‘Welcome to Jamaica’, the opening line of the documentary Life and Debt. This is followed by a comparison of what tourists see, and what they don’t. One clip shows a group of greeters singing ‘Welcome to Jamaica’, yet the tune carries a haunting resemblance to ‘So this is Christmas‘, a song with two messages.
In short, it’s the story of the aftermath of independence without a strong economic foundation followed by the onslaught of global competition. Jamaica became a British territory during the years of Christopher Columbus’ exploration and early slavery. The heritage of the island, then, is part British, part African, and a small part indigenous survivors. While they were a colony under the British crown, there was a master/servant relationship that implied the masters would, at least somewhat, fulfill the needs of the servant. In 1962, Jamaica gained her independence from the Queen, but they were not prepared with an independent economic infrastructure. When the 1973 oil crisis hit, they found themselves turning to international banks in order to keep the country afloat.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank were both established in 1944, the closing years of WWII, with the stated goals of providing oversight and assistance to restore and/or ensure economic stability to nations around the world. In order to do this, they loan money with the caveat that they will also dictate how that money is to be distributed and how it will be paid back. Jamaican farmers who requested small loans to boost their farms until harvest were either denied loans or saddled with exorbitant interest rates, either situation resulting in the failure of the farm and family business. The nation itself is in a similar black hole of debt, since the people don’t have the means to put revenue into the national coffers to pay for the agreements made with the world banking systems.
These agencies, in the interest of economic growth among all the nations of the world, insist on unrestricted importing of goods. While a lovely idea among equally sized players, it can be disastrous when unequally matched. Larger exporters, whether countries or industries, can afford to undercut local prices, especially if those prices are inflated in order to cover debts. This situation, predictably, resulted in the failure of more farms and family businesses.
In order to provide desperately needed job opportunities, the country opened up what are referred to as ‘Free Zones’, where corporations can set up factories, hire workers, and not be required to pay taxes on the property or income. Because there are more workers than jobs, sweat shop rules are often applied. There are no regulations to prevent such conditions, because the factories are in a place of limbo, not accountable to the land they’re placed on because they’re foreign corporations, and not accountable to the country they’re registered in because they’re operating elsewhere.
Familiar brand names show up, like Sara Lee, Hanes, and McDonald’s. As a matter of fact, McDonald’s adds a completely different aspect to the list of issues. There was a diner in Jamaica named McDonald’s, established in 1971 – it was the family name, and food was the family’s chosen business. When the international fast food company known as McDonald’s decided to do business in Jamaica, they filed a suit against the existing diner, insisting on a name change. The local company succeeded in getting the corporation to not open any franchises in Jamaica until the court case could be settled.
The documentary highlights each of these situations in a series of vignettes and deeper look interviews. The most striking are images of huge vats of fresh milk being drained off and wasted because it cannot be sold in the marketplace. It’s not that the milk is contaminated, but that the marketplace has an overabundance of imported milk powder which is less expensive to reconstitute and sell than fresh milk, and it has a longer shelf life. Gallons and gallons of milk that could provide nourishment to other impoverished countries is being poured into the ground as fast as the cows can produce it. This story is repeated with the banana and chicken industries, where the locals cannot get an appropriate price for their goods because their neighbors are making the economic choice to buy imports, so they must export essentially at a loss for all their work and borrowing invested.
On the shores of Jamaica, tourism abounds. Beyond the safety of the fences, the people are stuck in a catch-22 spiral of poverty and debt, with interest rates of 23-40% and inflation at 18%, multinational corporations undercutting local prices, and factories operating on sweatshop principles. One of the men interviewed sums up the situation this way: “When you open the market, those who can take advantage will.”