Geography
According to allcitycodes, the island of Jamaica is mainly made up of mountainous terrain surrounded by a small strip of coastline. Cities are usually established in this coastal plain. Due to its situation, in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, it does not suffer hurricanes as often as its neighboring islands. This is mainly due to the wind originating in its mountains, which deflects them.
Climate
Two types of climate are found in Jamaica. A tropical mountain climate prevails on the windward side of the mountains, while a semi-arid climate prevails on the leeward side. Warm winds from the east and northeast bring rain throughout the year. Rain is heaviest from May to October, peaking in both months. Average rainfall is 1,960 millimeters (77 inches) per year.
Temperatures are fairly constant throughout the year, averaging 25 ° C to 30 ° C in the lowlands and 15 ° C to 22 ° C in the higher elevations.Temperatures can drop below 10 ° C in the highlands. summits of the Blue Mountains. The island receives, in addition to the northeast trade winds, the refreshing breeze on land during the day and the cool sea breezes at night. These are known in Jamaica as the “Doctor Breeze” and the “Breeze Undertaker”, respectively.
Coasts
The coast of Jamaica is one of many contrasts. The northeast coast is severely eroded by the sea. There are many small inlets on the rugged coastline, but no coastal plain by any measure. A narrow strip of plains along the north coast offers calm waters and white sand beaches. Behind the beaches is a flat plain raised high coral reefs. The southern coast has small stretches of plain lined by black sand beaches. These products are backed by the limestone cliffs where the plateaus end. In many stretches without coastal plain, the 300-meter cliffs drop straight into the sea. In the southwest, large plains stretch inland for several kilometers. The Rio Negro courses seventy kilometers through the largest of these plains. The swamps of the Ciénaga Grande and Ciénaga Alta fill much of the plains. The western coast contains the best beaches on the island.
Demography
As of 2007 Jamaica has a population of 2,780,132 residents. 76.3% are black, 15.1% are mixed race and the remaining 9.1% are white and Asian. The official language is English. Life expectancy is 71 years. The average number of children per woman is 2.36. The population growth rate is 0.77% per year. 81% of the population is literate.
Economic development
Sightseeing
Jamaica is an important regional tourist center, whose economic weight grew in the 1990s with the help of substantial foreign investment. Its economy is also focused on tourism, on the production of sugar and on the extraction of bauxite, an industry that no longer feeds exclusively on foreign capital, since in 1974 the country bought shares from the main extractors. To these activities must be added the business that was created around the image of Bob Marley, used both for tourism and for the exploitation of Reggae music and everything related to it.
Farming
The agricultural activity is dedicated to the cultivation of products for export, such as coffee, tobacco, banana and sugar cane ; and for indigenous consumption. It is also a traditional pepper producer. Among the industrial activities the transformation of agricultural products, the manufacture of cement, fertilizers, petroleum derivatives and the textile industry predominate. However, all these riches do not revert equally to the population, since Jamaica is historically dominated by a few wealthy families.
Culture
Jamaica stands out for its rich culture and music, which have made the island famous on a global level. The musical genres ska, reggae, rocksteady, dub, dancehall, ragga and ragga jungle, have all been conceived in Jamaica. The most popular music is reggae, with its different styles and mixes, dub, dance hall, raggas, raggamufin, early reggae or roots reggae, made known on a large scale by the Jamaican Bob Marley who through his music deepened and made known a culture that had a worldwide impact. The first of these genres was ska, “father” of the following, the creation of this genre is attributed to The Skatalites. Other lesser known but older music on the island are the Mento, the Ghost and the Calypso.
Religion
The largest religion within the country is Christianity with Rastafarian beliefs, which recognizes Haile Selassie I, the last Emperor of Ethiopia, as the second coming of Christ. One of the icons of this belief was Singer Bob Marley himself; which is appreciated as a prophet for the Jamaican people and is responsible for the great growth of the religion due to its worldwide fame.
Sports
In 1998 the Jamaican soccer team participated for the first time in a Soccer World Cup, in France ’98. He shared group H with Argentina, Croatia and Japan. They lost their first two games, with Croatia 1-3, and then with Argentina 0-5. Finally, they beat the Japanese team 2-1 and, having won only 3 points, they failed to advance to the next round. After this he has not been able to play another World Cup.
In 1988, the participation of the Jamaican Bobsleigh team – unprecedented until then – in the Calgary Olympic Games, drew the attention of the whole world as an example of self-improvement and sportsmanship. Since that date, even without obtaining any official title in 2008, the atypical team of this discipline has made a niche in it, managing to improve itself year after year with increasingly acceptable results. The Bobsleigh team is one of the combined with the fastest start beating more traditional teams in this sport such as Germany or the United States. The Calgary Games event had such a media impact that even Disney produced the movie Cool Runnings (Chosen for Success in Spain, Jamaica Subzero in Latin America).
In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Usain Bolt won gold in the 100 and 200 meter sprints, spectacularly beating the world and Olympic records in both, in addition to hanging his third gold in 4×100 with his fellow Jamaican teammates, Asafa Powellamong them.. In the World Championship in Athletics in 2009 held in Berlin, Bolt again exceeded its mark in 100 and 200 meter dash leaving it in 9 seconds and 58 hundredths.
