The world lost one of its greatest literary voices and most popular celebrities on April 17, 2014, with the death of Colombian writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In his 87 years of life, Marquez touched the hearts and lives of individual readers around the world, and is renowned for his poignant words and heartbreaking characters. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
Marquez’s anthology of works is all-encompassing. He wrote novels, short stories, screenplays and poetry. The most famous of his texts are “Love in the Time of Cholera” and “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” The genre of magical realism is what it is today because of his foundational and groundbreaking approach to it as a writing style.
Arguably his most groundbreaking narrative, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” speaks to the realities of many impoverished or rural communities across the developing world. In it, he creates the fictional village of Macondo, and follows its various trials and tribulations through the span of several generations, such as death, disease and abuse. Underlying these problems though, is his constant tone of hope and love, which are even more accurate realities of such communities.
Beyond his specific works, he is remarkable as a writer in general for the position from which he writes. Having grown up and spent the majority of his life living and working in developing nations of South America, he is what can be called a post-colonial writer. That is, his writing seeks to validate the voices and experiences of the inhabitants of regions of the world still reeling from colonialism.
Such countries tend to have large populations of socially repressed communities, historically silenced because of their low economic, racial or cultural status. Writers and activists, such as Marquez, are vital to opposing and subverting the disadvantageous system that continues to subjugate.
He is a constant testament to the power of love, friendship and the inherent beauty of life. He never ceases to affirm the life of the individuals he writes:
1. “Humanity, like armies in the field, advances at the speed of the slowest.”
2. “The heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good.”
3. “Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but…life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”
4. “A true friend is the one who holds your hand and touches your heart.”
5. “There is always something left to love.”
6. “It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”
7. “What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.”
8. “Nobody deserves your tears, but whoever deserves them will not make you cry.”
9. “Our inner lives are eternal, which is to say that our spirits remain as youthful and vigorous as when we were in full bloom.”
10. “I would not have traded the delights of my suffering for anything in the world.”
These quotes give us not only a glimpse into Marquez’s mind and soul, but also into the incredible beauty of life for all of us. He reminds us to never take anything or anyone in life for granted, and that we are always in control of our own happiness. These are messages valuable to all of us, regardless of our socioeconomic status.
– Stefanie Doucette
Sources: Thought Catalogue, Philly Enternatinment, New York Times, BBC
Photo: srednja
How Global Communities is Empowering the Vulnerable
Global Communities, an international nonprofit headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, works in over 20 countries around the world to bring about sustainable change for some of the world’s most vulnerable. In order to improve the lives of the poor, Global Communities engages with governments, the private sector and non-government organizations to work with communities and not just provide services for them.
Global Communities was founded in 1952 as the Foundation for Cooperative Housing and has expanded its work to Africa, Asia, Europe and the Caucasus, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the Middle East. Its work is founded on the principle of “bringing together complementary strengths and shared responsibilities to work toward common goals,” and focuses on empowering entire communities to become healthy and self-sufficient.
Global Communities boasts expertise in the following areas: Economic Development, Micro/SME/Housing Finance, Infrastructure and Construction, Governance and Urban Management, Civil Society and Capacity Development, Global Health, Humanitarian Assistance, Working With Women and Youth and Food Security and Agriculture. They apply these expertise to communities around the world to solve complex problems and strengthen weak systems.
To begin a new project, Global Communities engages a new community by holding a community-wide council meeting where local leaders direct the decision making and prioritization processes for future work. Throughout the entire process of development, community leaders are closely involved with the project to help ensure a higher likelihood of sustainability.
Once projects are complete, they are often maintained by the local government, an important reason for local government to be involved from the start. When communities do not have positive relationships with their government, for example, in post-conflict situations, Global Communities works to teach these two parties to interact constructively.
In regard to other partnerships, Global Communities works to build the technical capacity of local organizations as they tackle a problem together and advises businesses in the private sector. All the while, the goal is to eventually make the work of Global Communities unnecessary—that is, empower the community to undertake their own development without outside help.
Global Communities’ financial approach is accountable, efficient and effective, with 89.6 percent of its funds spent on programs. Each dollar is accountable to the donor, whether that donor be an individual or a government. Progress for each project is managed by donor’s standards, and regular updates are given on the Global Communities website as well as in publications. They have repeatedly won the MIX Transparency Award for their work in micro-finance as well as many awards throughout the years. Find an exhaustive list here.
After 60 years of work, Global Communities understands that the world is continually changing and always will be. These changes are acknowledged, but Global Communities will continue to thrive as an organization that recognizes its core purpose amid a changing world- to “empower the vulnerable and help them be leaders of their own development.”
– Madisson Barnett
Sources: Global Government, Charity Navigator
Photo: The Artrium
10 Facts about Foreign Aid From the United States
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was created on November 3, 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. Prior to the creation of USAID, there were many foreign assistance organizations that already existed. However, with the birth of USAID came the collaboration of all other foreign assistance programs under one common goal. This was the first time in history that a single agency was given the responsibility to cover of foreign economic development.
Here are 10 facts you may not have known about foreign aid from the United States:
1. U.S. foreign aid was shaped to serve two purposes. First, to improve lives in developing worlds by implementing ways to improve global health, further education, advance food security and much more. As stated by USAID.gov, “USAID carries out U.S. foreign policy by promoting broad-scale human progress at the same time it expands stable, free societies, creates markets and trade partners for the United States, and fosters good will abroad.”
2. In 2012, Afghanistan remained the top recipient of U.S. economic and military assistance for the fifth year in a row. Prior to that, Iraq held the top spot from 2003-2007.
3. Foreign aid from the United States is made up of a combination of obligations as well as disbursements. An obligation is a binding agreement that could have immediate results or some in the future. A disbursement is the actual amount paid by federal agencies by cash or cash equivalent during the fiscal year to meet the obligations set.
4. Though a country can rank in the list of top ten recipients based on obligations, there is no guarantee that they will receive the full disbursement. That was the case for Haiti and Columbia in 2011 that ranked in the top ten recipients by obligation but did not receive that amount in disbursements.
5. Less than one percent of the federal budget is spent on foreign assistance.
6. Foreign aid falls under discretionary spending of a whopping $1.258 trillion dollars in 2013.
7. The five primary agencies providing economic assistance include: the U.S. Department of State, USAID, the Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Health and Human Services. These five agencies account for 93 percent of total economic assistance.
8. Sub-Saharan Africa received the largest share of economic assistance at 25 percent with twenty countries receiving over $100 million in economic assistance.
9. Almost half of U.S. foreign assistance goes to six countries that are Washington’s allies in the campaigns against terror and drug trafficking.
10. U.S. foundations amount to about $1.5 billion a year in international giving.
— Janelle Mills
Sources: USAID, USAID, Greenbook, Foreign Assistance, Reuters
Photo: Seattle Times
Jakarta as an Emerging Global City
A.T. Kearney, a United States-based consulting firm, ranked Jakarta, Indonesia’s bustling capital, whose metropolitan area contains roughly 30 million people, as the next Southeast Asian leading city. The Javanese city boasts first among a list of 34 cities in low-income and middle-income countries that will most likely become a global leader in fields ranging from business activity to workforce health and security. The methodology used involves 26 metrics in five categories: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience and political engagement.
Certainly, Jakarta’s status as the capital of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) contributes greatly to the city’s rising position. Furthermore, the emergence of the ASEAN Economic Community, a quasi-European Union style economic community minus a common currency due to take off in 2015, is also another factor that helps to make Jakarta an up-and-coming Southeast Asian city.
Jakarta, over the past few years, has invested immensely in improving its once inadequate infrastructure. However, it is the city’s improvements in other fields such as stability and security that has put it on the map. Areas involving Jakarta’s population such as income equality, stability, healthcare cost, minimum wage and security are those that have fared the best.
Jakarta’s improvements also extend to the fields of information exchange and high gross domestic product growth rate. In terms of the city’s once feeble infrastructure, today’s Jakarta has been developing its mass rapid transit system. Its groundbreaking ceremony was held in late 2013. This project will begin operating in 2017-2018 and it will help to facilitate the daily commute of the residents of the city and its surrounding areas.
Furthermore, Bangkok, Thailand, its future appearing promising in 2008, has been experiencing instability for the past few years, thus eliminating Jakarta’s regional competitor. John Kurtz, A.T. Kearney’s Asia-Pacific head, stated that the city’s growing political and economic importance is attracting both domestic and international talents and investments.
The city’s rise in importance and prosperity is certainly a stunning achievement. The city’s transformation into the region’s powerhouse is undoubtedly a testament to development as a tangible and a feasible process, not just an illusive rhetoric.
– Peewara Sapsuwan
Sources: The Jakarta Globe, Wall Street Journal
Photo: Luxury Real Estate Blog
10 Quotes From Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The world lost one of its greatest literary voices and most popular celebrities on April 17, 2014, with the death of Colombian writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In his 87 years of life, Marquez touched the hearts and lives of individual readers around the world, and is renowned for his poignant words and heartbreaking characters. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
Marquez’s anthology of works is all-encompassing. He wrote novels, short stories, screenplays and poetry. The most famous of his texts are “Love in the Time of Cholera” and “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” The genre of magical realism is what it is today because of his foundational and groundbreaking approach to it as a writing style.
Arguably his most groundbreaking narrative, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” speaks to the realities of many impoverished or rural communities across the developing world. In it, he creates the fictional village of Macondo, and follows its various trials and tribulations through the span of several generations, such as death, disease and abuse. Underlying these problems though, is his constant tone of hope and love, which are even more accurate realities of such communities.
Beyond his specific works, he is remarkable as a writer in general for the position from which he writes. Having grown up and spent the majority of his life living and working in developing nations of South America, he is what can be called a post-colonial writer. That is, his writing seeks to validate the voices and experiences of the inhabitants of regions of the world still reeling from colonialism.
Such countries tend to have large populations of socially repressed communities, historically silenced because of their low economic, racial or cultural status. Writers and activists, such as Marquez, are vital to opposing and subverting the disadvantageous system that continues to subjugate.
He is a constant testament to the power of love, friendship and the inherent beauty of life. He never ceases to affirm the life of the individuals he writes:
1. “Humanity, like armies in the field, advances at the speed of the slowest.”
2. “The heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good.”
3. “Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but…life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”
4. “A true friend is the one who holds your hand and touches your heart.”
5. “There is always something left to love.”
6. “It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”
7. “What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.”
8. “Nobody deserves your tears, but whoever deserves them will not make you cry.”
9. “Our inner lives are eternal, which is to say that our spirits remain as youthful and vigorous as when we were in full bloom.”
10. “I would not have traded the delights of my suffering for anything in the world.”
These quotes give us not only a glimpse into Marquez’s mind and soul, but also into the incredible beauty of life for all of us. He reminds us to never take anything or anyone in life for granted, and that we are always in control of our own happiness. These are messages valuable to all of us, regardless of our socioeconomic status.
– Stefanie Doucette
Sources: Thought Catalogue, Philly Enternatinment, New York Times, BBC
Photo: srednja
Top 5 Countries in Need of Better Healthcare
The World’s Health Organization (WHO) ranked the world’s health systems in the year 2000. WHO ranked Liberia, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Myanmar as the top 5 countries in need of better healthcare and as the nations with the lowest healthcare quality. While these nations have undergone reforms since the 2000 assessment, they continue to face critical healthcare obstacles. The countries are listed in descending order based on the World’s Health Organization Ranking of the World’s Health Systems.
Top 5 Countries in Need of Better Healthcare
1. Liberia
According to Doctors Without Borders, Liberians suffer from epidemic disease, social violence and healthcare exclusion. During the past twelve years, Liberia’s Ministry of Health has taken steps to address healthcare issues but disease and access to adequate healthcare remain crucial issues in the country. In March 2014, the media announced an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Liberia, suggesting epidemic disease continues to be a primary healthcare concern. Liberian health authorities expressed a concern over the virus spreading to other countries while attempting to quell public panic. Furthermore, access to sufficient healthcare and healthcare equipment remains limited. In a 2012 Korle-Bu Neuroscience Foundation report, Jocelyne Lapointe stated that Liberia has only one medical center, John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center (JFKH), with up-to-date medical imaging systems. JFKH has a modern CT scanner, ultrasound and x-ray equipment. However, the hospital does not have adequate staffing to install and operate all the imaging equipment and desperately seeks the aid of radiologists.
2. Nigeria
Nigeria also suffers from epidemic diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and typhoid which affect a large portion of the population. The lack of government aid in response to these diseases has led to distrust in government healthcare initiatives. The Guardian’s September 2013 article, “The toughest job in Nigerian healthcare,” Dr. Ado Jimada Gana Muhammad, the chief executive of Nigeria’s National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, stated, “If customers – I call patients ‘customers’ – attend a health facility and the level of care is not what he or she expects the confidence is eroded even further.” Muhammad strives to reinstate Nigerians’ lost trust in the healthcare system, hoping that the public will become consumers of recent additions to the system, including better access to vaccinations and new distribution of resources. In April 2014, Nigeria’s National Health Bill will attempt to revitalize the country’s healthcare system via a $380 million pledge. The bill will focus on primary healthcare, offering free healthcare to many Nigerians.
3. Democratic Republic of the Congo
A 2013 IRIN News article, “Boost for healthcare in DRC,” stated, “Civil war has destroyed much of the country’s health infrastructure, as well as the road networks and vital services such as electricity, meaning patients often have to travel long distances to health centers that may not be equipped to handle their complications.” In a country with high rates of infant/maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, malaria and sexual violence, access to medical care plays an essential role in the success of the country’s healthcare system. Currently, a British program, providing $179 million to the country, is attempting to help six million people in the Congo access healthcare.
4. Central African Republic
Lack of healthcare access and healthcare workers plague Central African Republic. After a 2010 rebel attack, volunteer medical workers fled dangerous regions of the country. Thus, large portions of the country’s population have been cut off from all medical resources. Furthermore, an IRIN News article, “Central African Republic: Struggling for healthcare,” states, “Since 2008, the government has spent only 1.5% of GDP on public health, hence its dependency on some 19 medical NGOs to provide drugs and medical equipment and improve the skills of health workers.” For the people of Central African Republic, health care depends on NGO’s rather than the government and therefore, when NGO workers do not feel safe in the country, the healthcare system suffers drastically. IRIN news also noted that vaccination coverage dropped with NGO displacement. The government needs to increase healthcare funding or increase safety measures for medical volunteers to improve the ailing healthcare system.
5. Myanmar
Despite Myanmar’s history of wealth via international trade, Myanmar’s economy has changed significantly in recent years. Poor road infrastructure and low government contribution to healthcare systems has led to healthcare inaccessibility for a large portion of the nation’s population. According to the Burnet Institute, an organization that conducts research on public health in Myanmar, the country has high rates of malaria, tuberculosis and HIV. Ten percent of the population suffers from HIV and tuberculosis simultaneously. Myanmar needs more government funding and outside support from other nations to establish an effective healthcare system and build access to healthcare centers.
– Jaclyn Ambrecht
Sources: Think Africa Press, Burnet Institute, Doctors Without Borders, IRIN News, IRIN News, KBNF, The Guardian, The Inquirer, WHO
Photo: International Rescue Committee
Turquoise Mountain Arts
When a country is in turmoil, the arts can be the first thing to go. Fortunately for Afghanistan, Turquoise Mountain Arts is reviving traditional Afghan arts, architecture and crafts.
Turquoise Mountain Arts is an institute that seeks to bring back traditional Afghan art by training artisans in four schools: calligraphy and miniature painting, woodwork, jewelry and ceramics.
Historically, Afghanistan was an important cultural center for a variety of Islamic arts that have unfortunately fallen to the wayside under the various conflicts that have disrupted life in the country. Traditionally, the Afghan arts and crafts industry is a source of pride and a respectable way for a person to make a living.
Turquoise Mountain Arts helps the Afghan community in more ways than preserving traditional art forms. Since the institute was fully established in 2006, nearly 1.5 million dollars of traditional Afghan crafts have been sold, with that money going back to Afghan artisans.
When the institute turns a profit, it reinvests in itself, putting the money back toward artisans and students so that they can continue to learn and produce art. Additionally, the different arts practiced at Turquoise Mountain Arts help keep valuable natural resources, such as wood, precious stones and metals within the country. The institute also “provides education and employment for over 400 students, teachers, engineers, architects, and construction workers.”
The heads of each of the individual colleges are all Afghan citizens, and whenever there is an opening for new professors, representatives from the institute head straight to Kabul’s craft district.
Before Turquoise Mountain opened, there were no schools focused on preserving and teaching traditional art in Afghanistan. However, since its founding, smaller schools and programs have opened up throughout the country.
The apprenticeship style program is highly beneficial for artisans, who are taught for three years before going out on their own, and are given internationally recognized “City and Guilds” accreditation upon graduation.
Graduates also receive support as they go into the craft market to start their own businesses and further preserve cultural heritage by transferring their knowledge to new workers.
With growing national recognition in addition to international markets in Canada, Britain and Arab countries like Qatar, Turquoise Mountain Arts Institute is helping to preserve Afghan culture and art, and provide respectable employment for citizens.
– Cameron Barney
Sources: Turquoise Mountain Arts, Islamic Arts
‘Victory’ in Tunisia
On January 26, 2014, the national assembly of Tunisia passed a new constitution that created a full democracy in the country. The constitution was the first in the Arab world to provide full equality for men and women.
Article 20 guarantees male and female citizens equal rights and equal treatment before the law. Article 45 of the constitution requires the state to protect women against violence and guarantee equal presentation of men and women in elected institutions.
Ms. Lobna Jeribi, a member of the Ettakattol party, described the article as “a revolution in itself. It’s a big, historic step, not only for Tunisian women”.
But has this new constitution truly given women their rights? Will women be seen equal by the law after the passing of this constitution?
In September 2012, Meriem Ben Mohamed was out with her fiancé in Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia. Two policemen took turns raping her in a police car, while her fiancé was forced by a third policeman to hand over cash money.
On March 31st, the three policemen were convicted in a Tunis courtroom. The two men who raped her were given seven years in prison, while the third policeman was convicted of extortion and was given a two-year sentence.
However, Ben Mohamed’s road to justice was long and full of obstacles. When she first accused the policemen of sexual assault, the Tunisian security services charged her with “public indecency”. After public outcry, the president of Tunisia, Mocef Marzouki, gave her an official apology.
The policemen denied the charges of rape and accused Ben Mohamed of seducing them on that night. During the trial, medical evidence was presented, which demonstrated that Ben Mohamed was sexually active before the policemen raped her.
In Arab countries, sexual activity before marriage is taboo. Instead of focusing the attention upon the perpetrators, much criticism during the trial was launched towards Ben Mohamed herself, in a standard case of victim blaming.
Ben Mohamed currently lives in France and has described her ordeal in a published book called “Guilty of Being Raped”. When she walked out of the courtroom, Ben Mohamed shouted, “when I demand justice, they insult me”.
In Tunisia, the maximum jail term for rape is 25 years. Because the policemen were only given seven years in prison, Ben Mohamed’s legal team will appeal for a longer sentence.
Ben Mohamed’s case demonstrates the fierce opposition Tunisian women face in day-to-day life. Despite the newly adopted Tunisian constitution that guarantees women protection against violence and equal rights before the law, there is still a long road before women can walk the streets of Tunis, unafraid.
– Sarah Yan
Sources: The Economist, BBC, Iol
Central African Republic Peacekeeping Efforts
With violence in the Central African Republic continuing, and complaints of little effectiveness towards the forces from the West coming in, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on April 10 to send in 12,000 peacekeeping troops.
Currently France is holding its 2,000 peacekeeping troops in the nation until the UN force is ready. The hope is that this influx will bring some stability to a struggling nation torn by religious and ethnic violence.
Help from neighboring African nations has been offered, and there are currently 5,000 African Union troops in the nation. However, troops from Chad were recalled earlier in April as reports spread that they were shooting civilians in the capital of Bangui.
Reports like those of the Chadian peacekeepers are troubling and continue to raise questions over who incoming peacekeepers should support. When the efforts began at the end of 2013, the concern was over Muslim militia killing Christians in the region. However, once the peacekeepers came in, retaliatory killings by Christian “anti-balaka” militia resulted in migrations by Muslims and perilous refugee camps set up in the capital of Bangui.
To the credit of the United Nations, they appear to be taking a pro-active response to these complaints. The arrival of more troops meets a pressing need as there had been many complaints over the lack of troops and their reluctance to enter the more dangerous regions of the nation. Hopefully a troop influx will meet victims’ needs.
In the weeks before the vote by the UNSC violence appeared to be escalating in the region. In the days before the vote at least 30 people died in attacks by the anti-balaka militia. UN estimates that were published in the lead-up to the vote estimated that a quarter of the population was “in desperate need of aid.”
The violence in the Central African Republic has gotten little of the media attention that conflicts in Ukraine and Syria have gotten, yet it is a burgeoning problem in a region of growing importance. The peacekeeping announcement is a step in the right direction for the international community. Organizations like the Borgen Project advocate for assistance in regions of turmoil like the Central African Republic is currently dealing with.
While this mission may be meant to encourage peace in the region, it may be some time before that goal is achieved. The work in nations like the Democratic Republic of the Congo shows how difficult that peace efforts in out-of-the way posts are for the West. The efforts will be monitored and followed by the members of the Borgen Project, in the hope that the citizens of the CAR will live better lives soon.
-Eric Gustafsson
Sources: The Week, Reuters, New York Times
Photo: ISN
World Bank to Fund ACE Project in Africa
On April 15, 2014, the World Bank confirmed they would be funding 19 Centers of Excellence in Central and West Africa.
These university-styled centers will also be receiving financing for specific research in math, agriculture and health issues, science and technology.
The Africa Centers of Excellence (ACE) is a project that aims to help form scientific and research skills in adolescent Africans. With the addition of these programs, World Bank’s Vice President in Africa, Makhtar Diop, hopes that more jobs will be formed, economic standing in Africa will grow and adolescents will gain an education in areas that are growing increasingly more important, such as disease control.
World Bank has agreed to fund $150 million, with the majority amount of $70 million going to Nigeria. The other government receiving funding are: Ghana, which is receiving $24 million; Senegal, $16 million; Cameroon, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Togo, each of which is receiving $8 million.
In addition, the Gambia is also being given a $2 million credit, and a $1 million grant to go towards training for students and faculty, as well as to provide higher education to students.
During a time when the continent is facing a severe drop in skilled workers and trained health care workers, the ACE is giving hope and a chance for young students to excel in areas that also benefit Africa as a whole. These areas of study will open doors for students and also equip them with skills for jobs that will provide job security because of high demand.
The focus on Health and STEM research aims to relieve the African countries from the struggling “researcher-to-population ratio” that is negatively affecting the overall health care. Africa currently has a very high mortality rates for mothers, which is 500 maternal deaths for every 100,000 births.
The ACE’s funded program will overall benefit young students, as well as alleviate the current problems with researcher-to-population ratio, economics, health care and poverty.
– Becka Felcon
Sources: World Bank, Punch, All Africa
Marijuana Tours Help Jamaican Economy
As of January 2014, Jamaica had an unemployment rate of 14.9%, which was a decrease from the 15.4% in December 2013.
Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley’s celebrity in the U.S. and openness about his use of marijuana has formed a reputation for Jamaica as being an island where marijuana use and sales are legal. Jamaica is in actuality a very conservative country that prohibits the use and distribution of marijuana.
The growth of marijuana crops, in fact, have steadily declined because of the war on drugs by the U.S. and other competitors, but this has not hindered American travelers from visiting Jamaica in hopes of experiencing the effects of marijuana that Bob Marley openly supported.
Regardless of the decline, Jamaica still has a vast supply of marijuana tourists from the U.S. and all over the world. Jamaica is still the lead smuggler of marijuana into the U.S., which brings a great deal of people into the country to buy weed and explore the cannabis culture in Jamaica.
Many growers are quickly learning that making money off of tourists is quite easy when it includes marijuana. Nine Mile, famous for being the hometown of Bob Marley, offers many different marijuana tours, each of which take relatively large groups of Americans, Germans and Russians through small marijuana farms.
These tours are also common in Negril, Jamaica, and are slowly adapting to become common in places such as Colorado and Washington state, where marijuana has become legalized.
With these tours, average-to-minimum waged locals are able to make a decent chunk of money by letting tourists explore their farms and sample their inventory, often leading many of the tourists to purchase their product.
One Jamaican marijuana farmer dubbed “Breezy” sells his bags of marijuana through the wall-hole of a museum, where marijuana tourists line up and smoke weed, usually just for the sheer novelty that Bob Marley smoked weed on the same island.
One tourist traveling from Minnesota stated, “I can get stronger stuff at home, but there’s something really special about smoking marijuana in Jamaica. I mean, this is the marijuana that inspired Bob Marley.”
The large amount of marijuana tourism that is illegally occurring in Jamaica begs the question of why it hasn’t been legalized.
Marijuana could prove to be a great benefit and a pillar for health tourists. One Jamaican scientist named Henry Lowe, who was a partner in developing a marijuana-based glaucoma treatment, believes that legalizing marijuana could bring in even more tourism than there already is.
By legalizing marijuana, attention and money is estimated to be pulled from gangs and arresting large criminal parties and be refocused on other important matters, such as creating official jobs for those living below the poverty line and helping lower class growers gain a larger following. Overall, the island would benefit and reap massive economic gain by legalizing marijuana and freeing up money.
– Becka Felcon
Sources: Trading Economics, The Guardian, Telegraph
Photo: High Times Caribbean