Casey French
'Good Fortune' was an interesting film that gave us a different prospective on large-scale development projects in impoverished areas. According to the Kenyans, worldwide organizations are ultimately doing more harm than good. They explain how the government is receiving foreign aid for development and distributing it into other sectors other than its original intention. It shows how corrupt the government is and how policy dictates the people, serving as the decision-maker of economic distribution. Foreign aid is meant to help the well-being of those living in "poor" conditions. Other than through monetary funding, many are imposing concepts of agriculture in order to prevent hunger. I believe this is a form of cultural imperialism by imposing western ideologies and deeming it acceptable to relocate an entire population against their will. Another example is the influence and pressure from many foreign organizations who want to implement strategies to better the standard of living based on their own ideology.
I thought this documentary also brought the idea of what it means to be "poor". What is poor in reference to? Compared to the United States/Europe? I remember one of the residents claiming that he was not poor. He will be poor once they evict him from his house. I thought this was interesting, because it shows that they are happy with their current lifestyle. Look at us. Is poor defined by our personal commodities? This is a debatable topic and I'm curious to see the breakdown of this concept in Monday's lecture.
I believe the answer to your question here in America, is yes, we define poor by our commodities. I am guilty of this myself, by just stereotyping people. I could drive by a trailer park and unfortunately I would most likely think to myself that those people are poor. Its not like I was raised super rich or anything, I come from a middle class divorced family but I always had a house, and always had food on the table, and Christmas presents. I do think you raised a very good question though, should we change our perceptions here in America about what being poor really is? Someone could have all the money in the world, but no friends or family. Or a family could not have a lot of money but have many friends and family and enjoy life. Who would the poor one really be?
ReplyDeleteI, too, really liked how in the movie the one man described himself as not being poor, only that he will be if rich people try "helping" the local population. Imposing our own ideologies (Western) on their livestyles is not helping them. I feel that if societies need help, then the help should be base off their current societal practices and built up from there. Local cultures and practices need to be reinstated rather than foreign methods being adopted.
ReplyDeleteYes, the idea of poverty.
ReplyDeleteI truly loved how the Kenyan farmer did not see himself as poor. For us to tell him he was poor by destroying their homes and building "better" ones and destroying their farmland and creating "better" ones, can only be seen as correct through the cultural lens of the West. Missionaries "saving" Africans via word of God seems a thing of the past, but God is now coming in the form of the Green Revolution and the United Nations to "save" these "poor" Africans.
Will WE ever learn?