The very thing keeping tourists safe in Jamaica? Crime

Are you looking at your tickets to Jamaica and thinking: why on earth did I decide to go there, with its army curfew, state of emergency and spiralling homicide rate? The Jamaican government has just extended its state of emergency until May and has advised tourists not to leave their hotels unaccompanied. But don’t go online just yet to see if you can scrabble some money back on your flight. I am writing this while sipping a rum and listening to laughter and reggae in my local bar a few miles from the picturesque parish of St James, where in the past six months 335 people have been murdered, and no one here, me included, feels the least bit scared.

This is because if you know the background to this new wave of violence, you understand why the tourist, or indeed any law-abiding citizen, has nothing to fear.

Here in western Jamaica we are a world centre of excellence, not just for murder but for one of the world’s fastest-growing global industries: the scamming trade.