The End of Poverty?

Why are the people living in some of the richest countries in terms of resources always the poorest people in the world?  Why are there poor countries and rich countries at all?  How did this come about and can it be overcome?  The documentary film "The End of Poverty?" presents some disturbing answers.

A lot of the answer is found in the history of European colonialism and slavery.  For example, Britain was an obscure island off the western coast of Eurasia when its traders arrived in India, then one of the wealthiest countries in the world.  When Britain left India several centuries later, she was wealthy and India was impoverished.

Director Philippe Diaz has skillfully interwoven such information, connecting the extreme, irreparable poverty of the so-called Third World with the extreme, burgeoning wealth of the United States and Western Europe, the wars and assassinations that secure that wealth, and the destruction of the environment that accompanies it.  It is a disparity still being reinforced in post-colonial and neo-colonial times through the IMF, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization.

"The End of Poverty?" is a sweeping education about the world we live in today.