Author: Jamaica Homes News

Publication Date: 3 August 1998 | Coverage Period: 3 July–2 August 1998 | Category: Monthly Review Month in Brief Monica Lewinsky reached an immunity agreement with Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s office on 28 July, virtually guaranteeing that the President of the United States will face detailed testimony about his conduct; the deal dominated international news cycles and rattled confidence in Washington’s political leadership at a delicate moment for global markets. The Asian financial crisis showed no signs of resolution: Indonesia’s rupiah remained under severe pressure, South Korea’s corporate restructuring programme produced further large-scale redundancies, and Thailand’s economic output continued to…

July 1998 finds Jamaica’s housing market at the crisis midpoint; FINSAC is at peak intervention intensity, commercial mortgage rates have reached historic highs, the formal mortgage market for working-class Jamaicans has effectively collapsed, and NHT stands as the only accessible formal housing finance route.

Publication Date: 3 July 1998 | Coverage Period: 3 June–2 July 1998 | Category: Monthly Review Month in Brief Jamaica made history at the FIFA World Cup in France, competing in their first-ever World Cup finals in Group H; the Reggae Boyz faced Croatia (10 June), Argentina (21 June), and Japan (26 June) in what amounted to a national coming-of-age moment on the global sporting stage. The Asian financial crisis continued to suppress global commodity prices; aluminium — linked directly to Jamaica’s bauxite and alumina sector — remained under pressure as Asian industrial demand contracted, reducing export revenues at an…

On 22 June 1998, precisely fifty years after HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury with its cargo of Caribbean citizens bound for a Britain that had summoned them, the anniversary falls. It is a moment for reflection, retrospective, and the beginning of reckoning. The same half-year has brought the Good Friday Agreement — the most significant constitutional development in these islands in a generation — and the opening sittings of the Macpherson Inquiry into the police investigation of Stephen Lawrence’s murder.

Quarterly Update | Q2 1998 | April–June 1998 | Jamaica Homes News Key Takeaways: Q2 1998 in Six Lines Jamaica plays at the World Cup for the first time; an island and diaspora hold their breath Good Friday Agreement signed April 10; thirty years of conflict in Ireland given a framework for peace India and Pakistan test nuclear weapons in May; South Asian diaspora communities gripped France 98 opens June 10; diaspora gathers in community venues across three continents to watch Monica Lewinsky scandal intensifies; Washington consumed as the world watches Jamaica tourism buoyant; World Cup creates additional international profile…

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from April to June 1998, a second quarter in which the Jamaica property market’s domestic conditions remained severely constrained by the financial sector’s FINSAC restructuring while the global financial environment’s deterioration through the spread of the Asian currency crisis into new markets generated additional headwinds for the international buyer and investment communities whose engagement the North Coast’s property market depended upon, a spring season whose spring follow-through from the winter diaspora homecoming operated under conditions that tested the overseas community’s property market commitment against the period’s formidable dual-pressure backdrop.

There is a particular kind of structural failure that engineers call progressive collapse. It begins with the failure of one element — a single beam, a single column, a single load-bearing wall — that transfers its load to adjacent elements not designed to carry it. Those elements, now overloaded, begin to fail in turn. Their load transfers to the next element, and the next. What began as a local failure becomes a cascading one, and the cascade continues until it reaches an element strong enough to arrest it, or until there is nothing left to arrest. Jamaica’s financial sector, in…

Seven years after the Natural Resources Conservation Authority established Jamaica’s environmental impact assessment process in 1991, the second quarter of 1998 offered a moment to assess how the EIA system was performing in its most demanding application: coastal resort development.

Publication Date: 3 June 1998 | Coverage Period: 3 May–2 June 1998 | Category: Monthly Review Month in Brief Jamaica stands days away from the most significant sporting moment in the nation’s history: the Reggae Boyz are due to play their first-ever FIFA World Cup match in France on 14 June, against Croatia, with a nation holding its collective breath in anticipation and pride. The Asian financial crisis continued to deteriorate through May; Indonesia’s President Suharto resigned on 21 May after 32 years in power, marking the crisis’s most dramatic political consequence to date and deepening concerns about regional contagion.…

Publication Date: 3 May 1998 | Coverage Period: 3 April–2 May 1998 | Category: Monthly Review Month in Brief The Asian financial crisis intensified through April, with Indonesia the focal point of instability: street protests swept Jakarta and other major cities amid widespread economic distress, setting the stage for the political upheaval that would culminate in President Suharto’s resignation the following month. Global commodity prices remained depressed, with bauxite and alumina — Jamaica’s principal merchandise export earners — continuing to trade at levels well below those that prevailed before the Asian crisis began in mid-1997. Jamaica’s exchange rate against the…

April 1998 marks FINSAC’s first full year of operation; Jamaica’s domestic financial sector is being progressively restructured, commercial mortgage access is contracting sharply, and the Asian financial crisis is compounding an already difficult external environment for the housing market.

Publication Date: 3 April 1998 | Coverage Period: 3 March–2 April 1998 | Category: Monthly Review Month in Brief The Asian financial crisis continued its spread through March, with fresh concerns about South Korea’s corporate restructuring, the fragility of Hong Kong’s currency peg, and the deepening recession in Thailand compounding global investor anxiety about emerging-market exposures. Jamaica’s bauxite and alumina export revenues remained under pressure from Asian demand weakness; the sector, which accounts for a significant share of Jamaica’s foreign exchange earnings, recorded further price deterioration through the March coverage period. The Bank of Jamaica maintained its high-rate monetary stance;…

Quarterly Update | Q1 1998 | January–March 1998 | Jamaica Homes News Key Takeaways: Q1 1998 in Six Lines Lewinsky scandal breaks January 21; Clinton’s presidency enters its deepest crisis Pope John Paul II visits Cuba January 21–25; a historic encounter on Cold War’s last island Asian financial crisis spreads; Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand all in severe recession Jamaica Reggae Boyz prepare for France 98; World Cup dream becomes tangible reality UK Caribbean community’s Stephen Lawrence campaign intensifies ahead of public inquiry Jamaica property market shows resilience; diaspora buyers drive north coast activity The Lewinsky Scandal: Washington in Crisis On…

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from January to March 1998, the first winter diaspora season to be conducted entirely under the FINSAC financial sector restructuring’s constraints, a first quarter in which P.J. Patterson’s December 1997 re-election provided the political continuity that the crisis’s management demanded while the property market’s domestic credit conditions reflected the FINSAC intervention’s most immediate consequences, the overseas community’s January and February homecoming demonstrated the diaspora market’s structural commitment even against the financial crisis’s opening conditions, and the North Coast’s international buyer community maintained the engagement whose foreign currency foundation provided the property market’s most resilient active pipeline through the domestic credit crisis’s severe first phase.

The first quarter of 1998 saw the publication of Jamaica’s first comprehensive coastal zone management policy framework, developed with international support. The framework was intended to provide the overarching policy architecture within which specific coastal management decisions would be made.