Uploaded on 2014-12-09 by TcmHayles

Digicel’s push to build this building came about as one of the Jamaica government’s push to increase investment in the Island and to also drive their vision for the redevelopment of Downtown Kingston. Downtown Kingston used to be the hub of Jamaican business, government and industry but that died in the 1980-90s because of violence, squatting, poor maintenance of old homes and businesses, economic issues and most notably the effects of hurricane Gilbert on the country post 1988. Digicel is a hip young Irish company that started in Jamaica as a telecoms provider 13 years ago and has continued to grow with Jamaica being its original and key market in the Caribbean, Latin America and the Southern Islands. The Government, has given Digicel tax cuts and other key benefits for building their headquarters downtown and it is the only fully functional self powered smart building in the Caribbean. Now I cannot prove where the materials come from but I can make assumptions based on the fact that Jamaica does not manufacture a lot of the products that would have gone into the buildings. Firstly we make cement but the local cement company is now Trinidad owned and whenever we have shortages of cement, we tend to take it from their Trinidadian subsidiary. The company that was contracted utilized a Chinese firm, so I will assume that the steel is from China. The building is wind powered and the materials could have come from China or the USA. Finally, the building also utilizes solar panels; I am going to assume again that the materials i.e. the panels, the batteries, generators, transformers all came from China. However, after watching a movie called 'Inequality for all' (2013), one of the things I learned is that made in China sometimes means assembled in China. This could translate to parts coming from Japan, The USA, Germany and India but everything is put together in China. Therefore labour, project management skills and materials were supplied via the globalized economy. Reference: Inequality for All (2013), Directed by Jacob Kornbluth, Produced by RADiUS-TWC ![enter image description here][1] [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14181662841675113.jpg