benluttrell As the gushing reviews on this site attest - this documentary panders to the anti- globalisation, protectionist conspiracy theorists, using emotionally-charged but intellectually challenged arguments that fits their narrow, misinformed view of the world.While the story of Jamaica is very sad, the argument that Jamaica's devalued currency and removal of tariffs and subsidies is the cause of its failed economy are not only absurd, but threatening in times of low global economic growth (look up the events of 1929, and see how this short-sighted economic policy resulted in a contagious disaster).If Jamaica wants to turn back time to the agricultural-age, well that's fine, but you can't moan in the same breath about a lack of health, education and basic infrastructure.In short this documentary completely misses the point. The key to Jamaica's economic prosperity is turning around its woeful productivity, encouraging foreign direct investment (and with it the innovation and technology that will modernise its industry) and committing to economic reform to liberalise its markets and promote fiscal responsibility. Without properly addressing the first point, however, this task will always be an enormous challenge.Instead, this documentary employs brooding voice-overs, montages of mcdonalds and taco- bell, fat US tourists trying to dance, and the views of who are essentially peasants to support its uneducated idea of appropriate economic policy.

latanyawjohnson I am actually waiting for this movie to become available on VHS. It would tie in perfectly with what I teach in my political economy class.The movie clearly explains how rich countries can dominate poorer ones. It also causes one to re-think capitalism, competition and the "invisible hand."

neoteny This documentary perfectly captures the largely-ignored downside to globalization and the subsequent domination of the world economy by the U.S. and Western Europe. Namely, that undeveloped and developing countries continue to get poorer at the expense of the rich. This documentary presents the human side for discussions about the impact of multinational corporations on human rights abuses, price fixing in order to drive local competition into failure, environmental destruction as the result of World Bank-mandated "structural adjustments," etc. This is a must see for anyone who thinks that globalization is the only way for developing countries to compete with the rest of the world, and for anyone wanting to know the reasons behind all of those protests.

James B. This is a really tragic and shattering film. I saw it a few days ago in New York at a lower East side cinema. It is a very honest and yet artistically distinguished portrait of the demise of a Caribbean nation - Jamaica. Interspersed with the cold, hard facts of how the international community has loaned the country money at predatory interest rates, and then dumped products on Jamaica's undeveloped markets, thus destroying native industries, are scenes of tourists enjoying Jamaica's bounties, oblivious to the nature of the natives' distress.The woman who made this film narrates it herself, and she wrote a book on the subject before she made this film. So her credentials for knowledge about the subject are very strong. She employs a few cinematic flourishes, such as the blurred-edge-of-screen effect when she shows poor Jamaicans digging about in a garbage dump. The soundtrack is replete with great reggae songs, including the potent and topical title track.Basically, this film is more important in its 90 minutes than about a hundred typically vapid Hollywood productions stacked back to back. This film teaches you something about the world - about the exploitation of the weak, about the myth of the "helping" nature of the IMF and the World Bank, and about the everyday lives of desperately poor third world people. All proponents of "globalization" should see this film, and then be required to defend their views to the people who have been victimized by globalization's cruel and relentless march. Similarly, everyone who works for the major media in the US should see this, and should be ashamed of themselves for defending the policies that have contributed to the downfall of a proud and beautiful people such as those of Jamaica. And silence is the major defense employed on behalf of such policies.