Poverty, Inc. Reflection

Stigmas
I have always had an issue with the media’s portrayal of Africa. They display the country in such a helpless and negative light. When anyone thinks of Africa, they think of a place with no water and starving people. They think of the people as stupid and unable to fend for themselves. However, this is far from the truth. I liked how the documentary interviewed the rice farmers. They aren’t stupid, and they know that when the countries send over the extra rice, it will mess up the market for local farmers. It actually created more poverty and overpopulation in the Haiti slums. The people in the poverty industry have used this portrayal of Africa as a selling point for all kinds of donations and money.

NGOs
NGOs are nonprofits that aim to help people in certain areas. There are extremely large amounts of NGOs in Africa. They send aid into parts of Africa that they think need it. They started after the Haitian earthquake that destroyed many parts of the country. Aid was sent during that time, which was very much needed. However, the problem is that it has never stopped since then. These NGOs are creating more harm than good in local markets. Much of the aid that is being brought into the country in large amounts is the same type of good that is being produced by local business people in the community. The fact that there is aid coming into the area creates disruption in the market and therefore hurts local businesses tremendously. I liked the example they showed in the rice industry. Before the aid started coming in from the United States, rice was a delicacy to many, and was only consumed two or three times a week. After the aid started coming in, rice was consumed every day at all meals. This surplus of supply hurt the rice producers a lot, and reduced demand for their locally grown rice exponentially. This is a prime example of how aid can hurt local economies, which is the starting point for helping people get out of poverty.

Jewelry Company
I found the story of the Apparent Project Jewelry Company a very inspiring one. After finding out the realities of the orphanage system was like in Haiti, a couple moved to Haiti and founded a jewelry business. They were going to adopt a son, then realized his mother was still alive and gave him up because she could not afford to take care of him. They were shocked to see this is a common occurrence in the impoverished area. They would make jewelry and sell it in the US, landing placements in big box stores such as Walmart and Disney. They have helped many of the local women and men earn money to provide for their families. One woman even bought herself a piece of land for her and her family from working as a jewelry maker. This method of aid should be more utilized when it comes to helping impoverished areas. Instead of disruption of economic equilibriums, there should be education and job opportunities in the larger scale market.

More Problems
Another problem that many impoverished nations face when starting businesses is the lack of loans available for small to medium sized businesses. There are loans available for microbusinesses and large scale businesses, but there is a gap in seeking loans for the medium and small sized businesses. This makes it incredible difficult to expand businesses and many business owners get stuck being medium and small sized. Another aspect is that there is no rule of law in these places either. This makes it incredibly difficult to own pieces of land.

Conclusion
The ideas of how we help impoverished nations needs to change. There are other and better ways of helping poor nations. Instead of pouring free things into countries, there needs to be economic growth. Aid is only needed in times of disaster. However, the poverty companies decided to not stop pouring in aid to so called impoverished nations to help them. This instead made them more set back. Poverty has become a multi-million dollar industry that has done more harm to local economies than good. We need to look to things like the Apparent project to normalize a new way of helping poorer nations. There needs to be education about business as well as job opportunities that will help economies flourish. The poverty industry as we know it needs to disappear. When you turn impoverished people into businessman and active members of their local economies, you will see growth.