The World Social Forum (WSF) in the Green City Under the Sun is carefree – up to 50,000 participants, many representing some of the world’s worst slums, mull over the means to create ‘Another Life.’ And the down-trodden of the globe trekked or caravanned through dusty roads to fraternise and roam freely in a show of people power and against "the other forum."

The other one is the World Economic Forum (WEF), held in the icy and exclusive Swiss resort of Davos almost at the same time as the WSF. It is rigid and controlled – attended by a select global elite of around 2,400, among them 24 heads of government and 800 CEOs and chairpersons from the world’s top 1,000 companies. Gliding down the Alps in private jets, they are surrounded by a ring of security and confined within a single overarching theme: ‘Shaping the Global Agenda, The Shifting Power Equation.’

Set apart geographically and ideologically, the two forums may nevertheless have one thing in common: the use of power.

Business in the Driver’s Seat For the glitterati of Davos, the ills of the world can largely be solved with corporate and political power deciding what is best for the masses – business in the driver’s seat and its effects trickling down.

At the Nairobi powwow, situated within a few kilometres of slums, power belongs to the people and they have the right to participate in decisions making affecting their lives.

Through their economic and political domination, the Davos elite take decisions and set targets. Meanwhile, the World Social Forum, which originated as a protest against Davos in 2001, displays a raw power that is yet to be harnessed to transform civil society into "the next superpower," as has been predicted by former UN Sectary General Kofi Annan.

If Davos is Davos and the WSF is its alternative, the twain may never meet. But Davos has already taken a bow for civil society. For 2007, it has garnered the support of more than a score of NGOs, including the chiefs of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, Islamic Relief, Greenpeace International, International Trade Union Federation and Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

But the WSF is yet to open its doors to the corporate world.

Time to Engage?

"We never thought of it," TerraViva was told by Prof. Edward Oyugi of the Social Development Network, a focal point for the Kenya Social Forum. "Actually, we can have them in a controversial engagement."

In the opinion of Ms. Moema Miranda, the firebrand Brazilian and a WFS organiser, "it would be useful to have interaction with the World Economic Forum, but not formally as WSF. Individual groups could do them better."

Oduor Ongwen, a Kenyan organiser of the WSF, takes a tough view of the WEF. "They are the captains of the industry," he told TerraViva. "Their concept of transfer of wealth is not for people but for the benefit of the corporate world. They don’t believe that the life of a corporate chief is equal to the life of a slum dweller."

Then, what is the message from Nairobi to Davos?

"Oh, it’s ‘another world is possible’," quipped Ms. Miranda.