Thesis Paragraph

Over the past decades, the United States government maintained a certain foreign policy towards other countries in an attempt to benefit themselves. Debates have been made towards the policy that the U.S was using to control other nations, but it wasn't an obstacle for the U.S government. The U.S government has been taking advantages of other countries in need, to make profits for themselves. Many of the countries suffer a relapse after being involved with the United States; Jamaica's economy is no exception to what the United States have done to be rich. The United State's connection to Jamaica began in the 1960s (with Jamaica's immigration. After the Jamaicans became poor, they ran out of business and needed some money, so they Jamaican government went to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help. And afterwards, they couldn't payback the debt, and kept borrowing from the IMF and agreeing to the policies placed by the U.S government on the IMF loans.

First Paragraphy

Once upon a time, in a country where the main business and source of income was by agriculture (banana plantation), the people ran out of money, and they needed some help, so they ran to a second country for help. The second country saw how bad the first country needed help and decided to take advantage of them. All these started in the early 1900s, and the first country is Jamaica, while the second country is the United States. The U.S relationship to Jamaica has been a relationship of culture, as well as economic dominance. The U.S have been living on the principles of "social Darwinism" which is basically "survival of the fittest", and the United States decided to take advantage of Jamaica and live off them. As a result, Jamaica was in the midst of being heavily indebted to the United States. And when the U.S government saw that the Jamaicans still needed some more money for their economy, they let the Jamaicans borrow money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on the account that they would agree to the terms and conditions of the U.S which was that the Jamaicans would let the U.S compete with them in the market, and let the U.S sell cheaper products than them, and the Jamaicans shouldn't accept any subsidies from anyone. In the film Life and debt, the director Stephanie Black explained and gave vivid accounts of what had happened when the United States took over Jamaica's economy. She said how the U.S made were unfair, and made the Jamaicans go out of business by selling cheaper products than them (in order to eliminate competitions, and raise the prices of their products when there are no Jamaicans to compete in the economy with them). The United States used many methods of manipulation to achieve their aim, and there was nothing the Jamaican government could do about it, instead they kept lending some more money from the IMF. The IMF (headed by the United States) would lend money to countries, and add some

Annonated Biography

(1) Klein, Naomi. "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism." New York: Henry Holt, and Company 2007. Print.

The author talks about how the U.S government either puts a country in a situation of "shock" (meaning disaster or conflict) and takes advantage of the country to get whatever the United States wants out of that country. The author also describes the strategies used by the government on other countries to justify it's actions. Klein also says how the method started by the economists and it was later adopted by the American government and used as a policy towards other less-privileged countries.



(2) Life and Debt. Dir. Stephanie Black. Music by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Sizzla, Buju Banton,Ziggy Marley etc. New Yorker Films Artwork. 2003. DVD.

The film shows how Jamaica kept being indebted to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the debt kept increasing the Jamaicans had to agree to the terms and conditions of the U.S government if they still needed more money from the IMF. The film also shows how the U.S government took over the economy of Jamaica and made the Jamaican products less valuable, thereby making the Jamaicans run out of business and loose their jobs. The Film has samples from "A small Place" and the narrator Jamaica kincaid also talks about the life in Jamaica as a tourists, and how the tourists won't really know what's wrong with Jamaica and the economy.


(3) Thomas, Deborah A. "The Emergence of Modern Blackness in Jamaica." Deborah A.
Thomas: Modern Blackness. NACLA Report on the Americas. Nov/Dec2005.
Vol. 39 Issue 3 p30-35. 6p, 3 bw. Print.

The article focuses on the emergence of modern blackness in Jamaica. Jamaica is famous for it's plantation economy, and after World War II, Jamaicans have had many different colonial experiences. Great Britain took control of Jamaica from Spain. The article is firmly rooted in the experiences of the majority of Jamaica's population. It also talks about how the "ghetto women" are being treated, and how the Jamaican Prime Minister decided to re-instate Proclamation Day
as holiday, and how many Jamaicans think their culture influenced the American culture.

(5) "Jamaica to seek more than a billion dollars from IMF." BBC Monitoring Latin America Caribbean Media Corporation news. July 22, 2009 Wednesday.

This article of the newspaper shows how the Jamaicans were trying to get loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), despite being heavily indebted to them in the past years. The Jamaicans said they wouldn't borrow money from the IMF anymore since they couldn't pay back, but recently, they are still seeking help from the IMF by asking for loans (worth a billion dollars). The Jamaican economy is so low that they now depend on the IMF for survival.


(6). Thomas-Hope, Elizabeth. "Return migration to Jamaica and its development
potential." International Migration, 1999 1st Quarter, Vol. 37 Issue 1, p183, 25p, 3
charts. Article

This article discusses the need for the Jamaican government to recruit Jamaican workers living abroad, also showed that the return migration to Jamaica is associated with the existence and nature of some psychological linkages established between migrant workers and their home country. United States and Great Britain as top sources of return migrants. The article also shows the terms and conditions, and all the alluring programs that the Jamaican government implemented to get the Jamaicans living abroad to come back and start living in their home countries once again, even though adapting wouldn't be so easy.