Jamaica Diaspora Annual Roundup 2009

Annual Review | Published: 31 December 2009 | Jamaica Homes News

Key Takeaways: 2009 in Six Lines

• Obama Inaugurated as US President on 20 January: History Made
• Bolt Runs 9.58 and 19.19 in Berlin: World Records That May Stand Forever
• Global Recession Deepens: Jamaica Remittances Dip to US$1.8 Billion
• H1N1 Swine Flu Declared a Global Pandemic in June
• Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize in October
• Jamaica Under IMF Programme as Fiscal Pressures Mount

The Year in Review

If 2008 was the year Obama was elected and Bolt announced himself, 2009 was the year both delivered on the promise at its fullest. Barack Obama’s inauguration on 20 January — the first African-American president taking the oath of office on the steps of a Capitol built in part by enslaved workers — was watched by an estimated two billion people globally. For diaspora communities across the African Caribbean diaspora, the inauguration was not merely an American political event but a statement about possibility that no qualifier could diminish. Community gatherings for the inauguration broadcast, held from Brixton to Brooklyn to Birmingham, were some of the most emotionally charged diaspora collective moments of the decade.

At the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in August, Usain Bolt produced performances that have yet to be surpassed. The 9.58 seconds he ran in the 100m final — faster than his own 9.69 Beijing world record by a margin that defied physiological expectation — was followed by 19.19 in the 200m final, both times setting world records that athletics commentators described as potentially permanent. For Jamaica’s diaspora, Berlin confirmed what Beijing had suggested: that Bolt was not a once-in-a-generation sprinter but a once-in-recorded-history sprinter, and that he was Jamaica’s gift to the global sporting century.

The year’s economic context was the shadow over both celebrations. The global recession that the 2008 financial crisis had triggered deepened through 2009 as unemployment rose across the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. Annual remittances to Jamaica fell to approximately US$1.8 billion — the first significant dip in over a decade — a decline that reflected the genuine pressure on diaspora household finances rather than any weakening of the commitment to send. Jamaica itself was navigating an IMF structural adjustment programme that constrained government spending and shaped the economic options available to diaspora investors and returnees. The H1N1 swine flu pandemic, declared by the WHO in June, added a public health emergency to an already difficult year. Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize in October — awarded to a president nine months into his first term, on the basis of hope and changed international tone — was controversial in some quarters but celebrated in diaspora communities as a further affirmation of his presidency’s historic weight.

Jamaica Diaspora Annual Roundup 2009 | Jamaica Homes News. Compiled from four quarterly editions published April, July, October 2009, and January 2010.

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