Life and Debt Response

The production and editing of Life and Debt did a masterful job at driving home the message delivered via a faceless narrator.  Opening with a peaceful ocean before transitioning to the whirring noise of a helicopter before revealing scenes of civil unrest peeled back the layers of the façade put up for a tourist to reveal what was really happening in Jamaica.   This film attacked, I believe, not globalization but the cut throat capitalism that super powers are using as models for their economy.  The tactics that countries like the United States use to keep smaller, developing countries in their debt is a form of debtor’s prison.  Jamaica’s Prime Minister explained how the only resource he has, the International Monetary Fund, gives loans with incredible amounts of interest that his country cannot be expected to pay back due to his countries inability to strike a place in the world market. 

Watching the farmers of Jamaica speak their peace was one of the most moving parts of the film.  They were the faces of the working poor.  One farmer related his tale of a failed deal with an American distributor because his vegetables did not meet the size standard.  There was no mention of the produce being inedible, only that cosmetically it could not compete. 

The film revealed that the United States has essentially created a monopoly within the world market and through its influence and strength as a country has taken part in neo-colonialism by keeping countries like Jamaica out of the world market and by keeping products by allowing certain American based countries to pay foreign workers less.