Tonight I saw Slumdog Millionaire
I can honestly say it is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. The reason I say this isn't necessarily because of the story, the acting, the cinematography (even though all that was pretty darn good), it's because of what it reminded me of.
POVERTY
I know it's kind of a weird reason to like a movie. For the reminder of the bottomless, drowning poverty that seems to be everywhere. It reminded me of Cairo. Of 2006 when I spent three months in a city I knew absolutely nothing about save for some old stone buildings nearby. I knew nothing of the garbage collecting communities that littered the outskirts of the city centre. Nothing of the island in the nile, basically a stone's throw from the shores of Cairo city, which didn't even have a hospital on it.
I didn't know anything about the massive amounts of people there who love soccer and mobile phones, are obessed with airbrushed photos and honking horns for any and every reason imaginable. Or that everything, including your skin would have a layer of brown dirt/dust/pollution on it at the end of the day. Or that there are 9 communities in Cairo who collect and sort garbage, who have no infrastructure, who are Christian. I knew nothing of the huge shopping malls filled with Egyptian teens attempting to free themselves from whatever they feel is holding them back, or what being in a Muslim country during Ramadan would be like, or being a blonde, american woman in a Muslim country during Ramadan.
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| From egypt |
No, I didn't know any of this. I still don't really know much about Cairo. I do know that there are some amazingly loving and hospitable people there. Some amazing doctors and volunteers trying to bring some relief to the more than 2 million Sudanese refugees living in the city. Young children begging for less than a cent. For a smile. A high five. Recognition. Love.
So no, despite what they may say about Slumdog Millionaire, it's not "the feel good movie of the century" or whatever. Yes, it is encouraging, but it is also devastating. Bombay to Mumbai. The slums to the sky risers. Cairo.
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| From egypt |
(photo from BH's collection)
I haven't been to India. It's in the top 10 things to do list. Maybe even top 5. But I have been to Cairo, and I have seen wealth blanketing poverty, maybe just for the wealthy themselves, but covering it and coexisting with it at the same time. I have also seen poverty laughing in wealth's face. Smiling. Laughing. Loving.
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| From egypt |
Watching this movie made me realize why I wanted to be a nurse in the first place...to contribute to something...to learn from those many are to busy to learn from...to laugh with those in the dirt. With those who laugh despite everything else around them saying they shouldn't. That they can't. But they do, they sure do.
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| From egypt |
