Jamaica: The 1970s

“Before my ninth birthday I knew IMF was screwing up the economy, socialism was just an appetiser for the communist meal, gunmen would kill you for sporting the wrong colours and Reggae was the music of nasty people,” says Marlon James of growing up in Jamaica in the 1970s. “Still I wish I was in my 20's or 30's in the 70's if for no other reason that it seems that that was the last time where anybody thought there was possibility.”

1 comment

  • Markley Tysinger

    HI, I wonder if anyone will respond but here it goes anyway. I am so interested in the economic and political situation and history of Jamaica – after watching a film entitled “Life in Debt”. It focuses mainly on the struggle of getting out of debt with the IMF and why it has been so hard to do so.
    I wonder about what Marion James wrote about dizzying forces of influence going on while he was growing up. I would ask him, looking back, what had he hoped would be possible?

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