After the civil war, Congo was penniless, despite the quantity of precious raw materials. Video artist Renzo Martens crossed the country for two years, largely in the footsteps of white relief workers of Médecins sans Frontières and Unicef. He visited several villages, camps and hospitals. He met day labourers at palm oil plantations, who work for a pittance of twenty dollar cents and do not earn enough to feed their children. Many children of plantation workers are undernourished. The plantation owner is introduced too, saying that children starve to death on his plantation. Poverty is a commercial product, Martens claims. His message to Congo travels with him, in neon letters that eventually, in the interior, reveal the text ENJOY POVERTY in blue and PLEASE in red, while the local population is singing and dancing. It would be better if the people themselves made some money on the pictures of poverty and human suffering, and Martens shows them how.
