Life and Debt, a film by Stephanie Black shows the bad side of Jamaica that tourists and foreigners don't see in their everyday lives. The bad part is the economy and what it has done to the citizens of the country. Jamaica no longer controls its own country, but is controlled by economic decisions made by the United States and other foreign countries. This destruction of their economy was caused by economic globalization in a small, still developing country. The film shows how life in Jamaica is not what it seems to outsiders, from the enormous debt caused by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank, to the inability to create and to maintain key sectors that a country. would need for an autonomous future. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'? Get the original essay The documentary, created in 2001, dates from the time when Jamaica gained independence from Britain in 1962. The root of the problem was the energy crisis of 1970, fuel import prices were skyrocketing and the country had to take out a loan to help cover these insane costs. In 1976, private banks had no place to provide such loans, so Jamaica had to turn to the World Bank and the IMF. This was the start of a major fall. At the start of the process, the president wanted to develop a long-term plan that would create a self-sustaining environment for the country and advance the economy to make it prosper. Instead, the IMF insisted on taking a short-term route to repaying the loan. The IMF's plan was to stop financing certain areas such as health care, local agricultural development and education. It is necessary for a country to have adequate funding in these areas if it wants to sustain its country and its citizens. With no choice but to take out the loan agreed to by the Jamaican government, this would be the beginning of the end for Jamaican citizens. Once the government took out the loan, they had no choice but to weaken their currency, which made Jamaica dependent. more on imports than local products, this has had an extreme effect on Jamaica's citizens and small business owners. The film shows how, because of these imports, their agricultural sector suffered enormously. The example used in the film shows how the farming villages that once provided food for all the citizens around it are now virtually non-existent due to the heavy reliance on food imports from the United States. On top of that, the film explains that powdered milk imports have ruined the dairy industry as well as Jamaica's. Again, it goes to where they would keep the farm animals and, unsurprisingly to the viewer, these are also in ruins, just as the farmland was. The film goes even further by showing a chicken farm, once again destroyed by the importation of poor quality chickens from the United States. Jamaica's last hope lay in banana exports, but once again it was beaten by countries that could produce bananas at a lower cost to importers than they could. With the destruction of Jamaica's agricultural sector, Jamaica found itself entirely dependent on imports from other countries, making it almost impossible to create an agricultural sector as in the past. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized document from our expert now..