Poverty Inc

Explored a few issues relating to poverty in Haiti. It was a bit disturbing to me, the view of a few Haitians that were portrayed in the documentary. I saw their point of view, yet they were focusing on how foreign aid hurt them, and it seemed to go a bit far. On the other hand there was one person who praised the foreign aid, and explained how it helped him to live a better life. Most of the persons who complained about foreign aid were business people who felt the aid undercut their product. They then interviewed some foreigners who went their to adopt some children, which definitely shared some perspectives that were honest and real, then they ended up starting a form of charity and staying in Haiti where they earned quite a bit of money monthly.

No, this isn't a conspiracy snooze fest. This documentary looks at mega charities, ngo's, and foreign aid's harmful impact on local economies. Wealthy countries are destroying already struggling local economies by flooding the market with free or cheap goods in the name of charity. Meanwhile, said charities, governments and ngo's are getting filthy rich from taxpayer dollars. It's a disturbing infrastructure that does far more harm under the deceptive guise of "goodwill."

Conspiracist films can be amusing, if they are as insane as What The Bleep, but this is about as entertaining as being harangued by a street-corner evangelist.

Even if you are sympathetic to the the view that the banking industry is corrupt and that politicians collude to protect it from its own greed and incompetence, the film still comes across like fingernails on a blackboard. It is strident, it treats the audience like children, and I am far from convinced that the views of the people interviewed are correctly represented (propaganda films do have a tendency to quote-mine).

It lacks the slick presentation and off-the-wall loopiness of Zeitgeist, and I think the budget was probably about ten dollars.

Gary Null is no Michael Moore.