Adumbration

Life and Debt (2001), Stephanie Black, Director

It might ahve been the anti-WTO crowd that brought this documentary to latte-land, which was not clear in the review I read today, that caused me to see the film this afternoon down at the Varsity (in the U district, of course).  It probably would not have made any difference had I known about that ahead of time, but I liked to be warned about overt politics.

The film has a tale to tell, and much of that tale is about poverty in Jamaica, and how that poverty is a result of world trade, but of course not very clearly distinguishing trade from the government corruption, and various import and export subsidies and restrictions around the world (mostly favoring the developed West over the undeveloped third world, but who is surprised at that?).  A prominent sponsor:  National Endowment for the Arts.  The enemy:  The International Monetary Fund, and I do not doubt that there is a lot of politics in how international bank loans are arranged, and then how the money is spent.

Much of the film showed the contrast between life for tourists in resorts and that for native population.  Only a driver's license would allow me to visit Jamaica (for example), but travel by a Ja native to the USoA requires substantial life documentation (although what exactly was not made clear).  The main point being to show with these contrasts that the (mostly western) tourists are banal (no doubt), and oblivious to the lives of most of the local populace.

Apparently the US dairy policy, which is also known to heavily subsidize US milk producers, allows powdered milk to be exported to Jamaica at rates that make it cheaper than the local fresh milk.  And the US poultry industry, since Americans like their white meat so much, exports the dark meat prices below which the local Ja farmers are able to manage.  But there are other factors effecting the island economy and the ability of those local farmers to compete, and what the film failed to address was even their existence, let alone their relative magnitudes:  tax policy, inflation rate, restrictions on some business while subsidizing others, other waste of taxes and printed currency.  As for inflation, they quoted something around 15-18% for the time of production (~1998, may be overestimated); the tragicomic aspect was the surprise of the filmmakers to find that borrowing money would take 18-23%.