley, owned by Coke, or Aquafina, owned by PepsiCo. It is from a little-known local brand called Supreme Aqua. The tea and coffee vending machines are run by local company Plus Beverages, not the Nescafe widely sold in Indian airports.Associated Press Worldstream:
