Life and Debt
A film by Stephanie Black
Available on DVD and videotape
Order enquiries: (07) 33910124; (07) 3391 0154 (fax); or email <gilsfilm@cairns.net.au>
Visit <http://www.lifeanddebt.org/> for future screening dates
REVIEW BY ROBYN MARSHALL
If you want to understand the operations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and how this and other imperialist financial institution condemn Third World countries to permanent underdevelopment and poverty, purchase or see Life and Debt.
The film begins with a group of English tourists, mostly working class, who have scrimped all year to save for a two-week holiday in the sun, arriving in Jamaica. The film takes the viewer beyond the flash hotel rooms and luxurious setting to expose the reality behind the facade: the contents of the toilet are flushed straight into the ocean because there is no sewage treatment plant; the mouth-watering dessert of pineapples and bananas is made from tinned fruit imported from the USA.
The contrast between a "paradise" of palm trees and beautiful tropical beaches and the reality of run-down schools and a vast slum just behind the hotel is difficult to comprehend.
The complexity that seems to shroud international lending, structural adjustment programs and free trade begins to lift when the impact of these policies is seen in the day-to-day lives of the Jamaican people.
Life and Debt reveals the deliberate destruction of the country's farming sector. Jamaica was self-sufficient in carrots, potatoes, pumpkins and onions, but now much of the land lies abandoned under the impact of forced imports of US agricultural products. The Jamaican milk industry, after 50 years of breeding suitable cattle, has been destroyed, due to cheap imports of powdered milk from the US. Similarly, due to the unfair competition by US-owned Chiquita banana corporation, the number of Jamaican small banana farmers has been slashed from 45,000 to 3000.
The US government is determined to torpedo the agreement between the European Union and Europe's former colonies, using the World Trade Organisation. The Lome Convention provided for a tax-free import quota of 105,000 tonnes of fruit per year to England from the West Indies. US opposition is specifically directed at protecting US companies, Chiquita and Dole.
Addressing the issue of free trade zones, Life and Debt introduces the viewer to workers employed by US corporations who must sew six days a week to earn the legal minimum wage of US$30 a week. The port of Kingston is lined with high-security factories, made available to foreign garment companies at low rent.
Foreign companies are allowed to bring in shiploads of raw material tax-free, have them sewn and assembled and then immediately transported out to foreign markets. No export tax is paid to the Jamaican government. More than 10,000 women work for these foreign companies and are required to put up with sub-standard work conditions.
The Jamaican government has agreed to the stipulation that no unionisation be permitted in the free trade zones.
The film is interspersed with interviews with former Jamaican prime minister Michael Manley, who was elected on a non-IMF platform in 1976. He was forced to sign Jamaica's first loan agreement with the IMF in 1977 due to lack of viable alternatives.
At present, Jamaica owes more than $4.5 billion to the IMF, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, among other international lending agencies, yet the development that these loans "promised" have failed to eventuate.
One criticism I would offer is that the film tends to paint tourists as the guilty party. Jamaica's situation has little to do with individual Western tourists, many of whom are also the victims of global exploitation, but in different ways.
Life and Debt also presents interviews with the slimy and swarmy IMF deputy director, Stanley Fischer, who spins a tale of the "benefits" of the loans. Manley confesses that it broke his heart when he had to agree to the IMF loans, as he believed there was no other way out of Jamaica's situation.
The US government, in collusion with the international bankers, forced him out of government in 1978 in a campaign of destabilisation. Unfortunately, that fact is not mentioned in the film.
The film's music is terrific, with classic songs by Bob Marley and Harry Belafonte and others. The colour-drenched cinematography is also spectacular. The film is based on a book by Jamaica Kincaid, called A Small Place.
While Life and Debt offers few solutions, the problem is depicted in very clear terms. It's obvious the policies of the Western-dominated international financial institutions are deliberately designed to destroy the Third World's home-grown industries, and to benefit the US.
The DVD has bonus features, including additional interview footage of Michael Manley, a commentary by the director and gallery of photos of the anti-globalisation movement.
From Green Left Weekly, August 20, 2003.
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