This January, the World Social Forum celebrated its 10 years of activity. For a review of these 10 years, a review was organized in Porto Alegre reflecting on what has changed during these last 10 years.

It might be a bad dream, but it feels real enough. The mantle of warfare slips seamlessly from one president to another, from one party to another, from one decade to another, from one generation to another. The impetus of national aggression transcends race, creed, socio-economic status, age and geography. Our collective sin is the bald lie that we all live and perpetuate from moment to moment, year upon year, from our past to the days ahead: the misbegotten belief that we are a peaceful people.

Google's decision to enlist the help of the National Security Agency in tackling cyber attacks has caused alarm among internet groups and bloggers, who fear that users' personal information could be accessed by the US government.

"We've been forgotten. Women no longer constitute a priority for our government or for the international community," Shinkai Karokhail, one of the few women members of the Afghan Parliament, confided in December. Worse than forgotten, Afghan women today are once again trampled upon, sacrificed. "It's a return to the leaden years," protests Shoukria Haïdar, president of the Negar Association-Support for Afghan women, on her way through Paris last week, in reference to the five years of the 1996-2001 Islamic Regime under the strict authority of Mullah Omar. Five years after having driven him from power, Westerners, with Americans in the lead, are courting him - Mullah Omar and his friends - in the name of "national reconciliation." Go figure!