Tech | September 30, 2011 | 13 comments

How colonization and globalization perpetuate global poverty and slavery

source: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29256.htm

JanforGore
Global poverty did not just happen. It began with military conquest, slavery and colonization that resulted in the seizure of land, minerals and forced labor. Today, the problem persists because of unfair debt, trade and tax policies — in other words, wealthy countries taking advantage of poor, developing countries.

Renowned actor and activist, Martin Sheen, narrates , a feature-length documentary directed by award-winning director, Philippe Diaz, which explains how today's financial crisis is a direct consequence of these unchallenged policies that have lasted centuries. Consider that 20% of the planet's population uses 80% of its resources and consumes 30% more than the planet can regenerate. At this rate, to maintain our lifestyle means more and more people will sink below the poverty line.

Filmed in the slums of Africa and the barrios of Latin America, The End of Poverty? features expert insights from: Nobel prize winners in Economics, Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz; acclaimed authors Susan George, Eric Toussaint, John Perkins, Chalmers Johnson; university professors William Easterly and Michael Watts; government ministers such as Bolivia's Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera and the leaders of social movements in Brazil, Venezuela, Kenya and Tanzania. It is produced by Cinema Libre Studio in collaboration with the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. Can we really end poverty within our current economic system? Think again. http://www.theendofpoverty.com/

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13 comments // How colonization and globalization perpetuate global poverty and slavery // Video

  • nardo1224
    • 0
      nardo1224  

    • An excellent book to read regarding this is "Confessions of an Economic HItman by John Perkins" A detailed account of how government and companies use financial burden to create debt and eventually take over.

    • 8 months ago
  • Changes2Pac
  • artemis6
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • artemis6:

      It explains the history of this subjugation very well, as it still goes on, which led to the financial meltdown that also led to our environmental meltdown. It is very clear that economics and environmental quality are indeed interrelated, even though governments wish to separate them for their own globalist agendas. You can buy the documentary at the link in the post.

    • 8 months ago
  • artemis6
    • 0
      artemis6  
    • JanforGore:

      I think they should show it in school . It is THE most clear explanation i have even seen . I am gonna show my kid too . Thanks for reposting . Someone should post this every freaking month , until the whole world gets it .

    • 8 months ago
  • Anonmaly
  • lazloman
    • +3
      lazloman  

    • I was indifferent to the idea of globalization back in the 90's when I began to hear more about it. Even when the protests were occurring in Seattle, I didn't quite get why the protesters would oppose it. But now, its abundantly clear. For globalization to work, everything as we know it has to change, especially our Democracy. There is no way we can maintain a Democracy AND be involved in globalization. Low taxes, few regulations most every government service privatized, etc. What happens to dissent in this environment?
      Well folks, it won't be allowed.

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://www.rightlivelihood.org/?id=2431

      GRAIN has won the 2011 Right Livelihood Award for their work on exposing landgrabs.

      “… for their worldwide work to protect the livelihoods and rights of farming communities and to expose the massive purchases of farmland in developing countries by foreign financial interests.”

      GRAIN is an international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. For two decades, GRAIN has been a key player in the global movement to challenge corporate power over people’s food and livelihood and to promote food sovereignty. In recent years, GRAIN has been at the forefront of documenting, and denouncing, the rapidly accelerating phenomenon of land grabbing.

      History and objectives of GRAIN

      GRAIN’s work goes back to the early 1980s, when a number of activists around the world started drawing attention to the dramatic erosion of genetic diversity – the very cornerstone of agriculture. In 1990 GRAIN was legally established as an independent non-profit organisation.

      GRAIN’s four objectives are to

      •stimulate public awareness, around the world, about the importance of biological diversity for people’s livelihoods and security

      •increase knowledge and understanding of the structural causes behind the destruction of biodiversity, particularly as it affects food and agriculture in the global South

      •promote activities and policies that lead to a more equitable and sustainable use of biodiversity in our food systems

      •support social movements and public interest groups concerned about biodiversity as a critical basis for sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty.

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  

    • we now have the new colonialism that is spreading throughout Latin America, Asia and Africa in the form of patenting seeds and taking over world agriculture in the form of landgrabs by multinationals in collusion with governments backed by the World Bank. You want to protest a bank, there's one for you. They and the IMF together have perpetrated far too much pain and suffering in the developing world. Indigenous people have been standing up to this for years, ignored by a world that places little to no relevance on their plight. That has to change in order for us to see a truly changed world, even here. The same dependence on corporations for everything down to our seeds has happened right here in America right under our noses. Privatization of services, water, prisons, seeds, voting, all designed to stifle our voices and keep us from the freedoms that are inherent as well as an environment that is sustainable.The answer to the question posed above is then an obvious no. But then that begs another question: can we as humans ever truly live in a world where such power structures do not come to pass? Has human nature evolved to that point yet regardless of economics?

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  

    • http://current.com/groups/culture/93199080_dr-vandana-shiva-understanding-the-co...
      "The American people should see that corporations have abandoned them long ago," says scientist, environmentalist, and food justice activist Dr. Vandana Shiva, named one of the seven most influential women in the world by Forbes magazine. "The people will have to rebuild democracy as a living democracy."

      Dr. Shiva has been fighting corporate takeover in every area in her native India, combating a nuclear plant one week and patented, genetically modified seeds another. She joins Laura in studio to advise American activists how they can fight the merging of corporations and government here at home and around the world.

    • 8 months ago
  • David_H
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • David_H:

      GRAIN is an excellent organization that speaks for the rights of farmers and food sovereignty. Unfortunately, not many do know of the good organizations out here fighting for "the commons", only the World Bank and IMF that make money from keeping the poor down.

    • 8 months ago
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