Jamaica



Native peoples-
 * Taino Indians were exterminated by colonists and replaced by African slaves.**

Countries that colonized Jamaica-
 * First colonized by the Spanish, then taken over by the English.**

Independence from mother country-
 * On August 6, 1962, Jamaica withdrew from the Federation of the West Indies (English colonies) and gained independence.**

Ethnicity-
 * Mostly black, some mixed.**

Infant Mortality Rate-
 * 15.73 deaths / 1000 live births**

Official Language-
 * English**

Literacy Rate-
 * 87.9% Literate**

Main Exports-
 * Sugar, Rum, Coffee, Cocoa**

GNI- Jamaica- $3,400**
 * USA- $43,740

Percent of Population living on less than $2 a day-
 * 13.3%**

Current Events-
 * Summit for Economy

A summit was held over the weekend to establish a plan to make the Jamaican economy grow in the coming years. Prime Minister Golding said at a press conference held after the summit that much progress has been made and that the details will be available to the public by the end of the week. The conclusion the summit came to was that over the next few months, progress reports on the economy would be written, letting the government know if the plans are working or not. These plans include making a unit of people devoted to finding ways to improve the economy. This unit, that is to be established by the end of the month, will report directly to the Prime Minister. Overall, much progress was made at the summit over the weekend.

This greatly affects the people of Jamaica because of the country’s poor economical status right now. Since the economy of Jamaica isn’t all that good, the people should be pleased with the results of the summit. If the plans to better the economy work out, signs of improvement would be very apparent in the areas of overall wealth and growth of the economy. If the plans do not work, it would call for more summits to solve the problem of Jamaica’s poor economy.**

Dengue Fever

In Santa Cruz, St. Elizabeth, Jamaica a possible outbreak of Dengue Fever has erupted. Since the beginning of last month there has been 300 reported cases spread throughout the country. The health minister, Rudyard Spencer, planned on having a dengue fever drive over the weekend to help stop the further spread of dengue fever. Health officials were trying to get the word out to as many people as possible to get stagnant water out of their yard, which is a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which pass on the fever to humans. If people in Jamaica don’t clean up their homes a very serious outbreak of fever could occur causing many people to lose their lives.

Though the outbreak of dengue fever is not an epidemic it could affect the people of Jamaica drastically. People will begin to panic and the more people that die the worse it will be. People won’t be able to go to work, and with people dying there will be no one to work, affecting the economy. Though dengue fever is not good at all, hopefully it will help people to clean their homes up. According to St. Elizabeth’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Derrick Ledford, "The Aedis aegypti mosquito is commonly found in homes, so residents need to look out for flower pots, tins, tyres and things like that to make sure they are not holding water. They need to really clean up their homes." Hopefully because of peoples fear of contracting the fever they will clean up their homes which will help prevent further outbreaks of diseases.

Bibliography: [|Summit for Economy] [|Dengue Fever] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/jm.html