Num artigo publicado na Revista Lancet de hoje “Inequality — what to do and why”, o Professor Michael Marmot, um
estudioso das desigualdades há mais de 35 anos, apresenta-nos o Filme “ The Divide” de Katharine Round, e um Livro “Inequality.
What Can Be Done?” de Anthony B. Atkinson.
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| MICHAEL MARMOT |
Ambos, sobre pobres e ricos,
analistas do sector financeiro e empregos mal pagos “ flip burguers”, sobre o “sonho
americano” ou a falta dele, “The
American dream: a gated community with security guards, million dollar homes, a
shining BMW golf cart, and only poor people rake their own leaves. “Everyone
here drives a Mercedes or BMW”, says a resident, “or if it is an American car,
it is the latest model. People don’t keep things long.” This is a scene from
the land of opportunity, as portrayed in the film, The Divide (video). It is a
land where every mother’s son can be President, even an African American—provided
his father went to Harvard. Not all participate equally in the dream. Here, in
the fi lm, is another African American: a single mother who works flipping
burgers, no leaves to rake outside her home. She alternates between shouting at
her children to keep quiet and shedding tears as she contemplates her life’s
tragedies, large and small. She says: everyone is trying to escape in their own
way; in her case it is beer, cigarettes, and ice cream.”
Marmot convoca-nos para uma visão atenta às desigualdades,
ao aumento das desigualdades e a sua repercussão sobre a saúde, retratadas no
filme “The Divided” inspirado no livro “The Spirit Level” retratado na visão de
uma jovem analista financeira “he Divide features a young woman analyst who
works in the financial sector who calls extreme wealth “fuck you” money—you
have enough so that you feel you can disregard anybody. As she tells us, debt
is what people need to manage their lives. For Wall Street, it is just a
product to be bought and sold and make a profi t. When poor people got in
trouble with their mortgages they were told it was their fault for taking on
loans they could not afford. The banks who loaned them the money were bailed
out by the state. Watching The Divide, it is hard to believe that the rich suffer
from inequality to anything like the extent that the poor do.”
Finalmente Marmot responde às
perguntas “Alguém se importa? Deve
alguém importar-se?” com as 15 propostas de Atkinson’s “ His 15 proposals would
not harm prosperity but would give us a fairer, less unequal society with
better health and lower crime rates”. Vale a pena discutir!
Entretanto aguardemos que o Filme
o Livro cheguem à língua portuguesa.
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