According to the official Universal Cultures Forum site ( Barcelona 2004 ), the next installment is already in the works ( Monterrey 2007 ) but as a local resident of the event I must say that things are not looking as advanced as they would have you believe. It took a lot of planning and time, not to mention resources for the Barcelona venues to be finished in time, and there was a lot of hype throughout the months leading up to the inauguration, and then from May through September this spectacular city shone even brighter because of the event, the media attention and the Milena of cultural heritage behind it.
In contrast, Monterrey is only 409 years old, and only in the last part of the twentieth century did it had a sort of renaissance, with the population growing exponentially and the urban infrastructure becoming more and more tight, there has been growth in wealth and cultural assets as well but we cannot compare it to that of the Catalan City.
This event is being hailed as "An international event to celebrate cultural diversity, sustainable development and a culture of peace", but if you investigate or look up those concepts in the local media you will not find them, in fact quite the opposite; the reason being that the STATE government is lacking REAL interest in helping the population as a whole and there is not really a lot of information on the pointers or follow up programme and rather the political parties involved have petty rivalries and bickering within the institutions, and even the STATE OFFICE FOR REGIONAL AND URBAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT is behind schedule in informing we the people and everyone else about the status of the entire Forum committee, which is supposed to be headed by the Governor.
Another piece of information that can be questioned is a statement by one of the city mayors, who says that :"the project is going to be led by
the Governor of the State of New Leon and the Monterrey City Council
will occupy the position of the vice-presidency of the Board of Forum
2007. The city aspires to recruit about 3,000 workers and volunteers
and the museums and cultural equipment of the municipality will be
involved in the promotion of an event that "will try to avoid the few
failures of Barcelona in its starting phase and to work on the reasons
for the Forum’s success in the Catalan capital", and then he
then added: "we hope it will also go well for us". That last statement is to be taken with a grain of salt, because his popularity or notoriety has been tainted and put into question in the local news in the past, so the words " well for us " should mean THE CITY, not an interest group or group of people with a political or economic secret agenda ( these two are more than evident in the TV and newspapers from time to time ).
Does this mean that nothing is being done, well one cannot be 100% sure of that specially in the order in which this administration has been performing, which leaves much to be desired in terms of actual government and transparency, but that is the way things are and have been in the Mexican governments for quite a while, and one can only imagine what sort of bunny trick they will pull out of their hats in order to finish and promote in good time the entire event.
As an architect, designer and promoter, I have an enormous desire and willingness to participate in every which way I can, but as one would have it with the current government administration I get the feeling that things are not transparent and that perverse or not too familiar intentions are underway inside the very closed and hermetic halls of the State Capitol.
I have the highest hope that everything will work out OK, and that if the government stands down and allows the people to participate, the FORUM will in fact be as brilliant as the best of them.
