NGO’s evaluate Barcelona’s Universal Forum of Cultures

Though the Universal Forum of Cultures is already over, it is also part of Barcelona’s history, and this is why several NGO’s, with different views and scopes, met to discuss about this event. So, the Catalan Federation of NGO’s for Development (FCONGD), which has always been very critical regarding the Forum, regretted its failure to reinforce the social structures of the city. On the other hand, Justícia i Pau, that took part in some of the Forum’s activities, deplored, nonetheless, that the Forum had given rise to a serious urban speculation that, among many things, has brought distressing disarray to Poblenou (a quarter in Barcelona by the shore, and close to the Forum’s area), and that the Administration had shown a pitiful lack of political will to enforce the values supposedly defining the cultural event. Furthermore, Greenpeace went as far as to state that the building of the Forum facilities violated the spirit of the current law on coasts and shores. Yet, Mans Unides, Intermón Oxfam and Setem, though recognizing many of the event’s failures, had a positive view of it, in so far as many visitors became so aware of ‘righteous trade’ as to share it.