As discussed in Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place and highlighted in Stephanie Black’s Life and Debt documentary, internal corruptions coupled with external oppressions have led to an absorption of distorted ‘reality’ for natives of these parts of the Caribbean that works to keep them inside this ‘small place’.
In Black's Life and Debt, the implemented ‘mechanism of debt’ enforced by the International Monetary Fund shows the negative ramifications of distribution, trade and open economic activity in a globalized market between developed countries and those who have not reached full parity. Consequences of both narratives lead us to recognize how these oppressive mechanisms of control lead to the obliteration of local agricultural economies, creations of racial divides, further divisions of gendered labor, and an increased retardation of these vulnerable economies.
Kincaid’s narration dares you to see Antigua through a different lens; to see beyond the beautiful seas that are polluted with sewage, beyond the borders of the school yards which could pass for a public latrine, beyond the doors of the library to the shelves which hold no books and beyond those hospitals that aren’t fit to leave a common domesticated animal in. She dares you to venture beyond the ‘sanctity of your tropical compound’ to see life as it is lived there, and discover the realities of the natives’ lives.
In this small place, how does one look past this isolated link in an assumed chain of connectivity and possibility? What becomes of this link that is ingrained with corruption, is a tool of exploitation, and a symbol of restriction? How does someone in this small place see past this link: to an economy repaired, a life free of corruption, a life outside of debt, a concept of mobility? How do the inhabitants of this small place become active creators of history, instead of ‘passive objects’ to it?
In Black’s Life and Debt, we see how countries that are left to rely on the IMF to rebuild their economies are forced to adhere to structural changes; and how these changes alter the fundamental structures and policies within their societies in order to receive this ‘aid’. This assistance is not conducive to the principles of economic and social policies that these economies are built upon and creates compounding problems of poverty, inadequacy, debt, hopelessness and gender inequality. The IMF handicaps these countries by creating a system of inefficiency without considering the organic and individual constraints, concerns and dilemmas of each country dependent on it. To adhere to these IMF regulations, governments such as Jamaica’s are forced to slash funding for programs that ensure and promote basic human rights. Public health and education, workers rights and protections, and farming and sustenance programs are devalued and greatly eliminated.
Kincaid and Black have removed the romanticized notion of life in these tropical 'heavans' and pointed us towards a harsher reality that exemplifies what happens when citizens are subject to upholding foreign interests instead of their own. A great read, and a wonderful view that will surely expand your "lens"!
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