Essay on Life & Debt

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.

Slavery represents an important part of Jamaican history and the cultivated dominant atmosphere. For one, plantations highly depended on slave labor to maximize profit margins. Between 1655 and 1808 one million slaves were forcefully brought to Jamaica (Waters, 1985: 21-23). Persaud (2001: 72) suggests, “the plantation system, the totality of institutional arrangements surrounding the production and marketing of plantation crops, has seriously affected society in Jamaica”. In other words, the slave mode of production was a crucial factor in the establishment of Jamaica’s structural society. “Jamaica’s class structure today reflects its history as a colonial plantation society and its beginnings of industrial development

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).

This new wave of globalization has brought both positive and negative outcomes. Foreign goods are sold much cheaper than the locally produced ones. Goods such as fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products are imported from other countries and thus, impacting local producers. On the other hand, new opportunities and jobs are offered. This expands and develops the economy in the country. Furthermore, globalization has helped Jamaica increased its tourism, which in turn has become one of the country’s main activity. Regardless of the benefits, Jamaica has not been the same due to this global

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

“Life and Debt” is a documentary that examines the economic and social effects of globalization on Jamaica. The movie mainly describes the affects of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank’s structural adjustment programs. While these funds are created to help developing countries become more developed, the documentary shows how the reforms were not successful in Jamaica and put the country in debt. This paper will discuss the portrayal of globalization in the documentary, and how globalization can affect people through different scale—both locally and globally.

Native to Jamaican culture is spicy, colourful food such as salt fish, rice, jerk chicken, fish, banana fritters, and roasted yams . Looking back to the years of slavery, the African slaves ate left overs of what the wealthy people they worked for did not want to eat. As this type of cuisine was not readily found in food shops in Canada, Canadian restaurants, grocery stores and, food courts have added Jamaican food options in order to be culturally sensitive to the Jamaican migrant culture. With the migration of Jamaicans settling to Canada, there has been a huge impact on the cuisine. They brought their spices and recipes which added to the continually growing taste, flavours, and variety of Canadian

The music industry in Jamaica is one of the most influential in the world. Popular music genres such as reggae and dancehall was both originated in Jamaica. Likewise, rap and hip hop was stated by a Jamaican, called Kool Herc. Bob Marley is also a famous music artist from Jamaica. His music played an important role in many movements in Jamaica and all over the world. The most famous one is the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Dancing is also important in Jamaica. A famous proverb in Jamaica, is that “those who can’t dance, blame it on the music”. In all african countries, music and dancing is really normal and it’s like this in Jamaica too. It is normal to dance on the streets in public and have fun, while listening to music. By all means music and dancing is undoubtedly important for Jamaica and the culture is mostly based around

Jamaica is a land of diverse cultures. It has a number of different racial ethnic groups .The largest group however is the blacks or Africans so 'Jamaica’s culture' is predominantly black. Interwoven is also the European culture which these blacks learnt from their former white slaves masters. You will find Indians living in Jamaica also. Many Indians came to Jamaica as indentured servants and stayed, they too have an input in the Jamaica’s culture.

     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.

In terms of achieving economic growth there are several challenges facing the country, including high crime and corruption, high unemployment and underemployment, and the previously mentioned high debt to GDP ratio. Moreover the country highly depends on imports for food, clothes, other consumer goods, industrial supplies, and also fuel which will have serious implications for Jamaica in the future. The Jamaican economy is at present heavily dependent on imported fuel and being a net importer of fuel the country is therefore susceptible to the instability of the world oil market - both in terms of supply and the price of oil.

Jamaica is not just white sand beaches and mimosas. Behind the thin veil of paradise lurk corruption, violence, and inequalities. Life & Debt illustrates the daily realties of Jamaica following IMF structural adjustment programs. IMF reforms have perpetuated a cycle of debt that Jamaicans have little hope to escape. Although IMF conditionality claims to develop nations so that they can grow and re-pay their lenders, Jamaica is still indebted $4.5 billion dollars and has little development to show for it. Measures of austerity coupled with devaluation, high interest rates, and drops in local wages results in greater unemployment, increased violence, and widening inequality. The bulk of the film focuses on how global integration has undercut

Another potential problem and a potential for gain is a cultural one. One thing that many of the Jamaicans are accustomed to is that many of them live in the dark or without electricity amongst other utilities for periods of time. Quotes from http://www.expatexchange.com/ctryguide/4111/60/Jamaica/Expat-Jamaica-10-Tips-for-Living-in-Jamaica, include: when asked what to bring when you move there “More solar things, like lights and phone charger.” Others include “A Generator (seriously), power cuts are rife and expect to be without power, internet or water for 2-3 days at a time.”, “get used to everything being at a much slower pace, and going without electricity and water”, and “We even have a dishwasher which we never used, since electricity here is extremely expensive.” http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/imageo/2014/12/18/satellite-view-cuba-night-reveals-impact-embargo-centrally-planned-communist-economy/ shows a satellite image of Jamaica at night.

According to Paul Golding, prior to 1999 the Jamaican telecommunications sector was dominated by Cable and Wireless Jamaica (C&WJ), which changed its name in 2008 to LIME (Landline Internet Mobile, Entertainment). In 1988 the company was granted five exclusive licenses each for 25 years, which would be valid until 2013, with options for extensions for a further 25 years. The licenses made C&WJ the sole provider of the island’s domestic and international telephone service and guaranteed an after-tax rate of return of 17.5% - 20%. C&WJ was quite comfortable with the strategies they employed especially as they were a monopoly in these early years. This resulted in the organization being stuck in phase 1 as they became complacent, relying on the same old strategies as technology boomed globally. They were “out of touch” with customer demand and the untapped potential of the market.