World Briefs

Author: Caroline Vial

World Social Forum in Mali

Bamako, Mali - From Jan. 19-23, Africa hosted the World Social Forum for the first time since its inception in 2001. The presence of nearly 30,000 delegates representing 260 NGOs and organizations from all five continents marked a "turning point" in history according to the Senegalese paper, Wal Fadjri.

Globalization, world debt, the end of agricultural subsidies and regional integration were part of the themes addressed in Bamako.

Citizens opposed to globalization qualified the event as a "victory." As one antiglobalist explained, "African countries have had the most problems in the world. It is for them that global civil society fights. By coming to Mali, people will be exposed to our realities and will see the combat led from the very base by our populations and our NGOs, our governors, to get out of poverty."

The organizers decided this year to create a forum at-large, which will be geared more specifically toward the problems in Africa.

The Forum has previously been held four times in Porto Alegre, Brasil and once in Bombay, India.

- Wal Fadjri, Dakar



Animal Rights activists stage nude protest

Madrid - Baring all in chilly weather, animal rights activists staged a naked protest Saturday in northeastern Barcelona to denounce the torture and slaying of animals to make fur coats.

Representing the number of minks it takes on average to make a fur coat, the 70 men and women lay curled up on the pavement outside Barcelona city hall.

The protest, staged by AnimaNaturalis and PETA international animal rights groups, was observed by several dozen passers-by.

In a statement, AnimaNaturalis said millions of animals were captured, tortured and killed each year to make fur coats. In Spain alone, 26 million animals - among them rabbits, foxes, minks and lambs - were killed in 2003 to make coats, the group said.

"If people could see the animals in fur farms, they would never use a fur coat," AnimaNaturalis president Leonora Esquivel, said in the statement. "The look on those animals' faces stays in your mind, a look that says: 'Why?'"

- The Associated Press