Social Forum 2007 - Civic Center

The social forum is going on at the Civic Center in downtown Atlanta; its a fairly decent venue for political dissent. Theres alot going on here, if you're careful - The main issues are immigration, palestine (!), human rights, and global socio-economic parity. I say careful but its really very easy to run into nice people. Living here on the outskirt of Atlanta. I get inside her skirt every now and then. Its fun.

I visited several camps. The idea behind a large Palestinian camp is that the palestinians are suffering from policies that are essentially identical to Apartheid. This is likely the truth. Their snacks at the end of the day were Arab only. Unless you go from the opposite side of the table, near the water fountain, in which case they're free. Four year olds are good at finding stuff like that. But if you've got a memory longer than a four year old, the Free Palestine camp will be a Gom Jabbar.

There was one group that did some kind of neat and sort of really detailed artwork. They were called The Beehive. If I can track them down here I will throw the link. There was also street theatre..

A woman gathers everyone around, shouting "Street Theatre!" "Gather round!!" and everyone forms a circle. There's maybe 50 of us. It begins....

She walks out in to the circle, and then drops down to the pavement and says "I am trapped in a hole!" "Oh can anyone help me?" - the first person to see her is a guy with a sign around his neck that says "Minuteman". He takes one look at her and says "Oh, no way. You're not from here. I can't help you". Then, comes someone wearing a sign that effectively spells out "Wal Mart". The girl who is kneeling before everyone, in the center of the circle, says .."Can anyone help me, I am trapped in a hole." And of course the wal-mart lady says.. "Oh, yes I can help you. I will give you four dollars an hour". but she doesn't pull her out of the pit. "Can anyone help me?" says the helpless girl. Next comes a south asian who looks like he's trading stock. He looks at her, and takes out a calculator and says - "I have this much money. If I pay her three percent, I'll make 10 percent" - and he does some math. Finally he says. "That doesn't cover my consulting fee". And he walks off. The poor girl is still in the hole. At last, a Senator walks up. There's a camera on him. She plaintively cries out - "Sir, can you please help me get out of this hole?" And the senator says "Be careful, girl. The sniper will get you." And then he walks off.