Document and reflect upon some of the local and scholarly “voices” heard in the film, “End of Poverty?”
To deepen your visual experiences of the inequalities entangled in contemporary
global formations of power, wealth, and social status between what is distinguished as the “Global
South” and the “Global North” of the planetary “states” (countries), please watch the film “End of
Poverty?” streaming from HPU Library (no advertisements) that can also be found on the web
(with advertisements) at the following site: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x22eynh.
For the assignment, I ask each of you to document and reflect upon some of the local
and scholarly “voices” heard in the film regarding global poverty. The paper should be
approximately 3 pages (double spaced, font 12, standard margins). If it helps you, you have been
provided a study guide to utilize that is available for extra-credit points—note details on
announcement page. Below are the details to include for the project (as a rule, you want to make
it obvious to me you are watching the film so note as many details as necessary to make this
explicit):
I.
Describe some Voices:
a. Impoverished Peoples
i. Note some details from voices of at least two different “peoples” in the
film
1. Provide some basic identification of the people including
speaker
a. Environment of the people (sugar cane field, mine, etc.)
b. Country, city, type of environment they discuss
c. Nationality/ethnicity
d. Social conditions/status/role (cane workers, miners,
mother, etc.)
e. Gender
f. Other dimensions you want to highlight
2. Either paraphrase some of the main ideas, issues, facts, etc. the
people discuss or note specific quotes of interest to you
b. Scholars
i. Note some details from voices of at least two scholars in the film
1. Provide some basic identification of the scholar
a. Country/nationality/ethnicity
b. Social status/role (professor, profession, etc.)
c. Gender
d. Other dimensions you want to highlight
2. Either paraphrase some of the main ideas, issues, facts, etc. the
scholar discusses or note specific quotes of interest to you
II.
Reflect on some of the voices:
a. What was interesting about the “worldviews” they communicated?
b. Do these worldviews communicate to you new ideas, facts, values, etc. about the relationships of people(s) to the contemporary global political economy, the history of globalization and poverty? Elaborate.
III.
Essay Structure:
a. Introduction
i. As is possible, articulate a thesis statement that expresses the major point you want to address from hearing these voices and will use to link the content of the paper
ii. Note a few supporting points you will address in the paper
iii. Feel free to “occasion” the introduction however makes sense to you (an anecdote that links the voices to you; a quote; some issue you want to highlight to frame the essay; some emotion you want to emphasize to help you frame the essay, etc.).
b. Body Paragraphs
i. Ideally, there should be at least two body paragraphs, but feel free to do as many as you want
ii. Structure the paragraphs as you please (integrating scholars and peoples; separating them by themes; distinguishing scholars from peoples in some comparisons or contrasts; etc.)
c. Conclusion
i. Conclusions are often either centripetal (pull the different ideas, issues, people discussed together into greater significance) or centrifugal (use the different ideas, issues, people, discussed to lead you to further questions and ideas to explore) or some combination of both. Feel free to organize the conclusion as you wish, but one way or another try and use the earlier components of the essay to build some concluding thoughts that further reflect on the film at a broader level.
