The last day of the alternative summit

Today was the last day of the alternative summit - and Leila and I had the special privilege of both having workshops at 9am this morning. We both had got to sleep after 1am and given the camp is 40 mins walk away from our workshop venues it was a struggle to get up. After a cup of tea and some oats we starting trekking to the venues, proudly on time - however after only 10 minutes we were confronted by police who were checking everyone coming past, apparently on the look out for 'violent people' on their way to join the blockades. Passports were swiftly taken off for checking, and we were given full body searches and our bags were gone through in an incredible amount of detail - that said, I think the police were really quite bored with the papers/banners/toothbrush they found in my bag, and amused themselves by looking at photos in my wallet. Having lost 30 mins of our time we dashed to our respective venues.

I presented alongside 4 others at a G8 and global water struggles workshop that we had co-organised. It was a well attended event, and was one of the rare ones that had two-way English/German translation meaning that everyone could participate. I focussed on the international context of the global water crisis whilst others gave perspectives from Kenya, Italy, Germany, and Europe. Unfortunately there was minimal time for discussion as the closing plenary session was directly after, but it was great to be actively involved in the only water event.

I then headed off with other WDMers (see photo below) to watch the closing plenary session in the main venue, while Leila went to take part in the demonstrations.




We now have only a few hours left in Rostock before we inevitably have a mad dash to the train station before making the journey back home. I wonder what the G8 leaders will actually decide while I am on the train, it does not seem like they have done much yet...