Stephanie Black’s Description of The Economic Status of Jamaica, as Shown in Her Movie, Life, and Debt

The movie Life and Debt, was a very interesting movie. It touched on a lot if topics people normally bring up in normal conversation about the Caribbean. I enjoyed it very much because it didn’t give you the picture perfect Jamaica everyone is used to seeing. It gave you the real Jamaica it may not be a picture perfect masterpiece that everyone wants to explore and see but it has to be seen. It was also kind of crazy to hear how choices of other countries have effect their country so drastically. The fact that they had to import a lot of their foods because they were borrowing money from another country is my boggling. It lost them more money to import the food and then all the money was going to the imported food rather than the local food putting a lot of farmer out of business. So the loan wasn’t helping Jamaica at all but putting their country into deeper financial crisis. The loan actually was helping the country that imported the goods.

Also the fact that the section of Jamaica was created called “Free Jamaica” was crazy. The fact that the countries thought it was ethical is criminal in the first place. The Jamaican women only got paid $30.00 every two weeks is horrible. These countries are just trying to use Jamaica need of jobs no matter the pay and using them. Then when they started to revolt against the authorities they just fled the country. They didn’t even pay them for the last time they worked. So everyone judges Jamaica for being financially unstable and dependent but things like this don’t help then get on their feet. The countries that are “helping” them are actually the worst offenders.