Seila Carvalho "In a world with so much wealth, in modern cities, and so many resources, how can we still have so much poverty where so many people must live on less than one dollar per day?"Poverty is an issue that is currently affecting billions of families and individuals. I came from a third world country where poverty is extremely common. I grew up witnessing neighbors struggling and parents losing their jobs and not being able to make enough money in order for their family to live with dignity. Mothers were forced to stay home and take care of the house, while fathers were the breadwinners of the family. In the documentary "The end of Poverty" the director, Phillipe Diaz, discusses poverty as an issue that is pervasive all across the globe. In his documentary, he focuses on the slums of Africa and the barrios of South America to elucidate poverty to the world. We are reminded that families are facing destitution and due to this children are forced to neglect school because they must help their families and cannot afford an education. Poverty has been affecting the world for over five hundred years. Conquistadores and colonizers roamed South America, Asia, and Africa, robbing lower class families of their land. For example, at the end of the colonial era in Kenya, one percent of the white population owned about fifty percent of the arable land. The conquistadors and colonizers imposed severe taxes on huts and forced lower class people into harsh labor. This can be closely connected to slavery. In today's world, poverty is still a penetrating issue, as third world countries are still plagued by inequitable debts, trade, and tax policies. Rich countries take advantage of third world countries, by ensuring and benefiting off of their underdevelopment. Landowners are still in possession of land that does not belong to them but in reality to the poor people. The poor continue to be perpetually oppressed throughout the world. Individuals are still forced to work in inhumane conditions, being treated immorally, and are not receiving appropriate salaries. It is estimated that 60 to 80 million people still continue to work in dystopia societies, as they are living in slave like worlds and depend heavily on the little money they earn to support their families. In Brazil, seventeen workers died from exhaustion and another 490 as a result of their slave-like employment, which entails sugar application. One of the workers explained the need to wake up at 1 am, in order to eat breakfast to begin working at 3:30 am. They spend hours cutting bundles and working insufferably hard to solely earn a paltry amount of 27.50 dollars per month. In less than four hours of making pizzas at work, I am able to make about the same amount of money, if not more, than these individuals who endure hard labor under the scorching sun. An article posted by CNN stated that forty percent of the food in the United States is thrown out, which is approximately 165 billion dollars squandered each year. Furthermore, about twelve percent of fresh fruit at supermarket goes to waste. It pains me to realize that so much food is discarded and wasted each year in this country, while people are dying of hunger every day and parents are risking their lives to put food on the table for their children. The documentary states that "less than 5% of the world population lives in United States, and we consume 25% of the world's resources, and creating 30% of the world pollution," which indicates that poverty is not about the lack of resources, but rather the distribution of resources.The documentary includes many experts such as, economists, authors, university professors, government ministers, Bolivia's vice president, and Brazilian activists. Phillipe Diaz succeeded in giving a voice to people affected by poverty and through allowing us, the viewers, to witness their daily struggles. I was extremely distressed when seeing individuals, wearing ripped clothes, discuss the grueling labor that they endure to earn less than a dollar and the starving children that yearn for an education. It is often the case that we forget our privilege and victimize our situations and ourselves. It is only when we watch documentaries, such as this one, do we understand the harsh reality that many individuals actually face. While watching this documentary, I experienced the very emotions that the director had intended for. In an interview with a kid from Kenya, he talked about having to give up on school because his parents could not afford to pay for the test to attend school. Mr. Diaz is implying that man created poverty; therefore man can end it, that it is the duty of the privileged to consider the struggles of the working poor and seek to alleviate them, by helping to create an egalitarian society.

Roland E. Zwick I'm not really sure why those who made "The End of Poverty?" felt compelled to include a question mark in their title, since around 90% of the movie is devoted to defining the problem and only about 10% to offering solutions.For much of the movie, director Philippe Diaz and narrator Martin Sheen keep hitting us with a litany of shocking and depressing statistics: that over 9,000,000 people die of starvation each year, that millions around the world earn less than a dollar a day, and that 60 to 80 million people work for nothing but room and board, making them virtual slaves in a 21st Century world. And that's just for starters. And just as you're about ready to throw in the towel and declare there's no hope for the world, the interviewees begin exploring possible answers (a fairer tax structure, returning land ownership to indigenous peoples, etc.), but it still seems an insurmountable task overall.On an instructional level, the movie traces the roots of modern poverty to the colonial era that began with the discovery of America, when countries - and now mega-corporations with no moral compass beyond the bottom-line - could exploit someone else's resources and amass huge stores of wealth at the expense of the lower classes. And that doesn't even include the robbing of the culture and the feeling of self-worth from the indigenous peoples of these lands.Diaz shows how the "haves" in the Northern Hemisphere have built and continue to build their fortunes primarily on the backs of the "have-nots" in the Southern Hemisphere. He interviews both economic theoreticians and common folk struggling for survival in both South America and Africa to drive home his point. He provides example upon example of how the policies of First World nations - neo-liberalism, unfettered free trade, multinational corporatism - have devastated the economies and peoples of the Third World.It's a depressing experience sitting through this film, but the shards of hope it provides towards the end do provide some comfort. And you might even be inspired enough to rouse yourself off the sofa and work on doing something about the problem. Now, if only anyone knew what that solution was.

Mathew Shafeek I saw this film at the African Diaspora Film Festival a few weeks ago. I consider myself fairly well read, and abreast on world news, but "The End of Poverty?" was a real eye-opener for me. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest in the state of the world at large.The film pinpoints the origins of the modern separation between the rich and the poor, and goes in depth explaining the barriers that are in place to only keep this gap growing larger over time. Citing many examples in countries all over the world, we're given a global tour of the state of poverty over the past three centuries.It seems there have been complaints that not enough solutions to the question posed by the film have been offered up. I think the reason for this is fairly simple - there are no easy answers. There's no magic switch to be flipped to solve the problem, and even though theoretical answers are technically offered up by some of the experts interview throughout the documentary, I think the movie's intention was more to inform and start a dialogue than it was to propose a singular solution. Just my two cents.

el961022000 Just watched it last night at the Athens International Film Festival. This is the kind of documentary I love! It gives you an excellent overview of how the so-called First World has been exploiting the natural resources and human labour of Third World countries for the past 500 years and how the economics and politics behind this brutal exploitation work. This movie is completely different to the Michael Moore-style documentaries that seem to dominate the scene nowadays. Rather than using populism to impress the audience, it presents its case by providing both the opinion of highly respected economists, authors and political advisors, as well as the view of third world people that have been actually experiencing the consequences of the neo-liberal policies. An insight on the methods used by the West (the US in particular) to promote and impose their preferred policies to Third World countries is one of the strongest points of this movie. I am not going to expand on that as I do not want to spoil it for you! In any case, this is a brilliant documentary worth seeing by anyone who has the slightest interest in politics and economics.