For a place so small and poor, it is very popular. Everybody know where it is and know at least one thing about it. Some people like it for the reggae music, food, dub, Bob Marley and a ton of other reasons. But why do so many people fame Jamaica so? Why is such a little country so popular. I was happy to learn… Jamaica is a small (defendable) country with STRATEGIC POSITIONING. Its not too big to require a trillion dollar budget to maintain and defend, but its not too small to have a mind of its own. Jamaica’s positioning in the middle of the caribbean (half way between north and south america, close to central america, not too far from anywhere), has made it a convenient stopping point for good people with powerful minds. In the slavery days, this meant that highly rebellious slaves would be left here before ships even reached america. During world war two, we had a US air base, here for the same reason. In more modern times, its positioning allowed it to be an off-shore base for good thinkers such a Marcus Garvey. We are close enough to the USA to do business and to be influenced, yet still we are far enough to have our own opinion. The passive, limited influence has lead to good social expression such as those from Bob Marley. If Jamaica was north of Cuba, this COULD NOT happen. The USA government would have ‘owned us’ long ago. Tourists know that its cheaper to come to Jamaica than to go all the way to Barbadoes. We can run major smuggling operations (ganja and other stuff) because we are just outside USA’s main sphere of countrol (with cuba as a political buffer). Traffickers love this in the same way that pirates loved this in the glory days of Port Royal. I am sure the days of Tainos, Caribs and Arawaks, our positioning was convenient to them too, as they moved around even smaller sea-going vessels. Basically our size and positioning contributes the most to our cultural wealth as a country. . And always has for 500 years.