Cleets asked to to post some good news, so here it is:
BELEM, Brazil, Jan 28 (Reuters) - With a disparate cast ranging from Roman Catholic nuns to anarchists, there is one thing the 100,000 leftist activists at the World Social Forum in Brazil can agree on -- it's hard to hate Barack Obama.
Former President George W. Bush was a favorite target of vitriolic anti-U.S. protests at previous editions of one of the world's biggest gathering of grassroots groups, whose inaugural meeting coincided with the start of Bush's first term in January 2001.
A week after Democrat Obama's inauguration as U.S. president, the sentiment against Washington at this year's forum in the sweltering Amazon city of Belem was markedly more subdued.
"People just come up and say 'Oh my God, thank you so much' or give you the thumbs up, stuff like that," said Chad Gray, a 28-year-old graduate student from the United States.
Bush's war in Iraq and policies at home made him an intensely unifying figure for the world's left-wingers.
Effigies of Bush were often burned at leftist rallies but that particular form of protest is now much more unlikely with Obama, the United States' first black president.
Many are grappling with the loss of Bush, who was so unpopular in much of the world that he helped radical groups recruit members and get protesters onto the streets.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28531595.htm
