Life And Debt, By Stephanie Black

Ever since organizations and agreements like the North American Free Trade (NAFTA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were created around the end of World War 2 to supposedly help the Third World nations to establish better economies and governments, they have only done more harm than good for these nations. These third world countries end up becoming exploited and extorted, forced to become dependent on the big international organizations like the IMF because of the exorbitant interest rates charged on them, thus they remain forever in debt. The accumulation of debt then allow the IMF to have more voice over how the indebted countries should be shaped and how they should run their economy. What ends up happening then is that their economy

The documentary follows how IMF and their structural adjustment programs have changed Jamaica’s economy for the worse as well. The former minister of Jamaica was appalled by the terms the IMF gave them but he had no choice but to accept: the country’s economy was going terribly and they did not have much to turn to. He even said that despite the loans, their economy did not improve at all. The same thing had happened to them: price inflation and increased unemployment. Many factories ended up closing down and thus many women were unemployed, like those women in the fabric factories. There was a time the women in the factories tried to make things change but they only ended up getting replaced by Chinese workers because they were more docile and obedient (and it was even more unfair because the Chinese workers were paid with US dollar and not Jamaican dollar). Which, of course, did not sit well with them. Even after these women were fired thoughtlessly, none of them got any money back from the factories. Many farmers in Jamaica also suffered because they could not plant the crops they needed but instead they were forced to plant crops for export, like in the banana industry. But that industry began flopping as well and they could not compete with the bigger industries in the global market—which gave them a huge disadvantage and continued to make the economy worse. Obviously the IMF is just here for

We can see that the effects of economic policies subsequently feed the growing labor migration workforce in many other countries. Take for example the maquiladoras that exist in Mexican-American border. Performing the Border by Ursula Beimann chronicles the lives of maquiladora women that come and go from places in Mexico to the border to find work. The working conditions aren’t the greatest either and yet they still have to wake up at 4:30 in the morning just to go to work. Many of them are in constant stress due to the menial and tiring, single-task routine they have to do every day. None of them are even developing any significant skills from this. These women are basically just a free labor force for multinational industries to exploit and these women aren’t even paid enough or paid the amount they deserve. There are, of course, migrant workers that make it across the border of the United States. But even with proper papers, many of them do not have readily available jobs for them. Even the readily available jobs provided for them do not allow for them to move up in the workplace system. Like in Glenn’s article, she says that places where Asian, Latino, and Black migrant workers are being employed, a two-tier labor system exists. Meaning that higher, clean, skilled, and supervisional, more secure jobs went to the white or Anglo-Saxon migrant whereas the non-white and/or non-European migrant workers remained the bottom feeders. They mostly remain at the