The End of Poverty
Global poverty did not just happen. It began with military conquest, slavery and colonization that resulted in the seizure of land, minerals and forced labor.
Today, the problem persists because of unfair debt, trade and tax policies - in other words, wealthy countries taking advantage of poor, developing countries.
Renowned actor and activist, Martin Sheen, narrates The End of Poverty, a feature-length documentary directed by award-winning director, Philippe Diaz, which explains how today's financial crisis is a direct consequence of these unchallenged policies that have lasted centuries.
Consider that 20% of the planet's population uses 80% of its resources and consumes 30% more than the planet can regenerate.
At this rate, to maintain our lifestyle means more and more people will sink below the poverty line. Filmed in the slums of Africa and the barrios of Latin America, The End of Poverty features expert insights from: Nobel prize winners in Economics, Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz; acclaimed authors Susan George, Eric Toussaint, John Perkins, Chalmers Johnson; university professors William Easterly and Michael Watts; government ministers such as Bolivia's Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera and the leaders of social movements in Brazil, Venezuela, Kenya and Tanzania.
It is produced by Cinema Libre Studio in collaboration with the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. Can we really end poverty within our current economic system? Think again.
I concur in some routes that, as you say, the vast majority here carrying on with a more basic life wouldn't straightforwardly enhance the lives of others without some significant and far reaching developments to the world economy... Nonetheless I trust that on the off chance that I take an interest less, produce less wage, and consequently give less motivator to the affluent 'in my name' to perpetrate this sort of wrongdoing against humanity.... everything includes. Without conscience in saying this, you and I are in any event aware of our effect, and we're endeavoring to live with less. Less calories in my body "could" possibly mean more for another person who needs them, and so forth. At the point when the day comes that "poor people" of the primary world understand that they are in reality exceptionally well off contrasted with about 66% of humankind, we may be on the correct way. A few of us have to live by calm illustration and ideally this may happen. There might be a lot of extremely dire, outside tensions building that could deal with it sooner than later.
After seeing this video, it is really unjustice to all those who still living life under poverty. Firstly the people whose ancestor's had worked under slavery must get reward to compensate their hard work.Equity should be between richer and poor.Government can do more in this regard.
$11 trillion stolen resources a year from the South to Corporations in the Northern Hemisphere. It does not find its way into the infrastructure, superstructure of Northern countries but is siphoned through off-shore accounts to evade tax. The tax system needs to be changed so that those who own property/land are paying the taxes not wage earners. That would begin to even the odds but still would not be a solution. Our leaders are a criminal cabal. Natural resources belong to all of us but now a small group owns them all and we are forced to pay them just like our Southern hemisphere cousins. This was a brilliant documentary - it made me weep for the poor and disadvantaged everywhere, particularly Africa and South America. We need a global shift on a massive scale to right the wrongs of the World Bank, the IMF, the empires, corporations; BUT how ?
Poverty is one thing money can't buy.
Last night I watched 1 of the hour long documentaries “Why Poverty?”.
Then I went to my bed -a new soft bed in a warm house.
It felt weird.
I don’t own that bed rather than I own the house I live in or the plates I eat from. I have as good as no money (as I haven’t had any income for 9 months now) but still I have the opportunity to let my personal voice be heard, to be seen both online and offline, I have my education, experience and relations from places all over the world.
I realize how lucky I am to have people around me who believe in me and support me, who allow me to focus on the things I believe in to make a difference for others too. I realized that even though I own nothing in this material world I’m extremely rich of everything but money.
Imagine if we could give, with today's technology and access to it, the same to the developing countries. Not just some paper-stuff but the opportunity to let personal voices be heard, to be seen both online and offline, free education, experiences and relations from places and people all over the world. And the feeling to be surrounded by supporting people who believe. So i ask you "Why Poverty" ??
Just imagine. What would that be worth for an individual?
I was wondering when Ronald Reagan would be blamed for 500 years of poverty; it came at the 58 min mark.
In Canada their are few homeless Canadians than non-Canadians in subsidized housing.
If Canadian Citizens were housed before immigrants and economic refugees from foreign countries no Canadian would be homeless and Canadians could be able to work.
The Federal Government should be able to let anyone into Canada, but Non-Canadians should not deny Canadians services given to Non-Canadians.
developing countries be free to do what they want when the military diplomacy is available as the main tool used by rich nations
Terribly uninformative documentary. It would not be persuasive to those who did not already have the beliefs espoused in the documentary. A complete disregard for evidence and economic experts who in large part are no such things. The best part is the few words Joe Stiglitz gets to speak.
For someone wanting a good left-ish discussion of global poverty + some MODERN mainstream economic analysis of the modern economic system I recommend:
Poor Economics by Banerjee and Duflo (Straight up scientific approach to understanding poverty).
The book and/or blog "Why Nations Fail" by Acemoglu and Robinson which is an excellent analysis of why poverty persists (Plus a criticism of the Geography and Culture theses of economic growth).
Stiglitz's 2 books on Globalization.
Ha-Joon Chang's "Kicking Away the Ladder" and "23 Things they don't tell you about capitalism.".
If you are on the left (Like me) I think you should also read a good mainstream economic principles textbook like Mankiw's economic principles and take some of the arguments seriously. There is a lot of real problems that we ignore on the left: This is one of the reasons that we are failing (Not because people are stupid and don't know what's good for them).
The 1st COMPRESSED AIR CAR traveled 100miles IN THE 1820's ! C.A.LOCOMOTIVES 1829 to 1948 until The Rockerfeller OIL Cartel expunged them. Powered by Water/Windmills etc... compressors store energy for years / until needed & can power most everything = FREE ENERGY ! & It's dirt cheep ! Drake's 1st OIL well = The Commissioner of Commerce Declared FREE ENERGY DEAD & The BIRTH of the 1% These are THE FACT'S ! STOP POVERTY & THIS CORRUPT CANNIBALISTIC GOVERNMENT FROM ENSLAVING YOUR CHILDREN THE UNBORN OWE OVER $50,000. IN DEBT. WORTH MORE AS ORGAN DONORS THAN ALIVE. It's easy to blame others, however your the ones to blame for every baby rotting in the arms of it's dead mother. Giving $ is another government scam. Just ask Bill & Geo. what happened to the $money ? LEARN FREE ENERGY & TEACH IT TO EVERYONE FREE ENERGY CANBE USED TO FARM , SUCK WATER OUT OF THE AIR. AND END POVERTY ! I have 9 FREE ENERGY DEVICES & ALL OF THE INFORMATION NEEDED TO BUILD THEM IS FREE TO EVERYONE WILLING TO LEARN & TEACH OTHERS. Mike Peine perpetualmotion100
This documentary is full of extrem left europhobic clichés, irrational simplification and exaggerations. They forgot about the fact that European were also victims of exploitation and imperialism in the past and today. Natural resource belongs to nature and that what belong to nature belong to everyone, not just one people. The Arab where those who use slave the most, and it didn't make them more developed then the west. There is no mention of any of the discoveries, progress and advancement in agriculture, medicine and other science and technologies brought by the west to the rest of the world, this is the real source of wealth. They seem also to forget the fact that during the first half of the 20th century, Europe lost nearly 100 millions people and got virtually completely destroyed because of wars and imperialism. However, they are still more developed that almost every other peoples. They also forget that many poor countries never were European colonies (Etiopia, Afghanistan, Haiti is independent since more than 200 years.) and many rich countries were colonies (US, Australia, Hong Kong, etc.). They also forget that many of the countries conquered by European empires where part of other empires before, like the Mughal empire in India and that many of those empires were certainly not better (Aztec, for example). Many empires existed since Babylonian time but people remember just European empire, which is unfair. They accuse the west to be responsible for everything bad. The world elite exploits the people of the North as much, especially with dept, and tries to accuse the European people of what they do. They try to manipulate people by turning the south against the north.
great documantry real wake up call to the wealthy out there who go on with there daily lives not careing about a soul.
wish there was a version of this doc in a simpler format/ less interviews perhaps. itd be easier to encourage and recommend this doc
There's a song by Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn called; "And They Call It Democracy". Check it out on Youtube. It describes perfectly everthing spoken of in this documentary.
EU, like the US can 't do anything but become economic parasites. They solve problems by printing money
Coming soon to Europe, no wait! it's here
They might want to change the image they put up for this documentary; it is portraying the cover of the 2005 book by Jeffery D. Sachs called "The End of Poverty: Economic possibilities of our time" in which rather psychotically (i.e. loss of contact with reality) the author establishes that poverty can be eliminated by 2025 while highlighting the benign effects of neoliberalism. This film on the other hand is titled under the question form "The End of Poverty?" and intends (I believe) to highlight the contradictions of neoliberal (and capitalist) policies and the socio-politcal relationships it has formed.
Most of the communities in India (such as Bengali), are succumbed in 'Culture of Poverty'(a theory introduced by an American anthropologist Oscar Lewis), irrespective of cl-ass or economic strata, lives in pavement or apartment. Nobody is at all ashamed of the deep-rooted corruption, decaying general quality of life, worst Politico-administrative system, weak mother language, continuous absorption of common space (mental as well as physical, both). We are becoming fathers & mothers only by self-procreation, mindlessly & blindfold. Simply depriving their(the children) fundamental rights of a decent, caring society, fearless & dignified living. Do not ever look for any other positive alternative behaviour (values) to perform human way of parenthood, i.e. deliberately co-parenting of those children those are born out of ignorance, real poverty. All of us are being driven only by the very animal instinct. If the Bengali people ever be able to bring that genuine freedom (from vicious cycle of 'poverty') in their own life/attitude, involve themselves in 'Production of Space' (Henri Lefebvre), at least initiate a movement by heart, decent & dedicated Politics will definitely come up. - Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, 16/4, Girish Banerjee Lane, Howrah-711101, India.
Wow. Great documentary. Straight facts, easy to confirm. Turned around perspectives (the South is financing the North). Chilling as well.
I knew most of this already, but we're lazy and tired in life and tend to forget things. Great wake up call.
There are things you can do. Buy local. Buy recycled clothes (Goodwill, etc.) or make your own! Visit countries and spend your money in the local economies. Curb your spending. Economize. Often when you consume, you contribute to corporations and the perpetuation of modern slavery. Grow your own fruit trees. Etc. Every bit helps.
nice doccumentary though it could have use more english speaking so i could go afk
Very good. WOW. Talk about inhumane....the IMF, World Bank and big corporations have stripped developing countries of just about everything they have, including their cultures and languages....The Bolivians were very brave in fighting and winning against Bechtel....wait until we are fighting over drinking water! Ugh.
superb.
AndyA--That is a good point also.
If only the corporations were to change their policies... then what a trivial thing it would be to eradicate poverty!
( but I wouldn't expect the corporations to change their policies anytime soon... unless the people are stop buying their products because of its ethical conflicts.
That, I believe, is the only way to change things. As I have said, the CEOs are not going to suddenly change their mind and treat the locals nicely just because they were endowed with an ethical enlightenment. )
Yes Choi, but do the corporations have a say in the policies in how they treat the locals? The corporations often point blame the blame some where else rather than show a human face.
The large corporations and their privatizations are causing much of these poverty, the documentary presents.
And what is causing these large corporations to act this way?
The habits of consumers.
If the people of the affluent nations are willing to look beyond the monetary price of an object, opening their eyes instead to their moral and ethical ramifications, then, they finally can, I believe, begin building a world without destitution.