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Notes for Presentation:
Slide 2:
When Jamaica became free from Great Britain the English left the country suddenly without helping stabilize a working order or an economic strength in the country. This caused a incredible amount of financial issues for the country.
In order to make ends meet in the country, Jamaica had to import a majority of resources. This caused more problems with money and so the only other place to turn for help was the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF was a bank set up to provided short term loans to 3rd world countries in order to help them. Slide 3:
In 1976 Jamaica could no longer provided wheat to grow food or keep penicillin in the hospitals. The country was rapidly declining in self-support and needed immediate assistance for its financial troubles.
When the IMF got involved Jamaican leaders asked for a long term contract to return the loan and immediate revenue in order to stabilize the country over a organized and necessary period of time. The IMF decided to offer a short term loan with full interest and restrictions that left Jamaica to cut several vital programs and pay much more than they were loaned in order to fulfill the agreement.
The restrictions referred to what they could and could not spend the money in the country.
Slide 4:Jamaica argued that the contract would force them directly into another financial crisis immediately after receiving the money because of the interest and restrictions imposed. The IMF asserted that this would be the first step into a necessary change in the economy of Jamaica via globalization.
The IMF worked with the World Bank in order to globalize the economy of Jamaica. They used several methods to do this and all of these methods had serious consequences that effected the people of Jamaica greatly. The consequences completely out weighed all the benefits of the globalization of the economy. The movie included several examples of both the impositions and their consequences.
Slide 5:
Stephanie Black, the director, made the focus of the film on the attempts of globalization and its negative effects. By showing examples of international organizations attempts at restructuring the Jamaican economy and displaying the reactions of the natives and the factual effects on the country the main idea of the film was easily displayed.
Her main message was supported by the sources she cited within the movie. Documents that were displayed on screen and mentioned of their origins, interviews with employees of IMF and workers of small businesses in Jamaica, and pictures were all credible sources to base her assertions on.
The message was communicated well to the audience because the target audience would have responded well. It was clear the director did not want people to rush down to Jamaica right after the movie but instead wanted the audience to understand what was happening around them.Slide 6:
By attempting to restructure the economy of Jamaica through globalization the IMF and World Bank made a human choice that effected the entire country. Thus answering the essential question, “ How do human choices have a local and global impact?”
Slide 7:
The only question that I am left with concerning the movie is How the Jamaicans can change the predicament they are in. With the economy the way it is it seem that their only choice now is to do as the IMF says for the sake of the survival of their country.
Irony would be to strong of a word but all the same the relationship between the topic of this film and the events that explained it are ironic in a sense. That is to say that because of the economic instability of the country when it became free, Jamaica became bonded and enslaved in a contract of economic restructuring that if it was loosed from the country would slowly crumble under its financial crisis. One can not conclude that this would be the case in every case but in this specific event it seems to be.
