The+English+speaking+world

= = Jamaica! Jamaica is an island in the Caribbean Sea south of Cuba. The island is the third largest after Cuba and Hispaniola. Jamaica’s capital is Kingston, and it is the biggest city. The official language is English, and in the region Jamaica it is the most popular English-speaking island. The country’s anthem is “Jamaica, Land we love”. And they have the national anthem, which is called: “God Save the Queen”. Jamaica’s national day is the first Monday in August. The highest mountain is Blue Mountain Peak, and it is 2256 metres. Jamaica’s climate is tropical. The weather is hot and humid, but the climate in the higher inland regions is more temperate. More than 1 million people select Jamaica as their vacation destination each year. There are plenty of sun drenched beaches, excellent food and good Jamaican music there. There are some dry rain-shadow areas in some regions on the south coast. The island lies on a hurricane belt in the Atlantic Ocean, and sometimes it can experience significant damage of the storm. Many people have died and houses have been destroyed because of the hurricanes.



Here is the Jamaican national anthem: "Jamaica, land we love" media type="youtube" key="TRkiyc-lX_E&hl=en&fs=1" height="256" width="314"

Jamaica is a constitutional monarchy. That means that they have a king, a queen and a prime minister. But the king is dead, so now they just have a queen with the name Elizabeth II and a prime minister called Portia Simpson-Miller. Queen Elizabeth officially uses the name “ Queen of Jamaica”. Portia Simpson-Miller is the first woman in Jamaica who is a prime minister, and she was elected in 2006.
 * System of government:**

Queen Elizabeth II

The prime minister Portia Simpson

In 1494 Christopher Columbus arrived as the first European to Jamaica. He called it Santiago and thought it was the most beautiful island he had ever seen. Before that there lived about 60 000 Arawak speaking Indians in the region. They got exterminated by the Spanish people. Today there are no Arawak elements in Jamaica’s culture. From 1517 African slaves were brought to the island. When Great Britain took Jamaica as a colony from Spain in 1655, consisted the majority of the population about few thousand Africans. The British people had to import new slaves to develop their plantation economies, because some of the Africans escaped to the mountains. They established their own agriculture and hunting there. They were called maroons. Huge conflicts between the British people and the maroons characterized the colony until 1739, then the maroons got restricted independence. British farmers developed massive sugar plantations, and a lot of slaves fled to join the maroons. There were lots of rebellions between the slaves in the late 1700’s. In 1838 the slavery was formally repealed, and many people in Jamaica immigrated to the coast of Central America.
 * History:**

The independence:
Up to the year 1938, Jamaica had political been dominated by the white minority. That was just ca. 1% of the population. This year was the People’s national party set up, and the black majority demanded economics and social reforms. In the middle of 1950’s immigrated more than 100 000 Jamaicans to Great Britain and USA. In 1959 the country got an inside autonomy and became member of the West Indian federation. Jamaica became independent from Great Britain 6th August 1962.

Jamaica as an English speaking country:
As I told earlier, Jamaica was a colony under Great Britain from 1655 to 1962. The British people dominated Jamaica political. Since it was only few Africans left, they had to get new slaves to develop their plantation economies. Many British farmers made sugar plantations. The slaves had to learn English, because they were working for the English people. The slaves didn’t like to work for them. So instead, almost everyone fled to the maroons.

Export, industry and trade:
Now in this time Jamaica is a development country with the economy based on bauxite, tourism and sugar. In the 1960’s bauxite extraction was the country’s most important income source. And Jamaica became the main supplier to the aluminium production in the world. Companies from America and Canada controlled the aluminium production. Jamaica’s most important trade agreements are Britain, USA, Canada and Netherlands. Sugar cane is the most important exportation that has ever grown. Banana, coffee, cocoa and citrus fruits have also grown in sale. For their own consumption they cultivate maize, roots (sweet potatoes, yams, maniocs), tobaccos and coconuts. But the land has to import corn and other basis’ victuals.

Bauxite and sugar canes

Similarities between Great Britain and Jamaica:
As I mentioned before, Jamaica and Great Britain has the same form of government. And Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen in both countries. The language is the biggest similarity between Britain and Jamaica, because the official language is English, so both of them are an English speaking country. People from the countries are very interested in sports, and they are really good in different kinds of sports. For example sprints.

Music:
The meeting between African and European traditions marked the music in Jamaica. There are not many places that are selling so much locally produced music to their own population as in Jamaica. The music is very important there. A music genre that was developed in Jamaica in the 1960’s is reggae. Reggae has slow rhythm and social-critically texts. Wherever you go can you hear slow tones from old-fashioned reggae or brutal rhythm from variants, which is modern. The Rastafarian religious movement were often inspired them the artists. Many reggae-artists, with Bob Marley in front, made success in Europe. Reggae has been an important element in the modern Western popular music. In Jamaica you often can hear the music from the radio, from tired cassette recorders, from huge “ sound systems”, or from the Jamaicans. If you meet a Jamaican, are the chances really big that this one has been or has wished to become a professional musician

Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley):
Bob Marley was born 6. February 1945 and he died 11. May 1981. He was a Jamaican reggae musician. He was also a singer-songwriter and a Rastafarian. Bob is the performer of reggae music that is most widely known. He had lots of success with his songs.

Bob Marley - Could You Be Loved media type="youtube" key="nQlOLARxC_A&hl=en&fs=1" height="236" width="289"

Sports:
People in Jamaica are very interested in sports. Some of them are cricket, football, athletics and horseracing. These sports are most popular. The country has extremely good sprinters. Asafa Powell was born 23. November 1982 and he is a Jamaican sprinter. He has a personal record on 100m, which is 9.74. That means he is the second quickest in the world. But the fastest is also from Jamaica. His name is Usain Bolt. He was born 21. August 1986. He has the world record with the numbers 9.69. He won a gold medal in the Summer Olympics.

Jamaica has a motto. Which is: “Out of many, one people” This is the Jamaican Coat of Arms. It was granted to Jamaica in1661 under Royal Warrant. This coat-of-arms has been change many times, before it got this, which is now current, in 1962.



Here is a movie I have made about Jamaica: media type="youtube" key="I0FN5u1pCpw" height="344" width="425"

http://snl.no/Jamaica/flagg_og_v%C3%A5pen