Life And Death By Stephanie Black

In Stephanie Black’s documentary Life and Death, the impact of the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank is discussed in relation to the developing country of Jamaica and its economy. Both these organizations play a crucial role in the downfall and uprising of the beautiful island of Jamaica. This documentary addresses both the organizations and what views Jamaican’s hold in terms of the organizations in their country.
With Jamaica becoming independent, they had many problems in terms of economy being unstable since now they were all on their own. People of Jamaica had to get loans to make ends meet. Seeing Jamaica being a new and young country the IMF came in to help. In the text Introduction to International and Global Studies

IMF put out their own ideas of making the Jamaican dollar cheaper to increase their exports and diminish imports, which the movie Life and Death shows was a very debauched idea. IMF came in with structural adjustment programmes which only worsened the state of the Jamaican economy. In my opinion, the IMF’s structural programmes were no help to Jamaica, because by making the Jamaican dollar cheaper it just made it harder for local labourers to earn and spend. The laborers as shown in the documentary struggling to find work and receive their wages on time. In one segment of the documentary we meet the local women who sew clothes for American companies to make a living, fighting for their wages and improved working conditions. This further implies just how much the IMF structural programs were not helping because the local residents had to fight to make just enough income to feed and run their families, let alone the conditions they have to work in to receive those few dollars. Once they did start to fight out for their rights, their names were blacklisted to

He was forced to sign the loan agreement because that was the only way to save his people, his country. At the start of the film, Prime Minister Manley mentions that “the Jamaican government will not accept anybody, anywhere in the world telling us what to do in our own country”. Placing this statement directly towards the IMF, he is trying to indicate that Jamaica is an independent country which can or will prosper on its own. No one is to come into Jamaica and start to deal with their business and their people. I found this a very strong statement to be starting off the rest of the documentary, since the rest of it is a reflection of why this statement is true. The rest of the documentary shows the struggles of a Jamaican’s everyday life, and what they have to deal with because of the IMF’s structural adjustment