Stealing Africa Essay

In the documentary Stealing Africa, the director Christoffer Guldbrandsen brings to light an analysis of the corruption of foreign entities who occupy and develop Africa’s resources as their own, the public figures who run these entities and effect the world market, and the affected country of Zambia. This documentary holds Glencore, a Swiss copper tyrant, and the city that welcomed it, Ruschlikon, in full view by spilling its deepest secrets on corruption, tax avoidance, and environmental harm to the Zambian country and its people. The film’s intentions are to enlighten the viewer on the figures that are responsible for the inequality toward vulnerable countries, such as Zambia. The film focuses and Glencore’s lack of compensation toward

This analysis describes the film’s purpose and intentions, evaluates the argument, and finally a criticism of the strengths and weakness and the assessment of how well the director convinces the listener of evidence against foreign MNC’s in poorer countries.

The development of evidence against the corporation of Glencore and its “stealing of Africa” is truly a shocking story from start to finish. The key points remain on natural resources, inequality, governance, and foreign investment. The start is in Ruschlikon, a sleepy village in Switzerland, where the wealthy residents are receiving more tax revenue than they can use since the arrival of Ivan Glasberg, CEO of commodity giant Glencore. The wealth is high, houses are beautiful, and poverty is scarce. Flash the scene to a garbage filled, impoverished, contaminated town in Zambia where the wealth, health care, and infrasture are undeveloped. Yet in Zambia, where Glencore owns a majority stake in the country’s biggest copper mining operations, tax is an issue that’s contributing to its poverty. Glencore and its associates have invaded, privatize, and corruptly

The rational appeals, topic experts, and visuals are all strong evidence and strengths that help the film portray the MNC as the enemy. Numbers speak louder than words. There are various charts and graphs that show the blatancy of the tax avoidance of Glencore. The numerous spokespeople who had a first-hand look at the Zambian’s fight to get justice for its resource tax revenue is also what makes the evidence so strong. The visuals of the broken pipes, blue water, coughing patients, and vague statements by a obviously hired and highly paid Africa representatives of the mining agency all paint a strong picture of the disregard that Glencore has on the Zambia people and its existence. A weakness I found in the film is that it doesn’t put the history of the company into chronological order. It is confusing and annoying to have to watch the documentary three times to finally get the timeline of the current company Glencore. If the director would have put the past CEO and his offenses first before talking about the current one it would have been a better planned documentary. However I felt that the movie was well done and I completely agree with the statements and evidence that the film portrays. I agree that the film was done correctly and I do not find it hard to believe that a company is capable of having so much disregard to the underdevelopment and