Film Review: Life And Debt By Stephanie Black

Life and Debt, a documentary by Stephanie Black, with a commentary written by Jamaica Kincaid, looks at the effect of the International Monetary Fund on the economy of Jamaica, the third world country that was once colonized by the Great Britain. The film has offered the audiences different voices on this issue including the IMF officers, the Jamaican farmers and former Jamaican president as an overview to the issue
The former president of Jamaica Michael Manley has been out of power for many years, yet his bitterness over his ouster and his country's subsequent decline remains palpable. His take on the primary cause of Jamaica's descent into hell is most interesting, considering the current conjuncture. The crisis of the early 1970s forced his government to take out loans to cover the rising expenses of fuel-based imports, from fertilizer to gasoline. Since private banks do not make such loans, his only recourse was to go to the IMF and World Bank. For example, when Jamaica is in great need of money to push forward some basic construction for their countries to catch up with others, those international banks lend them with short-term debt with high interest rate as well as strict regulation on the distribution of the money. As a result, they have
In their opinion, if there is no such regulation, those countries like Jamaica would put the money they borrowed on some unnecessary field and simply waste the money. Thus directly lead them to work with less effort and relied too much on borrowing from others yet unable to pay out their debt. In other words, the IMF officers considered their regulation as their guidance for those underdeveloped countries to help them spend their money wisely. Meanwhile, it helps keep the labor cost at a pretty low level and decrease the unemployment of this