Jamaica

Seven Mile Beach, Negril, Jamaica. Now a major tourist attraction, the beach was once enclosed the Great Morass swamp until a road was built through the swamp from the town of Green Island to Negril in 1959.

Bananas ripening in the sun, Jamaica. Bananas were first imported to Jamaica from the Canary Islands by the Spanish. The industry flourished from the late 19th century until the 1930s, when the crops were struck by banana blight, which all but destroyed the Jamaican economy.

Island in the Caribbean Sea, south of Cuba and west of Haiti.

Government

The 1962 constitution follows closely the unwritten British model, with a resident constitutional head of state, the governor general, representing the British monarch and appointing a prime minister and cabinet, collectively responsible to the legislature. This consists of two chambers, an appointed 21-member senate and a 60-member elected house of representatives. Normally, 13 of the senators are appointed on the advice of the prime minister and 8 on the advice of the leader of the opposition. Members of the house are elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term, but the house is subject to dissolution within that period.

History

Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494, the island was inhabited by Arawak Indians. From 1509 to 1655 it was a Spanish colony, and after this was in British hands until 1959, when it was granted internal self-government, achieving full independence within the Commonwealth in 1962.

After independence

The two leading political figures in the early days of independence were Alexander Bustamante, leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), and Norman Manley, leader of the People's National Party (PNP). The JLP won the 1962 and 1967 elections, led by Bustamante's successor, Hugh Shearer, but the PNP, under Norman Manley's son Michael, was successful in 1972. He advocated social reform and economic independence from the industrialized world. Despite high unemployment, Manley was returned to power in 1976 with an increased majority, but by 1980 the economy had deteriorated, and, rejecting the conditions attached to a loan from the International Monetary Fund, Manley sought support for his policies of economic self-reliance.

Political violence

The 1980 general election campaign was extremely violent, despite calls by Manley and the leader of the JLP, Edward Seaga, for moderation. The outcome was a decisive victory for the JLP, with 51 of the 60 seats in the house of representatives. Seaga thus received a mandate for a return to a renewal of links with the USA and an emphasis on free enterprise. He severed diplomatic links with Cuba in 1981. In 1983 Seaga called an early, snap election, with the opposition claiming they had been given insufficient time to nominate their candidates. The JLP won all 60 seats. There were violent demonstrations when the new parliament was inaugurated, and the PNP said it would continue its opposition outside the parliamentary arena. In the 1989 elections Manley and the PNP won a landslide victory. The new prime minister pledged to pursue moderate economic policies and improve relations with the USA. In 1992 Manley resigned the premiership on the grounds of ill health. Percival Patterson, the former finance minister, was chosen as Manley's successor and in a snap general election, in 1993, he increased his party's majority, winning 52 of the 60 seats in the house of representatives. A new centrist party, the National Democratic Movement, was formed in 1995.

The country's centre-left People's National Party, led by the prime minister, Percival Patterson, won an unprecedented third straight term, routing the conservative Jamaica Labour Party in a general election held in December 1997. He followed this with a fourth term in the general elections of October 2002.

In 2006, Patterson stepped down as prime minister. His local government minister Portia Simpson Miller was elected head of the People's National Party, and succeeded Patterson, becoming Jamaica's first female prime minister.

Prime Minister Patterson promised to reconsider proposals for increases in fuel taxes, in May 1999, after several days of rioting which had brought businesses and tourist operations to a near halt. Patterson appointed a special parliamentary panel to study his proposals and recommend whether they should be implemented or shelved.

In July 2001, violence erupted in Kingston between security forces and gang members with political links. The government called in the army after three days of rioting and gun battles in the capital had left 25 people dead.

Jamaica

Commercial and residential district in central Queens, New York City. Many highways converge here, and the district is an important junction on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). Jamaica was a thriving commercial and retail centre from the early 20th century onwards. The first supermarket in the USA opened here in 1930, but after the 1960s much trade left the area when new shopping malls began to open in nearby Nassau County.

Jamaica's name is a corruption of that of an American Indian people who inhabited the area before Europeans arrived. The original settlement, established in the 1650s, also included modern Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, St Albans, and Queens Village. Jamaica was incorporated in 1683 as the first seat of Queens County, and became a ward of the Queens city borough in 1898. For a long time before its development as a commercial centre, it served as the market hub for vegetables and other produce grown in the market gardens of Long Island. A new campus (1986) of York College (City University of New York) and the regional headquarters of the Social Security Administration (1989) are among recent developments in the district. South Jamaica, south of the LIRR tracks, is a generally poorer subdivision.

Jamaica (redirected from Jamica)

Jamaica

Government

History

After independence

Political violence

Jamaica

Jamaica
(redirected from Jamica)