Transcription - Death - Episode 4

ENGLISH

 

 

00:00:16:06

Suddenly, it happens, someone you love, dies.

 

 

00:00:21:23

Do you have this bird?

 

 

00:00:24:16

But death doesn’t just create sadness, grief, and hard times. It also creates a market.

 

 

00:00:40:04

RCO, confirm clock is counting. T minus five, four, three, two, one, zero. And launch of the Space X Falcon 9 Rocket.

 

 

00:00:57:08

May 22nd, 2012. The remains of 308 people will be sent into space.

 

 

00:01:08:01

For about a year, the ashes of the dead will circle the earth.

 

 

00:01:14:24

Before it falls down towards the atmosphere and burns up like a shooting star.

 

 

00:01:26:01

If one has a desire to be buried with the starry sky as a backdrop, one can simply fork out 3000 dollars.

 

 

00:01:35:23

For about 10.000 dollars, you can have your ashes crashed into the moon.

 

 

00:01:42:06

If you pay 13.000 dollars, you can send it into outer space.

 

 

00:01:50:01

Mom, great grandma, great grandpa.

 

 

00:01:55:09

Tonje and her father have already buried the mother in the family, two sets of grandparents, and Elvis, the budgie.

 

 

00:02:03:04

But daddy, where are you going to be buried?

 

 

00:02:07:21

The death care industry continuously offer more advanced services for those who can pay.

 

 

00:02:14:13

But they are not the only ones who earn big money from death.

 

 

00:02:18:22

Entertainment, the pharmaceutical industry, the insurance industry, and the military.

 

 

00:02:28:01

These are just some of the major players.

 

 

00:02:32:14

How large is this market? And can one really put a price tag on death?

 

 

00:02:44:08

This is the international funeral and cemetery fair in Bologna, Italy. A mecca for the death care industry.

 

 

00:02:53:15

Flowers, caskets, photographs, funeral cars, this is where you’ll find the newest model for your last journey.

 

 

00:03:02:11

And all of this costs money.

 

 

00:03:10:10

The breath stops, the heart ceases to beat.

 

 

00:03:15:19

Let’s say it happens when you are in the U.S.

 

 

00:03:20:01

In the U.S., the starting price for a funeral is about 6000 dollars. That covers coffin, ceremony, profit to the agency, and an obituary in the local newspaper.

 

 

00:03:31:22

In addition to this comes the cost for the spot at the cemetery, which starts at 1000 dollars, 2000 for the tombstone, and 1000 for engraving.

 

 

00:03:40:16

It is not uncommon for people in the U.S. to spend 10.000 dollars on a funeral.

 

 

00:03:47:18

In Japan, however, the average price is 25.000 dollars. And that is for an average funeral.

 

 

00:04:08:19

Daddy. Daddy.

 

 

00:04:18:24

It is obvious that it is expensive to die, and Tonje may want to plan for the future, just in case.

 

 

00:04:29:03

At Walmart, you are just two clicks away from great deals. The funeral industry also utilizes the internet actively to attract customers.

 

 

00:04:41:19

Where am I?

You’ve passed away my son. This is your funeral.

Wow, the new 300. These cars are beautiful.

 

 

00:04:57:19

I’ve never looked this before. How can my family afford all of this?

They made the smart choice, they chose Golden Gate Funeral Home.

 

 

00:05:09:23

One of the companies that think alternatively and actively utilize the web, is Funeral One.

 

 

00:05:16:18

I was always obsessed with what you could do with technology, what you could do with the internet, and how you could bring all these things together and kind of connect the dots.

 

 

00:05:24:04

And one thing led to another and a funeral home called up and said hey, will you help us reinvent our business?

 

 

00:05:31:22

At first I was like, death, dying, you know awkward, this is something I’m not sure if I want to be involved in.

 

 

00:05:37:24

When I thought about it though, I said if we could create a company that could change what the world thought of a funeral, just like I was thinking a funeral is death, I want to make it more focused on life, and the life that person lived.

 

 

00:05:49:07

So come on through and I’ll give you guys a quick tour of the office.  Over on this side we’ve got some of our creative team.

 

 

00:05:56:07

Behind me over here we actually have part of our actual marketing team.

 

 

00:06:00:08

One of the things about our office you’ll notice is that we have a very open office environment, so we wanted to create themed rooms that could allow them to break out and essentially open up their mind, open up their creativities.

 

 

00:06:14:20

Probably one of the coolest rooms we actually have, that I love myself, is our Alice in Wonderland themed room.

 

 

00:06:21:03

The business idea for this internet company is to be a version of facebook for those who have died.

 

 

00:06:27:08

Probably the biggest thing that most people do online when it comes to a funeral website, is they want to pay their respect to the person. So what we did was we said what if we created the facebook basically of your life.

 

 

00:06:38:16

Funeral One sells solutions so that families easily can create their own memorial web pages.

 

 

00:06:44:19

Here, you can upload your photos and videos to create interactive presentations of the dead, which can easily be shared on facebook and twitter.

 

 

00:06:53:09

Share memories, share photos, share stories, pay them respect, share a funny story, record a story though a webcam, or even just simply purchase a sympathy flower or a greeting card online from the same place without ever leaving it.

 

 

00:07:06:08

They also run a web-store that sells everything one needs for the burial, and there is plenty to spend money on at The Sympathy Store.

 

 

00:07:16:01

You know funerals as a whole is a billion dollar industry. We’ve been blessed with growth of over hundreds of percentages every single year. There’s no question this industry is gonna keep growing, because people are looking to have a celebration of life.  The consumer has changed.

 

 

00:07:45:01

It’s not just the marketing of funeral arrangements that differ. When it comes to what we want to be buried in, we have a multitude of choices.

 

 

00:07:57:18

Ghana is known for its elaborate coffins, a tradition which is particularly strong with the Gha-people.

 

 

00:08:11:09

So the legs go in that direction, and then the head comes here. So when we do a coffin like this, it really represents what the profession of the person, that one is for a carpenter.

 

 

00:08:22:01

This is a spider, let’s say the tarantula. We also have the crab.

 

 

00:08:31:06

We also have the hammer. And then also that is a film projector; I’m still thinking maybe one of these days there is going to be a film director, who is going to ask for this here.

 

 

00:08:53:21

I think the coffin is mainly to make the deceased more satisfied.  Most of the coffins I do here actually represent what people were doing when they were living, when they were alive, I should say.

 

 

00:09:09:01

So there is a soldier with a gun. And it happens that the man was a soldier himself before he passed away.

 

 

00:09:28:00

The coffins are very expensive, the materials are expensive.

 

 

00:09:35:03

You know as soon as a person dies, then the family has to go everywhere to get money.  People even go for a loan.

 

 

00:10:05:06

For the Gha-people, the burial is a huge project for each and every family.

 

 

00:10:10:22

Ghanian people spend more time and money on funerals than on weddings.

 

 

00:10:16:07

The costs are not only related to the coffin and the cold storage of the body for weeks before the ceremony.

 

 

00:10:24:14

The music, the food, the hired staff, decorations, and transportation often put the family in debt for years to come.

 

 

00:10:41:01

Funerals can be expensive, but the death of some people causes such devastation and grief that it offers good opportunities for those who want to make money.

 

 

00:10:53:13

The great rock singer Elvis Presley, also known as The King, just died in a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, at the age of 42 years.

 

 

00:11:14:20

Elvis Presley's death shocked the entire world, and today, 35 years later, he is still a money making machine.

 

 

00:11:28:08

Daddy, I’ve found a map of Graceland!

 

 

00:11:32:17

Are you crying?

No, it’s just one of those pollen allergies.

 

 

00:11:39:22

The interest in dead celebrities is so great that some people find it normal to make a copy of Elvis’ house, even on the other side of the planet.

 

 

00:12:01:15 DANISH

When Elvis died, there was an American music professor who publicly said that, in about 20 years, Elvis will have no significance, in 20 years it will all be forgotten. I do not know if he still is a music professor, but he was certainly wrong.

 

 

00:12:14:08

People are flocking to Memphis, and others apparently to Denmark, to be closer to a man who died more than 30 years ago.

 

 

00:12:22:21 DANISH

Since the opening, we’ve had 100.000 guests, and I’m sure that 5 – 15% are die hard Elvis fans, like myself. The rest are people who obviously know something about Elvis Presley, and they think, what the heck is that, we need to check it out, and then they come to visit us.

 

 

00:12:39:04 DANISH

I specifically remember that i started this during the financial crisis, it’s my dream, a dream come true.  And, that’s what this is really about.

 

 

00:12:48:21 DANISH

The idea is that we’ll build several other projects around the house here, and that it will be a constant development.

 

 

00:12:56:22 DANISH

The project here has cost 26 million danish kroner to make, I’m then referring to constructing the buildings, installing the house with the inventory we have, the museum of course, is separate, and the museum is insured for 10 million danish kroner, and it has taken me a little over 30 years to collect all items here.

 

 

00:13:17:07

Daddy, you’re not thinking of buying that?

Yes.

No.

No?

 

 

00:13:33:12

We pay for entertainment, and someone is making money out of that.

 

 

00:13:38:05

The links between death and the entertainment industry are numerous.

 

 

00:13:44:06

This doesn’t just apply to music, but also to other forms of entertainment.

 

 

00:13:57:03

Another area that has earned money from death, is film.

 

 

00:14:03:03

And one of the most profitable film genres is where death screams the loudest. Horror movies.

 

 

00:14:15:00

Many horror movies are produced in Japan, and they are very popular. Takashi Shimizu is the man behind one of the most iconic scenes in a horror movie from the last ten years.

 

 

00:14:48:01 JAPANESE

Some movies I have made in Japan are also remade in The U.S.

 

 

00:14:54:16 JAPANESE

and the remakes were also huge hits there. 

 

 

00:15:25:11 JAPANESE

All the producers said “I want to make it”, “I also want to make it”.

 

 

00:15:29:16 JAPANESE

And contrary to earlier, the amount of productions increased.

 

 

00:15:34:13 JAPANESE

It was the boom.

 

 

00:15:37:06

Death on film sells, and for Shimizu, this was the chance to work with substantial budgets and American movie stars.

 

 

00:15:45:24

The Japanese have such an amazingly beautiful way of telling stories, whether they are love stories, whether they are scary films, whether they are thrillers. I just can’t believe it took so long for us to steal from them.

 

 

00:15:57:15 JAPANESE

When it comes to the horror film genre, if a movie is popular,

 

 

00:16:01:11 JAPANESE

there will soon be a part 1, 2, 3.

 

 

00:16:04:08 JAPANSK

It is simply so that the producers say that “compared to part 1, let’s kills off loads -

 

 

00:16:08:13 JAPANSK

- more people in part 2 “, and so on.

 

 

00:16:13:06 JAPANESE

In part 3 you have to kill off a higher number than in the other films.

 

 

00:16:19:00 JAPANSES

And they must be killed in much more gruesome ways.

 

 

00:16:23:12

Film studios in Hollywood have earned huge amounts of money on Shimizu's Grudge movies alone.

 

 

00:16:31:03

Death has a huge audience.

 

 

00:16:34:06

And one day a year, this is particularly evident. Then we dress up like the dead to get a little break from our everyday life.

 

 

00:16:45:01

The celebration of all saints day came to the U.S. from Europe during the 1600s, and it started originally as a commemoration to all the dead saints and martyrs who didn’t have their own day on the calendar.

 

 

00:16:57:21

In the U.S., Halloween celebrations have, over time, developed into a giant money making machine.

 

 

00:17:04:17

Halloween is now the second largest commercial celebration, right behind Christmas.

 

 

00:17:09:08

Americans spend 8 billion dollars on one night.

 

 

00:17:17:02

The powerful symbolism to death, with skeletons, skulls, and fake blood, is inspired by the Mexican celebration of Dia de Muertos, the Day of the Dead.

 

 

00:17:33:14

Halloween celebrations have come back in full force in Europe during the last few years, thanks mostly to the business community.

 

 

00:17:42:00

On the last night in October, it is pretty much impossible to go for a little evening stroll without being greeted by someone in a death suit costume.

 

 

00:17:56:01

The attraction death has on the audience is enormous.

 

 

00:18:02:08

In the art exhibition Body Worlds, the sculptures are made ​​of real human bodies.

 

 

00:18:09:24

The exhibition has been seen by 32 million people so far, making it the world's most visited traveling attraction.

 

 

00:18:18:07

Who made this?

 

 

00:18:20:21

No one has made ​​it, that's how it looks inside your body.

 

 

00:18:24:08

Is it for real?

Yes.

 

 

00:18:28:04

The bodies that are exhibited are provided by volunteer donors.

 

 

00:18:32:19

The man behind it all is the German anatomist Gunther Von Hagen. He is the inventor of a revolutionary way of preserving bodies, called plastination.

 

 

00:18:44:22

The way Gunther Von Hagen arranges the dead bodies, has created much controversy.

 

 

00:18:54:11

But the large number of visitors may indicate, however, that he has found a theme that we humans are deeply and fundamentally fascinated by.

 

 

00:19:08:18

What I create here is a kind of event anatomy. I must ensure the people to view their own body. I must by purpose diminish the difference between death and life.

 

 

00:19:24:03

In this way, the viewer can forget for a short moment that it is a dead corpse, while actually he sees himself within the specimen. That’s me, oh look, those muscles are my muscles.

 

 

00:19:37:08

It’s much easier to transfer the knowledge from life-like posing bodies than from a dead body on a dissection table.

 

 

00:19:48:22

Opinions differ on whether this is speculative and tasteless exploitation of the dead, or scientific enlightenment.

 

 

00:19:56:19

Can you see what that is?

 

 

00:19:58:02

I can see that it’s a heart, but his one is healthy.

 

00:20:06:09

But a survey of the audience showed that 30 percent began to live a healthier life after seeing the exhibition.

 

 

00:20:15:00

And 10 percent quit smoking.

 

 

00:20:18:09

What is that?

 

 

00:20:19:22

That is a lung.

Yes, but why is it black?

 

 

That’s what happens when you eat too many popsicles.

What?

 

 

00:20:29:00

Why are we constantly looking for new ways to experience death through art and entertainment?

 

 

00:20:35:01

Is it because we fear death, or because we are seeking the meaning of life that defines us as human.

 

 

00:20:43:06

Certainly I am not able to plastinate the soul, but the body is the best representative of the soul. And therefore coming to this exhibition you are very near to the soul,

 

 

00:20:54:05

actually this place here, the living and the dead is mixing, helping future generations to understand what we are, quite delicate nature in a quite technical world.

 

 

00:21:08:06

And an important part in our technological world is computer games.

 

 

00:21:14:13

The computer games industry is a major supplier of experiences within the genre of death and violence.

 

 

00:21:25:04

But why does death sell so well in the virtual world?

 

 

00:21:33:23 TAIWANESE

What I am playing here is called World of Warcraft.

 

 

00:21:37:08 TAIWANESE

It is a kind of internet game -

 

 

00:21:41:21 TAIWANESE

where you can choose who to be.

 

 

00:21:46:04 TAIWANESE

It is actually pretty realistic;

 

 

00:21:52:04  TAIWANESE

Every time I see my character pushed into a corner, and death seems like the only way out,

 

 

00:22:00:06 TAIWANESE

I do feel a bit of death fear.

 

 

00:22:08:21

Our fascination for video games is enormous. The global gaming market had a revenue of 66 billion dollars in 2010, and this is expected to increase to 81 billion dollars by 2016.

 

 

00:22:25:10

The computer game industry is now bigger than the film industry, and many films are also being released as games.

 

 

00:22:36:02

The media often blames violence and killings in society on the violence in video games.

 

 

00:22:41:22

Public officials and other critics have raised concerns about the role of media and culture, particularly violent video games.

 

 

00:22:49:19

Shoot to kill video games,

with names like Bullet-storm.

The depiction of these assault weapons again and again,

Mortal Combat,

Have we become completely desensitized to the violence all around us.

And Splatterhouse.

 

 

00:23:05:10

But it’s not that simple.

 

 

00:23:07:15

Look at the UK and U.S. The citizens of these countries spend about the same amount of time playing video games each year.

 

 

00:23:16:09

If the computer games had been directly linked to violence, the number of murders should look quite similar. But that is not how it is.

 

 

00:23:24:21

The murder rate is four times higher in the U.S. than in the UK.

 

 

00:23:30:09

What is the reason for this difference?

 

 

00:23:33:21

Let’s compare the amount of weapons owned by the people of these two countries. Americans own far more weapons than the British. Which could indicate that the supply of weapons may be more dangerous than access to video games.

 

 

00:23:49:05 TAIWANESE

Without death, the game would lack human experience.

 

 

00:23:56:03 TAIWANESE

- and then it wouldn’t make you happy, sad or angry.

 

 

00:24:01:11

But, not all video games are created for profit.

 

 

00:24:05:16

This is America's Army, a video game created by the U.S. Army, available for free online.

 

 

00:24:15:01

And here, the link between game and death is difficult to avoid.

 

 

00:24:38:14

The U.S. military decided in 1999 that recruitment was way down.

 

 

00:24:44:15

Professor Robin Anderson has researched the use of video games in the military.

 

 

00:24:49:13

So they did a very extensive public relations campaign. The Department of Defence allocated over 2 billion dollars to recruitment, and America’s Army came out of that recruitment effort.

 

 

00:25:08:18

America’s Army was made available by a free download, so you didn’t have to pay anything for it, making it incredibly popular.

 

 

00:25:19:13

It had real soldiers and experiences, and there wasn’t really much like it before that.

 

 

00:25:28:21

The Army uses this game to reach out to the young, and as of 2009, they had invested 32.8 million dollars on the game America's Army.

 

 

00:25:40:01

In addition, they spent 12 million dollars on a building where they can meet young people, The Army Experience Center.

 

 

00:25:56:18

This advertisement shows young people at a mall get free access to video games developed by the military.

 

 

00:26:09:19

The army does not make money on this, it is an investment linked to death. And was widely criticism.

 

 

00:26:18:11

War is not a game, war is not a game, war is not a game.

 

 

00:26:29:21

Shame, shame, shame, shame.

 

 

00:26:34:18

The centre was eventually closed, two years after it opened.

 

 

00:26:43:08

The similarity between game and reality is striking, yet the differences are enormous.

 

 

00:26:51:17

Because in reality people die.

 

 

00:26:57:09

In reality, they use real guns, real bullets, and real bombs.

 

 

00:27:05:01

During World War II, new and hugely effective methods for mass production of weapons were developed.

 

 

00:27:13:04

This led to a situation where the weapon industry became an increasingly important part of the global economy.

 

 

00:27:24:05

This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell.

 

 

00:27:29:22

We now stand 10 years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations.  Three of these involved our own country.

 

 

00:27:42:05

We have been compelled to create a permanent armanous industry of vast proportions.

 

 

00:27:51:13

We recognize the imperative need for this development, yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications.

 

 

00:28:01:05

In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether sought or unsought by the military industrial complex.

 

 

00:28:23:06

The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.

 

 

00:28:35:07

Currently, the world's annual military spending is a staggering 1.7 trillion dollars.

 

 

00:28:44:09

Or 2.7 percent of the world's entire gross domestic product.

 

 

00:28:53:11

War and death is good business. But sometimes, a single murder can open the door for conspiracy theories, and hence profit.

 

 

00:29:05:05

This is Dealey Plaza in Dallas, where the American President John F. Kennedy was murdered more than 50 years ago.

 

 

00:29:13:22

Every year, more than one million visitors come here. Kennedy’s assassination has become a tourist magnet with its guided bus tours, museums, conferences, films, and books.

 

 

00:29:27:23

The death of president Kennedy traumatised America, traumatized the world. What happened to the president was in fact a conspiracy, he was killed as a political message.

 

 

00:29:44:24

Robert Groden earns his living from Kennedy’s assassination.

 

 

00:29:48:15

It’s been a half a century, and we still don’t have the whole truth.

 

 

00:29:52:18

He has written four books about the murder, and was a consultant on the famous JFK film from 1991.

 

 

00:29:59:21

This is $25, and you get the magazine with it for free.

 

 

00:30:04:07

But why do conspiracy theories sell so well?

 

 

00:30:08:07

I feel I can best honour JFK’s memory by doing exactly what I am doing, writing books,

 

 

00:30:16:16

publishing DVDs, so that people can learn about what really did happen, and that they’ll know that there is an alternative to the official fiction.

 

 

00:30:27:17

Six out of ten Americans do not believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was acting alone.

 

 

00:30:33:00

Oswald is not only innocent, Oswald in his real history, takes you into the bowels of the U.S. intelligence networks.

 

 

00:30:41:06

Many people give a greater meaning to the Kennedy assassination, and there are plenty of theories about who was behind it.

 

 

00:30:48:07

The CIA, the military industry, the Mafia, Fidel Castro, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, the FBI, the Secret Service, the Soviet Union, or even the aliens. There are plenty of suspects.

 

 

00:31:02:13

No matter how incredulous the theories are, they sell. There are more than 2,000 different books about the Kennedy assassination.

 

 

00:31:11:04

And that number will only increase in the future.

 

 

00:31:14:07

Buy my book.

 

 

00:31:26:11

But fortunately, there are more enjoyable ways people for people to earn money on death.

 

 

00:31:33:11

Such as here at the hungry spirits festival in Taiwan.

 

 

00:31:38:23

According to Chinese beliefs, the gates of hell are open for a whole month.

 

 

00:31:46:14

The dead come back from the underworld and walk among the living.

 

 

00:31:52:03

Throughout the month, it is important to serve and please the spirits so that they behave nicely.

 

 

00:32:00:09

The entire city of Keelung is turned upside down during the festival.

 

 

00:32:05:16

People flock to the city from near and far. Everywhere sacrifices will be made to the dead in the form of food, paper figures, and most popular of all;

 

 

00:32:20:24

Money.

 

 

00:32:28:11

But, be careful, there are certain rules.

 

 

00:32:33:21

And it’s easy to make mistakes.

 

 

00:32:52:16

Daddy, it’s fake money!

 

 

00:33:07:00

The money they burn during the festival is printed by Hells Bank.

 

 

00:33:14:01

But even if the notes are fake, both the money and the paper figures must be bought, and that’s good for business.

 

 

00:33:23:02

This ancient tradition has also found its place in the ultra modern Asian society.

 

 

00:33:32:20

For a dollar people across Asia can download the Hells Banking app onto their phones.

 

 

00:34:00:17

At the hungry spirits festival, there are many ways to make money from death.

 

 

00:34:07:00

This has also become a media circus.

 

 

00:34:12:19

Tourists fill up the hotels and restaurants during the festival.

 

 

00:34:19:09

And one can sometimes wonder if this is a festival for the dead, or simply entertainment for the living.

 

 

00:34:28:06

Oh, daddy! Look, look at that!

 

 

00:34:35:18

Yes, Tonje, let’s move on. I’ll show you something up here on the big screen.

 

 

00:34:41:02

I don’t want to.

 

 

00:34:47:13

But people just don’t make money on the celebrations that take place throughout Southeast Asia.

 

 

00:34:56:00

One can also actually lose money on the hungry spirits.

 

 

00:35:00:24

Especially if you break religious taboos.

 

 

00:35:08:09 TAIWANESE

We who work at the temple have to eat vegetarian food for the whole month.

 

 

00:35:13:14 TAIWANESE

Additionally we have a rule that says that husbands and wives have to sleep separately during the entire period.

 

 

00:35:20:01 TAIWANESE

You cannot get married, engaged, or buy a house during Ghost Month.

 

 

00:35:28:08 TAIWANESE

You shouldn’t make any big and important life decisions, and you shouldn’t do any pleasurable things during this festival.

 

 

00:35:41:05

Historically, this is the worst month for many of the stock markets in Southeast Asia.

 

 

00:35:47:17

Car sales go down, and many are reluctant to buy an apartment.

 

 

00:35:54:01

But not everyone.

 

 

00:35:55:15 TAIWANESE

This is the entrance hall.

 

 

00:35:59:11 TAIWANESE

The first thing you notice when you come in is the living room.

 

 

00:36:02:20 TAIWANESE

People from the generation before us will probably be more conscious of -

 

 

00:36:07:20 TAIWANESE

- buying and selling during Ghost Month.

 

 

00:36:12:18

There are many young people who are not deterred by their faith, but rather see the opportunity to make a good deal.

 

 

00:36:20:20 TAIWANESE

I think young people today believe less in these -

 

 

00:36:24:23 TAIWANESE

myths, while at the same time they have respect for the traditions.

 

 

00:36:28:09 TAIWANESE

So if you find the right house you buy it no matter what, I believe.

 

 

00:36:35:15

Death, money, property and afterlife.

 

 

00:36:39:11

If we look at the history of the human kind, one wonders whether these elements can exist without each other.

 

 

00:36:49:16

Almost all religions have earned lots of money on rituals.

 

 

00:36:54:23

Especially when they’ve been promised a good life after death.

 

 

00:37:00:18

For your sins may also have had a price.

 

 

00:37:05:11

When Pope Julius II needed money to build a church -

 

 

00:37:15:01

That’s the one, he wanted some tall ceilings.

 

 

00:37:19:09

Indulgence letters were a solution. The more you paid for your sins, the faster you got through purgatory.

 

 

00:37:26:16

Less pain, better moods all around.

 

 

00:37:30:12

The ancient Egyptians and Greeks were also keen on getting rid of their sins. One way they did it, was to pay others to use their dead bodies as plates.

 

 

00:37:39:12

By eating and drinking from the body, they ate away the sins of the dead.

 

 

00:37:45:02

So it's easy to see how death, sin, and the afterlife has been good business.

 

 

00:37:55:16

However, what are death and life worth? Who decides the price?

 

 

00:38:02:03

And, how.

 

 

00:38:06:10

In England, the home of the insurance industry, the eye of the needle has become smaller and smaller for those who want a regular life insurance. More and more forms are required, and they are getting increasingly more detailed.

 

 

00:38:21:16

Lifesearch is an insurance broker firm. Their job is to find the right insurance policies for their customers from a wide range of companies.

 

 

00:38:31:14

What governs the cost of any policy, is the risk that is being covered, death is cheaper to cover than disability because it happens less often during the life of a policy.

 

 

00:38:43:10

So, what are your chances of dying in the next 20 years? Well, for someone in their 20s, very low, apart from accidental death.

 

 

00:38:51:08

Really very low, but once you’re 45, then the chance of dying is much higher over the next 20 years.  So the older you are, the more you pay.  And the less healthy you are, the more you pay.

 

 

00:39:01:17

Most insurance companies use, now a day’s Body Mass Index, the combination of your height and weight.

 

 

00:39:07:16

And if you are over a certain body mass index they will load or increase your premiums.

 

 

00:39:12:11

Daddy, didn’t we agree on a low carb diet?

 

 

00:39:16:08

To sum it up: The more fat on your body, the more expensive the insurance.  Some insurance companies believe this increases your risk of dying at a younger age, which again could result in the companies losing money.

 

 

00:39:35:11

To calculate how much a certain group of people cost, or contribute economically to society, is controversial.

 

 

00:39:43:07

At the same time, most of the world is dealing with an increasingly ageing population.

 

 

00:39:50:01

It is on the news all over the world.

 

 

00:39:53:03

Can Asia’s economy survive without more babies?

 

 

00:39:56:08 SPANISH NEWS REPORT

 

 

00:40:00:13

Do your duty, make more babies.

The birthrate has plunged to its lowest level on record.

 

 

00:40:06:11

It’s a fact; the number of births are decreasing while life expectancy is increasing. We have become better at postponing death.

 

 

00:40:29:10

And this means that for the first time in man's history, there are more people over the age of 60 than under 30 on the earth.

 

 

00:40:39:04

And in Japan today this is clearly visible.

 

 

00:40:46:05

The country has the second highest life expectancy in the world.

 

 

00:40:52:17

At the same time, the birth rate is low.

 

 

00:41:03:00

Here in Japan, they have developed a new product. When we are able to postpone death more and more, it has created a new market.

 

 

00:41:18:16 JAPANESE

HAL is an abbreviation of Hybrid Assistive Limb

 

 

00:41:24:04 JAPANESE

with age our physical functions are weakened.

 

 

00:41:31:04 JAPANESE

When this happens we become in bad shape temporarily-

 

 

00:41:35.03 JAPANESE

And in a situation where we always have to lie in a bed.

 

 

00:41:42:19

HAL or Hybrid Assistive Limb, is a robot you can put on.

 

 

00:41:50:22

It recognizes your movements and can help you to perform them.

 

 

00:41:58:02 JAPANESE

If you use HAL then, even if you are in a -

 

 

00:42:01:07 JAPANESE

- very difficult and bad situation -

 

 

00:42:04:24 JAPANESE

- you can temporarily get up -

 

 

00:42:08:21 JAPANESE

- and move your feet with your own strength.

 

 

00:42:13:18

The development of HAL is Professor Sankai’s life project. The goal is that the robot will be able to help us in our old age.

 

 

00:42:22:16 JAPANESE

When the body has huge obstacles to overcome, and is in a situation where it doesn’t have any strength, - 

 

 

00:42:26:01 JAPANESE

- the robot can be of assistance.

 

 

00:42:36:01

We have long sought eternal life.

 

 

00:42:41:13

The French physiologist Brown-Sequard lived in the late 1800s.

 

 

00:42:47:02

At an age of 70, he had a brilliant idea. He began injecting himself with a serum made ​​from dogs testicles.

 

 

00:42:59:00

The treatment made him feel both younger and more virile.

 

 

00:43:03:04

Come on.

 

 

00:43:04:02

Several companies bought the idea of the dog testicle cure, and marketed the product that was supposed to give the Brown-Sequard effect.

 

 

00:43:14:09

Biomedicine has come a long way since then. Researchers worldwide are constantly on the hunt for new weapons in the war against ageing.

 

 

00:43:24:00

And it is profitable.

 

 

00:43:28:09

By 2015, the global anti-aging market will be worth 292 billion dollars.

 

 

00:43:39:16

We want to be young and beautiful, and perhaps even pretend to overlook death. But the anti-aging industry is not alone.

 

 

00:43:48:10

The quest for eternal life also provides substantial revenues for other industries. Namely, those offering a cure for everything.

 

 

00:44:00:00

The alternative industry knows no limits.

 

 

00:44:04:22

Homeopathy, herbal teas, crystals, quantum medicine, and much, much more.

 

 

00:44:12:22

Both the producers and the consumers refer to the research that they believe proves that what they sell and use works.

 

 

00:44:21:20

But alas for them, research is showing the opposite is true, it doesn't work, at least not better than a placebo.

 

 

00:44:32:17

Are we hoping for a miracle cure against disease and ageing? Or is it all an expression for our fear of dying?

 

 

00:44:41:03

Whatever the answer is, in 2012 the alternative industry made 780 million dollars in Norway alone.

 

 

00:44:51:13

So what about medical drugs, the ones that are documented scientifically.

 

 

00:44:55:24

Should I call the emergency room?

 

 

00:44:58:18

Isn’t the price of medicine really a price on life and death?

 

 

00:45:02:02

OK then.

 

 

00:45:07:01

The global pharmaceutical industry’s revenue in 2010 was 850 billion dollars, a doubling in ten years.

 

 

00:45:19:09

Development and sale of medicine is regulated by patent law. This will ensure those who develop a new medicine will be paid for that job.

 

 

00:45:31:16

But the patent system also makes essential medicine so expensive that many can not afford it.

 

 

00:45:44:12

The solution is to develop generic drugs to save lives in poor countries.

 

 

00:45:52:08

Patented and generic medications have almost the same active ingredients.

 

 

00:45:58:14

But the price of a patented medicine is often much higher. Because the price is determined by the major drug companies who own the patents.

 

 

00:46:10:01

India's solution to this was to introduce a patent law that puts great demands on innovations.

 

 

00:46:17:03

Here they claim that they value the patient’s lives more than they value the large corporations. That’s why it is supposed to be difficult to get a patent.

 

 

00:46:25:23

The prices has gone really very high, and now a days beyond the capacity of a common man to pay for higher charges of these medicines.

 

 

00:46:40:05

So we have introduced this generic medicines format.

 

 

00:46:47:00

It is actually in the interest of the patient to help them out, our obligation to the society -

 

 

00:46:54:08

To give them what they deserve at a very optimal or low cost, and people are very happy and satisfied with our services with these generic medicines.

 

 

00:47:10:24

Generic medicine is a major industry in India, and 67% of the country's medical exports go to developing countries.

 

 

00:47:19:19

But the drug companies are skeptical.

 

 

00:47:22:19

India is under pressure from many powerful opponents.

 

 

00:47:26:23

Obama's government wants India to change its laws. This has created strong reactions in India, and concern from Doctors Without Borders and other organisations that rely on inexpensive generic drugs.

 

 

00:47:42:20

The question surrounding the use of generic drugs is vital for millions of poor people.

 

 

00:47:49:00

Life and death are determined by your ability to pay, and this becomes more obvious when we look at which diseases they are trying to develop medicines against.

 

 

00:47:58:04

Only 1 percent of medications are currently being developed against tropical diseases. For purchasing power is vastly reduced in tropical areas.

 

 

00:48:09:22

Investments where there is no prospect of earning big money, is not very attractive to the pharmaceutical industry.

 

 

00:48:17:14

On the other hand, the poor countries are very popular when it comes to testing new medicines and vaccines.

 

 

00:48:27:14

The contrast is enormous when compared to rich countries.

 

 

00:48:33:23

The laws here state that life is priceless, it is impossible to put a price tag on life, and decide when someone should die.

 

 

00:48:43:14

But, at the same time, these countries are the core of the world economy, and they are driven by market forces.

 

 

00:48:52:18

As an example, we know the costs of a heart transplant operation in the U.S.

 

 

00:48:58:05

We know how much it costs for a patient with renal failure to receive dialysis.

 

 

00:49:04:02

New technology means that more and more people who become ill, will survive, but every procedure, every treatment costs, and someone must pay the bill.

 

 

00:49:15:15

All countries have limits on how much they can spend on health, they have to prioritize.

 

 

00:49:21:21

Let’s take a hypothetical example. Two patients have renal failure, the treatment costs 1000 dollars, which is the total budget.

 

 

00:49:34:02

We can only afford to treat one patient. One is 75 years old, the other is 25.

 

 

00:49:43:06

If you had to make the decision, who would you choose?

 

 

00:49:48:17

The one who is 25 years old.

 

 

00:49:50:07

The 25 year old.

 

 

00:49:52:00

Because he who lived for 75 years has lived long enough.

 

 

00:49:56:23

My first thought is you save the 25 year old.

 

 

00:50:00:17

The oldest or the youngest, ehm…

 

 

00:50:05:14

Most of us would intuitively think that we have to treat the youngest.

 

 

00:50:10:08

But suppose that the older man could see his only daughter getting married, or experience holding his first grandchild.

 

 

00:50:17:07

Oh dear.

 

 

00:50:18:05

It's actually an impossible choice.

 

 

00:50:21:04

Then it is the 75 year old.

 

 

00:50:23:11

No, I would still save the 25 year old, yes.

 

 

00:50:28:07

If they only get 2 months I would choose the 75 year old.

 

 

00:50:33:05

And what if the 25 year old became sick due to substance abuse.

 

 

00:50:37:15

It would change my view on how I would treat him, or if I would treat him at all.

 

 

00:50:42:23

No, when it comes to the value of young people it doesn’t change anything.

 

 

00:50:46:19

Who am I to decide it.

 

 

00:50:52:09

This was just a little experiment, but questions about price of life and death are very real.

 

 

00:51:00:15

Take for example Norway, here the government has valued one extra year of life to approximately 80.000 dollars.

 

 

00:51:09:05

If the treatment costs more than that, there has to be very good reasons for why you should survive.

 

 

00:51:16:13

80.000 dollars is equivalent to 20,000 vital doses of vaccines in India.

 

 

00:51:22:22

If your decisions had a global impact, what would you do?

 

 

00:51:26:20

This doesn’t mean I’m gonna suddenly become health minister or anything like that, does it?

 

 

00:51:36:10

There is a market for death around us all the time.

 

 

00:51:43:05

Every year we spend billions of dollars.

 

 

00:51:49:08

Daddy, what do you think?

 

 

00:51:52:07

And we pay companies -

 

 

00:51:53:22

Daddy?

 

 

00:51:54:22

- to insure us against death.

 

 

00:51:58:02

Daddy!

 

 

00:52:00:13

What is it now?

Did you forget? It’s Halloween today.

 

 

00:52:05:13

Crap, I forgot.

 

 

00:52:09:00

Healthcare, diet, war, life expectancy and birth rate, it is life and death in economic terms. That’s just the way it is.

 

 

00:52:19:06

OK, I think I’ll go and get ready, Trick or treat.

Trick or treat.

 

 

00:52:25:17

To put a value on death is one thing, but valuing life is something else.

 

 

END CREDITS