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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (35333)	1/16/2004 2:04:11 PM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

It doesn't receive much coverage in the US media. No logo area Activists from around the world who have gathered to protest big business and big government at the World Social Forum in Mumbai have put their beliefs into practice, from food and drinks to computer operating systems. That means no Microsoft Windows, with the gathering's information needs and those of its media entourage being met instead by computers running free software Linux. It also means that the organisers of the $1.8m (£991,000) event have taken money from Britain's Oxfam group and Canada's state-run humanitarian agency, but not a cent from the US Ford Foundation or any other sources associated with the transnational corporations delegates so vehemently oppose. At the food stalls, there are no McDonald's burgers. Instead, there is Bombay's favourite "vada pao", fried balls of mashed potato sandwiched between chunks of bread. There is freshly squeezed sugarcane juice, popular in villages across India, and not a can of Pepsi or Coke in sight. "It was a deliberate decision," said WR Warda Rajan, a leading Indian trades unionist and one of the WSF organisers. "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 - but 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. guardian.co.uk lurqer