Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD EAN: 9781567303117 Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC ISBN: 1567303110 Label: New Yorker Video Manufacturer: New Yorker Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: New Yorker Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: June 24, 2003 Running Time: 86 minutes Sales Rank: 8227 Studio: New Yorker Video Theatrical Release Date: 2001
Amazon.com: Set to a beguiling reggae beat, Life and Debt takes as its subject Jamaica's economic decline in the 20th century. The story has reverberations in the plight of other third-world nations blindsided by globalization, like Ghana and Haiti. After England granted Jamaica independence in 1962, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) stepped in with a series of loans. These loans came with strings attached--the kind that would eventually plunge the country $7 billion into debt, stranded without the resources to dig themselves out. Although IMF officials get the chance to have their say, it's clear where filmmaker Stephanie Black's sympathies lie--with the country's underemployed farmers and sweatshop workers. Jamaica Kinkaid (A Small Place) penned the narration, while the soundtrack features some of the 'imports' with which this island nation remains mostly closely associated: Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Mutabaruka, who performs the title track. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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Rating: - Heavy handed, one-sided, shallow and insulting
While this might be informative to people who have never traveled in the developing world or studied international economics this documentary offers little insight beyond the basic critiques of the IMF.
It begins by insulting would-be tourists insinuating they have no idea what life is like in Jamaica. It goes on to compare IMF officials to slave owners and place the blame for all of Jamaica's woes on colonialism and free trade.
For example it spends a lot of time bemoaning how cheap imported food hurts local farmers but never stops to consider how cheap food might benefit people in a developing economy.
Anyone seeking a better understanding of the world economy, the problems of the IMF or development will get little from this film.
Rating: - A DVD all should see
I first saw this on PBS and anxiously waited almost 2 years to be able to buy a copy. It is that significant. I use it in all my Environmental Science courses and other professors borrow it for social, cultural, political science, ethics, and even economic courses.
Rating: - Subverting Ourselves Again
Life and Debt examines how the policies of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other aid organizations have changed the Jamaican economy over the past quarter of a century.
Author Jamaica Kincaid narrates to a reggae soundtrack that includes songs by Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Mutubaruka and Peter Tosh.
Struggling with huge amounts of national debt in the 1970's, Jamacia is forced to turn to the IMF. The IMF gives them a loan to keep things running, but with terms which include opening the country to free trade. Not able to compete with the prices of subsidised crops and milk from North America, local farming operations collapse. Government officials are lured into establishing "tax free zones" in their ports believing they will create local jobs, only to find that companies like Hanes import workers from China and keep them behind a fence where their wages are not spent in the ... Read More
Rating: - A thought-provoking documentary on life beyond tourism in Jamaica
This documentary made me conscious of the price of help given by the IMF and World Bank to developing countries.
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- Heavy handed, one-sided, shallow and insulting
- A DVD all should see
