The universal truth that effort and awareness are necessary for liberation is evident in the song “Wavin’ Flag” by K’NAAN, essay “What is Poverty?” by Theodore Dalrymple and documentary “Solar Mamas” by Mona Eldaief and Jehane Noujaim through effective presentation of the Marxist Literary Theory. Firstly, the universal truth that effort and awareness are necessary for liberation is displayed in the essay “What is Poverty?” by Theodore Dalrymple through the idea that ignorance restricts enlightenment. Ignorance makes an individual blind o he world, unaware of the truth and reality. To be aware and to escape ignorance, effort is required True liberation of the mind, body, and soul leads to enlightenment. Both lack of effort and awareness are up to the individual, and thus, liberation and enlightenment are up to the individual as well. To achieve liberation, one must take the effort, and one must dispel ignorance by being aware. This is displayed in the essay through a quote; Moreover, political authority in the countries in which I worked was arbitrary, capricious, and corrupt… Yet nothing I saw—neither the poverty nor the overt oppression—ever had the same devastating effect on the human personality as the undiscriminating welfare state. I never saw the loss of dignity, the self-centeredness, the spiritual and emotional vacuity, or the sheer ignorance of how to live, that I see daily in England. In a kind of pincer movement, therefore, I and the doctors from India and the Philippines have come to the same terrible conclusion: that the worst poverty is in England—and it is not material poverty but poverty of soul. (Dalrymple, 6) In reference to the quote, the “poverty and overt oppression” in countries like Africa did not stop t... ... middle of paper ... .... However, the academic nature of the essay leads to it being taken more seriously. Therefore, the form of the essay is more effective due to its form. Thus, the essay “What is Poverty?” by Theodore Dalrymple is the most effective medium of representing the universal truth that effort and awareness are necessary for liberation. Works Cited Warsame, Keinan Abdi. "Wavin' Flag." K'NAAN. Kerry Brothers, Jr., Bruno Mars, 2009. CD. Dalrymple, Theodore. “What is Poverty?” Oh, to be in England. Ed. Brian C. Anderson. New York: The Manhattan Institute, City Journal, Spring 1999. Electronic. 6. Solar Mamas. Dir. Mona Eldaief and Jehane Noujaim. Perf. Rafea, Abu Badr, Umm Badr, and Raouf Dabbas. Rafea: Solar Mama. Toronto International Film Festival, 10 Sept. 2014. Web. 6 Mar. 2014. .
What is poverty? Is poverty measured by a state of being or is poverty measured by the money we make and material possession’s we hold on to so tightly. In Theodore Dalrymple’s “What is Poverty” he explains the effects of a being a “welfare state”, such as England is, but does this truly answer the question of what it truly means to be povern.
Poor People struggles to confront poverty in all its hopelessness and brutality, its pride and abject fear, its fierce misery and quiet resignation, allowing the poor to explain the causes and consequences of their impoverishment in their own cultural, social, and religious terms. With intense compassion and a scrupulously unpatronizing eye, Vollmann invites his readers to recognize in our fellow human beings their full dignity, fallibility, pride, and pain, and the power of their hard-fought resilience.William T. Vollmann goes to different parts around the world to interview different people and to ask about poverty. With the help of interpreters he holds the interview with randomly selected individuals.
Gorski, P. (2010/2011). The Myth of the Culture of Poverty. Annual Editions: Social Problems 10/11 , pp. 67-70.
In “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” Peter Singer is trying to argue that “the way people in relatively affluent countries react to a situation… cannot be justified; indeed,… our moral conceptual scheme needs to be altered and with it, the way of life that has come to be taken for granted in our society”(Singer 230). Peter Singer provides striking examples to show the reader how realistic his arguments are. In this paper, I will briefly give a summary of Peter Singer’s argument and the assumptions that follow, adding personal opinions for or against Peter’s statements. I hope that within this paper, I am able to be clearly show you my thoughts in regards to Singer.
By stressing the overall culturally accepted goals, but not providing equal and equitable means to attain these goals, Merton felt that society had condemned lower class inhabitants to a life of criminal b...
...th what little they have, however; why is it left to the poor to have to suffer the consequences of these political choices. The persistence of extreme poverty and social ills speak to a situation that bears for a different approach. It is clear that capitalism and free market solutions cannot spread wealth as advocated. American governments have shown their reluctance to admit this discrepancy through the strategic creations of welfare policies and welfare reform coupled with placing blame upon the citizens who possess little power to change market decisions that govern and effect their lives.
University, T. T. (2011). Deprivation and it's Discontents. Retrieved October 24, 2011, from indianapublicmedia.org: http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/deprivation-discontents/
How can there be so much misery and insecurity in the midst of such abundance? One of the first things we see is that poverty doesn’t exist all by itself. It is simply one end of an overall distribution of income and wealth in society as a whole. Poverty is both a structural aspect of the system and consequence of how the system is organized and how people participate in it.
Recently, in India the more powerful people have been depriving the poor of their mere wealth. According to the author, " million living below the poverty line is that the public exchequer is being looted, and that the money earmarked for development is going into the pockets of the rich and the powerful."(2 Bunker). This portrays that the donated and tax money that has been put forth for the poor is going into the high authority pockets. This leads to a greater gap between the rich and poor. The ones that deserve more are being deprived and tormented of their rights. Only 17% of the development money is reaching the poor the rest is taken by the corrupt officials. This is also shown when the article states, "Thousands of schools, dispensaries, roads, small dams, community centres and residential quarters have been shown to be complete on paper, but in reality are incomplete, inhospitably unutilized and abandoned."(1 Bunker). It is evident that the government is showing these facilities have been provided to seem diligent on paper. However, the basic necessities which is a citizens right have been taken away from the poor. Many rights including the voting rights of the poor village people are snatched by the officials. The poor do not have the right to true information of where the money for the poor from the government is being spent. It is because false receipts and vouchers
Distant, detached, and ignorant of society's degenerate condition, the developing society feared reality's ugliness. Believing that decadence encouraged decadence and that one's birth influenced one's character, society sought welfare reform, establishing centralized institutions for public assistance. Once established, the Poor Law separated families, put the poor to work in occupations that no one wanted, creating an environment that was less appealing for public assistance, and more appealing for employment. Believing that it had made today better than yesterday, society went about its business, ignoring the reality of starvation, illness, and death. The conditions after the Poor Law forced people to avoid public assistance, leaving them the only...
In this essay I will discuss both Peter Unger’s ideas on the poverty problem from his book “Living High and Letting Die” and Martha Nussbaum’s critique of it in her article “If Oxfam Ran the World”, as well as my own view on their arguments. After I go over both of their basic ideas, I shall discuss Unger’s response to the review and his defence of his philosophies. Finally, I argue as to why I find Nussbaum’s reasoning more logical and persuasive.
...person has to get inside the experience of poverty. To get inside of the experience of poverty is to understand what a person who lives in poverty goes through on a daily basis, such as alienation from the rest of society. Second, they must understand the economic situation of the poor. This person has to understand what it feels like to barely make it in a society that is driven to focus on an idea of success and prosperity. Lastly, they must understand the spirituality (Vocatio) of theology. To understand this Vocatio the person must change their social class and live the way of poverty.
The Culture of Poverty is a theory that was introduced by Oscar Lewis, and is defined as “a label for a specific conceptual model that describes in positive terms a subculture of western society with its own structure and rationale, a way of life handed on from generation to generation.” (Lewis, p19) This concept which has helped shape the liberal discourse of the 1960s, purports that there are persons who remain mired in poverty because their lifestyle entrenches them in the low socioeconomic bracket which in turn obstructs their social mobility. David L. Harvey with contribution by Michael Reed, analyzed Lewis’ theory in their paper The Culture of Poverty: An Ideological Analysis. In this writing they concluded that Lewis was rooted in a Marxist background and argued that liberal and conservative thinkers have misinterpreted its application over the years. Harvey and Reed’s critique will be used to examine the conservative position on poverty that Lawrence Mead uses in his writing of The Logic of Workfare: the Underclass and Work Policy, and the validity of Harvey and Reed’s position will also be assessed.
...of oppression. In order to free ourselves from this cycle, we must alter the very tools used by the powerful to perpetuate the system of oppression. Out of all the factors that contribute to the maintenance of oppression, Education plays the most extensive role in preserving a hierarchical order. This is because education is the vehicle by which knowledge is produced and attained. Freire’s “co-intentional” education would contribute to the struggle for liberation the most out of all other factors.
This topic can be defined as economic inequality. For many years it has been unavoidable, which has made poverty reduction a primary goal for many. Most times individuals think of poverty as being hungry, naked and homeless but it is said that poverty is more about being unwanted and uncared for. An argument that most Americans take is that those in poverty do not work hard for what they want, however there has been many instances that prove different. Others wonder how poverty still exists with all of the government-aided programs in the world, howe...