Questions for Black's Life and Debt and Kincaid's A Small Place

Stephanie Black's film Life and Debt and Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place present neocolonialist views of what it means to live under the economic control of superpowers, not to mention under a touristic gaze of first world individuals. In class, after finishing the film, we spoke about debt and its risk. If anyone is interested in reading about globalized economies, you might check Loretta Napoleoni's books (and you can find her presentations on Ted Talks). Feel free to research some of the points brought up in the film; look into Chiquita banana politics; ponder the resurgence of small farms in the States, farmers committing suicide in India, Monsanto seeds and its globalized impact. Or reflect on what it means to be a tourist, or what a tourist's gaze does. Who is a tourist and who is a native? (Kincaid writes about this.) In many ways, Life and Debt should help us to think not only about first world privilege, but about the ways in which many of us in the first world are also currently "owned" by debt, who "owns" us, where our interest payments go, etc... Is it possible to live a self-sustaining life in today's globalized world? Please feel free to state your viewpoint. This blog space should be a place for healthy dialogue and discussion. Remember to comment on a classmate's entry by Tuesday, and begin reading Dorfman's Death and the Maiden for next week. Your final grade will be impacted by the number of blogs and responses you have composed.