Review of The End of Poverty? (2008) by Walter M — 02 Jun 2011

"The End of Poverty?" is a documentary that starts well enough in telling the history of colonial exploitation which began in 1492 and simply went downhill from there for the indigenous peoples in Africa, Asia and South America. Surprisingly, things did not get that much better with independence as an insidious form of imperialism took over, more economic than political. The IMF and World Bank(or legal loan sharks, if you will) gave out loans to developing countries while dictating the terms which usually meant the gutting of social programs and protections for their citizens, leaving the population without a safety net or jobs in many cases. Whereas the interviews with ordinary citizens are heartbreaking, they also tend to be repetitious, as the documentary should have spent more time with them and skipped the statistics. These vignettes also give the feeling that the suffering is passive with a few exceptions like the water protests in Bolivia. Not quite, as it turns out.

In reality, a movement has been working on two fronts to challenge the IMF/World bank hegemony that Rebecca Solnit recapped in a recent article. Activists starting in Seattle in 1999 have been bringing huge protests to the bankers' front door, demanding debt forgiveness(Which is mentioned once in the film. It might have a chance if we slashed the military budget), while leaders are elected in South America that are responsive to their citizens' needs, especially in Venezuela and Bolivia.(The documentary talks to most of Evo Morales' government but does not mention his historic win.) And it would have been interesting to compare Cuba to the other countries mentioned in this film which I think has it sort of right. This is not an end, just a new beginning.