This is a classic tale of the rich preying on the poor for monetary gain.  Nothing new in our modern society.

This film shows the true corruption and how it is felt all they way down the chain.  Rich pharmaceutical companies issue testing of experimental drugs on the expendable masses of Africa.  This is accomplished with one thing in mind: Money.

The powerful pharmaceutical companies offer what they call “free medical assistance” to the 3rd world county.  A PR facade shades the true motive:  free testing.  The pharmaceutical companies have enormous cash flows and are protected by governments and big buyers alike, free testing on Africans means reliable products for the 1%.  The truth is known by too few, with little resources (connections and again, money) to make an effective effort against the pharmaceutical companies.  Any valiant attempt ends in silencing of said individuals.  The struggle for power was won long ago, ye who hath all the money can haveth whatever they please.

Now in the case of this movie, Justin uses what connections he has as a diplomat of the U.K. to make a dent in the pharmaceutical consortium cover up.  He lacked significant monetary funds but was able to make the evil deeds of KDH publicly known.  Unfortunately it cost him his live, and his wife’s.

Onto a ligher note.  Some aspects of the movie tying into what we have discussed in class are as follows.

There was a significant amount of “saving face” happening throughout the film.  Moments like Justin and Sandy viewing Tessa’s corpse, to the various times where one character found out the dark secrets of another and simply pretended to never have heard it in the first place.

The notion that women do not belong speaking business among men was made apparent towards the beginning of the film when Tessa was confronting the African and British associates about KDH and their drug dypraxa.

Bribery and blackmail was consistent throughout the film as well.  This is how business is done not only in Africa but in Europe too.