The sound of poverty

Most of us think of the sound of poverty, or of being poor, as the voice of the homeless guy who sings out his need for spare change near the subway station or the bark of the homeless dog seeking scraps for supper.  For many of us this noise fades into the background of every day life.

For American the fear of poverty inches closer every day with some of the impending financial decisions our government has to make in the next few days to stave off some serious cuts that will destroy the lives of many of the poorest and many of the middle class in the country.  But that’s an American problem.

Then there’s the rest of the world.

This is obvious to pretty much everyone other than most Americans, but there are lots of other places in the world that, 1) have it worse that we do on our worst day and 2) deal with crushing poverty on such a regular basis that our problems are an abstraction.

That’s why this video, sent to me by the inimitable Jennifer Lester, is so utterly amazing.  I watched it, mouth agape, and was absolutely astounded.

Landfill Harmonic film teaser from Landfill Harmonic on Vimeo.

I urge you to 1) share this video with others and, if you’re American, 2) contact your congresscritters and tell them to DO SOMETHING about the fiscal crisis that is about to overtake us.

~Kelly