The Jamaican Economy: No Problem, Man?

I visited Jamaica for the first time in 1984. I was 12 years old at the time, and though most children that age are generally oblivious to their surroundings and the conditions in which strangers are forced to live, Jamaica had a major impact on me, and the things I saw became permanently etched in my memory.

I will forever remember people living in abject poverty, forced to dwell in corrugated tin and block shacks with little to none of the conveniences that Americans enjoy. They are expected to leave for work in pristinely clean uniforms in order to serve fat and rude white tourists for pennies an hour... Tourists who find it exciting to get their hair braided, never really thinking about the life of the woman performing the service. It is an incredibly beautiful island, and yet it is ironic that those who live year round in this beauty are subjected to a hellish life.

After the island became independent from England in 1962, it suddenly found that with this independence, and without the colonial aid it had enjoyed in the past, it was harder to tend to the needs of its people. Like so many countries, it turned to the International Monetary Fund and other world banks for assistance, and like so many of those who have had to crawl to bankers for assistance, they were forced to compromise themselves completely in doing so.

The bankers, driven by greed as always, insisted that Jamaica completely eliminate all barriers to foreign trade and become part of the free market world economy. Having no other choice, they did so, and the loans that they received, while being a temporary band-aid to their problems became the death knell of their economy.

Soon, American imports, freed from regulations and tariffs, began to flow into the country unabated. These American imports, often subsidized by the US government, were made available to the Jamaican people at substantially lower monetary cost to the consumer. Unfortunately, they also came at a great personal cost to Jamaican farmers, who could not compete with cheap imports and found their businesses and livelihoods threatened. It was also clear that the bankers, Washington politicians, and the corporations shoving cheap products down Jamaican's throats were in collusion on this practice.

For some time, one of Jamaica's major exports, Bananas, remained a strong industry, owing in part to the fact that the UK and other EU countries brokered with Jamaica a trade agreement that favored Jamaican imports with no tariffs and with near exclusivity. This deal, based partly on reparations and good will toward a former British colony lasted until the Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita corporations, feeling that 95% of the world market in Bananas was not enough, urged Washington and the World Trade Organization to put adequate pressure on the EU to abolish this practice. Former President Bill Clinton was instrumental in making this happen.

I've read that the Jamaican economy has gotten slightly better in recent years, but nothing that America or the rest of the world does can undo the damage that 'free trade' and the 'global economy' have done to the people and island of Jamaica. As one of the richest countries in the world and with the most leverage in dictating trading conditions and prices, it's easy for us as Americans to believe that a free market world economy is a good thing, but the fact is that though it's good for us, we've literally strangled and crushed smaller countries to the brink of extinction as the result of our unchecked greed.

Think about that the next time you buy a bunch of Bananas.