This past week, we watched the movie, Poverty Inc. I did not get to attend the in-person screening of this, but I streamed it from my computer. I was not sure what to expect from this movie, but I learned things I didn't know before. I had always suspected that the reason why people are in poverty is because the ones with power truly don't want those in poverty to get out. Something that stood out to me was when they were talking about the Bandaid project song, "Do they know it's Christmas". While the creators had good intentions, this song in a way exploited Africans. This song made them seem like they are absolutely helpless. It did raise awareness, but it made them seem almost inhuman. I was curious, and looked up the song, to my surprise, on the album cover there is a picture of Christmas things as well as a malnourished little child. This is horrible. Foreign aid is something that is supposed to help Africa and the poverty situation, however, Africans don't necessarily want the foreign aid. One of the speakers in the movie mentioned that when you become dependent on foreign aid, that is where it becomes a problem. There are things called NGOs, which are non-profit government organizations. Having too many of them causes local people in Africa to compete with them. For example, I believe it was the solar company that has to compete with NGOs. They have a local manufacturer of solar powered things, but NGOs come into Africa offering solar powered things for free. Of course people would rather get the free thing than have to pay for something, but this harms the local businesses. Another thing that I didn't know was that Toms sends shoes to Africa. I got a pair of Toms when I was younger, but I didn't know that buying a pair would also give a pair. However, Toms aid isn't that helpful. Personally, I don't see many people wearing Toms anymore. So, with that being said, their aid is not consistent since people aren't buying as many Toms shoes as they were around 2009. Moving on to the topic of adoption. I know a few families back in Arkansas that have adopted some children from Africa. I had no idea that the majority of kids in orphanages in Africa actually still have parents. Their parents are too poor to take care of them on their own, so they put them in orphanages, but the children still know their parents. It would be sad to want to adopt a child, but they have a family in Africa and they probably wouldn't want to leave their family. It breaks my heart that their parents can't take care of them on their own. In my opinion, it is kind of disgusting how leaders in America and even in Europe, make it seem like Africans are helpless and can't do anything. That just simply isn't true, an example would be the African man who created the online sources. He is known as the Bill Gates of Africa. There are many gifted people that come out of Africa, but they get overlooked by the issue of poverty.
