How The European Empires Affect The Post-Colonization Of Jamaica

After World War 2, the European Empires were too weakened to maintain their domination over their colonies and they had to give them independence. One country had been preparing for this moment and it was the United-States. With the goal of “reaping the spoils of the collapsing European colonial empires” (Gelinas, 1998, p.3), they founded the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These institutions were put in place to help the recently designated “underdeveloped countries” which were once colonies. Of their own initiative, the United-States declared that these countries needed international help in order to stimulate private investment. This idea of development assistance ultimately led to the dependency and to major debts
In fact, Micheal Manley describes what concretely happens in Jamaica following the ‘help’ they are supposedly receiving. Post-colonial theory, as seen in the book “A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid, is how a decolonized country such as Antigua is still being exploited by First world countries such as the United-States through industries like tourism where almost all the profits leave the country. Post-colonialism is not a temporal concept but rather a concept that goes against the way countries were being dominated in colonial times. Additionally, post-colonial theory is an answer to the dominant discourse known by so many, it serves as a counter-argument that shows a different perspective on the ‘help’ the IMF claims to be contributing. Also, in the film “Life and Debt”, Micheal Manley explains how the leaders of the IMF and the World Bank make use of the concept of “the subordination of elites to foreign interest” found in Gelinas’ article (p.23). He explains how after trying to convince him to sign agreements, these leaders managed to place their puppet as Prime minister of Jamaica in order to get the agreements
In this section, many concepts from Gelinas’ article “Fifty years of development aid and underdevelopment” can be seen. The main characteristic of underdevelopment given by Gelinas is “Monetary and Financial dependence”; this applies to every country that deals with the IMF’s agreements since these come with conditions that are almost impossible to meet, therefore these countries fall in debt (p.22). Also, the locals know what to expect from these Western industries, which is known as sophisticated awareness. This concept was first seen in the film “How ‘They’ See ‘Us’ ” by Evans-Pritchard, as the Indians understood how they were stereotypically viewed and used it to their advantage. From this perspective, life seems very hard as farmers, milk producers and banana growers due to the low cost of imported foods. This is the result of “an overseas-oriented economic system”, a system where the local farmers have “no means of shifting the terms of trade equitably in their favour”, explained in Gelinas’ article (p.22). The only industries that are growing are the industries that favor foreigners who invest in them such as the tourism industry and the dog training industry in Stephanie Black’s film. Along with tourism comes the ethics discussed by MacCannell in his article “The