1 Please read these questions before you begin watching The End of Poverty. As you watch the video, take notes to help you retain more of the content from the video. The questions follow the sequence of the video. Please note that these questions are for your own benefit – do not worry if you cannot answer all of them. Consider pausing the video while you take notes. 1. How much of the world’s population lives in the United States? How much of the world’s resources are consumed by the United States, and how much of the world’s pollution is created by the United States? Less than 5 percent live in US, consume over 25% of world’s resources, 30% of pollution 2. When and how did colonization begin? 1492. European domination. Spain, Portugal then UK, Holland 3. What theft was involved with colonization? Gold, silver, religious artifacts, jewels 4. Where and how did the theft of land begin prior to colonization, and what effect did it have? Upper classes seized communal land from poor. 5. What happened to land in countries with no central government that the British invaded? Appropriate title to land and passed laws for it 6. What does a capitalist system require in terms of labour? 7. What was the wealth gap between the richest and the poorest countries in 1820, 1950, and 1997? 8. What financed the Industrial Revolution in Europe? 9. What did the Bolivian law, la mita, require – and how many people died in the mines in Bolivia? 10. What was the triad of colonialism in the 1800s? 2 11. How did Europeans affect agriculture in colonized countries and what effect has the legacy of colonialism had on the value of raw materials from Africa? 12. What happened after the disappearance of “empires” post WWII? 13. What were the impacts of neoliberalism, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund on the global south? 14. What effect did capital market liberalization have on tax evasion? 15. How many people were suffering from malnutrition in 1970 compared to 2008, when the video was filmed? 16. What happened because of the Dominion Group of Companies in Kenya? 17. What do “economic hit men” do, and what is the connection between wealth and crime or terrorism? 18. What solutions are offered in the name of justice to the global south? 1. Brazil, Kenya Colonized Land seizure by force, or imposition of taxes Forced labor Locked economy, total dependency 2. Happens because of system created. We have enough resources. Rooted in colonialism and perpetuated by system. Big land tenures allow people to own large pieces of land and make profit off of it without producing anything. wealthy countries exploiting poorer countries to this day. Even after independence, some countries still do not have their land back 3 By becoming a British colony, you actually became a property.. both the country and the people. – Mashengu wa Mwachofi, former parliamentarian, Kenya Colonial labor laws were really slave laws Lasting consequences to this day – left legacy of violence Prerequisites of capitalism – free labor Income inequality among nations – gap between richest and poorest countries have multiplied by a factor of 25 1820, 1997 European empires built on riches stolen from the poorer colonized countries industrial revolution – capital required from tin and silver mines in brazil, bolivia colonialism is always part of the expansion of capitalism. ALVARO GARCIA LINERA Vice-President Bolivia imports more popular than local goods KIPRUTO ARAP KIRWA Agriculture Minister Kenya Germany, which does not have a single bush of coffee… is the largest exporter of coffee. One of the legacies of colonialism is that the poor countries or the Third World are continuing to export raw materials and the countries of Europe and North America produce and export finished products. This stems from a practice that was developed long ago and the intention was to make sure that the countries or the Third World remain backward and remain dependent and are never able to develop. So to this day, they are… they are continuing to survive on the export of raw materials, that has always been to the disadvantage of the country exporting raw materials and it gets worse each year. MARTIN SHEEN The main legacy of the colonizers was the change in mentality, religion, and culture. 4 the mental colonization, the colonization of the mind… the imposition of a culture… a cultural imperialism… which led to the destruction of psychological frameworks loss of the sense of self. The accumulation of resources in the northern hemisphere created this huge imbalance, making the North extremely wealthy, allowing Europe to develop its industries and to create consumer societies. While people living in the South became destitute, only able to watch their natural economy being destroyed and replaced by a commodity economy. It’s a resource war politically independent but neocolonialism still follow subtle form of colonialism From the beginning the independent states were born with a debt world bank giving loans ddoesn’t help the poor it is actually the south that is financing the North - SUSAN GEORGE author/Transnational Institute Chair France trade, debt, and monopoly power over resources The developing world spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants.
