The End of Poverty?

Global poverty did not just happen. Yet the overwhelming magnitude of poverty seems unsolvable. Can we really end poverty within our current economic system?

In this award-winning documentary, narrated by Martin Sheen, we see the historical foundation that, for over five centuries, laid the groundwork for today's financial crisis. It began with military conquest, slavery and colonization (often in the spirit of missionary zeal) that resulted in the seizure of land and minerals and in forced labor. Today, the problem persists because of the structuring of debt, trade and tax policies. The "End of Poverty" (2009) reveals a co- dependency in which the southern hemisphere provides cheap resources for the northern hemisphere without a way out of financial indebtedness and towards economic independence. The dependency is necessary to prop up the industrialized nation's standard of living. Read my detailed review at: www.unhealedwound.com (July 27, 2014)!

The longer I live the more I value history.

I am less distracted with the tiny incidents of current events when I understand the historic context.

Our current reality is the result of thousands of chains of events that stretch back in time.

I have come to especially value videos that tell the stories that go back hundreds of years.

This offers a summary of major events over the globe during the centuries.

I do not agree with all that is said here but many major parts of the mural of history are presented well.

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.

This documentary explores poverty as it exists today, and takes us through a historical account of how it came to be, as it is today(it does not go into the larger discussion of there having been different status levels and each having specific benefits(or limitations) as long as there have been even barely organized communities - this would require its own feature-length piece), across the world, not only in the US. It does so with personal interviews with economists with the perspective and who've studied the subject, and the individual workers and their families, who are living with the consequences of the irresponsible and callous actions of corporate leaders, banks and politicians. This engages with a healthy mix of facts and accounts(to keep it from getting dry or letting it become too theoretical, we have to remember that there are actual people suffering, and many of them, no less), and it keeps a nice pace throughout. It's well-edited. This really gets you wanting to solve the problem, and few will keep holding on to the opposing opinion after watching this. There is disturbing content in this. I recommend this to everyone. 7/10

A good documentary about the causes, including root causes, of world poverty. Chiefly, the world's natural resources are controlled by a small number of rich governments and corporations, and whatever is necessary is done to maintain the status quo.

A solution to world poverty is beyond the scope of the film. It's beyond the power of everyone with such an ambition since ... whatever is necessary is done to maintain the status quo. The film does argue that the taxation of personal income needs to be vastly reduced in favour of increased taxes on land, particularly land containing natural resources; or the privatization of world's natural resources would need to end. But no-one sees this happening anytime soon.

It's possible to criticize the use of statistics which, without a tiresome definition of terms, comes across as a series of sweeping statements.