Survival Of The Rich In Paul Farmer's 'Pathologies Of Power'

820 Words2 Pages

Lis Sukram
COMHE 301
Mid-Term Essay
Survival of the Rich Imagine you are born into an impoverish country where government officials take advantage of the poor and the struggle to make ends meet are no longer endurable. To what extent would you go to get out of poverty? In Paul Farmer’s Pathologies of Power, the stories of two Haitians, Acephie Joseph and Chouchou Louis exposed the injustice poor people faced in underprivileged country. In the chapter “On Suffering and Structural Violence” Farmer makes a valid and supportive argument on how those individuals were constrained by poverty and suffered structural violence. Paul farmer defines structural violence as continuously suffering inflicted on the poor by people of power such as government …show more content…

Chouchou Louis suffered painfully by the hands of government officials. He was brutally beaten,arrested and dumped in a ditch to die by military men for making a remark about the conditions of the road which seemed to have been offensive towards the governemnt (pg. 37) Chouchou Louis suffered head injuries and bad bruises which led to a pulmonary hemorrhage and three days later resulted in his death (pg. 38) In the documentary “Bad Sugar” the Indians experienced another view on structural violence yet still represent the same subject, that being political violence. The Indians human rights were violated; the diversion of river water destroyed their farms. Therefore, they became dependent on the U.S. government. Healthy foods such as beans were replaced by surplus commodities like white flour, lard, processed cheese and canned foods (film). As a result, the Indians were at an increased risk for diabetes which led to their death (film). Louis and the Indians experienced structural violence from the government and could not fight back because they were

Open Document