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17 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Informative and Important Documentary, 29 May 2002

Author: harry-76 from Cleveland, Ohio

"Life and Debt" documents the extremely negative effects "globalization" has on the Jamaican economny and agriculture. Juxtaposing typical tourist views with searingly challenging economic conditions of Jamaican natives, the audience begins to see a side of this culture normally hidden away.

Hearing representatives from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank talk, one recognizes the familiar rhetoric--administrative jargon which obscures its callous action: look out for one's self first and foremost.

Well-known US companies are documented here as part of the problem. Their motivation is to make a profit, period, no matter at what cost or human price.

American stockholders tend here to look at and be primarily concerned with how many points their shares rise--"Life and Debt" shows the downside of that rise. There's a lot more to life than merely being concerned about one's self. This film cries out for us to hear the needy call of our planetary brother and sister.

Capitalism and competition tend to be cold animals--and one buys into those concepts because they're in place and operating . . . never stopping to think that there may be an exploitative side to these activities.

Stephanie Black captures that side in this documentary. The tourists are rightly there to have a good time, yet we cannot turn our backs on our neighbors. Imposing grossly high interest rates and stipulations that cause them to sink greater into debt each year is not aiding them. Unloosing our subsidized powered milk on their marketplace while their unsold whole milk must be poured down the drain is not being fair.

When rioters and demonstrators took to the streets there and in the US against globalization, I wondered what it was all about. "Life and Debt" helped provide a subsantive explanation. The film is not an entertainment: it is a serious, thought-provoking film to inform.

As I sat in a near-empty movie house, with some people leaving before the end of the film, I wondered where was the audience? I thought, are we not all involved in this scenario? When we buy items "assembled in" Jamaica, do we really realize what that means in terms of "free zone?"

When we delight in paying very low prices for items made in China, Japan, Mexico, and the like, how does that really impact upon those countries' workers? "Life and Debt" helps provide an answer.

I very much value this documentary, and look forward to obtaining the dvd when released, to further ponder world economic check and balances and rethink the entire concept of "globalization."

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13 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Beyond the luxury hotels is the human impact, 3 February 2003
Author: Howard Schumann from Vancouver, B.C.

This is the Jamaica the tourists see, says the narrator in Stephanie Black's documentary Life and Debt, a country of lush jungles, clear blue water, and sandy beaches. Beyond the luxury hotels, however, is a third world country fighting poverty, crime, and hopelessness. Based on the novel by Jamaica Kincaid A Small Place, Life and Debt, the film studies the effects of the policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank on the economy of Jamaica, focusing on the impact of economic globalization on the dairy farmers and factory workers. Backed by a soundtrack of native reggae music, Life and Debt is filled with economic facts that require some knowledge to fully understand. You don't need a master's degree in Economics, however, to understand the desperate faces of children in poverty, the agony of farmers who can't sell their crops, or the hopelessness of factory workers who earn the equivalent of thirty US dollars per week.

Black interviews former Prime Minister Michael Manley who explains how the current situation came to be. When Jamaica achieved its independence in 1962 after being a colony of Great Britain for 400 years, help was needed to build its economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank gladly supplied this money in the form of short-term loans. These loans though came with strings attached. Subsidies to local farmers were prohibited and tariff barriers were lowered to allow cheap foreign goods to come into the country, inevitably driving local industries out of business. What's remains is tourism, sweatshops and fast-food chains. Manley blames the big Western powers that have used Jamaica for cheap labor and easy sales. For example, thanks to huge subsidies other countries including the United States exported powdered milk to Jamaica at an excessively low price, forcing the local dairy industry to shut down. He also points out that big American businesses like Chiquita, Dole, and Del Monte have worked to stifle exports of local Jamaican bananas. Manley asks of the IMF, "You ask, 'In who's interest? I ask, 'Who set it up?"

Watching this documentary, it became clearer to me why thousands of people took to the streets in Seattle to protest the WTO Conference. It may not be widely known but the WTO has established ground rules that make it easier for the developed countries to market their products in third world countries. Under WTO rules,

1. Governments are not allowed to pass laws that favor local firms and discriminate against foreign-owned corporations.

2. Governments are not allowed to prevent foreign nationals from buying a controlling interest in local companies.

3. Governments are not allowed to subsidize domestic companies.

4. Governments are not allowed to pass laws that would provide favorable terms of trade to particular trading partners.

Ralph Nader said it all when he described globalization as being the subordination of human rights, environmental rights, and consumer rights. The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank now own almost every facet of the Jamaican economy and the only ones that are making money are franchises like McDonalds, Wendy's, and Burger King who contribute little more than unskilled low paying service jobs. If you are thinking about asking the IMF to change its policies, keep in mind that any change in IMF policy requires an 80% approval and the richest nations such as the United States, Western Europe, Japan make up more than 80% of the vote. Life and Debt, like the recent film Bowling for Columbine, is one-sided, in your face, and may appeal only to those already in agreement. However, its images are so vivid that, for the first time, you may experience the human impact of policies that can turn the world into "one big casino".

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12 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
This is "why they hate us", 6 September 2003

Author: w00f from The Flaming Wreckage

For anyone who wonders "why they hate us," watch this documentary and the mystery will be solved. It thoroughly documents how the US, the WTO, and the IMF have systematically destroyed every aspect of Jamaican economic opportunity and culture.

The US didn't abolish slavery in the 19th century; they simply outsourced it. Take a look inside the Kingston Free Zone and you'll see the slaves still at work. Visit a Jamaican banana plantation and learn about how the economy of a sovereign nation was subjugated in the name of "free trade."

In short, fellow fat Americans, pull your heads out of your globalizing butts and watch this film, and then try -- for just a moment, at least -- to put yourself on the other side of the coin. Imagine how you would feel about a foreign agency that took away your livelihood, that treated you like chattel, that demanded you stop making a living so that a transnational corporation could capture the last 5% of a market share.

Wouldn't you hate them, too?

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10 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
the foibles of globalization, 4 February 2002

Author: neoteny

This documentary perfectly captures the largely-ignored downside to globalization and the subsequent domination of the world economy by the U.S. and Western Europe. Namely, that undeveloped and developing countries continue to get poorer at the expense of the rich. This documentary presents the human side for discussions about the impact of multinational corporations on human rights abuses, price fixing in order to drive local competition into failure, environmental destruction as the result of World Bank-mandated "structural adjustments," etc. This is a must see for anyone who thinks that globalization is the only way for developing countries to compete with the rest of the world, and for anyone wanting to know the reasons behind all of those protests.

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13 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Read it and weep, globalization supporters., 17 October 2001

Author: James B. from madison, wi.

This is a really tragic and shattering film. I saw it a few days ago in New York at a lower East side cinema. It is a very honest and yet artistically distinguished portrait of the demise of a Caribbean nation - Jamaica. Interspersed with the cold, hard facts of how the international community has loaned the country money at predatory interest rates, and then dumped products on Jamaica's undeveloped markets, thus destroying native industries, are scenes of tourists enjoying Jamaica's bounties, oblivious to the nature of the natives' distress.

The woman who made this film narrates it herself, and she wrote a book on the subject before she made this film. So her credentials for knowledge about the subject are very strong. She employs a few cinematic flourishes, such as the blurred-edge-of-screen effect when she shows poor Jamaicans digging about in a garbage dump. The soundtrack is replete with great reggae songs, including the potent and topical title track.

Basically, this film is more important in its 90 minutes than about a hundred typically vapid Hollywood productions stacked back to back. This film teaches you something about the world - about the exploitation of the weak, about the myth of the "helping" nature of the IMF and the World Bank, and about the everyday lives of desperately poor third world people. All proponents of "globalization" should see this film, and then be required to defend their views to the people who have been victimized by globalization's cruel and relentless march. Similarly, everyone who works for the major media in the US should see this, and should be ashamed of themselves for defending the policies that have contributed to the downfall of a proud and beautiful people such as those of Jamaica. And silence is the major defense employed on behalf of such policies.

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10 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Excellent Movie!!, 30 March 2002

Author: LaTanya Johnson from California, USA

I am actually waiting for this movie to become available on VHS. It would tie in perfectly with what I teach in my political economy class.

The movie clearly explains how rich countries can dominate poorer ones. It also causes one to re-think capitalism, competition and the "invisible hand."

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7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Fails Economics 101 but yet treats you like the moron., 6 June 2007

Author: LydiaOLydia from Cambridge, UK

Given the gushingly positive reviews this movie has received elsewhere on IMDb, given the negative review I am about to give it must be clear that I must be some pro-big business evil white capitalist who probably drives a Hummer and kills baby seals for fun, right?

No, not really. I am actually rather skeptical of many globalization's claims, specifically how they relate to income distribution. However, apparently unlike many of other commenters, I actually know a thing or two about economics and refuse to be swayed by the emotionally strong but intellectually bankrupt arguments that, for the most part, this movie consists of.

Here's a basic summary of the movie: 1. Jamaica is straddled with significant debts to the IMF (the movie states US $7b) 2. The IMF is a mechanism created by rich white countries to keep poor dark countries poor. 3. As a tourist, you will ignorantly go to Jamaica and enjoy your time. All the while, most of the money you spend will go back to foreign corporations. The Jamaicans will smile at you as they serve you, but secretly they mostly hate you, or at least what you represent and are doing to their country.

Overlay this theme with somber reggae music and implications of racism and you have a story that would make the ignorant want to join the ranks of the Molotov cocktail at any given G8 summit.

Unfortunately, it's pretty much complete nonsense.

For example, one thing that this movie states is that the IMF (or some other international boogeyman) forced Jamaica to devalue its currency out of some evil plot to economically enslave Jamaicans. The reality is that the previously artificially high Jamaican currency served only the Jamaican elite – the IMF's insistence that the Jamaican currency actually be subject to market forces (as part of a structural adjustment program associated with the IMF loans that were intended to keep Jamaica from slipping back into the fiscal irresponsibility that got it into the position of needing to take loans in the first place) ensures that the country remain an attractive destination for tourist dollars and gives strength to its export businesses.

Let's not forget: Jamaica is a beautiful country that can generate money through tourism pretty much as easily as Arab countries can pull oil from the ground. Jamaica had benefited from generally moderate and reasonable colonial rule and has had no significant conflicts since. It sits within enviable flight time from the wealthy USA and enjoys status as a destination for Europeans as well due to its historical ties. Its people, culture, and music are generally seen in a positive light. In short, Jamaicans are very lucky indeed compared to, say, Haitians.

And so the movie goes on and on. Look at the poor Jamaicans. You are a stupid and fat tourist. Don't you even consider when you flush the toilet in your hotel that some of the waste goes into the same ocean that used to bring slaves from Africa? (Yes, this is actually what the movie pretty much says at some point – the point of "you Jamaican – since you inherited a sound governmental and educational system from Great Britain, why can't you set up proper laws to prevent this if you are so concerned?" is nowhere to be found.)

In short, according to this movie everything that happens bad to Jamaica is not Jamaica's fault. Its America's fault that Jamaica's farmers use inefficient and ancient farming methods to the point where they can't even compete with imported food even given the Jamaican currency weakness and relative ease of transport. Large foreign businesses are evil because they both set up shop there to "exploit" local Jamaicans by giving them jobs, and then by pull out when corruption and inefficiency make them unprofitable.

Jamaica has relatively high literacy (partly a colonial legacy). It also has high levels of fundamentalist religiosity and substance abuse – two factors that the film doesn't really go into, since, well, that would be far harder than just pointing fingers.

I feel sorry for the people of Jamaica. Theirs is no easy life. But, to put the blame on tourists and the IMF, arguably the two things that are actually keeping the country afloat and not disintegrating into Haiti, is perverse. Don't fall for this movie's propaganda.

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7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
very powerful and interesting !, 26 February 2005

Author: from United States

The movie makes you think and question the motives of rich and powerful organizations. If you care at least a little bit about what's happening in the world, you should definitely take the time to see this movie. It talks about the negative effects of globalization in developing countries. Perfect example of "the rich are getting richer because the poor are getting poorer." Shows the social implications of IMF policies and the human tragedy, Economic strangling of developing countries, total dominance over them financially, abuse of power, leaving no other choice but to agree to the terrible terms of big organizations. Many ordinary workers speak up.

Great movie !

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7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Lots of painful accuracy, 7 February 2003
Author: griffjon from Kingston, Jamaica

As a development worker in Jamaica, I can say that there is a lot of painful accuracy in the movie. Yes, tourists do act that badly, almost unanimously if you only count the ones who spend their time here locked away in a guarded resort. And now over half of ever tax dollar goes to paying foreign debt...

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7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
This is the kind of great documentary that never wins an Oscar, 12 July 2001

Author: grandenchilada from NYC

And it's a pity because it deserves it. Have you ever wondered where your bananas come from? You may never feel snug and comfy buying your cheap GAP t-shirts ever again after watching this amazing film. This is a mordant and devastating documentary, beautifully shot, about the obscene unfairness of "free trade". Learn about the bully tactics that the US employs against underdeveloped countries to protect its interests. See how thousands of gallons of fresh milk have to be spilled into the Jamaican ground because of cheap powdered milk coming in from the States. See this movie and weep.

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