Do you remember when foreign missionaries came to your primary/prep school and in poor attempts to relate to you, they would say phrases like “Yeah Mon” or “Irie”? Remember those Jamaica Day T-shirts with slogans, “Jamaica, No Problem”? What if I told you Jamaica is not irie, or Jamaica has a lot of problems?
This is where the 2001 documentary Life and Debt comes to burst our blissful paradise bubble. The film presents the socio-economic problems of post colonial Jamaica at the hands of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Stephanie Black does an excellent job narrating the film and educating the blissfully unaware tourists.
If you're like me and studied humanities and arts centered subjects in high school to tertiary level, you probably have watched Life & Debt at least 4 times already. On the surface presents a biographical relationship to Jamaica as locals will easily recognize various locations and customs showcased in the documentary. This 5th time watching it for film class, I discovered that the film presents a narrative relationship to place. This means Jamaican and foreign viewers will learn about Jamaica's economic issues through a form of storytelling, curtesy of Black and Jamaica Kincaid. Jamaica Kincaid helps viewers form a mythical bond through her opening essay 'A Small Place'.
Life & Debt shows us life in post colonial Jamaica, where globalization has left the country with lacking industries and resources. The agricultural industry has taken a huge hit concerning the dairy, meat and banana sectors. The country's import bill skyrockets out of control and Prime Minister Michael Manley critiques the Western organizations whose agendas are supposed to be aiding countries in times of economic need. The film also showcases the rise and fall of the clothing manufacturing industry; subsequently followed by the emergence of the BPO sector. All throughout on the flip side we see the all prevailing tourism sector and how Jamaica begins to majorly rely on the industry in the coming years.
The documentary does an excellent job in exposing the neocolonial policies by the Western financial organizations and how these decisions have greatly impacted the island.
Watch excerpts from 'Life & Debt' here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzGUyH0qA1LGHeCVDmC8mK-QDcismYuZq
Source cited:
Gauch, Suzanne. "A Small Place: Some Perspectives on the Ordinary." Callaloo 25.3 (2002): 910–19. JSTOR. Web. 2013-12-02.
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