Very much the Island's capital, the city of Kingston dominates Jamaica politically, commercially and culturally. Its estimated 700,000 inhabitants represent almost a third of the entire population. Relentless expansion has long since outstripped the government capacity to supply employment, housing or adequate public utilities and still it grows: a noisy, sprawling, polluted and vigorous metropolis. 

From steamy plain to balmy hills, from gospel tent to cathedral, hovel to high-rise it is, like all cities, a place of stark contrasts: goats browse along the concrete pavements, pushcarts jostle crissers (late model cars) along the traffic choked streets and sidewalk vendors sprout beside ostentatious shopping plazas.

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