Where to start....well I suppose we can start from where I started..by watching a documentary that is very much worth watching. I saw this prior to my arrival and I'm glad I did.  It is called, “Life and Debt” filmed by Stephanie Black in 2001 and it shows the nitty gritty economic challenges small countries like Jamaica face against factions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

There are some excerpts on youtube if you would like to look for them, but I believe that you can see the documentary in its entirety here, (that's if you are in the States):

Life and Debt Documentary

Here is the webpage dedicated to the documentary:
http://lifeanddebt.org