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Objectives: Cervical cancer prevention practices are desperately low in the Caribbean. This study aims to describe the cervical cancer stigma and to evaluate the influence of the prevention practices among the Caribbean non-patient population in Jamaica, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 1,207 participants was conducted using a culturally trans-created Cancer Stigma Scale for the Caribbean context and supplemented with questions on cervical cancer and HPV/HPV vaccine knowledge and beliefs. Data collection took place online from October 2022 to March 2023. Results: Participants are young, single, well-educated, and have stable financial resources. Over a quarter (26.4%) agreed women with cervical cancer are more isolated in their country. Almost half (47%) of respondents agreed cultural background plays a big part in how they feel about illness and getting well. One in six participants believe women with cervical cancer are treated with less respect than usual by others in their country. Conclusion: Cancer stigma of cervical cancer exists in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Grenada. Particularly, cultural background and social norms are closely linked to stigma., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they do not have any conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Thomas-Purcell, Bailey, Sealy, Song and Ashing.)

Jamaica is an island nation with a history that is informed by Taino settlement, European colonisation, chattel slavery, disinvestment, and continued extractivism. This perspective paper leverages a historical analysis to explore environmental injustices affecting the health and quality of life of Jamaicans living in Jamaica. This article hopes to contribute to a growing but limited body of scholarly research that contends with environmental and climate justice in the context of the Caribbean. In discussing a lack of critical environmental infrastructure, such as reliable solid waste management, and the impacts of extractive industries, such as bauxite mining, the paper intends to highlight the environmental, public health, and social harms that are produced. Employing an intersectional approach grounded in Black feminist epistemology put forward by Patricia Hill Collins, the authors use their lived experiences as a source of knowledge. The paper analyses how these environmental injustices harm Jamaican communities at large but underscores the compounded challenges faced by Jamaican women who experience marginalisation on the basis of gender, urban/rural residency, and class. The paper concludes by urging researchers, policymakers, regulatory bodies, and other stakeholders to conduct further research and create sustainable and equitable environmental standards that have considerations for environmental injustice in Jamaica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmentalism has been defined in multiple ways across the literature from a global perspective, both as an ideology and as a movement. However, the definitions of environmentalism have been either vaguely defined or broad with the most common characterization being that of conservation and preservation being at the heart of environmentalism. While there is considerable research on environmentalism in the industrialized world context, there is still limited research in developing regions, with a dearth of research in the Caribbean, hence the rationale for this research. The physical environments of former colonial states have always been subjected to exploitation, yet the way in which this resource has been used by local populations have not been characterized. This paper begins to examine the ways in which local populations of former colonized states view environmentalism. Taking a case study approach, Jamaica is used as the beginning point of reference. Using interviews with self-identified environmental activists, results indicate that there is, what is uniquely referred to in this paper, a decolonial environmental worldview (DEW) that exists among environmental activists. This worldview is grounded in a number of principles that are tied to the way in which the decolonization process continues to proceed in the Caribbean region. The paper postulates that this DEW framework has elasticity and should be applied to other postcolonial societies to determine its salience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, British colonists in Jamaica became increasingly exasperated by the damage caused to their sugar plantations by rats. In 1872, a British planter attempted to solve this problem by introducing the small Indian mongoose (Urva auropunctata). The animals, however, turned on Jamaica's insectivorous birds and reptiles, leading to an explosion in the tick population. This paper situates the mongoose catastrophe as a closing chapter in the history of the nineteenth-century acclimatization movement. While foreign observers saw the introduction of the mongoose as a cautionary tale, caricaturing British Jamaica as overrun by a plague of weasels and ticks, British colonists, administrators and naturalists – identifying a gradual decline of both populations – argued that the 'balance of nature' would eventually reassert itself. As this paper argues, through this dubious claim they were attempting to retrospectively rationalize or justify the introductions and their disastrous aftermath. This strategy enabled them to gloss over the lasting ecological damage caused by the mongoose, and allowed its adherents to continue their uncritical support of both the Jamaican plantation economy and animal introductions in the British Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the Caribbean, the number of students pursuing postgraduate studies in higher education institutions (HEIs) has increased over the years. Consequently, locally contextualised epistemologies and empowering methods are needed to help adult learners in Caribbean higher education (HE) navigate their studies. This paper presents findings from a photovoice study undertaken with postgraduate adult learners at an HEI in Jamaica. Participants used photographs, written reflections and group discussions to explore their HE journey. Given the intervening nature of the pandemic in the immediate period after the study was conceptualised and participants engaged, this paper focuses on the ways in which photovoice offered participants opportunities to make meaning of their HE journey. Findings demonstrate that the use of photovoice was transformative in how it empowered participants through the opportunity to engage in self-discovery and discuss their thoughts and emotions, facilitated peer support, and how it enabled adult learners to forge resilience as they undertook their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages with radical Black Power print production in order to examine the articulation of Black practices of place‐making and Black internationalist spatial politics. These spatial politics and practices are developed through engagement with the Jamaican Black Power newspaper Abeng which was produced at the height of Black Power activity on the island in 1969. The paper draws on Black Geographies scholarship to demonstrate that Abeng represented a material and discursive means through which subaltern practices and places of resistance in Jamaica were enacted in opposition to and excess of plantation spatialities and regimes on the island. The carving out of such subaltern places allowed for the articulation of transnational imaginaries and translocal solidarities with similarly aligned communities and struggles across the diasporic world. The Abeng newspaper was again central in crafting these imagined Black internationalist geographies and coeval praxes of transnational solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on some of the findings of an ethnographic doctoral study on ESD in a Jamaican school and community. The research study explored the interaction between local knowledge, values and practices and dominant Western approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD). Accordingly, the paper focuses on the challenges and lessons revealed by these diverse perspectives and how they can inform academic and policy ESD discourses locally and globally. Imbued with eco-pedagogical and postcolonial perspectives, it proposes that encompassing a Rastafarian spiritual ethos within ESD pedagogical approaches in Jamaica represents a potential to address some of the shortcomings that emerge from a critical review of the international literature on ESD, as well as the drawbacks of ESD implementation in the island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe purpose of this paper was to discuss the collaborative initiative between the Mona Library (ML) and the Library and Information Association of Jamaica (LIAJA) focused on digitizing the Association’s peer-reviewed publications, specifically the Jamaica Library Association (JLA) Bulletin and the LIAJA Bulletin, for enhanced access and preservation. The paper also addressed the compilation of a second index for the LIAJA Bulletin, covering the period from 2007 to its electronic publication in 2014. This second index was intended to complement the first index, which was compiled from 1950 to 2006. This collaborative project presented numerous challenges and benefits, offering valuable insights for future initiatives. Key benefits for the library included the enhancement of staff competencies, strengthening of institutional reputation, increased growth and visibility, and the preservation of Jamaican and Caribbean librarians’ scholarly output for future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collected data represent responses from fourteen (14) participants to an online questionnaire, whose responses facilitated the production of a research paper: "Identifying, discovering and marketing grey literature in Science in the English-speaking Caribbean: A Case Study of Jamaica's Scientific Information Units" published in IFLA Library in October 20191. The participants were the total population of the 21 active former members of the Scientific and Technical Information Network (STIN), after it was ascertained via telephone calls that 5 of the 28 units listed in the available Directory were defunct, and that 2 had no librarians. STIN is now incorporated along with other broad subject networks such as the Social & Economic Information Network (SECIN) into a single entity called Government Libraries Information Network & Associates. The dataset comprises answers to twenty-one (21) questions of which 17 allowed for single responses; 2 multiple responses which solicited additional responses; and 2 open ended responses. Of the total single response questions, 10 solicited additional responses. Question 7 is a unique single response question which facilitates the checking of the box of "Other" and/or supplying additional Information. The survey consisted of 4 main sections: demographics and awareness [comprising 9 questions]; challenges and strategies with organization [comprising 6 questions]; and the advocacy and marketing of grey literature [comprising 5 questions]; and a single free range question requiring the respondents to give their personal experiences in identifying, discovering and marketing grey literature. The data was collected from May 2019 to June 2019 via survey monkey, where it remains stored along with a copy housed in the DANS Easy Archive. Its creative commons status facilitates its reuse and there is potential for comparison with similar subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the experiences of 28 grade ten Jamaican high school students and their teacher in an action research project involving the use of student-centred strategies to teach a unit on photosynthesis. Examples of these strategies include brainstorming, scenarios, and simulations. Three research questions guided the action research which utilised a unit test, questionnaire, structured interview, and a rating scale for data collection. The findings indicated a statistically significant gain on students' scores on the post-test for the unit on photosynthesis (t = -9.48; p<0.05). Results also indicated that the students generally responded positively to the use of student-centred strategies, for instance, increased engagement and linking concepts to real-life situations. The results imply that instructional strategies which involve students more in the learning process have the potential to increase their engagement and enhance learning. The teacher-researcher indicated that planning and implementing the strategies was rewarding but time consuming. To ensure successful implementation, teachers could benefit from professional development programmes that provide guidance on design and implementing student-centred strategies, while students could benefit from ongoing support and encouragement during the use of these strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a Cultural Studies approach to thematic analysis of four public murals in Kingston and urban St. Andrew, Jamaica, which comprise a case study. The Vision 2030 mural in Southside, Kingston, is an independent interpretation of Vision 2030, the government's plan for Jamaica's optimal development by the target year. Two Liv Gud! murals, one outside Southside and another near Swallowfield in urban St. Andrew, were commissioned by the Jamaican government as part of a violence reduction campaign. The fourth, on the Gleaner Company media house's Kingston office, collates prominent elements of Jamaican life. Each mural was observed in its physical context, photographed from several angles, and analysed thematically, utilising Representation (Cultural Studies) and Social Representation Theory (Social Psychology) theories, for its depiction of race, gender and national identity, before comparative analysis of the individual outcomes. The paper finds that there is an imbalance in the murals' racial and gender composition, contributing to a limited depiction of Jamaican identity ahead of its 60th anniversary of Independence on August 6, 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English colonial plan of converting Jamaica into a settler colony was challenged by the Maroons who established communities in the interior of the island. Living in the forests at the edge of the expanding plantation system, Maroons were feared by aspiring white settlercolonists. The zone where the plantation and white settlements met the Maroon de-facto territory became a frontier zone, where race, belonging, and freedom were contested. The Maroons inspired Black revolt and dreams of freedom, but after signing treaties ending their war against the English in the mid-18th century, the Maroons became dreaded by non-Maroon Blacks in Jamaica. Fear of the Maroons had productive and protective effects on the physical environment; the conservation of much of Jamaica's interior was one of these effects. The paper uses colonial era admissions of this fear as openings for showing how Jamaican conservation was shaped by the Maroons as spatial actors. The paper proposes conceptualizing the afforesting outcomes of marronage as arboreal side-effects, geographical and ecological consequences that are denied in foremost accounts of colonial forest conservation. The paper illustrates the importance of considering Black spatial thought, race and the geographic imaginary (Black Geographies) alongside the connections between antiblackness, the exploitation of nature, and the imperatives of ecological justice (Black ecologies). Reading Maroon practices and histories through and as Black geographies, the paper argues for a subaltern environmental history of Jamaica that affirms Black spatial agency and epistemologies. Consequently, the paper helps clarify marronage as a material-ecological as well as social-political process that is always shaped by the morphology of power and the landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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To improve or reform a cadastral system, various assessments must first be done to ascertain the aspects that can be made more efficient or more effective. In this paper two such assessments, which were carried out on the Jamaican cadastral system are reported on: a status assessment to describe the extant state, strengths and weaknesses of the cadastral system, including all its components; and a user needs assessment to gain a subjective perspective on what users hold important for a satisfactory experience when interacting with the system. The paper discusses the history and current status of the cadastral system in Jamaica, against the background of the Cadastre 2014 vision and subsequent evolutionary cadastral theories. The findings demonstrate that the system falls short regarding its compliance with cadastre 2014. Additionally, the paper presents the results of the user needs study, which sought to ascertain: the routes most commonly used to access land records; sources of data most frequently utilised; level of user satisfaction; most important features of land records and suggested improvements. The results indicate that attorneys formed the largest group to access land records in Jamaica; eLandjamaica is the lead source for land information; the interactive map (iMap now eLandjamaica) is the most frequently used source; the Land Titles Division commands the highest level of customer satisfaction; accuracy of data is of the greatest importance and a lower cost for services is of least importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given discourse across the globe on school reform and the importance of teachers' work to school improvement, teacher leadership represents an opportunity to re-imagine school cultures, and to consider a range of factors that impact the teaching profession and contribute to overall school improvement. Based on a qualitative inquiry of 24 teacher leaders across two country contexts (Jamaica and the United States) and using the metaphor of 'awakening the sleeping giant', we argue that teacher leadership is an untapped phenomenon and a necessity for 21st century school improvement. Within this paper we draw on the teacher leaders' stories to provide an understanding of the power and resources residing in the domain of teachers' work. Through the findings we showcase that there are elements of teacher leadership that transcend specific school and country contexts based on school structure and historical precedents. The findings presented in this paper also highlight that teachers' work is highly political and that historical precedents related to power and gender created differences in how teacher leadership has been perceived and enacted. The paper closes with a discussion about the cross-cultural 'truths" that emerged and the implications for teachers' work and school improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

STRiDE was an ambitious four-year project in seven countries aiming to build capacity around generating and using research to support the development of policies to improve quality of life of people with dementia and their carers. The project's innovative approach combined rigorous academic research and hands-on civil society advocacy. This paper explores the project's unique strategy for policy change and compiles case-studies from several of the STRiDE countries. Finally, we share lessons learned and next steps to keep momentum for policy change going in each of these countries – and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key component of student mathematics achievement relates to the cognitive domains. This paper examines student mathematics achievement in three cognitive domains (knowledge, comprehension, reasoning) as per different achievement grades, across four years (2015, 2016, 2018, 2019), and by gender. This study used the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) mathematics results across four years from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), which is the main public examination board in the Caribbean. The sample constituted 69,945 public school students from 161 secondary schools in Jamaica. The study found a regular pattern of cognitive domain performance at all grade levels and in each of the four years under consideration. Students performed best in the knowledge domain, followed by comprehension, and then reasoning. Students with the highest overall achievement demonstrated the highest achievement across the three domains and there was also a strong, significant, positive correlation between students' overall grades, that related to knowledge, comprehension, reasoning, and the cognitive domains. Another key finding was that for the knowledge and comprehension domains there was a significant difference in the performance of males and females in favour of females, but the related effect sizes were minimal. Practical implications and potential directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contends that while heterosexual normativity and hegemonic masculinity, dual features of Jamaica’s patriarch construct, emerge powerfully in the lyrics of Jamaica’s popular music – Dancehall – they have been the subject of serious challenge by the increasingly powerful voices of female singers in the space. Through a potpourri of food metaphors, masculinist norms are both grounded and destabilised. This research spotlights several dancehall lyrics on sex/power relations [such as, but not limited to, fellatio and cunnilingus] vis-à-vis food, spanning roughly 20 years of the music with a view to determine changes in masculinist norms. For balance, the perspectives of male, as well as female singers, and in two instances a male and a female singer are considered. This paper examines the socio-cultural context, decidedly heterosexual, that is responsible for a man being a man, and draws upon the theoretical lens of Linden Lewis and Rafael Ramírez in articulating the expectation of the hegemon, the macho or the masculinist. Figuring importantly, too, are gendered perspectives of female dancehall theorists, such as Carolyn Cooper, Donna Hope, Sonjah Stanley Niiah, and Patricia Saunders. Employing the metaphor of food, an essential to man, not only reveals how deep-seated heterosexual normativity and hegemonic masculinity are, both in the music of the Jamaican people and their psyche, but the great strides of female singers who challenge these masculinist constructs, which are also mythically contrived, as these so-called male foods are not libido-enhancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the global and local barriers that make mainstreaming ESD into teacher education difficult. It suggests that in Jamaican there are ideological, practical, and structural impediments that stifle initiative and capacity for change work. Local research suggests teacher educators have awareness of ESD work but lack the competences needed to promote sustainability. They also lack a rationale powerful enough to make ESD personally and professionally meaningful to them. The paper makes a case for encouraging teacher educators to strengthen their ethic of caring in response to the serious issue of crime and violence in Jamaican schools. It posits this may be the impetus needed to encourage mainstreaming caring into teacher education. This would allow educators to experience how caring work can promote social and cultural change. Since the values that underpin caring work in teacher education are like those that underpin caring in sustainability work, it is possible teacher educators will be motivated to use their enhanced competences for caring in new ways. If caring is positioned as the core of teacher educators' philosophy and practice, it can become a foundational ideology. This could strengthen possibilities for our teacher education institutions to develop institutional cultures that embrace ESD and are willing to mainstream sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jamaica, like most Small Island Developing States around the world, is at high risk of coastal hazards due to its exposure to tropical storms, high levels of coastal development, vulnerable coastal communities, and the predicted impacts of climate change. Environmental degradation has been linked to increased vulnerability to disasters. Nature‐based Solutions, although not formally present in the literature, are being implemented at various scales in Jamaica. This paper presents an overview of three marine and coastal Nature‐based Solutions being utilised in the country: protected area management (Special Fishery Conservation Areas); mangrove restoration; and coral restoration. The paper briefly reviews their current application in Jamaica before arguing that these conservation projects that traditionally focused on biodiversity have co‐benefits as Nature‐based Solutions for disaster resilience. The paper closes by outlining several research objectives that should be explored in the future to further the implementation of Nature‐based Solutions for disaster resilience in Jamaica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rockpool cluster offers unique characteristics making it a model system for general questions in ecology: (1) all rockpools share biotic history (any species can reach any rockpool); (2) they form a strong gradient of conditions from benign to harsh; (3) 1‐day sampling across all rockpools ensures census consistency; (4) rockpools respond to changing conditions within a short (days) time frame; (5) they are easy to manipulate (note: the data are from an unmanipulated rockpool subset), and (6) they may act as a single metacommunity that exhibits consistent species distribution patterns on a broader scale (unpublished). Consequently, the rockpools continue generating insights, with the first publications in 1996. The data represent an intensive rockpool metacommunity monitoring project, making them of considerable value to our understanding of tropical coastal metacommunity dynamics and general ecological processes. The dataset covers surveys of invertebrate fauna in 49, primarily supratidal, rockpools on a fossil coral reef over 25 years. All rockpools occur within a 73 × 47 m array of rocks at a distance of less than 2 m from the nearest neighbor. About 200 other rockpools occur on the same area. They are in a sheltered bay (Discovery Bay, Jamaica) between 0 and 5 m from the ocean. Typically, rockpools are 5–30 cm deep and 40 cm across on average, with elevation from a few centimeters to 300 cm above sea level. Rockpools may drain excess water from precipitation or waves into other rockpools, which allows organisms to disperse passively downstream. Of the 49 rockpools in the survey, 35 are subject to occasional drying up, while the others appear permanent. Most collections (1989–2004) were annual censuses of invertebrate populations, exceeding a total of 475,000 invertebrates counted, with only minor record gaps. In all cases, species level taxonomic information consists of detailed photographs. In some cases, notes are included with the taxonomic data where species identification could not be matched to information available in the literature. Samples from 2005 to 2019 still require organism identification. Abiotic parameters were measured the day before biotic sampling took place as the process of biotic sampling can impact abiotic parameters through stirring, oxygenation and filtering (temperature, pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, light intensity, salinity, alkalinity, and nutrients). The cumulative richness in the metacommunity consist of 78 freshwater, marine, and brackish water taxa, with a mean richness per rockpool of 5.5 distinct species. Regarding taxonomic makeup, ostracods dominated in both diversity and number, followed by copepods, and insects. There are no copyright restrictions on the data set; please cite this data paper when using these data in publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of remittance inflows (remittances) on electricity consumption and electric power losses in Jamaica. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use annual data from 1976 to 2014 and apply vector error correction modelling, Granger causality testing and impulse response analysis. Findings: First, the authors find that there is co-integration between remittances and the energy variables, namely electricity consumption and electric power losses. Second, short-run Granger causality exists between the energy variables and remittances. This causality is bidirectional between the energy variables and positive changes in remittances, but it is unidirectional running from the energy variables to negative movements in remittances. Third, the authors find that in the long-run remittances have a negative relationship with electric power losses and a positive relationship with the consumption of electricity. Practical implications: Findings from this paper will help to elucidate the relationship between electricity consumption, and electric power losses, and remittances. Social implications: The problem of electric power losses is acute in Jamaica and it is mostly due to theft. At the same time, Jamaica receives significant remittances. Social policy could have a role to encourage the use of remittances to help stem the theft of electricity. Originality/value: This is the first study that examines the relationships between remittances, electricity consumption and electric power losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine the post-pandemic prospects for the luxury yacht industry in the coming decade in contrast to those for mega cruise ships. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employed a qualitative approach via an examination of industry analysis and discussion with industry experts in tourism, cruising and luxury yachting. Findings: Based on industry analysis and discussion with key stakeholders, the finding is that the luxury yacht industry responded well to its market from the onset of the pandemic, and will continue on this path in both luxury and sporting yacht categories. To regain customer support after the long period of travel restrictions, cruise lines will have to significantly reduce their prices in order to stimulate demand. This, coupled with approximately 40% reductions in load capacity is a blow to the industry. Hence, this calls for the industry to commit itself to the present safety protocols, which are an added cost to their operations. In contrast, the luxury yacht industry is presented with a golden opportunity as a result of these constraints as it can stimulate revenue through charters and rentals. Practical implications: There was never anticipation of a global pandemic that would bring tourism operations to a total halt. The question is, what recovery strategies have been employed by the small island states that have invested millions of US dollars over the last two decades in expanding or developing new cruise ports? Given the historical perspective for Errol Flynn Marina in Port Antonio, Jamaica, the Port Authority of Jamaica can reposition the Marina to take advantage of the new opportunity that has been created for the yacht industry by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Social implications: It is likely that more Caribbean nationals will be employed on luxury yachts as compared with the less than 5% of Caribbean nationals employed on cruise ships prior to the pandemic. Originality/value: The economies of most Caribbean Islands and many other small island developing states (SIDSs) are heavily dependent on tourism; specifically cruise tourism during the cruise season. Some of these countries continue to anticipate a quick recovery for the cruise industry. This anticipation may not yield an immediate result because of the protocols that are needed in response to the pandemic. This paper shows that in the mid to long-term, the returns from significant investment in port development must be realized and the luxury yacht industry presents one such opportunity. This paper is helpful because the present outlook for cruising is not good, and so a new approach and strategy must be put in place to develop new products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallurgy is the art and science of working metals, separating them from other substances and removing impurities. This paper is concerned with the Black metallurgists on whose art and science the intensive industries; military bases; and maritime networks of British enslaver colonialism in eighteenth-century Jamaica depended. To engage with these metallurgists on their own terms, the paper brings together oral histories and material culture with archives, newspapers, and published works. By focusing on the practices and priorities of Jamaica's Black metallurgists, the significance and reach of their work begins to be uncovered. Between 1783 and 1784 financier turned ironmaster, Henry Cort, patented a process of rendering scrap metal into valuable bar iron. For this 'discovery', economic and industrial histories have lauded him as one of the revolutionary makers of the modern world. This paper shows how the myth of Henry Cort must be revised with the practices and purposes of Black metallurgists in Jamaica, who developed one of the most important innovations of the industrial revolution for their own reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global Fuel Economy Initiative (GFEI) was established to assist governments and their transportation stakeholders to realize improvements that can be made in the average fuel economy of new Light Duty Motor Vehicles (LDMV). The GFEI established a target of achieving fuel economy levels of 4.2 Lge/100km in new light duty vehicles by the year 2030 requires an in depth examination of the profiles of the local motor vehicle fleets. Motor cars make up large volumes of light duty vehicles which discharge harmful emissions which can be detrimental to public health and the environment on a whole. The World Health Organization estimates that every year, 2.4 million people die from causes associated with air pollution. The United Nations Environment through the GFEI has supported a project in Jamaica, a Small Island Developing state, whereby an established methodology was used to calculate the average fuel economy of new light duty imports. Currently, Jamaica has limited capacity to measure precisely, in real world conditions, vehicle environmental impact as field tested data such as grams of carbon dioxide per one hundred kilometres travelled (gCO2/100 km) is unavailable. The GFEI guideline and methodology provide clear steps to developing research, which provides equivalent data. The primary activities were data processing (data collection, data delineation, sorting and analysis) for over 150,000 light weight duty vehicles and performing precise calculations based on the established fuel economy parameters. The results show that between 2005 and 2017 Jamaica's average fuel economy improved by 15.6 % with a calculated fuel economy of 7.11 lge/100km in 2017. With strong policy support, the improvements are expected to increase at a greater rate. This paper presents and discusses the rigors of establishing this database, and lessons learnt and challenges faced; the paper also demonstrates the application of output data for making policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jamaican specialty coffee industry operates in an ecologically sensitive landscape that is institutionally, politically and socio‐economically complex. Birthed under colonial rule, the industry has undergone a confluence of events that have shaped its contemporary organisation and exacerbated deeply rooted institutional and structural conditions. Through the lens of environmental justice, the paper sheds light on the plural claims to justice under changing climatic conditions and reveals the politics of adaptation within the context of market capitalism. Using stakeholder interviews, the paper captures the articulations and manifestations of injustice by exploring the local perceptions of procedural justice and justice as recognition. Through an examination of power and politics, the paper begins by contextualising the pre‐existing conditions that shape the disabling environment in which smallholders operate. This includes the neoliberal restructuring of the industry, smallholders' access to low farm gate prices, expensive farm inputs, low‐value chain participation, and limited support services. As these conditions are exacerbated by climate change impacts, the paper then discusses the disparity in justice claims between farmers and industry stakeholders surrounding the deployment of suitable climate change adaptation response. This is an area of contestation, as even though smallholders face multiple stressors, industry leaders have continued to operate the island's major coffee‐producing spaces as areas where profits can be mined and privileges reinforced. Effectively, the smallholder livelihoods embedded within Jamaica's coffee‐producing landscapes have been subjected to asymmetrical structures of power which legitimise whose voices are heard and which adaptation pathway takes precedence, thus generating injustices, nurturing vulnerabilities and stifling agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous waves of technological revolutions have been accompanied by the technology-job substitution effect. Artificial Intelligence (AI) the technology de jure is expected to have a similar impact. This paper evaluates the possible impact of AI on the Jamaican labour force by mapping a similar study that was conducted by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The jobs that have a high potential for AI-enabled automation are female dominated jobs especially clerical jobs and call center work. These information presented will be beneficial to labour market policymakers, educators, and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the landscape of Jamaica's economy, health, and education system. This study aimed to assess its impact on lecturers and students at a rural tertiary institution in Western Jamaica. The current study is a mixed-method design, and the case study research method was utilized to collect data. A representative sample of 18 lecturers and 129 students was surveyed using an online Google form questionnaire employing convenience sampling. The findings showed that Broadband Internet from a leading local service provider was mostly utilized by students (55.2%) and lecturers (88.2%). The internet portal mostly used was Schoology (43.8%); 23.5 % of lecturers disclosed it was their first time teaching online and 52.9% reported having received prior training on how to use an online platform. Of the students, 43.9% reiterated that they appreciated using the web portal Zoom as against Moodle which saw 27.3%. 54.7% of the students preferred face-to-face in comparison to online (22.7%) and 22.7% favoured the blended approach. Students reported challenges returning to school due to fear of COVID-19 (27.2%) underlying ailments (18.4%), financial challenges (44%) and other challenges (10.4%). Statistical analysis showed that there was no significant difference between students' overall performance between courses taught during the pandemic and pre-COVID-19 (p=.551). The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the teaching and learning process at the institution. However, with the implementation of online portals, training, access and upgrade to Internet service, lecturers and students were adapting to the virtual classroom. The paper gives recommendations towards embracing the digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation refers to the growing interdependence of the world's economies, cultures, and populations, brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of investment, people, and information. Relatedly, the European Union and other organizations involved in funding research on a global scale have recognized, articulated, and adopted the posture that, to effectively tackle global challenges, humanity needs to be able to harness creative solutions from all over the world, and that an effective way to do this is through collaborative research and other types of partnerships. In the case of Jamaica's leading public university - the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech, Jamaica) -"Partnering with other universities and tertiary institutions to develop new research (and other) opportunities" is one of its strategic initiatives. In this paper, the authors use a retrospective analytical approach to describe and discuss examples of how UTech, Jamaica has engaged in cross-border collaborative partnerships, to build institutional research management capacity and enhance curriculum development to address important challenges ranging from climate change to sustainable energy. In addition, the authors also discuss learning and other benefits that accrue from these cross-border partnerships. From their retrospective analysis, the authors conclude that through intentional global collaboration UTech, Jamaica developed an innovative master of science programme aimed at addressing the critical areas of sustainable energy and climate change and has also benefitted from capacity-building of the staff in its research management office to perform their functions more effectively as research and innovation managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, the legal system allows for discrimination based on gender and sexual identity with impunity. This exposes trans people to disparate risks of violence and barriers to accessing social services such as health care. In this paper we assess the social determinants of health in the Jamaican trans population using a modified social-ecological model of transgender stigma and stigma interventions. To conduct this assessment, we situated the findings of the 2021 Jamaican Trans Health Needs Assessment and Trans Health Strategy within the socio-ecological framework with direct application to rights-based health services as well as the Jamaican legal system to develop a model for understanding the socio-legal determinants of health. The social determinants of health identified within the Jamaican trans community are all influenced by a lack of legal protection suggesting a need for legal reform toward nondiscrimination of sexual and gender-diverse populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Birth cohort studies across the world have yielded information that has been used to inform policy and programme decisions that have improved the health and well-being of populations. A few such studies have been conducted in low- and middle-income countries due to funding, methodological and other challenges. This paper briefly reviews the methods of comprehensive birth cohort studies with extensive follow-up of participants through the life course conducted in low- and middle-income countries. It then reviews the first Jamaican birth cohort study of 1986 and discusses the methodological advances in implementing JA KIDS, the second Jamaican birth cohort study conducted in 2011. The aims and methods of JA KIDS are described in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to discern the causes of the health and developmental problems of children, and thence develop preventative strategies, longitudinal cohort studies offer major advantages. They can monitor the consequences of exposure to physical and psychological events and thence identify antecedents of various disorders. We describe the historical background to the development in the UK of this study design, and the uptake of longitudinal birth cohorts in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), using the cohorts in Jamaica, South Africa and Brazil as exemplars. We describe the benefits of such studies and show how undertaking longitudinal cohort studies can have major health and financial benefits to the populations concerned. Additionally, the paper outlines the advantages of collaboration between studies and the pooling of data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence against young children is known to have detrimental short and long-term effects. Yet, few studies investigate the prevalence of violence against young children, particularly very young children under the age of 2 years. This paper reports on the prevalence of violence against young children in Jamaica using data obtained from the JA KIDS birth cohort study that undertook pre-enrolment of pregnant mothers in the antenatal period and followed full or sub-samples of parents and children at 9–12 months, 18–22 months and 4–5 years. Violence in pregnancy was experienced by 6.1% of pre-enrolled mothers. As many as 43.1% of Jamaican children ages 9–12 months were shouted at, and almost 30% were slapped. Physical and emotional violence increased with age, and by 4–5 years, approximately 90% of children experienced physical and emotional violence. Non-violent methods, primarily explaining and reasoning with children, were also reported by more than 95% of parents at 4–5 years. Corporal punishment was the most common form of violence experienced, but young children also witnessed hurtful physical and emotional violence between mothers and their partners and lived in communities in which there were violent events. Strategies to reduce young children's experiences as victims and witnesses of violence are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affective learning is important for the holistic development of students. Yet, not much is reported about how it is achieved in the higher education classroom. The purpose of this paper was to appraise the Hospitality and Tourism Management curriculum and pedagogical practices being utilized to deliver affective learning outcomes in Community Colleges in Jamaica. Adopting a qualitative tradition, involving analysis of the hospitality and tourism curriculum documents and personal interviews of 35 purposively selected academic and non‐academic participants, the study found that while affective learning practices were infused in pedagogy, the educational activities were not linked to clearly defined learning outcomes in the formal curriculum. Cognitive learning outcomes dominated the formal curriculum. Students' access to affective learning experience was facilitated through an improvised informal curriculum, that is, learning experiences that occurred outside the planned curriculum. The article theorized that design flaws in the planned curriculum contributed to the experience. This research has implications for staff professional development, practical‐based subject curriculum design and for standard setters who monitor alignment between higher education and industry requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly fragile small island states experience disproportionate climate impacts given their limited capacity to implement cost‐effective tools for detecting emerging signals of drying conditions and monitoring systems for sensitive sectors such as agriculture, especially for uncertain, ‘creeping’ events such as droughts. Despite the existence of open‐source Google Earth Engine datasets, untapped potential remains for their full deployment in disaster management infrastructure. Given this gap, this paper explores the utility of the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) for detecting spatio‐temporal variations of Mid‐Summer Drought (MSD) impacts on vegetation in the small island of Jamaica, with emphasis on major historical drought events. Geospatial analyses of EVI datasets from the Terra Moderate‐Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) between 2000−2015 archived by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), were computed, and validated by station‐based precipitation and production data for selected parishes for historical case study MSD events. Results revealed highly asymmetrical drought impacts, with Jamaica's agriculturally intense Southern coastline displaying the most stressed vegetation (EVI < 0.5). North‐Western and North‐Eastern regions had the healthiest vegetation during the MSD (EVI > 0.6). A ‘fair’ to ‘moderate’ concurrent correlation was found between EVI and precipitation (R > 0.6), with lower correlations vis‐a‐vis agricultural production (R = 0.2–0.4). The results provide evidence of EVI's utility as a drought monitoring tool in a small island context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper questions how the dynamics of short-term medical groups affect their ability to engage with communities. Short-term medical groups consist of medical doctors and their teams of volunteers. They travel to other countries to provide a variety of medical procedures including eye exams, dental work, various surgeries, etc. These teams usually stay for a few days to a few weeks. I draw on nine months of collecting ethnographic field notes of the work of the US-based non-governmental organisations providing medical services in Jamaica. This paper asks: how do group boundaries shape their ability to connect with the Jamaican community? I question how the dynamics of these groups affect their engagement with the people they went to help. I draw on cultural analysis of groups to explain how boundaries are a product of group interactions and, consequently, explain a group's ability to engage with others in a cross-cultural context. My findings show that the ways in which groups draw boundaries shape how likely they are to achieve their stated goals. The group boundaries shape the activities groups adopt and their relationship with local Jamaicans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many domestic laborers migrated from former British colonies, such as Jamaica. Keywords: Caribbean History; diaspora; Haiti; Jamaica; labor; women's history EN Caribbean History diaspora Haiti Jamaica labor women's history 385 388 4 10/13/23 20230901 NES 230901 I Nanny of the Maroons and the Upper West Side i (Figure 1) portrays the untold stories of Caribbean women workers who care for the children of Manhattan's elite and middle class families on the Upper West Side. Caribbean History, diaspora, Haiti, Jamaica, labor, women's history. [Extracted from the article]

In March 2022, it was announced that Carnival in Jamaica would return after being postponed twice since the COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement was a relief to stakeholders and participants who were eager to return to the road. However, the return can best be described as lukewarm due to the short notice and resulting lack of interest. Although the festival lacked its usual number of overseas participants, there was nevertheless a return of the local patrons, who had not been the target market since the development of the brand Carnival in Jamaica. This paper reports the results of a study that used an ethnographic approach, which included observations, interviews, and analysis of social media posts to examine the rebound of the festival in 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the use of Kotter’s eight-step change management model (KCMM) to guide the implementation of a new requirement (curriculum mapping) as a supporting component of the Programme Development Policy at the University of Technology, Jamaica. The Programme Development Policy was revised and approved by the Academic Board in 2022, and it guides the development of undergraduate and graduate courses of study at the University. A supporting element of the policy is the newly introduced curriculum map, which encourages the mapping of the courses to the programme goals, programme objectives, and graduate attributes. Kotter’s eight-step change process guided the implementation of the map along with qualitative interviews with the chairs of the curriculum committees in each Academic Unit and the Associate Vice President for Quality Assurance at the University. The results showed that the curriculum map was a valuable addition to the programme development policy. However, greater sensitization and training are needed to ensure buy-in from the relevant stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Natural Products Research Laboratory (NPRL) at the University of Technology, Jamaica was established in the Faculty of Science and Sport between 2010 and 2012 through competitive internal and external grant funding. The context and purpose behind the creation of the laboratory are outlined in this paper as well as some of its accomplishments. Emphasis on the need for the exploration of Jamaica’s biodiversity especially as it relates to the Cockpit country is discussed. Over the relatively short existence of the NPRL, it has uncovered several interesting compounds in keeping with its mission to investigate the unexplored natural product resources within the Cockpit Country; train and develop scientists; disseminate its findings through publications ad public forums; and influence policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that one useful way to think about the relationship between racism and borders is to say that racism produces hierarchies of (non)citizenship. In the first section, I work these arguments through in relation to my research with the friends of family of deported migrants, examining how witnessing deportation both reaffirms and produces hierarchies of (non)citizenship. These examples offer an invitation to trace and theorise the dynamic relationship between bordering and race-making. I then go on to examine how citizenship is centrally imbricated in race-making at the global scale. There, I historicise citizenship as a global regime for the international management of populations, suggesting that citizenship does similar kinds of work to race under empire. Taken together, these two points raise questions about whether we can and should imbue citizenship with radical and emancipatory potential. Is the articulation and celebration of non-national citizenships a useful framing? I remain cautious, and this paper is intended to underline that caution by approaching the question from one particular vantage point – one in which the theorisation of and struggle against racism is made central. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eastern Caribbean chain of islands is commonly known to exhibit high-enthalpy systems for geothermal energy exploitation. The northernmost Caribbean Community member state of Jamaica possesses physical manifestations of 12 hot springs across the island. Previous investigations indicate that of the potential 12 hot springs, Bath, Windsor and Milk River springs have cogent geothermometry of their thermal fluids with estimated temperature ranges of (80–102°C), (128–156°C), and (158–206°C), respectively. The paper provides numerical findings for each geothermal system of interest and performs Monte Carlo simulations to optimize calculated findings. The determined quantitative findings are considered under the context of environmental savings and policy regime conditions for driving geothermal energy development. The three areas of interest are situated within the Rio Minho Basin, the Dry Harbour Mountains and the Blue Mountain South Basin. Through the consideration of a 25-year lifetime for production, a collective total of 94.81 MWe of geothermal power reserves can be absorbed into the national energy mix, displacing an estimated 0.38 million barrels of oil imports, resulting in approximately 0.44 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions being avoided per year. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Developing resilient energy systems’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to illuminate the diverging approaches to marijuana-related drug enforcement at the federal and state levels in the USA, which have facilitated a boom in the US medical cannabis industry (i.e. the "Green Rush"). It further sheds light on how the USA' aggressive extraterritorial approach to anti-money laundering (AML) enforcement might simultaneously suppress the banking of cannabis-related businesses in Jamaica due to the lingering fear of de-risking. Design/methodology/approach: An international and comparative legal and policy analysis was conducted of the nexus among shifting drug enforcement policies, AML laws and the banking of cannabis-related businesses. Findings: This study found that the constitutional relationship between the US federal government and states has created a de facto comparative advantage for the US medical cannabis-related businesses that benefit from limited access to financial services. This was found to pose far-reaching implications for the banking and development of the Jamaican cannabis sector due to the dependence of the country's financial institutions on correspondent banking relationships with the US banks that are regulated by federal AML statutes. Originality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the first of its kind to examine the extraterritorial regulatory risks to the banking of cannabis-related businesses in Jamaica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares and contrasts the relative successes and failures in Jamaican and South African national archival systems. It does so to provide international perspectives on Britain's colonial legacy on archives. Although local differences greatly matter, Jamaica and South Africa have histories of extended British settler-colonialism which encoded white supremacy in social relations, bureaucracies, and social epistemology which in turn shaped 'institutional gaze' that guided the appraisal of collections, preservation efforts and state-recording keeping practices. Archivists in these societies are acutely aware of these problems, and so the paper examines how they have addressed questions around racism and redress to try adequately 'unsilence the past.' Through comparison we identify what practices have been useful in generating new narratives of belonging, value, and dignity. And finally, we assess which kinds of archival thought can cross-pollinate between Jamaica and South Africa to develop more equitable democratic spaces that can instantiate what this paper calls the hospitality of archival difference. The paper ends by arguing that thought and practice heeding this principle may be conducive to 'ground up' approaches to issues of memory, education, and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Struggling over the years to rummage through piles of paper to retrieve information required for enhanced service delivery and improve patient care, health practitioners in the Jamaican public health system have been clamouring for an effective solution. Jamaica’s Ministry of Health started implementing electronic health information systems, with the first stage rolled out in the last quarter of 2014. While EHRs could be a breath of fresh air for these health practitioners, there is a general awareness that EHR implementation is an expensive enterprise. Some genuine concerns are being aired which question the country’s ability to afford such undertaking as all would be costly to the Government of Jamaica. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the perspectives of Jamaican health practitioners concerning the country’s readiness for EHR and to solicit information that can help to strengthen decision-making as it relates to EHR implementation. A cross-sectional study was conducted to uncover the health practitioners’ perceived readiness for EHR implementation. The results revealed that among health practitioners, there is a misconstruction of what EHR is and what readiness for EHR entails. Jamaica’s readiness for EHR is hampered by poor physical infrastructure, deficient stakeholder engagement, and privation of the required training. Jamaica is not ready for EHR implementation. The Ministry of Health needs to employ appropriate strategies, chief of which is training, to develop the country’s readiness for EHR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]