Life and Debt and A Small Place - Hina Anwar

Life and Debt, despite its creative title, was not a very entertaining documentary. However, it was eye opening. It was strange to see that we as Americans go to places like Jamaica for vacation and find it to be this amazing place unaware of the islands economic crisis and how much trouble its citizens have to endure. As tourists we only see what we want to see and think of these foreign places as escapes from are troubled lives back home. We become blissfully unaware of the problems are vacation destinations are facing and take for granted what we have when we're their assuming we're better off because we get more money we exchange our currency for the local one.

It was also ironic that the country escaped colonization only to have to depend on other countries again to gain income. The fact that they produce so much and have to get rid of it, like milk for example, because they have no offers to buy it is horrible. Not only are their resources going to waste, but they are barely making an income to survive on. The fact that the debt is so bad where people make thirty dollars a week for working such long hours is horrendous and I know they want to be self reliant, but outside help would not be such a good idea. The people of Jamaica work so hard, they deserve compensation for all that they do. I highly doubt tourism is enough to keep the country functioning.

A part of the documentary that I really liked was that it seemed almost like a story because of all of the quotes used from A Small Place. It kept the viewer more interested and engaged with the documentary. The book itself gives an inside view of what people of the residing country see of us: the tourists. Kincaid also discusses colonialism of Britain and how the people of Antigua were their servants. They fought so hard to break away to that only to find out their freedom had come at a much higher cost, literally. Her discussion of language is interesting as well because she implies their still servants even after their masters are gone because they continue to speak in the masters' native tongue. This is peculiar because language is what defines us and through colonization the British essentially took away the Antiguan identity. Although she's justified in her commentary, why even mention it? It would be impossible to change the now native tongue of the people.

In general the documentary and the novel were hard to get through, but they each had interesting moments that allowed me to get through them.