Dan Parris, a filmmaker and owner of Speak up Productions, in his documentary, What Matters, argues that it is everyone’s responsibility to care for the poor. Parris along with his two friends and assistant producers, Rob Lehr and David Peterka embark on a journey to experience poverty firsthand, in order to challenge their audience to think about their purpose. They adopt a deeply personal tone as they call young people to action. They support their claim through the use of ethos, pathos, and logos. Dan Parris did not only want to make a documentary showing the hardships of poverty, he wanted to personally experience it for himself. Ethos was clearly displayed when all three men accepted the challenge of living on no more than a dollar and …show more content…
However, Parris also used pathos in his documentary by discussing the fear associated with developing nations, and poverty stricken communities. While visiting Belgrade, they met with one of Parris’s friends, Veda, and asked her to take them to see the Gypsies. Veda refused at first, saying that she was afraid of them because she did not “think [she could] help them enough for them to be nice to [her]” (What Matters). This same fear that Veda had is a wide spread cause for most people’s inaction. Jared White from Operation Invisible Children said that “everyone talks about the problems; no one likes to talk about the hope”, enforcing the idea that people are too afraid to go into these places; instead they write it off as hopeless (What Matters). After receiving a strong warning from a pastor prior to leaving for Africa, Parris summarizes the problem with fear saying “that’s why no one ever goes to Africa, that’s why nothing ever happens, because there is so much fear” (What …show more content…
Farooq Tirmizi argues that “the foremost problem with foreign aid is that is creates dependency” (Tirmizi). Many are concerned that countries becoming dependent on the aid, therefore becoming stuck in a repeating cycle of poverty. He argues that by providing free food and other resources we take away the possible business from that country, giving them a crutch “instead of helping the country stand on its own two feet” (Tirmizi). Tirmizi makes a bold statement saying that aid “provides only temporary solutions to chronic problems while deepening the structural flaws that caused them in the first place” (Tirmizi). Parris contradicts this belief by making his audience aware that money and food is not the only type of aid that can be sent. In the documentary it mentions that “money is great but talent is great” too (What Matters). Parris argues that everyone has a talent that can be used to help these people build themselves
hooks mentions Carol Stacks, a female anthropologist, who discovered a value system among the poor. In her book, The Culture of Poverty, Stacks discovers a structure based on the sharing of resources among the poor (435). In relation to Stack’s discovery, hooks proposes a solution to change the face of poverty through the redistribution of wealth and resources (436). Additionally, she recommends “community-based literacy programs” to teach critical thinking and to help the poverty-stricken reorganize their lives; “to live well in poverty and to move out of such circumstances” (hooks
According to the narrator in the introduction for the video, Faces of Poverty: Living on the breaking point in Reading, PA , Reading is ranked as one of the poorest city in any country that houses a population of 65000 people. As per the introduction, the statistics are already stacked against anybody that is trying to make it out of Reading PA. People in Reading face the same challenges as the rest of America, but their challenges seems to not have any solution, which in turn affects a wide population of its residence. The challenges faced by people in Reading include but are not limited to; lack of jobs, poor infrastructure, lack of flowing funds for building a stronger economy, and lastly, most people in Reading are not learned. This paper is going to look at the problems people in Readings face, their strengths as well as an opinion on what can be done for small towns like Reading to enable them to thrive.
In some ways, Kellie’s depiction was entirely bias and unfair, as to the choice of footage used; there was no indication of the various charities that aim to alleviate poverty within Australia, including: Salvos, Anglicare and St Vincent de Paul. This is entirely symbolic of how the media falsely depicts those in poverty, with the pure aim of entertaining the audience, showing a complete lack of empathy. Similarly, the concept of disrespect was evident in tourists that we saw at the public restaurants we visited throughout the journey; some were excessively drinking, whilst others were littering or using obscene language at local Khmer people. From a personal perspective, a lack of understanding between any individuals, whether they are disadvantaged or advantaged, contradicts Christian values and ideals, making the producer and the other tourists somewhat disrespectful and uncompassionate towards the Mt Druitt and Cambodian community
In The Working Poor: Invisible in America, David K. Shipler tells the story of a handful of people he has interviewed and followed through their struggles with poverty over the course of six years. David Shipler is an accomplished writer and consultant on social issues. His knowledge, experience, and extensive field work is authoritative and trustworthy. Shipler describes a vicious cycle of low paying jobs, health issues, abuse, addiction, and other factors that all combine to create a mountain of adversity that is virtually impossible to overcome. The American dream and promise of prosperity through hard work fails to deliver to the 35 million people in America who make up the working poor. Since there is neither one problem nor one solution to poverty, Shipler connects all of the issues together to show how they escalate each other. Poor children are abused, drugs and gangs run rampant in the poor neighborhoods, low wage dead end jobs, immigrants are exploited, high interest loans and credit cards entice people in times of crisis and unhealthy diets and lack of health care cause a multitude of problems. The only way that we can begin to see positive change is through a community approach joining the poverty stricken individuals, community, businesses, and government to band together to make a commitment to improve all areas that need help.
Poor Kids is a documentary that highlights a major issue the United States is suffering from. This issue is known as poverty, more specifically, childhood poverty. This documentary views the world through the eyes of children that are subjected to lives of poverty due to the poor financial state that their parents are in. Life is very rough for these children and they must live their everyday lives with little to none of the luxuries most people take for granted. Poor Kids sheds light on the painful fact that there are children that starve every day in the United States.
Conveying to the authors wishes of digression, George Henderson published an article to the public about a woman and her three children facing social and economic struggles within a community. Jo Goodwin Parker spoke to the journalist about the painful experiences she and her children faced living a sorrowful life governed by poverty. She utilizes her reader’s potential to put aside emotion as well as realize the conceptuality of poverty. Parker’s speech is effective, by using repetition, pathos and ethos, as well as sharing personal experiences, she connects with her readers to effectively direct a sense of perspective to define
The pathos method was displayed in the documentary by showing the emotional events that happened in the interviewees’ stories. The poor are struggling with poverty, addiction, and diseases while the rich are healthy. The rich are able
Sociological imagination is a concept by C. W Mills, who defines it as a situation where individuals become aware of their personal experiences, but choose to think away from their everyday life and routines to viewing their actions and situations from a 3rd party’s perspective. (Mills, 2000) This can also be described as the realization of how personal experiences relate to the wider society. Miller continues to say that men in this life are living, feeling like their everyday life is made up of traps which their daily worlds cannot help overcoming these troubles in the traps. This is the point where he brings the idea that human beings live in circles or private orbits where our
Throughout Society, many families have seen struggle and lived through poverty. The economy is not always thriving which takes a toll on people who suffer through unemployment or low wage jobs. The Frontline documentary, “Two American Families”, is the perfect example of struggle in the United States. It shows the lives of two struggling families and their efforts to survive. Two essays, “The Sociological Imagination” by C. Wright Mills, and “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All” by Herbert J. Hans, support the analysis of the video strongly. They express many ideas that relate to the world and struggle throughout society. Also, there are many sociological terms that depict the events that occurred in the documentary.
Many people do not realize that there are tens of millions of people in America who are living in poverty because they are stuck on the fact that America is one of the richest nations. People who are living in poverty barely have enough money to survive on basic necessities like food, shelter and electricity. They often have a hectic schedule filled with work, school, or other activities that they have to do in order for them to live a somewhat stable life. Unfortunately, there are others who are living in poverty that may be ill or disabled and barely able to survive even if they are receiving money to help with their situation. There are a few programs that help those in poverty with their financial problems, but they only help them to a certain extent. Changes need to be done to help alleviate the poverty rate because these people should not have to deal with all of these hardships or have such a negative perspective of life. Therefore, America can reduce its poverty by raising the minimum wage, making health care more accessible, and by making child care more affordable. These solutions will be a great start to reducing poverty and they will lead America into a brighter future.
The 2008 documentary The End of Poverty? is a film that focuses around global poverty and how it became the tragedy that it is today. Poverty was created by acts of military conquest, slavery and colonization that led to the confiscation of individual’s property and forced labor. However, today the problem remains because wealthy countries who take advantage of developing third world countries. The film interviews several activists who discuss how the issues became and several ways in which they could be eliminated, as well as interviews from individuals who are experiencing it firsthand.
Poverty can be defined as the state of being extremely poor. This means that a person has very little to no financial resources or provisions necessary for survival. It proves to be a serious issue that many families in the United States have to face on a daily basis. Poverty is a serious issue because it influences employment rates, which in turn hurts economic growth when the rate is low, and it also contributes to the number of Americans whom are actually homeless today. From a sociological point of view, poverty can be looked at using several perspectives such as the functional perspective, which shows how poverty exists to keep society up and running; the symbolic interactionism perspective, in which stereotypes come into play, showing
According to Saunders (2005) what are the consequences of living in poverty? How does it affect children and family life?
According to new data released by the UIS, Unesco Institute for Statistics, literacy rates for adults and youths continue to rise. Despite the progress, 781 million adults still could not read or write; among youths, 126 million are illiterate (UIS). In this regard, the documentary The Harvest/La Choseca —realized in 2011— exposes the blatant exploitation of migrant’s children who working up forth teen hours a day, seven days a week, they no have alternatives other than drop out school. Zulema, Perla and Victor are sacrificing their own childhoods to help their families by earning a miserable salary, which, unfortunately, makes a difference in the daily economy of people living below the poverty line. The Harvest offers a moving insight of a next-door reality where children are desperately trying to have access to education for ‘grasping’ a normal life. Hearing Victor says that money do not bring happiness, it hurts like a punch in an eye. Victor, a child forced to work by an unequal society, knows the meaning of life better than us. Those poor children are legally working, so we are complicit in an evident violation of human rights. How can a child studying after have spent an entire day under a scorching sun? What skills they are developing picking crops in the fields? It is come the time to stop ignoble injustice covered by a hypocrite law system that treats us like a bolt in a gear. Raising
In conclusion, sometimes actions take place that changes a person’s outlook on life and as you can see poverty is one that can have a huge effect on not only one person, but also the people around him/ her.