Mumbai (India) - "For the Brazilians who came to Mumbai, the culture shock is very great," affirmed the Brazilian representative on the organizing committee of the World Social Forum (WSF), Francisco Whithaker, today. On the eve of the inauguration of organized civil society's biggest international event, the poverty in the streets of the city that is playing host to the 4th WSF is the topic that dominates conversation among Brazilians who are arriving for the meeting. "I never saw so many people sleeping in the streets," said Luiz Carlos Seixas, of the São Paulo Municipal Secretariat of Education, referring to the hundreds of people he saw lying on the ground during the trip between the airport and the hotel.

Confronting Westerners with the tough Asian reality was one of the reasons that the WSF was transferred this year from the calm capital of Rio Grande do Sul to chaotic ex-Bombay, with its nearly 20 million inhabitants and streets packed with people, cars, and motorcycles. (DAS)