Picture a world without suffering. Is it possible?
To some this may be but a far-fetched dream, but Dr. Arthur B. Keys, Jr. has set out to make this dream a reality.
Founded in 1998, Dr. Keys and his wife, Jasna, established International Relief and Development, a nonprofit organization that fights to relieve the suffering of the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized population through active engagement, empowerment and inclusion.
Over the years, IRD has provided $3.9 billion in humanitarian assistance to over 40 countries, including Afghanistan, Colombia, Ethiopia, Iraq and Ukraine. The organization heavily focuses on conflict zones and areas damaged by natural disasters. To improve the livelihoods of these people, the IRD believes it is best to provide the resources and training to become self-sufficient. Thus, rather than just providing clean water to a community suffering from drought, International Relief and Development aims to address the root causes of the problem, such as upgrading water pumps and management systems.
IRD has tackled issues ranging from a lack of schools in Haiti to impoverished women in Mozambique to malnourishment among students in Laos. By organizing short-term and long-term interventions, they foster the path to a more developed and prosperous nation. But how does IRD get the funds to take on all these projects?
The nonprofit organization collaborates with many other agencies and donors, one of them being the U.S. Agency for International Development. As a contractor, 4,000 staff members all over the world carry out many of USAID’s programs in hopes to improve infrastructure, healthcare and governance in war-torn countries. The U.S. State Department as well as numerous UN agencies also fund IRD’s annual budget of $400-$500 million.
One of its most recent successes took place among refugees and internally displaced persons in Yemen, a country that hosts over 200,000 people from Eritrea Ethiopia, Iraq and Somalia.
Refugees and internally displaced persons all face similar struggles, but in a place where political instability and high unemployment wreak havoc on daily life, coping with the current circumstances becomes increasingly difficult.
Realizing the dire urgency, IRD has set out to assist the thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons. After assessing the deprivations and needs in the refugee camps, IRD along with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees worked to provide monthly allowances to the families. They also distributed thousands of dollars worth of school and medical supplies, hygiene kits and other goods to many school children and families. The United Methodist Committee on Relief donated most of the gifts. IRD also targeted many vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women and sexual abuse survivors, by establishing care centers and providing group therapy.
International Relief and Development continues to provide relief and assistance in the world’s hot spots. By going into desperate communities and initiating development, this organization guides countries to economic growth and stabilization. Success stories are seen all over Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, but the range of IRD’s success does not stop there. Success like this is everlasting and enduring.
—Leeda Jewayni
Sources: International Relief and Development, Washington Post, Huffington Post
A Dollar a Day – A Harmful Statistic?
The $1 a day poverty line drawn up by the United Nations in the 1980s has been called a “successful failure” by Lant Pritchett. Pritchett is an ex-World Bank economist who is now Professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.
He has described the dollar a day measurement of poverty as a successful PR stunt, which has raised awareness to the issue but has failed to translate to real improvements to the lives of the poor.
His main criticism is that donating money has been encouraged rather than economic development, which is greatly needed. Pritchett believes that at the expense of developing the world’s poorest economies for sustained growth and prosperity, we have just been throwing money at the problem, which has not been an effective solution.
Perhaps this $1 benchmark for measuring global poverty has been set too low? Someone earning $1.25 or even $3 a day still lives in dire poverty and the target number, according to Pritchett, should be $10 a day.
Regardless, the $1-a-day poverty line has for some time been out of date; in 2005 it was readjusted to modern prices and is now set at $1.25 a day. This has played a valuable role to tackling poverty over the years, according to economist Martin Ravallion, who came up with the catchy figure in the 1980s while having dinner with his wife.
Like others at the World Bank in D.C., Ravallion had noticed that poor countries were drawing their poverty lines at around $370 a year. Chatting to his wife one evening at the dinner table, Ravallion had a “eureka” moment and realised that by dividing $370 by 365 you get just over $1 – thus the simple and catchy $1 a day idea was born.
But here’s where things get complicated. The $1 a day does not mean $1 converted into local currency, say Indian Rupee. Instead economists use a formula called PPP, Purchasing Power Parity, to figure out the value of an equivalent basket of goods a dollar would buy you in the U.S.
This forms the basis of the poverty line. If you cannot afford that basket of goods worth $1 in the U.S, you are under the poverty line.
Despite the apparent contention that this way of measuring poverty has caused, it is true that the $1 a day idea has caught the public attention and raised awareness about the issue. In fact, the first UN Millennium Goal aimed at reducing global poverty aims to: “halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day.”
This high profile target was agreed upon by the UN General Assembly and embraced by most of the world’s development institutions.
Encouragingly, the World Bank has publicly announced only this month, that the goal has been met early.
– Charles Bell
Sources: BBC, World Bank
Photo: Flickr
Tanzanian Solar Power Overcoming Barriers
“Tanzania has some of the most talented artisans and technicians, but we use very old, outdated equipment, mostly from Italy, from the 1960s and ‘70s,” said Dotto Said, the supervisor at Yasir Ahmed a shop that makes windows, doors and gates.
Yet using outdated tools or “sawdust piled ankle deep” are not the biggest problems facing Tanzanians and Africans as a whole. Electricity has been identified, by many Africans, as the single biggest inhibitor of its success. Alex Adrian, a carpenter at Yasir Ahmed said. “All we need Obama [sic] to help us with is a reliable supply of electricity.”
While the President has made several trips to Africa, once to pledge 7 billion dollars to the energy relief fund, Tanzanians like Said and Adrian would like to be able to turn to themselves for help. Relief of this kind has come in the form of Helvetic Solar, a Tanzanian-based company whose goal is to supply solar panels to all those looking for electricity across Africa.
“The electrification issue was a major one and I just figured out that Tanzanians might be receptive to an alternative energy source,” said owner of Helvetic Solar, Patrick Ngowi. He discovered a love of solar power on one of his many trips to China. At this time, only 10 percent of Tanzania was on a power grid. Most companies, wealthy families and government agencies relied on generators.
In the beginning the idea struggled, but in 2007 the word spread of the benefits and Ngowi was contacted by several government, non-government agencies, and multi-national corporations to install solar panels. His company grossed 6.8 million dollars in 2012.
For a country whose GDP is low and poverty so high, is it even economically feasible for this country to convert to solar power? Forbes broke the numbers down and found it was economically more sound to install solar panels in Tanzania than Oregon. The average homeowner in Oregon will take anywhere from 15-27 years to recoup the initial investment solar panels require. This is due to a very large electrical grid already providing relatively cheap power.
When you take the same principles, apply them to Tanzania and compare the cost of fuel to run a generator in rural Tanzania to the initial cost of solar power, one find that Tanzanians can recoup their losses well enough to sell their generators.
Giant leaps in innovation like this have helped several in rural Tanzania. Lusela Murandika, a 76-year-old farmer who lives in Kanyala village in northern Tanzania, installed his solar panels for a little over 400 dollars. Murandika said that the hardest part was installation. He now runs a small side business, earning 12 cents for every cell phone he charges. Edward Buta, a solar power shop dealer, said business is booming in the Tanzanian town of Katoro. Electricity is slowly inching across Africa, but until the grid makes it into the outskirts solar power will continue to be king.
– Frederick Wood II
Sources: Mother Jones, NY Times, Forbes 1, Forbes 2
Photo: Face2Face Africa
Mongolian Microfinance: Mercy or Menace
Microlending began with the innovation of currency. Friends and family would get together and pool their money to offer help in times of hardship. Mary Coyle, director of the International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada, has found many such groups throughout history and around the globe, “In West Africa, they were known as ‘tontines;’ in Bolivia, ‘pasanaku;’ and across Mexico and Central America, ‘tandas.’”
The shift from microlending to modern day microfinance came about in the 1970s. Groups such as ACCION International in Venezuela and Yunus’s Grameen Bank in Bangladesh began to institutionalize the process. They formalized the loan process and expanded on already existing microlending practices. This enabled small businesses to generate capital instead of just paying for basic necessities.
With the initial success it has long been thought that microfinance was a long term solution to the problem of poverty. While it has brought some out of poverty, it has also kept others where they were financially before the loan and in some cases worse off.
In 2009 two studies were released on the use and impact of microfinance on those that were lent money, conducted by Karlan & Zinman in Manila and Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Rachel Glennerster and Cynthia Kinnan of J-PAL in Hyderabad, India. Neither study found that key factors of poverty had been directly impacted, though it was established that those in the Hyderabad study shifted their spending from temptation goods to durable goods. Another study in 2010 by Duflo and Co. in rural Morocco found similar results. There was no major change in poverty, but those that already had businesses did diversify.
These results have done little to curb the continued lending of XacBank in Mongolia. XacBank reported to the U.S.-based nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange total assets of 594 million dollars and a gross loan portfolio of 393 million dollars with approximately 77,345 borrowers. The company helped a Mongolian baker turn a 100 dollar enterprise into a 75,000 dollar operation. The company and its investors have touted that many people across rural Mongolia have been helped in such ways.
This was put to the test by research done by Orazio Attanasio, Britta Augsburg, Ralph De Haas, Emla Fitzsimons and Heike Harmgart. All are affiliated with London-based institutions: the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London. The study was a random selection of three rural villages across Mongolia. Loans were explained, applicants were screened as individuals and groups and then finally money was offered. Only 50 percent of those offered loans took them.
The findings were in line with the three previous studies. “Although the loans provided under this experiment were originally intended to finance business creation, we find that in both the group—and in the individual-lending villages, about one half of all credit is used for household rather than business goals. Women who obtained access to microcredit often used the loans to purchase household assets, in particular large domestic appliances. Only among women that were offered group loans do we find an impact on business creation.”
With such little change in the poverty rate, some wonder why we would continue this trend of microlending. It has proven to help some, but the vast majority either can’t access the funds or are turned down due to credit issues.
Hope comes from the Norwegian Nobel Committee, when they spoke of Yunus and his work: “Yunus’s long-term vision is to eliminate poverty in the world. That vision cannot be realized by means of microcredit alone. But Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that in the continuing efforts to achieve it, microcredit must play a major part.”
– Frederick Wood II
Sources: UNDP, NY Times, MicroCapital, The World Bank, Center for Global Development, NPR, PBS
Photo: Bloomberg Business Week
Healthcare of Syrian Refugees
In 2013, the United Nations initiated a $4.4 billion humanitarian appeal, one of the largest aid requests made by the organization. However, it is estimated that just over one-third of the requested funding has been received.
As more people flee to neighboring countries, including Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, hospital care and specialized treatment is becoming more insufficient. The healthcare of Syrian refugee children is particularly concerning, with millions at risk of becoming malnourished, dehydrated and exploited.
In Lebanon, the health system is highly privatized and expensive, thus leaving the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to take care of the majority of the population. With limited funds, UNHCR has implemented strict eligibility criteria in order for Syrian refugees to receive medical treatment. Even if the criteria are met, many of the refugees have to pay a portion out of pocket.
In many cases, refugees often go untreated. Arif, a 12 year-old boy who suffered from severe burns to his legs, was denied hospital access after UNHCR decided he did not qualify for subsidized care. Consequently, his health started to deteriorate as his legs swelled and became infected. Volunteer doctors were eventually found to perform his operations, but they did not have the specialized equipment to continue.
Unfortunately, Arif’s story is not unique. The healthcare of Syrian refugees has not been improving and there needs to be a push to strengthen the capacity of health institutions where the Syrian refugee population is predicted to accelerate. Patients with chronic illnesses have strained the existing health services in the affected countries and UNHCR is struggling to find solutions without international assistance.
– Leeda Jewayni
Sources: Syrian Refugees, World Vision, Amnesty International, UNHCR
Photo: Beauty Programs
AMURT: Relief Team with Individualized Solutions
Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team, or AMURT, readily admits “that there are no ready-made solutions to problems of poverty. Every situation is unique and requires its own local solution.”
In 1965, AMURT was founded as one of the few private international volunteer organizations in India. The original objective was to meet the needs of Indians of the sub-continent after the many natural disasters that strike there every year. This specificity of relief became the backbone for the expansion that this organization has seen over the last four decades. The U.S. contributes over 1.9 million dollars annually to this organization. The U.N. recognized it as an international NGO in 1991.
The AMURT office network now extends to over thirty-four countries and the field network covers 180 countries through its ashrams. Acharya Bhaveshananda Avadhuta, the public relations secretary of Ananda Marga, says there is “a band of over 5000 trained whole-timers of which 2000 are women.” All AMURT field directors are from the areas they serve. Due to this they are much more able to promote a solution to fit the particular circumstances of a local disaster.
Most recently, these disaster relief efforts have helped over 15,000 Syrians fleeing from the war in Lebanon by providing food, warmth and schooling for displaced children. In February of this year, when super typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines, AMURT responded across five islands, feeding cooked food and bottled water to tens of thousands people who had suddenly been thrust into poverty. In 2013, when Northern India and the surrounding area experienced torrential floods, AMURT responded with 20 locations across the area providing food, non-food item and medical attention.
Disaster relief may have been the foundation, but AMURT relief extended its reach in 1985 to include long-term development. AMURT feels that it can play a very important role in breaking the cycle of poverty by helping vulnerable communities. “For us, development is human exchange: people sharing wisdom, knowledge and experience to build a better world.”
Some of these programs have educated thousands and others are still educating today. In Romania the “Transitional Housing Program” has helped several youth find housing, motivational counseling and life skills. In 2010 AMURT began a community healthcare system in Kenya aimed at reducing maternal mortality rates. They have also established similar programs in Burkina Faso and begun the “Access to Water” program within the country, partnering with Water Shed Management.
The list of positive steps towards the elimination of poverty on a global scale will continue to go on and on for AMURT. It attributes much of the success to its well-defined mission statement and principles. Its mission is “to help improve the quality of life for the poor and disadvantaged people of the world, and those affected by calamity and conflict. We encourage and enable individuals and communities to harness their own resources for securing the basic necessities of life and for gaining greater economic, social and spiritual fulfillment, while honoring their customs, language, and religious beliefs.”
If you would like to find an AMURT office near you or donate money to their disaster relief cause please contact AMURT at https://www.amurt.net/contact/ or by phone at 1-301-738-7122.
– Frederick Wood II
Sources: AMURT 1, AMURT 2, AMURT 3, AMURT 4, LifePositive, FedSpending.org, The New York Times
Photo: Flickr
Poverty in Cuba
1. Agriculture and Climate: Much of Cuba’s economy has heavily depended on the farming of specific crops such as sugarcane, one of the main export products used in trade. In addition, a significant portion of industrial work goes into processing much of these crops for commercial use, such as turning sugarcane into sugar crystals. In total, agriculture and industrial production of these goods make up nearly 30% of Cuba’s GDP. Unfortunately, this dependence on agriculture imposes limitations on Cuba’s ability to make great advances in infrastructure and maintain economic stability. The situation is only made worse due to the tropical climate and prevalence of hurricanes during the rainy season, which can cause widespread damage, suffering and loss of life. When Hurricane Irma struck in 2017, the cost of damages reached well over 13.6 billion pesos (more than $628 million). Over 7,400 acres of plantation farmland were destroyed, causing a brief food shortage and exacerbating poverty in Cuba.
2. The United States Embargo: After the rise of Fidel Castro in 1961, the United States placed an embargo that suddenly deprived Cuban exporters of a significant majority of their exports. Since that point, the embargo continues to restrict trade and access to American products. As a consequence, many people experience a lack of daily necessities from electronics to food. The embargo even includes sanctions against other nations trading with Cuba. The economic restrictions imposed by the embargo have disastrous consequences for those living in poverty in Cuba as they lack daily resources. As of now, there doesn’t seem to be any immediate action towards removing the embargo, but an increase in tourism (especially from Americans) can provide the first step in easing relations between the two countries.
3. Jobs and Employment: Cuba has a very low unemployment rate compared to other nations of similar economic standing, resting at 1.7%. However, a significant portion of working families in Cuba are at risk of income poverty, with an individual having a 41.7% chance of having income problems. These people work in jobs for an average salary lower than that of the national average. Given that the typical family consists of about three people, this results in nearly four million individuals who live in households at risk of income poverty. Moreover, the workforce of Cuba is further destabilized due to the rampant rise of an aging population. Over 20% of the Cuban population is above the age of 60, which also means that fertility rates are low due to these demographic imbalances. So for the average family living in poverty in Cuba, finding work can be difficult. On the bright side, charities like the Caribbean Movement Trust can aid such families in becoming more self-sufficient and maintaining a steady income through education, training and healthcare projects.
4. Housing and Energy: The Cuban government closely oversees transactions and logistics involving real estate and homeownership. It is incredibly difficult to change one’s place of residence as the government imposed a system of enforced home exchanges where homeownership is typically seen as collective ownership, which is controlled by the state. The situation is worse for those living in poverty in Cuba, as they cannot afford constant change and are often living without clean water, gas and electricity. However, international charities such as the Nextenergy Foundation are working toward providing renewable energy to contribute to poverty alleviation in many countries, including Cuba.
5. Healthcare and Education: Despite the many difficulties in their lives, Cubans are able to enjoy free health care and education at all levels. The government controls the distribution of goods such as foodstuffs and medications and has mandated that physical education and sports be integrated into Cuban education in order to promote healthy living. Even for those who live in poverty in Cuba, primary education for children between ages six and 11 is compulsory. As a result, a significant majority of the Cuban population is literate. In addition, women are guaranteed equal educational opportunities and account for more than half of all university graduates.
Cuba’s environment, trade restrictions and general lack of everyday necessities place many of its citizens in poverty. Thankfully, many organizations are working to spread awareness and to donate money and resources to those living in Cuba. Over time and through the efforts of many people, it is possible to speed up the process of development to help this country in need of aid.
– Aditya Daita
Photo: Pixabay
Global Vaccination Programs
When it comes to diseases, it is always preferred to prevent rather than treat. Over the years, vaccinations and immunizations have saved millions of lives and eliminated one of the deadliest diseases in the world: smallpox.
All children are born with an immune system that produces antibodies when a foreign substance, or antigen, is detected. In other words, when the child gets sick, these proteins will not be able to halt the disease from occurring, but the immune system will remember the antigen and give the child immunity when it invades the body a second time.
Vaccines contain those antigens, but in a weaker form. The body will sense an “invader” and still produce antibodies to fight the harmless antigen. Thus, without ever exposing a child to a disease, a vaccination is a safer way to gain protection and produce immunity.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention understands the importance of global vaccination programs and has created the Global Immunization Division, which is dedicated to creating a “world without the diseases and deaths that could be prevented with vaccines.”
Worldwide, one in five children do not have access to the most basic vaccines. Consequently, around 1.5 million children die each year from diseases that could be prevented with proper immunizations. By working with a variety of global partners, the CDC has implemented a multitude of routine immunization services and campaigns, in addition to providing bed nets, de-worming medication and safe water systems.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also invests in global vaccination programs and contributes to the goals of the Decade of Vaccines, an action plan that aims to deliver universal access to immunization. In collaboration with the World Health Organization and other civil society organizations, the foundation is introducing vaccinations into the countries that need it most. They focus on strengthening immunizations systems by supporting the collection and analysis of vaccine-related data, as well as developing new technology to help medical staff “assess population immunity to disease.”
Universal access to vaccinations remains a priority goal for both groups in the next year. Effective vaccination programs saves lives, is inexpensive and easy to administer. Universal availability of vaccines also reduces health inequities, if everyone can have access to life-saving discoveries. Access to vaccines will give all our global citizens a fighting chance to survive.
– Leeda Jewayni
Sources: CDC, CDC 2, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Photo: Council on Foreign Relations
IRD Fights Suffering On Many Levels
Picture a world without suffering. Is it possible?
To some this may be but a far-fetched dream, but Dr. Arthur B. Keys, Jr. has set out to make this dream a reality.
Founded in 1998, Dr. Keys and his wife, Jasna, established International Relief and Development, a nonprofit organization that fights to relieve the suffering of the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized population through active engagement, empowerment and inclusion.
Over the years, IRD has provided $3.9 billion in humanitarian assistance to over 40 countries, including Afghanistan, Colombia, Ethiopia, Iraq and Ukraine. The organization heavily focuses on conflict zones and areas damaged by natural disasters. To improve the livelihoods of these people, the IRD believes it is best to provide the resources and training to become self-sufficient. Thus, rather than just providing clean water to a community suffering from drought, International Relief and Development aims to address the root causes of the problem, such as upgrading water pumps and management systems.
IRD has tackled issues ranging from a lack of schools in Haiti to impoverished women in Mozambique to malnourishment among students in Laos. By organizing short-term and long-term interventions, they foster the path to a more developed and prosperous nation. But how does IRD get the funds to take on all these projects?
The nonprofit organization collaborates with many other agencies and donors, one of them being the U.S. Agency for International Development. As a contractor, 4,000 staff members all over the world carry out many of USAID’s programs in hopes to improve infrastructure, healthcare and governance in war-torn countries. The U.S. State Department as well as numerous UN agencies also fund IRD’s annual budget of $400-$500 million.
One of its most recent successes took place among refugees and internally displaced persons in Yemen, a country that hosts over 200,000 people from Eritrea Ethiopia, Iraq and Somalia.
Refugees and internally displaced persons all face similar struggles, but in a place where political instability and high unemployment wreak havoc on daily life, coping with the current circumstances becomes increasingly difficult.
Realizing the dire urgency, IRD has set out to assist the thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons. After assessing the deprivations and needs in the refugee camps, IRD along with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees worked to provide monthly allowances to the families. They also distributed thousands of dollars worth of school and medical supplies, hygiene kits and other goods to many school children and families. The United Methodist Committee on Relief donated most of the gifts. IRD also targeted many vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women and sexual abuse survivors, by establishing care centers and providing group therapy.
International Relief and Development continues to provide relief and assistance in the world’s hot spots. By going into desperate communities and initiating development, this organization guides countries to economic growth and stabilization. Success stories are seen all over Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, but the range of IRD’s success does not stop there. Success like this is everlasting and enduring.
—Leeda Jewayni
Sources: International Relief and Development, Washington Post, Huffington Post
Bezos Family Foundation Makes Impact
The Bezos Family Foundation was established by Jackie and Mike Bezos while working alongside with children and spouses that serve as the directors, and gives a whole new meaning to family tradition. This private and independent foundation has a vision of all people being prepared to achieve their full potential in life.
There are three main areas on which the foundation focuses. They are are: early learning, K-12 education and youth leadership and global engagement. Through these three areas, the hope is that it will give strengths to people in education and in life skills to every age group.
The first main area the foundation focuses on, as mentioned above, is early learning and through this the members look at science approaches to old problems and gives a new approach to basic development brain research. This research is meant to broaden the understanding of how young children learn and develop.
Through the early learning program the foundation partners with many other organizations, one of which is Acelero Learning, first partnered in 2012. The mission of Acelero Learning is to inspire a positive family and child outcomes to help close the achievement gap and build a better future for children and families.
The next main area that the foundation focuses on is K-12 education. Through this program the foundation supports teaching, school and system leadership. As well as the early learning program there are also partners with organizations that bring thoughtful innovations in K-12—with emphasis on STEM education. The vision for students goes beyond high school and the foundation aims to teach the tools needed to excel in college.
One partner through this program is 50 EGGS, INC. A partner since 2013, 50 EGGS INC. is led by award-winning documentary filmmaker Mary Mazzio. The company is dedicated to creating films that leave a positive social impact.
The last area that the foundation focuses on is youth leadership and global engagement. Supporting young and motivated leaders is the goal through this program, which seeks to do so by providing opportunities to expand awareness of global issues.
A partner for this program since 2005 is the Aspen Institute. This organization fosters values-based leadership and provides a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. Aspen Institute is a Bezos Scholars Program founding partner and the partnership stimulates youth leadership development and global awareness.
– Brooke Smith
Sources: The Aspen Institute, Acelero Learning, Bezos Family Foundation
Bertolt Brecht and His Plays on Poverty
“Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.” So spoke Bertolt Brecht, a playwright in the modern theater whose highly political plays are starting to make a resurgence on a global stage.
Born in Bavaria, Brecht grew to despise and write plays denouncing the middle-class in Germany following World War I. He became a Marxist at a young age and spent his life satirizing capitalism and its marginalization of certain individuals. This political position was partly responsible for the drop in popularity of Brecht’s works during the 80’s and 90’s.
However, the 2008 global financial crisis, which enlarged impoverished classes and exposed flaws in the capitalist model, has lead theaters all over the world to stage Brecht’s plays. Producers have found that audiences are particularly responsive to Brecht’s political themes in today’s economic context. Al Jazeera America reported that stagings of Brecht have not only proliferated in the United States but have also increased in the UK, Ireland, France, Canada and Iran.
According to some scholars, Brecht has lost his status as “sage and prophet of the downtrodden and exploited,” but even if this is true, his works still scrutinize the dehumanizing impact of social, political and economic forces on the individual. This impact is keenly felt by the world’s poor, who figure prominently in Brecht’s plays.
For instance, arguably Brecht’s most famous work, “The Threepenny Opera,” contains some of the playwright’s most penetrating remarks on poverty and capitalism.
One character in the work, Peachum, manufactures fake beggars. His employees meander through London, making people with money feel guilty enough to donate it. This money, essentially stolen from the real beggars, then goes to Peachum. It is a sharp critique of capitalism’s potential to abuse people in the quest for profit.
While most people find Peachum’s methods contemptible, the character’s assessment of the problems facing anyone trying to stoke sympathy in others—a charity, for example—is pellucid. Peachum remarks that a man spotting another man in need will give him tenpence the first time, fivepence the second time and turn him into the police the third.
Thus, the things that “stir [people’s] souls” and make them care about others in need lose their effect over time.
These sorts of commentaries, along with Brecht’s subjects of “inequality, squalor, exploitation and the malleability of human nature,” are still germane in discussions of the modern world. The topics may be even more important as globalization pits developed and developing countries against each other, bringing entrenched models of capitalism to poorer populations.
Make no mistake, capitalism can help to alleviate poverty, but as Brecht’s works remind audiences, it must not alienate the impoverished people who stand to benefit from it.
– Ryan Yanke
Sources: Al Jazeera America, Scribd, Book of Famous Quotes, Literature Criticism Online
Photo: SCE