Ryan Fahrenkopf
English 201
Fremio Sepulveda
Research Paper “Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate." – Edward W. Said

“Life and Debt” is a documentary directed by Stephanie Black with the screen play and voice over done by Jamaica Kincaid about how the IMF, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organizations destroyed Jamaica economically. This movie is based specifically on what happened in Jamaica but it is a model for how the IMF and first world countries have impacted the rest of the world. The film is about globalization and exposing first world countries, mainly the United States, for destroying third world countries. The Oxford English dictionary defines a documentary as a factual, realistic, applied esp. to a film or literary work, etc., based on real events or circumstance, and intended primarily for instruction purposes. “Life and Debt” mostly follows this definition because it does present real factual information, although it varies a little from the definition of a documentary because it is a little biased on the side of Jamaica.

Another critical concept from the film is the term globalization. The Oxford English Dictionary defines globalization as the action, process, or fact of making global; esp. (in later use) the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale, widely considered to be at the expense of national identity. For Jamaica this means entering the global market. They will now import items from all over the world and attempt to export their own materials. For a developing country such as Jamaica in the 1970’s this isn’t good. First world countries such as the United States already has a stable and fully functioning global economy. This means that they can produce goods for relatively cheap and then sell those goods for cheap as well. Since Jamaica was newly out of colonialism they couldn’t produce goods cheap enough to keep up with the global market. Another critical concept that can be seen in the documentary is social Darwinism and how it applies to world economics. The Oxford English Dictionary defines social Darwinism as the theory that societies classes, and races are subject to and a product of Darwinian laws of natural selection. This can be seen in “Life and Debt” because some critics and analyzers of the documentary use it as a way to try to justify the actions of the IMF.
Life and Debt: Narrating Debt The documentaries objective is to provide knowledge on the IMF’s involvement in Jamaica. Including the economic damage and destructive loans that the IMF implemented. These loans and reforms left Jamaica $4.6 Billion in debt, and this debt is growing to this day. Before the IMF was involved in the country, Jamaica was a relatively self-sufficient country after achieving independence in 1962 which relied on a small farm sector. This farm sector and other aspects of the economy would be greatly damaged once the IMF gets involved. Jamaica had strong economic growth after independence, averaging approximately 6% growth annually during the first decade of independence. This growth was stunted when oil prices sky-rocketed in the mid 70’s. Which is why former Prime Minister Michael Manley was forced to sign the first loan from the IMF in 1977. The IMF is a multinational organization founded in 1945. Its initial goal was to provide loans to help rebuild Europe after WWII. It was founded by an initial 29 countries (mainly in the Allie Alliance) including the United States. The organization has so much power because private banks won’t give out loans to national economies which gives them no one to turn to besides the IMF. The IMF’s policies were put into place to help the rich get richer, which in turn made the poor poorer. These polices need to be changes so that third world countries can benefit from the organization. But in order to change any policy you need an 80% vote from within the IMF. A country gains vote percentage by putting more money for loans into the organization which gives the countries with the most money the most power. The United States has the highest vote percentage at 17.4% followed by Japan and then Germany. This means it’s nearly impossible to change any policy without the U.S. and other wealthy countries agreeing. All of the IMF’s loans are short term with high interest rates ensuring that they make a lot money off of any loan that is given out. The loan that Jamaica signed is no different. The documentary helps point out these flaws in the IMF by showing the damage done to Jamaica. The fact that the movie starts out with the arrival of a group of vacationers with smiles on their faces and the clips of them at the beach and the hotel swimming pools is an ironic counterpoint to the reality of life in Jamaica. The power behind the documentary comes from the narration of Jamaica Kincaid and interviews with the former Prime Minister of Jamaica Michael Manley. Although Manley hasn’t been in power for many years you can still see his depression and anger towards Jamaica’s economic decline. In one of his interviews he says since Jamaica had only recently emerged from colonialism it was a vulnerable country. With the expensive fuel-based imports his government was forced to take out a loan, and since private banks don’t make loans to national economies Jamaica had no option but to turn to the IMF. Since the IMF wasn’t interested in Jamaica’s long-term development it demanded costs be cut in the sectors that would help with long-term development. These sectors included education, health, and native based agrarian production. Due to these cost cuts, Jamaica had to open its doors to foreign imports damaging the internal growth of the countries local industry and farming. The documentary then begins to examine where the countries economy has fallen victim to globalization and free-trade. The film shows the negative impacts of globalization by showing viewers countryside farmers that explain how potato, onion and carrot imports from the United States have put them out of business. The potato industry was destroyed by cheap imported Idaho potatoes. The Jamaican farmers can’t keep up with the world market and free trade because they don’t have the advanced farming techniques and tools that other first world countries do. In one scene where a local farmer is being interviewed he says “How can a machete compete with a machine”. This shows how their farming technologies are truly lacking. Another industry that fell victim to globalization is the dairy industry. Jamaican dairymen who used to live prosperous lives and provided jobs to countrymen show us the abandoned stalls where their cattle used to live before the importing of American powdered milk. Powdered milk is a cheap alternative that has a long shelf life meaning that it takes long before spoiling which makes it a perfect export for America. The most damaging impact of globalization however was to the banana industry. Multinational banana corporation’s forced the collapse of the Jamaican banana industry by flooding the country with cheap bananas. These corporations are able to export such cheap bananas because they have firms located in Central American countries such as Honduras which has a large source of cheap labor. As poor Jamaicans needed a cheap place to live they flooded into Kingston where they became a cheap source of labor. Here Free Trade Zones were created that consisted of textile assembly plants near the docks. Here, ships would unload material cut in the U.S. and a mostly female work force would work for $30 per week sewing garments. In these Free Trade Zones there was no government regulation. This led the large corporations to take advantage of the Jamaican workers. Such as providing a dangerous work area and bad payment conditions. One scene in the documentary is an interview of a Jamaican woman who works in one for one of the Free Trade Zone corporations. In the interview she is explaining how her and her co-workers checks have been up to four weeks late. This lead to an out-break of working-class protests against low-wages and miserable working conditions. The owners of the shops, not wanting to deal with the protests, closed their shops and relocated to Mexico. One aspect where America helps the Jamaican economy is by providing it with many consumers. These consumers are the vacationing tourists. However these consumers aren’t even consuming Jamaican goods. Many of the vacationers believe that they are eating local cuisine but it really is food that is imported from Miami. In 2001 Roger Ebert wrote a review on the movie giving it a 4 out of 5 where he analyzes and critiques the documentary. The review talks about how the documentary points out the negative effects of the IMF and the World Bank. Ebert talks about how the United States and England have destroyed Jamaica’s biggest economic markets such as bananas and the fresh milk industry. At the end of the review Ebert states that he can’t justify the accusations that the movie makes because he isn’t an expert on the subject and that he is just documenting what he himself is seeing. “Are these charges true? I do not have the expertise to say. I only bring you the news that this documentary, which has played twice on PBS and is now at the Music Box, exists” (Ebert). A review printed by The New York Times agrees with Ebert’s review saying that the documentary points out the negative impacts of the IMF on Jamaica. The review also makes an interesting point saying “The market forces that operate once these organizations become involved are an economic form of Darwinism” (Holden). Meaning that the strongest economies flourish while the weaker economies end up in a negative spiral of debt. The IMF ensures this with its unfair polices. The documentary brings several questions to arise. One being what are some of the benefits and drawbacks of globalization? The benefits are that it allows for countries to export their goods to other countries and import goods that aren’t abundant in their own country. The Drawbacks are that weak national economies such as Jamaica’s can’t keep up with the global economy and therefore fall into enormous debt. Another question that comes to mind is why would Jamaica accept IMF loans? The answer is simple, Jamaica had no choice at the time. Private banks don’t provide loans to national governments.

Works Cited
Ebert, Roger. "Life And Debt Movie Review & Film Summary (2001) | Roger Ebert." All Content. N.p., 26 Oct. 2001. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/life-and-debt- 2001>. Holden, Stephen. "FILM REVIEW; One Love, One Heart, Or a Sweatshop Economy?"NYTimes. The New York Times, 15 June 2001. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940CEFDC1631F936A25755C0A9679C8B63>. "Jamaica Kincaid." BBC World Wervice. BBC, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/womenwriters/kincaid_life.shtml>.