Jamaica (Cultures of the World)

About this book

"No problem." The Jamaican philosophy of life can be summed up in those two words. It reflects the laid-back lifestyle on this Caribbean island. The island of Jamaica is often described as a tropical paradise located in the Caribbean Sea south of Cuba and southwest of Haiti it is the third largest island of the Greater Antilles of the West Indies and the fifth largest island country in the Caribbean. It's really not all that big -- Jamaica is slightly smaller in area than the state of Connecticut -- but it is a nation quite unto itself. Though the population is overwhelmingly African in ancestry (91.4%), the island is a tiny microcosm of ethnicities and races. Jamaica's most important problems are poverty, the power of druglords, arms traffickers, and gangs, and the resulting crime. - p. 5-6.