Out in the park
Kristin Funke and Hilke Koegl write:
Today the sun is out at last! Perfect weather to join the NGO activities at Victoria Park. Here, the Hong Kong People’s Alliance (HKPA), a network of 33 grassroots organizations including trade unions, women’s organizations as well as community, religious, human rights and labor groups, are organizing the “People’s Action Week” during the MC6. The HKPA is facilitating the activities of local and international NGOs under the motto “Kong Yee Sai Mau” (“No to WTO”).
But before heading there, we are stopping to drop off more Boell publications at the NGO centre inside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the venue of the WTO MC6. For the first time, NGOs, WTO delegates, and the press are located under the same roof. That’s why security is most alert and even smells our water bottles to make sure it’s really water and nothing dangerous like vodka or flammable liquids. The atmosphere here is hectic and busy, everyone seems to be rushing from one briefing or panel discussion to the next. Although the actual negotiations are literally taking place next door, they seem very remote and distant. From time to time a delegate hurries along, identifiable in the crowd by the red or blue ribbon of the accreditation badge. The ribbons add quite a bit of color to the serious atmosphere: orange is for accredited NGO members, green for press, yellow for support staff, purple for security and so on.
Leaving the hustle and bustle behind us, we are abandoning the MTR today and instead go to Victoria Park by tram, the only double-decker tram of the world. Most of the park has turned into a city of colorful tents with many people walking around, attending events or gathering on the lawn. Enjoying the more relaxed yet lively atmosphere. This is the place where most non-accredited NGOs are holding their activities. Among the abundance of colored banners, large sculptures, provocative photographs and various artworks is also a memorial site to Lee Kyeong–hae, displaying his picture below the motto “WTO kills farmers.” The Korean farmer activist committed suicide out of protest against the last Ministerial Conference in Cancun in 2003.
In one tent, Filipino women are discussing contract and migrant workers, sexual exploitation and union building. In another, a network for food sovereignty holds an exhibition on rice, the most important food crop worldwide and staple food for more than 40% of the world’s population. Shocking pictures show the extremely harmful effects of pesticides like Paraquat and Endosulfan on Asian plantation workers.
A provocative art project by the Danish Association for International Cooperation consisting of three sculptures also attracts a lot of attention. The first one is a pair of scales with a dead cow hanging by its legs on the one arm and 6 emaciated men on the other, symbolizing that the rich world is spending much more on domestic subsidies than on development aid. The second, “Survival of the Fattest,” showing a huge Western woman sitting on the shoulders of a starved African man illustrates the unbalanced distribution of the world’s resources. The third is a group of 20 starved children called “Hunger March.” Immediately, we are reminded of yesterday’s lavish reception by the host government for accredited NGOs. There, dressed up people feasted on an abundance of hors d’oeuvres, fresh sushi and shrimp, and sipped exquisit wines. The farmers, fishers, workers and activists surrounding us here, all in some way affected by the agricultural trade liberalization and fighting for food safety and sovereignty, are eating rice and simple sandwiches distributed by the HKPA.
As the sun is slowly setting and we are getting ready to head back to our hotel in Kowloon, another group of farmers (this time from Thailand) marches by, shouting “Down, down WTO!,” while a few meters away a small crowd is singing and dancing on a stage, demanding “No Deal in Hong Kong.”
Hilke and Kristin are both working at the HBF Southeast Asia Regional Office in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Kommentieren 17. Dezember 2005