Life and Debt

Name: Life and Debt
Genre: Documentary
Released: June 16, 2001
Duration: 80 min
Rating: 67

2001

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Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Ratings

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7.9

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7.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

New Yorker Films | Release Date: June 16, 2001

Summary: An unapologetic look at the "new world order" from the point of view of Jamaican workers, farmers, and government and policy officials who see the reality of globalization from the ground up. (Human Rights Watch International)

Director: Stephanie Black

Genre(s): Documentary

Runtime: 80 min

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Critic Reviews

Stephen Holden

Offers the clearest analysis of globalization and its negative effects that I've ever seen on a movie or television screen. Read full review

Ernest Hardy

Black's cool-headed but blistering indictment of globalization and the racist international economic policies that have shoved that country into crushing poverty. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

After viewing documentarian Stephanie Black's dour exegesis of the wrecked Jamaican economy -- only the most insensitive vacationer will want to set foot anywhere near the resorts and beaches of Montego Bay. Read full review

Roger Ebert

If you're curious about why the demonstrators are so angry, this is why they're so angry. Read full review

Loren King

Employs both eloquent and down-to-earth methods to explain the complex reasons why so many of the world's developing countries remain caught in an economic quagmire that prevents them from becoming self-sufficient. Read full review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Powerfully illustrates what globalization has been doing to underdeveloped countries around the world. Read full review

Keith Phipps

Tough to respect a documentary that doesn't play fair. Anyone interested in the subject would be better off spending Life And Debt's torturous 80-minute running time with a good article on the topic. Read full review

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User Reviews

Jhmang

Jun 15, 2014

Jamaica Kincaid viewed tourism in Antigua with a critical eye. Tourists are ugly human being not in their ordinary life but when they are on their journey. They tacitly think they are more superior than locals and use Antiguan workers to their own benefits. Actually in Antigua, the schoolsJamaica Kincaid viewed tourism in Antigua with a critical eye. Tourists are ugly human being not in their ordinary life but when they are on their journey. They tacitly think they are more superior than locals and use Antiguan workers to their own benefits. Actually in Antigua, the schools are dilapidated and hospitals are filled with quack doctors. Who earn money through dishonest means like drug smuggler or mistress become rich in this area. But tourists came here to and enjoy their holiday so they unconsciously see only pretty things and completely ignored the real problems of Antigua. She also said people in Antigua want to get out of their daily life and feel free like tourists but they are too poor to leave on a trip, so local people envy tourists who visit their country and find freshness from their own banality.
However, Dr. Reg Murphy rebut the argument of Jamaica Kincaid. He hated her book. He said Jamaica Kincaid whines about everything in Jamaica and all of what she said are exaggerated. And he pointed out Jamaica Kincaid is rich but didn’t spend any money for her country. According to Murphy, she complains about loss of cultural heritage in Antigua but she doesn’t do anything to fix them. He argued that people love tourism business and mention that Antiguans not taking the opportunities to get involved in the tourism business.
Firstly, I don’t agree with Dr Reg Murphy’s idea. He said all of serious situations in Antigua what Jamaica Kincaid wrote were exaggerated and stretched but almost all of them are fact.
He also said that Antiguans don’t utilize tourism business, don’t get opportunities but so far as I know, Antigua’s primary source of money is from the tourism business. Most of locals work within these business but their
Job quality is low like cleaning man or woman in hotel. By that kind of job, locals cannot make enough money and like other developing countries this small carribean island’s tourism money is all go to foreign company, and so ‘leakage’ occurred.
It’s true that Jamaica Kincaid is complained and only seem to blame tourists about everything in Antigua, and I don’t think most problems occurred because of tourists but I agree with her main idea. Tourists only came
Antigua to enjoy amazing sun, eating delicious food and meeting new people so they can get freshness but local people cannot do that because they are too poor so they envy tourists and they cannot stand you because you look always happy and seem to be better than them. So locals feel antagonism toward them and social carrying capacity has been exceeded because local people feel bad about tourism development and tourists in Antigua.
I think if this hatred continuously, then local people doesn’t stop at covertly resistence but they protest more vigourly like use violence so tourists no longer want to visit Antigua. And as I already said Antigua’s primary of source of money is from the hotel and tourist business so it might have bad effects on Antigua’s economic development.
So I think to ease up the hostility of locals toward tourists, first government should carried out carrying capacity assessment, so that there is no more destruction, especially of socio-cultural environment. And tourism providers and tourists should make an effort to make a responsible tourism. So as we already studied tourism providers should involve local people in decision that affect their lives and life chances also tourists should have greater understanding of local cultural, social, and environmental issues in Antigua like the problems which Jamaica Kincaid pointed out. There should be no more ignorance of situation. And the most important thing is there sould be respect between tourists and hosts. Now in Antigua hosts laughed at tourists behind them whatever tourists do.… Expand

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