Review Of Nixon's Slow Violence And The Environmentalism Of The Poor

In “Slow Violence And The Environmentalism of The Poor”, Rob Nixon contrasts our vision of the world. Indeed, his book paints and tend to explain facts that can be directly related to neoliberalism. He looks toward the poorest countries and people that suffer the most. Their freedom is mainly base on their financial capacities. In other word, the people that are not able to afford a sustainable environment have to live in an unhealthy environment. Moreover, Nixon denounces the neocolonialism set. The poorest countries are now controlled through finance. Similarly, he affirms that there is a “shield for national whiteness” (p59). We can see that White lives worth more than others. Thus, Nixon is painting a world where the poorest are consciously trap in a vicious circle completely unhealthy and dangerous. Later on, this environment becomes more and more unhealthy but indispensable.

Tanzania is one of the poorest country in Africa, vulnerable then. We see that the Tanzanian try to reach Mwanza to find a job albeit Mwanza has terrible life conditions. Men and women are massively dying because of aids. And if they are not sick, they have to find degradable jobs such as prostitution. The “fish-city” is dictated by the search for efficiency. Therefore, human lives have no value. Incidentally, we can hear in the documentary that a dead body is more expensive than an alive one. All that matter is exportation and “selling the country”. They export 500 tons of fish per day while the lake, as the population and the country, are dying. Furthermore, besides exploiting the country, the dangerous environment is reinforced by the easy importation of