Environmental Problems in Jamaica

Government agencies charged with environmental responsibilities state that the major environmental problems in Jamaica involve water quality and waste disposal. Jamaica has 9.4 cu km of renewable water resources with 77% used for agriculture and 7% used for industrial purposes. About 85% of the people living in rural areas and 98% of the city dwellers have access to pure drinking water. Coastal waters have been polluted by sewage, oil spills, and industrial wastes. Another major source of water pollution has been the mining of bauxite, which has contaminated the ground water with red-mud waste.

Another environmental problem for Jamaica is land erosion and deforestation. Forest and woodland decreased 7% annually between 1990 and 1995. Jamaica's coral reefs have also been damaged. The nation's cities produce over 0.3 million tons of solid waste per year. Kingston has the waste disposal and vehicular pollution problems typical of a densely populated urban area.

In 2001, four of Jamaica's mammal species were endangered, as were seven bird species and eight reptile species. About 680 plant species are also threatened. Endangered species in Jamaica include the tundra peregrine falcon, homerus swallowtail butterfly, green sea turtle, hawksbill turtle, and American crocodile. The Caribbean monk seal, Osborn's key mouse, and the Jamaica giant galliwasp have become extinct.

Andrea Levy- Writing from the diaspora

In 1948 Andrea Levy's father sailed from Jamaica to England on the Empire Windrush ship and her mother joined him soon after. Andrea was born in London in 1956, growing up black in a very white England. This experience has given her an complex perspective on the country of her birth.

Andrea Levy did not begin writing until she was in her mid-thirties. At that time there was little written about the black British experience in Britian. She writes entertaining novels that reflect the experiences of black Britons, that look closely and perceptively at Britain and its changing population and at the intimacies that bind British history with that of the Caribbean.

Works:

In her first three novels she explored the problems faced by black British-born children of Jamaican emigrants: Every Light in the House Burnin' (1994), Never Far from Nowhere (1996), The Fruit of the Lemon (1999), In her fourth novel Small Island Levy examines the experiences of those of her father's generation who returned to Britain after being in the RAF during the Second World War and the changes immigration brought to everyone's lives. In her latest novel, The Long Song, Levy goes further back to the origins of that intimacy between Britain and the Caribbean. The book is set in early 19th century Jamaica during the last years of slavery and the period immediately after emmancipation.

Andrea Levy is a Londoner. She not only lives and works in the city she loves but has used London as the setting in many of her novels

Soy Criada: Poetry in Jamaica

There are numerous Jamaican writers, some living abroad while many still reside in Jamaica - the Caribbean writers.

At the western part of the Island of Jamaica in the district of Sandy Bay lives the Jamaican poet and inspirational writer Juliet Christie Murray who also goes by the pen name Soy Criada.

Born to Panamanian mother and a Jamaican father the blend has produce an author with an intriguing mind and an interesting personality, quite a powerful yet unassuming lady.

She is today a Jamaican teacher writer and poet. Author of two published book of poems. Journey to Enlightenment-Revealed and Journey to Enlightenment-seasons. She loves her country and has developed the website specular-jamaica.com where she introduces readers to Jamaica's people and culture.

Cuisine of Jamaica

Cuisine of Jamaica includes a mixture of cooking techniques, flavors, spices and influences from the indigenous people on the island and also includes various dishes from the different cultures brought to the island with the arrival of people from elsewhere. Other dishes are novel or a fusion of techniques and traditions. In addition to ingredients that are native to Jamaica, many foods have been introduced and are now grown locally. A wide variety of seafood, tropical fruits and meats are available.

Some Jamaican cuisine dishes are variations on the cuisines and cooking styles brought to the island from elsewhere. These are often modified to incorporate local produce. Others are novel and have developed locally.

Popular Jamaican dishes include:

• curry goat


• fried dumplings


• ackee and salt fish (cod) (the national dish of Jamaica)


• fried plantain


• "jerk"


• steamed cabbage


• "rice and peas" (pigeon peas or kidney beans).

Jamaican Cuisine has been adapted by African, British, French, Spanish, Chinese and Indian influences. Jamaican patties and various pastries and breads are also popular as well as fruit beverages and Jamaican rum.

Notes: Jerk, a distinctly Jamaican style of barbecued meat and chicken, is now one of the most popular Jamaican foods worldwide (in the illustration)

Jamaica´s commerce and economy

Jamaica´s main natural resources: Bauxite, gypsum, limestone, marble, sand, silica.

Main agricultural products:sugar cane, bananas, coffee, citrus fruits, condiments and spices.

Industry: Types--tourism, bauxite and alumina, processed foods, sugar, rum, cement, metal, chemical products, ethanol.

Trade : Exports--$2.6 billion: alumina, bauxite, sugar, bananas, chemicals, citrus fruits and products, rum, coffee.

Major markets: -U.S. 37%, U.K. 15.5%, and Canada. Imports (2008)--$8.5 billion: fuels, machinery, transportation and electrical equipment, food, fertilizer. Major suppliers (2000)--U.S. 40%, Trinidad and Tobago 15.7%, Venezuela 9%, Japan 3%, China 3%, U.K. 2%, Canada 2%.

In the News Today

12 March, 2010

JAMAICA COMMEMORATES SLAVERY ABOLITION

A special ceremony, 'the funeral of the ancestors', took place yesterday in the Jamaican capital, Kingston, as part of commemorations that have been held around the world to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade.

The BBC's Rachel Harvey was there and sent this report:
A solitary horn hewn from animal bones sounding start of ceremonies here. On the waterfront of Kingston's natural harbour, where centuries ago ships laden with slaves would have moored up, a large and colourful crowd is gathered.
This is a multi-faith event - Rastafarians, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, together to honour a common heritage. The Reverend Earnley Gordon of the Anglican Church in Kingston says it's important to acknowledge the past, however troubled that history may be.

REVEREND EARNLEY GORDON: Modern Jamaica is learning that we should forgive, we should reconcile, we should never return to any form of slavery.

And this is a combination of remembrance and celebration, honoring those slaves who perished on the passage from Africa, those who died of neglect or abuse on the sugar plantations, but also praising those who resisted captivity, those whose rebellions played such a crucial role in their own eventual freedom.

Later a scroll with the names of a thousand slaves will be buried under the shade of a tree at the water's edge - the spirits of the ancestors laid to rest.

Rachel Harvey, BBC News, Kingston, Jamaica

Bob Marley

Life

Bob Marley was born on February 6, 1945 in Jamaica to Norval Marley, a middle-aged white plantation overseer from England, and Cedella Booker, a black teenager from the north country. Cedella and Norval were to be married on June 9th, 1944. Approximately a week before the wedding, however, Norval informed Cedella that his chronic hernia had begun to trouble him and as a result he would be changing jobs and moving to Kingston. Norval never really knew his son because of the white upper class' disdain for interracial relationships. As a youth, Bob Marley was often the object of bitter ridicule by both white and black Jamaicans for his mixed heritage.

Musical career

Marley started his musical experimentation in ska and gravitated towards reggae as the music evolved, playing, teaching and singing for a long period in the 1970s and 1980s. Marley is perhaps best-known for work with his reggae group 'The Wailers', which included two other celebrated reggae musicians, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh. Livingstone and Tosh later left the group and went on to become successful solo artists.Much of Marley's early work was produced by Coxsone Dodd at Studio One. That relationship later deteriorated due to financial pressure, and in the early 1970s he produced what is believed by many to be his finest work.. This pair also split apart, this time over the assignment of recording rights. They did work together again in London, though, and remained friends until Marley's death.Marley's work was largely responsible for the mainstream cultural acceptance of reggae music outside of Jamaica. He signed to Island Records label in 1971, at the time a highly influential and innovative label. Island Records boasted a retinue of successful and diverse artists including Genesis, John Martyn and Nick Drake. Though many people believe that Blackwell interfered with what Marley wanted to do with his own music, truth is that the knowledge this producer brought to the scene was critical in Marley's wish to bring reggae to the world.