Analysis Of 'The Pornography Of Poverty'

The Pornography of Poverty

By Brie Kelly

Nhalapo was forced awake by the sound of Jakob, her baby brother, coughing up bile. His petite frame convulsed once, then fell limp to the hard ground. She rushed over, faintly aware of the deep ache in her own belly, to wrap her arms around his shivering shoulders. He, like herself and her other three siblings, was starving. Their parents had been killed, leaving them in the care of their only living grandparent who, by anyones standards, wasn 't able to properly care for them. Just one week into their new living arrangement, their food ran out. Her youngest sister had passed away first, of dehydration and exhaustion. It was only a matter of time before the rest of them wasted away, into nothing

Posterity will be satisfied with nothing less.” Hardin challenges people to consider his lifeboat theory as being adrift in a moral sea. There simply is not room for more than 60 people on a lifeboat, but there are 100 people in need of rescue. Allowing all 100 people onto the boat would cause the boat to sink and everyone to drown. Hardin sees this as “complete justice, [and] complete catastrophe.” This is a metaphor to represent the real world issue of starvation and overpopulation. It is a concern that the vast difference between the reproductive rates of the rich and the poor make it impossible to lessen the financial separation between wealthy and poverty stricken societies. The world simply does not have the resources to support western wealth on a global scale. We would consume far more than the planet has too offer, if the impoverished nations were provided with the sheer volume of resources and material goods that our society has been blessed

While images of starving orphans may touch the hearts of wealthy westerners, those same images may be deceiving the viewers to achieve higher donation rates. The cash is then distributed in a way that the organizations see fit. The donor learns nothing about the political and economical structure in the third world country that they have “supported,” and they continue about their day with no knowledge of where their money actually ended up. There is a lack of education, and as a result the financial gap between the rich and the poor continues to increase. Media crews that infiltrate an impoverished society do not often consider the harm that they may be causing. In many cases, film or similar forms of media, such as photo-journalism, are used to capture the suffering of individuals in poverty. Often times, the suffering is recorded and then ignored. The people involved with the ad or image move on and they produce a product that they believe will increase cash donations. This action begs the question, are the increased donations worth leaving an orphaned child or diseased family to