Comments on: Let’s celebrate the bright side of poverty

By: Po

Po — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:45:13 +0000

I am of the school of thought that art is for entertainment, for enjoyment in itself. The film was entertaining, and the social and cultural settings were merely a backdrop. Unfortunately, if you want films to be about change and social statement, I feel that documentary is a better medium. But that is just my thoughts.

By: edward

edward — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:47:54 +0000

We live in a funny world where men creates poverty and then entertains himself with it.

By: Andre

Andre — Tue, 05 May 2009 08:18:03 +0000

This guy missed the point of slumdawg. I follow his connection to Dubai but it’s intriguing how it revert to the city’s issues. Some previous gripe perhaps?

The tide changes. When I came to Dubai, most people had advice and ideas on what it’s like. Few had ever been near the place. But they knew all about how “fantastic” it was.

Much of that had to do with how the media portrayed the place. The same media now are changing. It nowadays has nothing good to say about it.
The usual reaction when you go home is: “OH Wow! You work in Dubai.!”
Next time it’s more likely to be.: “Shame on you for working, living, plying your trade and helping to build that dispicable place!”

I suspect you’ll find the going a little tougher when the media is no longer your friend Dubai. Gotta take it on the chin. Everyone’s taking a swipe at you. It’s expected when you portray yourself as the perfect oasis where everything is the best, the tallest, the biggest and most fantastic ever. They set themselves up. Made every Tom, Dick and Sally determined to uncover dirt about it.
Will be interesting to see how incoming tourist numbers and hotel occupancy rates are affected by the bad press.

It’s not only recessionary economic conditions thats changing for them. The all important PR and public image the place is built on is seemingly crumbling.

Good luck Dubai!

By: Alan Millar

Alan Millar — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:00:44 +0000

Thank you. The comments to your piece have shown me a level of justification for inequality that I hadn’t even suspected.

“There’s always been poverty.” Just like there has always been smallpox – oh, wait, we erradicated that.

“Every system has poverty.” Quite right, except that in some countries (Sweden, let’s say. Canada, let’s say) the poor are tiny minorities that still have all kinds of opportunities, while in others (ours, let’s say. India’s, let’s say) they are huge majorities without an illiterate’s hope in a technology/service economy of getting out.

But hey, top-earning 10% (which in South Africa means most of the people with internet access), whatever you gotta believe to sleep at night.

By: Maenad

Maenad — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:55:17 +0000

You seem to forget that this is a film, not a documentary. Films are about entertainment and moviegoers will not pay to see images of dire poverty and misery — that’s just a reality.
And by the way, is it not possible for poor people to be attractive or to experience the joys of falling in love? A little fantasy never harmed anyone.

By: Lyndall Beddy

Lyndall Beddy — Sun, 03 May 2009 10:00:57 +0000

Our ANC government paints totally false pictures of poverty, sexism, slavery, the caste system, indentured labour etc etc in both the countries of the world it wants to pal up to, and the ones it does not.

Which is why we have to work it out for ourselves.

By: simon van gend

simon van gend — Sun, 03 May 2009 08:51:43 +0000

Thanks for that – was struggling to understand what was so irritating about that movie. Now it’s clear. Straight after, I saw “Gran Torino” – now there’s a movie – unflinchingly honest. It reassured me that there are still good people in the world making movies for the right reasons.

By: Queen Nefertiti

Queen Nefertiti — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:24:35 +0000

Insightful, well constructed article! Congratulations! It appears to be difficult for not only policymakers, intellectuals and other professionals to acknowledge and appreciate the ‘dark side’ of the current wave of neo-liberal inspired globalization – clearly because they are the beneficiaries of this system. As for the rest of us…it is perverse when we are ‘celebrating’ the trivialization of such serious matters as the vast inequalities, deprivations and indignities visited on humanity by the predatory nature of the current wave of globalization in contemporary ‘artistic’ endeavours. I appreciated the shrewd observations in your article. Thanks.

By: geejay

geejay — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:42:47 +0000

Thanks this is a really good article. Informative and it uses a western film written by a privileged Indian to explore some of the points and prejudices it brings to light.

I think however that your view is a little too stereo typical when it comes to what you presuppose the audience (western and therefore racist according to your view) feels or derives from the story. I for one thinks it made some very strong statements on a host of issues that it portrays through various metaphors. The best for me being when the two brothers as self appointed tourist guides take great delight in rewriting the History of the Taj Mahal when relating this to so called rich European tourists.(perhaps this is also an unfair view?)
Yes some of the movies scenes are unfortunate from a point of bias but can their relevance, given the current state of the world really be denied?
I would say that this film brought the plight but not necessarily the misery of the majority of the worlds largest democracy to light more than any Bollywood movie ever has. (But then I haven’t seen many Bollywood productions with a genre that deviates away from the basics of love or romance).

That of course then bears the question, why hasn’t the worlds largest movie industry made a movie that serves to show the world the truth of their systems.

By: Benzol

Benzol — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:32:00 +0000

The bright side of poverty is that one does not have to worry about shareholder value or the daily JSE red and green arrows. All economic systems have created rich and poor people: the Greek and Roman empires, the old European feudal systems, the communist and the capitalist systems. The jubilated entrée of globalisation has only served to spread poverty more even around the globe. Whatever the system; as long as people are driven by greed, the uneven spread of global wealth will leave a large bunch of the world population in poverty.
We might as well glorify poverty in a movie so we can feel content with our own poverty for an hour or two in the knowledge that others are less lucky than we are; in the process making some film makers richer than we are.