Modernization In The Film, Countryman And The Harder...

Coping with Babylon

In the films, Countryman and The Harder They Come, display countryside Jamaicans struggling to overcome challenges posed to them by transformation and development of Jamaican civilization. The main characters in the films oppose these encounters in very dissimilar ways. In The Countryman, the main protagonist is a man named “Country”. He insists on protecting two foreigners from the corrupted policemen and officials of the city who are trying to hunt them on false facades. While helping the outsiders, Country uses his spirits of nature and divine forces to come to his help. In The Harder They Come, the main character Ivan becomes aggravated in his multiple attempts to “make it” in the big city. He later clasps the appearance of the “rude boy” and his life folds into violent crime that leads to his death at the end of the film. The main characters in the films separate themselves from the modernization of Jamaica. Modernization is having the quality of being modern or present. It is something that breaks out of a previous era and into a new era, sometimes starting said a new era (Modernization). The Jamaican modernization entailed many people over populating the city streets of Babylon. There are individuals selling anything that could make themselves profit or money to survive out in the city. For example, Ivan, in The Harder They Come, makes a song to see if it can get played on the radio to be a famous artist and “ make it” in the city. There are also people hustling other folks as seen in the beginning of The Harder They Come. Ivan gets off the bus and gets help from a man who later steals all of his clothing. The so called “police” in Jamaica are corrupted officials. Viewing the two films, the “good guys” are not so noble but actually crooked. In The Harder They Come, even though Ivan was transitioning into being a “rude boy” his defiant resistance made him folk hero of the ghetto and the menace to the police who converged on capturing him. In Countryman, the corrupted officers were trying to charge untrue pretenses and on the tourists that survived the helicopter crash and hurt the natural Country for hiding them away from the tainted officials. These examples of modernization of Jamaica lead to such significant separation from rural to urban migration. The modernization effect Jamaica’s export economy and political landscape due to the Jamaican Labour Party and People’s National Party. Jamaican Labour Party was being funded and supported by the CIA. The People’s National Party of Jamaica is funded and supported by Cuban Soviets. These actions got Rastas sucked into the ideas of People’s National Party because the party consisted of the people of Jamaica and not the higher authorities. The Rastas also thought that the party would benefit the poor which it did. The People’s National Party started to use Reggae and Rastas to promote the notions of their group. They used a process called hegemony, to control through imperial influence. This led to the rustic versus the inner-city conflict. The People’s National Party representing the rural migration while the Jamaican Labour Party signifying the urban migration and the Rastafari term “Babylon”. The term “Babylon” is used in Rasta terms with much negative connotations. It is something that the Rastafari are completely opposed to. Corruption, politics, police, laws, and cities are often referred to as "Babylon". Although it is possible to see these mechanisms as having qualities that are harmful to the well-being of any society, there are elements of oppression that take shape through these various creations of civilization. These mechanisms were created out of necessity, else civilization would fall apart. There are oppressive aspects of police, politics and laws that cause them to be labeled as Babylon, although it is not true to say that these institutions were created with the intentions of harm. The harm that is brought about stems from the

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