Premium Essay

A Life in Debt

In:

Submitted By Asri92
Words 483
Pages 2
A life in debt
Imagine this, a fresh graduate, still quite warm from wearing that thick convocation robe and a suit in the middle of the tropical sun heat, entering the “real world” with a debt of at least RM20k to 40k, that is if he is from a government university. Chances are if he is a graduate from a private college or a private university (MMU, UTP, UNITEN) it would probably be above RM50k, usually in the form of the infamous acronym PTPTN (Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional).
While some lucky ones may get a scholarship from either the government, private insititutions or from MBF (Mak Bapak Finance), the majority would take a loan to fund their degree in the hope that they may secure a good job in the future, get a decent wage, pay off the debt and, God willing, maybe settle down after a few years.
Spending and lifestyle
A graduate would want a car, or at least at some point would like to own one. Of course, he could always resort to owning a motorcycle or simply use public transportation but judging by the death rate of motorcyclists and the weather here, eventually one would dream of owning a car. Let’s face it, we’re not Japan yet, we are still an automobile nation. So how does owning a car get into the equation?
Consider this, a graduate buys a standard, fuel-saving, comfortable Malaysian car, say a MyVi. A MyVi in the peninsula costs around 38k to 40k, so our graduate would then take a car loan, say a nine-year plan to buy his/her first car. Now, our graduate who has just left college and has worked probably just over a year has collected a debt to the volume of 60k to 80k (study loan + car loan) and in come cases (private institution) probably up to a 100k. A single young adult in Malaysia, with no property, no children or spouse has managed to acquire such a debt and this is what many consider as BASIC. Notice I haven’t even touched on

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Life and Debt

...Ryan Fahrenkopf English 201 Fremio Sepulveda Research Paper “Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate." – Edward W. Said “Life and Debt” is a documentary directed by Stephanie Black with the screen play and voice over done by Jamaica Kincaid about how the IMF, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organizations destroyed Jamaica economically. This movie is based specifically on what happened in Jamaica but it is a model for how the IMF and first world countries have impacted the rest of the world. The film is about globalization and exposing first world countries, mainly the United States, for destroying third world countries. The Oxford English dictionary defines a documentary as a factual, realistic, applied esp. to a film or literary work, etc., based on real events or circumstance, and intended primarily for instruction purposes. “Life and Debt” mostly follows this definition because it does present real factual information, although it varies a little from the definition of a documentary because it is a little biased on the side of Jamaica. Another critical concept from the film is the term globalization. The Oxford English Dictionary defines globalization as the action, process, or fact of making global; esp. (in later use) the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international...

Words: 1877 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Life and Debt

...Life and Debt Life and Debt is powerful film is the first to put a human face on globalization. It demonstrates Jamaica’s economic woes begins with the arrival of a group of mostly white vacationers into the airport. En route to Montego Bay, their thrillers at the beach appear in the film as an ironic counterpoint to the economic realities of the other Jamaica, a country suffering from a 30 year IMF strictness regime and multinational domination of the traditional self-sustaining, largely agricultural economy. Jamaica is presented differently to tourists. They can go in the country with a driver’s license instead of a passport, bags are not searched and going through customs is made to be a piece of cake. Tourists are welcomed with songs describing the beauty of Jamaica as they land in Montego Bay. They arrive to their Hotels and resorts that are gated and protected with trained security guards along with vicious looking German Shepherds, hotels have beach views and design programs for tourists that includes activities around the hotel area, they tour around certain areas that appear to be nicer than most of Jamaican typical areas. Tourists pass by quite a few American chain food restaurants such as Taco Bell, McDonalds, and Baskin Robin. They assume that they are enjoying local cuisine in the cruises and hotels while it’s all imported from Miami. They don’t get to see how Jamaica doesn’t have proper sewerage and how bad the living conditions are, all in...

Words: 454 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Life And Debt

...When many tribal group and ethnic minorities face the prospect of culture, it may sound odd to look for the effects of mass tourism on developing countries. Tourism is necessary for the development of a developing country like Jamaica. Stephanie Black’s film “Life and Debt” begins by, "If you come to Jamaica as a tourist, this is what you'll see..." showing Jamaica as paradise place. Another 1988 documentary directed by an Australian director Dennis O’Rourke is “Cannibal Tours”. Both film contains much ethnographic representation of the two different extreme societies; the local group and the western tourists. Tourism largely involves cultural changes and it affects the developing country. Of course, tourism never led to massacre of natural inhabitants. However it uproots local populations. Mass tourism is an increasing that is depending on global economy mutually. Tourism is necessary for developing country because of the major source of foreign exchange and economic system. Every year thousands of people visit place like Jamaica, as a result they earn foreign exchange. Of course, vacation to a place like Jamaica is a relief from monotonous life. Tourism has created employment that involves improvement the economic system of a developing country. The growth of...

Words: 751 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Life and Debt

...Stephanie Black’s film. Jamaica is a country suffering from a thirty year IMF regime and multinational domination of the traditional self-sustaining, largely agricultural economy. While it relies heavily on the narration of Jamaica Kincaid and interviews, the true stars of the movie are the farmers and working people of Jamaica. These people not only understand what is going on in class terms, but can explain it eloquently. In addition, there is a group of 'rasta' men. As they sit around a campfire in the night, they explain their suffering through a combination of biblical prophecy and anti-imperialist common sense. In the 1970s, the country’s former prime minister signed a loan agreement that led Jamaica to over four billion dollars in debt. This caused a sinking economy of low-valued imports and sweatshops. In the film, we see workers working gruesome work schedules. This is all to receive only the legal minimum wage of only $30 in US money for the entire week. Many women have protested against the poor compensation and have been fired from their jobs. Doing this has also caused them to be placed on a blacklist, preventing them from ever getting work again. The country’s ports are lined with the factories of high profile companies, all which are available to wealthy corporations at low costs. No matter how long each corporations lasts in this Free Trade Zone, Jamaica is benefiting very little by the presence of the factories. Consequently, the film talks about a chicken...

Words: 491 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Life And Debt Essay

...The film, Life and Debt by Stephanie Black shows how Jamaicans struggle economically and racially through their daily lives due to the International Monetary Fund. The purpose of the IMF is to assist the developing countries, as well as securing financial stability; however that only destroyed the economy of Jamaica and its agriculture as well. Some of the themes that are portrayed in this film are the effects of tourism and international involvement/globalization has on the natives. Life in debt really opened my eyes regarding tourism. It did a perfect job demonstrating the separation of how the outsiders view Jamaica, as to how it actually is and the serious problems the natives face. By displaying these two distinctive points of...

Words: 902 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Life and Debt Paper

...Forever In Debt When Jamaica received its independence from Great Britain in 1962, it had all the essentials of being a new and strong country except for finances. Knowing the newly formed country of Jamaica couldn’t strive and succeed without financial help, Michael Manley (Jamaica’s prime minister at the time) made a few deals with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to borrow funds so the country can slowly begin to grow and survive on its own. The documentary Life and Debt directed by Stephanie Black showed and talked about how the agreements made with the IMF impacted Jamaica and its economy in a horrible manor. The film gave the impression that the audience it was trying to reach out to was the average tourists. The movie always showed scenes of tourists having fun on the beach or doing other various activities, and when doing so it referred to the tourists by saying “You”. That is why I think the Audience for the movie would be tourists. Life and Debt had a fair share of both strengths and weaknesses. One of its most crucial strengths was that it interviewed and shared the story of many different people, who have been impacted by the deals made between Jamaica and the IMF. Like the farmer in the milk industry. This is good because it gives the viewer firsthand knowledge of the issues from someone directly involved in it. Another essential strength would be that the film did a good job describing how the IMF works. This is important because it doesn’t leave the audience...

Words: 1747 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Clara Han Life In Debt

...In “Life in Debt: Times of Care and Violence in Neoliberal Chile” by Clara Han, the author sets out to survey the debt-ridden landscape found in what is a modern day población, which is the Chilean equivalent of a shanty town or ghetto called La Pincoya, Chile. The author introduces the readers to several families whom she uses as subjects to explain the socio-economic landscape as a result of the seventeen year long dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The author’s focus in the book is to “consider how the states ‘care’ in the democratic transition is inhabited by the past” (p. 3). This is framed in the sense of how the everyday life is fragmented into unequal social arrangements. That is it say that the author role is creating ethnographic...

Words: 765 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Richard Wilks Life And Debt Jamaica

...manipulate internal and external enemies. To prove his point, Wilks draws on the effects of globalization imposed by huge core nations on local farmers. Many of them, like the Belize farmers, where there is profitable market, they respond quickly and enthusiastically. However, when being pushed away on the market through the system of subsidization of foreigner goods, many of them quick their farm and find themselves working for these big companies. It is just nonsensical, in my opinion, to have local farmers having to compete with globalization. They will always be destroyed off the market because these core nations are able to subsidize their products, making them cheaper to consume. In class, we have watched a great video called “Life and Debt Jamaica’, which serves as a prime example of the system of subsidization of products on the market. Many foreign products in Jamaica were subsidized...

Words: 502 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Comparing Stephanie Black's Film 'Life And Debt'

...While watching Stephanie Black's film Life and Debt, I was not expecting to see the sad truth behind a third world nation. I never have given attention to the outside world. Living in Canada with many privileges, gave me enough ignorance to forget about the less privileged. What worried me more was the fact that they were in a debt loop by the hands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Jamaica was a developing country but lacks the strength to stand by itself. Looking at Jamaica, I was astonished to see the poverty and lack of recourses. They have many issues as a country. The film explains how this occurs over time and all of it begins at the IMF. The textbook states that the reason the IMF exists is to help rebuild Europe from the...

Words: 341 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Advance Age Wise Assets Allocation Method

...ARTICLE ADVANCE AGE WISE ASSETS ALLOCATION METHOD - Nikhil Srivastava Age plays a crucial role in our life. As our age increases, our life decreases. It implies that age and life of a person have negative correlation. We know that life of a human being is divided into four stages namely childhood, adolescence, youth and old age. In childhood and adolescence we have more desires which we are governed by, whereas in matured and older age we have more needs and we work for fulfillment of the same. When a person is ruled by desires, he has more enthusiasm but when he works for his needs, he is not much energetic. For example, at a younger age we like to play and we play without being afraid of injuries because at that age human body has good resistance power and injuries get cured easily. But as we grow in age we avoid playing, though games lure us but we don't like to take any risk of getting injured. This is human nature. It is now obvious that when we are grown up, there is loss of energy and self confidence. This human behavior is evident in a person's investment strategies as well. In early part of our earning life we usually invest more in shares in comparison to debt market. But as our age increases we invest more in debt and less in equity, because now we invest for fulfillment of our needs, rather our desire and when a person invests for his needs he doesn't want to take any risk. This is logically true, because as person grows his risk tolerance level decreases. Let's see...

Words: 2820 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Coverage Ratios

...Available for Debt Service CADS equals to pre-tax operating income plus interest income from reserve account minus mandatory capital expenditure minus investment in net working capital minus required contributions to reserve accounts. Note: Depreciation & amortisations should be added back to net operating income. Indirect taxes should also be subtracted from operating income if included in operating income earlier but income tax should not be deducted. Normally debt service reserve accounts are not considered for the purpose of DADS. DSRA = Debt Service reserve Account is created when there is surplus cash inflows & used up when there is a cash short fall. FCF = Free cash flow equal to EBIT after taxes plus depreciation & amortisation, minus capital expenditure & increases in net working capital. KD = The cost of debt (i.e. stated interest rate); if there are multiple tranches or instruments, then it is weighted average cost of debts. Interest Coverage Ratio (e.g. Times Interest Earned i.e. TIE) = This ratio is rarely used in project finance because debts are of finite periods & rarely rolled over unlike in corporate finance. Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) or Annual Debt service Coverage Ratio (ADSCR) = CADS / DS (year-by-year) Minimum & maximum of DSCR depicts the period of excess financial risk. Average Debt Service Coverage Ratio (Average DSCR) = Averages of ADSCR over the life of the...

Words: 382 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Student Debt Benefits

...loans as a pay method for students who cannot afford college. Ultimately, this leads the average student into thousands of dollars in debt and being forced to live in debt. Approximately two thirds of college students graduate with the burden of student loans. Most students can’t pay off their whole loan debt until their late forties. By paying for your education in cash, you will not have to worry about being in debt when you graduate, and you can go straight to the field of work you studied so hard and paid so much to be in. Currently, there is eighty-five billion dollars of student loan debts are past due, and thirty percent of students have missed a payment. Student loan debt becomes a routine part of your life, and you will have to realize that there might be a time where you will not always be able to make a payment by a specific deadline....

Words: 637 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Insurence

...Determinant of capital structure of life insurance Company in BD Research Data Presentation Content | Limitation in Data collection and arrangement | | Numerical data for research | | Capital Structure ( Asset Management) Ratios of Company | | Industry Performance Analysis | | Notes and Explanation | Limitation in Data collection and Arrangement: In the process of data collection and arrangement , following limitation found to be realistic. * There are 10 listed life insurance companies in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).Annual Report of all the companies are in irregular intervals from FY to FY. * In order to maintain the consistency of data From FY to FY, We arranged financial data of five leading insurance companies which have consequent financial reports from FY 2006 – FY 2010 . * Key financial information (Balance Sheet Items) has been arranged and summarized in Million amount Keeping specific explanation. They are included in Notes. These items , however, may vary in accordance with Accounting Standard. * Annual Reports which are irregular from FY to FY are included in appendix Section for future and further research. Numerical Data For Research : Name of the Company | Financial Reports Available in FY | Shandhani Life Insurance | FY 2002 - 2009 | Pragati Life Insurance | FY 2005,2006,2008,2009 | Fareast Islami Life Insurance | FY2005,2006,2007,2009 | PopularLife Insurance | FY 2005,2006,2008,2009 | National Life Insurance | FY2002 – 2005,2007,2009...

Words: 2112 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Corporate Finance

... 2.1 Calculate cost of debt (rd) 5 2.2 Calculate ratio debt/capital and equity/capital in market value terms 6 2.3 Calculate Beta (β) for Coleman Systems 8 2.4 Calculate Cost of Equity 10 2.5 Calculate the weighted average cost of capital for Coleman Systems 10 3. THE WACC AND PROJECT VALUES FOR DIFFERENT DEBT – EQUITY RATIOS AND THE OPTIMAL CAPITAL STRUCTURE FOR THE PROJECT 11 3.1 Case 1: No bankruptcy risk without tax 11 3.2 Case 2: No bankruptcy risk with tax 13 3.3 Case 3: With bankruptcy risk with tax 15 4. DISCUSSION ON AGENCY AND SIGNALLING EFFECT 18 5. REPLACEMENT PFOJECT 21 5.1 Replacing Machine A with Machine B 21 5.2 Replacing Machine A with Machine C 26 6. UNDERTAKE A SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS FOR THE TWO PROJECTS. 31 REFERENCES 34 SEMESTER 2013 CORPORATE FINANCE–BMCF5103 ASSIGNMENT (60%) 1. COLEMAN SYSTEM BACKGROUND INFORMATION Coleman Systems is a private manufacturing company that makes electrical components. We have the following information about Coleman, as well as three listed companies in the electronics industry. |Term |Coleman |Skye |Allied |Foust | |Book value of assets (£m) |£83.9 |£91.3 |£66.9 |£112.0 | |Book value of debt (£m) |£24...

Words: 5094 - Pages: 21

Premium Essay

Student Debt Research Paper

... Most of them think that this kind of debt is “good debt” and is normal for a teenager or any student to do. Dave Ramsey clearly states that “no debt is good debt”. Almost 70% of college students graduate with student loans. 30% of students who take out a student loan dropout. All of those students still think it is okay and normal to be taking out the loans and getting stuck even after they graduate. Although people believe all of this is normal and what you need to do to get a good education, the truth is that student loans lead to a lot of hard debt to pay off, and if they don’t pay off the debt fast, life after college is not enjoyable. There is no reason why...

Words: 634 - Pages: 3