Bibliograph

Life and Debt, a Tuff Gong Pictures production ; a film by Stephanie Black ; produced and directed by Stephanie Black ; narration written by Jamaica Kincaid

Type

Label

Life and Debt, a Tuff Gong Pictures production ; a film by Stephanie Black ; produced and directed by Stephanie Black ; narration written by Jamaica Kincaid

Language

eng

Characteristic

videorecording

Intended audience

MPAA rating: Not rated

Main title

Life and Debt

Oclc number

51856494

Responsibility statement

a Tuff Gong Pictures production ; a film by Stephanie Black ; produced and directed by Stephanie Black ; narration written by Jamaica Kincaid

Runtime

Summary

This documentary examines the effects of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund loans on the infrastructure Jamaica established in the wake of independence from the UK in 1962. Seven billion in debt (circa 2000), Jamaica has seen its agricultural industries laid to waste by the impossibility of competing with subsidized, multi-national American based companies. The poverty of an "average" Jamaican in a shantytown near Kingston is in stark contrast to the luxurious tropical fantasy paradise experienced by tourists in posh Montego Bay. In a dog-eat-dog global economy, the US and its multinational corporate clients have all the advantages, while Jamaica has no agriculture, no industry, and no tax base--only ever-growing debt

Table Of Contents

Introduction -- Welcome to Jamaica -- The International Monetary Fund -- Independence -- Lending -- The sunshine guarantee -- Island production -- Trade barriers -- Dairy -- Bananas -- Tourists -- Free zones -- Life and debt -- McDonald's -- Chicken parts -- Peppers, spices and tourism -- Circumstances -- Just human beings -- Be still Babylon -- End credits

Target audience

general

Technique

live action

resource.variantTitle

Life + DebtLife & Debt

Contributor