I wonder how one says “pepper spray” in Portuguese.
Tens of thousands of anti-globalization activists converged on southern Brazil Wednesday for what has become an annual ritual of opposition to corporate-sponsored capitalism and the divide between the rich and poor nations.
The annual World Social Forum – a lively gathering of protesters where many sleep in tents or modest guest houses – is held simultaneously with the World Economic Forum, a staid gathering of finance ministers and CEOs of major corporations in the exclusive Swiss ski resort of Davos.
In Brazil, nearly 6,000 groups will plug their causes at the six-day protest, ranging from debt relief for developing countries to distribution of idle land for impoverished Latin American farmers.
In a new rallying cry this year, some protesters compared unfettered capitalism and the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq to the tsunami that struck Indian Ocean shores last month, saying the deaths caused in poor countries by First World greed are uncountable.
“It is even more than the numbers killed by the tsunami,” said forum organizer Meena Menon, an activist from India.