Review: "The End of Poverty?"

Do we deserve everything we get? Let’s leave your love life out of it and look at global market trends from a historical perspective. Global statistics over the past two hundred years show certain countries, largely those of Western Europe and North America, have grown steadily in wealth and quality of life, while other countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and South America, have not.

In his 2008 documentary “The End of Poverty?” writer and director Philippe Diaz asks his contributors why we still have widespread, crippling poverty in a world wealthier than it has ever been. By relating the history of colonialism, capitalism and slavery and interviewing individuals engaged in answering this question, Diaz offers a sober answer: Interested parties have made it so over the past four hundred years and we of the wealthier nations remain complicit in the continuation of the oppression of the poor. Not an answer we like to hear.

Diaz shows the story of poverty through people living a destitute existence today and also from the view of those trying to ameliorate the status quo. In poignant and candid interviews with impoverished people and academics, politicians and activists, we are to be convinced that poverty in much of the world is no accident, but the result of historical circumstance and a continued reluctance overall on the part of wealthier nations to ensure meaningful human equality for all.

At the individual level, we hear the story of the miners of Potesi, Bolivia, where millions of native South Americans died pulling silver out of the earth for the Spanish crown—sweat, blood and bones for greed and power across the ocean.

From there, Diaz confronts us with the lives of men and women who are veritable modern-day slaves—those who work for only meager food and shelter, tied to the land in debt. We see the bitter reality of Brazilian cane cutters, who work long, hard hours in the heat with little sustenance for less than seven dollars a day.

For a view from a modern Spain, Diaz interviewed former “economic hit-man” John Perkins who easily admits to the systematic bankrupting and exploitation of colonial and post-colonial economies through forced market practices, international conditional loans and the exercise of military power. The result is the continued existence of hundreds of millions of people in a state tantamount to enslavement, benefiting multinational corporations and the narrowly defined national interests of Western powers, at virtually no gain for themselves.

An essential part of Diaz’s argument is the need to acknowledge that slavery, violence and exploitation are a reality. Only in understanding this can we move forward, he reasons, towards a fair distribution of resources and wealth among the world’s population. A sense of entitlement ought not to accrue to those tucking into the fruits of others’ labours, even a few hundred years later.

Unlike some documentary makers, Diaz does not resort to cinematic orchestration or flashy film effects to bolster the impact of his interviews or his arguments; he lets the individuals and their ideas speak for themselves without distracting the viewer. Still, he maintains visual interest through varying interview settings, historical photographs, and artwork. Interest, for me, flagged only at the mid-point of the documentary where there is a perhaps overly-extended clip of an indigenous flute band ensemble performance.

I found the ideas of Serge Latouche quite compelling because he stresses market forces are under our control and argues we can restore balance to the world economy so all can, at the very least, meet their basic daily needs. He calls for an escape from the “growth, growth, growth” mentality and a “de-growth” on the part of the fat, resource hogs of the world.

Overall, the film’s strength lies in its scope. In less than two hours, Diaz manages to trace sensible links between colonialism, global finance and cultural appropriation to draw an outline of the foundations and premises of our current global markets; a world where a hundredth of our population holds almost thirty percent of the wealth and twenty percent of the population uses or claims about eighty percent of the world’s natural resources.

Quite refreshing is the constructive and positive outlook the film’s producers have created on the “End of Poverty?” website. Instead of the easy negation involved in outlining problems and the roots of tragedies, www.theendofpoverty.com offers avenues of involvement and further education in the problem of poverty.