The book Go Lean…Caribbean calls for the elevation of Caribbean society, to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize all the engines of society so as to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. The activities of “play” are of serious concern; they are Art and Science.
All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy. All play and no work, makes Jack a dumb boy.
There is the need for balance.
Tourism activities and/or vacations, the primary economic driver in the Caribbean region, are grouped as a “play” activity.
The Go Lean book, serving as a roadmap, posits that tourism will continue to be the primary economic driver in the region for the foreseeable future. Considering the “bread and butter” of the region, it is obvious our “bread is buttered” with “play”. Understanding the science of “play” activities can therefore be critical in the roadmap to grow the region’s GDP and create jobs (2.2 million new jobs projected). There are many other activities considered “play”: sports, parks & recreation, art & culture, media (film, TV, online social networking, etc.) and also … animal companions. People love their pets and even treat them as part of the family. So to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play means considering the needs of the 42-million population and their animal companions.
A study of economics must consider the systems of survival, the quest for food, clothing and shelter. This is a science. Research by Behavioral Scientist & Psychologist Abraham Maslow with his Hierarchy of Needs[a], identifies needs as a pyramid, where at the bottom, or base level, are basic, survival elements (food, water, shelter and security/safety). As these are obtained, then there are natural urges for emotional stability (belongingness, self-esteem, social acceptance); accordingly, the top level of the pyramid was defined as complex understanding (beauty, justice, realizing one’s full potential). Where does “play” fit into this hierarchy? Other research now indicates that the need to play nullifies the hierarchy, people and animals seek play at all times and all circumstances, despite whether the other needs are fulfilled. See the example here …
… this VIDEO shows hungry polar bears in the Arctic region and what they do with dogs, despite a potential food source. See here:
Title: He Watched Helplessly As A Starving Bear Approached His Dogs. Then Something Amazing Happened.
Polar bears and dogs are natural enemies, and bears usually behave quite aggressively toward dogs. Polar bears are the largest land carnivore and are many times larger than even the largest of dogs, so when a hungry polar bear spots a dog, it usually ends very badly for the dog.
This, however, is truly unbelievable. Take a look at the photos and videos here.
Renowned nature photographer Norbert Rosing, whose work has appeared in National Geographic, visited Brian and his dogs on several occasions. Here are some of the incredible photos he took.
Here is some incredible footage of these unlikely friends playing together:
Mother nature never ceases to amaze. There’s so much we can learn from these unusual friends about tolerance.
Share this awesome friendship with others. They’ll never expect to see this!
… there is a lot that can be learned from the science of “play” by just examining dogs and other animals.
Everyone needs and wants to play … at all levels of the socio-economic ladder: rich, middle-class and poor. So “play” options should be provided in society so that everyone can partake. Since tourism is categorized as “play”. The Go Lean book posits that the region can experience even more growth in tourism than the estimated 80 million people that visit our shores annually, by facilitating more “play” options for all levels of society. (Cruise vacations are known for being more affordable to those with smaller budgets). The book proposes growth strategies/options, such as:
Inter-Island Ferries (Page 280)
Cruises options that can start/stop at different Caribbean ports (Page 193)
Features of the Sharing Economy (Car and Residence) for Cheaper Vacations (Page 35)
Sports eco-system for amateur, professional and inter-collegiate participation (Page 229)
Expansion of Parks Eco-system (Page 83)
Urban Bicycle Assimilation and Expansions of Bike Paths (Page 352)
The Go Lean book asserts that the requisite investment of the resources (time, talent, treasuries) for these societal elevation goal may be too big for any one Caribbean member-state alone. So the Go Lean book campaigns to shift the responsibility to a region-wide, professionally-managed, deputized technocracy, the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU.
The subject of animals and animal companionship is also pivotal in the roadmap for elevating Caribbean society, especially for the security engines. The Go Lean book posits (Page 185) that better command of Animal Husbandry can facilitate better security around the region’s economic engines. Dogs feel a lot less intrusive and less intimidating than formal security screening, or personnel patrolling with AK47 automatic rifles. Imagine a beautiful Caribbean beach scene with a plain clothes “officer” walking along with specialty dogs, or more exactly:
Drug Sniffing Dogs
Bomb Sniffing Dogs
Service/Therapy Dogs
The Go Lean book considers the Agent of Change (Page 57) of the “Aging Diaspora” and its effect on the Caribbean’s biggest economic driver: “tourism”. Many former Caribbean citizens left these shores for greater opportunities abroad, but now they are approaching retirement. These ones can be induced to return to the Caribbean … and bring their economic resources with them … provided that their needs are covered.
This includes the needs of their animal companions. (Currently, the requirements for transporting pets to “foreign” countries are exhaustive; they entail many standards and veterinarian assessments).
The goal of the CU is to bring the proper tools and techniques to the Caribbean region to optimize the stewardship of the economic, security and governing engines. The book posits that the economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, with technocratic management and stewardship of a Single Market. As conveyed here in this commentary, and in previous commentaries, this would be better than the status quo.
Change has come to the region. This book Go Lean… Caribbean provides the needed details on how to better manage the challenge of a changing world. Early in the book, the optimization and best-practices was highlighted as a reason the Caribbean region needed to unite, integrate and confederate to a Single Market. These pronouncements were included in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 14):
iv. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass is in a tropical region, the flora and fauna allows for an inherent beauty that is enviable to peoples near and far. The structures must be strenuously guarded to protect and promote sustainable systems of commerce paramount to this reality.
vi. Whereas the finite nature of the landmass of our lands limits the populations and markets of commerce, by extending the bonds of brotherhood to our geographic neighbors allows for extended opportunities and better execution of the kinetics of our economies through trade. This regional focus must foster and promote diverse economic stimuli.
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. This repatriation should be effected with the appropriate guards so as not to imperil the lives and securities of the repatriated citizens or the communities they inhabit. The right of repatriation is to be extended to any natural born citizens despite any previous naturalization to foreign sovereignties.
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.
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.
The Go Lean… Caribbean book wisely details the community ethos to adopt to proactively facilitate digital campaigns for the changed landscape; plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies:
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices & Incentives
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
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 – Athletics, Literary, Art and Music in “Play” activities
Page 27
Community Ethos – Impact Research & Development – Including Animal Husbandry
Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing – Viable forService Animals
Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Integrate Region in a Single Market
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Enhancing the Tourism Product
Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Aging Diaspora
Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Tactical – Growing the Economy to $800 Billion – Trade and Globalization
Page 70
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Tourism Promotions and Administration
Page 78
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration
Page 83
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of Health – Veterinarian Standards
Page 86
Implementation – Assembling Regional Organs
Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Deliver
Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Single Market
Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better – “Play” activities for Rich, Middle Class, and the Poor
Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs – Many from “Play” activities
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives – Ideal for Animal Husbandry
Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Natural Resources – Parks Administration
Page 183
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters – Animal Partners & First Responders
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism – Expanding Solutions for “Snowbirds”
Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events – Sharing Economy
Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds – Venues for “Play” activities
Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Cruise Tourism – Appealing for Budget Vacations
Page 193
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation – Bicycle-Friendly Culture
Page 205
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Elder-Care – Planning for Storm Shelters
Page 225
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports – For Amateur and Professionals
Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Music – A significant role despite the level of need
Page 231
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Storm Shelters for Pets
Page 234
Advocacy – Ways to Promote World Heritage Sites – Low-cost Touristic Activities
Page 248
Appendix – Sample Inter-Island Ferry Scheme
Page 280
Appendix – Sample Urban Bicycle Sharing Scheme
Page 352
The CU seeks to foster play options to aid-and-abet tourism and other economic activities. This includes all supporting functions before, during and after visitors come to our shores. Consider the example of Hurricane preparation; there is the need to prepare storm shelters for residents in unsafe areas; these solutions MUST consider pet shelters as well; (Page 234).
In previous Go Lean blogs, related points of the innovative tourism marketing, Aging Diaspora and the need for efficient Animal Husbandry have been detailed; see sample here:
This commentary focuses on the core competence of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation, which is Trade. This refers to the ability to accentuate the economic activities of the region to make the homeland a better place to live, work and play. But this commentary also addresses a passion project: the love of dogs. See the related VIDEO in the Appendix below.
But the integration of core competence and passion can elevate a society. Dogs can definitely have that impact for the Caribbean.
The people and institutions of the Caribbean are urged to lean-in to these new business models to incentivize more tourism and “play” activities for all segments of society. The region is also urged to full employ working canines, as in embedding them with Military & Police units. This is win-win!
Let’s do it! This is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap: elevate the societal engines for all people … and their pet companions & helpers. With the empowerments and elevations portrayed in the roadmap we can succeed in making Caribbean region a better place for citizens and tourists alike to live, work and play. 🙂
Published on Aug 18, 2014 – “So God Made a Dog” a takeoff on the Paul Harvey “God made a Farmer”. They are, our friends and part of the family and often with us for to short a time …
This was not always the case. Just recently, in 2008, many of these same places – like California – featured gas prices near $5 per gallon. How amazing? What a change! How did the prices drop so low and what effect did those prior high prices have on the American, or more specifically, the Californian psyche?
“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste” …
… so says the book Go Lean… Caribbean quoting noted Economist Paul Romer (Page 8). A crisis brings an opportunity to forge change in the economic, security and governing engines of communities. An industry did this in the US, in response to the 2008 crisis. This is the industry of Electric Cars (Vehicles) or EV.
EV = No Gas … at all.
Overall, gas prices dropped due to macro-economic factors in both supply and demand. But on the micro-level, the need to mitigate the acute rise in gas prices truly proved to be the ‘mother of invention’. This is well documented in the historicity of one company NRG Energy and their eVgo® electric car charging initiative – see here the encyclopedic information on this enterprise:
NRG Energy and eVgo®
NRG Energy, Inc. is a large American energy company – focusing primarily on power generation. They are dually headquartered in West Windsor Township, New Jersey,[3][4] and Houston, Texas.[1][5][6] It was formerly the wholesale arm of Xcel Energy, and was spun off in bankruptcy in 2004.[7]
Beginning in 2009, NRG began a major initiative to become the leading green energy producer in the United States and started investing very large amounts of money in clean energy projects.[18][19] They include onshore and offshore wind power, solar thermal energy, photovoltaic, and distributed solar power facilities, and repowering of some of their traditional coal plants with biomass.[18]
eVgo® leads America’s electric vehicle (EV) revolution.
eVgo® provides charging solutions and stations directly to electric car owners as well as businesses looking to serve the EV charging needs of their residents, tenants, employees, or customers.
Combining desired tier of service with home, multi-family, and workplace charging solutions in conjunction with the largest number of DC fast charging stations across the nation, EVgo provides EV drivers a truly unique level of freedom—and a whole new world of possible destinations.
The eVgo® network is the largest public DC fast charging network in the nation. From April 2014 to October 2015 their chargers provided enough kWh of electricity to power 12,323,090 EV miles. EVgo’s forward-looking infrastructure is invested across the country right now in more than 25 markets with a target of 40 by the end of 2016. EVgo drivers can access more than 1,000 fast charging locations, along with individual charging stations at homes, schools, offices, multi-family communities and hospitals across our growing network. – Source:https://www.nrgevgo.com/about/
NRG Energy and their eVgo® subsidiary is therefore a role model for the Caribbean to emulate. This enterprise has proven to be a technocratic organization that has championed the cause of providing the societal structures for EV’s. They do not manufacture the cars – that is the sphere of the giant car makers like General Motors, Ford, Nissan, BMW, Tesla, SMART and others – but they facilitate all the attendant functions to charge the vehicles and keep them powered. This structure aligns with the book Go Lean… Caribbean, a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This calls for the confederation, collaboration and convention of 30 member-states into one intergovernmental organization. The same as NRG Energy/eVgo® facilitates EV’s in the US, the CU seeks to facilitate EV’s in the Caribbean region. This is part-and-parcel of the prime directives (3) of the CU/Go Lean roadmap:
Optimization of the economic engines – accepting that energy is as basic a need as food, clothing and shelter – in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus, including energy security, to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.
This writer lived in California in 2008 … and paid $5 prices for gas. But now just visited the old residential neighborhoods of Tustin in Orange County – see Appendix B – and noticed something different:
Wow, change, innovation, necessity = the ‘mother of invention’.
See Appendix A for Charging locations/options in Tustin California today.
The goal of the CU is to optimize Caribbean society in kind. We need to foster innovation at home as well. We need to change in response to our own crises and not waste them. In many Caribbean locales, gas is still priced near $5.00 per gallon.
See the VIDEO here relating the story of an Uber driver and glean the comment of the Jamaican visitor longing for this solution in his Caribbean homeland:
Published on Nov 12, 2015 – Category: Autos & Vehicles; License: Standard YouTube License
This is also a matter of competition. The Caribbean homeland must better compete globally and hopefully present more favorable options for our youth to want to stay here in the homeland, and not copy the model of their previous generations who sought refuge abroad. We are failing miserably at this now!
We are also failing to create innovative energy options. There is the need to optimize our energy policies – from top to bottom. The Go Lean book directs this energy policy directive: the Caribbean region must lower crude oil demands. Success in this area will result in lower fuel and retail gasoline prices. The economic principles are sound: lower the demand, as the supply increases and prices will drop.
Thusly the book proposes many solutions for the region to optimize energy generation, distribution and consumption. No “stone is left unturned”. Go Lean posits that the average costs of energy can be decreased from an average of US$0.35/kWh to US$0.088/kWh in the course of the 5-year term of this roadmap. (Page 100).
Primarily in this strategy in lowering the demand for crude oil is increasing options with alternative energy sources: natural gas, solar, wind and tidal. Thereby lowering the demand on crude oil. As for the supply, the roadmap advocates for Electric Vehicles (EV’s) – just like in Tustin California – and hybrids and other energy mixes like natural gas and hydrogen. In fact, the roadmap calls for the development of a homegrown Automotive Industry in the Caribbean (Page 206). The overriding need for cheaper energy options would be the ‘Mother of Invention’ for these solutions.
The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster the progress in the wide fields of energy generation, distribution, consumption and automobile efficiencies. The following list applies:
Community Ethos – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments
Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives
Page 25
Community Ethos – Regional Taxi Commissions
Page 25
Community Ethos – Non-Government Organizations
Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future
Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Negotiations
Page 32
Anecdote – Pipeline Transport – Strategies, Tactics & Implementations
Page 43
Strategy – Harness the power of the sun/winds
Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 82
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Energy Commission
Page 82
Anecdote – “Lean” in Government – Energy Permits
Page 93
Anecdote – Caribbean Energy Grid Implementation
Page 100
Implementation – Ways to Develop Pipeline Industry
Page 107
Implementation – Ways to Improve Energy Usage
Page 113
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008
Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Public Works
Page 175
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives
Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Monopolies
Page 202
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation
Page 205
Advocacy – Ways to Develop the Auto Industry
Page 206
This commentary asserts that energy needs are undeniable. Options abound; the biggest ingredient is the “community will”. Here comes the “will”! If the old adage is true: “where there’s a will, there’s a way”, then the CU/Go Lean roadmap is the way. This is the “heavy-lifting” for the lean, agile operations of the CU technocracy.
There are many Go Lean blog commentaries that have echoed this point, addressing the need to mitigate high prices in energy and the overall cost-of-living in the Caribbean. See sample here:
10 Things We Want from the US – American Innovation
So the message to the people of the Caribbean region is straight-forward: Help is on the way!
Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governments, to lean-in for the optimizations and opportunities described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. 🙂
When it comes to refueling a car, drivers of gas- and diesel-powered vehicles have it easy. They roll up to any one of about 100,000-plus gas stations in CA, pump in liquid fuel in a matter of minutes, and pay either in cash or with a credit card. Unfortunately, it is a little more complicated with public charging for electric vehicles although remember that almost all EV charging takes place at home, which usually requires about 30 seconds to plug in each night.
For EV drivers who want to regularly charge in public, it is important to know about the handful of charging networks offering access to electric fuel on the go. Each network works a little differently. It is a good idea for EV owners to have a basic understanding of how they compare with one another. That is why we put together this basic guide on EV charging networks.
Cost Considerations
The three primary approaches are:
(1) pay-as-you-go,
(2) monthly subscriptions
(3) free.
Obviously, if given the opportunity, it makes sense to grab a free charge, even for a relatively short period of time. But the pay models, depending on the cost for a charge, need to be studied to determine which network makes the most sense for you; if it is best to collect a wallet-full of membership cards; or if proper planning will allow you to avoid public charging unless you are running very low on charge.
There are a few gotchas. Keep in mind that the amount of range you add per hour depends on the power capabilities of your cars onboard charger. As Marc Geller, a director at Plug In America, an EV advocacy organization, told me: If the car comes with a smaller charger, the cost is relatively higher than if you have a faster charger. It is a weird fact. Other oddities include credit card transactions and costs associated with leaving a car plugged in, even if the battery if fully charged and the electrons have stopped flowing.
Networks, such as eVgo, operated by NRG Energy, avoid some of these issues by using an all-encompassing all-you-can-charge subscription service. That brings clarity, but usually at a higher overall cost. As of July 2014, the majority of public chargers are still available for free (although not every system makes it absolutely clear how much EV drivers are paying to charge).
High-Level Recommendations
First, think about your regular routes and favorite destinations in Tustin CA. Then use PlugShare or another station finding tool to see which charging networks are along the way. Be prepared to use any of them.
ChargePoint is the biggest charging network, so it is a must for nearly all EV drivers.
If you live in Pacific Northwest, get a key fob from Aerovironment for its AV Subscription Network.
In Texas, it’s generally better to pay as you go with ChargePoint and Blink, rather than opting for multi-year expensive contracts with eVgo unless you want to splurge for the convenience of an all-you-can-charge plan and, at this time, the ability to access DC fast charging.
On the east coast, SemaConnect is the best backup to ChargePoint.
Who doesn’t like free? There are about 2,000 stations, mostly free, not associated with any of the networks listed below. Use PlugShare or other tools to find these stations.
One last caveat: The terminology of ”station” can be confusing and misleading. Some services call each individual charger a station, when the term station usually refers to a single public site with the capability to charge more than one car at a time.
List of Top EV Charging Networks In Tustin 92780
AEROVIRONMENT
Background: Aerovironment, known as AV, is a pioneer in the development of electric vehicle charging technologies. The company sells a range of Level 2 and Quick Charge equipment, but also operates its own network of chargers.
Approximate Number of Sites: 60
Coverage: AV chargers, many of which are DC Quick Chargers, are primarily located in Oregon, and to a lesser extent, in Washington State as part of the West Coast Electric Highway. AV also has a handful of charging locations in California.
Access: Unlimited monthly access is provided for $19.99 per month. Subscribing to the AV network starts with calling 888-833-2148 or filling out a form on the AV website. The company will send a key fob that activates the chargers. If you are a current subscriber there is no activation fee. If you are a new subscriber, there will be a one-time activation fee of $15.
Cost per charge: As an alternative to the flat monthly access fee, there is the option of paying per session: $7.50/session for DC Fast Charger; and $4.00/session for a Level 2 charging station.
Background: The assets of Blink Network were purchased by CarCharging Group in October 2013. Ecotality had received a $114.8 million federal stimulus grant to oversee The EV Project. The goal of The EV Project is to deploy 8,300 private and public chargers. There have been several reported problems associated with Blink chargers, and the Blink Network, such as insufficient customer support, and incompatibility of the equipment with certain vehicles.
Approximate Number of Sites: 1,680
Coverage: Blink Network chargers are located in approximately 25 states, with the largest concentration in California, California, Arizona, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee and Washington.
Access: Start by registering a credit card with a Blink account. There are no required annual or monthly membership fees, or minimum credit card balance. Members who register will receive an InCard and can initiate a charge using the card. Guests can initiate a charge with Blinks mobile application.
Cost Per Charge: In the states that permit kilowatt-hour pricing, fees for Level 2 EV charging stations owned by Blink and operated on the Blink Network range from $0.39 to $0.79 per kWh, depending on the state and individuals membership status. Blink is a proponent of kWh pricing because it is usage-based and EV drivers pay fees based on the actual amount of power consumed during the charging session rather than the amount of time that the car is plugged into the station.Fees for DCFC chargers owned by Blink and operated on the Blink Network in kWh eligible state range from $0.49 to $0.69 per kWh, depending on the state and individuals membership status.
These states currently permit fees by the kilowatt-hour: California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia.
In states where pricing by kWh is not permitted, time-based charging fees for Level 2 charging stations owned by Blink and operated on the Blink Network range from $0.04 to $0.06 per minute, depending on membership status. Time-based charging fees are rounded up to the nearest 30-second interval. Fees for DCFC chargers owned by Blink and operated on the Blink Network in non-kWh eligible states will range from $6.99 – $9.99 per session, depending on membership status.
Background: Chargepoint, previously Coulomb Technologies, describes itself as the largest online network of independently owned EV charging stations operating in 14 countries. The company provides a turnkey EV charging solutions for property owners who can determine the terms for offering charging to EV drivers.
Approximate Number of Sites: 3,084
Coverage: While one-quarter of ChargePoint stations are in California, the network is the most widely distributed with at least one station in California.
Access: There is no cost to sign up and receive a ChargePoint card. After submitting your credit card information as part of the sign-up, you will be charged an initial deposit of $25 only when you first visit a charging station that requires a fee. (Many stations on the network are free.) Your account provides access to all public stations on ChargePoint. Charging stations are activated with the ChargePoint card, or a contactless credit card. The stations can also be activated by calling a toll-free customer service number on the ChargePoint station, or by using the associated mobile app. Account balances automatically replenish when the balance gets low. Cost Per Charge: Prices are determined by the property owner. Many ChargePoint stations are currently free.
Background: eVgo is subsidiary of NRG, a Fortune 300 and S&P 500 company. It Is one of the countrys largest power generation and retail electricity businesses, with power plants producing about 47,000 megawatts of generation capacity. eVgo is part of NRGs clean energy portfolio, which includes solar, thermal, and carbon capture technology.
Approximate Number of Stations: Approximately 150, each with Level 2 and DC quick charging options.
Coverage: Currently, eVgo operates stations in Tustin CA, Texas, in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets, as well as Tennessee, California and the greater Washington, DC area.
Access: NRG network is only available to its monthly subscribers using an eVgo card, but as its website states, the company will always take care of an EV driver in need of a charge.
Cost Per Charge: eVgo offers various plans based on the needs of an EV driver and the electric vehicle they have chosen. This is an overview of their three most popular all-you-can-charge plans. Starting at $30 a month, with a one-year service agreement, EV drivers have access to unlimited charging at the companys so-called Freedom Station sites, which includes Level 2 and DC fast charging. The $40 a month Home plan, with a three-year service agreement, adds installation of your own home charging equipment but not the cost of electricity that is separately metered. The Workplace plan is $30 a month. See the pricing structure, which is unique to each region.
Coverage: 32 states, California, DC and Puerto Rico.
Access: WattStations require an RFID card, even when non-networked and free.
Cost Per Charge: Prices vary, as established by owners.
——-
GREENLOTS
Background: Greenlots is not formally a network, but rather a provider of open standards-based technology solutions for various stations and other networks. Designed to answer the needs of site hosts offering workplace, utility and public charging applications, Greenlots SKY platform utilizes Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP), the largest open standard for charger-to-network communications.
Access: Users have many access options, including: (1) Download the free Greenlots app from iTunes or Google Play. Next, enter your credit card information. Once your information is saved, select “Charge” from the menu and enter the Station ID or scan the QR code displayed on the front of the station; (2) Swipe your Greenlots RFID card; (3) Call the customer care number listed on the station to have the charge session started remotely; and (4) Some stations have a credit card swiper. Users can also create a driver account at www.charge.greenlots.com to track electricity usage, update information, or order an RFID card.
Coverage: No specific region. Charging stations in Midwest, Northeast, Northwest, South, and Southwest, as well as Hawaii, Canada and Singapore.
Cost Per Charge: Site hosts determine the fee for use. Greenlots does not charge a membership fee.
Background: Maryland-based SemaConnect offers Level 2 commercial grade EV charging station equipment and management software called SemaCharge. Their focus is on making charging as easy as possible for EV drivers and station owners. The company says it is the fastest growing network on the east coast. SemaConnect is the third largest supplier of commercial grade Level 2 charging stations based on number of stations deployed.
Approximate Number of Sites: 450
Coverage: SemaConnect stations are located in about 20 states, with the greatest concentration in California, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC, Georgia, California and the Pacific Northwest. It also has a presence in Puerto Rico.
Access: To sign up, log on to the SemaConnect website, and open a new account with a $20 balance charged to a major credit card. You will receive a SemaCharge RFID card that can be used to initiate charging at any SemaConnect location. If the balance drops below $0.00, the associated credit card will add another $20 to your account. SemaConnect also offers mobile payments via its smartphone application, toll-free number, or via a QR code scan.
Cost per charge: The cost varies, as determined by the property owner.
Background: Shorepower Technologies manufactures, sells and operates equipment for truck stop electricity services, as well as electric vehicle charging equipment. Most of the truck stop sites have standard charging outlets (e.g., NEMA 5-20, NEMA 14-30 and NEMA TT-30), accessible to EV drivers with the appropriated adapter cords. Relatively few of the locations also have charging stations with standard J1772 connectors.
Approximate Number of Sites: Shorepower has about 425 locations, with more than 2,000 individual connection points.
Coverage: Charging locations, mostly at truck stops, are spread widely across the U.S. in approximately 30 states and can be found in Tustin CA.
Access: Use the toll-free hotline, kiosk or web browser to activate service via a credit card. There is a $1 activation fee. Cost per charge: For paid stations at Level and Level 2, the fee is $1 per hour. Locations with J1772 equipment, mostly on west coast, are free.
Background: In fall 2012, Tesla Motors, the makers of the Model S sedan, rolled out its first so-called Superchargers, in order to make road trips available for free to owners of its sporty luxury sedan.
Approximate Number of Sites: As of August 2015, there are 502 Supercharger stations with 2,832 Superchargers.
Coverage: Supercharger stations are situated throughout the United States and can be found in Tustin 92780.
Access: Tesla Superchargers do not require a card to initiate. Model S owners simply drive up and plug in. The chargers are available to owners of Model S models with the 85 kWh battery pack, or cars with the 60 kWh pack that have been configured to use Superchargers.
Cost Per Charge: Free. No sign up and no cost for electricity.
Surely the Caribbean can offer more than the African country of Kenya does. Surely?!
… and yet Kenya is providing a role model for the Caribbean to emulate, that of mobile money payment systems.
Let’s play catch-up.
Benefits await the Caribbean, more so than just playing catch-up. We can empower and elevate our economy and society. Notice here how this elevation benefits Kenya – an iconic and typical Third World country – in these news VIDEOs here:
Published on Mar 11, 2013 – Kenya has led Africa’s innovative and revolutionary embrace of mobile telephones, and the country’s technology sector has grown faster than all others in east Africa’s regional economic hub. Bob Collymore, chief executive of Safaricom, parent company of the mobile payment system M-Pesa, talks to Katrina Manson, east Africa correspondent.
This is a familiar advocacy for these Go Lean commentaries. The full width and breadth of electronic payments schemes have been examined, dissected and debated. The benefits are undeniable:
Instant access
Safer transactions
Expanded networks
Mitigating fees
Expanded money supply
Availing credit
Previous blog-commentaries have promoted the following as advocacies integrating technology and money:
The world is moving forward with electronic payment systems; the standard of cash registers with cash drawers have passed. Many times, establishments do not even want to accept “cash”. They want the money, but only want it electronically. Consider this photo here, it demonstrates how United Airlines – the 3rd largest airline in the world – will not even accept “cash” for travelling passengers to pay for baggage when they check-in for their flights. They want electronic money only (credit and debit cards). This photo depicts a cash-accepting kiosk to load the cash onto a pre-paid credit card … on the spot at the terminal … at the Metropolitan Detroit International Airport (DTW) in November 2015.
What’s more, even the standard of magnetic stripe credit cards and debit cards have passed. As depicted in the foregoing VIDEO and previously Go Lean blog-commentaries, those involved in retail commerce – in general – must now adapt (or perish) to credit and debit cards … without the card!
This means you, Caribbean merchants (hotels, restaurants, tour operators, retailers, and business establishments). The environment must now change for tourism commerce and ordinary domestic commerce. The stewardship of Caribbean economics must improve to adapt to this changing world. This is a consistent advocacy of these Go Lean blogs: to “lean-in” to better economic stewardship as detailed in the book Go Lean … Caribbean.
The book 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 depicts that these entities will drive change in payment systems, to includes options depicted in the foregoing VIDEO and beyond. Their role will include facilitating and settling transactions for new payment systems: new cards and telephony apps. The Go Lean roadmap calls for a regional currency for the Caribbean Single Market, the Caribbean Dollar (C$), to be used primarily as an electronic currency. These schemes will impact the growth of the regional economy in both the domestic and tourist markets. Consider the real scenario of Cruise Ship passenger-commerce; the solutions must be delivered here and now.
The CU/CCB roadmap anticipates these electronic payment systems from the outset of the Go Lean book; covering more than commerce, but the security and governing issues as well. In fact, the Go Lean roadmap has these 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.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
As depicted in the foregoing VIDEO, there abound many security benefits with electronic payment schemes, mobile money in this case. In the field of Economics, the “cash currency” is referred to as M0. No doubt, changes for electronic payment system will reduce M0. The greatest benefit though of deploying these electronic payment scheme is the acceleration of M1 in the regional economy. While M0 refers to “cash: paper & coins”, M1 refers to the measurement of “cash” in circulation (the M0) plus overnight bank deposits. As depicted in the Go Lean book, and subsequent blog-commentaries, M1 increases allow central banks – in this case, the CCB – to create money “from thin-air”; referring to the money multiplier principle.
A final feature of M1 is that it normally does not include any Black Market activities. But with electronic payment systems, M0 reduces and M1 increases, thusly nullifying the Black Markets.
The Go Lean book posits that to adapt and thrive in the new global marketplace there must be more strenuous management and technocratic oversight of the region’s currencies. This is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap; it opened with these pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 and 14):
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.
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 a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster the proper controls for electronic/mobile payments in the Caribbean region:
Community Ethos – Economic Principles
Page 21
Community Ethos – Money Multiplier Principle
Page 22
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Privacy versus Public Protection
Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives
Page 25
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property
Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide
Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing
Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Mission – Fortify the monetary needs through a Currency Union
Page 45
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Central Banking
Page 73
Implementation – Assemble Central Bank Cooperative
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #2: Currency Union / Single Currency
Page 127
Anecdote – Caribbean Currencies
Page 149
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Black Markets
Page 165
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives
Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Cruise Tourism – Smartcard scheme
Page 193
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology
Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce
Page 198
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations – Central Banking Efficiencies
Page 199
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street – Downtown Wi-Fi – Time and Place
Page 201
Appendix – Assembling the Caribbean Telecommunications Union
Page 256
The world of electronic payment systems now includes smart cards, mobile payments (like “M-Pesa” in the foregoing VIDEO and apps on Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone devices). To those in the Caribbean, we admonish you:
Try and keep up!
The benefits of this new “regime” are too enticing to ignore: fostering more e-Commerce, increasing regional M1, mitigation of Black Markets, more cruise tourism spending, growing the economy, creating jobs, enhancing security and optimizing governance.
Now is the time for all stakeholders of the Caribbean, (residents, visitors, merchants, vendors, bankers, and governing institutions), to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. These empowerments can help to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂
This commentary – from December 9, 2014 – is hereby re-distributed on the occasion of the Art Basel Miami 2015. This year’s events are planned for December 3 – 6, with peripheral events starting from December 1.
Bienvenido a Miami!
———
There’s no business like ‘show business’. – Age Old Adage.
And now, the subsequent news article posits: “the community rallies around art creating a unique energy. And art ‘dynamises’ the community, in a very unique way”.
The book Go Lean…Caribbean has a simple purpose: enable the Caribbean to be a better place to live, work and play. The book recognizes that the ‘genius qualifier’ is shown in different fields of endeavor, including the arts (fine, visual, performing, music, etc.). While the Go Lean roadmap has a focus on STEM [1] fields, it is accepted that not everyone possesses STEM skills, and yet many others can still contribute to society. Then when these other skills/talents are “gifted” beyond the extraordinary, they can truly impact their community, and maybe even the world.
The book relates that the arts can have a positive influence on the Caribbean. And that one man, or woman, can make a difference in this quest. We want to foster the next generation of “stars” in the arts and other fields of endeavor.
According to the following news article, the arts can truly ‘dynamise’ the community. The article relates to Art Basel, the movement to stage art shows for Modern and Contemporary works, sited annually in Basel (Switzerland), Hong Kong and Miami Beach. The focus of this article is Miami Beach:
Title: 13th Art Basel Miami Beach (December 4 – 7, 2014), a testament to the spread of culture
By: Jane Wooldridge,and contributed Ricardo Mor
If “more” equals better, the 13th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach and the surrounding art week events may go down as the best ever. More new art fairs and just-to-see shows. More record-breaking sales at Art Basel Miami Beach. More CEOs — from watchmakers Hublot and Omega, luggage brand Rimowa, hotel companies Starwood and Marriott — opening luxury properties. And if not more — who can keep track? — then certainly plenty of celebrities, including actors Leonardo DiCaprio, James Marden and Owen Wilson; musicians Usher, Miley Cyrus, Russell Simmons and Joe Jonas; supermodel Heidi Klum and the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt.
There was another kind of “more” as well — more spillovers, touch points and art for all manner of South Floridians, from entrepreneurs to pre-teen fashion designers, stretching from Pinecrest to Coconut Grove, Overtown to Fort Lauderdale.
If the aim is “to make art general,” as Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen told attendees Monday at the foundation’s annual announcement of Knight Art Challenge awards, this year’s art week put South Florida well on its way. Proclaimed National Endowment for the Arts chairman Jane Chu on a whiplash art tour to downtown, Miami Beach and Opa-locka, “Art is entwined in Miami’s DNA.”
Even as the Pérez Art Museum Miami celebrated its first year anniversary, a new permanent museum building for the Institute for Contemporary Art Miami was announced for the Design District.
Overtown [historical Black neighborhood] hosted its first Art Africa fair of works created by artists from the African Diaspora. Joining it on the list of first-year events are an impressive exhibition of monumental works in the vast Mana-Miami Wynwood space on NW 23rd Street and Pinta, a fair focusing on Latin American art that moved from New York to Midtown.
The festivities reach far, far beyond the traditional art crowd. On the Mana campus, the Savannah College of Art and Design is presenting “i feel ya,” an exhibition that includes jumpsuits designed by André 3000 for Outkast’s reunion tour. The nearby ArtHaus tent is surrounded by food trucks and a sound program where Beethoven is definitely not on the playlist.
This year, more than a half-dozen student exhibits are on the art agenda. At FusionMIA, student photographs hang near works by masters Rashid Johnson and Al Loving; all were curated by Miami’s N’Namdi Contemporary gallery. A few blocks north, at Wynwood’s House of Art, a dozen students ages 5 to 15 from the DesignLab program showed off their creations at a Friday night “vernissage.”
Among them was 13-year-old Yael Bloom, wearing a flounced party dress she made from shrink wrap. No matter that the first-time event was a little-known spinoff. “Art Basel is pretty hard for adults to get into,” Bloom said. “For kids to get into it is very cool.”
As in years past, free events abound, from performances by Chinese artist Shen Wei at Miami-Dade College and artist Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest demonstrations on the sand to official Art Basel events, including films on the New World Center Wallcast and the Art Public sculptures in Collins Park. New is free Art Week shuttle service between Midtown and Miami Beach — a government cooperative effort — that dovetails with trolley service to art venues on both sides of Biscayne Bay.
In institutional quarters, Art Basel Miami Beach global sponsor UBS announced the creation of a $5 million loan fund for existing Florida small business owners. Sponsor BMW USA announced it would fund an “art journey” open to emerging artists exhibiting at Art Basel Miami Beach. And the City of Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County put out a call to artists, encouraging them to propose projects for the $4.33 million public art program associated with the Miami Beach Convention Center renovation. South Floridians are eligible to apply for all three initiatives.
Clearly, art week isn’t just about aesthetics, personal enrichment and community building. It is also about enterprise — which explains all those luxury CEOs, the ground-breaking of the Zaha Hadid-designed One Thousand Museum, and the announcement at Miami Ironside that designer Ron Arad will create the interiors for the revamped Watergate Hotel in Washington. (And no, there’s no real connection to Miami.)
Said Michael Spring, Miami-Dade’s cultural affairs director, “There’s a certain deepening, a realization not just that the Art Basel event but arts in general have a phenomenal effect on the image and economy of our entire region. We’ve talked about it before, but there seems to be more focus this year. It’s not an interesting footnote anymore; it’s the theme.”
That, says Miami Commissioner Keon Hardemon, was the thinking behind the city’s $50,000 grant supporting the Art Africa fair. “We need to encourage people to come now to Overtown. The cultural aspect helps them realize they can safely come here now. And then maybe they’ll come back later and spend money in the community, in our restaurants and stores,” he said.
In Miami, with commerce inevitably comes glamor, which is proving as glossy as ever. Hennessey V.S.O.P., Dom Perignon, Paper Magazine, Interview and B.E.T. have staged events all around town, at private “locations,” hotels, restaurants, the 1111 Lincoln Road garage and the ICA temporary space in the Moore Building. Developer Alan Faena threw a breezy beachside asado. Jeffrey Deitch, Tommy Hilfiger and V Magazine hosted a glitzy bash at the Raleigh featuring a performance by Miley Cyrus.
In the Design District, developer Craig Robins hosted a dinner honoring architect Peter Marino at a single, 142-yard candlelit table for 380 guests on a closed-off street amid the district’s luxury brand storefronts. Sculptor Jaume Plensa was the guest of honor at another long candlelit table — this one for 60 — in the Coconut Grove sales offices of Park Grove, which recently installed a series of his works along South Bayshore Drive.
Alas, once again, manners were not de rigueur among the glossy set. At some parties, guests of guests turned up with entirely uninvited guests. For other tony soirees, publicists emailed out “disinvitations” to previously invited guests, obliquely sending the message that someone more glamorous would be taking those seats.
Decorous or not, during art week, the energy all emanates from the week’s namesake fair, said Dennis Scholl, VP/Arts at the Knight Foundation. “The most important thing to remember is why this week exists, and that’s Art Basel in the Convention Center. If that wasn’t the core of what’s going on — if it weren’t a world-class event — nobody else would be interested in being involved. It continues to be the raison d’être of this week.”
In the Convention Center, at what Scholl called “the core of the nuclear reactor,” many gallerists were quite happy, thank you very much.
Veteran Art Basel Miami Beach gallerist Sean Kelly said Wednesday was his best first day ever at the fair. Newcomer Michael Jon Gallery also sold almost all of its available work — by rising stars like Sayre Gomez and JPW3 — on the first day.
For most dealers, sales remained lively, day after day. At Galerie Gmurzynska, co-CEO Mathias Rastorfer proclaimed it “successful indeed … . In terms of reception, it was an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from collectors and colleagues alike. In terms of sales, we did several over $1 million sales and many within the $100,000 to $500,000 range, with a Picasso’s Venus and Love selling at near the asking price of $1.2 million.
Said Art Basel Director Marc Spiegler on Saturday, “I’ve gotten nothing but positive response from galleries,” not only because of strong sales, but also because new hours for VIPs gave gallerists more time to meet new collectors. “A lot of people were here and buying for the first time. Many galleries said they had their best fair ever.”
But like this week’s weather, the upbeat atmosphere suffered from uncharacteristic clouds. In Wynwood, a police car hit and critically injured a street artist. An $87,000 silver plate crafted by Pablo Picasso was reported stolen from the Art Miami satellite fair in Midtown. A partygoer at PAMM’s first anniversary fête on Thursday accidentally damaged an artwork installed on the floor. And Friday night, would-be art goers were stymied by traffic shutdowns into art-centric areas of Wynwood, Midtown and Miami Beach by protests against nationwide police-involved killings.
Though unfortunate and sometimes tragic, Spring said, the unrelated events were “a product of the incredible level of activity.” At Saturday’s annual brunch at the art-rich Sagamore Hotel in Miami Beach, the theft and damaged artwork uniformly were brushed off as inconsequential. Said one art insider, “s–t happens.”
Miami Art Week’s merry-go-round nature is surely born from Miami’s appreciation of a good time. And increasingly, perhaps from something deeper.
Said Miami gallerist Jumaane N’Namdi, “Art Basel has put art on everyone’s mind. Everyone wants to be involved somehow.”
And that’s not just about the parties, said N’Namdi, who had galleries in Chicago, New York and Detroit before opening in Miami. “I don’t think you could find a city that enjoys really looking at the art the way this city does. I came through the airport, and even the TSA guys were talking about it, asking each other if they got their Art Basel posters. Every level of art you want is here.”
Outsiders agree. “Miami is very special for its link between art and the community,” said Axelle de Buffévent, style director at champagne house Martell Mumm Perrier-Jouët. “It goes both ways. The community rallies around art creating a unique energy. And art dynamises the community, in a very unique way.” Miami Herald – Daily Newspaper – (Posted December 6,2014) – http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/visual-arts/art-basel/article4313255.html
Published on Dec 4, 2014 The international art fair Art Basel returns to Miami Beach for its 13th edition, taking place at the Miami Beach Convention Center from December 4 to December 7, 2014. Art Basel Miami Beach 2014 features 267 leading international galleries from 31 countries across North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, which present artworks ranging from Modern masters to the latest contemporary art pieces. With this edition, the fair debuts Survey, a new sector dedicated to art-historical projects. In this video, we attend the Private View of Art Basel Miami Beach 2014 at the Miami Beach Convention Center on December 3.
This story aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean in stressing the economic impact of artistic endeavors. The book pledges that Caribbean society will be elevated by improving the eco-system to live, work and play; and that “play” covers vast areas of culture.
“Culture” has emerged as a central concept in anthropology, encompassing the range of human phenomena that cannot be directly attributed to genetic inheritance. Specifically, the term “culture” in North American anthropology has two meanings:
the evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, and to act imaginatively and creatively; and
the distinct ways that people, who live differently, classified and represented their experiences, and acted creatively.[2]
Anthropologist Adamson Hoebel best describes culture as an integrated system of learned behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society and which are not a result of biological inheritance.[3]
The Go Lean book stresses economic benefits from classic cultural expressions and popular cultural productions, including Caribbean music, paintings/art, sketches, sculptures, books, fashion and food. All the “skilled phenomena” that makes Caribbean life unique and appealing.
The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). There is a lot involved in this vision; the prime directives are stated 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 foregoing article relates the economic impact that the Greater Miami area is enjoying for hosting the Art Basel event, for the 13th year now. At this point the benefits have spread throughout the community, (Art Fairs, museums, scholarships, foundations, etc.) not just one venue on Miami Beach. The spin-off benefit of art is a strong point of the Go Lean book, highlighting benefits as long as we keep the talent at home working in/for the community. This point is pronounced early in the following statements in the book’s opening Declaration of Interdependence(Page 14):
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.
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.
The economic, cultural and image considerations for “show business” on a society have been well-detailed in these previous Go Lean blogs:
The Go Lean roadmap posits that change will come to the Caribbean “show business” (Visual and Performing Arts, Music, Film). This is due mostly to the convergence of a Single Market for the Caribbean region. If “size matters”, then the integration of 42 million people (plus the 10 million Diaspora and 80 million visitors) for the 30 member-states will create the consumer markets to promote and foster Caribbean artistic creations for their full appreciation. The first requirement in this goal is the community ethos of valuing intellectual property; to recognize that other people’s creations are valuable. (Then we can enforce on others to value and appreciate our creations).
This would truly be new for the Caribbean.
The CU is designed to do the heavy-lifting of organizing Caribbean society for the new world of art appreciation and “consumerization”. The following list details the ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster regional artists and showcase their wares to the world stage:
Community Ethos – Forging Change
Page 20
Community Ethos – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius
Page 27
Community Ethos – Help Entrepreneurship
Page 28
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property
Page 29
Strategy – Caribbean Vision: Single Market
Page 45
Separation of Powers – Central Bank – Electronic Payment Deployments
Page 73
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Patents – Copyrights
Page 78
Separation of Powers – Culture Administration
Page 81
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better
Page 131
Planning – Lessons Learned from New York City
Page 137
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Education – Performing Arts Schools
Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood
Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts
Page 230
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Music
Page 231
Advocacy – Impact Urban Living – Art & Theaters
Page 234
Appendix – New York / Arts / Theater Jobs
Page 277
Appendix – Taos New Mexico Art Colony
Page 291
Appendix – Caribbean Music Genres
Page 347
Appendix – Protecting Music Copyrights
Page 351
There is BIG money in show business and in the world of the Arts. For the 10th edition of Art Basel in Miami in 2011, there was a record number of fifty thousand collectors, artists, dealers, curators, critics and art enthusiasts – including 150 museum and institutions from across the globe – participating in the show.[4]
This event requires a lot of community investments. Every year, Miami’s leading private collections – among them the Rubell Family Collection, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, the De la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space, World Class Boxing, the Margulies Collection and the Dacra Collection – open their homes and warehouses to guests of Art Basel. Additionally, the museums of South Florida organize exhibitions including shows at the Miami Art Museum, Bass Museum of Art, Norton Museum, Wolfsonian-FIU and MOCA North Miami.
The community investment has been there for Miami, and so has the returns [5].For 2014, the attendance figures were 75,000, with an increase in hotel occupancy of 30,000 rooms on the days the Art Fair is in progress. The conservative estimates are that the Art Fair brings close to $13 million a year in economic impact to the region. (This figure does not include the purchases of artworks, some of which fetch millions of dollars).
Miami has been greatly impacted by both the Caribbean Diaspora and its assimilation of the “Arts”. Whole neighborhoods have been elevated due to this strategy of catering to the arts; (see photo here). This is a great role model for the Caribbean to emulate; our whole society can be elevated.
The Go Lean/CU roadmap represents the empowerment for the Caribbean communities to elevate – we now want to keep our artists at home. The people, institutions and governance of the region are therefore urged to “lean-in” to this roadmap for change. 🙂
This commentary – from December 3, 2014 – was re-distributed on the occasion of the American Holiday Thanksgiving for 2015, as it is applicable for any Thanksgiving any year. Be thankful people; be festive and most important, be safe!
———
To understand American commerce, one must learn the BIG shopping “days of the week” – Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, as follows:
BlackFriday – This is the Friday following the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the US (the fourth Thursday of November). Since the early 2000’s, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, and most major retailers open very early and offer promotional sales. Black Friday is not a public holiday, but some states observe “The Day After Thanksgiving” as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday such as Columbus Day.[5] Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the day after off, followed by a weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers. In 2014, $50.9 billion was spent during the 4-day Black Friday weekend. While approximately 133 million U.S. consumers shopped during the same period.[6]
Small BusinessSaturday – This refers to the Saturday after Thanksgiving during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year. First observed in 2010, it is a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which feature big box retail and e-commerce stores respectively. By contrast, Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to patronize brick-and-mortar businesses that are small and local. Small Business Saturday is a registered trademark of American Express Corporation. Small Business Saturday UK began in the UK in 2013 after the success of Small Business Saturday in America.[7]
CyberMonday – This is a marketing term for the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday. The term was created by marketing companies to persuade people to shop online. The term made its debut on November 28, 2005, in a Shop.org press release entitled “‘Cyber Monday Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year”.[2] According to the Shop.org/Bizrate Research 2005 eHoliday Mood Study, “77 percent of online retailers said that their sales increased substantially on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a trend that is driving serious online discounts and promotions on Cyber Monday this year (2005)”. In 2014, Cyber Monday online sales grew to a record $2.68 billion, compared with last year’s $2.29 billion. However, the average order value was $124, down slightly from 2013’s $128.[3] The deals on Cyber Monday are online-only and generally offered by smaller retailers that cannot compete with the big retailers. Black Friday generally offers better deals on technology; with nearly 85% more data storage deals than Cyber Monday. The past Black Fridays saw far more deals for small appliances, cutlery, and kitchen gadgets on average than Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is larger for fashion retail. On the past two Cyber Mondays, there was an average of 45% more clothing deals than on Black Friday. There were also 50% more shoe deals on Cyber Monday than on Black Friday.[4] Cyber Monday has become an international marketing term used by online retailers in Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Uganda, Japan, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
GivingTuesday – refers to the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It is a movement to create a national day of giving at the beginning of the Christmas and holiday season. Giving Tuesday was started in 2012 by the “92nd Street Y” (Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association in New York, NY) and the United Nations Foundation as a response to commercialization and consumerism in the post-Thanksgiving season (Black Friday and Cyber Monday).[8][9] This occasion is often stylized as #GivingTuesday for purposes of hashtag activism.
That’s a lot of commerce … and philanthropy too!
This encyclopedic discussion is necessary for the Caribbean to model the best-practices of American commerce. The focus of this commentary is the role of one company in the pantheon of Cyber Monday, Amazon. This firm has previously been featured in a Go Lean blog, and is identified as a model for Caribbean logistics, our means for delivering the mail; this is the vision for the Caribbean Postal Union (CPU).
The focus of the book Go Lean…Caribbean and the CPU is not just postal mail, but rather logistics. Mail requires logistics, but logistics encompasses so much more than just mail. So we would want to model a successful enterprise in this industry space, like Amazon, not just another postal operation, like the US Postal Service (Page 99).
Amazon provides a good example of lean technocratic efficiency. So Amazon is a good model, not just for the CPU but the entire Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The Go Lean book, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic CU.
One reason why Amazon is modeled for their lean stature is their use of automation. This following VIDEO depicts the creative solution of using robots to facilitate logistics in a warehouse environment:
December 1, 2014 – Cyber Monday is the biggest sales day of the year for online retail giant, Amazon. Last year, Amazon customers ordered 426 items every second on Cyber Monday, and this year that number is expected to grow. In addition to the 80-thousand seasonal workers they employ to fulfill orders, thousands of robots also crawl the warehouse floors. CNET.com’s KaraTsuboi takes us inside an Amazon fulfillment center to watch the robots in action. (VIDEO plays best in Internet Explorer).
Lean, automation, robotics, technocratic …
… welcome to the new Caribbean.
This is the mission of Go Lean roadmap, to elevate the economic engines of Caribbean society; industrial policy plays a key role in this roadmap. The region needs the jobs, so we need job creators: companies. These companies, or better stated, Direct Foreign Investors, need a pro-innovation environment to deploy their automated solutions. The Go Lean roadmap allows the structure of Self-Governing Entities (SGE) to incentivize industrial developments in the region. It is the expectation that robots and automated systems will flourish. The independence of the SGE structure neutralizes conflicts with “labor”.
Related issues have previously been detailed in these Go Lean commentaries listed here:
In addition to the roadmap encouraging robotic automation, the CU will directly employ such technologically innovative products and services to impact its own prime directives; the CPU is such a reflection; more automation and less labor. The CU’s prime directives are identified with 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 to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The CPU features economic, security and governing concerns.
The Go Lean roadmap seeks to change the entire eco-system of Caribbean logistics and resulting commerce – the interaction with postal operations. This vision is defined early in the book (Page 12 & 14) in the following pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence:
xv. Whereas the business of the Federation and the commercial interest in the region cannot prosper without an efficient facilitation of postal services, the Caribbean Union must allow for the integration of the existing mail operations of the governments of the member-states into a consolidated Caribbean Postal Union, allowing for the adoption of best practices and technical advances to deliver foreign/domestic mail in the region.
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.
Amazon is not our only example. A previous blog/commentary identified Chinese company Alibaba as a fitting role model for Caribbean consideration. There are so many best-practices around the world for the region to study and glean insights and wisdom from. The successful application of this roadmap will foster such best-practices for the delivery of the CPU logistics in the Caribbean. The wisdom the Go Lean book gleans are presented as a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies; a detailed sample is listed as follows:
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification
Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives
Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier
Page 22
Community Ethos – Intelligence Gathering
Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations
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 – Promote Intellectual Property
Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide
Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing
Page 35
Strategy – Customers – Citizens and Member-states Governmental
Page 47
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Postal Services
Page 78
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Interstate Commerce Administration
Page 79
Implementation – Year 1 / Assemble Phase – Establish CPU
Page 96
Anecdote – Implementation Plan – Mail Services – US Dilemma
Page 99
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities
Page 105
Implementation – Improve Mail Services – Electronic Supplements
Page 108
Implementation – Ways to Deliver
Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region
Page 127
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Interstate Commerce
Page 129
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 Technology
Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce
Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Call Centers
Page 212
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living
Page 234
Following the Amazon’s example (and Alibaba’s example) will spur the Caribbean to embrace more robotic technologies. This field is new, fresh and ready for innovation. There is a level-playing-field for any innovator to earn market share. The underlying company in the foregoing VIDEO is Kiva Systems – a Massachusetts based company that manufactures mobile robotic fulfillment systems.[10][11] They rolled out a great product, then “Lo-and-behold”, they were acquired by a major e-Commerce company. Today, they are a subsidiary of Amazon, yet their material-handling systems are currently used by many other retailers including: The Gap, Walgreens, Staples, Gilt Groupe, Office Depot, Crate & Barrel, Saks 5th Avenue, and more.[12]
This commentary therefore features the subjects of commerce, logistics and entrepreneurship. The Caribbean can emulate this model from Amazon. The biggest ingredient missing in the region is the ‘will’. But the ‘will’ can be fostered anew in the Caribbean. This is the heavy-lifting for the CU, instituting such new community ethos.
Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the empowerments in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This is a Big Idea for the region; that of a Cyber Caribbean, in which Cyber Mondays may become a big deal for our region – not only as consumers, but producers as well. Therefore, this roadmap is not just a plan for delivering the mail/packages, but rather a plan for delivering the future.
We must employ whatever tools and techniques, robotics included, to make the region a better homeland to live, work and play.
Does “play“include Robots? Yes, indeed. Consider this fun VIDEO here. 🙂
Supplemental VIDEO – The “Nutcracker” performed by Dancing Kiva Order Fulfillment Robots: http://youtu.be/Vdmtya8emMw
“You cannot miss something you never had” – Wise expression.
Not only is this expression thought-provoking, but also prophetic. The motives of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean is to forge change in the Caribbean. Plain and simple! The people, policies and processes from the book wants to elevate Caribbean life to a level that the people may not now appreciate, because they cannot “miss something that they never had”.
The book presents a plan to …
reboot economic engines (create 2.2 million new jobs, improved healthcare, facilitate new educational and entrepreneurial opportunities, stabilize a regional currency),
optimize the security apparatus (anti-crime and public safety), and
facilitate accountable governance for all citizens (including minority factions).
The region has never had this before, not even in the days of colonialism. With this acknowledgement, it is understandable that many may not “buy-in” to these Go Lean empowerments – they may not know what they are missing. But they do know what a better life would look like. They get such a view from these sources:
There is the media penetration in the Caribbean, portraying life in optimized societies abroad.
There are the tourists/visitors who interact with our citizens and describe their lives in their homelands.
There is the Diaspora that have left, many times as the only hope for work, and then repatriate monies to support their family.
Caribbean residents may not have had certain features, like the advanced societies in the US, Canada and Western Europe, but they do know how other people thrive in those other lands. They want that for themselves. This constitutes the “pull” factors that contribute to the high abandonment rate (drawn from “push-and-pull” references): life abroad on foreign shores may appeal to them more so than their homeland.
The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) as a vehicle to make the region a better place to live, work and play. The vision is that of a Single Market of the 30 member-states, 4 language groups and 42 million people; this scope and leverage from this integration is such as has never actuated in the Caribbean before – the people cannot miss this vision because they have never seen it here.
So just how do we get the required buy-in? How do we get the populations to embrace, accept, commit and engage this vision of an elevated society that they may not have ever seen in their homeland before? How do we forge this change?
One approach to forging this change is to give thepeople something to lose.
This point was vocalized dramatically in the movie The Fast and the Furious Part Five with this dialogue:
Uploaded on Jan 15, 2012 – Joaquim de Almeida talks about the Portuguese discoveries in Brazil …
This is art imitating life and life imitating art.
There is nothing nefarious or malevolent about the Go Lean roadmap. The efforts to forge change in the region are not intended for any one person or organization to wrestle power or the elevation of any one leader. The roadmap features only one objective: the Greater Good. This is defined in the book (Page 37) by Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832) a British philosopher, jurist, and social reformer as …
… “the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong”.
This vision sounds good! What is there to lose?
The fact is that this vision is only on paper. The reality in the region is far different; the member-states are in crisis. In addition to the constant lure of foreign “pulls”, there is the definitive societal “push”. So many deficiencies in the Caribbean are driving people to abandon their beloved homeland and live in the Diaspora; one report asserts 70% for the college-educated classes have already left. The opportunity costs of NOT engaging the Go Lean roadmap is too great!
If we leave well enough alone, we will not be well enough!
The book describes the CU as a hallmark of a technocracy. This relates to “doing the right things and getting things done”. The term technocracy was originally used to designate the application of the scientific method to solving social and economic problems. The CU will start as a technocratic confederation – a Trade Federation – rather than evolving to this eventuality.
The roadmap must bring benefits to the region … quickly: improved economics, improved healthcare, improved education, introduction of a stable currency, improved security, improved governance, etc.. This is a Big Deal. The book likens this quest to the American effort in the 1960’s to “put a man on the man” (Page 127). As explained by the then-President of the United States, John F. Kennedy:
“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth”. His justification for the Moon Race was both that it was vital to national security and that it would focus the nation’s energies in other scientific and social fields.
As depicted in the foregoing VIDEO, there must be something for the people of the Caribbean to lose; their hope must be on the continuation of the benefits flowing from the CU. The Go Lean book declares that before any permanent change can take root in the Caribbean that there must be an adoption of new community ethos, the national spirit that drives the character and identity of its people. We must therefore use effective and efficient drivers to forge this change.
The Go Lean book – published in November 2013 – presented a two-prong approach: Top-Down and Bottoms-Up. The Top-Down plan called for engaging the politicians and community leaders to capitulate to this roadmap; while the Bottoms-Up plan called for engaging the full universe of Caribbean people: residents (42 million), Diaspora (10 million), trading-partners and visitors (80 million) to demand the empowerments of the CU/Go Lean roadmap. The verb for all these stakeholders is to “lean-in”, that is to embrace the values, hopes and dreams of this optimization plan.
Over the years, the Go Lean blog-commentaries have previously identified a number of alternate strategies to effectively forge change in the region. These were presented as follows:
The book and accompanying blogs all accept that forging this change will be an up-hill battle. But this heavy-lifting will be worth it in the end, as the Caribbean empowerment roadmap has these 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 and ensure better public safety for stakeholders of the Caribbean.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The roadmap was constructed with these motivations in mind: the community ethos to foster, plus the execution of strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies to forge the identified permanent change in the region. The following is a sample of these specific details from the book:
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Choose
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Minority Equalization
Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives
Page 25
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 & Development
Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide
Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds
Page 33
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 – Confederate 30 Member-States
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Stabilize and Fortify the Currency of the Region
Page 46
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union
Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change
Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Deliver
Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region
Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better
Page 136
Planning – Reasons Why the CU Will Succeed
Page 137
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Healthcare
Page 156
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education
Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance
Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Remediate and Mitigate Crime
Page 178
Advocacy – Improve Homeland Security
Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications – Community Messaging
Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
Page 218
The quest to change the Caribbean will require convincing people; they must get the message: there is much to lose for not enacting this roadmap, and even more to lose to discontinuing, once started. The empowerments in this commentary and in the Go Lean book, must be permanent changes.
This is heavy-lifting, but worth all the effort. The end-result should be a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂
We encourage all of the Caribbean to lean-in now, to Go Lean. 🙂
Economics, security and governance is presented in the book Go Lean … Caribbean as the “three-fold cord” for societal harmony; for any society anywhere. The Caribbean wants that societal harmony; we must therefore work to optimize all these three engines. But this is easier said than done. This heavy-lifting is described in the book as both an art and a science.
The focus in this commentary is on the societal engine of governance; previously, there was a series on economics and one on security lessons. This commentary focuses on assuaging the “abuse of power”. The Go Lean book posits that verily, bad actors will always emerge to exploit successful engines (in economics and governance). Therefore the checks-and-balances must be proactively embedded in any organizational structure so as to minimize the actuality of abuses by authority figures.
The American experience is important for this consideration. There is a lesson in governance here in examining the US; more exactly, examining the output from the Center for Public Integrity (CPI); see Appendix A below. This Non-Governmental Organization specifically evaluates/measures government misbehavior, structures and systems of oversight. It is an American NGO with an American focus; but we now need to focus on the Caribbean, measuring “best-practices” with this same American yardstick.
Warning!!! This is a LONG commentary … with the Appendices. Considering the grave subject matter; this length is unavoidable.
The work of the CPI is relevant in our consideration of the Caribbean. For the 30 Caribbean member-states, two are American territories (Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands), and a few member-states use the US Dollar as their official currency (British Virgin Islands, the Turks & Caicos Islands and the Dutch Caribbean Territories of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba). This is one reason why this review is important; the other, and most important reason is that our Caribbean people deserve the best-of-the-best of governmental processes. Power corrupts … everyone … everywhere.
The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to elevate the economic, security and governance engines of the region’s 30 member-states. The roadmap features these 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 – with oversight over economic crimes and prosecutorial power for public officials – to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including ranking and ratings of the mechanics of oversight.
The roadmap covers a 5 year period in which the societal engines will be optimized. The region’s GDP should increase from $278 Billion to $800 Billion. With this success, there will be a lot of opportunities for government administrators to acquire and wield power. The roadmap fully expects these corrupting effects of power to emerge in the Caribbean, as they have emerged in the US, according to the featured news article below (Appendix D):
Secret Deal-making – (S)
Corruption – (C)
Conflicts of Interest – (I)
Thusly, the CU/Go Lean roadmap embeds the required checks-and-balances from the outset to assuage these threats. This commentary considers the in-depth examination of the member-state governments in the US – by the Center for Public Integrity – and then proceeds with a rating/ranking of those 50 states using these 13 categories:
Public Access to Information (S)
Political Financing (I)
Electoral Oversight (C)
Executive Accountability (I)
Legislative Accountability (I)
Judicial Accountability (I)
State Budget Processes (S)
State Civil Service Management (I)
Procurement (C)
Internal Auditing (S)
Lobbying Disclosure (I)
Ethics Enforcement Agencies (C)
State Pension Fund Management (C)
Consider here, the actual VIDEO and news article (in Appendix D below) as reported in the national daily newspaper USA Today, published on November 9, 2015:
An investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity ranked all 50 states based on how ‘corrupt’ they were. The investigation looked at data in 13 different categories. USA TODAY
Well done, CPI. This assessment of the integrity status of the 50 American state governments is a great check-and-balance on those governmental powers.
See the overall rank of the 50 US states in Appendix B below and the separate ranking for each of the 13 criteria at this web address http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/11/09/center-integrity-corruption-grades-interactive/75033060/. The grade of “C” is the highest grade – not good – but it is a benchmark; all the other states did even worse. The state that ranks the highest on the list is Alaska; in contrast, the state with the lowest score/rank is Michigan. (The principal city and economic engine in Michigan is Detroit. The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean are here 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 assertion of the Go Lean book is that the Caribbean region can benefit from this Good Governance objective in the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) mission. The Caribbean region can do the same as the CPI does for the US. The states are not accountable to the CPI; but they do have to answer to “the people”. Underlying to the CPI mission, is the tactic of “Freedom of Information” embedded in State and Federal laws. They are first and foremost a journalistic organization; they are an NGO, they do not possess any sovereignty or prosecutorial powers.
The model of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) is similar, in that the CU will not possess sovereignty over its member-states. (The CU treaty does vest prosecutorial and accountability powers to CU entities for corruption matters related to CU federal funds). In general, the CU is limited to the same “ratings and ranking” tools as the CPI. So we must proactively and reactively address public corruption. But doing so judiciously and with proper regard for personal sacrifice and volunteerism.
The Go Lean roadmap calls on citizens of the Caribbean member-states to lean-in to the empowerments of this elevation plan. This will require whole-souled commitments and sacrifice on the part of the people; a determination to pursue the needs of the public over the needs of just one person; many times at great sacrifice. This is good! To reach the goals of the community, or an entire nation, there must be a willingness to sacrifice – blood, sweat and tears. This is the community ethos – spirit that drives the people – that is necessary for the pursuit of the Greater Good as opposed to personal gains.
But … there is a need for balance here.
We want to invite public participation, but we do not want people to come to public service looking to profit themselves. On the one hand, we do not want to discourage volunteerism and National Sacrifice with excessive disclosures (see Bahamian satirical song in Appendix C lambasting the resistance when introducing a financial disclosure law), while on the other hand, we want to check and double-check the integrity in the governing process. We must ensure Good Governance.
That perfect balance is possible! The Center for Public Integrity provides its own roadmap for doing so in the US. For this, they are a role model for the Caribbean effort, the CU/Go Lean roadmap. This point was strongly urged in the Go Lean book, in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 10 & 12) with these pronouncements:
Preamble: … While our rights to exercise good governance and promote a more perfect society are the natural assumptions among the powers of the earth, no one other than ourselves can be held accountable for our failure to succeed if we do not try to promote the opportunities that a democratic society fosters.
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.
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.
The Go Lean book details all the community ethos to ensure the right attitudes and practices among those that submit to serve and protect Caribbean communities. Plus the book identifies the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to ensure public integrity for the Caribbean region governing process:
Economic Principle – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices
Page 21
Community Ethos – Security Principle – Privacy –vs- Public Protection
Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principle – Whistleblower Protection
Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principle – Witness Security & Protection
Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principle – Intelligence Gathering
Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principle – Light Up the Dark Places – Openness
Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principle – Minority Equalization
Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principle – Cooperatives and NGO’s
Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations – Case Study of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Page 34
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing – Intelligence Gathering
Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Tactical – Confederating a Non-Sovereign Union
Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Justice Department – District Attorneys with Jurisdiction for Public Integrity cases.
Page 77
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Justice Department – CariPol – Policing the Police
Page 77
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Federal Courts – Truth and Reconciliation Commissions
Page 90
Implementation – Assemble “Organs” – including Regional Courts and Justice Institutions
Page 96
Implementation – Start-up Security Initiatives
Page 103
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better
Page 131
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices – Accountability of Governing Officials
Page 134
Planning – Lessons from the US Constitution – Checks and Balances
Page 145
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance – Right to Good Governance
Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice – including White Collar & Government Integrity
Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering/Analysis
Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications – Long Form Journalism and Public Broadcasting
Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street – Ensure Corporate Governance
Page 200
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Prison Industrial Complex – Learn from Past & Ensure Corporate Governance
Page 211
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights – Justice Focus and Good Governance
Page 220
Appendix – Lessons Learned in Open Government – Floating the Trinidad & Tobago Dollar (1993)
Page 316
Other subjects related to public integrity in the region (or the perception of deficient integrity) have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentaries, as sampled here:
The goal of the Go Lean roadmap is to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play. We must lower the “push” factors that cause our citizens to flee their homeland for foreign (North American and European) shores. Among the many reasons people emigrate is the ineffectiveness of their homeland’s local government. We must therefore improve the governing process.
We must do better!
We know that “bad actors” will emerge, even in government institutions, so we must be “on guard” against corruptive threats, from internal (i.e. audits) and external (i.e. lobbyists) origins. We must maintain transparency, accountability, and constant commitments to due-process and the rule-of-law.
The Go Lean roadmap calls for the engagement and participation of everyone, the people (citizens), institutions and government officials alike. We encouraged all with benevolent motives to lean-in to this roadmap, to get involved, get busy and get going. But we caution all with malevolent motives – we will be watching, listening, checking and double-checking.
Our Caribbean subjects deserve only the best … for a change. 🙂
TheCPI is an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization whose stated mission is “to reveal abuses of power, corruption and dereliction of duty by powerful public and private institutions in order to cause them to operate with honesty, integrity, accountability and to put the public interest first.”[1] With over 50 staff members, CPI is one of the largest nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative centers in America.[2] It won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.[3]
CPI describes itself as an organization that is “nonpartisan and does no advocacy work.”[4] CPI has been characterized as “progressive”[5] “nonpartisan,”[6] “independent,”[7] and a “liberal group.”[8][9]
CPI releases its reports via its web site to media outlets throughout the U.S. and around the globe. In 2004, CPI’s The Buying of the President book was on the New York Times bestseller list for three months.[10]
In state after state, legislators and agency officials engage in [secrecy, corruption and] conflicts of interest. Here is the list of overall scores in ranking Good-to-Bad-to-Worse-to-Detroit (Michigan):
State
Score
Rank
Alaska
C
1
California
C-
2
Connecticut
C-
3
Hawaii
D+
4
Rhode Island
D+
5
Ohio
D+
6
Alabama
D+
7
Kentucky
D+
8
Nebraska
D+
9
Indiana
D-
10
Iowa
D+
10
Massachusetts
D+
11
Washington
D+
12
Colorado
D+
13
Illinois
D+
14
Tennessee
D
15
Virginia
D
16
West Virginia
D
17
North Carolina
D
18
New Jersey
D
19
Wisconsin
D
20
Montana
D
21
Arizona
D
22
Maryland
D
23
Georgia
D-
24
Utah
D-
25
Idaho
D-
26
Missouri
D-
27
Minnesota
D-
28
Florida
D-
30
New York
D-
31
Arkansas
D-
32
Mississippi
D-
33
New Hampshire
D-
34
New Mexico
D-
35
South Carolina
D-
36
North Dakota
D-
37
Texas
D-
38
Vermont
D-
39
Oklahoma
F
40
Louisiana
F
41
Kansas
F
42
Maine
F
43
Oregon
F
44
Pennsylvania
F
45
Nevada
F
46
South Dakota
F
47
Delaware
F
48
Wyoming
F
49
Michigan
F
50
———-
Appendix C VIDEO-AUDIO – Eddie Minnis – Show and Tell – https://youtu.be/9ERov4w7l78
Uploaded on Jun 16, 2011 – Artist: Eddie Minnis Song: Show & Tell Album: Greatest Hits!
In November 2014, Arkansas voters approved a ballot measure that, among other changes, barred the state’s elected officials from accepting lobbyists’ gifts. That hasn’t stopped influence peddlers from continuing to provide meals to lawmakers at the luxurious Capital Hotel or in top Little Rock eateries such as the Brave New Restaurant; the prohibition does not apply to “food or drink available at a planned activity to which a specific governmental body is invited,” so lobbyists can buy meals as long as they invite an entire legislative committee.
Such loopholes are a common part of statehouse culture nationwide, according to the 2015 State Integrity Investigation, a data-driven assessment of state government by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity. The comprehensive probe found that in state after state, open records laws are laced with exemptions, and part-time legislators and agency officials engage in glaring conflicts of interests and cozy relationships with lobbyists while feckless, understaffed watchdogs struggle to enforce laws as porous as honeycombs.
Take the Missouri lawmaker who introduced a bill this year — which passed despite a veto by the governor — to prohibit cities from banning plastic bags at grocery stores. The state representative cited concern for shoppers, but he also happens to be state director of the Missouri Grocers Association and is one of several lawmakers in the state who pushed bills that synced with their private interests.
Or the lobbyist who, despite a $50 cap on gifts to Idaho state lawmakers, spent $2,250 in 2013 to host a state senator and his wife at the annual Governors Cup charity golf tournament in Sun Valley; the prohibition does not apply to such lobbying largess as long as the money is not spent “in return for action” on a particular bill.
In Delaware, the Public Integrity Commission, which oversees lobbying and ethics laws for the executive branch there, has just two full-time employees. A 2013 report by a special state prosecutor found that the agency was unable “to undertake any serious inquiry or investigation into potential wrongdoing.”
And in New Mexico, lawmakers passed a resolution in 2013 declaring that their emails are exempt from public records laws — a rule change that did not require the governor’s signature.
These are among the practices illuminated by the State Integrity Investigation, which measured hundreds of variables to compile transparency and accountability grades for all 50 states. The best grade in the nation, which went to Alaska, is just a C. Only two others earned better than a D+; 11 states received failing grades. The results may be deflating to the two-thirds of Americans who, according to a recent poll, look to the states for policy solutions as gridlock and partisanship has overtaken Washington.
The top of the pack includes bastions of liberal government, including California (ranked 2nd with a C), and states notorious for corrupt pasts (Connecticut, 3rd with a C-, and Rhode Island, 5th with a D+). In those New England states, scandals led to significant changes and relatively robust ethics laws, even if dubious dealings linger in the halls of government. The bottom includes many Western states that champion limited government, such as Nevada, South Dakota and Wyoming, but also others, such as Maine, Delaware and dead-last Michigan, that have not adopted the types of ethics and open records laws common in many other states.
The results are “disappointing but not surprising,” said Paula A. Franzese, an expert in state and local government ethics at Seton Hall University School of Law and former chairwoman of the New Jersey State Ethics Commission. Franzese said that as many states struggle financially, ethics oversight is among the last issues to receive funding. “It’s not the sort of issue that commands voters,” she said.
Aside from a few exceptions, there has been little progress on these issues since the State Integrity Investigation was first carried out in 2012. In fact, most scores have dropped since then, though some of that is attributable to changes made to improve and update the project and its methodology.
Since State Integrity’s first go-round, at least 12 states have seen their legislative leaders or top Cabinet-level officials charged, convicted or resign as a result of ethics or corruption-related scandal. Five House or Assembly leaders have fallen. No state has outdone New York, where 14 lawmakers have left office since the beginning of 2012 because of ethical or criminal issues, according to a count by Citizens Union, an advocacy group. That does not include the former leaders of both the Assembly and the Senate, who were charged in unrelated corruption schemes this year but remain in office while they await trial.
New York is not remarkable, however, in at least one regard: Only one of those 14 lawmakers has been sanctioned by the state’s ethics commission.
GRADING THE STATES
When first conducted in 2011-2012, the State Integrity Investigation was an unprecedented look at the systems that state governments use to prevent corruption and expose it when it does occur. Unlike many other examinations of the issue, the project does not attempt to measure corruption itself. The 2015 grades are based on 245 questions that ask about key indicators of transparency and accountability, looking not only at what the laws say, but also how well they’re enforced or implemented. The “indicators” are divided into 13 categories: public access to information, political financing, electoral oversight, executive accountability, legislative accountability, judicial accountability, state budget processes, state civil service management, procurement, internal auditing, lobbying disclosure, state pension fund management and ethics enforcement agencies.
Experienced journalists in each state undertook exhaustive research and reporting to score each of the questions, which ask, for example, whether lawmakers are required to file financial interest disclosures and whether they are complete and detailed. The results are both intuitive — an F for New York’s “three men in a room” budget process — and surprising — Illinois earned the best grade in the nation for its procurement practices. Altogether, the project presents a comprehensive look at transparency, accountability and ethics in state government. It’s not a pretty picture.
DOWNWARD TREND, BLIPS OF DAYLIGHT
Overall, states scored notably worse in this second round. Some of that decline is because of changes to the project, such as the addition of questions asking about “open data” policies, which call on governments to publish information online in formats that are easy to download and analyze. The drop also reflects moves toward greater secrecy in some states.
“Across the board, accessing government has always been, but is increasingly, a barrier to people from every reform angle,” said Jenny Rose Flanagan, vice president for state operations at Common Cause, a national advocacy group with chapters in most states.
No state saw its score fall further than New Jersey, which earned a B+, the best score in the nation, in 2012 — shocking just about anyone familiar with the state’s politics — thanks to tough ethics and anti-corruption laws that had been passed over the previous decade in response to a series of scandals.
None of that has changed. But journalists, advocates and academics have accused the Christie administration of fighting and delaying potentially damaging public records requests and meddling in the affairs of the State Ethics Commission. That’s on top of Bridgegate, the sprawling scandal that began as a traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge but has led to the indictments of one of the governor’s aides and two of his appointees — one of whom pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges — and even to the resignations of top executives at United Airlines.
Admittedly, it’s not all doom and gloom. Iowa created an independent board with authority to mediate disputes when agencies reject public records requests. Gov. Terry Branstad cited the state’s previous grade from the center when he signed the bill, and the move helped catapult Iowa to first in the nation in the category for access to information, with a C- grade (Iowa’s overall score actually dropped modestly).
In Georgia, good government groups latched on to the state’s worst-in-the-nation rank in 2012 to amplify their ongoing push for changes. The result was a modest law the following year that created a $75 cap on the value of lobbyists’ gifts to public officials. The change helped boost the state’s score in the category of legislative accountability to a C-, sixth-best in the nation.
Perhaps the most dramatic changes came in Virginia, where scandal engulfed the administration of outgoing Gov. Robert McDonnell in 2013 after it emerged that he and his family had accepted more than $170,000 in loans and gifts, much of it undisclosed, from a Virginia businessman. McDonnell and his wife were later convicted on federal corruption charges, but the case underscored the state’s woefully lax ethics laws and oversight regime; Virginia received an overall F grade in 2012. At the time, there was no limit on the value of gifts that public officials could accept, and they were not required to disclose gifts to their immediate family, a clause that McDonnell grasped at to argue that he had complied with state laws. (Appeals of the McDonnells’ convictions are pending.)
Over the next two years, newly elected Gov. Terry McAuliffe and lawmakers passed a series of executive actions and laws that led in 2015 to a $100 cap on gifts to public officials from lobbyists and people seeking state business. They created an ethics council that will advise lawmakers but will not have the power to issue sanctions. Advocates for ethics reform have said the changes, though significant, fall far short of what’s needed, particularly the creation of an ethics commission with enforcement powers.
States continued to score relatively well in the categories for auditing practices — 29 earned B- or better — and for budget transparency — 16 got a B- or above. (The category measures whether the budget process is transparent, with sufficient checks and balances, not whether it’s well-managed).
In Idaho, for example, which earned an A and the second best score for its budget process, the public is free to watch the Legislature’s joint budget committee meetings. Those not able to make it to Boise can watch by streaming video. Citizens can provide input during hearings and can view the full budget bill online.
New York earned the top score for its auditing practices — a B+ — because of its robustly funded state comptroller’s office, which is headed by an elected official who is largely protected from interference by the governor or Legislature. The office issues an annual report, which is publicly available, and has shown little hesitation to go after state agencies, such as in a recent audit that identified $500 million in waste in the state’s Medicaid program.
Unfortunately, such bright spots are the exceptions.
ACCESS DENIED
In 2013, George LeVines submitted a request for records to the Massachusetts State Police, asking for controlled substance seizure reports at state prisons dating back seven years. LeVines, who at the time was assistant editor at Muckrock, a news website and records-request repository, soon received a response from the agency saying he could have copies of the reports, but they would cost him $130,000. Though LeVines is quick to admit that his request was extremely broad, the figure shocked him nonetheless.
“I wouldn’t have ever expected getting that just scot-free, that does cost money,” he said. But $130,000? “It’s insane.”
The cost was prohibitive, and LeVines withdrew his request. Massachusetts State Police have become a notorious steel trap of information — they’ve charged tens of thousands of dollars or even, in one case, $2.7 million to produce documents — and were awarded this year with the tongue-in-cheek Golden Padlock award by a national journalism organization, which each year “honors” an agency or public official for their “abiding commitment to secrecy and impressive skill in information suppression.”
Dave Procopio, a spokesman for the State Police, said in an email that the department is committed to transparency but that its records are laced with sensitive information that’s exempt from disclosure and that reviewing the material is time-consuming and expensive. “While we most certainly agree that the public has a right to information not legally exempt from disclosure,” he wrote, “we will not cut corners for the purpose of expediency or economy if doing so means that private personal, medi[c]al, or criminal history information is inappropriately released.”
It’s not just the police. Both the Legislature and the judicial branch are at least partly exempt from Massachusetts’ public records law. Governors have cited a state Supreme Court ruling to argue that they, too, are exempt, though chief executives often comply with requests anyway. A review by The Boston Globe found that the secretary of State’s office, the first line of appeal for rejected requests, had ruled in favor of those seeking records in only one in five cases. Massachusetts earned an F in the category for public access to information. So did 43 other states, making this the worst-performing category in the State Integrity Investigation.
Though every state in the nation has open records and meetings laws, they’re typically shot through with holes and exemptions and usually have essentially no enforcement mechanisms, beyond the court system, when agencies refuse to comply. In most states, at least one entire branch of government or agency claims exemptions from the laws. Many agencies routinely fail to explain why they they’ve denied requests. Public officials charge excessive fees to discourage requestors. In the vast majority of states, citizens are unable to quickly and affordably resolve appeals when their records are denied. Only one state — Missouri — received a perfect score on a question asking whether citizens actually receive responses to their requests swiftly and at reasonable cost.
“We’re seeing increased secrecy throughout the country at the state and federal level,” said David Cuillier, director of the University of Arizona’s School of Journalism and an expert on open records laws. He said substantial research shows that the nation’s open records laws have been poked and prodded to include a sprawling list of exemptions and impediments and that public officials increasingly use those statutes to deny access to records. “It’s getting worse every year,” he said.
After a series of shootings by police officers in New Mexico, the Santa Fe New Mexican published a report about controversial changes made to the state-run training academy. When a reporter requested copies of the new curriculum, the program’s director refused, saying, “I’ll burn them before you get them.”
In January, The Wichita Eagle reported that Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget director had used his private email address to send details of a proposed budget to the private email accounts of fellow staff members and to a pair of lobbyists. He later said he did so only because he and the rest of the staff were home for the holidays. In May, Brownback acknowledged that he, too, used a private email account to communicate with staff, meaning his correspondence was not subject to the state’s public records laws. A state council is studying how to close the loophole. Court cases in California are examining a similar question.
Cuillier said that in most states, courts or others have determined that discussions of public business are subject to disclosure, no matter whether the email or phone used was public or private. But the debate is indicative of a larger problem, and it reveals public records laws as the crazy old uncle of government statutes: toothless, antiquated appendages of a bygone era.
WEAK ETHICS OVERSIGHT
Governments write ethics laws for a reason, presumably. Public officials can’t always be trusted to do the right thing; we need laws to make sure they do. The trouble is, a law is only as good as its enforcement, and the entities responsible for overseeing ethics are often impotent and ineffective.
In many states, a complex mix of legislative committees, stand-alone commissions and law enforcement agencies police the ethics laws. More often than not, the State Integrity Investigation shows, those entities are underfunded, subject to political interference or are simply unable or unwilling to initiate investigations and issue sanctions when rules are broken. Or at least that’s as far as the public can tell: Many of these bodies operate largely in secret.
The Tennessee Ethics Commission, for example, rose in 2006 out of the ashes of an FBI bribery probe that had burned four state lawmakers. In its decade of operation, the commission has never issued a penalty as a result of an ethics complaint against a public official (it did issue one to a lobbyist). That may seem surprising, but the dearth of actions is impossible to assess because the complaints become public only if four of six commissioners decide they warrant investigation. Of 17 complaints received in 2013 and 2014, only two are public.
“There just haven’t been that many valid complaints alleging wrongdoing,” said Drew Rawlins, executive director of the Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance, which includes the commission.
In 2013, in a case that did become public, the commission decided against issuing a fine to a powerful lobbyist and former adviser to Gov. Bill Haslam who had failed to disclose that he’d lobbied on behalf of a mining company seeking a state contract. The lobbyist maintained that his failure was simply an oversight, and only one commissioner voted to issue a penalty.
In Kansas, staff shortages mean the state’s Governmental Ethics Commission is unable to fully audit lawmakers’ financial disclosures, according to Executive Director Carol Williams. “We would love to be able to do more comprehensive audits,” Williams told the investigation’s Kansas reporter. Instead, she said, all her staff can do is make sure officials are filling out the forms. “Whether they are correct or not, we don’t know.” Only two states initiate comprehensive, independent audits of lawmakers’ asset disclosures on an annual basis.
The State Integrity Investigation found that in two-thirds of all states, ethics agencies or committees routinely fail to initiate investigations or impose sanctions when necessary, often because they’re unable to do so without first receiving a complaint.
“Many of these laws are out of date. They need to be revised,” said Robert Stern, who spent decades as president of the Center for Governmental Studies, which worked with local and state governments to improve ethics, campaign-finance and lobbying laws until it shut in 2011. Stern, who is helping to write a ballot initiative that would update California’s ethics statutes, said that although he thinks the State Integrity Investigation grades are unrealistically harsh, they do reflect the fact that state lawmakers have neglected their responsibilities when it comes to ethics and transparency. “It’s very, very difficult for legislatures to focus on these things and improve them because they don’t want these laws, they don’t want to enforce them, and they don’t want to fund the people enforcing them.”
In three in five states, the project found, ethics entities are inadequately funded, causing staff to be overloaded with work and occasionally forcing them to delay investigations.
The Oklahoma Ethics Commission is charged with overseeing ethics laws for the executive and legislative branches, lobbying activity and campaign finance. This year, the commission operated on a budget of $1 million. In 2014, the non-profit news site Oklahoma Watch reported that the commission had collected only 40% of all the late-filing penalties it had assessed to candidates, committees and other groups since it was created in 1990. Part of that failure was the result of a challenge to the commission’s rules, but Executive Director Lee Slater said much of it was simply due to a lack of resources.
“Until about a month ago, we had five employees in this office,” Slater said. “We’ve now got six. Try to do it with six employees.” Slater said the commission this year began collecting all fees it is owed, thanks to the sixth employee — whose salary is financed with fees — and new rules that clarify its authority. He said the agency simply does not have enough money to do what it ought to. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you that we do everything we should,” he said. “But I will tell you that we do the best that we can, whatever that is.”
Slater said he’s been told to expect a cut of 5% to 20% to the commission’s appropriations next year ($775,000 of the commission’s budget comes from appropriations.)
Oklahoma is hardly an outlier. “They don’t have the resources,” Stern said, speaking of similar agencies across the country. “That’s the problem.”
NEW FRONTIER POINTS TO OLD PROBLEM
Not long ago, journalists and citizen watchdogs were thrilled to get access to any type of information online. Standards have changed quickly, and many have come to expect government to not just publish data online but to do so in “open data” formats that allow users to download and analyze the information.
“The great benefit you get from making data available digitally is that it can then be very easily reused,” said Emily Shaw, deputy policy director at the Sunlight Foundation, an advocacy group. (Global Integrity consulted with the Sunlight Foundation when writing the open data questions for this project.)
Shaw said local governments are moving more aggressively than states toward putting data online in malleable formats. Only nine states have adopted open data measures, according to the Sunlight Foundation, some of which do little more than create an advisory panel to study the issue.
The 2015 State Integrity Investigation included questions in each category asking whether governments are meeting open data principles. The answer was almost always no. More than anything, these scores were responsible for dragging down the grades since the first round of the project.
Though open data principles are relatively new, the poor performance on these questions is indicative of the project’s findings as a whole. “If we really wanted to do it right, we’d just scrap it all and start from scratch,” said Cuillier of the University of Arizona, speaking of the broken state of open records and accessibility laws. That clearly is not going to happen, he said, so “we’re going to continue to have laws that are archaic and tinkered with, and usually in the wrong direction.”
This article draws on reporting from State Integrity Investigation reporters in all 50 states.
The Caribbean member-states, despite their differences, (4 languages, 5 colonial legacies, terrain: mountains -vs- limestone islands), have a lot in common. Some similarities include:
Lack of equality for women compared to men.
The government is the largest employer.
So the reality of Caribbean life is that while the governmental administrations are not fully representative of the populations, they are responsible for all societal engines: economy, security and governance.
This is bad and this is good! Bad, because all the “eggs are in the same basket”. Good, because there is only one entity to reform, reboot and re-focus.
So how do we seriously consider reforming government in the Caribbean?
Start anew.
Start with politics and policy-makers.
Start with the people who submit for politics, to be policy-makers.
Start with people who participate in the process.
Considering the status-quo of the region – in crisis – there is this need to start again. But this time we need more women.
Consider Canada!
(The City of Detroit is across the river from Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean are here to “observe and report” the turn-around and rebirth of the once-great-but-now-distressed City of Detroit and its metropolitan area. This proximity also allows us to observe-and-report on Detroit’s neighbor: Canada).
The Canadian political landscape can serve as a great role model for the Caribbean; (its a fitting role model for Detroit too). Consider these articles on Canada’s recent national elections:
A record 88 women were elected in the 2015 federal election, up from 76 in 2011. The increase represents a modest gain in terms of representation, with women now accounting for 26 per cent of the seats in the House. The following feature — which was initially published before the election — examines the gender imbalance in Canadian politics.
Canadian women held just one-quarter of the seats in the House of Commons when the writ dropped back in August. This figure places us 50th in a recent international ranking of women in parliaments.
The 41st Canadian Parliament featured 77 women MPs, with a record 12 female ministers in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet.
The NDP’s success in Quebec during the 2011 federal election largely triggered the uptick in the number of women in Parliament, with the proportion rising to 25 per cent from 22 per cent in the 2008 election.
In spite of this, a large gender gap persists after decades of relative stagnation in Canada’s House of Commons. Women comprise just 33 per cent of the candidates from the five leading parties in this election.
“There is no doubt that in the old democracies, including Canada, there is stagnation,” said Drude Dahlerup, a political scientist from the University of Stockholm who has consulted in countries such as Tunisia and Sierra Leone on gender equality in parliament.
“We have this perception that gender equality should come naturally. Our research shows that is not necessarily a fact.”
Old democracies don’t favour ‘gender shocks’ There is significant growth in women representatives in what Dahlerup calls “fast-track” countries — places that have experienced recent conflict or are a new democracy.
In fact, some of the countries outpacing Canada in terms of parliamentary gender equality include Rwanda, Bolivia, Iraq and Kazakhstan.
Newer democracies like Bolivia can experience a gender shock as it did in an October 2014 election, rising from 22 per cent to 53 per cent women in the lower house.
Older democracies take the incremental approach, which is slower and involves grappling with the conventions of older institutions.
…
Does the electorate share some of the blame? Despite what some term as a patronizing treatment in the public sphere it appears that gender is not a chief concern for voters.
Sylvia Bashevkin, a political scientist from the University of Toronto, looked at the negative effects of underrepresentation for women in her 2009 book Women, Power, Politics: The Hidden Story of Canada’s Unfinished Democracy and found a persistent marginalization of women’s contributions to politics in the media and public sphere.
“There’s a certain stream of gender stereotyping that still colours our discussions of public leadership that often tends to trivialize the contributions of women by paying particular attention to things like their appearance, speaking style or their personal lives rather than positions on policy.”
According to a recent poll, party loyalty factors far outweigh individual factors such as gender. In fact, respondents said women often tend to represent leadership qualities the voting public admires. The online Abacus survey was conducted in December 2014 and included a sample size of 1,438 Canadians.
“The argument is that [women] tend to be more community focused… and that they tend on average to be more honest and trustworthy than male politicians,” said Bashevkin.
The core of the issue comes back to the political parties and their nominations processes, says Melanee Thomas, a political scientist from the University of Calgary.
“We can find no evidence that voters discriminate against women candidates. We did find considerable evidence that party [nomination committees] were more likely to discriminate against women candidates,” said Thomas.
Thomas’s 2013 research with Marc André Bodet of LavalUniversity looked at district competitiveness. They found that women were more likely to be chosen as nominees in areas considered strongholds for other parties.
Where women are involved in the party nomination process, Thomas also said, more women are recruited to run for that nomination. Former MP and deputy prime minister Sheila Copps agrees.
“People try to replicate themselves and their social circle is usually very like-minded. I probably recruited more women in my time because it’s human nature,” said Copps.
Copps played a role in pitching the concept of a gender target of 25 per cent to former prime minister Jean Chrétien in 1993.
The target concept relies on the ability of the party leader to appoint women nominees required to meet the target.
Former prime minister Paul Martin opted to not have a target for women in the federal Liberal Party for 2004 while Stéphane Dion increased the target to 30 per cent in 2008.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is running with an open nomination policy for the upcoming election, although this has caused some recent controversies. Ultimately, women comprised 31 per cent of the Liberal candidates.
The NDP has internal mechanisms to attempt to foster diversity. They say they have “parity policies,” that aim for gender diversity in the party structure, leadership and delegates.” It also insists that ridings must provide documentation of efforts to search for a woman or minority candidate before selecting a white male. When the final candidate list was released, the NDP touted a record proportion of 43 per cent women candidates.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Conservative Party holds that the matter should be left up to the local riding associations to determine. After running only 38 women candidates in 2006 the party’s figure spiked quickly in 2008 to 63 candidates. In 2015, 66 women, representing 20 per cent of the Conservatives roster of candidates, are in the running.
Published on Oct 21, 2015 – Political Scientist Sylvia Bashevkin reviews Canada’s gender facts: 50% population, 25% representation Why the parliamentary gender gap?
————
News Article #2 Title: New PM unveils cabinet that looks ‘like Canada’ Sub-title: Justin Trudeau’s younger, more diverse team comprises old-guard Liberal politicians and newcomers, half of them women.
Justin Trudeau has been sworn in as Canada’s new prime minister, appointing a cabinet that he says looks “like Canada”.
The 43-year-old Liberal party leader, who swept to power in a general election two weeks ago to end nearly a decade of Conservative rule, took the oath on Wednesday and promised big changes as he introduced a younger, more diverse cabinet.
Most of the new ministers are between the ages of 35 and 50, while half of them are women – in line with Trudeau’s campaign pledge.
“Canadians from all across this country sent a message that it is time for real change, and I am deeply honoured by the faith they have placed in my team and me.”
The new cabinet includes a mix of old-guard Liberal politicians with many newcomers.
Among them is Indian-born Harjit Sajjan, a former Canadian soldier and Afghanistan war veteran who was named as Canada’s new defence minister.
He was Canada’s first Sikh commanding officer and received a number of recognitions for his service, having been deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Sajjan, a lieutenant-colonel in Canada’s armed forces, will oversee an anticipated change in Canada’s military involvement in the battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters in Syria and Iraq.
This is not just a case for feminism. The issues in the foregoing news articles relate to policy-making participation and optimization, more than they relate to feminism. This story is being brought into focus in a consideration of the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the societal elevation in the region. This roadmap calls for a fuller participation from women as stakeholders.
How do the foregoing stories relate to the Caribbean? The book relates that Canada (Page 146) has always provided a great role model for the Caribbean to consider for empowerment and elevation of our society. That country is a “friend” of the Caribbean; but it is also a competitor; a “frienemy” of sorts. How are we competing? What is our rate of participation of women in politics? See CHART here:
The Go Lean book advocates for more women in position of authority and decision-making in the new Caribbean.
Why is this necessary?
Simple: With 50% of the population, there is the need for 50% of the representation; (this is the target). The foregoing CHART, however shows a different reality. These facts align with the Go Lean book’s quest to elevate Caribbean society.
“Push” refers to deficient conditions at home that makes people want to flee. “Pull” refers to better conditions abroad that appeals to Caribbean residents. They want that better life.
An underlying mission of the CU is to dissuade this human flight (and incentivize repatriation of the far-flung Diaspora). Canada is one of those refuge countries; a large number of Caribbean Diaspora live there. This country does a better job of facilitating participation from women in the political process. In competition of the Caribbean versus Canada, the Caribbean needs to do better.
For this lofty goal, of which we are failing, we can learn from Canada – our competitor – and follow their lead!
Change has come to the Caribbean. As the roadmap depicts, there is the need to foster more collaboration and optimization in the region’s governing eco-system. This involves including all ready, willing and abled stakeholders, men or women. In the Summer 2015 Blockbuster Movie Tomorrowland, the main character Frank Walker – played by George Clooney – advised the audience hoping to impact their communities for change:
“Find the ones who haven’t given up. They are the future”.
Women participating more readily in the political process can help a community.
This has been proven true. Consider the example of Rwanda. (The country first on the above list). This country has endured a lot (Genocide in the 1990’s between Hutu and Tutsi tribes). Now, despite being a poorer African country, they have healed a lot of social issues. They now have many women in policy-making roles; and they have transformed their society and now feature a great turn-around story. See details here:
Since 2000 Rwanda’s economy,[51] tourist numbers,[52] and Human Development Index have grown rapidly;[53] between 2006 and 2011 the poverty rate reduced from 57% to 45%,[54] while life expectancy rose from 46.6 years in 2000[55] to 59.7 years in 2015.[56]…
The Go Lean roadmap posits that every woman has a right to work towards making their homeland a better place to live, work and play. The book details the following community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocates to impact our homeland:
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices
Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
Community Ethos – Minority Equalizations
Page 24
Strategy – Fix the broken systems of governance
Page 46
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Member-states versus CU Federal Government
Page 71
Implementation – Reason to Repatriate
Page 118
Planning – Lessons Learned from the previous West Indies Federation – Canada’s Support
Page 135
Planning – Lessons from Canada’s History
Page 146
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora –
Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Foundations – NGO’s for Women Causes
Page 219
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights – Women’s Rights
Page 220
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Elder-Care – Needs of Widows
Page 225
Advocacy – Ways to Empower Women
Page 226
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth – Steering Young Girls to STEM Careers
Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Persons with Disabilities
Page 228
There are serious issues impacting the Caribbean; these must be addressed . Since many of these issues affect women, it is better to have women as stakeholders, as policy-makers and as politicians.
Many of these issues have been addressed in previous Go Lean blog/commentaries, as sampled here:
Case Study: Abused wives find help by going to ‘Dona Carmen’
Politics represent the power of the people. Women represent 50% of the population; to engage the population, we must engage women. But, we need the women to engage as well, to lean-in, to this roadmap to elevate their societal engines (economy, security and governance). The goal of the Go Lean roadmap is to make the Caribbean a better place to live work and play; for all, regardless of gender.
This is not politics. This is not feminism. This is simply a quest for “better”. 🙂
It’s time to go back to school, advanced Business School that is, and glean some wisdom from the structured marketing strategy called Loyalty programs. These are designed to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of establishments associated with each program.[1]
There are large numbers of such programs in existence covering most types of business, (airlines: frequent flyer, hotels: frequent guest, car rental: frequent renters, restaurants: frequent diners, etc.), each one having varying features, and reward schemes. See Appendix B for details on airlines’ frequent-flyer programs.
Taking a page from this retail marketing eco-system …
… there is a need for a frequent-flyer-style loyalty program in the Caribbean to incentivize repeat business-activity in almost all regional economic engines.
This commentary asserts that a frequent-flyer-miles-style program can be structured in the Caribbean to “spread the wealth” from peak to non-peak seasons. More points can be accumulated by consuming hospitality in the slow season and less points are accumulated for consuming hospitality in the peak/high season. (See Appendix C for Spirit Airlines Model).
This strategy can also be applied with locations …
… more points can be accumulated for hospitality in the lessor-known, lesser-frequented destinations. (See Appendix D for a glimpse of the Hotwire / HotDollars program).
The book Go Lean…Caribbean calls for the elevation of Caribbean society; to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize all the engines of commerce so as to make the Caribbean a better place for these categories of vital activities: live, work and play. Loyalty programs can be used to incentivize all of these aspects of this roadmap. The tourism industry is categorized as “play”. The book posits that the region can experience even more growth than the estimated 80 million people that visit our shores annually. This can also apply to more spending from the visitors as well.
The Go Lean book is written to employ the best-practices of economic principles. Therefore, these fundamental principles – as related in the book (Page 21) are paramount:
People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways: Incentives are actions, awards, or rewards that determine the choices people make. Incentives can be positive or negative. When incentives change, people change their behaviors in predictable ways.
Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices and Incentives: People cooperate and govern their actions through both written and unwritten rules that determine methods of allocating scarce resources. These rules determine what is produced, how it is produced, and for whom it is produced. As the rules change, so do individual choices, incentives, and behavior.
The Go Lean book considers the Agent of Change (Page 57) of technology and its effect on the Caribbean’s biggest economic driver “tourism”. The end-results of loyalty program will have far-reaching effects on this travel/tourism industry.
Technology, the Internet-Communications-Technology (ICT), social media account management & marketing …
… the stewardship of Caribbean tourism must truly adapt, evolve and transform to lead and keep pace with this dynamic world; see sample VIDEO in Appendix A.
This commentary relates to more than just tourism and the visiting tourists. Considering applications for “live”, “work”, and “play”, we see that there are also many opportunities to apply incentives for Caribbean citizens who live in the homeland.
The Go Lean book identifies an Agent of Change in the vast field of technology. The technological advances with cutting-edge financial products allow loyalty programs to be forged to incentivize a lot of good behavior and to dissuade bad behavior. Consider these “live” and “work” examples:
“Live” – Tax Payments – This is not a welcome activity for anyone, thusly taxing authorities provide range of dates for tax obligations to be paid; (in the US, the Federal Income Tax deadline is April 15; payments/refunds can start on February 1st). A loyalty scheme can easily be introduced to award miles-points for early payers and refund recipients that purposefully claim their refunds later in the time window. This practice will maximize cash flow for the authorities while commending good behavior with preferable things they may want after completing obligation they must endure.
“Live” – Energy Efficiency – Positive activities like installing Green Energy alternatives (solar panels/water heaters, hybrid/electric automobiles, etc.) can be incentivized by awarding “double miles” or “eco-points”. Rather than acquiring some chattel goods, the rewards in this case could simply be privileges, like riding in carpool lanes alone.
“Live” – Education – e-Learning enrollment can result in immediate and deferred mileage credit for Caribbean students. (Thus discouraging further brain drain consequences).
“Work” – Taking jobs in rural/desolate communities or working from home is positive behavior that can be further incentivized with “double miles”-like promotions.
“Work” – Working or volunteering for Not-for-Profit agencies should also be encouraged, incentivized and rewarded.
“Work” – Take-Your-Daughter-To-Work Day is a good practice to instill career goals in young girls. Rewards should follow.
There are a lot of opportunities where loyalty program rules can transform society. Consider the practice of “gifting” miles. One person can earn the miles, but then share them with another party and even gift them to a charitable organization or a person directly. This strategy allows for a nimble, technocratic administration of loyalty programs to incentivize good behavior and dissuade bad practices.
Loyalty programs embedded in societal engines are transforming …
Could the current tourism administrations in the Caribbean master the complexities of this technology-bred strategy for elevating the region’s “play” economic engines? Hardly!
How about for regional administrators for the other activities, “live” and “work”? Again, hardly!
This “new-fangled” world requires “new-fangled” leaders. Visionaries. Technocrats.
The book Go Lean…Caribbean and the underlying movement seeks to re-boot the strategies and tactics of tourism marketing for the entire Caribbean region. The book asserts Caribbean member-states must expand and optimize their tourism outreach and use innovative products like excess inventory and loyalty rewards. However the requisite investment of the resources (time, talent, treasuries) for this goal may be too big for any one Caribbean member-state alone. So the Go Lean book campaigns to shift the responsibility to a region-wide, professionally-managed, deputized technocracy, the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU.
The goal of the CU is to bring the proper tools and techniques – electronic commerce, Internet Communications Technologies (ICT), visionary marketing, agile management – to the Caribbean region to optimize the stewardship of the economic, security and governing engines. The book posits that the economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, with technocratic management and stewardship of a Single Market. This would be better than the status quo. As conveyed here in this commentary, and in previous commentaries, the publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean convene the talents and skill-sets of movers-and-shakers in electronic commerce so as to forge the best tools and techniques for advanced product marketing like loyalty program.
Change has come to the region. This book Go Lean… Caribbean provides the needed details. Early in the book, the optimization and best-practices was highlighted as a reason the Caribbean region needed to unite, integrate and confederate to a Single Market. These pronouncements were included in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 14):
iv. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass is in a tropical region, the flora and fauna allows for an inherent beauty that is enviable to peoples near and far. The structures must be strenuously guarded to protect and promote sustainable systems of commerce paramount to this reality.
vi. Whereas the finite nature of the landmass of our lands limits the populations and markets of commerce, by extending the bonds of brotherhood to our geographic neighbors allows for extended opportunities and better execution of the kinetics of our economies through trade. This regional focus must foster and promote diverse economic stimuli.
xiv. 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.
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… Caribbean book wisely details the community ethos to adopt to proactively facilitate digital campaigns for the changed landscape; plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies:
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – People Respond to Incentives
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices & Incentives
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
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 – Literary, Art and Music in Graphic Design
Page 27
Community Ethos – Impact Research & Development – Including ICT
Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing – Data / Social Network
Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Integrate Region in a Single Market
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Build and Foster Local Economic Engines
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Exploit the Benefits of Globalization in Trade-Tourism
Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Tactical – Growing the Economy to $800 Billion – Trade and Globalization
Page 70
Tactical – Website www.myCaribbean.gov for Caribbean stakeholders – Tourists
Page 74
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Tourism Promotions and Administration
Page 78
Implementation – Integrate All Caribbean Websites to www.myCaribbean.gov Portal
Page 97
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change
Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Deliver
Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media – www.myCaribbean.gov Portal
Page 111
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Cyber Caribbean
Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better
Page 131
Planning – Ways to Better Manage Image – Digital Media Presence
Page 133
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 – Tourism & Economy Went Bust
Page 136
Planning – Lessons Learned from Egypt – Lack of Tourism Stewardship
Page 143
Advocacy – Ways to Measure Progress – Mining www.myCaribbean.gov Portal Data
Page 147
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives
Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications – Internet & Social Media Marketing
Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism – Excess Inventory Marketing
Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events – Sharing Economy
Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Market Southern California
Page 194
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology
Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce
Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage – Cyber-Caribbean Image/Media
Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living
Page 234
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Rural Living
Page 235
The CU seeks to foster internet-communications-technologies (ICT) to aid-and-abet tourism and other economic activities. This includes all supporting functions before, during and after visitors come to our shores – accumulating reward miles-points creates an account-holder status – see Appendix D – with the need for monthly e-statements. This is a forceful example of how a technocratic effort by regional administrators can enhance the Caribbean product offerings online. This is heavy-lifting; but this hard-work is worth the effort. The Returns-on-Investment is assured!
In previous Go Lean blogs, related points of the Technology Agents of Change affecting the tourism product offering have been detailed; see sample here:
The Caribbean must lean-in to these new business models to incentivize good behavior, for tourism and other aspects of Caribbean affairs. People will respond with the proper inducements. So imagine the universe of 130 million people all tuned-in – to the www.myCaribbean.gov portal – and responding to the appropriate prodding.
This is referred to as “Unified Command-and-Control”. Caribbean benevolent stewards can “push a few buttons” and millions of people respond, for the Greater Good. This is an exciting perspective. Let’s do it!
This is the charge of the Go Lean roadmap: incentivize the people to do more of the right thing. With the empowerments and elevations portrayed in the roadmap we can succeed in making Caribbean region a better place for citizens and tourists alike to live, work, play and repeat. 🙂
Appendix A – VIDEO – Capital One Venture® – Jennifer Garner – Ticked Off Traveler – https://youtu.be/7uwYGXqPguU
Published on Sep 15, 2015 – Trying to use your airline credit card miles shouldn’t be frustrating! With the Capital One Venture card, you can fly on any airline any time, then use your miles to cover the cost. Learn more: http://www.capitalone.com/credit-card
————
Appendix B – Frequent-Flyer Programs
A Frequent-Flyer Program (FFP) is a loyalty program offered by an airline. Many airlines have frequent-flyer programs designed to encourage airline customers enrolled in the program to accumulate points (also called miles, kilometers or segments) which may then be redeemed for air travel or other rewards. Points earned under FFPs may be based on the class of fare, distance flown on that airline or its partners, or the amount paid. There are other ways to earn points. For example, in recent years, more points have been earned by using co-branded credit and debit cards than by air travel. Another way to earn points is spending money at associated retail outlets, car hire companies, hotels or other associated businesses. Points can be redeemed for air travel, other goods or services, or for increased benefits, such as travel class upgrades, airport lounge access, or priority bookings.
Frequent-flyer programs can be seen as a certain type of virtual currency, one with unidirectional flow of money to purchase points, but no exchange back into money.[1]
The very first modern frequent-flyer program was created in 1972 by Western Direct Marketing, for United Airlines. It gave plaques and promotional materials to members. In 1979, Texas International Airlines created the first frequent-flyer program that used mileage tracking to give ‘rewards’ to its passengers, while in 1980 Western Airlines created its Travel Bank, which ultimately became part of Delta Air Lines’ program upon their merger in 1987.[2][3] American Airlines’ AAdvantage program launched in 1981 as a modification of a never-realized concept from 1979 that would have given special fares to frequent customers. It was quickly followed later that year by programs from United Airlines (Mileage Plus) and Delta Air Lines (SkyMiles), and in 1982 from British Airways (Executive Club).[4]
Credit card purchases Many credit card companies partner with airlines to offer a co-branded credit card or the ability to transfer points in their loyalty program to an airline’s program. Large sign-up bonuses and other incentives have been common. Accruing points via credit cards bonuses and spending allows infrequent travelers to benefit from the frequent flyer program.
With a non-affiliated travel rewards credit card a card-member can buy a positive-space ticket considered “revenue” class, which can earn the passenger points with the airline flown.[11]
Redemption After accumulating a certain number of points, members then use these points to obtain airline tickets. However, points only pay for the base fare, with the member still responsible for the payment of mandatory taxes and fees.
What are HotDollars?
HotDollars can be used for any hotel, flight, or Hotwire Hot Rate rental car booking on Hotwire. Each HotDollar is equivalent to one U.S. dollar and is available for one year from the date of issuance. For more information, please see the HotDollars section of our Hotwire Travel Products Rules and Restrictions.
To use your HotDollars, simply sign in by clicking, “My Account.” Then, during checkout, choose HotDollars as your payment method.
The Americans “got it bad!” They appear to be willing to ignore facts and deny science to continue their environmental unsound way of life, their eco-system. While Americans may have the right to their own opinions, they do not have the right to their own facts.
This is the summary from the below AUDIO PODCAST, that even the weather scientists, the meteorologists, are pressured to ignore the science or not sound the warning. This is their rationale for their non-stance:
The political climate is too heated.
Corporate ownership of TV stations don’t want to deal with Climate Change.
This is a bad model … for the rest of the world. According to the PODCAST, other countries – i.e. France – are not yielding to this American pressure; they recognize the need to sound a more accurate alarm. Listen to the PODCAST here/now (or read the transcript in the Appendix below):
Dave DeWitt reports on what North Carolina TV meteorologists think of climate change, and how one of them became a “convert.” North Carolina Public Radio – WUNC 91.5 – Posted Sunday October 29, 2015; retrieved November 5, 2015 http://wunc.org/post/meteorolgists-view-climate-change#stream/0
This silencing of the truth is troubling … for the Caribbean and the rest of the world. People turn to weather forecasters to forecast the weather. They need to be respected for announcing the truth: short-term, mid-term and long-term.
Theirs is a weighty responsibility!
This is remindful of the charge to the Watchman in the Holy Scriptures, in the Bible Book of Ezekiel (Chapter 33 verses 2 – 7); see here:
2 “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people, and say to them, “‘Suppose that I bring a sword upon a land, and all the people of that land take a man and make him their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the horn and warns the people. 4 If someone hears the sound of the horn but does not heed the warning and a sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the horn, but he did not heed the warning. His blood will be upon himself. If he had heeded the warning, his life would have been saved. 6 “‘But if the watchman sees the sword coming and he does not blow the horn and the people receive no warning and a sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that person will die for his own error, but I will ask his blood back from the watchman.’ 7 “As for you, son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman …
(New World Translation)
Yes, there are climate change deniers. It is a pity that these ones may hold positions of power and authority so as to subdue the proclamation of appropriate warnings.
This Climate Change is an important issue! It isconveyed in the book Go Lean … Caribbean as if a crisis. But the book goes on to declare that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste”, calling for the establishment of a regional administration to monitor, mitigate and manage the threats of Climate Change. The Go Lean book posits that the Caribbean region is at the frontline of the battleground of Climate Change, that we do not have the luxury of denying the facts. (As this commentary is written, there is a tropical storm – Kate – threatening danger for the Bahamas). We need to commission a “watchman” to give fair warning of the imminent danger. The same as conveyed in the foregoing scriptural reference: blood is at stake for this issue of Climate Change: there is the need to save life-and-limb due to increased occurrences of devastating hurricanes, flooding, forest fires, droughts, rising sea levels, and even alterations in fish stock.
What could be the motivation for the denial of the warnings of the actuality of climate change? Only one factor: Profit.
This issue has previously been detailed in the following blog/commentaries:
Book Review: ‘This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate’
This commentary therefore asserts that the Caribbean needs to not follow the American leadership in this regards; that we must forge our own future, seeing how pervasive the Crony-Capitalism elements are in the American eco-system. This Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The prime directives of this agency are described as:
Optimize the economic engines of the Caribbean to elevate the regional economy to grow to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establish a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The Go Lean roadmap calls for the CU to serve as the regional administration to optimize economy, homeland security and governance engines for the Caribbean, especially in flight of Climate Change battleground frontline status. This is the first pronouncement (Page 11) of the opening Declaration of Interdependence:
i. Whereas the earth’s climate has undeniably changed resulting in more severe tropical weather storms, it is necessary to prepare to insure the safety and security of life, property and systems of commerce in our geographical region. As nature recognizes no borders in the target of its destruction, we also must set aside border considerations in the preparation and response to these weather challenges.
The Go Lean roadmap fully details the reality of Climate Change in the region. There are many aspect of Caribbean life that will be affected; that have already been affected. These issues have also been repeatedly addressed and further elaborated upon in these previous blog/commentaries:
This Go Lean book declares that we must adopt the community ethos (the appropriate attitude/spirit), to forge change in our region; then details the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to better impact the region’s resources and eco-systems, in considering the preparations and responses for Climate Change. The following is a sample list:
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices / Incentives
Page 21
Community Ethos – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens
Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives
Page 24
Community Ethos – Non-Government Organizations
Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future
Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing
Page 35
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederating 30 Member-States into a Single Market
Page 45
Strategy – Vision – Foster Local Economic Engines for Basic Needs
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Prepare for Natural Disasters
Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Climate Change
Page 57
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union
Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Separation of Powers – Emergency Management
Page 76
Separation of Powers – Interstate Commerce Administration
Page 79
Separation of Powers – Meteorological & Geological Service
Page 79
Implementation – Assemble Regional Organs into a Single Market Economy
Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change
Page 101
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up – Unified Command & Control
Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Deliver
Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid
Page 115
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization
Page 119
Planning – Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region
Page 127
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 Governance
Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives
Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters
Page 184
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications
Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Emergency Management
Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Fisheries
Page 210
Appendix – History of Puerto Rican Migration to US & Effects of Hurricanes
Page 303
Appendix – US Virgin Islands Economic Timeline with Hurricane Impacts
Page 305
The foregoing AUDIO PODCAST sounds the alarm of the threats of Climate Change on the planet and declares that the Caribbean may not want to depend on American Media reporting of the Climate Change threats. But, we have encountered this issue before in our interaction with the American eco-system – we have previously discussed how the European Weather Forecasting Models may be better suited for the Caribbean Greater Good, because of the lesser Crony-Capitalistic influences, and lesser corporate ownership of media companies.
The Caribbean is on the frontlines of this battle! This is not just a preference for us, this may be life-and-death. We have no option to exit from any of these discussions; whether we want to or not.
Change must come to our region as more devastating effects of Climate Change are imminent. The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that this “Agent of Change” is too big for just any one member-state to tackle alone, that there must be a regional solution. This multi-state technocratic administration of the CU is presented as that solution.
The people and institutions of the region are hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap, and heed the warnings from this Caribbean “Watchman”. Too much is at stake – the blood of the people. Despite the threats of Climate Change, we can still make the Caribbean a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂
Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!
———–
APPENDIX – Transcript: A Meteorolgist’s View On Climate Change
By: Dave DeWitt Broadcast meteorologists on local television have one job. It’s simple to express but difficult to do well. Predict the future, a few days at a time.
To be an effective forecaster, a broadcast meteorologist has to be a scientist. And because it’s TV, she or he also has to be likable and trustworthy.
Greg Fishel of WRAL is all of those things. He also used to be a global warming denier. Now, he admits he was wrong.
“I don’t see being wrong as being a scarlet letter,” Fishel says. “I think all of us have experiences in our life where we are wrong and we realize it was a good thing and we learn something from it.”
Fishel changed his mind about climate change after putting aside his politics and examining the science. Now, he’s an equally passionate convert, and recently expressed it again on Facebook.
Fishel is in a unique position among his colleagues in the weather forecasting business. He was one of the first broadcast meteorologists to push for certification in his profession. He’s also wildly popular and has worked for arguably the most successful family-owned local TV station in the country since 1981.
And that matters in the so-called climate change “debate.”
“Any time you have someone of high stature, high standing in the market, with a lot of credibility, it does speak volumes and it shows how important that the topic is,” says Sean Sublette, a former TV meteorologist in Roanoke who currently works forClimate Central in Princeton, New Jersey.
Not all broadcast meteorologists are in the same position—or think the same way.
WUNC Radio surveyed TV meteorologists in North Carolina. About three-quarters of those who responded agree or strongly agree that the planet is warming due to human activity. But fewer than half agreed it was part of their job to inform viewers about climate change.
Several expressed that the political debate was too heated or that corporate ownership of stations didn’t want to deal with the controversy.
Sublette says those results are not surprising.
“I know some that are very interested in the science, and I know some that are just not,” says Sublette. “They are just not as interested in talking about it, for whatever reason they may have.”
Even with the help, it can be very difficult to get climate information into a forecast. Lee Ringer at Time Warner Cable News does “Weather On The Ones,” so, six weathercasts an hour.
“And even though it seems like a lot of time, it’s limited what we can talk about,” Ringer says. “So our traditional weathercasts are really just going to be limited to the forecast for today and up through the next week.”
“I’m the scientist here at the station, along with our other team of meteorologists,” he says. “So we’re the folks a lot of our news reporters come to when there’s some type of science story, whether it’s directly related to the weather, whether it’s related to the environment, or related to meteorology.”
At WRAL, Fishel has taken that role as station scientist to a higher level. Earlier this year, he traveled to Alaska and Colorado to produce special climate change reportsand has brought leading scientists to town for discussions.
The other night, he says he got a call from a longtime friend and die-hard conservative. That friend said he is re-thinking his position on climate change because of Fishel’s reporting and social media outreach.
“If I had done this six months after I moved here and I was 22 years old and wet behind the ears, then people would have said ‘get that liberal out of here’,” says Fishel, laughing. “So it gets back to the whole thing, if there was ever a time when I could engage in this discussion, I feel like this is it.”
Fishel says he’ll keep engaging in that discussion—on-air and online—in the hope he can lead the conversation for viewers and fellow weather professionals.
The Go Lean book, serving as a roadmap, posits that tourism will continue to be the primary economic driver in the region for the foreseeable future. Considering the “bread and butter” of the region, it is obvious our “bread is buttered” with “play”. Understanding the science of “play” activities can therefore be critical in the roadmap to grow the region’s GDP and create jobs (2.2 million new jobs projected). There are many other activities considered “play”: sports, parks & recreation, art & culture, media (film, TV, online social networking, etc.) and also … animal companions. People love their pets and even treat them as part of the family. So to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play means considering the needs of the 42-million population and their animal companions.
Everyone needs and wants to play … at all levels of the socio-economic ladder: rich, middle-class and poor. So “play” options should be provided in society so that everyone can partake. Since tourism is categorized as “play”. The Go Lean book posits that the region can experience even more growth in tourism than the estimated 80 million people that visit our shores annually, by facilitating more “play” options for all levels of society. (Cruise vacations are known for being more affordable to those with smaller budgets). The book proposes growth strategies/options, such as:
The Go Lean book considers the Agent of Change (Page 57) of the “Aging Diaspora” and its effect on the Caribbean’s biggest economic driver: “tourism”. Many former Caribbean citizens left these shores for greater opportunities abroad, but now they are approaching retirement. These ones can be induced to return to the Caribbean … and bring their economic resources with them … provided that their needs are covered.
