Marching into our workshops

Today, I took part in a march attended by more than 80,000 people! This march was the start of the World Social Forum. I’ve never witnessed such a colorful and powerful protest. It was peaceful, full of music, drums, singing and dancing. The Amazonian tribes that participated were definitely the highlight of the march. What first caught my attention was their colorful clothing, body art and head dresses. But I was mostly intrigued by their dancing: they danced in unison with bow and arrow in hand (some of them running throughout the march) and the energy that carried their dance was mesmerizing. You could feel their presence way beyond just visually — quite the experience!

Later in the night, I was interviewed by O Globo, a well-known Brazilian newspaper. I was asked to share my thoughts on the fact that that the first World Science and Democracy Forum was held in Belém, so close to the Amazonian forest and people. I explained that the Amazon seems quite a fitting place to rethink what science means. While I would never pretend to know the depths of what people here represent, the experiences I have had lead me to believe that there are people in the Amazon who are very aware of how the world works and who contemplate their meaning in the universe in ways that western science has not yet touched upon. We have much to learn from their science of life and I am honored to have shared the Science and Democracy forum in their presence.