GEOG 3490 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Byrsonima Crassifolia, Structural Adjustment, Wield
30 Jun 2018
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Department
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Life and Debt (Movie, 2001)
•Civil unrest ripped the nation in Jamaica, 41 people arrested, due to severe financial
instability in the economy"
•If you come to Jamaica as a tourist you will land in Montego Bay not in Kingston (people
think Jamaica is a place to vacation)"
•Citizens of Jamaica have to give a long explanation to enter other countries, their bags are
searched, they are questioned relentlessly"
•International Monetary Fund (IMF) - founded in 1944 after the Second World War, so people
had a bank to turn to for short-term loaning when leaders of countries cannot get a loan from
private banks"
•They lend money for short-term with full interest and set very strict restrictions that leaves the
country in the same problem once again"
•IMF wanted to make their currency less expensive - expand exports and diminish imports"
•Is Jamaica better off now that it is independent from Great Britain? When they became free,
they were soon in every kind of financial problem… needed time to build economies to
support themselves "
•No new hospitals have been built in Jamaica for a while"
•Foreigners still control Jamaica through mechanism of debt not through direct ownership"
•Jamaica does not have a proper way of disposing of their sewer "
•Everything everyone (tourists) eats came off of the ship of Miami "
•Large number of foreign foods on the market harm local business because it is cheaper - IMF
told Jamaica to reduce their trade barriers (reducing tariffs) "
•Self-reliance was discouraged because of new concept of globalization but this does not
allow Jamaica to live as it’s own entity "
•Dairy farm started in early 40s and was doing very well introduction "
•Jamaica took a loan from inter-american development bank (IDB) on condition that they
abandon any form of local subsidies and abandon control of imports of milk power and
meats"
•No government regulation in trading of commodities - have to lower all trade barriers and
compete with us on level playing field"
•Dairy industry was unable to sell their fresh milk because powdered milk became the norm as
it was cheaper - had to get rid of all the milk they had collected in the drain, had to covert
cows to hamburger meat!"
•Between Jamaican government, IMF and IDB they ended up with these policies"
•Have a tariff-free, guaranteed market for bananas in Europe (England in particular) (they
wanted to give back to ex-colonies)"
•Through WTO (World Trade Organization) U.S complained saying this is unconventional "
•American-owned companies control 95% of bananas in the world but they wanted all of it -
the salary for people in these companies is $1/day, others cannot survive on this"
•Banana farms went from 150 workers to 15 workers, bananas were known as green gold but
now it does not sustain them anymore"
•Many natives in Jamaica (and most other places) are too poor to live in their own place or to
escape to another country - so they are naturally envious"
•The free zone is it’s own area - goods come in, in a container and go back in their own ship
not having touched the shores of Jamaica - not subjected to income tax"
•Based in Kingston, western companies cheaply employ workers to assemble the imported
materials into expensive products that is immediately shipped off to outside markets"
•These workers only get $30/week! Other workers take low paying, menial jobs in tourist
hotels or sell souvenirs or braid hair on the streets"
•They brought in asian workers, housed in camps who get paid in US dollars but this Kingston
free zone was set up to help Jamaicans!! Claimed they couldn’t get workers with “skill level”
they needed"
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
•Free trade and NAFTA agreements impacted Jamaica very badly - low wage jobs gravitate to
low wage areas, so these factories just moved to another place"
•Need to build fundamentals of growth to break out of poverty for these countries"
•But private capital will not invest in infrastructure, education or agriculture - only in what it
can make a quick sale of"
•All IMF countries are trapped in colonial crisis of finance "
•Jamaican hamburger also gotten put out by McDonalds and Burger King bringing in their
own patties (more chemicals, tastes worse)"
•Imported chicken in for cheap, and it was 20-something years old!"
•Americans like white meat so they were shipping their dark meat off to other places like
Jamaica for very cheap = chicken farmers lost jobs in Jamaica"
•Growing industry: guard dogs (work for homes and hotels) "
•Globalization has provided enormous opportunities for growth, investment and know how
technology - but these loans have not achieved growth or poverty reduction"
READ: http://grandmotherafrica.com/life-debt-jamaica-strung-money-drug/
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
