Academic literature on the topic 'Jamaica – Economic conditions'

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess how far Jamaica has come regarding women economic empowerment, female entrepreneurship and its development policies in favour of women entrepreneurship development. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory study employs a mixed method approach to achieve its research objectives, consisting of literature review and corroboration with existing database and indices. Key insights of research on female entrepreneurship are used to reflect on published data to assess progress of female entrepreneurship development in Jamaica. The 2017 editions of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and Gender Entrepreneurship and Development Index were examined to gain a better understanding of how the Jamaican business environment has progressed or regressed over time and how the economic development and business environment impact female participation in Jamaica’s labour force and entrepreneurial initiatives. Findings The economic conditions in Jamaica and the role of females as domestic caregiver have made it difficult for women to enter the labour force even though Jamaican women are relatively better educated than men. Women remain at a disadvantage in the labour force. Jamaica’s legislation and budget allocations in favour of female entrepreneurship are analysed to identify where and how Jamaica is investing its efforts to improve women’s participation in the labour force. The authors conclude with suggestions on how the Jamaican government could facilitate further women entrepreneurship development to reach a more gender balanced inclusive socio-economic development. Originality/value While global policy has been promoting women empowerment through entrepreneurial development, little is known on the actual outcome of such human capital investment strategy and the critical vectors that contribute to such outcome. This scarcity of knowledge is also applicable to Jamaica. This paper attempts to contribute to women entrepreneurship research by reaching beyond the output-oriented perspective of various skill development programmes and attempts to link policy choice with overall macro results of entrepreneurship development in general and women entrepreneurship development in specific. The study thus provides a rare glimpse of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Jamaica.

The impact of deteriorating socio-economic conditions on breast-feeding duration in Jamaica is examined In spite of dramatic increases in the consumer price index for food and drink and consequently in the cost of artificial feeding, breast-feeding duration declined by 10.6% during 19871991. This was apparently due to a reduction in postpartum visits by district midwives. It is concluded that breast-feeding promotion should receive increased support under conditions of severe economic hardship.

This research paper examines an overview of literature on the most recent issues that are allied to crime and violence in Jamaica. They have been an issue which has affected the Caribbean as a whole but due to the islands many social and economic problems, it has shown an increase in crime and violence most noticeably in Jamaica. This issue has caused millions of people to live in fear due to the constant and never-ending crime and violence. The horrors of violence and crime has undoubtedly had a more profound and significant negative impact on the young population. My research will focus on the aspects of violence and crime in Jamaica. This paper will also cover the general conditions in Jamaica, the organized crime and the conventional violence, and how the impact of the crime has had an effect on economic growth. My conclusion will focus on the policies which these countries have to change that will significantly reduce crime and violence and as a result will provide a better social and economic future for all of its citizens. The aim of this research is to have a broader understanding about crime and violence in Jamaica and to raise global awareness about their conditions and the humanitarian problems.

This essay is concerned with the conditions of Black life in the 21st century and the continued need to imagine Black freedom as projects of self-sovereignty, in the current moment of global protests centered on the socio-economic inequities that people especially those of color face, deepened by the devastating effects of Covid-19. The essay’s focus is on the Caribbean island of Jamaica. I highlight the articulation of race and class that springs from a world history of anti-blackness, historicized through plantation slavery. The essay addresses the enduring violence manifest in physical assaults and political projects of Development, that lead to widespread deprivation for lower-income Jamaicans. Yet the essay suggests that it is these very sordid conditions that generate alternative imaginaries for a sustainable re-ordering of life.

Objective: The full academic potential of tertiary students in Jamaica is diminished by their struggles to secure tuition and non-tuition financial resources. Principal among student needs is the ability to consume regular healthy meals. This study among three tertiary institutions in Jamaica explored the dynamics that affect student food security and how this can harm student success. It also examined how frequently tertiary students worry about feeding themselves and the extent to which they restrict their food intake. Methods: The analysis classified students as having low, moderate and severe hunger. Nine hundred and seventy-nine students completed the surveys through a quantitative method approach to collect data from students in different disciplines. To determine the factors related to hunger several demographic, socio-economic, living conditions and academic-related variables were examined. Results: The study found that most of the students (38.3%) suffered from severe hunger followed by moderate hunger (33%) and the lowest proportion (29.3%) with no/mild hunger. More than 70% of students worried each month about not having enough food while 33% of the students sometimes do not eat for an entire day. Their physical and emotional readiness to study was compromised as 40% said hunger affected their academic work via a variety of reasons such as headaches, poor concentration, and missed classes. Importantly, the low-achieving students experienced the most hunger. Conclusion: With data showing a strong link between food insecurity and student disengagement, the issue of hunger on campus represents a priority. The study concludes that administrators, counselors and the students themselves have critical roles to address hunger if tertiary institutions are to fully meet their educational mandate.

Abstract Introduction: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an autosomal recessive hemoglobinopathy that causes red blood cell sickling and blockage of blood vessels that result in painful debilitating vaso-occlusive crises (VOC). Yet, individuals with SCD face negative stereotyping and stigmatization when accessing healthcare that contribute not only to feelings of shame, anger and distrust towards providers, but also to serious complications and poor outcomes. Comparison of individuals' experiences, assessment and management of VOC across different cultural landscapes may identify intervenable targets that could improve overall care and outcomes of SCD. Methods: This is a transnational qualitative research study that examined the perceptions, treatments and socio-economic impacts of pain in participants living with SCD in Jamaica (n= 31) and Cameroon (n=50). Participants completed semi-structured interviews that were collectively examined for themes and differences in experiences with acute and chronic pain. Analysis was completed using NVivo 12. Results: Both Jamaican and Cameroonian participants reported diverse psychosocial, physical and health causes of their VOC including, strenuous physical activity, intense emotionality, unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, other health conditions and extreme weather conditions. Similarly, both had challenges communicating the severity and type of VOC pain to providers when accessing healthcare for themselves and their children. Furthermore, both reported providers' reliance on non-validated forms of pain assessment (Cameroon > Jamaica) such as behavioral cues rather than standardized numerical or visual scales that participants believed were easy-to-use and capable of improving the assessment and treatment of VOC. Jamaican participants also experienced more positive, less-discriminatory practices treating their VOC in specialized vs. unspecialized SCD public and private clinical settings. At least half of all participants reported satisfaction with overall provider treatment of VOC. Both Jamaican and Cameroonian participants primarily used non-opioid pain analgesics, daily folic acid and distraction rather than hydroxyurea to manage their acute and chronic VOC pain and thereby, presented late for treatment of unbearable pain. Participants also reported using both traditional medicine and lifestyle changes to maintain a positive mindset and decrease the occurrences of VOC. Lifestyle changes included eating a healthy diet, engaging in relaxation activities and mindfulness techniques (massages, breathing exercises, listening to music and resting). All participants were interested in learning about alternative methods of managing their VOC pain. Conclusion: The use of validated numerical and visual pain scales as well as the implementation of specialized SCD facilities in the public and private clinic settings may help eliminate communication barriers and discriminatory practices to improve overall satisfaction and treatment of VOC in SCD. Disclosures Asnani: Aruvant Sciences: Research Funding; Avicanna Ltd.: Research Funding.

Technology transfer to developing countries has traditionally involved the transfer of tools and methodologies developed in industrialized nations for use in poorer developing countries. Good technology transfer, however, includes knowledge of the relationships between the fundamental principles involved in the design of the technology, rather than implementation of an existing finished product. For successful transfer of technology to developing countries to occur, it is important to recognize the differences between developing countries and industrialized nations because differences in social and economic conditions between the two types of countries may warrant alternative approaches both to analysis and to implementation of solutions. The transfer of transportation technology can be inappropriate where driver behavior is a significant factor, such as in the analysis of intersections controlled by stop signs. Observations of drivers at stop-controlled intersections in Kingston, Jamaica, show that drivers seem to be more interactive than those in the United States. For example, drivers on the major approach of a two-way stop-controlled intersection have been observed to yield their right-of-way to vehicles on the minor or stop-controlled approach. The objectives of this research are to assess the suitability of methodologies developed for use in the United States for evaluating stop-controlled intersections in Kingston and to propose an alternative methodology that may be more appropriate for Kingston and locales in other developing countries with similar driver and roadway characteristics.

Kendrick Lamar’s lyrics and subject matter often require repeated listens that reveal perspectives ranging from his upbringing in Compton, his parents’ migration from Chicago to California and broader questions of identity, place, displacement, belonging and home. A self-described Southern California ‘80s baby’, Lamar’s music nevertheless imagines Black self-identification in a broader and global sense. His work reflects rootlessness among continental and diasporic Africans across time and space. Utilizing approaches of British Cultural Studies and African diaspora studies, this article analyses Lamar’s critically acclaimed album To Pimp a Butterfly (2015). The pursuit of home as a response to the unbound nature of diasporic existence – connected to histories of transatlantic slavery, the Middle Passage and the plantation enterprise in the United States, the Caribbean and South America – reverberates for Lamar as an African American millennial yet also situate him within a continuum of Afro-Atlantic artistic innovators. In places as varied as Chicago, Compton, Jamaica, South Africa and London, Black people reckon with the meanings of home and Lamar offers his unique Afro-diasporic perspective. Lamar’s ruminations on intra-national migrations within the United States allow for a theorization of various iterations of home that include specific communities, families, cities, nations, gangs and the comforts of a bottle of vodka. Lamar’s lyrical confessions embrace identification as process, a brilliant and probing strategy that references histories of movement in the United States as well as ethnic tensions in South Africa, post-independence political economic realities in Jamaica and the history of migration from the Caribbean to metropolitan Britain. I suggest that Lamar introduces a particularized twenty-first-century Black racialized humanism where his own position vacillates between predator and victim. Who Lamar is and who he is said or seen to be recurs and reflects the specific conditions he and contemporary diasporans negotiate across the globe.

<p>O presente artigo tem como objetivo central compreender os processos de interferência da indústria fonográfica sobre a música popular. Diante da expansão da lógica formal capitalista no campo da arte, a relação entre objetividade e subjetividade será a mola propulsora que utilizaremos para analisar paradoxos no processo de reprodução da música popular moderna, tais como indústria cultural e a reprodutibilidade técnica. Assim, partindo da análise do reggae jamaicano, buscamos ampliar o postulado adorniano sobre massificação da música para uma análise na qual seja possível investigar a experiência de produção artística periférica, como a da música popular jamaicana. Essa problemática abriu espaço para a discussão acerca da possibilidade de a indústria fonográfica ter múltiplas formas de atuação, a partir das contingências geradas pela singularidade do funcionamento desigual das condições econômicas, políticas e culturais de cada região, não perdendo de<br />vista que as configurações locais são partes integrantes do modo de produção capitalista.</p><p> </p><p>THE EMERGENCE OF POPULAR MUSIC AND ITS INTERFACES WITH THE PHONOGRAPHIC INDUSTRY</p><p>This article is about popular music, focusing in the relations built by music in face of capitalism’s expansion in the arts’ field. For this instance, the<br />relations between objectivity and subjectivity will be the plot from where we will analyze the paradoxes in the process of modern popular music reproduction, such as: culture industry and the work of art in the age of its technological reproduction. So, starting from the Jamaican reggae, we seek to wise Adorno’s perspective about music investigation to an analysis where is possible to<br />investigate the outlying artistic production, as the popular music that rises in Jamaica. This argument opened space to a discussion about the possibility of the phonographic industry have multiple actuation forms developed from its contingencies that are created by the singularities of its unequal way of work in face of different economic, political and cultural circumstances, keeping in sight that local realities are integrated to the capitalism mode of production.</p><p>Keywords: Popular music. Jamaican reggae. Culture industry. Phonographic industry. Aesthetics.</p><p> </p><p>L’EMERGENCE DE LA MUSIQUE POPULAIRE ET SES INTERFACES AVEC L’INDUSTRIE PHONOGRAPHIQUE</p><p>Le sujet de cet article c’est la musique populaire. On prend la question des rapports entre la musique et la logique de l’expansion capitaliste au domaine<br />de l’art. Pour cela, la relation entre l’objectivité et la subjectivité c’est la force motrice de notre analyse sur les paradoxes du procès de reproduction de la<br />musique populaire moderne, tels que : l’industrie culturelle et la reproductibilité technique. On part de la musique jamaïcaine pour faire la critique au postulat adornien de la négativité appliqué à la musique erudite, en visant comprendre avec lui, aussi, la musique populaire, particulièrement la musique pop des régions périphériques du monde. Cette voie des discussions nous ouvre des multiples possibilités des investigations sur l’industrie phonographique, issues des contingences générées par la singularité du fonctionnement inégal des conditions économiques, politiques et culturelles de chaque région, sans oublier que les configurations locales font partie intégrante de mode de production capitaliste.</p><p>Mots-clés: Musique populaire. Reggae jamaïcain. Industrie culturelle. Esthétique.</p><p> </p>