Jump to content

Portal:Jamaica

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Jamaica Portal

Jamaica
Location of Jamaica
LocationCaribbean

Jamaica (/əˈmkə/ jə-MAY-kə; Jamaican Patois: Jumieka [dʒʌˈmie̯ka]) is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi), it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about 145 km (78 nmi) south of Cuba, 191 km (103 nmi) west of Hispaniola (the island containing Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and 215 km (116 nmi) southeast of the Cayman Islands (a British Overseas Territory).

With 2.8 million people,0 Jamaica is the third most populous Anglophone country in the Americas (after the United States and Canada), and the fourth most populous country in the Caribbean. Kingston is the country's capital and largest city. Most Jamaicans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, with significant European, East Asian (primarily Chinese), Indian, Lebanese, and mixed-race minorities. Because of a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, there is a large Jamaican diaspora, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The country has a global influence that belies its small size; it was the birthplace of the Rastafari religion, reggae music (and such associated genres as dub, ska and dancehall), and it is internationally prominent in sports, including cricket, sprinting, and athletics. Jamaica has sometimes been considered the world's least populous cultural superpower. (Full article...)

Jamaica first joined The World Bank Group (WBG) on 21 February 1963, when the island nation became a member of The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which lends to middle and low income nations. This occurred the same month as Jamaica joining the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and one year after declaring political independence. Since joining The World Bank, Jamaica has received in excess of $3 billion US Dollars in loans and grants. Jamaican Minister of Finance, Donald Sangster, led the Jamaican delegations to World Bank and International monetary Fund meetings between 1963 and 1966, while also serving as Governor of the World Bank and IMF. Sangster would go on to serve briefly as the Prime Minister of Jamaica.

By the end of 1988, Jamaica would join every agency within The World Bank Group except for the International development Association (IDA), the agency that provides interest free loans and grants to underdeveloped nations. As of December 2019, The World Bank has completed 91 project in Jamaica, with 10 additional projects currently active, project still pending approval. Jamaica and The World Bank have worked together to get out of the trend of low growth and high debt, a dangerous combination. These condition have resulted in high interest payments that have taken a toll on state budgets. Together that have developed a program that focuses on three strategic areas: "(i) public sector modernization; (ii) enabling environment for private sector growth; and (iii) social and climate resilience.". Since 2019, Jamaica and the World Bank have embarked on an aggressive reform project, which has included The World Bank providing upwards of $500 million US dollars towards development effort in Jamaica. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Did you know (auto-generated)

Selected biography - show another

Cliff performing in 2012

James Chambers, OM (born 30 July 1944), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievements in the arts and sciences.

Cliff is best known among mainstream audiences for songs such as "Many Rivers to Cross", "You Can Get It If You Really Want", "The Harder They Come", "Reggae Night", and "Hakuna Matata", and his covers of Cat Stevens's "Wild World" and Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now" from the film Cool Runnings. He starred in the film The Harder They Come, which helped popularize reggae around the world, and Club Paradise. Cliff was one of five performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. (Full article...)

General images - show new batch

The following are images from various Jamaica-related articles on Wikipedia.

Good article - show another

This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

Maymie de Mena (December 10, 1879 – October 23, 1953, also known as Maymie Aiken or Madame DeMena Aiken in her later career) was an American-born activist who became one of the highest-ranking officers in the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). She has been credited with keeping the organization alive after Marcus Garvey's conviction for mail fraud and deportation from the United States.

De Mena was born into a Creole family in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, and obtained her education in the United States before marrying a Nicaraguan and moving to Central America. After a decade in which she raised a daughter and taught school, she divorced, returned to the U.S., and joined the UNIA. Quickly rising in the ranks from a translator, because she was fluent in Spanish, de Mena became one of the leaders of the pan-African movement. She was responsible for increasing the membership of the organization in the Caribbean and Latin America. When Garvey was deported from the U.S. to Jamaica, de Mena became Garvey's official representative in New York and was the first woman to carry such a high distinction in the organization. (Full article...)

Selected picture - show another

Marcus Garvey, National Hero of Jamaica.
Marcus Garvey, National Hero of Jamaica.
Credit: Associated Press
Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. The government of Jamaica named him as the country's first National Hero. Pictured is Marcus Garvey in Harlem, New York City in 1922.

Selected cuisines, dishes and foods - show another

Pickapeppa Sauce, also known as Jamaican ketchup, is a brand-name Jamaican condiment, the main product of the Pickapeppa Company, founded in 1921. It is made in Shooters Hill, Jamaica, near Mandeville. The ingredients (in order on the product label) are cane vinegar, sugar, tomatoes, onions, raisins, sea salt, ginger, peppers, garlic, cloves, black pepper, thyme, mangoes, and orange peel, aged in oak barrels. The sauce is sweet, sour, and mildly spicy. The company makes several variants of the sauce, including mango and extra-hot Scotch bonnet pepper varieties.

One traditional use of the sauce is to pour it over a block of cream cheese, to be spread on crackers. (Full article...)

More did you know

Selected lists

Topics

Categories

Related portals and portals of neighbouring countries:

WikiProjects

Tasks

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

More portals

Purge server cache