Slum World

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Slum World

One in eight people go to bed hungry every single night. The twenty-first century was the largest exodus of all time as people take their chances at leaving life in the fields to live in bigger cities. Some come with more risk than opportunity, and hope becomes harder and harder to come by when dealt such a difficult hand. These regions quickly become overpopulated by people who are jobless and can’t afford basic needs such as healthcare, and light; even clean water is considered an unaffordable luxury. Poverty governance, outsourcing, and displacement are all international issues that relate to and greatly influence these regions.

The documentary, Slum World, Hernán Zin went through three main slums of the world; one of las villas miserias outside Buenos Aires, one of Calcutta, India, and one of Kibera, two hours outside Nairobi, and South Africa. Through his lens, we were able to meet and get to know four individuals of these shantytowns and experience life virtually through their stories. Crazy Elena from Argentina collected garbage for a living, Dipti as a mother of three didn't work and lived under a flooded bridge for 20 years, Morris walked 2 hours every morning and evening from Kibera to Nairobi and back in attempt to finish his education and help his family, and Sharon was a sick child whose family could not afford medical care for her so she couldn't go to school and her life was led by her sickness. 

Proper sanitation lacks in many of the slums around the world and is the common theme that links bad health issues.  Morris was going to school to try and get a good job and build up funds to care for his gravely sick mother. Many people living in poverty have this same issue; they cannot properly care for themselves and seek out the medication they need and as a result they are outcast by society and can't jobs or apply for loans, or even find a shelter that will take them in. (In some areas there are homeless shelters available but you are mentally ill or the like you are rejected service.) Closely relating, as has happened in various U.S. states, once profit has been gained through the privatization of public health care systems and the margins fall back down again, care organizations and health insurance companies leave and move on. Lastly, outsourcing and cutbacks occur in the public sector that reduce budgets of preventative programs that could help banish diseases like cholera, dengue fever, and typhus in places that lack proper sanitation. 


An excerpt from a essay I (Stephanie) wrote reads:

But we as a whole, the world, need to decide how far we a re willing to let this issue of increasing poverty amounts root into our societies. To what extent? We are not trying to throw them a rope and pull them to safety we are trying to rebuild society in a way that is not diminishing to its subjects. A structure that allows everyone’s strengths to be utilize to their fullest and weaknesses to be compensated by the support of those around you. We need to redeem humanity and learn to care for and trust one another, not just with commodities, companies, and other professional ties, but with our lives. The pure quality of life is being diminished and we need to put forth a combined effort to restore our world of destitution.