Returning to Europe makes you feel good after a Manhattanian week in New York in the heart of "powers that will be". Suddenly the thirteen storied Berlaymont building of the European Commission seems human, small and accessible...

New York city - impressive, fascinating, a little crazy... it absorbs you, swallows you and your energies, your individuality... The architecture of Manhattan cannot be more masculine - no plaza surrounded by trees where the elderly and children can sit and play, city plan divided in squares, triumphant skyscrapers, a perfect example of what a Pakistani friend calls "e-w-rectionism".

The United Nations building ... A historical fact mentioned by Kofi Annan: for the very first time in the history of the United Nations, international civil society meets in the General Assembly hall at the invitation of the Secretary General because "I need you ..." ... Why? ... To support the United Nations, give them credibility, caress this cat tamed by economic and financial lions.

The NGO Millenium Forum... 1000 NGOs et al in one place. Quality of people, level of knowledge, personal commitment, work energy, "facts and figures" that cannot be evaded... All very impressive. A strong final document, demanding concrete proposals: a small miracle, to have produced such a document with so many people in four and a half says. A kind of euphoria at the end... We worked hard, we called a spade a spade, we feel united in this formidable struggle, more necessary than ever before... Yes, yes, yes, but, but, but... What will be the impact of this n^th declaration that one does not want this, that, etc. Up there on the 134^th storey, "they" receive them every day. They are obviously not bothered. Our analysis is either of no interest to them or they co-opt it by transforming it into a "commodity" to sell their own interests. "What can rock this fearful reality of economic and financial power concentrated among an increasingly fewer people with all the perverse effects that we know of?" That, is the fundamental question : who can transform this reality? Civil society? States? Or the system itself? Will it implode within itself? Should one hope? And who would suffer the most? Perhaps not the poor and the marginals, but the bourgeois this time, the "middle class", for it depends on the "system" more than the marginals do.

"To overcome the feeling of helplessness". What an invitation! I still think that this is the best phrase in the entire Platform for a responsible and united world. It is this idea that mobilises. Analyses have been done. More number of people are informed and committed. What is painfully lacking are strategies - personally I am quite horrified by this military word - for indeed, it is a question of war between those who want to have and those who want to be.

I am convinced more than ever before that we must work at all levels : first of all at the level of inner resources, reinforcing the strength of the desire to live in harmony with all that surrounds us, this inner force that is feared by "all the powers that were, that are and that will be". This profound serenity that Gandhi was searching, practising and made his disciples practice.

An then we must make ourselves heard at Seattle, New York, Davos, etc. One must work at the levels of leaders, the collegial, thematic and geo-cultural milieus. At the same time, we must prepare for survival after a possible collapse. To be self-sufficient at the local level is a concrete and vital aim.

(...) Final impression of this tiring, encouraging and summoning week... It was very nice to be there as representatives of the Alliance; we participated well in working groups, made valuable contacts, explained to many about the Alliance, made our humble contribution to the international civil society. The dominant feeling is that "the struggle continues"!

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