1,766 miles south, 6 hours of flight, how different can it be? Jamaica is a totally different place than the small square we call home here in Barry county. Is there anything that is the same? What all is different? I can tell you that there is a lot to be said on this, and there is almost more difference than similarities when you travel that far down, and walk into a totally different culture and climate.
The first thing you notice once you get off the plane, is the heat. Jamaica is in the tropic of Cancer, meaning it never experiences all of the seasons. But here in Barry County, we have all four seasons (sometimes within one day). But in Jamaica the average temperature never drops below 60 degrees. But here it is not unusual to have
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Also their roads were much narrower than they are here. Sometimes the roads would be within feet of a cliff, or rock wall. Along with being narrow, the roads also had a lot of twists and turns that got some of our crew carsick on the two hour ride to our destination. It was also interesting to be on the left side of the road while other traffic is heading your way. People also used their car horns much more leniently; they almost have their own honking language. Some honks meant “hello” others were warnings, like when our bus would go around a curve, the driver would let our several honks to tell other drivers he was coming. Overall, it was a cool experience to see the different driving styles of Jamaica compared to home.
Also a lot of people in Jamaica are poor and live in tiny homes, some less than 100 sq ft. The poverty there is much more than what we have here. These people scrape by living on coconuts and plantains, but they don’t seem to complain, and are very happy people. They are very gracious to everyone, and are so happy just to see you and talk to you. The people of Jamaica are just very kind. Not saying the people of Barry County are not kind, but the joy that people show you in the streets is something
addition, after WWI, there were many waves of Jamaican peoples that would come to America.
Cuba lies just ninety miles south of Key West, Florida; therefore its climate is subtropical or temperate. The average minimum temperature is 70°f, the average maximum 81°f (Fast). The trade winds and sea breezes make coastal areas more habitable than temperature would allow. Cuba has a ‘dry season’ between November to April and a ‘wet season’ between May and October (Kapcia). Having such wonderful weather regularly makes Cuba an ideal tourist’s hot spot. Beautiful beaches and lavish hotels also make the island a more desirable place to be. When in Cuba, there are more than enough things to do.
The Caribbean is comprised of a group of island. Jamaica is one of the greatest Antilles. It has a tropical climate. Each country has its own culture, Jamaicans is not an exemption, and they have an assorted and distinctive one. “Their culture is a complex mixture of African, Arabic, European, East Indian, and Chinese roots combining together to create a rich, dynamic heritage” (Gall, 2009).
Jamaica's government is based on the British model of democracy. Even though Jamaica is independent place, it’s part of the commonwealth of Nations and saw Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom as its head of state. She is represented in Jamaica by a governor-general. The governor-general names the leader of the majority party as prime minister, who is the head of government. Representatives are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms. Elections must be held around every five years. Arawak Indians lived in Jamaica when the explorer Christopher Columbus got there in 1494 and claimed the island for Spain. The Spaniards enslaved the Arawak and later brought Africans to the island as slaves. Disease killed almost all the Arawak. British invaded Jamaica in 1655, and they gained possession in 1670. They continued to fight African slaves called Maroons, who had escaped into the hills when the British arrived. The British and the Maroons signed a peace treaty in 1738. Fun Fact: Jamaica’s agricultural products are sugar, bananas, coffee, coconut, cocoa, citrus, pimento,
...rican language largely depends on the racial composition of the speakers. The Bahamian language is more conserved, traditional and Christian than the American religion. There exists clear difference between religions in the two cultures with the Bahamian religion being dominated by the Baptists, Anglicans and the Creole-based traditional religion. However the American religion is more liberalized with Americans embracing many religions that are less known in Bahamas. The American culture customs has major difference with the Bahamian culture. The Bahamian culture is more pronounced with customs than in America. Bahamians are individualistic and do not attach their lifestyles to income but on ethnicity. It is therefore clear that the American and Bahamian culture have clear underlying differences than earlier believed pointing to major variations between the two.
Living in two different places is an experience that opens people’s mind to a new way of thinking. The diversities of each country has its own appeal and often times, we find ourselves comparing and contrasting these nations based a variety of aspects. Despite bearing some minor similarities, the differences in geography, climate, tradition, and economy between the two countries, Jamaica and the United States of America are extensive.
The Westerner referring most commonly to those that are of European descent see the island of Jamaica, to be exotic, a place of wonder and discovery, which is why they decided to settle in hopes of exploring this unknown territory to find adventure just as Edward Said described in Latent and Manifest Orientalism. To this day modern westerners, tourists, have the same mentality that Said described when they travel to Jamaica, they see it as a place to of adventure, a vacation from the boredom and stress that they have experienced back home. What tourists do not realize is that they are able to experience this adventure at the expense of other people’s hard work and labor, which is the Natives daily life. These people may bask all day in what the tourist thinks they enjoy the...
To fully understand the racism that existed in this time period, there needs to be an explanation of the historic events that had passed before the novel’s time period. According to an article concerning the emancipation of Jamaica in the 1800s on jamica-guide.info, England attempted to abolish slavery but was met with fierce objections by the government in Jamaica. Jamaican parliament believed that the slaves were happy and did not crave change which led to an immense conflict which resulted in numerous revolts, one by Sharpe and one by the Creole population led by 21-year old Jordan. There was an immense racism towards whites and the
Browne, David V. C., and Henderson Carter. Atlantic Interactions. Kingston, Jamaica: I. Randle, 2008. Print.
United States and Jamaica have many similarities such as they were both under British rule for several years, and they both elect officials to govern the country. However the differences between the two are quite vast when it comes to the quality of education, government, and healthcare. When the three are compared it is clear to see that in terms of where is a better place for a child to grow up the United States is a better place to be.
Jamaica has been a land exploited and oppressed by white nations for much of its history. First colonized by the Spanish and then the British, it seems hard to imagine a time when it was just the native people living in peace and harmony with the land. Many years after the white man first jammed himself onto the beaches of Jamaica, reggae music was born. A continuing tradition, this easy-to-groove-to music style originated as a voice against this oppression; it was the peaceful islanders way of finally communicating their plighted history to all who would listen, or all who could appreciate a good beat. Much of this oppression came in the time of slavery; a period of nearly two hundred years where those of a dark skin were considered property of the light skinned ones, inferior in all ways. Most of their labor was on sugar plantations, an export that Jamaica was supplying much of the world with. Later in their history, it would be bananas that the British would learn to exploit.
Jamaica is a small island in the Caribbean, however it is the largest English-speaking country in the Caribbean. Jamaica has many traditions and lifestyles, but two of them are music industry and sport. In the music industry, you will find many music legends, and one of them is Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley). Marley is a Jamaican born musician, known for his reggae. He was born in 1945 and died at the age of 36, in 1981. Bob Marley & The Wailers’ most famous song is “Sun is shining” and it is a reggae soundtrack. I find the music industry very interesting because it has soundtracks to various movements in Jamaica, such as Rastafari. Rastafari is an Afro-Caribbean political and spiritual movement, that found place in the 1930s in Jamaica.
Both cultures have different ways of greeting people. In India, we greet people, guests, strangers and friends by folding our hands together when you are praying or greeting with saying “Namaste.” You can also say, hello, good morning or evening. Indians speak the language Hindu. In Jamaica, it’s a normal 'how are you' or 'hey how's it going!' The only difference is the language; Patois is the national language, but they also speak Spanish, Lebanese, French, Chinese and Dutch, since Jamaicans are multi ethnic. Jamaicans greet each other by saying, “Yow Wah gwaan” which means hello in Patois. Jamaicans also greet each other with a handshake, eye contact, and a smile. Men greet each other in hugs and women are very open; women in Jamaica often hug and kiss their friends on the cheek.
To better understand the differences and similarities between Caribbean islands and the people who inhabit them, a look at the works of three individuals can be of assistance. The first, Sidney Mintz, was a knowledgeable historian and well respected authority on the Caribbean. His article, titled, “The Caribbean as a Socio-cultural Area,” is based upon his efforts to create a rigid taxonomy of the Caribbean’s past and how that past affected the present. The second author, Antonio Benitez-Rojo, attempts to do the same thing as Mintz, albeit in a more modern and open-minded way, by breaking down the ideas of what makes the Caribbean the Caribbean. Benitez-Rojo uses the idea of “rhythms” to describe the connection and ideas of community that, to him, make up the idea of “the Caribbean.” The final author is not a historian or literary critic like the previous two, but she does offer perhaps the most revealing look at what life is like on a Caribbean island out of the three. Michelle Cliff is a writer from Jamaica and in her two works, Abeng and “If I Could Write This in Fire, I Would Write This in Fire,” she explores the de...
Jamaican creole is said by Melchers et al (2011:44) to be in the inner circle. Jamaican creole is so widely used in Jamaica that Melchers et al (ibid.) mentions ‘[Jamaican creole’s] status has recently been raised though serious efforts on the part of the Jamaican government to explore language planning and recognition of Jamaican creole as a national language’ The language is derived from a mixture of English and west African language and has become so widely spoken in Jamaica that Sebba (1997:204) even mentions that ‘local variations occur as well as varieties of creole distinctive to particular groups’. I believe this is showing that the Jamaican creole is evolving so in a way that it is being split into different dialects and encouraging the growth of new dialectal