Economic Analysis of Jamaica

The film Life and Debt is a documentary filmed by the award winning film director, Stephanie Black. The film examines the effects of globalization in Jamaica, from the point of view of Jamaican workers, farmers, and government and policy officials. Life and Debt shines a light on how the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank's structural adjustment policies affected Jamaica. It shows how the impositions made by the IMF and NAFTA, crippled Jamaican industry and agriculture and caused the end of Jamaica’s a self-sufficient economy. The documentary also emphasizes the difference between the Jamaica that the tourists see, and the Jamaica that the native citizens see.

The country that I chose to conduct a culture analysis on is Jamaica. Jamaica is a third world country located in North America and the 3rd largest island in the Caribbean Sea. There is a 2.5 million population, which equally divided between urban and rural areas. The country runs approximately 146 miles long and varies between 21- 52 miles wide. The climate is tropical and its main tourist attraction is their beautiful beaches. The capital of Jamaica is Kingston, which has a population of more than 645,000. Kingston is the chief port of Jamaica and is along the southeastern coast of the island. It is covered by the “Blue Mountains”, which is thickly covered which tree ferns. The Blue Mountains experiences an average of 200 inches of rain annually, resulting in topsoil erosion and an abundance of streams. Peasants nurture coffee, usually grown on large plantations, in the valleys of the mountains. It is amongst the most expensive coffees in the world and is exported mainly to Japan.

The most popular religion in Jamaica is Christian, with 64%. Some other religions people in Jamaica practice include Catholic, Jehovah's witness, Rastafarian, Roman Catholic, and Moravian. There are many other religions, but those are some of the most important ones to Jamaican people.

In the documentary Life and Debt, it is explained through the stories of local people, the economic and social crisis of Jamaica. With Jamaica receiving mandatory loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1977 because of lack of alternatives, Jamaica was promised meaningful development. Unfortunately, this only made the situation worse because of the extreme policies and foreign economic agendas that came with the loans, forcing Jamaica into even further debt. Therefore, it is my opinion that it is because of the policies and greed of the IMF and The World Bank that came along with the loans, that Jamaica is currently 4.5 billion dollars in debt.

In an article written in the Jamaica Observer, Haughton (2017) describes the state of Jamaica as an under-developed child who continues to depend on its parents for approval. “For many years colonialism milked Jamaica and other Caribbean countries by imposing a false identity on our people, diminishing resources that affected growth and development (Haughton, 2017).

Since Jamaica’s currency was devaluating rapidly, former Prime Minister, Michael Manley, urged to find a solution for the country’s economic crisis. Manley requested a loan from the IMF, but it was refused due to “its declining fiscal deficit”. The Deputy Director of the IMF, Stanley Fischer, advised that the country should cut back spending and obtain money from other activities. However, Manley did not reduce on any of its services simply because the country could not afford it since it already had a weak public service platform.

The Jamaican economy in 1970 was 800 million dollars in debt and by the time of the year 2000 the debt had reached an alarming 7 billion dollars. In order to service its accumulated debts Jamaica set up Exporting Processing Zones or EPZ’s. The free zones created lots of employment to jump-start the economy. The free zones themselves were separate entities to Jamaica, similar to the US-owned cemetery for the WW2 soldiers in Normandy. In this way, the supplies needed for manufacturing never really enter Jamaica, thus allowing for cheap imports. The factories had their downsides though. Workers were only paid in Jamaican dollars about 30USD per week while some were paid that for two weeks. Every two weeks, money was taken out as taxes which angered the Jamaicans

The Gulf houses half of the world’s oil reserves and a third of the natural gas. The Gulf States still continue to supply the international markets with a significant amount of the hydrocarbons. The stability of the region is crucial for the stability in the global oil markets. The Gulf also hosts one of the most strategically and important choke points in global trade, The Straits of Hormuz, which moves about 35% of the global seaborne oil, natural gas and other trade goods.

There are a lot of different countries in the world. Some have many similarities and some have few similarities. English is the international language and everyone should try and learn this language if they want to communicate with the rest of the world. Most people think of the United Kingdom and the United States of America, as the english speaking countries. This is not the only English-speaking countries, with English as the national language. In this text I will take a closer look at a country that has english as the national language. I will look at the differences and similarities that this country has with The United Kingdom. The country is surprisingly small and has a population of approximately 3 million people. It is a small island and the largest English-speaking country in the Caribbean. It was a British colony from 1665 to 1962 and that is probably one of the reasons why most of the people there speak english. The country i am talking about is obviously Jamaica.

The island of Jamaica is very rich in culture and has many historic turnabouts throughout the years. The country has a rich and complex history including being the first country to have Arawak and Taino Indians settle there.

I chose Jamaican Jews because there are few Jews living in Jamaica today but hundreds of years ago their were many Jews living there and many of Jews that live in Canada today, have ancestors leading back to Jamaica. Today the estimated total population of Jews living in Jamaica is between 200-424,000. This essay will discuss the pull factors that influenced Jewish immigration to Jamaica, how they organized and the push factors that caused them to leave from the time the first Jews came to Jamaica in 1494-1655 until today.

     Jamaica is a tropical island, located in the heart of the Caribbean Sea. Around the coastlines are beautiful beaches with crystal clear blue-green water. In some respects, this is the majority of what people know about Jamaica. In this orientation text you will better understand Jamaica’s history, the people who live there, the many different religions, geography, and governments that have ruled the land.

The oil-rich Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, located on the northern coast of South America, was for many decades considered among the wealthiest nations in the entire continent. While having the largest proven oil reserves in the world has often proved a tremendous boon for Venezuela, the very black gold that has been the cause of its success has also proven to repeatedly be its kryptonite. Over half of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product stems from petroleum exports – which equates to approximately 95% of total exports. It is really not too hard to imagine what drastic consequences shifts in global oil prices could have on the economy.

Today Spanish names still exist in the form of rivers, family names, and towns(JNHT 2). The Spanish implemented a new form of economy on the island based on shipbuilding and repairs in order to maintain the trading post in the Caribbean. Jamaica relied heavily on the trade of fruits and animal skins in order to produce revenues for the Spanish Empire. Jamaica proved to be an unworthy colony for the Spanish because of the lack of prosperity of agriculture.

Saudi Arabia has an oil-based economy. Shipments of oil account for 87 percent of total exports and for 46 percent of GDP. In recent years, in order to diversify the economy, the government has been investing in telecommunications, petrochemicals, natural gas exploitation and power generation sectors.