Product Description The End of Poverty? is a daring, thought-provoking and very timely documentary by award-winning filmmaker, Philippe Diaz, revealing that poverty is not an accident. It began with military conquest, slavery and colonization that resulted in the seizure of land and other natural resources as well as in forced labor. Today, global poverty has reached new levels because of unfair debt, trade and tax policies -- in other words, wealthy countries exploiting the weaknesses of poor, developing countries The End of Poverty? asks why today 20% of the planet s population uses 80% of its resources and consumes 30% more than the planet can regenerate? Can we really end poverty under our current economic system? Think again. 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. Review A sort of 'An Inconvenient Truth' for global economics…a powerful description of how Western policies since colonialism have subjugated Third World countries. --Charles Masters, The Hollywood ReporterIt's become conventional to blame the culture and climate of poor countries and poor people, at least in part, for their own plight, as if corrupt dictatorships, ethnic warfare and raw-material economies were somehow intrinsic to Africa and Latin America..Diaz's film argues that all those things were the result of a lengthy historical process. Africa's dysfunctional and often anti-democratic regimes definitely aren't helping matters, for example, but they themselves -- along with the dire poverty they can't manage -- were produced by the European and North American powers' relationship to the global South, from 16th-century colonization right through 21st-century globalization. What's most profound, and also most controversial, in this analysis is the question of how much this pattern of exploitation continues today. --Andrew O Hehir, Salon.comA fascinating history lesson showing that the world's wealth disparity began with the Europeans' military conquest of other continents, enslavement of indigenous people and colonization that resulted in the seizure of land, minerals and other resources, and forced labor, and that it continues today due to the existence and enforcement of unfair debt, trade and tax policies. --Jennifer Merin, About.com
J**4
Propaganda Train
At 37:10 they show a women sitting on the ground at the church and they say that people are still made to sit on the floor of the church even today. BULL CRAP !!!! This video is decently informative, BUT when they get to the part about religion and the Church there is false information piled HIGH. Challenge: Go to 37:10 in the video and ask yourself? "Has this women really been told she cant sit in the seats? or has she simply selected that as her spot and they filmed her and just made this bull crap up.
D**A
Excellent documentary.
Must watch. Some interesting history lessons on causes of poverty. You'll learn things here you won't learn anywhere else. Watched twice now. And will watch again. Watch in an environment where you have zero distractions. You need to concentrate because it's substantative.
A**R
Just W
This documentary should really be a LOT more well-known and watched than it actually is. It provides explanations for so many things in our everyday life and world that we don't even stop to question, because we have no idea how things got that way, or that it doesn't have to be that way. This shows that poverty is literally a crime being inflicted upon poor people around the globe, all in the name of imperialism. It also shows that if we, as a society, decided that we wanted it to change, it could change. But first, people would have to see this film and maybe it would change their value systems. There is a lot of information in it to digest, but it is definitely worth the watch. Like other reviewers have said, I will watch it again and again, and also tell friends and family to watch it.
B**K
This movie should be viewing for the whole planet. 5/5
This movie should be viewing for the whole planet. Talks about inequality and how itevolved over history. A very brilliant movie that I watch and re-watch again and again.
S**S
EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH THIS NOW ... AND THEN MAYBE AGAIN!
The title is a bit misleading but to make this short and sweet this is a film everyone who has any privilege at all (i.e., anyone who has access to their computer and the Amazon here - so anyone who is or could be reading this) should watch at least once. There are some "holes" in definitions and explanations and I do think the film tried to tackle too much in one go (in my mind it would have been better to make this into a 2+-part series with at least a second film discussing the present state of affairs and the problems we have more or less simply reconstructed) but otherwise I cannot say much that is negative about this film. As "Westerners" (or "Northerners," as the case may be), we need to recognize as much of our personal responsibility for the state of the world as we can and this film certainly presents many facts that alert us to the things for which "we" should be not only taking accountability but working actively to change (rather than supporting extreme forms of these things). Just a film everyone should watch. A LOT of history about why things are the way they are in certain parts of the world (although I do also feel the film showed the "cleanest" parts of slums which always bothers me) and how we can really work to acknowledge the mistakes of the past and present to STOP reconstructing the same problems for the future. I think Americans especially tend to think we're somehow "exempt" from this sort of life but the direction the wealth / income disparity is heading (much more disparate) and the direction our policies and debt, etc. etc. (health care, education - the issues named for the problems in Sub-Saharan Africa!) are heading will drive the 99% of us to this same kind of existence given enough time and not enough action - and that's something everyone should be thinking about.
S**D
Keeping the Poor in Poverty
"The End of Poverty" is a documentary that everyone should watch. It begins with the coming of the Conquistadors who robbed native people in South and Central America of their land and their riches. Gold, silver, religious objects from the Incas and Maya people were stolen. Later came colonization and exapropriation of land that belonged to the people.This film can outrage, especially when the topics of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund come up, along with big corporations that want to privatize businesses that before were run by governments. Most of the countries getting the raw end of the deal are in the Southern Hemisphere. In Bolivia, the people rose up in anger over the privatization of water. They were not allowed to use rainwater in cisterns, but had to pay higher prices for water, and for some people buying water took a week's wages and there was no money left for food, rent or medicines. Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, supported the people in their uprising and Bolivia controls their own water now. How can rainwater be denied to people when it is part of nature and the Earth and is there for us to use? It's all about the big corporations making money and keeping the people in debt.When the IMF gives loans to countries, it isn't a guarantee that the people are going to get the benefit of the money. Most of the time it goes to the top, and when the time comes to repay the loan, it's the people without who must pay with their taxes.I recommend this movie to anyone who cares about those living in severe poverty in the world, and in learning how uneven the distribution of wealth, food and resources is. This film is most definitely an eye opener.
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