Stealing Africa Essay

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Stealing Africa. Directed by Christoffer Guldbrandsen. 2012.
Zambia is known to be one of the poorest countries in the world. What’s deceptive about this is the fact that an intensive amount of wealth in natural resources falls in its possession. But why are unemployment rates extremely high in Zambia? Why is poverty so high and why are living conditions rather indecent? This is where film director, Christoffer Guldbrandsen, comes in. “Stealing Africa” is a documentary that was put together by Guldbrandsen as he traveled to Zambia to get the inside look on the unfortunate situation.
In reality, Zambia greatly relies on revenues from copper when it comes to the attempt of improving its economy, paying for schools, and such. Copper is Zambia’s main export, since there are large amounts of it. The problem is where the foreign mining companies come in, that turns an opportunity into more of a threat. Guldbrandsen begins to implement his argument by first gathering information to back it up. He actually interviewed several important figures, regarding the situation. One of them happened to be former …show more content…

The problem regards the living conditions in Zambia. There were many people getting sick because of the pollution and to top it off, the pumping of sulphuric acid was causing a leakage into the water supply. Guldbrandsen actually spoke with a Doctor by the name of Makasa Sichela who stated that there were approximately 400 reports of patients with either abdominal pain, which was believed to be due to the sulphuric acid contaminating the water. (Sichela, Makasa). The problem with pollution and contamination did not stop there. Vice-President, Scott, stated that high amounts of suphuric dioxide are emitted throughout the process of the production of copper. This increases the possibilities of acid rain, which sabotage crops and all sorts of vegetation. (Scott,

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