Social, Economic And Environmental Characteristics For...

This paper will explore the social, economic and environmental characteristics for entrepreneurship in the Olusosun rubbish dump as depicted in the movie welcome to Lagos. (LINES OF EXPLORATION) Nigeria faces vast inequality with a gini coefficient standing at 48. 8 (United Nations Development Programme, 2013). Lagos is home to the largest slum in the country, which is Ajungle. Nearly thirty kilometers away from the cities largest slum is a landfill where nearly 1000 people live and work. Despite being characterized as scavengers of garbage, they are actually entrepreneurs. These people have created a business from what they find in the dump and how they are able to make a profit from what others didn’t find value in. This essay†¦show more content†¦A beneficial inequality represented in the documentary as well as in the papers is that there is no child labor within the dump. All workers are of sixteen years of age or older (Adepegba and Ogunrinola, 2012). This documentary also takes a look on how the poor peoples actions are all represented as one, and how for the most part they are socially unaccepted by others who live in Lagos. The people in the dump ar e ones to be blamed for social inequality. The majority of the people in the dump are there to make a business. In order to stay in business they have to stay out of the public’s eye. When one of the main characters in the documentary got arrested, the situation threatened the whole dump. The reckless behavior of one man was portrayed throughout the thousands of other people working in the dump as being incompetent and troublemakers of society (Nwoye, n.d). Environmentally, the Olusosun rubbish dump is a place for its inhabitants to thrive. It is where they live and it is also where they get all of their resources to sustain their businesses. By the end of the documentary you get the sense that it is a good place for these people to live. The film does show how they face many challenges in the dump such as fires, which can suspend their sales between days and weeks. This film fails to recognize how these challenges and some of the practices these people use to get their prod uct prepared for sale actually cause harm to their lives and others who