A Lesson in History: Haiti 1804

Posted on August 23, 2016 in Ethos, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

There are important lessons to learn from history. This commentary considers one particular lesson: the repercussions and consequences from Slavery and the Slave Trade.

CU Blog - A Lesson in History - Haiti 1804 - Photo 3Today – August 23 – is the official commemoration of the Slave Trade, as declared by UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization). It measures the date that the 1791 Slave Rebellion in Haiti commenced.

“All of humanity is part of this story, in its transgressions and good deeds” – Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General

This is a very important lesson that we glean from this history, no matter our race or homeland. Let’s consider this lesson from the perspective of the Caribbean and for the benefit of Caribbean elevation.

In jurisprudence, there is the concept of felony murder.

… if a perpetrator robs a liquor store and the clerk has a heart-attack and dies, that perpetrator, once caught is tried for felony murder. The definition is the consequence of death in the act of committing a felony. What’s ironic is this charge would also apply if its a co-perpetrator that dies of the heart-attack rather than a victim-clerk.

This justice standard also applies with family discipline. If/when a child is being naughty and accordingly a sibling is unintentionally hurt, the naughty behavior will almost always be punished for the injury, because it was linked to the bad behavior.

A lesson learned from family discipline; and a lesson learned from criminal law. All of these scenarios present consequences to bad, abusive behavior. This sets the stage for better understanding of this important lesson from the international history of the year 1804. After 200 years of the Slave Trade, repercussions and consequences were bound to strike. This happened in the Caribbean country of Haiti. The following catastrophic events transpired in the decade leading up to 1804:

  • 1791 Slave Rebellion – See Appendix A below – A direct spinoff from the French Revolution’s demand for equality
  • Leadership of Louverture – As Governor-General, Toussaint Louverture sought to return Haiti to France without Slavery.
  • Resistance to Slavery – The French planned and attempted to re-instate Slavery
  • Free Republic – The first Black State in the New World
  • 1804 Massacre of the French – See Appendix B below – An illogical solution that killing Whites would prevent future enslavement. 

Make no mistake, the Massacre of 1804 – where 3,000 to 5,000 White men, women and children were killed – was a direct consequence of Slavery and the Slave Trade.

See VIDEO here of a comprehensive TED story:

VIDEO – The Atlantic Slave Trade: What too few textbooks told you – https://youtu.be/3NXC4Q_4JVg

Published on Dec 22, 2014 – Slavery has occurred in many forms throughout the world, but the Atlantic slave trade — which forcibly brought more than 10 million Africans to the Americas — stands out for both its global scale and its lasting legacy. Anthony Hazard discusses the historical, economic and personal impact of this massive historical injustice.
Lesson by Anthony Hazard, animation by NEIGHBOR.
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-atlanti…

  • Category – Education
  • License – Standard YouTube License

The review of the historic events is more than just an academic discussion, the book Go Lean…Caribbean aspires to economic principles that dictate that “consequences of choices lie in the future”. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). Haiti – the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere – is one of the 30 member-states for this Caribbean confederacy.

The people of the Caribbean need to understand the cause of this country’s decline and dysfunction; and by extension, the cause of dysfunction for the rest of the Caribbean. It is tied to the events of 1804. How will this lesson help us today?

  • Reality of the Legacy – The new Black State of Haiti was censored, sanctioned and scorned upon by all European powers (White people). According to a previous blog-commentary, to finally be recognized, France required the new country of Haiti to offset the income that would be lost by French settlers and slave owners; they demanded compensation amounting to 150 million gold francs. After a new deal was struck in 1838, Haiti agreed to pay France 90 million gold francs (the equivalent of €17 billion today). It was not until 1952 that Haiti made the final payment on what became known as its “Independence Debt”. Many analysts posit that the compensation Haiti paid to France throughout the 19th century “strangled development” and hindered the “evolution of the country”. The CU/Go Lean book assessed the near-Failed-State status of Haiti – “it is what it is”; Haiti is as bad as advertised – and then strategized solutions to reboot the economic-security-governing engines of this Republic.  
  • Security assurances must be enabled to complement economics objectives – Slavery was introduced to the New World as an economic empowerment strategy, though it was flawed in its premise of oppressing the human rights of a whole class of humans. The only way to succeed for the centuries that it survived was with a strong military backing – fear of immediate death and destruction. The CU/Go Lean premise is that economics engines and security apparatus must work hand-in-hand. This is weaved throughout the roadmap.
  • Minority Equalization – The lessons of slavery is that race divides societies; and when there is this division, there is always the tendency for one group to put themselves above other groups. Many times the divisions are for majority population groups versus minorities. If the planners of the new Caribbean want to apply lessons from Slavery’s history, we must allow for justice institutions to consider the realities of minorities. The CU security pact must defend against regional threats, including domestic terrorism. This includes gangs and their junior counterparts, bullies. The CU plans for community messaging in the campaign for anti-bullying and mitigations.
  • Reconciliation of issues are not optional, more conflict will emerge otherwise – The issues that caused division in Haiti where not dealt with between 1791 and 1803. A “Great Day of Reckoning” could not be avoided. The Natural Law instinct was to avenge for past atrocities – “an eye for an eye”. The CU/Go Lean roadmap accepts that an “eye for an eye” justice stance would result in a lot of “blindness”; so instead of revenge, the strategy is justice by means of Truth & Reconciliation Commissions – a lesson learned from South Africa – to deal with a lot of the  latent issues from the last Caribbean century (i.e. Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, etc).

The purpose of the Go Lean roadmap is to turn-around the downward trends in the Caribbean today, to reverse course and elevate Caribbean society. The CU, applying lessons from best-practices, has prime directives proclaimed as follows:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean book details a series of assessments, community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to empower all the factions in the Caribbean region:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future Page 21
Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens Page 23
Community Ethos – Minority Equalization Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations Page 34
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Vision –  Integrate region for Economics & Security Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization Page 57
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of Homeland Security Page 75
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of Justice Page 77
Implementation – Assemble Existing Super-national Institutions Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Implementation – Foreign Policy Initiatives at Start-up Page 102
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Promote Independence Page 120
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices Page 134
Planning – Lessons from the US Constitution Page 145
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Terrorism Page 181
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights Page 220
Advocacy – Battles in the War on Poverty Page 222
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Haiti Page 238

Why bother with all this dark talk about Slavery and the Slave Trade?

UNESCO has provided a clear answer for this question with this declarative statement:

Ignorance or concealment of major historical events constitutes an obstacle to mutual understanding, reconciliation and cooperation among peoples. UNESCO has thus decided to break the silence surrounding the Slave Trade and Slavery that have concerned all continents and caused the great upheavals that have shaped our modern societies.

The subject of Slavery and the Slave Trade relates to economic, security and governing functioning in a society. The repercussions and consequences of 1804 lingers down to this day. There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean promoters that have developed related topics. See a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8724 Remembering African Nationalist Marcus Garvey: Still Relevant Today
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7682 Frederick Douglass – Pioneer & Role Model for Single Cause: Abolition
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7221 Street naming for Martin Luther King reveals continued racial animosity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5695 Repenting, Forgiving and Reconciling the Past Bad Deeds
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5123 A Lesson in History – Royal Charters: Zimbabwe -vs- South Africa
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4971 A Lesson in History – Royal Charters: Truth & Consequence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=451 CariCom position on Slavery/Colonization Reparations

This commentary purports that there have been watershed events in history since the emergence of the slave economy. They include:

  • 1804 – Haiti’s Massacre of White Slave Advocates
  • 1861 – US Civil War – A Demonstration of the Resolve of the “Pro” and “Anti” Slavery Camps
  • 1914 – World War I: “Line in the Sand”
  • 1948 – United Nations Declaration of Human Rights

No doubt the Massacre of 1804 was a crisis. It was not wasted; it was used in a good way to escalate the abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807. It was also used in a bad way to justify further oppression of the African Diaspora in the New World.

A pivotal year.

Let’s learn from this year of 1804; and from the repercussions and consequences from that year. In many ways, the world has not moved! Racism and the suppression of the African race lingers … even today … in Europe and in the Americas.

Our goal is to reform and transform the Caribbean, not Europe or America. We hereby urge everyone in the Caribbean – people, institutions and governments – to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. It is time now to move. We must get the Caribbean region to a new destination, one where opportunity meets preparation. This is the destination where the Caribbean is a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix A Title: International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition 2016

— Message from Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO —

CU Blog - A Lesson in History - Haiti 1804 - Photo 1In the night of 22 to 23 August 1791, men and women, torn from Africa and sold into slavery, revolted against the slave system to obtain freedom and independence for Haiti, gained in 1804. The uprising was a turning point in human history, greatly impacting the establishment of universal human rights, for which we are all indebted.

The courage of these men and women has created obligations for us. UNESCO is marking International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition to pay tribute to all those who fought for freedom, and, in their name, to continue teaching about their story and the values therein. The success of this rebellion, led by the slaves themselves, is a deep source of inspiration today for the fight against all forms of servitude, racism, prejudice, racial discrimination and social injustice that are a legacy of slavery.

The history of the slave trade and slavery created a storm of rage, cruelty and bitterness that has not yet abated. It is also a story of courage, freedom and pride in newfound freedom. All of humanity is part of this story, in its transgressions and good deeds. It would be a mistake and a crime to cover it up and forget. Through its project The Slave Route, UNESCO intends to find in this collective memory the strength to build a better world and to show the historical and moral connections that unite different peoples.

In this same frame of mind, the United Nations proclaimed the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). UNESCO is contributing to it through its educational, cultural and scientific programmes so as to promote the contribution of people of African descent to building modern societies and ensuring dignity and equality for all human beings, without distinction.
Source: Retrieved August 23, 2016 from: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/slave-trade-and-its-abolition/

Slave Ship

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Appendix B Title: 1804 Haiti Massacre

The 1804 Haiti Massacre was a massacre carried out against the remaining white population of native Frenchmen and French Creoles (or Franco-Haitians) in Haiti by Haitian soldiers by the order of Jean-Jacques Dessalines who had decreed that all those suspected of conspiring in the acts of the expelled army should be put to death.[1] Throughout the nineteenth century, these events were well known in the United States where they were referred to as “the horrors of St. Domingo” and particularly polarized Southern public opinion on the question of the abolition of slavery.[2][3]

The massacre, which took place in the entire territory of Haiti, was carried out from early February 1804 until 22 April 1804, and resulted in the deaths of between 3,000 and 5,000 people of all ages and genders.[4]

Squads of soldiers moved from house to house, torturing and killing entire families.[5] Even whites who had been friendly and sympathetic to the black population were imprisoned and later killed.[6] A second wave of massacres targeted white women and children.[6]

Writers Dirk Moses and Dan Stone wrote that it served as a form of revenge by an oppressed group that exacted out against those who had previously dominated them.[7]

Aftermath
By the end of April 1804, some 3,000 to 5,000 people had been killed[23] and the white Haitians were practically eradicated. Only three categories of white people, except foreigners, were selected as exceptions and spared: the Polish soldiers who deserted from the French army; the little group of German colonists invited to Nord-Ouest (North-West), Haiti before the revolution; and a group of medical doctors and professionals.[14] Reportedly, also people with connections to officers in the Haitian army were spared, as well as the women who agreed to marry non-white men.[23]

Dessalines did not try to hide the massacre from the world. In an official proclamation of 8 April 1804, he stated, “We have given these true cannibals war for war, crime for crime, outrage for outrage. Yes, I have saved my country, I have avenged America”.[14] He referred to the massacre as an act of national authority. Dessalines regarded the elimination of the white Haitians an act of political necessity, as they were regarded as a threat to the peace between the black and the colored. It was also regarded as a necessary act of vengeance.[23]

Dessalines was eager to assure that Haiti was not a threat to other nations and that it sought to establish friendly relations also to nations where slavery was still allowed.[26]Dessalines’ secretary Boisrond-Tonnerre stated, “For our declaration of independence, we should have the skin of a white man for parchment, his skull for an inkwell, his blood for ink, and a bayonet for a pen!”[27]

In the 1805 constitution, all citizens were defined as “black”,[28] and white men were banned from owning land.[23][29]

The 1804 massacre had a long-lasting effect on the view of the Haitian Revolution and helped to create a legacy of racial hostility in Haitian society.[28]

At the time of the civil war, a major reason for southern whites, most of whom did not own slaves, to support slave-owners (and ultimately fight for the Confederacy) was fear of a genocide similar to the Haitian Massacre of 1804. This was explicitly referred to in Confederate discourse and propaganda.[30][31]

The torture and massacre of whites in Haiti, normally known at the time as “the horrors of St. Domingo“, was a constant and prominent theme in the discourse of southern political leaders and had influenced American public opinion since the events took place.
Source: Retrieved August 22, 2016 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1804_Haiti_massacre

CU Blog - A Lesson in History - Haiti 1804 - Photo 2

 

 

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Remembering Marcus Garvey: Still Relevant Today

Posted on August 20, 2016 in Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

The relations between the Caribbean and the United States of America have had a bumpy ride in the past. Consider just these few incidences:

But now, the people of the Caribbean has forgiven the US and now approve “life” within its borders….

… as so many Caribbean citizens have now fled to life in the US, as residents. There has been some reconciliation of the past … to allow for this normalized status quo.

But there is one more rift in the Caribbean-American history to consider, that of Marcus Garvey. Can this historicity also be re-approached, revisited, redeemed and reconciled? Is there a need for repentance?

In a previous commentary from this Go Lean movement, it was established how we cannot always leave past events in the past. At times, we must re-approach historic injustices so as to recognize the pain and legacy caused; only then can true reconciliation occur.

America had a bad legacy in terms of race relations. Has that country of the US reformed since the days of Marcus Garvey?

Accordingly, some stakeholders in the US Congress want that repentance, in the form of a posthumous pardon. See the story here:

CU Blog - Remembering Marcus Garvey - Still Relevant Today - Photo 3Title: U.S. Congresswoman Wants President Obama to Pardon Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey, Jamaica’s national hero who was charged with mail fraud in the United States could be in line for a presidential pardon if Congresswoman Yvette Clarke gets her way. Clarke is working to ensure that Garvey is exonerated before Obama steps down from his post in January 2017. Clarke announced the potential action in a speech to the Jamaica Diaspora after receiving the first Talawah Award for Politics. According to Clarke, two other congressional representatives – Charles Rangel and John Conyers – will join her in making sure that Garvey receives a pardon and that his name is cleared.

In 1923, Garvey was arrested in the U.S. on charges of mail fraud and spent two years in a federal prison before being deported back to Jamaica. In the years following, a number of governments and organizations lobbied authorities in the U.S. to expunge the record of Jamaica’s national hero. Clarke was one of seven Jamaicans presented with the Inaugural Talawah Awards for their contributions to both their homeland and their adopted home.
Source: Jamaicans.com – Lifestyle E-zine; posted: 05/15/2016; Retrieved 08/19/2016 from: http://jamaicans.com/u-s-congresswoman-wants-president-obama-pardon-marcus-garvey/

The subject of Marcus Garvey – see Appendix & VIDEO below – is very important from a Jamaican perspective. He is considered a National Hero in his homeland, where he was awarded the “Order of National Hero” posthumously in 1964; an esteemed honor awarded by the government (Parliament) of Jamaica and one of its first official acts after independence.

But the story of Marcus Garvey is more than just a “treasure to one, trash to another” consideration. Recognizing Jamaican value and worth, means recognizing Jamaica’s endurance despite a history of oppression, repression and suppression. Remember, there was a world, not very long ago, of no civil rights and intensed colonization. Marcus Garvey transcended that world. In effect, Jamaicans are saying to the world: “You see Marcus Garvey; you see me”.

Garvey was given major prominence as a national hero during Jamaica’s move towards independence. As such, he has numerous tributes there. The first of these is the Garvey statue and shrine in Kingston’s National Heroes Park. Among the honors to him in Jamaica are his name upon the Jamaican Ministry of Foreign Affairs; a major highway bearing his name and the Marcus Garvey Scholarship tenable at the University of the West Indies sponsored by The National Association of Jamaican and Supportive Organizations, Inc (NAJASO) since 1988.

Garvey’s birthplace, 32 Market Street, St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, has a marker signifying it as a site of importance in the nation’s history.[64]His likeness is on the 20-dollar coin and 25-cent coin. Garvey’s recognition is probably most significant in Kingston, Jamaica.
Source: Retrieved August 20, 2016 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey

The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that any attempt at unification of the Caribbean 30 member-states must consider the ancient and modern injustices some member-states have experienced (within themselves and with other nations). The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). A mission of the roadmap is to champion the cause of Caribbean Image. For far too long, Caribbean people have been classified as “Less Than”, as parasites rather than protégés. Therefore an additional mission of the roadmap is to facilitate formal reconciliations, (much consideration is given to the model in South Africa with their Truth & Reconciliation Commissions (TRC)). But this commentary posits, that we need reconciliations in foreign relations too, (i.e. Caribbean / United States).

The approach is simple, correct the bad “community ethos” from the past. The African-American and African-Caribbean populations were oppressed, repressed an suppressed in the “White” world of the 1920’s. A good “community ethos” now is to repent, forgive and reconcile from that legacy.

“Community Ethos” is described in the Go Lean book as the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; the dominant assumptions of a people or period. America has surely transformed – the current President, Barack Obama is of African-American heritage. Has that transformation advanced to the point of taking ownership of past misdeeds.

We truly hope so! But show us, by recognizing and redeeming the bad acts of the US federal government against Marcus Garvey. This year marks the 8th and final year of the Obama administration. He has always had the power to grant a pardon to the “good name” of Marcus Garvey. When requested before in 2011, his stance was that it is his policy not to consider requests for posthumous pardons. His assertion is that they should be enjoyed only by the living.

But more is involved, Mr. President. A pardon would send a message to the world about African-American and African-Caribbean heroes:

In hindsight, they should be held in high esteem for doing so much in a world that valued them so little!

The historicity of Marcus Garvey is a powerful role model for today’s Caribbean. He was truly an Advocate for the African race universally. (This race represents the majority of the population of all the Caribbean member-states except the French Overseas Territory of Saint Barthélemy). He championed this cause in words (speeches and writings), actions, commitments and sacrifice. He truly gave a full measure of blood, sweat and tears. He presented his vision and values in his quest to unify and elevate the Black race.

Our emulation of Marcus Garvey is a lot less ambitious, rather than the African-ethnic world, our scope is just the elevation of the 30 Caribbean member-states. Rather than the narrow focus of Blacks in general, our scope involves all current Caribbean ethnicities and languages. We are trying to “raise the tide in the Caribbean waters so that all boats will be elevated”. Further, as communicated in previous blog-commentaries, we are not trying to impact the United States of America – beyond help to our Diaspora – nor the continent of Africa – beyond providing them a great model of our technocratic deliveries. Our mission is a lot more laser-focused than that of Marcus Garvey; we are simply trying to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play.

This CU/Go Lean mission is to elevate Caribbean society through cutting edge delivery of best practices, strategies, tactics and implementations. The prime directives of this movement is defined as the following 3 statements:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus for public safety and to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean book speaks of the Caribbean past, as it relates to the American past. The legacy of the common sufferings of slavery and racial repression should create a common bond; this bond should unite all of the Black World. It should also unite the Caribbean into accepting a premise of interdependence for solutions in the economic-security-governance eco-systems. This common need was defined early in the book (Page 10) in the following pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence:

Preamble: As the history of our region and the oppression, suppression and repression of its indigenous people is duly documented, there is no one alive who can be held accountable for the prior actions, and so we must put aside the shackles of systems of repression to instead formulate efficient and effective systems to steer our own destiny.

As the colonial history of our region was initiated to create economic expansion opportunities for our previous imperial masters, the structures of government instituted in their wake have not fostered the best systems for prosperity of the indigenous people. Despite this past, we thrust our energies only to the future, in adapting the best practices and successes of the societies of these previous imperial masters and recognizing the positive spirit of their intent and vow to learn from their past accomplishments and mistakes so as to optimize the opportunities for our own citizenry to create a more perfect bond of union.

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xii. Whereas the legacy in recent times in individual states may be that of ineffectual governance with no redress to higher authority, the accedence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of the human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.

xiii. Whereas the legacy of dissensions in many member-states (for example: Haiti and Cuba) will require a concerted effort to integrate the exile community’s repatriation, the Federation must arrange for Reconciliation Commissions to satiate a demand for justice.

The Go Lean book details a lot more, a series of assessments, community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to glean lessons from history and impact the Caribbean-side of the common Black experience:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification – Example of Black America of Olden Days Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations Page 34
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederating a Non-Sovereign Union of 30 Member-states Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Keep the next generation at home; Repatriate Diaspora Page 46
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Truth & Reconciliation Courts Page 78
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate Page 118
Anatomy of Advocacies Page 122
Planning – Ways to Improve Image Page 133
Planning – Improve Failed-State Indices Page 134
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice – Truth & Reconciliation Commissions Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood – Managing Image through Films Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage Page 218

The foregoing article relates the second request to US President Obama to extend a pardon to the legacy of Marcus Garvey. This is important to “us” in the Caribbean.

Just do it!

Obama claims to be a friend of the Caribbean, though many times his policies have worked contrary to the Caribbean’s best interests. Consider these examples:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7689 Obama – Bad For Caribbean Status Quo
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4935 A Lesson Learned from Obama’s Caribbean Visit
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1674 Obama’s Plans for $3.7 Billion Immigration Crisis Funds

The Go Lean/CU roadmap addresses the past, present and future challenges of Caribbean empowerment and image.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. There is reason to believe that these empowerment efforts can be successful. We have the legacy of so many National Heroes; we can now stand on their shoulders and reach even greater heights.

The Go Lean roadmap conveys how single causes have successfully been forged throughout the world (Page 122 – Anatomy of Advocacies) by individual Advocates. There is consideration for these examples:

Please note, while this movement petitions for reconciliation of the sullied past in race relations, there is no request for reparations. The Go Lean book punctuates this point with the following quotation:

We cannot ignore the past, as it defines who we are, but we do not wish to be shackled to the past either, for then, we miss the future. So we must learn from the past, our experiences and that of other states in similar situations, mount our feet solidly to the ground and then lean-in, to reach for new heights; forward, upward and onward. – Page 5

The new ethos being developed for the Caribbean by this Go Lean movement, is to reconcile conflicts from the past; to repent, forgive and hopefully forget the long history of human rights abuses from the past. All of this effort is heavy-lifting, but the Bible gives us an assurance that makes all the effort worthwhile:

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. – John 8:32; New International Version

🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix VIDEO – Marcus Garvey — Look For Me In The Whirlwind (Review) – https://youtu.be/hS3Y5RhBPd8

Published on Oct 8, 2012 – Black History Studies team (BHS) presents their Marcus Garvey screening, at the Marcus Garvey Centre in Tottenham. Sis Sonia Scully interviews film goers in the break, to find out how they’re receiving the Friday Black History Month screenings.

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Appendix – Marcus Garvey Biography Wiki

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., (17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940),[2] was a Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a proponent of the Pan-Africanism movement, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL).[3] He also founded the Black Star Line, a shipping and passenger line which promoted the return of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands.

CU Blog - Remembering Marcus Garvey - Still Relevant Today - Photo 1Prior to the 20th century, leaders such as Prince Hall, Martin Delany, Edward Wilmot Blyden, and Henry Highland Garnet advocated the involvement of the African diaspora in African affairs. Garvey was unique in advancing a Pan-African philosophy to inspire a global mass movement and economic empowerment focusing on Africa known as Garveyism.[3] Promoted by the UNIA as a movement of African Redemption, Garveyism would eventually inspire others, ranging from the Nation of Islam to the Rastafari movement (some sects of which proclaim Garvey as a prophet.)[4]

Garveyism intended persons of African ancestry in the diaspora to “redeem” the nations of Africa and for the European colonial powers to leave the continent. His essential ideas about Africa were stated in an editorial in the Negro World entitled “African Fundamentalism”, where he wrote: “Our union must know no clime, boundary, or nationality… to let us hold together under all climes and in every country…”[5]

…

After years of working in the Caribbean, Garvey left Jamaica to live in London from 1912 to 1914, where he attended Birkbeck College, taking classes in law and philosophy. He also worked for the African Times and Orient Review, published by Dusé Mohamed Ali, who was a considerable influence on the young man. Garvey sometimes spoke at Hyde Park‘s Speakers’ Corner.

In 1914, Garvey returned to Jamaica, where he organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

The UNIA held an international convention in 1921 at New York City’s MadisonSquareGarden. Also represented at the convention were organizations such as the Universal Black Cross Nurses, the Black Eagle Flying Corps, and the Universal African Legion. Garvey attracted more than 50,000 people to the event and in his cause. The UNIA had 65,000 to 75,000 members paying dues to his support and funding. The national level of support in Jamaica helped Garvey to become one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century on the island.[13]

After corresponding with Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and a national African-American leader in the United States, Garvey traveled by ship to the U.S., arriving on 23 March 1916 aboard the SS Tallac. He intended to make a lecture tour and to raise funds to establish a school in Jamaica modeled after Washington’s Institute. Garvey visited Tuskegee, and afterwards, visited with a number of black leaders.

After moving to New York, he found work as a printer by day. He was influenced by Hubert Harrison. At night he would speak on street corners, much as he did in London’s Hyde Park. Garvey thought there was a leadership vacuum among African Americans. On 9 May 1916, he held his first public lecture in New York City at St Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery and undertook a 38-state speaking tour.

The next year in May 1917, Garvey and thirteen others formed the first UNIA division outside Jamaica. They began advancing ideas to promote social, political, and economic freedom for black people. On 2 July, the East St. Louis riots broke out. On 8 July, Garvey delivered an address, entitled “The Conspiracy of the East St. Louis Riots”, at Lafayette Hall in Harlem. During the speech, he declared the riot was “one of the bloodiest outrages against mankind”, condemning America’s claims to represent democracy when black people were victimized “for no other reason than they are black people seeking an industrial chance in a country that they have laboured for three hundred years to make great”. It is “a time to lift one’s voice against the savagery of a people who claim to be the dispensers of democracy”.[14] …

Garvey worked to develop a program to improve the conditions of ethnic Africans “at home and abroad” under UNIA auspices. On 17 August 1918, he began publishing the Negro World newspaper in New York, which was widely distributed. Garvey worked as an editor without pay until November 1920. He used Negro World as a platform for his views to encourage growth of the UNIA.[15] By June 1919, the membership of the organization had grown to over two million, according to its records.

On 27 June 1919, the UNIA set up its first business, incorporating the Black Star Line of Delaware, with Garvey as President. By September, it acquired its first ship. Much fanfare surrounded the inspection of the S.S. Yarmouth and its rechristening as the S.S. Frederick Douglass on 14 September 1919. Such a rapid accomplishment garnered attention from many.[15] The Black Star Line also formed a fine winery, using grapes harvested only in Ethiopia. During the first year, the Black Star Line’s stock sales brought in $600,000. This caused it to be successful during that year. It had numerous problems during the next two years: mechanical breakdowns on its ships, what it said were incompetent workers, and poor record keeping. The officers were eventually accused of mail fraud.[15]

Edwin P. Kilroe, Assistant District Attorney in the District Attorney’s office of the County of New York, began an investigation into the activities of the UNIA. He never filed charges against Garvey or other officers.

By August 1920, the UNIA claimed four million members. The number has been questioned because of the organization’s poor record keeping.[15] That month, the International Convention of the UNIA was held. With delegates from all over the world attending, 25,000 people filled Madison Square Garden on 1 August 1920 to hear Garvey speak.[16]Over the next couple of years, Garvey’s movement was able to attract an enormous number of followers. Reasons for this included the cultural revolution of the Harlem Renaissance, the large number of West Indians who immigrated to New York, and the appeal of the slogan “One God, One Aim, One Destiny,” to black veterans of the first World War.[17]

CU Blog - Remembering Marcus Garvey - Still Relevant Today - Photo 2Garvey also established the business, the Negro Factories Corporation. He planned to develop the businesses to manufacture every marketable commodity in every big U.S. industrial center, as well as in Central America, the West Indies, and Africa. Related endeavors included a grocery chain, restaurant, publishing house, and other businesses.

Convinced that black people should have a permanent homeland in Africa, Garvey sought to develop Liberia. It had been founded by the American Colonization Society in the 19th century as a colony to free blacks from the United States. Garvey launched the Liberia program in 1920, intended to build colleges, industrial plants, and railroads as part of an industrial base from which to operate. He abandoned the program in the mid-1920s after much opposition from European powers with interests in Liberia.

Sometime around November 1919, the Bureau of Investigation or BOI (after 1935, the Federal Bureau of Investigation) began an investigation into the activities of Garvey and the UNIA. … Although initial efforts by the BOI were to find grounds upon which to deport Garvey as “an undesirable alien”, a charge of mail fraud was brought against Garvey in connection with stock sales of the Black Star Line after the U.S. Post Office and the Attorney General joined the investigation.[36]

The accusation centered on the fact that the corporation had not yet purchased a ship, which had appeared in a BSL brochure emblazoned with the name “Phyllis Wheatley” (after the African-American poet) on its bow. The prosecution stated that a ship pictured with that name had not actually been purchased by the BSL and still had the name “Orion” at the time; thus the misrepresentation of the ship as a BSL-owned vessel constituted fraud. The brochure had been produced in anticipation of the purchase of the ship, which appeared to be on the verge of completion at the time. However, “registration of the Phyllis Wheatley to the Black Star Line was thrown into abeyance as there were still some clauses in the contract that needed to be agreed.”[37] In the end, the ship was never registered to the BSL.

Garvey chose to defend himself. In the opinion of his biographer Colin Grant, Garvey’s “belligerent” manner alienated the jury. … Of the four Black Star Line officers charged in connection with the enterprise, only Garvey was found guilty of using the mail service to defraud. His supporters called the trial fraudulent, [a miscarriage of justice].

He initially spent three months in the Tombs Jail awaiting approval of bail. While on bail, he continued to maintain his innocence, travel, speak and organize the UNIA. After numerous attempts at appeal were unsuccessful, he was taken into custody and began serving his sentence at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary on 8 February 1925.[41] Two days later, he penned his well known “First Message to the Negroes of the World From Atlanta Prison”, wherein he made his famous proclamation: “Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God’s grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life.”[42]

Garvey’s sentence was eventually commuted by President Calvin Coolidge. Upon his release in November 1927, Garvey was deported via New Orleans to Jamaica, where a large crowd met him in Kingston. Though the popularity of the UNIA diminished greatly following Garvey’s expulsion, he nevertheless remained committed to his political ideals.[44]

Garvey continued active in international civil rights, politics and business in the West Indies and Europe.

Garvey died in London on 10 June 1940, at the age of 52, having suffered two strokes. Due to travel restrictions during World War II, his body was interred (no burial mentioned but preserved in a lead-lined coffin) within the lower crypt in St. Mary’s Catholic cemetery in London near KensalGreenCemetery. Twenty years later, his body was removed from the shelves of the lower crypt and taken to Jamaica, where the government proclaimed him Jamaica’s first national hero and re-interred him at a shrine in the National Heroes Park.[52]

Influence

Schools, colleges, highways, and buildings in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States have been named in his honor. The UNIA red, black, and green flag has been adopted as the Black Liberation Flag. Since 1980, Garvey’s bust has been housed in the Organization of American States‘ Hall of Heroes in Washington, D.C.

Malcolm X‘s parents, Earl and Louise Little, met at a UNIA convention in Montreal. Earl was the president of the UNIA division in Omaha, Nebraska, and sold the Negro World newspaper, for which Louise covered UNIA activities.[53]

Kwame Nkrumah named the national shipping line of Ghana the Black Star Line in honor of Garvey and the UNIA. Nkrumah also named the national football team the Black Stars as well. The black star at the centre of Ghana’s flag is also inspired by the Black Star.

During a trip to Jamaica, Martin Luther King and his wife Coretta Scott King visited Garvey’s shrine on 20 June 1965 and laid a wreath.[54] In a speech he told the audience that Garvey “was the first man of color to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny. And make the Negro feel he was somebody.”[55]

King was a posthumous recipient of the first Marcus Garvey Prize for Human Rights on 10 December 1968, issued by the Jamaican Government and presented to King’s widow. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Garvey on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[56]

Source: Retrieved August 20, 2016 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey

 

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ENCORE: Lesson from MetroCard

Posted on August 18, 2016 in Economics, Planning

They got me … too!

This is not a warning; this is an applause!

Even after describing the MetroCard program’s propensity for retaining unused balances – in the ENCORE below – this writer ends up stuck with 2 active MetroCards with outstanding balances.

Rather than feeling suckered, I feel impressed. (It means “free” cash from the idle balances).

See the story from August 20, 2014 again here, how the MetroCard program always ends up divesting leftover balances. (Note: The all-electronic payment scheme does allow for refunds, using an Old World, snail-mail process with self-addressed-pre-stamped envelopes). Also see the VIDEO in the new Appendix below on how to purchase a MetroCard.

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Go Lean Commentary: MetroCard – Model for the Caribbean Dollar

CU Blog - MetroCard - Model for CCB - Photo 1The MetroCard, the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) payment system is the subject of the referenced source appendix below. But this subject is about more than just simple bus/subway tokens, instead this subject refers to a whole eco-system that constitutes an electronic payment scheme. This system generates $4 billion (2012) and services the transit needs of 15.1 million people. The MTA drives the NYC regional economy, the largest in the US, facilitating the connection for many to traverse from home to work; then after work, the MTA network enables the NYC metropolitan area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) to get to a host of leisure activities: music, theater, cultural events, sports, and shopping. MetroCard is therefore a de facto currency for this region to live, work and play.

MetroCard is a digital currency and not “hard money”, so there are not paper stock or coinage issues to be managed with this approach. (MetroCard replaced the previous ubiquitous tokens in 2003). This attribute relates to the effort to re-boot and optimize the Caribbean regional economy and society. The book Go Lean…Caribbean points to NYC as a model and source of many lessons that the Caribbean can learn and apply, especially related to the adoption of the regional currency, the Caribbean Dollar (C$).

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB). This Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Caribbean Central Bank has the role of heavy-lifting in the facilitation of the electronic payments modes of the Caribbean Dollar. While the traditional central banking role of currency/coinage distribution do not come into play, with the e-Payment schemes, there are still many responsibilities and benefits for central bank command-and-control. This refers to the subject of M1 monetary supply. M1 refers to the measurement of the total of currency/money in circulation (M0) plus overnight bank deposits (like demand deposits, travelers’ checks & other checkable deposits). So when digit currencies, as MetroCard, are factored in, there is no M0, but an increase in M1. As M1 values increase, there is a dynamic in the regional banking system that creates money “from thin-air”; this is referred to as the money multiplier. The more M1 money in the system, the more liquidity for investment and development opportunities.

The Caribbean needs this increase in development capital/liquidity.

This subject of electronic payment systems has been previously covered in Go Lean blogs, highlighted here in the following samples:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1350 PayPal expands payment services to 10 markets
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=906 Bitcoin needs regulatory framework to change ‘risky’ image
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=528 Facebook plans to provide mobile payment services
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=360 How to Create Money from Thin Air

This Go Lean/CU/CCB roadmap looks to employ electronic payments / virtual money schemes to impact the growth of the regional economy. There are two CU schemes that relate to this MetroCard structure:

  • Cruise Passenger Smartcards – The Go Lean roadmap posits that the cruise industry needs the Caribbean more than the Caribbean needs the industry. But the cruise lines have embedded rules/regulations designed to maximize their revenues at the expense of the port-side establishments. The CU solution is to deploy a scheme for smartcards that function on the ships and at the port cities (Page 193).
  • e-Commerce Facilitation – The Go Lean roadmap defines that the Caribbean Dollar (C$) will be mostly cashless, an accounting currency. So the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) will settle all C$ electronic transactions (MasterCard-Visa style or ACH style) and charge interchange/clearance fees (Page 198). This scheme allows for the emergence of full-throttle e-Commerce activities.

Overall, stewardship of the single market economy and single regional currency was envisioned and pronounced early in the Go Lean roadmap with this Verse XXIV (Page 13) of the Declaration of Interdependence, with these words:

Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles…

New York City is a great model for this Caribbean empowerment effort to look, listen, and learn. The same as tourism is the primary economic driver in the Caribbean (80 million visitors), NYC also plays host to 25 million visitors annually. Many NYC tourists ride the MTA public transportation modes and have to acquire a MetroCard – many times, they leave unspent balances  to just sit there. What becomes of those monies? See this news article here:

Unspent MetroCard Money Means Millions for M.T.A.

(http://www.nyctransitforums.com/forums/topic/43954-unspent-metrocard-money-means-millions-for-mta/)

Think of it as New York’s biggest sock drawer, except that instead of nickels, dimes and quarters, what is squirreled away in its dark recesses are millions of lapsed yellow-and-blue MetroCards with digital loose change still dangling from their magnetic strips.

In the decade ending in 2010, nearly $500 million worth of unspent balances on expired bus and subway MetroCards accumulated, and that money can no longer be redeemed.

Cards that are bought, never used but still valid are counted for bookkeeping purposes as a liability, because they might eventually be used. Outdated cards with pending balances become an asset after they expire, about two years from the date of sale. The balances are listed as revenue under the category of “fare media liability.”

Tens of millions of dollars a year may not seem like much out of $4 billion in annual MetroCard revenue for New York City Transit, but there is no stream of cash that the agency scoffs at.

Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which includes the transit agency, said: “Expired card value does benefit the M.T.A. It gets counted as fare box revenue.”

The peak year for replenishing New York City Transit’s fare media liability account was 2012, when $95 million was credited. That followed a surge in purchases in 2010, before a fare increase. Those cards, many presumably with outstanding balances, have expired.

Considering the governance for the MetroCard, the MTA has been described with some adjectives of efficiency and effectiveness. Their website described their charter as follows:

While nearly 85 percent of the nation’s workers need automobiles to get to their jobs, four of every five rush-hour commuters to New York City’s central business districts avoid traffic congestion by taking transit service – most of it operated by the MTA. MTA customers travel on America’s largest bus fleet and on more subway and rail cars than all the rest of the country’s subways and commuter railroads combined.

This mobility helps ensure New York’s place as a world center of finance, commerce, culture, and entertainment, and New York ranks near the top among the nation’s best cities for business, Fortune magazine has written, because it has “what every city desires. A workable mass transit system.”

MTA mass transit helps New Yorkers avoid about 17 million metric tons of pollutants while emitting only 2 million metric tons, making it perhaps the single biggest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) avoidance in the United   States. The people living in our service area lead carbon-efficient lives, making New   York the most carbon-efficient state in the nation.

Over the past two decades, the MTA has committed some $72 billion to restore and improve the network so that today it runs at unprecedented levels of efficiency. Our employees at all of our agencies work diligently to maintain high service and safety standards.

(Source: Retrieved August 19, 2014 from: http://web.mta.info//mta/network.htm)

The governance for the MetroCard may be in good hands, a technocratic reflection. Creating a technocratic CU/CCB governance is “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap. Implementing this allows for rock-solid monetary integrity for local financial systems, providing the foundation so the regional society can be elevated, economically and governmentally. In this vein, we examine specific lessons & applications in consideration of the MetroCard business model in the Appendix below:

MetroCard Facts Go Lean book considerations/reflections (actual Page Numbers)
MetroCard History Roadmap with Project Delivery Obligations (Page 109); Fostering a Technocracy (Page 64)
Multiple Jurisdictions Confederation of 30 Member-States (Page 45); Fostering Interstate Commerce (Page 129)
Pricing/Cost Increases Unified Command & Control on Inflation (Page 153)
Technology Foster Technology (Page 197); e-Commerce (Page 198); Bridging Digital Divide (Page 31)
Transfers People respond to economic incentives (Page 21)
Card type consideration –   Pay-Per-Ride cards Improve M1 by encouraging stored balances (Page 198)
Card type consideration – Student cards Facilitation Education (Page 159) and Transportation (Page 205)
Card type consideration –   Disabled/Senior Citizens Improve Elder-Care (Page 225) and Impact Persons with Disabilities (Page 228)
Purchase Options – Subway Station   Booths Manage Federal Civil Servants (Page 173)
Purchase Options – Vending   Machines Foster Technology (Page 197); e-Commerce (Page 198); Bridging Digital Divide (Page 31)
Purchase Options – Neighborhood   Merchants Help Entrepreneurship (Page 28); Impact Main Street (Page 201);
Future Impact the Future (Page 26)
Bad Actors: Fraud/Scams Bad Actors Emerge – Reduce Crime (Page 178); Impact the Greater Good (Page 37)

The Go Lean book details additional community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster electronic payment systems, and the unified command & control necessary for its success:

Community Ethos – Money Multiplier Principle Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives Page 25
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Central Banking Page 73
Implementation – Assemble Central Bank Cooperative Page 96
Planning – Lessons Learned from New York City Page 137
Anecdote – Caribbean Currencies Page 149
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Black Markets Page 165
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Public Works Page 175
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives Page 176
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations Page 199
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living Page 234
Appendix – New York City Economy Details Page 277

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. We can all benefit by studying and modeling the successes of New York City!

Any visitor to the city quickly realizes how unique this jurisdiction is compared to other urban areas in the US, or the world for that matter. Millions of people (31,483,000 according to 2010 census) live in a limited congested area that is the Greater Tri-State area, yet there is a recognizable level of efficiency – some technocratic deliveries. For example, NYC does not have the proliferation of yellow school buses that dot the landscape of most American communities. Most students in the city rely on the MTA, funded by their MetroCard, to get back and forth for school. So in effect, MetroCard services the full community needs to live, work, learn and play.

MetroCard is truly a model for the Caribbean … Dollar.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

——————————————-

Appendix – Reference Source:

MetroCard – New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Payment System

The MetroCard is the payment method for the New York City Subway rapid transit system; New York City Transit buses, including routes operated by Atlantic Express under contract to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA); MTA Bus, and Nassau Inter-County Express systems; the PATH subway system (an entity of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey); the Roosevelt Island Tram; AirTrain JFK; and Westchester County’s Bee-Line Bus System.

The MetroCard is a thin, plastic card on which the customer electronically loads fares. It was introduced to enhance the technology of the transit system and eliminate the burden of carrying and collecting tokens. The MTA discontinued the use of tokens in the subway on May 3, 2003, and on buses on December 31, 2003. The MetroCard is managed by a division of the MTA known as MetroCard Operations and manufactured by Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc.

History

01Jun1993 MTA distributes 3,000 MetroCards in the first major test of the technology for the entire subway system and the entire bus system.
06Jan1994 MetroCard live testing with compatible turnstiles at select lines and stations.
15May1997 The last MetroCard turnstiles were installed by this date, and the entire bus and subway system accepted MetroCards
04Jul1997 First free transfers available between bus and subway at any location with MetroCard.
01Jan1998 Bonus free rides (10% of the purchase amount) were given for purchases of $15 or more.
04Jul1998 Unlimited Ride MetroCards introduced, at $17 for 7 days, $63 for 30 days, Express Bus Plus for $120.
01Jan1999 1-Day Fun Pass was introduced: unlimited use for one day for $4.
25Jan1999 The first MetroCard Vending Machines installed.
13Apr2003 Tokens/coins no longer sold.
04May2003 Tokens only accepted as a $1.50 credit towards the $2 MetroCard ride.
02Mar2008 A new 14-day unlimited-ride was introduced for $47
30Dec2010 1-Day Fun Pass and the 14-Day Unlimited Ride MetroCards discontinued.
20Feb2013 Cards can now be refilled with both time and value.
03Mar2013 A $1 fee is imposed on new card purchases in-system

Pricing/Cost increases – since the complete cut-over in 2003

Date

Daily

Weekly

Monthly
04May2003

$2

$21

$70
27Feb2005

$2

$24

$76
02Mar2008

$2

$25

$81
28Jun2009

$2.25

$27

$89
30Dec2010

$2.25

$29

$104
19Dec2012

$2.50

$30

$104

Technology

During a swipe, the MetroCard is read, re-written to, then check-read to verify correct encoding.

Each MetroCard stored value card is assigned a unique, permanent ten-digit serial number when it is manufactured. The value is stored magnetically on the card itself, while the card’s transaction history is held centrally in the Automated Fare Collection (AFC) Database.

When a card is purchased and fares are loaded onto it, the MetroCard Vending Machine or station agent’s computer stores the amount of the purchase onto the card and updates the database, identifying the card by its serial number. Whenever the card is swiped at a turnstile, the value of the card is read, the new value is written, the customer is let through, and then the central database is updated with the new transaction as soon as possible. Cards are not validated in real time against the database when swiped to pay the fare. The AFC Database is necessary to maintain transaction records to track a card if needed. It has actually been used to acquit criminal suspects by placing them away from the scene of a crime. The database also stores a list of MetroCards that have been invalidated for various reasons (such as lost or stolen student or unlimited monthly cards), and it distributes the list to turnstiles in order to deny access to a revoked card.

MetroCard keeps track of the number of swipes at a location in order to allow those same number of people to transfer at a subsequent location, if applicable. The MetroCard system was designed to ensure backward compatibility, which allowed a smooth transition from the old (blue) format to the (gold) format.

Cubic later on used the proprietary MetroCard platform to create the Chicago Card, which is physically identical to the MetroCard except for the labeling.

Transfers

MetroCards allows for transfers (within two hours of initial entry) among the many transportation modes – incentivizing a preferred behavior. (Pricing rules are built into the system for upgrades like Express Buses, PATH, and JFK Airport AirTrain).

One free transfer from:

  • subway to local bus
  • bus to subway
  • bus to local bus
  • express bus to express bus
  • bus or subway to Staten Island Railway
  • subway to subway

Card type – consideration – Pay-Per-Ride MetroCards

  • $5 – $80 initial value in any increment (though vending machines only  sell values in multiples of 5 cents).
  • Card purchases or refills equal to or greater than $5 receive a 5% bonus (ex. $50 buys 21 rides).
  • Cards can be refilled up to $80 in one transaction and up to a total value of $100.
  • Though cards expire, the balance may be transferred to a new cards.

Card type – consideration – Student MetroCards: NYC does not have the propensity of yellow school business as other communities, therefore a partnership is forged between school districts and MTA.

  • MetroCards are issued to some New York City public and private school students allowing discounted access to the NYC Transit buses and trains, depending on the distance traveled between their school and their home. The card program is managed by the NYC-DOE Office of Pupil Transportation.
  • In Nassau County, Student MetroCards are issued by individual schools which have pre-paid for the cards.

Card type – consideration – Disabled/Senior Citizen Reduced-Fare MetroCards

  • Given to senior citizens and the disabled as a combination photo ID and MetroCard.
  • Allows half-fare within the MTA system. (Express Bus during off-peak hours only)
  • Half fare is also available on the 7-day and 30-day Unlimited MetroCards.
  • Card back is color-coded to match gender of card holder.
  • Card face is marked as “Photo ID Pass”

Purchase options

All new MetroCard purchases are charged a $1 fee, except reduced fare customers and those exchanging damaged / expired cards.

Subway Station Booths

Booths are located in all subway stations and are staffed by station agents. Every type of MetroCard can be purchased at a booth with the exception of the SingleRide ticket, and MetroCards specific to other transit systems (PATH, JFK Airtrain). All transactions must be in cash.

MetroCard Vending Machines

CU Blog - MetroCard - Model for CCB - Photo 2MetroCard Vending Machines (MVMs) are machines located in all subway stations and transit centers. They debuted on January 25, 1999 and are now found in two models. Standard MVMs are large vending machines that accept cash, credit cards, and debit cards and are in every subway station. Cash transactions are required for purchases of less than $1, and they can return up to $8 in coin change. There are also smaller versions of these machines that only accept credit and ATM/debit cards. Both machines allow a customer to purchase any type of MetroCard through a touch screen. The MVM can also refill to previously issued cards. PATH fare vending machines can also dispense MetroCards.

The machines are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 through use of braille and a headset jack.

Neighborhood MetroCard Merchants

MetroCards can be sold by retail merchants not affiliated with MTA. Vendors can apply to sell MTA fare media at their businesses. Only presealed, prevalued cards are available, and no fee is charged.

Future

In 2006 the MTA and Port Authority of NY/NJ announced plans to replace the magnetic strip with smart cards.

On July 1, 2006, MTA launched a six-month pilot program to test the new “contact-less” smart card fare collection system, initially ending on December 31, 2006 but extended until May 31, 2007. This program was tested at all stations on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line and at four stations in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. The testing system utilized Citibank MasterCard’s PayPass keytags. This smart card system is intended to ease congestion near the fare control area by reducing time spent at paying for fare. MTA and other transportation authorities in the region say they will eventually implement system-wide.

Beginning October 7, 2012, MetroCard vending machines scattered throughout Manhattan dispensed something other than the classic blue and gold MetroCard. The MTA has begun to sell advertisement space on the front and back of the card to raise additional revenue. The 2012 ad appearing on the cards was purchased by The Gap [retail stores] and reads: “Be Bright NYC” with multicolored letters on a navy blue background. It encourages New Yorkers to visit Gap’s newly remodeled flagship store at 34th   Street and Broadway starting October 10, 2012. Customers who present the MetroCard at any Gap store were entitled to a 20% discount on merchandise purchases through November 18, 2012. The MTA has been running advertisements on the back of MetroCards since its inception, earning advertiser fees along with expired card value (accruing when purchased fares wind up not being used on a card deemed a collectible by fans). Deals were arranged as early as 1997. However, this Gap deal is the first time the front of the cards have changed in over 10 years. Approximately 10% of the MetroCards sold throughout the system in a typical month will carry the Gap advertising. Future MetroCard advertising campaigns will include the word “MetroCard” on the back of the card, flush right in the white space above the zone available for advertising.

Bad Actors: Fraud and Scams

The MetroCard system is susceptible to various types of frauds, perpetrated by con artists. Usually these frauds involve the con artist preventing or dissuading the commuter from using his or her own MetroCard, and then charging the commuter for entry to the system (entry is gained by a method that costs the con artist nothing).

Also, MetroCard Vending Machines are programmed to disable the bill or coin acceptor after a series of rejected bills or coins, which can result in a row of MVMs all saying “No Bills” or “No Coins”.

CU Blog - MetroCard - Model for CCB - Photo 3If a con artist is not using a stolen or broken card, he or she can use an array of unlimited cards. Multiple cards are needed because of the 18-minute delay between each swipe at the same station. Using unlimited cards, a con artist is able to sell rides for $1 instead of $2.

A report from New York State Senator Martin J. Golden claims this scam is costing the MTA $260,000 a year, and some con artists are making up to $800 a day executing it. All aspects of this scam have been recently prohibited by MTA policy and a New York State law.

The introduction of MetroCards did eliminate one class of criminals. When the NYC subway still used tokens, token suckers would steal tokens by jamming turnstile coin slots, waiting for unsuspecting passengers to deposit tokens (only to discover that the turnstile did not work), then returning to suck out the token. The retirement of tokens in 2003 put the token suckers out of commission.

The MetroCard does have a magnetic stripe, but both the track offsets and the encoding differ from standard Magstripe cards. It is a proprietary format developed by the contractor Cubic. Off-the-shelf reader/writers for the standard cards are useless, and even hypothetically could work only with both physical and software modification. Some have had partial success decoding it using audio tape recorder heads, laptop sound cards, and custom Linux software.
Source: Wikipedia Online – encyclopedic source; retrieved 08/18/2014 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetroCard_(New_York_City)

——————————————-

Appendix VIDEO – Which New York City Subway MetroCard to Buy – https://youtu.be/dB05rRU0qVE

Published on Jan 23, 2015 – Should you buy a pay-per-ride or an unlimited New York City Subway MetroCard? Watch this video for tips on which to buy and how to buy them at the vending machines. Check out the full article on Free Tours by Foot’s website at http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/how-to…

 

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The Movie ‘Hidden Figures’ – Art Imitating Life

Posted on August 16, 2016 in Ethos, Social

#GoLeanCommentary

** August 26, 2016 **

This day is the 98th birthday for “Katherine Johnson”.

CU Blog - 'Hidden Figures' - Art Imitating Life - Photo 2

Who is Katherine Johnson? And why is she important in the discussion of Caribbean empowerment?

Katherine Johnson (1918 – ) was a rocket scientist, physicist, and mathematician before there were rocket scientists. Why is this important? It is as 19th century Essayist Oscar Wilde dubbed it:

“Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”.

The focus here is on the “Art imitating Life”; no, even further than “art” is the “science”. The “art” in this case is the movie “Hidden Figures”. The “science” is the mathematics associated with rockets and trajectory: Rocket Science.

The movie HIDDEN FIGURES is the incredible untold story of Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe)—brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race, and galvanized the world. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big. – 20 Century Fox Studio

This is the power associated with film. It’s an art that can promote a science. This is in harmony with a previous blog/commentary – by the Go Lean … Caribbean movement – regarding Caribbean Diaspora member and Hollywood great, Sidney Poitier, it was declared that …

… “Movies are an amazing business model. People give money to spend a couple of hours watching someone else’s creation and then leave the theater with nothing to show for the investment; except perhaps a different perspective”.

The untold story of Katherine Johnson is not so “unfamiliar” to the African-American experience. There has been millions of similar tales, where those with genius-qualifying abilities had to languish in a world where they were considered “less than“. (See the Appendix VIDEO below).

Oh, how wrong that world was!

Today, we tell the tale of Katherine Johnson. We celebrate her for her accomplishments and inspiration she provides to future generations of scientists, mathematicians, African-descendents and women. She is the definition of “Shero”; she is all of that! See how this is portrayed in the new film here, opening in January 2017:

VIDEO: Movie Trailer ‘Hidden Figures’ – https://youtu.be/RK8xHq6dfAo

Published on August 14, 2016 – Watch the new trailer for [the movie] #HiddenFigures, based on the incredible untold true story. Starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer & Janelle Monáe. In theaters this January [2017].

Why is this discussion of Katherine Johnson important in the discussion of Caribbean empowerment?

R_1980-L-00022 001This is a story of one person making a difference! Her accomplishments required a resolve, determination and conviction to not buckle under the acute pressure to maintain the status quo. Her efforts and life’s pursuits helped to forge change in her homeland for her and all others that followed. The book Go Lean … Caribbean identified subjects like this as advocates; relating that their successful completion of their advocacy tend to benefit more than just them but the whole world (Page 122).

The story of Katherine Johnson is now being told as a movie. Movies can be effective for the goal of displaying a better view of people … and the community failings they have had to overcome. Previous Go Lean commentaries presented details of other movies that had the potential of reflecting and effecting change in society. See this sample here:

‘Concussion’ – The Movie; The Cause
Lesson from ‘Star Wars’ – ‘Heroes can return’
The Movie ‘Good Hair’ and the Strong Black Woman
Movie ‘Tomorrowland’ – Feed the Right Wolf
Documentary Movie: ‘Merchants of Doubt’ – Scary Proposition
Movie Lesson: ‘Only at the precipice, do they change’

The heroism of Katherine Johnson is against the backdrop of America’s segregation past. There is no way to justify America’s days of racial separation and oppression. Good riddance!

Surely, today our communities reflect a more inclusive environment. Surely?

Unfortunately, no!

America, still, and the Caribbean more, is plagued with a “climate of hate” in too many places. Far too often, in our own backyards, a class of people is oppressed, repressed and suppressed just because …

… the reasons do not even matter. It is just plain wrong and unwise and unproductive for our mission to retain our local geniuses.

Our community needs all hands on deck, with everybody contributing: all races, all genders, all ages, all classes of people. This point has also been conveyed in previous Go Lean commentaries; consider this sample here:

Respect for Minorities: Climate of Hate
Gender Equality Referendum Outcome: Impact on the ‘Brain Drain’
The Plea for Women in Politics
A Lesson in Civil War History – Compromising Human Rights
Socio-Economic Change: The Demographic Theory of Elderly Suicide
LGBT & Buggery in Jamaica – ‘Say It Ain’t So’!
The ‘Luck of the Irish’ – Past, Present and Future Lessons
10 Things We Don’t Want from the US: #7 Discrimination of Immigrants

The book Go Lean…Caribbean (and subsequent blog/commentaries) relates that we must do better than the American history. We have a problem now with societal abandonment for “push and pull” reasons. In order to encourage people to stay home and impact their homeland, we need to protect and promote those with genius qualifiers. There is a lot at stake.

This Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). Fostering genius is very important to this movement. The book states (Page 27):

The CU assumes a mission of working with educational and youth agencies to identify and foster “genius” in our society, as early as possible. Geniuses are different from everyone else, although they maybe fairly easy to spot, defining exactly what makes one person a genius is a little trickier. Some researchers & theorists argue that the concept of genius is too limiting and doesn’t really give a full view of intelligence; they feel that intelligence is a combination of many factors; thereby concluding that genius can be found in many different  abilities and endeavors. The CU posits that any one person can make a difference and positively impact their society; so the community ethos of investment in this specially identified group, geniuses, would always be a worthwhile endeavor.

Fostering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers is integral to the Go Lean/CU roadmap. The goal is to identify students early with high aptitude in STEM areas, then develop them through academies and science fairs. The CU will even fund free tuition for these ones at local colleges/universities or forgive-able loans for those wishing to matriculate abroad. This is a matter of community ethos, defined as in the book as the fundamental spirit of a culture that drives the beliefs, customs and practices of a society. The book refers to this spirit motivating our Focus on the Future. This spirit would be embedded in every aspect of the Go Lean/CU roadmap. See here how the prime directives reflects this:

  • Optimization the economic engines of the Caribbean to elevate the regional economy to grow to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new (direct & indirect) jobs, including STEM-related industries with a projection of 40,000 Research & Development direct jobs and 20,000 Technology direct jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the people and economic engines.
  • Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these economic and security engines.

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to reform Caribbean STEM education initiatives – also the economic and governance aspects as a whole. The roadmap opens with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the approach of regional integration (Page 13 & 14) as a viable solution to elevate the region’s educational opportunities:

xix.  Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores …

xxi.  Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

The Go Lean book envisions the CU – a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean chartered to do the heavy-lifting of empowering and elevating the Caribbean economy. The mission is to mitigate further brain drain of Caribbean citizens with STEM abilities.  The book details the economic principles and community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to optimize STEM initiatives in the Caribbean region:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier – Indirect Jobs from Direct Ones Page 22
Community Ethos – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation Page 23
Community Ethos – Minority Equalization Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future – Foster a Future Focus Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius – For STEM & other fields Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship Page 28
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Close the Digital Divide Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Anecdote – Valedictorian and Caribbean Diaspora Member Page 38
Strategy – Customers – Citizens, Business Community & Diaspora Page 47
Strategy – Meeting Region’s Needs Today, Preparing For Future Page 58
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Patent, Standards, & Copyrights Page 78
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department Page 85
Implementation – Assemble all Super-Regional Governing Entities Page 96
Implementation – Trends in Implementing Data Centers Page 106
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Implementation – Better Manage Debt – Better Student Loans Dynamics Page 114
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade Page 128
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Student Loans – Forgivable Provisions Page 160
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Empowering Immigration – STEM Professionals Page 174
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora Page 217

Katherine Johnson Receives Presidential Medal of FreedomThe Go Lean movement celebrates Katherine Johnson today as a role model in STEM. (Though she is an African-American with no Caribbean connection). She is recognized worldwide – just wait until the movie is released – as a woman of accomplishment – in 2015 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

“So if you think your job is pressure-packed, hers meant that forgetting to carry the one might send somebody floating off into the solar system.” – US President Barack Obama said in honoring Katherine Johnson on November 24, 2015.

This day – August 26 – is also Women’s Equality Day – commemorating women being granted the right to vote in the US on August 26, 1920.

So we celebrate all women that strive to achieve; there are those that do a lot; there are also women that choose to do little, or nothing. We celebrate them too. That is their equal right!

Yes, we can all do better than the past experiences from our communities. The Caribbean can be better!

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, women and men, to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This roadmap will result in more positive socio-economic changes throughout the region; it will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

——-

Appendix VIDEO: Celebrating Katherine Johnson’s Great Mind – Human Computer – https://youtu.be/Bdr9QBRcPEk

Published on Sep 1, 2015 – In the early days of spaceflight, if NASA needed to plot a rocket’s path or confirm a computer’s calculations, they knew who to ask: Katherine Johnson.

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Detroit makes Community College free

Posted on August 15, 2016 in Economics, Government, Strategy

#GoLeanCommentary

Its back to school time again – college students in Detroit have to report to classes on August 22.

CU Blog - Detroit makes Community College free - Photo 2

And now, if they enroll in a Detroit area community college, the tuition could be free.

Now that’s what I’m talking about!

This too, is a lesson learned from Detroit. The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean have been in Detroit to “observe and report” the turn-around and rebirth of the once-great-but-now-distressed City of Detroit and its metropolitan area. The following article relates a strategy that is apropos for remediating and mitigating a failing community – education:

Title: Detroit makes community college free
Sub-title: Detroit high schoolers just got a free ticket to community college.
By: Katie Lobosco

Starting this year, any graduating high school senior who is accepted to one of Detroit’s five community colleges won’t have to pay a dime for tuition.

CU Blog - Detroit makes Community College free - Photo 1The Detroit Promise Zone program, officially launched on Tuesday, will make it possible. At first the funds will come from a private scholarship foundation. But starting in 2018, some of the money will come from property taxes already earmarked for the program.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a high school senior preparing for college now or a second-grader whose college career is years away. The Detroit Promise will be there to help make a college education a reality,” said Mayor Mike Duggan.

He hopes that the program will eventually expand to cover the cost of four years of college tuition at a state school for each Detroit student.

To be eligible, a student must have completed their junior and senior years at a public, private or charter high school in Detroit. It doesn’t matter how much their family earns, but the student must fill out the federal financial aid form called the FAFSA. The Detroit program will pick up the difference after any other federal and state grants and scholarships have been used.

About 500 students are expected to take advantage of the program and enroll at a community college each fall, according to a spokesman for the Detroit Regional Chamber, which helps administer the scholarship.

It will cost an average of $680 per person, annually, though each scholarship amount will vary depending on how much in other awards the student received.

The privately funded Detroit Scholarship program is already in place and has granted 2,000 students free tuition over the past three years. The Michigan Education Excellence Foundation raised the funds from a mix of companies, charitable foundations, and individuals.

CU Blog - Detroit makes Community College free - Photo 3But now that the Detroit Promise Zone has officially launched, scholarship funding will eventually move away from private donations toward earmarked tax funds. There isn’t an exact timeline for that transition, a spokesman said.

Detroit is one of 10 “promise zones” the state created in 2009 as a way to send more Michigan residents to college. The programs designate a share of state property taxes within the zone to pay for the scholarships.

“We are confident that Detroit’s future will be even brighter now that our city’s future leaders will be able to go to college at no cost,” said Detroit Promise Zone Authority Board Chairwoman Penny Bailer.

Tuition-free college is an idea that’s gaining traction. While President Obama has pushed for it nationally, Tennessee made community college tuition-free for graduating seniors last fall, and Oregon is set to launch a similar program next year.

High school seniors must register for the Detroit Scholarship Fund online by June 30 to be eligible.
Source: CNN Money (Cable News Network) – Posted 03-22-2016; retrieved 08-14-2016 from: http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/22/pf/college/detroit-tuition-free-college/index.html

As related, other communities are launching similar endeavors to this Detroit initiative:

Tennessee is picking up the tab for community college students.

How New York City would make community college free.

Oregon is set to launch a similar program next year.

This Go Lean movement has always been a big proponent of college education for Caribbean citizens. Our one caveat is that the education takes place in the Caribbean.

So yes, this movement (book and blog-commentaries) is a big opponent of a college education for Caribbean citizens in foreign colleges and universities. The reason for this reticence, is the incontrovertible brain drain among the Caribbean college-educated population. Previous Go Lean commentaries related the proverb of “fattening frogs for snake” referring to the preponderance for Caribbean college educated citizens to abandon their tropical homes for foreign shores in the US, Canada and Europe, and take their Caribbean-funded education and skill-sets with them.

On the other hand, if the region is able to offer college education locally, then it is win-win for the Caribbean, as a college education brings social mobility, facilitating new economic opportunities. Yes, college education is great for the individual. The Go Lean book quotes proven economic studies showing the impact that every year of college education improves an individual’s earning power by 1 percent (Page 258). See related VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Underemployment rate for college grads drops – http://money.cnn.com/video/news/economy/2015/12/01/romans-numeral-underemployment-college-graduates.cnnmoney/

We need this upward mobility for Caribbean citizens in the Caribbean.

Since the Great Recession of 2008, the world – including the Caribbean – has seen a preponderance for income inequality: the rich has gotten richer and the middle class has shrunk.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits, along with most economists, that education elevate individuals and entire communities. The book states the Caribbean experience has been sour only for the reasons that so many students do not return home after matriculation; or expatriate shortly after returning for a short period. This has been measured by the World Bank; they reported that the Caribbean has a 70% abandonment rate among their college graduates.

This Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This represents the change that the region badly needs. The CU/Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy and create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

Indeed, change has now come to the Caribbean. The driver of this change is technology and globalization. Under these tenants, many college institutions can provide e-Learning and Distant Learning schemes through internet deliveries. If the Caribbean regional education administrations could invest in more technological deliveries, they may be able to offer free (or reduced) tertiary education to worthy students. As related in the foregoing article, once private, charitable and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are factored in, more and more students would be able to enjoy the benefits of a college education.

As for governing administrations, the vision of the CU is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean into a Single Market – a federal government – to do the heavy-lifting of championing better educational policies. Confederation would bring better leverage across the population of 42 million people, adopting more best-practices for education in all 4 regional languages (Dutch, English, French and Spanish). So we should cease-desist bad education policies, like government scholarships for foreign matriculation – as is the usual practice. The Go Lean/CU plan is for forgive-able loans only.

This would be a winning strategy for Caribbean communities; and appears to be the election for Detroit as well. This is a full reflection of the community ethos of the Greater Good.

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to reform the Caribbean tertiary education systems, economy, governance and Caribbean society as a whole. The roadmap opens with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the approach of regional integration (Page 12 & 14) as a viable solution to elevate the region’s educational opportunities:

xix.  Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores …

xxi.  Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

The Go Lean book details how education is a vital consideration for Caribbean economic empowerment, but with lessons-learned from all the flawed decision-making in the past, both individually and community-wise. The book details those policies; and other ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to deploy better education options in the region:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI) Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 28
Strategy – Mission – Facilitate Education without Risk of Abandonment Page 45
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department Page 85
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Labor Department – Job Training Page 89
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 Page 136
Planning – Lessons Learned from Detroit Page 140
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Student Loans Page 160
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Better Managed the Social Contract – Education Optimizations Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Libraries – Anchors for e-Learning Page 187
Appendix – Education and Economic Growth Page 258
Appendix – Measuring Education Page 266

Detroit is presented in the Go Lean book as a cautionary tale for the Caribbean.. Previous blogs had detailed so many lessons from the City of Detroit, and other metropolitan Michigan communities. Consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7789 An Ode to Detroit – Good Luck on Trade!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7601 Beware of Vulture Capitalists
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7268 Detroit giving schools their ‘Worst Shot’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7235 Flint, Michigan – A Cautionary Tale
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6609 Before and After Photos Showing Detroit’s Riverfront Transformation
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6269 Education & Economics: Welcome to Detroit, Mr. President
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6022 Caribbean Diaspora in Detroit … Celebrating Heritage
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5597 The Dire Strait of Unions and Collective Bargaining
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5055 A Lesson from an Empowering Family in Detroit
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4913 Ann Arbor: Model for ‘Start-up’ Cities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4476 De-icing Detroit’s Winter Roads: Impetuous & Short Term
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3713 NEXUS: Facilitating Detroit-Windsor Cross-Border Commerce
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3326 M-1 Rail: Alternative Motion in the MotorCity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3311 Detroit to exit historic bankruptcy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3164 Michigan Unemployment – Then and Now
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2480 A Lesson in History: Community Ethos of WW II
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1656 Blue is the New Green – Managing Michigan’s Water Resources
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=970 JP Morgan Chase’s $100 million Detroit investment

The above list features a lot of examples of Detroit’s bad behavior, but this commentary here is highlighting something positive, investing in community college education for young people. This is good, and for the Greater Good.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the changes described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This presents a win-win for the Caribbean. This is conceivable, believable and achievable. Educational options can help to make our homeland a place to live, work, learn and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Now it’s Detroit’s turn to rescue Silicon Valley

Posted on August 14, 2016 in Economics, Government, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

“I see dead people.” – Movie quote from The Sixth Sense (1999); see Appendix VIDEO below.

This is what Detroit is saying to Silicon Valley: “they see dead people” along the road of development for the autonomous vehicle (AV). Automobile accidents are one of the leading causes of death in most countries, therefore developing cars that drive themselves and interact with real world conditions on real streets is bound to have some mishaps/fatalities along the way.

CU Blog - Now it's Detroit's turn to rescue Silicon Valley - Photo 2

CU Blog - Now it's Detroit's turn to rescue Silicon Valley - Photo 4

Detroit: “Been there, done that!”

This consideration is in line with the book Go Lean… Caribbean; it serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). One of the features of the Go Lean/CU roadmap is the development of an automotive industry for the Caribbean region. Of course the reference here to Detroit is a metonym; so too the reference to Silicon Valley. Other metonym references were defined in a previous Go Lean blog-commentary, which detailed these ones in the book:

  • Detroit – Page 206 – American Automakers Planning/Design
  • Silicon Valley – Page 30 – AmericanHighTechCenter
  • Wall Street – Page 155 – Big Banks/Financial Center
  • Hollywood – Page 203 – US Movie/TV/Media Producers

The issue now is the risk associated with road traffic. Detroit has been there before. They were the Silicon Valley of the early 20th Century, as regards innovation for the automotive industry. Detroit has competence for this industry. Today, Silicon Valley wants inroads in the automotive industry. They need to tap Detroit’s legacy and insights. See the related article here:

Title: Now it’s Detroit’s turn to rescue Silicon Valley

CU Blog - Now it's Detroit's turn to rescue Silicon Valley - Photo 1
Five years ago, when the U.S. auto industry was just beginning to recover from the Great Recession, there was widespread speculation that the old model of the car business was broken, and that only the new economy could come to the rescue.

And with good reason. The U.S. auto market had cratered, plunging from a peak of over 17 million to a devastated 10 million in yearly sales.

Both General Motors and Chrysler had been bailed out by the federal government and gone bankrupt. Ford saw its stock price fall to less than $2 a share. Gas had spiked to over $4 a gallon in some parts of country. Credit, the lifeblood of the car business, had been wiped out.

Meanwhile, Apple was on a path to become the world’s most valuable company. Facebook was tasking over the media landscape. And Tesla, after suffering a brush with financial death in 2009, looked like the most innovative company of four wheels.

Silicon Valley and California in general was suddenly filled with new and futuristic ideas about transportation, from Google driverless cars to numerous electric-car startups. Detroit, by contrast, was lurching toward the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history (it would come in 2013), and its great automakers looked to be crippled dinosaurs, completely out of step with the times.

The U.S. auto industry was a problem to be solved, and Silicon Valley specialized in solutions.

A doomed industry?
“The automobile industry is in the middle of a fundamental transformation,” wrote in 2009. “There is a lot of information available on how companies have dealt with major changes in their business environments, but little is known about the transformation of entire industries.”

“History shows that most companies do not deal well with transformation.” he continued. “One reason has to do with senior managers. They usually ‘don’t get it.’ They have a difficult time accepting that the future will be vastly different from the present because they rose to power in the old business environment. They excelled in the old environment and didn’t acquire skills necessary to operate in the new.”

Fast forward to 2016 and the senior mangers in Detroit that Grove worried about have deepened their engagement with Silicon Valley and the technology industry to an unprecedented degree. General Motors already had a venture-capital arm before it invested $500 million in Lyft and bought Cruise Automation for its innovative self-driving tech.

Ford had such a solid connection with Microsoft that outgoing CEO Alan Mulally was discussed as a successor to Steve Ballmer, earlier this year. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has teamed up with Google to create driverless minivans. And all the automakers have a Silicon Valley presence, which enables them to scout emerging technologies and act on them quickly.

An auto sales boom in the U.S. that started in 2013 and set a record in 2016 with 17.5 million new cars and trucks delivered has fueled Detroit’s engagement, as has the broad realization among the car maker’s executive teams that this is their opportunity to disrupt themselves and profit from the experience. Cheap gas, an improving employment picture, and ample credit means that Detroit is selling pickups and SUVs and raking in cash. The game plan is to take some of those winnings and send them in search of rapid innovations that Motown can’t create on its own.

Not-so-smooth sailing
At the same time, Silicon Valley has started to encounter some investor turbulence. Startups with hefty valuations don’t see IPOs as a way to pay back their investors. That leaves getting acquired as an option, but a level of saturation with social networking and apps might have set in.

The Detroit automakers aren’t in the market for messaging apps, but they are looking for technologies that can future-proof them, or advance the process of making cars smarter. In conversations with people in the auto industry, there’s a sense that the tech sector has begun to figure out that Motown has money and wants to spend it.

The signals from the top are also strong. “We’re going to disrupt ourselves, and we are disrupting ourselves, so we’re not trying to preserve a model of yesterday,” . “And when you think of the assets the company has — the scale, the control of the vehicle platform, the ability with embedded connectivity, the knowledge we have of just every aspect of the vehicle and how we’re putting it together now — I think there’s a lot of plus signs, and we can lead.”

That attitude was echoed by Ford CEO Mark Fields, who BI also interviewed. “It’s a very exciting time at Ford, because we are transitioning from an auto company to an auto and a mobility company,” he said. “Mobility for us, at the very simplest level, is to allow people to live, play, and work where they want. How do we help enable them to get around to do that? And there’s a lot of talk around technology companies disrupting the auto industry. Our approach is very simple: We’re disrupting ourselves.”

Birds of a feather
So how did this reversal come about? Even if Detroit isn’t really in a position to rescue Silicon Valley — Silicon valley doesn’t really need to be rescued — then why is the dinosaur now so enthusiastic about participating in its own disruption?

Simple: Detroit was the Silicon Valley of the early 20th century, a hotbed of entrepreneurship, fascinated with the most high-tech contraption of the time — the automobile. True, over the decades the culture of the auto industry has become stratified and bureaucratic, but despite that, the car itself has been steadily improved. Detroit has never backed off from technology, and the engineers and executives who have chosen to work for Ford or GM are still excited about new stuff.

When they look at Silicon Valley, they see a place ruled by engineers, a contemporary version of Detroit’s own origin story.  And that’s why Silicon Valley and Detroit’s newfound mutual admiration could be the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship that stretches from the Bay Area to the banks of the Detroit River.
Source: Microsoft Network (MSN) Technology Column – Retrieved 08-14-2016 from: http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/now-its-detroits-turn-to-rescue-silicon-valley/ar-BBvrK0K?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=1PRCMSE

VIDEO – Inside Silicon Valley’s secretive test track for self-driving cars – https://youtu.be/xILioJ7ZfQU

Published on Jun 2, 2016 – A former military weapons depot is now a track where companies can test their autonomous cars in private​. The media has never set foot in the guarded GoMentum Station, until now. The track is not only attracting the attention of automakers like Mercedes and Honda, but also tech companies like Google and Apple. CNET’s Brian Cooley shows us how Honda is testing its latest self-driving car there.

See a more detailed VIDEO on GoMentum Station and a competing Michigan site in this VIDEO here:
“Inside the self-driving car facilities of Silicon Valley and Detroit” – http://a.msn.com/00/en-us/BBvrK0K?ocid=se

For the Caribbean effort, it will be important to observe-and-report on the developments of the Detroit-SiliconValley synergy. Both industries are being transformed. What can we learn about cooperation, collaboration and coordination among aligning stakeholders? There are jobs, public safety and public administration at stake. This relates to the CU/Go Lean roadmap, which also has a focus on the same 3 areas. This is communicated as the prime directive of the roadmap, pronounced as follows:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy, and create jobs (2.2 million new ones).
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these above engines, considering the separation-of-powers between Caribbean member states and the CU federal government.

The Go Lean roadmap recognizes the benefits of Research & Development (R&D). The book presents R&D as a community ethos, the fundamental spirit of a culture that drives the beliefs, customs and practices of a society.

Caribbean society must embrace the R&D of autonomous vehicles, automobile advances, safety innovation, and transformative technologies. We cannot ignore the formations of industrial advances. We must not just consume; we must produce as well. This is where the next generation of jobs are to be found.

The automotive industry have always been a source of high-paying jobs, that in previous generations, have transformed society. Today, Silicon Valley is a source of high-paying jobs. The transformations are continuing.

This aligns with the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 14) in the Go Lean book, as conveyed by these statements:

xxvii. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like … automobile manufacturing. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries … impacting the region with more jobs.

xxviii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

Producing and not only consuming – especially related to autonomous vehicles and robotic technologies – has been a consistent theme in prior Go Lean blog/commentaries; see this sample here:

Building the Infrastructure for Streetcars
‘Olli’ – The Self-Driving Public Transit Vehicle
3D Printing: Here Comes Change
Drones to be used for Insurance Damage Claims
Robots help Amazon tackle Cyber Monday
Here come the Drones … and the Concerns
Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market
Google conducting research for highway safety innovations
Ghost ships – Autonomous cargo vessels without a crew

The Go Lean book provides a roadmap for developing and fostering a domestic automotive industry, and for fostering R&D. The process starts with the spirit to want to improve the status quo, to innovate and make things better and safer. This spirit is described in the book as a community ethos for Research-and-Development. The book details other ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to forge innovation in Caribbean communities:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens – Like Car Accidents Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI) Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development Page 30
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Caribbean Integrated Single Market Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology Page 48
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Growing Economy – New High Multiplier Industries Page 68
Separation of Powers – Public Works & Infrastructure Page 82
Separation of Powers – Department of Transportation Page 84
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Implement Self-Governing Entities Page 105
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Cyber Caribbean Page 127
Planning – Lessons from Detroit Page 140
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation Page 205
Advocacy – Ways to Develop the Auto Industry Page 206
Appendix – Job Multipliers – Detroit’s 11.0 Rate #1 of all industries Page 260

There is a business axiom:

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

This is the goal – autonomous vehicles not mousetraps – of so many stakeholders in the technology and automotive industry space, in Silicon Valley and in Detroit; see Appendix VIDEO 2. A self-driving car is not the future, it is now; well soon. (According to the foregoing VIDEO, one automaker projects an AV for the 2020 Model Year).

Mideast Dubai Driverless CarsThis is the type of innovation now being urged for the Caribbean. Yes, we can … make an impact in this industry. We do not have to be the inventor, but at least an “early adopter”. The controlled environment of a Self-Government Entity – campus or corridor – is ideal for AVs. Imagine a toll-road across a Caribbean member-state (island or mainland) that traverses 70 miles that encourages self-driving cars, buses and trucks.

This vision is being fostered … elsewhere. Why not here?

The Caribbean region has historically been slow at adopting technological innovation. This roadmap presents a change to the Caribbean status quo. We urge all stakeholders – governments, businesses, and drivers – to lean-in to the innovations detailed in the Go Lean book. With the proper planning, preparation and participation, yes we can, we make our homeland a better place to live, work and play.:-)

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix VIDEO 1: Next Big Thing – Self-driving cars: Why? – https://youtu.be/QUYKSWQmkrg

Published on Oct 9, 2013 – http://cnet.co/1bfQkWn – Why self-driving cars make a whole lot of sense, how gesture control will augment — but probably not replace — a lot of technology, and is there even a third seat left at the mobile platform table?

————–

Appendix VIDEO 2: The Sixth Sense ….. I See Dead People …scene – https://youtu.be/QUYKSWQmkrg

Published on Sep 9, 2012 – In Your Dreams ? ….No. While You’re Awake? …Yes. All The Time, They’re Everywhere.

 

 

 

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This Day In History: Jamaican Innovation for Hip Hop

Posted on August 11, 2016 in Ethos, Implementation, Social

#GoLeanCommentary

CU Blog - This Day In History - Jamaican Innovation for Hip Hop - Photo 1This day – August 11 – in 1973 …

… a member of the Caribbean Diaspora – Jamaica – may have changed the world … for Hip Hop. On this day in 1973, Clive Campbell – better known to history as DJ Kool Herc – helped out his sister by “DJ-ing” her birthday party in a recreation room in The Bronx. History shows that he used his inspiration and influence from his Caribbean musical roots to innovate a music style and performance that would subsequently change the world … for good …

… or bad.

It’s music; you be the judge.

Musical taste is like “beauty” … in the “eye of the beholder”. The main thing is that the music made you listen and maybe learned something about the urban experience of America … and now the world.

See the story of Clive Campbell aka DJ Kool Herc here:

Title: This Day In History: 1973 – Hip Hop is born at a birthday party in the Bronx

Like any style of music, hip hop has roots in other forms, and its evolution was shaped by many different artists, but there’s a case to be made that it came to life precisely on this day in 1973, at a birthday party in the recreation room of an apartment building in the west Bronx, New York City. The location of that birthplace was 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, and the man who presided over that historic party was the birthday girl’s brother, Clive Campbell—better known to history as DJ Kool Herc, founding father of hip hop.

Born and raised to the age of 10 in Kingston, Jamaica, DJ Kool Herc began spinning records at parties and between sets his father’s band played while he was a teenager in the Bronx in the early 1970s. Herc often emulated the style of Jamaican “selectors” (DJs) by “toasting” (i.e., talking) over the records he spun, but his historical significance has nothing to do with rapping. Kool Herc’s contribution to hip hop was even more fundamental.

DJ Kool Herc’s signature innovation came from observing how the crowds would react to different parts of whatever record he happened to be playing: “I was noticing people used to wait for particular parts of the record to dance, maybe [to] do their specialty move.” Those moments tended to occur at the drum breaks—the moments in a record when the vocals and other instruments would drop out completely for a measure or two of pure rhythm. What Kool Herc decided to do was to use the two turntables in a typical DJ setup not as a way to make a smooth transition between two records, but as a way to switch back and forth repeatedly between two copies of the same record, extending the short drum break that the crowd most wanted to hear. He called his trick the Merry Go-Round. Today, it is known as the “break beat.” [(See Appendix VIDEO below).]

By the summer of 1973, DJ Kool Herc had been using and refining his break-beat style for the better part of a year. His sister’s party on August 11, however, put him before his biggest crowd ever and with the most powerful sound system he’d ever worked. It was the success of that party that would begin a grassroots musical revolution, fully six years before the term “hip hop” even entered the popular vocabulary.
Source: History Channel – This Day In History – Posted & Retrieved August 11, 2016 from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hip-hop-is-born-at-a-birthday-party-in-the-bronx

CU Blog - This Day In History - Jamaican Innovation for Hip Hop - Photo 2

Can we – in the Caribbean and from the Caribbean – change the world again?

Yes, we can!

This consideration is in line with the book Go Lean … Caribbean. It serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This CU strives to advance Caribbean culture with these 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance.

This will not be the first time a Caribbean personality has changed the world through music (and hopefully not the last). Previously, this blog-commentary detailed the influence of music icon Bob Marley. Today, his name is synonymous with Reggae and socially-conscious music. RIP Bob Marley (1945 – 1981).

The Go Lean book identifies, in total, 169 different musical/national combinations of genres throughout the Caribbean. From these styles, Hip Hop has had its origins and roots. And then the transformation continued, with more inspiration back to the Caribbean sounds and more social messaging (classic of Reggae) going  back to the Hip Hop sound.

Music does not stand still; it evolves. An excellent example of this cross-meshing is the musical genre of Reggaeton:

Reggaetón is a genre of music characterized by its repetitive beat rhythm that originated in Puerto Rico. Its roots can be traced back to the “underground” music of the island during the late 90’s, when music borrowing elements of reggae, rap, and hip-hop was being performed (in Spanish) in small, unofficial venues. Bootleg recordings and word of mouth were the means of distribution for this music until 1997. In 1998 eventually that music coalesced into what today is known as Reggaeton. The music’s popularity skyrocketed in the early 2000s as it spread to North American, European, Asian, and African audiences.[1] Source: Retrieved 08/11/2016 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggaeton.

See sample Reggaetón song here: https://youtu.be/uHgnebZ_jYo

The movement behind the Go Lean book asserts that “one person can make a difference”. So just like Bob Marley, Clive Campbell aka DJ Kool Herc, should be recognized for his contributions to music, culture and Caribbean identity. This one Caribbean character has made a difference while residing as an alien in a foreign land. He has forge an example and a sample of how other Caribbean stakeholders can do more in the arts and impact the world – we can build a city on “rock-and-roll”.

Too bad he made this impact after leaving his Caribbean home of Jamaica.

Alas, we now bring the quest for change to Jamaica and all of the rest of the Caribbean. And that quest includes music and the arts. Early in the Go Lean book, the contributions that music can make is pronounced as an community ethos for the entire region to embrace, (Declaration of Interdependence – Page 15) with these statements:

xxxii. Whereas the cultural arts and music of the region are germane to the quality of Caribbean life, and the international appreciation of Caribbean life, the Federation must implement the support systems to teach, encourage, incentivize, monetize and promote the related industries for arts and music in domestic and foreign markets. These endeavors will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.

This Go Lean/CU roadmap recognizes that a prerequisite for advancing society is a change in the community ethos – the fundamental spirit of a culture that drives the beliefs, customs and practices – in that society. Music should be appreciated for the truth of its power; it “can soothe the savage beast”. It can communicate culture and impact the economics for a people. One person, or a group of people can do this, can make a difference.

The following list from the Go Lean book details the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster the next generation of artist:

Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius Page 27
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness Page 36
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Unified CaribbeanSingle Market Page 45
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Patents & Copyrights Page 78
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Culture Administration Page 81
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media Page 111
Advocacy – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Music Page 231
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Jamaica Page 239

Thank you Clive Campbell aka DJ Kool Herc; see Appendix VIDEO below.

Thank you for setting the pathway for success for new generations of talented, inspirational and influential artists – musical geniuses of Caribbean heritage – who are sure to follow. These artists, too will “rock the world”.

We are hereby “banking” on it here in the Caribbean, as communicated further in that Declaration of Interdependence – Page 13:

xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

The Go Lean book posits “a change is going to come” to the Caribbean. The people, institutions and governance of region are all urged to “lean-in” to this roadmap for change and empowerment. Let’s do this … and make our homeland – all of the Caribbean – a better place to live, work and play.

🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

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Appendix VIDEO – Kool DJ Herc, Merry Go Round – https://youtu.be/Hw4H2FZjfpo

Uploaded on Oct 26, 2009 – Kool DJ Herc describing how he invented the idea of playing two breakbeats together.

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Build It and They Will Come – India’s $90 Billion Investment

Posted on August 10, 2016 in Government, Implementation, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Here are some interesting rankings about India:

World largest population: # 2 – 1.2 Billion people (Only behind China)

Ease of doing business? # 132 (2015; 130 for 2016; see Appendix B)

That gap, between 2 and 132, is a wide chasm for India to bridge.

What is this country to do? And what lessons can we learn from them, here in the Caribbean?

(Though our population is so small, our Ease of Doing Business rating is equally depressing; the best Caribbean option is Jamaica at 64).

The answer is investment!

Working for a Return on Investments is one of the driving forces of the book (and movement) Go Lean … Caribbean. The book asserts that in order to get the optimal return on any investment a community must adopt the appropriate “community ethos”, the fundamental spirit of a culture that drives the beliefs, customs and practices of its society. In this case, the identifying ethos is: Deferred Gratification.

CU Blog - Build It and They Will Come - India's $90 Billion Investment - Photo 1India is embarking on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. This is a ribbon of development along a route from Delhi to Mumbai, that traverses 6 (internal) states in India; see Appendix A. (India is a Federal Republic, with a President over the federal government, while states are led by governors). This plan so resembles the roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU.

This commentary is the 3 of 3 from the Go Lean movement on the subject of Infrastructure Policy. As related in previous submissions in this series, the assertion is that “if we build it, they will come”. This is a movie metaphor, yes, but it accurately depicts the surety of investing in capital infrastructure projects; or perhaps even more poignant, it conveys the surety of failure of not investing. The other commentaries detailed in this series are as follows:

  1. Before & After – Washington DC’s Streetcars Model
  2. Clinton vs Trump Campaigns – Politics of Infrastructure
  3. India’s Model – $90 billion infrastructure projects.

All of these commentaries are economic in nature, stressing the community investments required for nation-building. As depicted in this VIDEO here, India is playing catch-up in this regards with an aggressive plan – a “quantum leap”:

VIDEO – Amitabh Kant at TEDxDelhi on India’s Infrastructure Development – https://youtu.be/8BvMybtJ1-E

TEDx Talks
Published on Dec 17, 2012 – Presently posted as CEO & MD of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation.Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor is a mega infra-structure project of $90 billion covering an overall length of 1483 KMs between the political capital and the business capital of India.

A dynamic personality, Amitabh Kant has conceptualized and executed the positioning and branding of Kerala as “God’s Own Country” and later the “Incredible !ndia” campaign. Both these campaigns have won several International awards and embraced a host of activities — Infrastructure development, product enhancement, changes in organizational culture and promotional partnerships based on intensive market research. He has structured large infrastructure projects for diversification of India’s tourism product and sourced international funding through the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and UNDP.
During his tenure as Chairman and Managing Director, India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) he radically restructured the organization and turned it around into a highly profitable commercial enterprise. He also has wide ranging experience in innovative technical and financial structuring of Private — Public — Partnership in infrastructure projects and implemented the Calicut Airport project based on User’s fee, the BSES Kerala Power project and the Mattanchary Bridge project.

As demonstrated here in India, big infrastructure projects are necessary community investments – a “quantum leap” with a $90 Billion industrial corridor along 1500 kilometers. Is it possible for the Caribbean to consider such deployments?

Yes! The book Go Lean … Caribbean details exactly how the Big Infrastructure Projects for our region are to be conceived and achieved, (Page 127), with Self-Governing Entities and Exclusive Economic Zones. Most importantly, the roadmap details a plan to fund the projects.

The Go Lean/CU movement champions the cause of building and optimizing the overall Caribbean infrastructure. According to the foregoing VIDEO, it is important to identify and qualify funding sources for such ventures. There is the need for “new guards” for the Caribbean in this perspective. So there is the expectation that integrating and consolidating to a Single Market will contribute to the fulfillment of the Go Lean prime directives, defined here as follows:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance – including the funding of capital projects – to support these engines.

The Go Lean roadmap anticipates the opportunities of major infrastructure investments. However, the roadmap recognizes that many of the projects envisioned for the region may be too big for just one member-state alone; that it will take regional – super-national coordination. This point is highlighted in the opening Declaration of Interdependence, (Pages 12 & 14):

xiv.    Whereas government services cannot be delivered without the appropriate funding mechanisms, “new guards” must be incorporated to assess, accrue, calculate and collect revenues, fees and other income sources for the Federation and member-states. The Federation can spur government revenues directly through cross-border services and indirectly by fostering industries and economic activities not possible without this Union.

xxvi.  Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries … impacting the region with more jobs.

xxix.  Whereas all Caribbean democracies depend of the free flow of capital for municipal, public and private financing, the institutions of capital markets can be better organized around a regional monetary union. The Federation must institute the controls to insure transparency, accounting integrity and analysis independence of the securities markets, thereby shifting the primary source of capital away from foreign lenders to domestic investors, comprising institutions and individuals.

The CU mission is to plan, fund, deploy and maintain infrastructure projects that are too big for any one member-state alone. Crossing borders will mean including member-states of various legalities: some independent member-states and some dependent overseas territories. This brings to the fore an array of issues, like legislative authority and currency. The Go Lean/CU regional roadmap undoubtedly calls for a common currency strategy; thusly, it calls for the establishment of the allied Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) to manage the monetary and currency affairs of each member-state in the region, independent or dependent territory. The Go Lean book describes the breath-and-width of the CCB as a technocratic institution with better stewardship, than in the recent past. From the outset, this stewardship was envisioned and pronounced in the same Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13):

xxiii. Whereas many countries in our region are dependent OverseasTerritory of imperial powers, the systems of governance can be instituted on a regional and local basis, rather than requiring oversight or accountability from distant masters far removed from their subjects of administration. The Federation must facilitate success in autonomous rule by sharing tools, systems and teamwork within the geographical region.

xxiv.  Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

xxv.   Whereas the legacy of international democracies had been imperiled due to a global financial crisis, the structure of the Federation must allow for financial stability and assurance of the Federation’s institutions. To mandate the economic vibrancy of the region, monetary and fiscal controls and policies must be incorporated as proactive and reactive measures. These measures must address threats against the financial integrity of the Federation and of the member-states.

The CU roadmap drives change among the economic, security and governing engines. These solutions are as new community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocates; sampled as follows:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles: People Choose because Resources are Limited Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles: All Choices Involve Costs Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles: Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles: Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Money Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Integrate and Consolidate into a Single Market Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Facilitating Currency Union, Caribbean Dollar Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Collaborate for the Caribbean Central Bank Page 45
Anecdote – Caribbean Currencies Page 64
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – $800 Billion Economy – How and When – Trade Page 67
Tactical – Recovering from Economic Bubbles Page 69
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Caribbean Central Bank Page 73
Implementation – Assemble Caribbean Central Bank Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the EEZ Page 104
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities Page 105
Implementation – Trade Mission Objectives Page 117
Implementation – Ways to Benefit Globalization Page 119
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade Page 128
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives Page 176
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations Page 199
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street – Better Liquidity from Regional Capital Markets Page 200
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation Page 205
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Optimize Transportation Options Page 234
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Rural Living – Optimize Transportation Options Page 235

The Caribbean region must learn this important lesson from the country of India: infrastructure is not optional. Put in the infrastructure in advance and it brings growth; it becomes an investment. But play catch-up afterwards and it bears a heavy cost burden.

Previous Go Lean commentaries highlighted other countries and communities that did the hard-work, the heavy-lifting, to facilitate their infrastructural needs so as to better compete in the world’s markets. This is the world that we in the Caribbean competes in – with trade and culture – so it is important to consider all lessons learned. Here is a sample of issues addressed and elaborated upon in previous blog/commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8549 Enhancing Sports Infrastructure for an Olympic dream – Some Day Maybe
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7989 Transforming Infrastructure with ‘Free Money’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7384 Infrastructure for Oil Refineries – Strategy for Advanced Economics
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6231 China’s Caribbean Playbook: Helping Transform the region
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6016 The Need for Infrastructure to abate Climate Change’s excessive heat
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5921 The Art & Science of Impact Analyses for Big infrastructure projects
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3028 India is doing better than many Emerging Market countries. Why?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2953 Funding Caribbean Entrepreneurs – The ‘Crowdfunding’ Way
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2750 Good Model: Disney World as a Self-Governing Entity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2670 A Lesson in History of Infrastructure Projects: Rockefeller’s Pipeline
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2435 Latin America’s Dream and Trade Role-model: Korea
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2090 Elaborating on the CU and CCB as Hallmarks of a Technocracy

The Caribbean is arguably the best address on the planet, but for modern life and conveniences, and to better compete with the rest of the world regarding trade and culture, we need to upgrade our infrastructure, and then keep pace with industrial best-practices. We need to make these investments. The returns on these investments are jobs and economic empowerments; (think entrepreneurship).

There is no choice to “opt-out”. If we do not invest, our people will “opt-out” instead, as has been the past experience, especially evident with our societal abandonment rate (brain drain) of 70%.

This past – our status quo – cannot continue as our future.

We must do better!

India did … so can we.

Ease of doing business is a real metric. We can “inch up” the chart and elevate our business eco-system accordingly; India increased from 132 to 130 in 2016.

The governments, institutions and businesses are hereby urged to “lean-in” for the deployments/empowerments as described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This is our “quantum leap”; the solutions herein are conceivable, believable & achievable. Yes, we can, “build it and they – progress – will come” to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———–

Appendix A – Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project

The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project is a planned State-Sponsored Industrial Development Project of the Government of India. It is one of the world’s biggest infrastructure projects with an estimated investment of US$90 billion and is planned as a hi-tech industrial zone spread across seven states along the 1,500 km long Western Dedicated Freight Corridor which serves as its backbone.[1]

It includes 24 industrial regions, eight smart cities, two airports, five power projects, two mass rapid transit systems and two logistical hubs.[1] The eight investment regions proposed to be developed in Phase I of DMIC are Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad (in UP); Manesar- Bawal (in Haryana); Khushkhera-Bhiwadi-Neemrana and Jodhpur- Pali-Marwar (in Rajasthan); Pithampur-Dhar-Mhow (in MP); Ahmedabad-Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) in Gujarat; the Shendra-Bidkin Industrial Park and Dighi Port Industrial Area in Maharashtra.[1]

India needs to employ over 100 million people within the next decade and so this project assumes vital importance to develop manufacturing centres that could employ millions.

The ambitious Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) has received major boost with India and Japan inking an agreement to set up a project development fund. The initial size of the Fund will be ₹10 billion (US$148.6 million). Both the Japanese and Indian governments are likely to contribute equally. The work is already underway and progressing at a rapid pace, with the Dedicated Freight Corridor expected to be completed by 2017.[2]

Source: Retrieved August 10, 2016 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhi_Mumbai_Industrial_Corridor_Project

———–

Appendix B – World Bank 2016 Ease of Doing Business Ranking

CU Blog - Build It and They Will Come - India's $90 Billion Investment - Photo 2

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Build It and They Will Come – Politics of Infrastructure

Posted on August 10, 2016 in Government, Implementation, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

How to grow the economy?

CU Blog - Build It and They Will Come - Politics of Infrastructure - Photo 1This was an original question that launched the book Go Lean … Caribbean. In August 2011 the US Chamber published a recommendation to American power brokers on how to recover from the Great Recession and create jobs in the US. They detailed a plan that included doubling down on infrastructure spending in the US. In response, the Go Lean publishers created its own roadmap for the Caribbean; assuredly, infrastructure activities was also prominent for the regional plan. The 10-point plan – as published in the Go Lean book on Page 152 – included:

  • Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market & Economy
  • Feed Ourselves
  • Clothe Ourselves
  • House Ourselves
  • Update Our Own Infrastructure and the industries they spun
  • Steer More People to S.T.E.M. Education and Careers
  • Help Regional Businesses Find Foreign Markets
  • Welcome Home Emigrants
  • Welcome “Empowering” Immigrants
  • Draw More Tourists

This commentary is the 2 of 3 from the Go Lean movement on the subject of Infrastructure Policy. As related in the previous submission in this series, “if we build it, they will come”. This movie metaphor conveys the surety of investing in capital infrastructure projects; or worse yet, the surety of failure by not investing. The other commentaries detailed in this series are as follows:

  1. Before & After – Washington DC’s Streetcars Model
  2. Clinton vs Trump Campaigns – Politics of Infrastructure
  3. India’s Model – $90 billion in infrastructure projects

All of these commentaries are economic in nature, not political. As depicted in this news article, regardless of the candidate elected President of the United States in the impending November 2016 election, infrastructure activities must be pursued. See the article here:

Title: Clinton, Trump both would build infrastructure, likely pay for it the same way
By: Patti Domm, CNBC Executive News Editor

No matter who wins the White House, there is likely to be a big jump in infrastructure spending — and both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton may ultimately look to the same pot of gold to fund their spending, according to Strategas.

Trump made it clear when he unveiled his economic plan Monday that he’s going to be a big spender on the nation’s highways and bridges, though voters have heard him discuss it before. He also says he wants U.S. companies to repatriate their foreign cash, proposing a one-time tax holiday that would allow them to pay just 10 percent to bring their cash home. That money would be used to pay for infrastructure.

Democrat Hillary Clinton also proposes an infrastructure plan, and both candidates will have to get their proposals approved by Congress. The Democrats propose an infrastructure bank as part of their plan.

But both candidates could look to the repatriation tax holiday for the $2 trillion stashed overseas to cover some of the costs of their proposed infrastructure spending, according to Dan Clifton, head of policy research at Strategas.

Clifton said it’s likely the House of Representatives remains Republican, and House Republicans are going to challenge either candidate on spending.

“You could even say that she’ll be forced to do repatriation to get her infrastructure. She also wants to do renewable energy and broadband, and that’s all negotiable,” said Clifton.

Strategas put together a basket of infrastructure stocks, and that index is up 23 percent year to date. It includes 21 names such as Jacobs Engineering, KBR, Lennox International, Martin Marietta, Vulcan Materials, Granite Construction, Apogee Enterprises, Fluor Corp, Eagle Materials and Simpson Manufacturing.

Other names in the index are Dycom Industries,Gibraltor Industries,Masco Corp, Quanex Building Products, Headwaters Inc, Griffon Corp,NCI Building Systems, Universal Forest Products, Quanta Services and EMCOR

Clifton said despite the fact that both candidates had been strong proponents of infrastructure spending, the stocks have been more correlated to Clinton. “There’s 92 percent correlation between their outperformance and her probability of winning,” he said.

But Trump has been pushing a tax holiday, and stocks that would benefit from that are also gaining.

Strategas used seven companies with the most aggregate cash overseas as a proxy for the possibility of a repatriation deal. Those companies have been rising since mid-July and they are all tech, a sector that started performing better during earnings season.

They include Alphabet, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Cisco and Oracle.

The repatriation idea is not new. A voluntary repatriation was approved by Congress in 2004, and $300 billion of $600 billion stashed overseas returned to the U.S., according to Strategas.

In 2005, the companies that repatriated the most cash had no outperformance when compared to the S&P 500. But those that repatriated the most as a percentage of market cap doubled the S&P 500, according to Strategas.
Source: CNBC Consumer & Business Channel – Market Insider –  Posted & Retrieved August 8, 2016 from: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/08/trump-clinton-tax-plans-may-need-same-pot-of-gold.html

CU Blog - Build It and They Will Come - Politics of Infrastructure - Photo 2

 

Source for charts: Strategas

CU Blog - Build It and They Will Come - Politics of Infrastructure - Photo 3

Rising above the politics, are big infrastructure projects being considered for Caribbean deployment?

Yes! The book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts that infrastructure investment is necessary to grow the regional economy and asserts a plan to fund them (Page 152). It conveys the same thought of doubling down on infrastructure spending.

The book extols the principle that infrastructure activities are necessary to leverage the region for future growth. This is a mandate for the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU. This technocracy must rise above the politics and oversee the regional optimization in these areas:

  • economics
  • security
  • lean government

The foregoing news article focuses on more than just politics, but considers the capital markets and related companies to invest in to profit from America’s imminent infrastructure Big Spend. Rather than just 1 company, the article is advocating investing in an “Index” (see Appendix) that tracks the performance of the infrastructure construction and maintenance industry as a whole.

Ditto for the Caribbean!

Any hope for success here will depend on adequate funding. The Go Lean book therefore advocates for Caribbean people (and Direct Foreign Investors) to take stock – invest their time, talents and treasuries – in Caribbean infrastructure projects and Caribbean capital markets.

What projects are considered for the Caribbean? The book identifies this sample lists:

Virtual “Turnpike” Operations – Page 127:
Ferries, Causeways/Bridges, Pipelines, Tunnels, Railways and limited access highways will function as “blood vessels to connect all the organs” within the region, thus allowing easier transport of goods and people among the islands and the mainland states (Belize, Guyana or Suriname) – See Appendix IC (Page 280) Alaska Marine Highway.

Capital Markets as Economic Engine  – Page 151:
A single market and currency union will allow for the emergence of viable capital markets for stocks and bonds (public and private), thereby creating the economic engine needed to fuel growth, expansion and development.

Update Our Own Infrastructure Operations – Page 152:
Roads, bridges, ports, ship-building dry-docks, utilities and media outlets create companies and jobs for implementation and maintenance. Many of the infrastructure projects will cover the transportation sector; with improvements here, the result will be more traffic (passenger & cargo). This opens new modes for travelers/visitors/tourists to come to their favorite resort destination. (Consider Fast Ferries boats and Spring Break).

The Go Lean/CU movement champions the cause of building and optimizing the overall Caribbean infrastructure. According to the foregoing article, it is important to identify and qualify funding sources for such ventures. There is the need for “new guards” for the Caribbean in this perspective. So there is the expectation that integrating and consolidating to a Single Market will contribute to the fulfillment of the Go Lean prime directives, defined here as follows:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance – including the funding of capital projects – to support these engines.

The Go Lean roadmap anticipates the opportunities of major infrastructure investments. However, the roadmap recognizes that many of the projects envisioned for the region may be too big for just one member-state alone; that it will take regional – super-national coordination. This point is highlighted in the opening Declaration of Interdependence, (Pages 12 & 14):

xiv. Whereas government services cannot be delivered without the appropriate funding mechanisms, “new guards” must be incorporated to assess, accrue, calculate and collect revenues, fees and other income sources for the Federation and member-states. The Federation can spur government revenues directly through cross-border services and indirectly by fostering industries and economic activities not possible without this Union.

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries … impacting the region with more jobs.

xxix. Whereas all Caribbean democracies depend of the free flow of capital for municipal, public and private financing, the institutions of capital markets can be better organized around a regional monetary union. The Federation must institute the controls to insure transparency, accounting integrity and analysis independence of the securities markets, thereby shifting the primary source of capital away from foreign lenders to domestic investors, comprising institutions and individuals.

The CU mission is to plan, fund, deploy and maintain many infrastructure projects that are too big for any one member-state alone. A regional eco-system will deliver on new market opportunities of improved infrastructure for the Caribbean, as depicted in the foregoing news article for the US. The Go Lean book therefore details many strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies that will facilitate this readiness; a sample is detailed here:

Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices Page 21
Economic Principles – People Choose because Resources are Limited Page 21
Economic Principles – All Choices Involve Costs Page 21
Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives Page 21
Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices Page 21
Community Ethos – Money Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research and Development Page 30
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Emergency Management – Response Page 76
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of State – Self Governing Entities Page 80
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the EEZ Page 104
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Improve Energy Usage – Electrified Buses/Trains Page 113
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization Page 119
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Trade Page 128
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security – Disaster Response Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Natural Resources Page 183
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street – Regional Capital Markets Page 200
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street – Development Authorities Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Monopolies – Maximize Liquidity with Capital Markets Page 202
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation Page 205
Advocacy – Ways to Develop the Auto Industry – Support New Infrastructure Page 206
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Transit Options Page 234

Previous blog-commentaries touched on many related issues and subjects that affect the politics and planning of Caribbean infrastructure projects. Consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8549 Enhancing Sporting Infrastructure for an Olympic dream – One Day
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7384 Infrastructure for Oil Refineries – Strategy for Advanced Economics
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7268 Bad Model: Detroit’s lacking infrastructure for schools
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7056 Infrastructure for Electric Cars: ‘Necessity is the Mother of Invention’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6231 China’s Caribbean Playbook: America’s Script for Infrastructure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6016 The Need for Infrastructure To Abate Excessive Summers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5921 The Art & Science of Impact Analyses of Big Infrastructure Projects
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2670 A Lesson in History of Infrastructure Projects: Rockefeller’s Pipeline
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2041 Good Model: The New York / New Jersey Port Authority
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1214 Good Model: The Art & Science of Temporary Stadiums

The Caribbean needs help…with transportation, jobs, and overall economic activities. Infrastructure projects are a great place to start: bridges, tunnels, causeways, highways, government building, etc. These do not just bring construction jobs, but they also improve the eco-system for a better business climate. This is bigger than just politics; this is survival.

This is also how to grow our economy.

The people of the region are urged to “lean-in” for the deployments/empowerments as described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The benefits of this roadmap are too alluring to miss out: emergence of an $800 Billion single market economy, 2.2 million new jobs and a hopeful prospect for our Caribbean youth. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———–

Appendix VIDEO – Common Sense Investing: Use index funds when possible – https://youtu.be/GF5vThMkF-U

Uploaded on Jun 27, 2011 – http://www.financinglife.org
What is an index fund? And why do they outperform in the long run? Plus, learn how to tell a good mutual fund from a bad one.

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Build It and They Will Come – Streetcars Model – ENCORE

Posted on August 9, 2016 in Implementation, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

“Build it and they will come” – Movie quotation from A Field of Dreams – See VIDEO Appendix below.

This phrase has been echoed many times … especially in the effort to justify big capital infrastructure projects. Think sports stadia, highways, shopping malls, airports (i.e. the new Denver International). This is tied to the “Law of Attraction”; see details here:

If You Build it, Will They Come?

What is the relationship between intent and outcome? Does the Field of Dreams quote, “if you build it, they will come” have truth to it? Not exactly, but it does allude to an important and true concept (which is likely why we still quote, and mis-quote, it today).

The truth is: If you build it, you increase the odds of them coming. In other words, if you put thought and energy you put into a project you increase the likelihood of success.

Field of Dreams as a Metaphor for the Law of Attraction

Metaphorically speaking, attention plants a seed, while effort, time, and action give the seed the best opportunity to grow and thrive. However, there is no certainty the seed will grow, what the plant will look like, or whether it will produce fruit (that’s all up to nature and luck). Planting the seed and tending to it increases the odds that it’ll grow something, but it doesn’t ensure it.

The inverse, however, has more certainty. If you pay no attention to an idea and make no effort to manifest it, you decrease the odds of it materializing. If it does materialize it will almost certainly come from someone else who dedicated attention and effort over time. The more time, attention, effort, and thought you apply to an idea the more likely it is that something will come of it. If we build a baseball diamond and never go there again there is less chance of people coming. If we put effort into tending to the field and we are more likely to attract an audience.
Source: Retrieved August 9, 2016 from: http://factmyth.com/factoids/if-you-build-it-they-will-come/

CU Blog - Build It and They Will Come - Streetcars Model - Photo 7Previously, this commentary identified the streetcar project in the US capital city of Washington D.C.. The effort was designed to be an anchor for re-development of a blighted urban area.

How did it turn out? See photos in the Appendix below.

The project is now live for the 2.4 mile stretch of H Street.

There is a lot of construction ongoing, and more planned.

People, business activity and hope is coming!

This commentary is the 1 of 3 from the Go Lean movement on the subject of Infrastructure Policy. All of these commentaries are economic in nature; the other blogs detailed in this series are as follows:

  1. Before & After – Washington DC’s Streetcars Model
  2. Clinton vs Trump Campaigns – Politics of Infrastructure
  3. India’s Model – $90 billion infrastructure projects

The original blog-commentary from November 1, 2014 on the Washington, DC Streetcar is ENCORED here; followed by new, yet related Appendices:

—————-

Go Lean Commentary

CU Blog - DC Streetcars - Model For Caribbean Re-development - Photo 1

The US capital city of Washington D.C. is now embarking on the deployment of a streetcar system … again. Between 1862 and 1962, streetcars in Washington, D.C., were a common mode of transportation, but the system was dismantled in the early 1960s as part of a switch to bus service.

One step forward, two steps backwards!

The District now embarks on a re-deployment, pivotal to a re-development of blighted urban areas. See story here:

August 4, 2014 – The Washington D.C. Department of Transportation will begin training streetcar operators in traffic for the first time this week along H Street and Benning Road in Northeast Washington. [The full system implementation is planned for late 2014].

The DC Streetcar is a surface light rail and streetcar network under construction in Washington, D.C. The streetcars will be the first to run in the District of   Columbia since the dismantling of the previous streetcar system in 1962. The District   of Columbia began laying track in 2009 for two lines whose locations in Anacostia and Benning were chosen to revitalize blighted commercial corridors. Initially, the system will be funded and owned by the District’s Department of Transportation (DDOT).

The D.C. government owns three Czech-built Inekon streetcars (destined for the Anacostia Line) that will serve the system; as of December 2009, they were in storage at Metro’s Greenbelt Rail Yard; [but now fully engaged in test runs]. Each car is eight ft (2.438 meters) wide and 66 feet (20.12 m) long, and each train consists of three car connected sections.

The City’s hope is that now with all the new bars and restaurants opening on H Street, this streetcar line will encourage people (residents, business commuters and tourists) to visit here. Mayor Vincent Gray states “what we’re trying to do is encourage people as a part of our sustainability plan to find other ways of moving around. Eventually, this will be a 37-mile system that will get people to every ward in the District of Columbia.”
WJLA Local ABC 7 TV News
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/08/d-c-streetcar-operator-training-begins-this-week-105726.html
Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia  (Retrieved November 3, 2014) –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Streetcar

WJLA TV News Video: http://youtu.be/EY0d8E3304M

Why is there a need to re-start the streetcar system? Why did the streetcars end? Conspiracy theories abound. The following VIDEO portrays the story, and admittedly, there is a ring of truth:

In this excerpt from Stephen Talbot’s “Heartbeat of America” (1993), Christopher Snell explains how GM conspired with oil & tire companies to kill streetcars in cities all across America in order to create an inferior bus system that would guarantee the sale of tires, gas, and bus parts for an eternity.
VIDEO – Who Killed The Electric Street Car? – http://youtu.be/wFhsrbtQObI

The fact that Washington DC, and other cities (see VIDEO below of Portland’s effort), are re-deploying streetcars is proof-positive of the economic and logistical benefits of streetcars. Instead of gasoline or diesel vehicles, streetcars use energy-efficient electrified lines to power the vehicle up-and-down city streets. This is a win-win for all stakeholders!

Are streetcars being considered for Caribbean deployment, especially as these member-states report very high fuel costs and feature old-narrow streets?

Absolutely, yes! The book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts transportation solutions that include streetcars, light-rail, natural-gas powered vehicles and toll roads to empower the region through mass transit (Page 205).

Why not autonomous (driver-less) streetcars? This vision is one of intensive remote monitoring, plus unified command-and-control to mitigate security/safety concerns. (Think Disney World’s Mono-Rail). This is the future that is being planned, developed and tested now. The experience of the last 100 years is that those doing the planning, developing and testing for futuristic technologies are the ones that profit most from the economic gains.

The book, Go Lean … Caribbean, therefore extols the principle that R&D (research and development) activities are necessary to profit from advantages in technology. We want to do R&D here in the Caribbean. This is a mandate for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU. This technocracy will assume oversight to optimize the region in the areas of:

(1) economics
(2) security
(3) lean government

This vision of an autonomous streetcar aligns with the scope of Self-Governing Entities (SGEs) throughout the Caribbean region. On these bordered grounds (technology bases, industrial parks, research campuses, theater districts, medical centers, etc), only CU federal regulation and jurisdiction apply. This allows for the nimble environment to develop, test and deploy autonomous vehicles. This is the benefit of lean governmental coordination, so that a launch of these initiatives becomes possible and probable.

Though not written with this particular initiative in mind, the Go Lean roadmap anticipates such opportunities, as pronounced in the Declaration of Interdependence, (Pages 12 & 14):

xvi.    Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

xxx.   Whereas the effects of globalization can be felt in every aspect of Caribbean life, from the acquisition of food and clothing, to the ubiquity of ICT, the region cannot only consume, it is imperative that our lands also produce and add to the international community, even if doing so requires some sacrifice and subsidy.

The CU mission is to implement the complete eco-system to deliver on market opportunities of streetcars, autonomous or driver- operated as sampled in the foregoing article. There are many strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies that will facilitate this readiness; a sample is detailed here:

Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices Page 21
Economic Principles – People Choose because Resources are Limited Page 21
Economic Principles – All Choices Involve Costs Page 21
Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives Page 21
Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices Page 21
Community Ethos – Money Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research and Development Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Ways to Improve Negotiations Page 32
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Emergency Management Page 76
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of State – SGE’s Page 80
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up – Command-and-Control Page 103
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the EEZ Page 104
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Improve Energy Usage – Electrified Buses/Trains Page 113
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization Page 119
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Trade Page 128
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering & Analysis Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Natural Resources Page 183
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation Page 205
Advocacy – Ways to Develop the Auto Industry Page 206
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Transit Options Page 234

The world is preparing for the change for more efficient mass transit options and also to deploy more autonomous systems to do the heavy-lifting of industrial engagements. A new ethos to prepare for this change has now come to the Caribbean.

This blog/commentary touches on many related issues and subjects that affect planning for Caribbean empowerment in this transportation industry-space. Many of these issues were also elaborated upon in these previous blog/commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2750 Walt Disney World’s example of an SGE – Their Florida Resort features autonomous “monorails”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2338 Mitigating the Dreaded ‘Plutocracy’, as GM practiced in the US in the past to quash the thriving Streetcar enterprises throughout the country
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2259 The Criminalization/Abuses of American Business – Applying the many Lessons Learned
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2126 Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping the Global Job Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1487 Here come the Autonomous Aircrafts/Drones … and the Concerns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1277 Google Self-Driving cars to mitigate highway safety concerns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1214 Fairgrounds as SGEs and the CU as Landlord for Sports Leagues – Great need to move masses (thousands) to stadia/arenas in short time
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=915 Go Green Caribbean – Streetcars are electric, less carbon footprint
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=829 Trains and Trucks play well together
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=673 Ghost ships – Autonomous cargo vessels without a crew

Re-deploy, re-develop, and re-boot…

All of these verbs are germane for this Go Lean roadmap. The Caribbean needs help…with transportation solutions, jobs, growing the economy, and motivating our youth to impact their future here at home… in the Caribbean.

Therefore the people of the region are urged to “lean-in” for the changes/empowerments as described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The benefits of this roadmap are too alluring to miss out: emergence of an $800 Billion single market economy, 2.2 million new jobs and relevance on the world scene for R&D. 🙂

Let’s all Go Lean!

Download the e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – free … now!

———–

VIDEO – Portland’s Streetcar revival – Federal aid has helped spur the construction of modern U.S. streetcars for the first time in 58 years. http://youtu.be/BIcVlCB0er0

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 Appendix – Family Photo Album – Caribbean Visitor to the DC Streetcar – Summer 2016

CU Blog - Build It and They Will Come - Streetcars Model - Photo 1

CU Blog - Build It and They Will Come - Streetcars Model - Photo 5

CU Blog - Build It and They Will Come - Streetcars Model - Photo 3

CU Blog - Build It and They Will Come - Streetcars Model - Photo 2

CU Blog - Build It and They Will Come - Streetcars Model - Photo 4

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Appendix VIDEO – If You Build It, He Will Come – Field of Dreams (1989) – https://youtu.be/5Ay5GqJwHF8

Uploaded on May 30, 2011 –
Field of Dreams movie clips: http://j.mp/1Ja20Lz
BUY THE MOVIE: http://amzn.to/rPcyVp

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