Life And Debt Analysis

“The imposition of structural adjustment programs in the Third World since the 1970s has been characterized as a war against the poor, a process of [neo] recolonization” (Turner, 1994: 37). This statement is particularly applicable to the country of Jamaica. The island has been susceptible to a variety of neocolonial acts including the presence of multinational corporations, structural adjustment programs, and loan organizations that have sucked Jamaica’s economy dry. This neocolonial presence has devastated the population in more ways than one. It is apparent that neocolonialism has had and continues to have a large impact on society as a whole in Jamaica. This

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).

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid presents the hypothetical story of a tourist visiting Antigua, the author’s hometown. Kincaid places the reader in the shoes of the tourist, and tells the tourist what he/she would see through his/her travels on the island. She paints a picturesque scene of the tourist’s view of Antigua, but stains the image with details of issues that most tourists overlook: the bad roads, the origin of the so-called native food, the inefficiency of the plumbing systems in resorts, and the glitches in the health care system. Kincaid was an established writer for The New Yorker when she wrote this book, and it can be safely assumed that majority of her readers had, at some point in their lives, been tourists. I have been a

“Life and Debt” is a documentary produced and directed by Stephanie Black, which describes the impact of international institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, in small developing countries. (About Life and Debt) The documentary focuses mainly in the repercussions of financial policies imposed in Jamaica and its effects on its citizens. Throughout the film, Black also emphasizes the different industries affected by these international institutions. From the agricultural activity to the construction of a new Free Trade Zone in Kingston, developing countries such as Jamaica did not obtain the aid they were seeking for. Instead, most of these organizations refused to help the country due to its declining economy.

The world is constantly becoming smaller and smaller as time progresses. A process of globalization is rapidly turning the world as we know it into economic opportunity waiting to be exploited. A large factor in this process is due to the advent of technology which is becoming more and more readily available to lesser developed countries. Countries such as Jamaica and other LDC’s are primary targets of economic globalization. In the film Life and Debt by Stephanie Black, we see the effects globalization has on Jamaican culture, industry, and agriculture.

The documentary depicts globalization as way in which countries are interconnected around the world and affect each other through various economic, social, and political processes. The documentary particularly focuses on the economic affects of globalization, by examining the affects of economic liberalization and the internationalization of finance through organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and structural adjustment programs. Loans given by the IMF to developing countries such as Jamaica do not help them develop, but instead prevent them from advancing economically and socially. The advancements that these loans have guaranteed have not occurred, and the policies that have been imposed with the loans have negatively impacted the majority of the Jamaican population. Many local workers, especially farmers, have lost their jobs as goods are imported from other countries. The country is

Colin Ferguson was born January 14, 1959 in Kingston, Jamaica. His father Von Herman was the managing director for Hercules Agencies, a large pharmaceutical company. Mr. Herman was highly regarded and recognized as a prominent businessman in Jamaica (Montaldo, 2017). Ferguson had four brothers and afforded the privileges that wealth offers in an extreme poverty area. He graduated from Calabar High School in 1969 with a grade average that was ranked in the top third of his class (Montaldo, 2017). In 1978 his father was killed in a car crash and a short time later his mother died from cancer. He would then suffer the loss of the family fortune. At 23 years old Ferguson left Kingston, Jamaica and moved to the U.S. on a Visitor’s Visa (Montaldo, 2017). Jamaican culture is different than American cultures. A study completed in 1997 concerning 225 Jamaican adults, it was found that Jamaican men were considered coarse, reckless, aggressive, lazy, tough, arrogant, stern, disorderly, robust, rigid, autocratic, courageous, and hard headed (Carpenter & Walters, 2011).

The period of slavery in Jamaica have left a number of legacies that the current Jamaican people continues to embrace. Some of these legacies are positive ones while some

In “A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid, Kincaid criticizes tourists for being heartless and ignorant to the problems that the people of Antigua had and the sacrifices that had to be made to make Antigua a tremendous tourist/vacation spot. While Kincaid makes a strong argument, her argument suggests that she doesn't realize what tourism is for the tourists. In other words, tourism is an escape for those who are going on vacation and the tourists are well within their rights to be “ignorant”, especially because no one is telling them what is wrong with Antigua.

One of the most challenging things that Jamaicans have had to cope with is the physical and psychological isolation. On the island, the country is so small that it is easy to visit extended family members on a daily basis. Here, in the United States, however,

      The film opens with camera shots portraying Jamaica as the beautiful and carefree place that most Americans view it as. The vast majority are oblivious to the fact that the delicious food they indulge in on their

From the start of “A Small Place,” the author establishes an unsettling position for the reader by using second person perspective to give the audience a personal experience, “The thing you have always suspected about yourself the minute you become a tourist is true: A tourist is an ugly human being” (Kincaid, 14). The act of being the tourist in respect to Kincaid's statement is being unaware of the surroundings and people who reside in this country you refer to as a paradise. She pushes the audience out of their comfort zone to an unsettling acknowledgment of ignorance - if you have traveled and expressed these behaviors. The author presents the idea that the act of traveling with the mindset that indigenous people are benefiting is a form of self-justification rather than reality. Kincaid acknowledges the audience’s ignorance of the situation as an institutional one that educated you to have this mindset. She describes this situation the people of Antigua endured, as something you were not taught, which exonerates your oblivious demeanor toward your surroundings,

Situated in the context of Jamaica’s colonial past, Black provides a meaningful foundation for the discourse of debt and development in Jamaica. In so doing, she asks her audience—most likely intended for young and well-off U.S. citizens—to think critically about tourism in developing countries and the effects of U.S. international involvement. Throughout this expose of exploitative U.S. involvement, Black highlights the resilience of those suffering from IMF reforms. The film uses juxtaposition to blames the IMF for the deteriorating situation in Jamaica. In one scene, Black shows the U.S. hypocrisy of forcing Jamaican to lower tariffs while flooding their market with highly subsidized powdered milk. Subsequently, Black cuts to an interview with a representative from the IMF who continues to justice these policies despite realities on the ground. Moreover, the film questions the Western assumption that its current economic model is the best. To be sure, the U.S. has not always pursued a global integrated economic platform. For many years, the U.S. was highly isolationist as it industrialized and built up national

During a recent visit to Jamaica, I observed a number of resorts that themed their golf courses and pools after the old sugar plantations of the island. As the sun-burnt American and British children splashed among the recreation of the 'old mill', local Jamaicans in floral uniforms served drinks to the adults lounging by the pool. The association between the plantation and the modern resort did not appear to disturb the tourists relaxing in the sun. And why should it? This is

Preference Erosion has had a major impact on the banana growers in the ACP countries in recent years. Preference Erosion is the "decrease in the margin between a preferential tariff rate and the MFN tariff rate originating from tariff liberalization" (Silva, 2010). Many banana growers have preferential trade agreements with many of the developed countries, such as U.S. and Europe. These agreements enable the banana growers to have preferential tariff arrangements with countries when exporting their commodity. Banana's represent a major source of foreign exchange due to their preferential treatment, which in turn allows them to "employ a large proportion of the rural poor and contribute significantly to food security" (Garcia, 2004). Liberalizing agricultural trade could have a negative impact on food security in these ACP countries by increasing the prices of imports rather than exports. By implementing tariff reductions, preferential margins continue to reduce which results in major adjustment costs for these ACP countries. These countries have benefited so much from market access for their exports of bananas, that "preferential access may in some cases have constrained efforts to improve production costs or processing efficiencies" (Garcia, 2004). Multilateral liberalization will therefore erode margins,