For the third year in a row Jamaica climbs two places on the global press freedom index, now at number 6 sandwiched between Switzerland and Belgium... rsf.org/en/ranking/2018
For those unfamiliar with Jamaican political history this would seem strange, for those that know Jamaica's contradictions well, this is entirely 'normal'
A poor country with lots of violence (much of it a legacy of cold war politically enforced sectarianism) does not seem like the ideal place to rank 6th on the globe for such things BUT....
Jamaica was also the third country in the entire Commonwealth to get universal adult suffrage (after UK & NZ) a process during which scores of Jamaicans shed their blood and multiple political mass movements were born...
Out of this strong civil society have emerged scores of artists that constantly and relentlessly cuss the Jamaican government/society...
For all JA's other problems these artists are not killed, tortured or imprisoned, no they are in fact granted Visas to go and make money cussing the Jamaican govt to the world! Lol...
These things (like JA's unique success in athletics and first world life expectancy of 75) are all results of institutional and cultural success under very tough circumstances.... obviously.
I just came back from JA... been doing a little research on educational outcomes there vs diaspora in UK (among other things) will post some interesting bits soon...
Just though you might like some context for the rankings. For books see Freedoms Children by Colin Palmer
