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Portal:Jamaica

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The Jamaica Portal

Jamaica
Location of Jamaica
LocationCaribbean

Jamaica 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 and the fourth most populous country in the Caribbean. Kingston is the country's capital and largest city.

Jamaica is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, with power vested in the bicameral Parliament of Jamaica, consisting of an appointed Senate and a directly elected House of Representatives. Andrew Holness has served as Prime Minister of Jamaica since March 2016. Jamaica is a Commonwealth realm, with Charles III as its king; the appointed representative of the Crown is the Governor-General of Jamaica, the office having been held by Patrick Allen since 2009. 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. Most Jamaicans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, with significant European, East Asian (primarily Chinese), Indian, Lebanese, and mixed-race minorities. (Full article...)

The People's National Party (PNP) (PNP; Jamaican Patois: Piipl’s Nashinal Paati) is a social democratic political party in Jamaica, founded in 1938 by Norman Washington Manley who served as party president until his death in 1969. It holds 14 of the 63 seats in the House of Representatives, as 96 of the 227 local government divisions. The party is democratic socialist by constitution.

The party is a member of COPPPAL and a full member of Socialist International. From 1957 to 1962, the party was a member of the West Indies Federal Labour Party in the Federal Parliament of the West Indies Federation. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Did you know (auto-generated)

  • ... that Antoinette Tidjani Alou wrote a work of autofiction that traces the journey of a Jamaican woman who moved to Niger for love?
  • ... that footballer Kameron Simmonds, who plays for Jamaica, only took up the sport after a gymnastics injury?
  • ... that at 107 years old, Stanley Stair of Jamaica was at the time of his death the last surviving Caribbean veteran of World War I?
  • ... that Swedish naval officer Axel Lagerbielke was imprisoned in Lima for over a year, held in Callao and eventually escaped from Panama on an English packet boat to Jamaica?
  • ... that Gloria Cameron was the first native Jamaican in the UK to appear on the British television programme This Is Your Life?

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Ena Collymore-Woodstock OD, MBE (born 10 September 1917) is a Jamaican barrister and magistrate who throughout her career broke many barriers for women. After being orphaned, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service and trained as a radar operator, serving in Belgium and Britain. When the war ended, she earned a law degree and returned to Jamaica to become the first woman Court Clerk, Crown Solicitor, and Resident Magistrate. When the Juvenile Courts were established in the country, she served as its chair from 1964 to 1967 and then as a Senior Resident Magistrate until her retirement in 1977. Post-retirement, she served as magistrate for the Turks and Caicos and Anguilla. For her contributions to the development of Jamaica, she was honored as a member of the Order of the British Empire and Jamaica's Order of Distinction. (Full article...)

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

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

Surface weather analysis conducted by the Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project of the storm near peak intensity approaching Jamaica on August 20

The 1944 Jamaica hurricane was a deadly major hurricane that swept across the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico in August 1944. Conservative estimates placed the storm's death toll at 116. The storm was already well-developed when it was first noted passing westward over the Windward Islands into the Caribbean Sea on August 16. A ship near Grenada with 74 occupants was lost, constituting a majority of the deaths associated with the storm. The following day, the storm intensified into a hurricane, reaching its peak strength on August 20 with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 km/h). At this intensity, the major hurricane made landfall on Jamaica later that day, traversing the length of the island. The damage wrought was extensive, with the strong winds destroying 90 percent of banana trees and 41 percent of coconut trees in Jamaica; the overall damage toll was estimated at "several millions of dollars". The northern coast of Jamaica saw the most severe damage, with widespread structural damage and numerous homes destroyed across several parishes. In Port Maria, the storm was considered the worst since 1903.

Land interaction weakened the hurricane, and the storm maintained this lessened intensity as it passed the Cayman Islands, producing measured gusts of 80–90 mph (130–140 km/h). On August 22, the hurricane moved ashore the Yucatán Peninsula near Cozumel and eventually emerged into the Bay of Campeche as a tropical storm. On August 24, the storm made landfall for a final time near Tampico, Mexico, bringing with it heavy rains that caused flooding throughout the coasts of Veracruz and Texas, killing 12. The storm dissipated over the mountainous terrain of inland Mexico later that day. Heavy rains were reported across the Rio Grande Valley, causing minor flooding. A tornado produced by the storms killed one person in McCook, Texas and injured fifteen others. (Full article...)

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Credit: OUTography.com

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Mannish water is a goat soup in Jamaican cuisine. It is believed to be an aphrodisiac and is made from various goat parts.

The soup has been sold packaged since 2006 when it competed for Best New Food Idea in a competition covered by The Jamaica Observer. The Spicy Hill Farms company is behind the product, an offering of "Jamaica's favourite party soup". The meal has been part of Maroon celebrations for over 300 years. The pieces of goat are seasoned with local herbs and spices, and cooked along with vegetables and "food" - yam, potato, bananas and dumplings. Feedback indicated it was going to be as popular as Tastee patties. The Observer reported that mannish water is still popular at "dead yard" functions, large stage shows and parties (to make sure one can drive home after a few drinks). The food company's factory is in the hills bordering Manchester and Trelawny parishes. (Full article...)

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