Audio Montage

Alas, I've done a 0:45 audio montage of my experience in Athens interpreting at the European Social Forum. Listen to it by clicking here.

Does anyone know what the song in the background in called? Please add a comment if you know. It was played on the loudspeakers at the Forum while my minidisc was rolling. Enjoy!

ESF

It was a good European Social Forum and now I'm back in Rome. For any further comments, email monique@honeybird.net Until the next social forum gathering, i wish you positive sunny days

Day One of the ESF

Before it skips my mind, I should like to recount Day One of the European Social Forum in Athens, Greece.

I awoke in a kitchen with a minidisc recorder and no blank minidiscs. Skata'! (shit, in Greek) Thus, the morning began early. At 7am, I was out the door, with the goal of arriving at the Elliniko Olympic Complex by 9am. This would give me the chance to caffeinate myself, check in at the Babels office and zoom to the conference on water, which I was assigned to as interpreter.

I took the bus from Pagkrati to Sintagma Square. Zip Zam it went fast. Since it was still early, I took a stroll in search of a place to photocopy some Babels material (seminar specifics which speakers emailed in advance to Babels for the interpreters' benefit). In my hunt for a place to make photocopies, I enjoyed a cappuccino and bought the International Herald Tribune. The locals pointed me in the direction of the Kodak shop.

I found it, and at 8:30am, it was open! Brilliant. I entered and there was a Greek-American dude working there. Though the copy machine was broken, he had minidiscs! Alas, how fab! I bought two minidisc and quickly called my Cretan friend to bring my minidisc recorder to the venue. Alas interviews would be possible!

I hopped on the tram and read the paper. It was packed with forum attendees. We passed the rich blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, where so many cross - for fun and for a passageway to a new life.

[Note: on the morning of Day Two of the ESF, on the tram, I was also reading the International Herald Tribune. On the cover of the Kathimerini English Edition, which I found as an insert, there was a photo of three clowns with police lined up behind them. The caption read "Three demonstrators dressed as clowns to protest immigrants' detention conditions outside Aghios Panteleimonas police station yesterday." A French man asked to read the article, as he was one of the 200 protesters who participated.]

Upon arrival at the Babels office, I double checked the schedule and found my name listed as interpreter Portuguese into English. Okee dokee. That's cool, although the day before it had been listed under Italian to English, seeing as there were to be many Italian speakers, and not one Portuguese speaker.

Anyways, I headed to the room through a labyrinth of lefts and rights and arrived just before 10am. There were two women already there. No one else. One was Caterina, another Babels interpreter from Brazil. The other woman was the speaker from Mani Tese. Hello. Hello. Bom dia. Buongiorno. So, where are the others?

The room was big, room s302, and yet the speakers and participants seemed to still be shifting through the labyrinth to arrive. Slowly but surely the other interpreters arrive and the festival of language combinations began. There was an assortment of Greek, French, Italian, Portuguese, English, Spanish, and Galician and so on. We discovered a way to cover all bases. Other speakers arrived. They were from Romania. None of the interpreters spoke Romanian, nor was Romanian requested prior, so luckily a woman from the Romanian Social Forum organization offered her services (though she had never done it before) and interpreted for the whole seminar. She did an excellent job, as she knew about the subject of water and about her country Romania in great detail. The Romanians spoke of the disaster floods they have been having lately of the Danube River.

There was one Greek woman in the audience, so the Greek interpreter stayed. There was also one French man, so the French interpreter stayed. I ended up doing Italian-English for those who didn't speak Italian; however the Italian speakers then chose to speak in English. All righty then.

After this water conference, I mingled with the peeps and got my minidisc from Vasilis who was at the Kokkino booth in the main hall of the ESF. All the booths were decked out with posters and information with representatives on hand. Noisy exciting and invigorating atmosphere - of thinking reflecting meeting creating and learning.

I met two grandmothers from the Campaign Against Depleted Uranium. I was eating a veggie sandwich and wandering and their booth caught my eye. There was a pamphlet listing what all the federal money, now used to develop nuclear weapons, could be used for instead. The list included increasing hospital services and doctors, education services and teachers and other basic necessities of a healthy society. We had a fascinating discussion about how many people are affected by the use of uranium, both civilians and military.

From there, I headed to my next conference, this time interpreting French into English. It was about social movements - "movement of the people," as Marley sang.

That evening I ran around and heard live music, met new people and did a radio transmission via telephone to a radio statio in Naples, Italy (in italian). Click here to hear it. [Note: click on where it says : - Si sono aperti oggi in Grecia i lavori del quarto Forum Sociale Europeo
Scarica la corrispondenza da Atene]

Later than night I hung out with a Greek group of techs and we joked around. I returned to Athens in a car with a red Cretan angel with curly black hair. Good full day.

An excess of becquerels

Becquerel is the unit used to measure radioactivity. Horrific nuclear disasters in our time have been Chernobyl in 1986, Three Mile Island in 1979, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. An estimated 3-4 exabecquerel was released from the Chernobly accident, considered 300 times more lethal than the radioactive fallout of the Hiroshima bomb.

On Saturday morning I interpreted at the ESF seminar:
"Nuclear disasters all over the world: effects and forgotten people. A different energy is possible" I was in the booth with a phenomenal professional interpreter named Ben, very informed on the nuclear issue. It was brilliant to learn from the words he chose in interpreting and his eloquence in presentation. Perhaps it's the British accent that also made him sound quite distinguished.

The speakers were from Hungary, Italy, Greece and Turkey. Nuclear is dangerous and everyone said it, even Bela Fekete, the Hungarian engineer who has worked for 23 years at the Paks Nuclear Power Station in Paks, Hungary and still does. He is also a member of the Organization of Social Democracy and supports renewable energy sources.

He was quite controversial at this meeting because he feels that nuclear energy IS a solution. "Taking the current economic tendencies into consideration, the future of the Eu and the rest of the world is bound to nuclear energy," he stated. He is opposed to wind energy because of the financial burden, environmental impact and inflexibility.

Francesco Ferrante from Legambiente was also present and handed out a document entitled "World Contract on Energy and Climate to eradicate poverty and stop climate change," which includes the following:

Nuclear must be abandoned because:
1. Uranium is neither a renewable nor a sustainable resource.
2. It entails serious security risks and an enormous environmental impact linked to the production of radioactive waste.
3. It exposes the world to the risks of nuclear weapons proliferation.
4. It is unable to solve the energy and climate change problems. Uranium resources are not sufficient to hope for an increase in installed capacity in order to cover a significant quota of the new energy demand.
5. It has too high and indirect costs, which are imposed on the society.
6. It entails a centralized generation model, based on large power plants, highly questionable from a security and the right to energy point of view. A model that requires monopolistic, authoritarian and antidemocratic management systems.

The document goes on to state:

Only by producing electricity and health with solar resources and using the energy produced rationally, efficiently and with a sense ot the limit is it possible to :

1. Guarantee energy for all and thus tackle poverty and underdevelopment
2. Stop climate change and air pollution.
3. Favor democracy and participation, because renewable energy sources are widely available and cannot be monopolized, unlike oil, coal, methane and nuclear.

An issue which the panel agreed upon was the creation of a new protocol that committs Governments, as requested by the scientific community, to an 80% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.


My comments.
It is very interesting to hear such a debate on what energy resources we should be using now, and will be able to continue using in the future. Whereas I am open to learn more about the pros and cons, I dislike nuclear because of:
1. Its direct connection to war. The false claim of Iraq having nuclear weapons of mass distruction led to the death of thousands of non-Iraqis and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
2. The ongoing usage of depleted uranium, illegal under all international treaties, conventions and agreements, as well as under the US military law.
3. Not only are nuclear power plants dangerous, but they only last from 40 to 50 years. And then what?
4. The enourmous amount of public money which funds the development of nuclear weapons, including US nuclear weapons, some of which are stored in Turkey, a country
which is not even nuclear! However, an article in the Southeast European Times states "Turkish Atomic Energy Agency (TAEK) President Oktay Cakiroglu confirmed on Wednesday (April 12th, 2006) that the country's first nuclear plant will be built in the Black Sea province of Sinop." Oh.


George Monbiot states "The obvious conclusion is that you can’t phase out nuclear weapons without phasing out nuclear power."


How can I act in my life to improve the current energy crisis: BE AWARE OF THE ENERGY I USE. More candles, washing dishes by hand, carpooling (and motorcycle in two) and love in the dark. You got ideas too? Add a comment.

a wet thought

i'm a city girl. i turn on faucet. water comes out. i wash me and my things.

what about Teofila who lives by the river?

she used to go to the river to get water until a hydroelectric dam was built up stream. now the water has changed colors. at first, she continued taking her clothes there to wash, but they only got dirtier. she also continued drinking the water but then she fell ill. now she no longer goes to the river.

she is thirsty but cannot install a pipe to bring water into her modest home. she would walk to the well, but there is no well. so she walks to the local everything shop and buys a can of coca cola. cheaper than water, tastes like modified river.

Day Two of the ESF

(photo courtesy of Charly Poppe)




Day Two of the European Social Forum
Athens, Greece
Friday, May 5, 2006

Another day in Greece began in a bed in a kitchen of a Cretan man. After a breakfast of milk and a ham and cheese sandwhich, we headed for the forum, where Vassilis, a Cretan, told me about how much it means to him to be party of a political party. It is what he does in his free time, much like others who paint or dance after work. He moved to Athens from Crete to get involved more in politics. His party is called Kokkino, and his brother Paris is a member as well. They have stands set up here in the main hall of the European Social Forum as do many other movements and organizations participating.

Many more people attended today, 12,000 people at any given time in conferences and checking out the variety of stands and performances at the venue. This morning I arrived very tired, and stopped for a Zapatista coffee before heading to my first interpretation session of the day. There was a long line, as the coffee maker was yet to be turned on. A lovely Greek chick told us to wait. I chose to wait. A man who was about to speak at a seminar sneaked in front of me and got the first zapatista coffee of the day. Then all of a sudden, no power hence no coffee.

Time passed and the seminar was about to begin. One moment later, zapatista coffee in hand (which I paid for with my one euro food coupon, thanks to Babels) I headed to my first interpreting gig of the day in Room F25 entitled "building a socialist alternative to capitalism in Europe." I interpreted from French into English, although of the five speakers, two spoke in English, two in Greek and only one man in French. The discussion was interesting and Evo Morales was highly commended for nationalizing the oil in Bolivia. The general idea that resonated with me was that of participating in society and voting for people-centric parties in parliament. I was in the booth with Suzanne from Northern Ireland who also interpreted from French into English.

The next two seminars were also quite interesting, and sandwiched between them was a simple lunch outside with a fascinating Greek man named Antonis, with whom I shared my first greek beer, called "Alpha." Today, here at the Elliniko Olympics basketball and fencing stadium, the site of the former Athens airport, . I opened a door and discovered a giant basketball court / stadium with seats all over. Cool!

It is 1 am and I still have to get back to Athens, a thirty mintue ride by car, one hour by public transportation (tram). I will go downstairs and see if any of my greek "housemates" are still here, otherwise I will head to the tram and go back to Pagkrati via Sintagmi Square - the famous central square where the mcdonalds and easy everything are. Perhaps I'll catch a late night tram into Pagkrati. That would be great.

Here are the titles of the sessions I have interpreted so far:

o "Water and common goods a right for all"
o "Permanent war and occupations, terrorism, armed, civil, non-violent resistance"
o Building a socialist alternative to capitalism in Europe."
o "The antiwar movement and the resistance in Iraq and Palestine"
o "Role and future of the local social forums in the context of the social forum process at different levels"

and tomorrow morning I am interpreting the the seminar:
o "Nuclear disasters all over the world: effects and forgotten people. A different energy is possible"

I must be here tomorrow morning, Saturday May 6th, for the 3rd day of the ESF, by 9:30 am ... so I'll leave the house early. I will write more about day two and something about day one soon. Tomorrow afternoon there will be a march from Pedion tou Areos park to the parliament building. Kalinichta pedachimo (good night my dear).

Per la radio "radiolina"

Si sono aperti oggi in Grecia i lavori del quarto Forum Sociale Europeo.
Scarica la mia corrispondenza per Radiolina da Atene.


Oggi il 4 maggio si e' visto l'inizio del quarto Forum Sociale Europeo in Grecia. 10,000 persone sono arrivati da tutte le parti del mondo per questo incontro. Lo slogan qui e' "put people before profit" cioe' "mettere Il popolo prima del guadagno."

C'e una forte presenza della societa' civile italiana con rappresentanti di Legambiente, Mani Tese, Arci e tante altre. Ancora piu' numerosi degli italiani sono I greci, orgogliosi di ospitare tanti attivisti qui ad Atene.

Ma di che si tratta questo forum? Sono tutti giovanni? Tutti comunisti? Tutti laureati? No, no, e no.

E' un allianza di persone che lottano per un mondo con piu' giustizia, piu' diritti umani e piu' consapevolezza di cio' che ci circonda. Si raggiungono in conferenze di ogni tipo, contro la privatizzazione, contro il neoliberalismo e contra la violenza. Ci sono piu' di 300 conferenze in totale. Si tratta di discutere e scambiare idee e strategie, ad un ingresso molto basso di 20 Euro per I tre giorni del forum.

Ci sono anche eventi culturali e mostre d'arte che fanno parte del forum. Ieri sera c'era un concerto di apertura al centro di Atene e stasera, adesso, ci sono varie gruppi greci suonando sul palco qui fuori sotto le stelle.

Domani, il secondo giorno del Forum Sociale Europeo, sara' pieno di sorprese, proposte ed approfondimenti.

Dal Forum Sociale Europeo ad Atene, questo e' Monique Mizrahi per Radiolina



( Link to an ARCI article about the ESF : http://www.arci.it/news.php?id=7101 )

End of Day Zero

From Syntagma Square, I headed back to the Cretan kitchen in the hip area of Pagkrati where I was sleeping. Since there were no trams running so late at night, I asked the locals working at the easy everything about how much a taxi should cost to get to Pagkrati. "Around 5 euros," they told me. So I marched up to the first taxi in a long line of taxis and said "how much to Pagkrati?" He said 8, I said 5, he said 7, I said 6 - and 6 it was! Then upon arrival to my destination, after some chit chat in marble mouth greek and shmorgasbord english, the taxi driver said to me "when shall I see you again?" Ha! I said "when I take your taxi next" and got out of the car. Funny funny greek man.

That night I slept a little and dreamt a lot.

Day Zero

Day Zero of the European Social Forum

An eventful day which began with sleep. I slept in a Cretan man's kitchen which the french smoked and drank coffee outside and a greek man ate a banana nearby. They left and I continued sleeping. I slept well and awoke cocking my head and curiously realizing "I am in Athens."

After the momentary shock of being in a kitchen in the Pagkrati area of Athens, I awoke and wandered to the shower. Here in Athens, or at least in this home in Athens, one turns the faucet to the right to get hot water. However, this morning, after all the other temporary housemates had washed their bodies and members, I was left with a warm-ish shpritz. And so I brushed my teeth, threw some big red pants on and went out for coffee - for two coffees. I have yet to taste the strong strong Greek coffee, perhaps tomorrow.

I took my time this morning which was quite nice. After my first coffee in Pagkrati, I took the bus to the central square of Athens: Sintagma Square. (I'm there right now too) I listened to the minidisc material and interviews I recorded yesterday as I ate a Greek spinach dough thing. Tasty. I spent some time in an internet cafe researching for the seminar I will be interpreting tomorrow. From there, I boarded the tram number 5 to get to Elliniko, where the European Social Forum is being held, and there was Andres, the Galician guy I had met the day before.

The tram ride took about forty minutes and we had a lovely ride. He lives in Brussels and works professionally as an interpreter, although he is here as a volunteer Babels interpreter, as am I. He would have been paid a minimum of 1000 euro for his time these days at the forum, however clearly, he believes that we can make a difference. I recorded him singing a lovely little ditty in Galician, that goes "na beira, na beira, na beira do mar." When we ran into each other during the course of the afternoon, we would sing this song.

We arrived at the big blue building of the Elliniko Basketball and Fencing Facilities, a modern building which looks strikingly similar to the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

My goals for the day at the ESF facilities were simple
1. find the english booth coordinator and
2. meet Tudor, the guy with whom I will be in the booth tomorrow

As we entered the Babels area of the venue, we parted ways and I heard two women speaking English so began speaking with them. Katie is from London and it is her first time interpreting at a Social Forum. She will be doing English, French and Russian. We mingled a bit and looked around for the english booth coordinator. Many people were standing a line speaking a miriad of different language. As I rolled my minidisc, a woman came in "on a besoin de quelqu'un qui fait francais-grec" ... the beautiful chaos of the forum is gaining speed.

Thomas from East Sussex and I had a brilliant baklava break outside on the green grassy area outside. The sun shone and he confessed "what I really interpret is Mandarin to English but since it's not needed here, I'll do German-English." A phenomenal blend of folk.

There was an evening meeting for all the Babels people. We were told "there will be chaos, be flexible!" So I am. Another meeting was held for all the people who will be interpreting into English so I went to that. After that, I began a mission with two Russians. They are both "tovArish" - comrade in Russian. We worked together till late as did many other Babel volunteers, such that tomorrow will be a success and many participants will hear their language in the seminars.

I returned on a tram with two Italian Babels coordinators, at which point I found myself again, alone, in Sintagmi Square. I was very close to going into the McDonalds, fearing it was the only place open, until I saw the easy everything sign just beyond. I just ate a sandwhich with meat, feta cheese and some other Greek items. It costs tria triapende (3,35 euro) The bummer is that the bus service has finished for the night, so I will be taking a taxi back to Pagkrati. Perhaps if I am quiet they will think I'm from Thessalonika and not overcharge me. If I only knew how to speak Greek ... "shega shega" as they say here (slowly, slowly).

Miyah Harah. Fine. Tomorrow is sure to be a VERY eventful day, hopefully with some engaging experiences. It's 1:38 am so I shout out a kalinichta (good night) from the center of Athens, a stones throw from the Akropolis ... and the McDonalds.

Athens on wheels

Today is Wednesday, May 3rd and the European Social Forum officially begins tomorrow. My alitalia flight arrived on time yesterday and I was met by Babels organizer Maria. I was the second Babels interpreter from abroad to arrive. I took the bus to Syntagma square, where I met Thanos and we went on his motorcycle to have a brilliant greek salad, after which we zoomed to the Elliniko Olympic Facilities for Basketball and Fencing, where the ESF is being held. I signed in with Babels and they gave me a one week bus pass. I found my schedule as well.

The vibe is very cool and inspiring, people all over setting up everything from the ALIS interpretation equipment, to the chairs, to the schedules, to the giant banners, to the sweets stands etc. I spent much of yesterday chatting with fascinating individuals from all over.

Tomorrow morning I will be interpreting at a fascinating conference entitled "Water and Common Goods: a right for all" which will be presented by diverse Italian organizations, including Forum Ambientalista, Legambiente, Mani Tese, Attac Italy and Social Forum Toscano.

The night ended sitting around a table with all Greeks and me, chicken and beer, jokes and new greek phrases, such as "then katalaveno to kristomu" (i don't understand anything) and "yamas" (cheers).