Vacancy in International NGO for posting in India

POSITION TITLE: PROGRAM OFFICER (Two)

LOCATION: Mumbai (1) and Bangalore (1)

REPORTING TO: Country Director


OVERVIEW:

Project HOPE is an International not-for-profit humanitarian organization founded in 1958 and headquartered in USA. As an organization with a proud history and bright future, Project HOPE offers rewarding and challenging careers in professions ranging from Health Education to Finance. With programs in over 30 countries around the world, Project HOPE offers an opportunity to employees, volunteers, and interns to gain a global perspective through clinical and/ or academic teaching experience, exposure to health issues and needs in developing countries, development of healthcare systems and research, and experience in program planning and evaluation. Fundamental to our success and the achievement of Project HOPE’s mission are the core values of integrity, excellence, respect, and compassion.

Last year Project HOPE launched the India Diabetes Educator Project (IDEP), our flagship initiative in India. IDEP is the first large scale effort to train allied healthcare professionals on Diabetes Education in India. In technical collaboration with the International Diabetes Federation, Project HOPE has developed the Post Graduate Certificate in Diabetes Education, a 6 month education program that combines distance learning with on-site interactive workshops. The trainings will be offered in partnership with leading hospitals and centers of excellence for Diabetes care in India. With an estimated 40.9 million people currently living with the condition, India leads the world in the prevalence of diabetes. IDEP offers a comprehensive and sustainable approach that will provide training in Diabetes Education to over 3,000 healthcare professionals, including nurses, nutritionists and dieticians in India.

Over the next couple of months Project HOPE will be scaling the IDEP as well as developing new programs towards diversification of our in-country portfolio. Some of the proposed themes are Health Worker Training, Community Based Healthcare Infectious Diseases Control, Maternal and Child Health, etc. We are looking for dynamic, experienced and highly motivated public health professionals to join our team and contribute to scale and lead our efforts in India.


THE OPPORTUNITY:

Project HOPE is looking to hire 2 Program Officers. The key responsibilities in this role will be as follows:
• Manage and support the project team on aspects of project design, operational planning, staff training, implementation, supervision, monitoring & evaluation, and reporting under the overall guidance of the Country Director.
• Plan, organize, and participate in activities of the project (e.g. trainings, surveys, data collection & analysis, material design, etc.)
• Train, supervise and support the trainers and coordinators to ensure project objectives are met with at local level.
• Ability to work with multiple partners in an independent and entrepreneurial setting.
• Collaborate with the participating centers and master trainers, and coordinate appropriate logistical and administrative support.
• Identify and manage technical resource persons/ organizations to support the project.
• Oversee monitoring & evaluation efforts in the field for the project.
• Participate and contribute to the internal reporting systems of the organization, prepare detailed implementation plan, monthly/ annual work plans, narrative and financial reports, and assist in annual budgeting exercises.
• Supervise and be responsible for the management and accounting of funds and financial activities of the project. Review and analyze monthly expenditures against project budgets, review variances and ensure budget control.
• Initiate and develop resource mobilization and fund raising opportunities along with conceptualizing, designing and operationalizing new projects.
• Manage communications between Project HOPE, local partners, donor representatives and maintain clear channels of communication for smooth implementation of program activities.
• Coordinate and schedule program team appointments, meetings, and conference calls, and provide updates and information on the status of project implementation.
• Document best practices, coordinate and oversee the development of program communication materials, and identify appropriate channels/ platforms to share and distribute the same.
• Conceptualize and oversee meetings with local doctors, public rallies and other community activities to raise awareness on projects in the centers.
• Sensitize and build relationships with senior government officials, liaise with representatives of the medical fraternity, establish linkages with potential partner centers, etc. to enhance Local/ National recognition of the project.
• Identify and represent the India Diabetes Educator Project and other Project HOPE activities at appropriate Local/ National/ International platforms.
• Identify additional programmatic opportunities for the organization, and develop new program proposals and strategic partnerships towards the same.
• Perform other duties as necessary and as required by the Country Director.



QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS SPECIFICATIONS:

Must Haves:
• Qualified professional with a degree in Public Health (MD/ MPH or PHD)/ Post Graduate in Foods and Nutrition/ MBBS with equivalent experience
• Overall 5 years experience in a supervisory role in an International/ National NGO.
• Experience of executing at least one project from end to end (conceptualization to conclusion)
• Broad knowledge of the Public Health Sector in India with strong technical knowledge and experience in at least one domain e.g. Non Communicable Diseases, Maternal and Child Health, HIV/ AIDS & TB, etc.
• Strong program management skills including strategic planning and work plan development with a strong focus on maintaining quality across project milestones
• Experience in grant design, proposal writing, M&E, research, report writing and training
• Experience in financial management and in preparing and monitoring budgets
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in the English language and at least one additional language
• Excellent computer skills required, particularly Microsoft Office software
• Detail-oriented and well-organized; able to manage multiple priorities; function in group and team settings; and work with a minimum of supervision and direction
• Ability to undertake regular travel required including out station travel


Preferable:
• Experience in resource mobilization, fund raising strategies, donor relationship management etc.
• Language skills in Hindi and another local language
• Experience in diabetes sector and coordinating trainings will be a definite advantage.


COMPENSATION DETAILS: Commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Third Sector Partners, a leading CxO and board search firm in the Not for Profit sector has been retained by Project HOPE for this search. Interested candidates can send in their CVs along with three references and a cover note to program.educator@gmail.com, or Contact us at: +91 22 6660 3558/6660 3559. Only short listed candidates would be contacted.

Last date for receiving applications is 27th July 2009.




Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Apply for UN (INIA) Course on Demographic Aspects of Population Ageing

As for the past 15 years, the International Institute on Ageing, United Nations – Malta (INIA), in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund, will be organising an International Training Programme in the Demographic Aspects of Population Ageing and its Implications for Socio-Economic Development, Policies and Plans. The programme is going to be held in Malta, between 23 November and 4 December 2009.


BACKGROUND
Populations are ageing in an unprecedented manner. Over 70% of the older people will be in the Developing Countries,where the number of older people will more than double in the next two decades.They will require new policies and infrastructure - changes that must be based on demographic data and projections.


WHO SHOULD ATTEND THIS COURSE
Potential course candidates should be:
a) Working in the areas of planning and/or research at population level in their country or in an academic national or
international organisation
b) Having a very good working knowledge of English (including computer software in English)
c) Be literate in computers with good working knowledge of Excel or similar software
d) Working in an ageing related field.


Closing date for applications is 15 September 2009.


Read in detail and Apply: http://silverinnings.blogspot.com/2009/07/demographic-aspects-of-population.html




Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Follow the leader… but not blindly!

A lot has been written on leadership, and leadership in every area of life. Yes, follow the leader and you will be fine. Follow Moses and you will reach the Promised Land. Develop the vision of a Moses, and you will stand out.

One great teacher near Galilee once asked fishermen to: “Follow me; I will make you fishers of men.” Many like Peter abandoned all and followed him.

“I am the way, the light and the truth,” he had said to them. Indeed, everyone of them needed to experience the inner light, to reach self-realization and then to be able to walk on the straight and narrow path; because as Harold R. McAlindon noted we may not know where the path lead: “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” The great teacher led the way and left footprints for others to walk in safety.

Only the brave are prepared to go where there is no path to leave a trail. Those intrepid sea-farers who braved the waves to discover new lands while facing dangers on the way were leaders; those fearless Everest mountain climbers like Hilary and Tensing who put life and limb at risk were leaders; those first men who were prepared to fly to the moon and other planets were indeed leaders. In every domain from time immemorial only people with far-sighted vision, prepared to go where no others have been or willing to go, have made the impossible possible; this is how progress is made. In science and medicine great strides have been made only at the cost of people willing to go one step further.

When you are prepared to donate blood you are a leader; when you are ready to donate your organs to others while still living, you are a leader; when you are ready to give your whole body after death to advance the cause of science, you are a leader. When you are ready to die in order to save others you are a leader.

This is what we really need today in every walk of life. May you all be fit Leaders who can see beyond the ordinary. Broaden your vision, for the whole world belongs to you.

This is well illustrated by a story sent to me recently by my friend Nanda Murthy. An old Farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson.Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Bhagavad Gita. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could.
One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa! I try to read the Bhagavad Gita just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bhagavad Gita do?"

The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water."
The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, "You'll have to move a little faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home.

Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, "I don't want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You're just not trying hard enough," and he went out the door to watch the boy try again.

The boy again dipped the basket into river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house. Out of breath, he said, "See Grandpa, it's useless!" "So you think it is useless?"

The old man said, Look at the basket.” The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out.” Son, that's what happens when you read the Bhagavad Gita. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Krishna in our lives." Follow good example set by the leader and be transformed.


By Dr Bala D Lingiah, Glasgow



Courtesy: Mauritius Times


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Latest Indian Economic Survey 2008-2009

The fallout of the global financial crisis on the Indian economy has been palpable in the industry and trade sectors and has also permeated the services sector. While some segments, especially the export-oriented industries, suffered during the second half of the year, the Indian economy has withstood the adverse global economic situation and posted a growth rate of 6.7 per cent in 2008-09.

The economy continues to face wide-ranging challenges— from improving its social and physical infrastructure to enhancing the productivity in agriculture and industry and addressing environmental concerns. Meeting these challenges will be critical for improving India’s social and human development indicators and the quality of life.

At the same time, the Indian economy has shock absorbers that will facilitate early revival of growth. First, the banks are financially sound and well capitalized. The foreign exchange reserves position remains comfortable and the external debt position has been within the comfort zone. The rate of inflation has since abated and provides a degree of comfort on the cost side for the production sectors. Agriculture and rural demand continue to be strong and agriculture production prospects are normal.

While there are indications that the economy may have weathered the worst of the downturn, in part, due to the resilience of the economy and also various monetary and fiscal measures initiated during 2008-09, nevertheless, the situation warrants close watch on various economic indicators including the impact of the economic stimulus and developments taking place in the international economy. Taking policy measures that squarely address the shortand long-term challenges would help achieve tangible progress and ensure that the outlook for the economy remains firmly positive. Chapter 2 highlights some of these challenges, policy options and prospects for the Indian economy.


Read in detail:
http://www.indiabudget.nic.in/es2008-09/social.htm



Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Nuclear weapons: Global Zero is coming- Sign the petition!

Whether in the Korean peninsula, in unstable Pakistan, or in the volatile Middle East, the risk of military or terrorist nuclear attacks is escalating daily. Yet one of the most real chances to rid the world of nuclear weapons is happening and will be won or lost far from the headlines.

Next week in Moscow, Presidents Medvedev and Obama could make history by agreeing to reduce their nuclear arsenals and set the world´s course towards a nuclear-free world. A group of highly influential figures (1) called Global Zero has presented a four-step plan to achieve that goal and, though it seems incredible, they are successfully persuading the nuclear powers that the world is more secure without nukes.

What's needed now is a massive surge of people power urging the US and Russia to take these bold steps to achieve global zero. Click below to sign the petition and help deliver a deafening call to action.


For decades the disarmament movement has sought to rid the planet of nuclear weapons. During the Cold War, the efforts of citizens across the world played a key role in curbing the nuclear arms race, helping prevent nuclear war. But all too often their goal has been regarded as utopian and improbable.

Now, an alliance of the sound advice of security experts and the democratic force of citizens worldwide has a realistic possibility of achieving this goal.


In the face of a deepening crisis, the summit next week is a tremendous opportunity for human progress. Let's pile on the pressure to seize it.

Global Zero leaders will hand it over to Presidents Obama and Medvedev: Sign the petition!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/time_to_global_zero



Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Book by PETA

Many of us who are interested in animal rights have seen bookstores chock full of philosophical essays about animals, vegetarian cookbooks, and a plethora of activism guides, but there has never been one book that was all about animal rights, PETA style—until now.

Introducing The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble, the new book by PETA President and cofounder Ingrid E. Newkirk.

The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: is an exciting step-by-step, issue-by-issue guide for effectively advocating for animals in your daily life. In this book, you will learn all about how PETA began, read the real life stories of animals who have been saved and animals who have been lost, learn how to eat healthfully and compassionately, read the reasons why it's vital to adopt animals rather than support puppy mills, learn how to make your vote count and change public opinion and how to switch easily to cruelty-free cosmetics and clothing, and find many more terrific suggestions for living an animal-friendly lifestyle.


Compassionate celebrities are singing the praises of this complete, all encompassing work:

"This book is the ultimate animal rights encyclopedia—chock-full of facts and resources that will guide you at home, in the marketplace, in life."
—Woody Harrelson


"A terrific book that uplifts you by showing you there are easy, sensible, clear ways to help animals that you might never have dreamt of."
—Martin Sheen


Whether you're a long-time activist looking for inspiration or new to the world of compassionate living, this book invites you to become the best advocate for animals that you can possibly be. This is animal rights the PETA way and the perfect way to help neighbors, friends, and family "get it."



Order the book here:
https://www.petacatalog.org/prodinfo.asp?number=BK224&c=ppgtarcat




Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

‘We Still Dream Of African Unity’

South African Ambassador Ebrahim M. Saley says that Africans still believe in the dream of a united continent.

The South African ambassador to Tehran made the remarks in an interview with the Tehran Times earlier this month in which he also discussed the new South African government’s program, political developments in Africa, the war in the Congo, the Palestine issue, the prospects for Iran-South Africa trade, Iran’s nuclear program, and a number of other issues.

Following is the text of the interview:

Q: With Jacob Zuma’s victory in the recent presidential election, can we expect him to deliver on the promises of social justice and poverty alleviation?

A: It’s a question that implies a certain perception, and I can understand why people have these perceptions… In South Africa, the ANC is the ruling party, and the ANC also has been a liberation movement, and one of the oldest liberation movements on the continent. It started its activities in 1910, and in the years since then, it has matured.

The cause of the ANC has always been consistent in that it wanted social justice. The system of apartheid in South Africa, which was really a brutal system by all accounts, was essentially what people in the ANC were resisting against to bring about a system that would be democratic, that would be representative, that would be fair, and that would take into account the needs and the aspirations of the majority of the people of the country. In 1994, when finally there was the first democratic election in South Africa, and the ANC won… under the leadership of President Nelson Mandela, that was the defining moment for South Africa. But it also started a process…

Historically, apartheid was essentially about dividing people on the basis of race. So you had a minority of white people… that controlled all aspects of government, of the economy, and of social life. There were lots of restrictions. And if I give you an account, even for myself who lived through it, if I tell people, I find it difficult to imagine that is what the system was. Black people were essentially segregated. You couldn’t get education. A fraction of the amount that was spent on a white child’s education was spent on a Black child. At one stage… they spent 14 rands on a Black child’s education and 140 on the education of a white child.

So… these imbalances were effected in society. In 1994, after the election, you had a minority of South Africans, and for historical reasons the majority of them were white, who enjoyed a very high standard of living… And then together with that, the majority of Black South Africans had a standard of living that was on a par with people living in the Congo. So this was the disparity and the imbalance and the injustice that was prevalent… The ANC then had an obligation… to remedy these imbalances…

In South Africa, we didn’t have a revolution, we had a negotiated settlement. And in that negotiated settlement there was then an agreement that there would be a bill of rights, there would be a constitution, there would be rule of law, there would be a constitutional court. And through all that process, we had to find a way of uplifting the majority of the underdeveloped part of our society to match the levels that the privileged part of the society was enjoying. And that has been the challenge. Now that challenge translates into providing education, because that’s one of the keys to social mobility, providing health care, as… South Africa is probably one of the regions most affected by diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and that has put a serious burden on resources. Then the majority of the people did not have basic services like clean drinking water, electricity, or housing, or employment. So this is what… the ANC had to deliver. And that task has been carrying on. Up to this date, the ANC has managed to build three million houses.

For somebody like myself, especially when you travel at night, you come to realize that there are lights on top of a hill which you had never noticed before. It’s simply because there is a village that was not electrified… And now suddenly you realize that people have got electricity. And that makes a very big change in the quality of people’s lives. And then clean drinking water, which is a bit more complicated than providing electricity… there’s a huge program to provide that in a country… not blessed with huge quantities of water.


Read More:
http://www.countercurrents.org/saki010709.html



Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Naujawan-E-Hind : Street Play Group

Few days ago at new Mall at Goregaon,Mumbai,India I met this three young boys and was amazed by their passion for Street Play.

Here is note about their group.


Naujawan-E-Hind was established on 24th May 1992 by a group of young students from SIWS College who wanted to be united in performing various arts even after college. We started of with a streetplay called ‘Ek Ajnabi Lash’ which went on to become a milestone of Indian street theatre. 17 years since, the play still attracts the same kind of attention and also gets us wonderful laurels.

Naujawan-E-Hind is a non-profit, apolitical organization working on social causes like AIDS, Drugs, Illiteracy, Communalism, Population, Pollution etc through the medium of street theatre. Street theatre is an effective medium that enables us to bring about awareness, reaching out to the masses across the country. It is a platform that enables face to face interaction with people, educating them on the causes as well as the precautionary measures that need to be implemented by them to fight against social issues.

Naujawan-E-Hind (NEH) have over 4200 performances to their credit. NEH has organised two national street theatre festivals under the banner “Bol Jamoore”. NEH has performed plays for organizations such as The Indian Navy, The Indian Army, Mumbai Police, CRY, DAIRRC, Nirmala Niketan, Department of Adult Education, Govt of Maharashtra and a host of others.

Naujawan-E-Hind Contact: naujawan_e_hind@rediffmail.com



Blog: http://www.naujawan-e-hind.blogspot.com/

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Social entrepreneurs make it their business to change India

They call themselves social entrepreneurs, and their 'business' is to make the world a better place. Using various roles, these men and women across India are getting there, and gaining praise for their innovativeness.

A social entrepreneur recognises a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organise, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Unlike business entrepreneurs, they don't measure performance in profit and returns, but assess success by the impact they have on society and often work through nonprofits and citizen groups.

Pioneering Indian names like Stan Thekaekara, Milind Ranade, Vishal Talreja, Sunil Abraham, Anand Shah, Rahul Barkatky and Shalabh Sahai, among others, are building and sharing ideas for how entrepreneurs can help re-engineer society.

Recently, the first international conference on social entrepreneurship was held in India, at the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). It was coordinated by a Britain-based organisation called, not without a touch of irony, UnLtd.

UnLtd's development consultant Pooja Warier told this writer: "As the first in a planned series of annual gatherings, the conference aimed to celebrate social entrepreneurship as a tool for social change, encourage the development of social entrepreneurship in India, and create mutually beneficial links between social entrepreneurs and institutions."

It brought together 85 individuals and organisations from India and Europe, including social entrepreneurs, organisations that support them, and academics. UnLtd's director of ventures Sarah Dodds says this organisation "strongly believes in the power of individuals to change the community and eventually the world." After working in the UK, UnLtd says it is now looking at social entrepreneurs in India.

Institutions like the UK-based Oxford University 's Skoll Centre, Prof Anil Gupta's Honey Bee Network, Ashoka, UnLtd and NMIMS (Narsee Monjee Institute of Management and Higher Studies) have been supporting the work of such individuals.

Stan Thekaekara of Just Change attempted a deconstruction of the concept of Social Entrepreneurship from the perspective of people who struggle to live everyday. He shared his experiences of working with the adivasis of the Niligiris.

For over two decades, Stan and his wife Mari, worked alongside the adivasis for their social, political and land rights. They began with helping the adivasis to reclaim the land that had been usurped by the non-tribals. Soon they had to begin working on issues of health, education, livelihoods -- issues that were critical to the growth of the adivasi community.

Stan then talked about his latest venture, Just Change, that expands the concept of fair trade and is working towards a system of production for the common man and by the common man.

Vishal Talreja of Dream a Dream gave up his career as a successful investment banker in Mumbai to transform the dream of his 12 young friends, all hailing from diverse backgrounds and united towards a common cause. Dream a Dream today builds life skills of over 500 children in Bangalore.

Shalabh Sahai and Rahul Barkatky, of Mitra Technology Foundation, have given up a lot of high-paying jobs to pursue their dream of bringing about social change by leveraging on the very skills that help businesses succeed.

MITRA Technology Foundation owns and manages India's largest volunteer placement initiative, iVolunteer .

Milind Ranade of KVSS, the Waste Collectors and Transporters Union, began his journey while travelling in a bus, happening happened to notice a garbage truck that was smelling awfully, with workers eating their food sitting on the same garbage dump.

Sunil Abraham, of MAHITI in Bangalore, aims to help voluntary organisations with IT solutions. He feels though that social entrepreneurship is a western concept, a concept that is market-friendly and places too much spotlight on the social entrepreneurs.

Change Loom is an awards programme to encourage and support social action by young people across India. The awards have been jointly launched by Pravah and Ashoka Foundation with support from the Youth and Civil Society Initiative of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust in 2005.

Anand Shah, co-founder of Indicorps, explains that the organisation was created with the aim of leveraging Non Resident Indians (NRIs), India's immigrant diaspora, for India's development. The organisation provided opportunities for NRIs to dedicate one to two years volunteering with organisations in India.

The 2007-formed UnLtd is a charitable organisation set up by seven leading organisations that promote social entrepreneurship.Silver Innings,Massom,Grassroots,Blind with Camera,Toy Bank are some of the investees of Unltd India

Following the meet, participants decided to create a network of social entrepreneurs "to share stories and experiences, to provide a learning platform for young social entrepreneurs, to pool information on various resources, and to connect peers internationally."

Tata Institute of Social Sciences director Dr S Parasuraman has argued that India is in a paradoxical state, with a few individuals accumulating wealth whereas a vast majority are losing livelihoods, are landless and are continuously marginalised. From this, he said, arises the need for entrepreneurial approaches towards social change.

Some examples from India are already being pointed to as successful models of social entrepreneurship -- SEWA, Just Change, Chidline, Fair Trade Forum, Barefoot College, and Aravind Eye Care. dings of the interior.

Scholars like Prof Anil Gupta, of the HoneyBee network (which works to pick up and promote innovation from the grassroots and rural areas) argue that besides the 'natural capital' of natural resources, what is also important is social capital, intellectual capital, and ethical capital or "the guiding forces from within us".

Brazil's Constitution provides the right to health. But what rights do people have if their definition of "health" lies outside that of biomedicine? How are different knowledges negotiated as health policy defined? And what happens when policies designed to implement the principle of universality that underpins the national health system contradicts the expressed needs of a particular group?

He points to amazing stories of grassroots innovators, such as Mohammed Saidullah who invented a cycle that can be used in water and on the road, Dhanjibhai Karai who was behind a scooter for the handicapped, Ramya Jose who invented a pedal operated washing machine, and Appachan who created an instrument to climb coconut trees.


By Frederick Noronha,a Goa-based writer and researcher


Source: http://infochangeindia.org/200701015489/Governance/Features/Social-entrepreneurs-make-it-their-business-to-change-India.html


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

The activistocracy

One day in January 2004, a group of excited schoolchildren from Mumbai entered a room at the WSF – the World Social Forum. The sign outside said ‘Rainbow Planet’ and their teacher vaguely hoped that it promised crayons, colouring books and world peace. Instead, this group of toddlers found themselves confronted by the love that once dared not speak its name; whereupon the teacher blushed and fled, dragging her curious wards with her.

It was a welcome jolt of levity in an otherwise excruciating exercise. Back then, as Mumbai girded its loins for WSF, I was agog with excitement. It was my very first, and I had been looking forward to it for months. It was also the only WSF I could afford to attend, being as it was in my own backyard. I came, I saw, I wanted to be conquered. But all I got was a lungful of dust.

When my sister and I arrived at the WSF, we had no idea that it would be spread over 65 acres of land, or that there would be 100,000 others of our kind. We asked if wheelchairs were available (my sister is physically disabled). After some hours of hanging around, it became apparent that they were not. My cousin found us seats in a van. We cut a swathe through the common people trudging to the main stage, discovering to our horror that we were in an ambulance equipped with a wailing siren and rotating lights.

It deposited us in the VIP section – a small patch of grass right in front of the stage, cordoned off by tight security, presumably, for the activistocracy to mingle uninhibitedly. And they did. Arundhati Roy had a flower in her hair. The folks who made up Junoon rolled in, all black jeans, long hair and lit cigarettes, every bit the Pakistani Sufi-rock band of the moment. The show got on its way.

Junoon’s performance was received ecstatically; their throaty rendition of ‘Sayonee’ was just the thing to connect 100,000 individuals itching for love and revolution. Culturally speaking, it was all downhill after that. There were lurid exhibitions of ancient culture, in line with that famous rule of international activism: any act of resistance must involve ethnic people singing and clapping and swaying their hips.

Once the WSF meetings formally began, however, I was grateful for any hipswaying that could tear me away from crucial debates between crypto-autonomists and anarcho-syndicalists or whatever – especially when it was from sexuality activists like the folks at Rainbow Planet. These folks took their fun seriously, thank God, disregarding the quaint ‘days of war/ nights of love’ protocol on offer. If there was a useful merging of the old left and the new left, it was primarily because of them.

And if there were useful conversations, it was not necessarily by design. Some of the best outcomes of the WSF had their start in shared coffees and casual conversations; in fact, this was exactly the case with a since celebrated dispute between the Swiss multinational Novartis and the Indian government. South Korean activists suggested to their Indian counterparts that there was a basis to mount a challenge on Gleevec, a patented cancer drug. (The case that ensued from the challenge, which was heard through the year 2007, would guarantee the availability of affordable medicines in India and the world over). But the organisers of the WSF would say that such chance encounters and unforeseeable outcomes are precisely the point of it all, and one has to give them that. The WSF is indeed design by non-design, and often, it even works.

These were the good bits.

At the plenary sessions, a mixture of bedlam and boredom prevailed. I’m not saying that it wasn’t sweet of Mary, Trevor, Joe, Gilberto and Mustafa to trek all the way to Mumbai; I just wish I could have heard what they had to say. In the front rows, respectable activists and dilettantes strained their ears to hear about ethical globalisation, post-apartheid Soweto, bad IMF, good Brazil and the situation in Palestine. All we got was ambient clutter and a few muffled squeaks.

I missed hearing Leila Khaled, the Palestinian activist and celebrity hijacker. Friends had been immensely moved by her talk, so I read her up, first in a weirdly reverential interview for a trade magazine called Aviation Security International, and then on the BBC. While she came across as extremely warm, I did wonder about her outrage at being coshed, back then in 1970, and waking up to find her companion dead (“I was furious, shouting and crying”) – given that they had been overpowered, after all, while trying to hijack a plane.

In the back rows, exclusively populated by the Indian proletariat, people wondered when the Tamil and Hindi translation they had been promised was going to start. When it became clear that it wasn’t going to happen, and that no one could hear anything anyway, they stretched out and sensibly fanned themselves to sleep.

It was a good thing that the masses got some rest. There was so much for them to do.

Every time a camera crew came by, the masses had to march and shout “Down down World Bank!” or, alternatively, “Down down Coca-Cola!” University-educated researchers analysed the plight of oppressed people at panels; oppressed people themselves provided something that was quaintly billed as ‘testimonial’. Meanwhile, fearless leaders were interviewed by equally fearless journalists in the air-conditioned media centre, which doubled up as a VIP clubhouse and offered e-mail access, gratis, to the chosen.

On the positive side, one of the nicest things about WSF Mumbai was that it was not MR – Mumbai Resistance – a sideshow that had fallen down across the road. The brainchild of some twisted little Stalinists, MR’s beef with the WSF was that it had been tricked into believing that class was not the only valid unit of social analysis, thereby inviting the revolution to be led astray by feminists, queer people, black people, caste warriors and what have you. MR broadcast its every indignant wheeze in a quasi-academic mouthpiece which had concluded, in an earlier scholarly investigation, that abstract art was a CIA plot to distract the masses.

Another nice thing about the WSF is that there is no Plan. And the funniest thing about there being no Plan is that it endlessly consternates the nice Washingtonians and their tropical satellites who constitute the internal critique. No liberal, especially one who is actually at the WSF, wants to be publicly against it. (The most curious thing about the WSF might be that Nobel prize-wining economists are its most curious participants). They try to look like they’re listening, all the while sighing inwardly, and one ends up feeling quite sorry for them.

But I digress. Who is the ideal WSF participant? She is a woman born and raised in an obscure rural part of any third world country, subjected to crushing poverty which forces her to migrate to the city. She gets a job on the shop floor, sewing buttons by day, decoding bootleg translations of Gramsci by night. Thus emboldened, she realises that power is simultaneously diffused and concentrated in Empire (the title of Hardt & Negri’s first bestselling book). Persevering on, and having left the shop floor to ‘organise’ she finds out that the answer to everything is Multitude (the title of their second bestselling book). Then, if she is both truly deserving and truly with-it, she lands a proper job with a proper international NGO, corresponds with Susan George on email and confers with SubcomandanteMarcos in remote mountain hideaways. Finally, to crown her ascent to the ne plus ultra of activism, she uses her official credit card to pre-order the next Hardt & Negri manual on Amazon.com.

Two years after WSF Mumbai, I bumped into an altogether different kind of WSF participant in Orange Farm, on the outer fringes of Johannesburg. I was at a celebration for International Women’s Day and George had been temporarily employed by the organisers. He fondly recalled his trip to Mumbai, a week’s stay at The President, a five-star deluxe hotel in the smartest part of town, and scratched his head over the alleged rape of a South African activist by a South African judge – a less than ideal fluid exchange that had dominated headlines in India at the time (the charge was subsequently withdrawn).

George was the kind of person who was grateful for any employment that came his way. He lived in a tin shack in a particularly desperate part of Orange Farm, and had been trying to get a regular job for years. I mentally tallied the cost of his WSF jaunt – about US$3000. I wondered how many meals, taxi-rides or medicines that kind of money would buy. And lest this question be too charged with plain old historical materialism, here’s another: would George have had any say in how that money was spent on him?

Perversely, I was reminded of a sentence I’d been hearing a lot lately. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” For a brief while this was the official motto of the Multitude, a message to its minions and minders alike; Muhammad Ali to the organised, Spinoza to the organiser. Certainly, it is the definitive WSF sound byte – a rousing combination of depth and clarity with an interpretive sweep to boot. Right at that moment though, as I stood confronted by George and the vast multiplicity of his situation, it sounded ridiculous.

Sure, I realise that instigating global revolution is a thankless career, and I won’t pretend I have a clue as to how to go about it myself. Some of my best friends attend the WSF, and I firmly believe that everyone is entitled to some sex and tourism with their development. I just don’t think that we should confuse the WSF for something that it isn’t.

There have been many WSFs since that time in Mumbai. A round of ‘polycentric’ meetings in 2006 that left participants somewhat confused, and the real thing in Nairobi in 2007, where the rampant class bias left everyone thoroughly disgusted. Last year was dedicated to ‘autonomous global actions’ (ie nothing very much, really) and this year the WSF returned home to Brazil. Incredibly, the movement shows no signs of backing down.

Soon enough, itinerant interventionists will confer in some salubrious location and declare that “another world is possible” – again. But as they wonder why their masses are not fully down with the floating and stinging programme, perhaps they’ll engage more equally with the loves and lives of the humans whose interests they so tenderly protect. And when that happens, if that happens, regardless of the outcome, at least one thing will be clear: another WSF is impossible.


By Achal Prabhala,a researcher and writer based in Bangalore.


Source:
http://infochangeindia.org/200906257801/Governance/Features/The-activistocracy.html


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.