Sports Role Model – US versus the World

Posted on August 23, 2014 in Ethos, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

This is a big weekend in the world of sports, its the US versus the World … again. This time, its the Little League World Series, the baseball tournament in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Even though baseball is played in many countries around the world, the expectation is that it takes an All-Star team from the rest of the world to compete against one American team.

This is the tournament’s Final Four teams, (see Appendix-Bracket below):

US: Chicago* -vs- Las Vegas
World: South Korea* -vs- Japan
* = Winner

The attitude of the US versus the World is the attitude in many other sports endeavors as well; sampled as follows:

  • The NCAA College Baseball Championship Tournament is called the College World Series.
  • The NBA Playoff Champion is referred to as World Champions.
  • Major League Baseball Championship Best-of-Seven Match-up is branded the World Series.
  • National Hockey League All-Star Game is a Match-up of North America (US and Canada) versus the World.

It is evident that the sports eco-system is bigger in the US, than anywhere else in the world. Needless to say, the Caribbean region pales in comparison in accentuating the business of sports. Deficient would not even be a fitting adjective, as there is NO arrangement for intercollegiate sports in the region, despite having 42 million people in 30 different countries. The Caribbean misses out on many opportunities associated with the games people play – especially economic ones: jobs, event bookings, media coverage.

This is the assertion of the book Go Lean…Caribbean, that the Caribbean can be a better place to live, work and play; that the economy can be grown methodically by embracing progressive strategies in recognizing and fostering the genius qualifiers of many Caribbean athletes. So many times, those with talent have had to flee the region to garner the business returns on their athletic investments.

It does not have to be.

The following news article indicates that even amateur Little League baseball is big business:

Title: Little League means big business as revenues soar
By: Josh Peter, USA Today

CU Blog - Sports Role Model - US versus the World - Photo 1The images remain quaint — kids sprinting around the base-paths, fans watching from grass hills, Norman Rockwell-like scenes abound at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., which culminates Sunday with the championship game. But make no mistake, Little League is big business.

Little League Inc. reported revenue of almost $25 million and assets of more than $85 million in 2012, according to the most recent publicly available tax return it must file to maintain tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Over a five-year period, compensation for Little League Inc.’s CEO, Steve Keener, nearly doubled to $430,000 a year. And in 2012, the 100-person full-time staff made almost $7.5 million in salaries — a year before ESPN agreed to more than double broadcast fees as part of an eight-year, $76 million contract to televise the games during the two-week tournament.

“That’s a lot of money when all the grunt work is volunteer,” said Randy Stevens, president of the Little League in Nashville, Tenn., whose all-star team qualified for the World Series each of the past two years. “Now I’m wondering where it’s all going.”

Keener, elected as CEO in 1996, said revenue has grown at a steady pace and said new money is going back into the program.

“I’m not going to apologize for generating revenue to support the programming issues of this organization,” he told USA TODAY Sports. “But I would apologize if I felt we were not using it to the best of our ability in a prudent manner and getting the most out of the money to benefit this program.”

Keener said the majority of the organization’s costs stem from maintaining the national headquarters in Williamsport, five regional centers — in Connectcut, Georgia, Texas, California, Indiana — a full-time facility in Poland and offices in Hong Kong, Puerto Rico and Canada.

When Little League signed its contract with ESPN in 2007, Keener said, it lowered affiliation fees for the local leagues. He also said Little League pays for 125 criminal background checks for each local league and provides training program for coaches.

“Those are ways we try direct the funds right back to the local programs,” he said.

Little League also pays for travel, lodging and food costs for 16 teams, each of which include 13 players and three coaches. But Stevens, affiliated with the Nashville-based league, said families of the players should receive financial help for travel costs.

He estimated the parents of his players needed up to $35,000 to cover those expenses. A father with the team from Chicago said parents were unsure how they would pay for the trip until five Major League Baseball players offered to cover all travel expenses for the parents.

Keener said the idea of travel assistance is not under consideration.

“I’ve learned never to say never, but it’s unlikely at this point,” he said. “Our responsibility is to provide the travel, the accommodations and all the expenses related to participating in the World Series for the players and the coaches and the umpires who are here working the World Series.”

Keener said giving the players money that could be used for scholarships is not under consideration.

“Anything we would do for one group of kids, we would do for all of the kids. And it’s just not feasible to think that they’re all going to head off to college when they’re getting out of high school, particularly with the kids from the international region,” he said. “It’s just not something we feel is necessary for us to be thinking about when they’re 12 or 13 years old.”

Little League does not charge admission for games at the World Series, but officials do solicit donations while passing around cans during games.

“Whatever money they’re getting, they’re looking for more,” said Ellen Siegel, affiliated with the team from Philadelphia.

But Keener said the $25 million a year pales in comparison to organizations such as the Boys Scouts of America, which reported revenue of $240 million in 2012. He said Little League could not operate without the support of about 1,250,000 volunteers in 7,500 communities.

As far as his salary is concerned, he declined to comment other than to say his compensation is set by a committee of Little League Inc. board members.

Davie Jane Gilmour, Little League International Board of Directors Chairman, said Keener’s salary — and that of the other senior staff members, who in 2012 earned between $100,000 and $250,000 apiece — are in line with salaries at comparable non-profits.

“To be perfectly honest with you, there are many board members on that (compensation) committee who think that our senior staff, and in particular Steve, are underpaid at this point in time,” Gilmour said. “There’s a a pretty strong feeling on the compensation committee that they are highly marketable based on their success here in their work here at Little League.”

The claim of the book Go Lean … Caribbean is that excellence in sports requires a genius qualifier and that genius ability can be found in abundance in the Caribbean. Further that there is something bigger than sports alone at play here, that this is the full effect of globalization in which the Caribbean can export products and services to benefit the homeland.

This commentary has previously promoted the monetary benefits of the sports eco-systems and how Caribbean progeny participate on the world stage:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1508 St Croix’s Tim Duncan to Return to Spurs For Another Season
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1446 Caribbean Players in the 2014 World Cup
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1341 Sports Landlord Model of the College World Series Time
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1148 Sports Bubble – Franchise values in basketball
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1214 Sports Landlord Model – The Art & Science of Temporary Stadiums
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020 Caribbean Sports Revolutionary & Advocate: FIFA’s Jeffrey Webb
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=498 Sports Nature -vs- Nurture: Book Review of ‘The Sports Gene’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=334 Bahamians Basketballers Make Presence Felt In Libyan League
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=318 The Need for Collegiate Sports Eco-System in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=60 Could the Caribbean Host the Olympic Games?

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a technocratic federal government to administer and optimize the economic/security/ governing engines of the region’s 30 member-states. At the outset, the roadmap recognizes the value of sports in the roadmap with these statements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 & 14):

xxvi.      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.

xxxi.      Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism – modeling the Olympics.

The Go Lean roadmap calls for the market organizations to better explore the economic opportunities for sports. Sports can be big business! But even when money is not involved, other benefits abound. As such the CU will enhance the engines to elevate sports at all levels: amateur, intercollegiate and professional.

The Go Lean book’s economic empowerment roadmap features huge benefits for the region related to sports. The strategy is create leverage for a viable sports landscape by consolidate the region’s 30 member-states / 4 languages into a Single Market of 42 million people. The CU facilitation of applicable venues (stadia, arenas, fields, temporary structures) on CU-owned fairgrounds plus the negotiations for broadcast/streaming rights/licenses will elevate the art, science and genius of sports as an enterprise in the region. As depicted in the foregoing article/VIDEO, even young children, Little League, will participate/benefit in the sports eco-system.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean to lean-in to the following community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies detailed in the book Go Lean … Caribbean to re-boot the delivery of the regional solutions to elevate the Caribbean region through sports:

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways Page 21
Community Ethos – Return on Investments Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Negotiations Page 32
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness Page 36
Strategic – Vision – Integrating Region in to a Single Market Page 45
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds Page 55
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration Page 83
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities (Fairgrounds) Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Local Government – Parks & Recreation Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology Expositions Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues Page 234

The foregoing VIDEO features many sub-stories associated with this year’s Little League World Series (LLWS) tournament, the compelling stories of the rise from the despair of the Chicago inner-city, and Philadelphia’s Mo’ne Davis, the only girl in the tournament. The drama of sports is a microcosm for the drama in life.

Despite the presence of a Caribbean team in this LLWS tournament, no compelling Caribbean stories have emerged. This is an American drama: the United States versus the World. This is not just an attitude in sports, but in many other endeavors as well. The drama and challenges in the Caribbean are of no consequence in the US, we are just a playground for their world.

We need our own tournament to foster Caribbean sports drama and economic benefits.

We need to lean-in to the Go Lean roadmap to build the sports eco-systems to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. We must elevate our own society.

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

———–

APPENDIX – LLWS BRACKETS   (Double-Click for a legible Viewer)

CU Blog - Sports Role Model - US versus the World - Photo 2

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Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market

Posted on August 23, 2014 in Ethos, Industries
Go Lean Commentary

The legend of John Henry [a] illustrated the struggle of man versus machine.

Man lost!

Was that story just an allegory or an anecdote of an actual person and actual events? While the setting of the story is true, the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in the 1870s (shortly after the US Civil War), the rest of the account may be mere fiction and exaggeration. But the battle of man versus machine continues even today; and man continues to lose.

The below news article asserts that the next round of new jobs are to be found in the acceptance of that defeat, man conceding to the machine.

This point aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean which calls for the elevation of Caribbean economics. The book asserts that the Caribbean region has been losing the battle of globalization and technology. The consequences of our defeat is the sacrifice of our most precious treasure, our people. The assessment of all 30 Caribbean member-states is that every community has lost human capital to emigration. Some communities, like Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have suffered with an abandonment rate of more than 50% and others have had no choice but to stand on the sideline and watch as more than 70% of college-educated citizens flee their homelands for foreign shores.

There are both “push and pull” factors as to why these ones leave. But the destination countries, North America and Western Europe, may not be such ideal alternatives. These communities have also been suffering from agents-of-change in the modern world and losing badly in the struggle of man-versus-machine, the industrial adoption of automation, and  the corporate assimilation of internet & communication technologies.

Everything has changed…everywhere! It is what it is! The poor is expanding, the middle class is shrinking, and the rich, the One Percent is growing in affluence, influence and power.

The Go Lean book therefore posits that there is a need to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize the engines of commerce so as to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. Considering this article here, depicting that there is the opportunity to create jobs:

Title: Computers reshaping global job market, for better and worse
By: Ann Saphir (Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

CU Blog - Where the Jobs Are - Computers reshaping global job martket - Photo 2(Reuters) – Automation and increasingly sophisticated computers have boosted demand for both highly educated and low-skilled workers around the globe, while eroding demand for middle-skilled jobs, according to research to be presented to global central bankers on Friday.

But only the highly educated workers are benefiting through higher wages, wrote MIT professor David Autor in the paper prepared for a central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Middle- and lower-skilled workers are seeing their wages decline.

That is in part because as middle-skilled jobs dry up, those workers are more likely to seek lower-skilled jobs, boosting the pool of available labor and putting downward pressure on wages.

“(W)hile computerization has strongly contributed to employment polarization, we would not generally expect these employment changes to culminate in wage polarization except in tight labor markets,” Autor wrote.

Any long-term strategy to take advantage of advances in computers should rely heavily on investments in human capital to produce “skills that are complemented rather than substituted by technology,” he said.

Recounting the long history of laborers vilifying technological advances, Autor argues that most such narratives underestimate the fact that computers often complement rather than replace the jobs of higher-skilled workers.

People with skills that are easily replaced by machines, such as 19th-century textile workers, do lose their jobs.

In recent years computer engineers have pushed computers farther into territory formerly considered to be human-only, like driving a car.

Still, computer-driven job polarization has a natural limit, Autor argues. For some jobs, such as plumbers or medical technicians who take blood samples, routine tasks are too intertwined with those requiring interpersonal and other human skills to be easily replaced.

“I expect that a significant stratum of middle skill, non-college jobs combining specific vocational skills with foundational middle skills – literacy, numeracy, adaptability, problem-solving and common sense – will persist in coming decades,” Autor wrote.

Autor, who has been studying technology and its impact on jobs since before the dot-com bubble burst, notes that some economists have pointed to the weak U.S. labor market since the 2000s as evidence of the adverse impact of computerization.

Such modern-day Luddites are mistaken, he suggested. U.S. investment in computers, which had been increasing strongly, dropped just as labor demand also fell, exactly the opposite of what ought to happen if technology is replacing labor.

More likely, he said, globalization is to blame, hurting demand for domestic labor and, like technology, helping to reshape the labor landscape. While in the long run both globalization and technology should in theory benefit the economy, he wrote, their effects are “frequently slow, costly, and disruptive.”

The book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) with the charter to facilitate jobs in the region. The book posits that ICT (Internet & Communications Technology) can be a great equalizer for the Caribbean to better compete with the rest of the world, relating the experiences of Japan – the #3 global economy – who have competed successfully with great strategies and technocratic execution despite being a small country of only 120+ million people. This modeling of Japan, and other successful communities, aligns with the CU charter; as defined by these 3 prime directives:

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

Early in the Go Lean book, the responsibility to create jobs was identified as an important function for the CU with these pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 14):

xxvi.  Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, prefabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

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.

xxviii. Whereas intellectual property can easily traverse national borders, the rights and privileges of intellectual property must be respected at home and abroad. The Federation must install protections to ensure that no abuse of these rights go with impunity, and to ensure that foreign authorities enforce the rights of the intellectual property registered in our region.

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

According to the foregoing article, computers are reshaping the global job market, for better and worse. The Go Lean book, and previous blog/commentaries, detailed the principle of job multipliers, how certain industries are better than others for generating multiple indirect jobs down the line for each direct job on a company’s payroll. Industries relating to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics/Medicine) fields have demonstrated high job-multiplier rates of 3.0 to 4.1 factors (Page 260).

The Go Lean… Caribbean book details the creation of 2.2 million new jobs for the Caribbean region, many embracing ICT skill-sets. How? By adoption of certain community ethos, plus the executions of key strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies. The following is a sample from the book:

Assessment – Puerto Rico – The Greece of the Caribbean Page 18
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius Page 27
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
Strategy – Mission – Education Without Further Brain Drain Page 46
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – Japanese Model Page 69
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – High Multiplier Industries Page 70
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Commerce Department – Patents & Copyrights Page 78
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Implementation – Trends in Implementing Data Centers Page 106
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact ICT and Social Media Page 111
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade Page 128
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Labor Markets and Unions Page 164
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Empowering Immigration – STEM Resources Page 174
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce Page 198
Advocacy – Lessons from America’s Peonage History – John Henry Historicity Page 211
Advocacy – Ways to Promote a Call Center Industry Page 212
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth Page 227
Appendix – Growing 2.2 Million Jobs in 5 Years Page 257
Appendix – Job Multipliers Page 259

The CU will foster job-creating developments, incentivizing many high-tech start-ups and incubating viable companies. The primary ingredient for CU success will be Caribbean people, so we must foster and incite participation of many young people into STEM fields, so as to impact their communities. A second ingredient will be the support of the community – the Go Lean roadmap recognizes the limitation that not everyone in the community will embrace the opportunity to lead in these endeavors. An apathetic disposition is fine-and-well, we simply must not allow that to be a hindrance to those wanting to progress. The community ethos or national spirit, must encourage and spur “achievers” into roles where “they can be all they can be”. The book posits that one person can make a difference.

The Caribbean is arguably the best address on the planet, but the missing pieces for many people are jobs. The Go Lean roadmap starts with the assessment of the true status of the region, then the development of the plan to remediate the status quo, and finally the turn-by-turn directions to get to a new destination: a better place to live, work and play.

This Go Lean roadmap describes that the Caribbean is in crisis, a war with many battlegrounds. Our effort is worth any sacrifice, but this time our battle is not man versus machine, but rather man with the machine.

Download the book Go Lean…Caribbean now!

—————————————————
Footnote – a: John Henry

John Henry is an American folk hero and tall tale. He worked as a “steel-driver”—a man tasked with hammering a steel drill into rock to make holes for explosives to blast the rock away. He died during the construction of a tunnel for a railroad. In the legend, John Henry’s prowess as a steel-driver was measured in a race against a [machine], steam powered hammer, which he won, only to die in victory with his hammer in his hand and heart giving out from stress. The story of John Henry has been the subject of numerous songs, stories, plays, books and novels.

Historicity
The historicity of many aspects of the John Henry legend is subject to debate. Until recently it was generally believed that the race between a man and a steam hammer described in the ballad occurred during the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railway in the 1870s.

In particular, the race was thought to have occurred during the boring of Big Bend tunnel near Talcott, West Virginia between 1869 and 1871. Talcott holds a yearly festival named for Henry and a statue and memorial plaque have been placed along a highway south of Talcott as it crosses over the Big Bend tunnel.

CU Blog - Where the Jobs Are - Computers reshaping global job market - Photo 1

In the 2006 book Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend, Scott Reynolds Nelson, an associate professor of history at the College of William and Mary, contends that the John Henry of the ballad was based on a real person, the 20-year-old New Jersey-born African-American freeman, John William Henry (prisoner #497 in the Virginia penitentiary). Nelson speculates that Henry, like many African Americans might have come to Virginia to work on the clean-up of the battlefields after the Civil War. Arrested and tried for burglary, he was among the many convicts released by the warden to work as leased labor on the C&O Railway.

According to Nelson, conditions at the Virginia prison were so terrible that the warden, an idealistic Quaker from Maine, believed the prisoners, many of whom had been arrested on trivial charges, would be better clothed and fed if they were released as laborers to private contractors (he subsequently changed his mind about this and became an opponent of the convict labor system). Nelson asserts that a steam drill race at the Big Bend Tunnel would have been impossible because railroad records do not indicate a steam drill being used there.

Instead, Nelson argues that the contest must have taken place 40 miles away at the Lewis Tunnel, between Talcott and Millboro,  Virginia, where records indicate that prisoners did indeed work beside steam drills night and day. Nelson also argues that the verses of the ballad about John Henry being buried near “the white house”, “in sand”, somewhere that locomotives roar, mean that Henry’s body was buried in the cemetery behind the main building of the Virginia penitentiary, which photos from that time indicate was painted white, and where numerous unmarked graves have been found.

Prison records for John William Henry stopped in 1873, suggesting that he was kept on the record books until it was clear that he was not coming back and had died. The evidence assembled by Nelson, though suggestive, is circumstantial; Nelson himself stresses that John Henry would have been representative of the many hundreds of convict laborers who were killed in unknown circumstances tunneling through the mountains or who died shortly afterwards of silicosis from dust created by the drills and blasting.
 Songs
The well-known narrative ballad of “John Henry” is usually sung in at an upbeat tempo. The hammer songs (or work songs) associated with the “John Henry” ballad, however, are not. Sung slowly and deliberately, these songs usually contain the lines “This old hammer killed John Henry / but it won’t kill me.” Nelson explains that:

…workers managed their labor by setting a “stint,” or pace, for it. Men who violated the stint were shunned … Here was a song that told you what happened to men who worked too fast: they died ugly deaths; their entrails fell on the ground. You sang the song slowly, you worked slowly, you guarded your life, or you died.

There is some controversy among scholars over which came first, the ballad or the hammer songs. Some scholars have suggested that the “John Henry” ballad grew out of the hammer songs, while others believe that the two were always entirely separate.

(Source: Retrieved August 22 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_(folklore))

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Recessions and Public Health

Posted on August 21, 2014 in Economics, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

A man needs three things to be happy: something to do, someone to love and something to hope for – declares the book Go Lean… Caribbean (Page 36).

CU Blog - Recessions and Public Health - Photo 1In this vein, there is a whole field of study referred to as Public Health Economics, a subset of Econometrics. One champion of this field is the European Public Health Association or EUPHA; this is an international, multidisciplinary, scientific organization, bringing together around 14,000 public health experts for professional exchange and collaboration throughout Europe. They encourage a multidisciplinary approach to public health. Imagine a group studying the link between a failing economy and increased medical ailments.

While the logical connection of economy-stress-illness may be common sense, the quantification of actual ailments is a science… and art.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean is not a book of science, but gleans from scientific concepts in communicating the plan to elevate Caribbean society. The book focus on economics, and relates that the resultant societal engines can be seriously impacted by public safety/health threats. The book thusly serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of a regional sentinel for public health, the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The complete prime directives are described as:

  • Optimize the economic engines of the Caribbean to elevate the regional economy.
  • Establish a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean roadmap immediately calls for the establishment of a federal Health Department, with a charter to manage the health care and medical dimensions of the Caribbean, in conjunction with, and on behalf of the member-states. This charter will include mental health in its focus, just as serious as any other areas (cancer, trauma, virus, immunizations). This direct correlation of physical and mental health issues with the economy, in this foregoing article, thusly depicts the need for this charter:

Subtitle: The impact of downturns on physical and mental health

Exam results capture pupils’ achievements but not their enjoyment of learning. Life expectancy does not say anything about quality of life. Similarly, statistics on unemployment rates and wage levels do not tell the full story of recessions. Social scientists are increasingly interested in the effects of downturns on public health.

These effects are unclear. There is some evidence that physical health may actually improve in downturns. One paper by Christopher Ruhm[a], now of the University of Virginia, looking at American data from 1972 to 1991, suggests that a one-percentage-point increase in unemployment reduced mortality by 4.6 deaths per 100,000 people. “With shorter working hours, people spend more time at home with their families and may be less stressed from overwork,” suggests Stephen Bezruchka of the University of Washington.

But there is also evidence that big economic crises are correlated with a deterioration in health. The Depression of the 1930s was associated with increases in malnutrition because people had less money to spend on food. In 1928, 14% of adults over 20 in Philadelphia were deemed to be suffering from malnutrition. By 1932 the figure had risen to 26%.

Social scientists are now scouring public-health data for clues about the impact of the recent crisis. A National Bureau of Economic Research paper [b] found that in America there has been a 4.8% increase in the likelihood of self-reported poor health for every one-percentage-point drop in state employment rates.

Some diseases have become more prevalent. In Greece incidence of HIV has risen, with a 50% increase in new infections in 2011 compared with 2010. The jump has been concentrated among injecting drug-users, and has been linked to large cuts to health services. Needle-exchange projects have been pared back, making transmission more likely.

CU Blog - Recessions and Public Health - Photo 2Mental health does appear to suffer during downturns. Mr Ruhm’s work found that suicide rates rose with unemployment. The East Asian crisis of the late 1990s was marked by a spate of suicides: in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea the crisis was responsible for 10,400 more suicides in 1998 than might normally have been expected. Research on Spain indicates that in the current crisis the suicide rate has increased by 8%. The rise is concentrated among people who are most likely to have lost their job.

Working out how health is affected by recessions is made harder by time lags. Job insecurity may lead people to the bottle, which will have repercussions later. A recent paper co-authored by Paul Frijters at the University of Queensland[c] found that the latest recessionary period was associated with an almost 20% increase in alcoholism-related Google searches in America. Higher alcohol abuse today will worsen health outcomes over time.

Obesity is another slow-burning health problem. Higher unemployment leads to lower incomes, which can make it more difficult for people to eat well. Research from the University of Nebraska finds that “financial stress”—not being able to pay for essentials such as food or rent—is a strong predictor of obesity. In Australia the risk of being obese in 2010 was 20% higher among individuals who experienced financial stress in 2008 and 2009 than among those who did not experience it in either year. Policymakers should keep an eye on this growing body of research for guidance on how to marshal health-care resources when economies fall ill.

Sources

“The effect of the late 2000s financial crisis on suicides in Spain: an interrupted time-series analysis“, by J. A. L. Bernal, A. Gasparrini, C.M. Artundo and M. McKee, The European Journal of Public Health, 2013

“More Than 10,000 Suicides Tied To Economic Crisis, Study Says“, by Melanie Haiken, Forbes Magazine, quoting study published in June (2014) in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

“Was the economic crisis 1997–1998 responsible for rising suicide rates in East/Southeast Asia? A time–trend analysis for Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand“, by S.S. Chang, D. Gunnell, J.A. Sterne, T.H. Lu and A.T. Cheng, Social science & medicine, 2009

“Decomposing the Relationship between Macroeconomic Conditions and Fatal Car Crashes during the Great Recession: Alcohol-and Non-Alcohol-Related Accidents“, by C. Cotti and N. Tefft, The BE Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 2011

“Exploring the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and problem drinking as captured by Google searches in the US“, by P. Frijters, D.W. Johnston, G. Lordan and M.A. Shields, Social science & medicine, 2013

“Financial crisis and austerity measures in Greece: Their impact on health promotion policies and public health care“, by A.A. Ifanti, A.A. Argyriou, F.H. Kalofonou and H.P. Kalofonos, Health Policy, 2013

“Is Malnutrition Increasing?“, by E. Jacobs, American Journal of Public Health and the Nation’s Health, 1933

“HIV-1 outbreak among injecting drug users in Greece, 2011: a preliminary report“, by D. Paraskevis, G. Nikolopoulos, C. Tsiara, D. Paraskeva, A. Antoniadou, M. Lazanas, P. Gargalianos, M Psychogiou, M. Malliori, J. Kremastinou and A Hatzakis, Euro Surveill, 2011

“Are recessions good for your health?“, by C.J. Ruhm, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2000

“Prolonged financial stress predicts subsequent obesity: Results from a prospective study of an Australian national sample“, by M. Siahpush, T.T.K. Huang, A. Sikora, M. Tibbits, R.A. Shaikh, G.K. Singh, Obesity, 2013

“Health and Health Behaviors during the Worst of Times: Evidence from the Great Recession“, by E. Tekin, C. McClellan and K.J. Minyard, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2013

Appendix – Cited References:
a. Retrieved August 21, 2014 from: http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/C_Ruhm_Are_2000.pdf
b. Retrieved August 21, 2014 from: http://www.nber.org/papers/w19234
c. Retrieved August 21, 2014 from: http://www.york.ac.uk/media/economics/13_02.pdf

The Economist Magazine (Posted 08-24-2013; retrieved 08-21-2014) –
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21584020-impact-downturns-physical-and-mental-health-body-research

Consider these crises:

  • Suicides
  • Alcoholism
  • Drug Abuse (Prescription & Illegal Street Varieties)
  • Rage

No one wants to live in a society where these mental health crises remain unmitigated. But the foregoing article relates that increases in many physical ailments (HIV, malnutrition, obesity, etc) also constitute a crisis. The book declares that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste”, so the required mitigations start with this Go Lean roadmap.

A lot is at stake – from a declining quality of life all the way to early death.

The Go Lean roadmap immediately calls for the coordination of the region’s healthcare needs. This point is declared early in the Go Lean book, commencing with this opening pronouncement in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12), as follows:

ix.  Whereas the realities of healthcare … cannot be ignored and cannot be afforded without some advanced mitigation, the Federation must arrange for health plans to consolidate premiums of both healthy and sickly people across the wider base of the entire Caribbean population. The mitigation should extend further to disease management, wellness, obesity and smoking cessation programs.

There is no doubt that the Great Recession devastated Caribbean economies, but what were the affects on the region’s physical and mental health? If we want to minimize the “push-and-pull” factors that lead people to emigrate, we must answer this question very thoughtfully, then be prepared for the next crisis. This point was also anticipated in a further pronouncement in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13), as follows:

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.

Go Lean … Caribbean therefore constitutes a change for the Caribbean. This is a roadmap to consolidate 30 member-states of 4 different languages and 5 colonial legacies (American, British, Dutch, French, Spanish) into a Trade Federation with the tools/techniques to bring immediate change to the region to benefit one and all member-states. This includes the monitoring/tracking/studying the physical and mental health trends. This empowered CU agency will liaison with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and agencies like EUPHA, plus other foreign entities with the similar scope, like the US’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The book details that there must first be adoption of such a community ethos, the appropriate attitude/spirit to forge change in the region. Go Lean details this and other ethos; plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to impact the region’s public health:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – Economics Influence Choices Page 21
Community Ethos – Privacy versus Public Protection Page 23
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 Improve Sharing Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness Page 36
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate 30 Member-States Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Reform   our Health Care Response Page 47
Strategy – Agents of Change – Aging Diaspora Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Separation of Powers – Department of Health Page 86
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Planning – Ways to Model the EU Page 130
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Planning – Ways to Measure Progress Page 148
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Healthcare Page 156
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Cancer Page 157
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Emergency Management Page 196
Appendix – Disease Management – Healthways Model Page 300
Appendix – Trauma Center Definitions Page 336

The foregoing news article links economic downturns to physical and mental health ailments – there is no denying. There is need for a permanent union to provide efficient stewardship for the Caribbean economy, security and governing engines – plus serve as a Health and Medical Sentinel.

Who will be that Sentinel? The Caribbean Union Trade Federation hereby submits for this job. The region’s stakeholders (people and institutions) are hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap, to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work, heal and play.

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Breaking Up – The Port Authority – Is Hard To Do

Posted on August 20, 2014 in Implementation, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

The concept of a super-national / multi-state administration to foster development and growth in the Caribbean sounds so revolutionary.  Has such a concept ever been attempted or succeeded before?

Yes … and yes.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean identifies one such winning role model (Page 137): The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ).

This entity was created in 1921 by an act of the US Congress, an interstate compact, to coordinate the common interest of the two states, even above and beyond the self-interest of each state. The focus is on common interest, not self interest. This charter facilitates trade and transportation. This is a very exacting model for a Caribbean focus, as the Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). Facilitating trade is a parallel objective of both the CU and the PANYNJ. In fact, this Go Lean/CU 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.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates much of the region’s key transportation infrastructure. But some assets are profitable while others are not; some hubs chew up a lot more cash than they generate. So says the following news article:

By: Aaron Elstein
Subtitle: Why the agency endures despite political interference, scandal and lots of red ink.

PANYNJ 1

It didn’t take long after the George Washington Bridge traffic caper erupted for people to start demanding dramatic change at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. By a unanimous vote, the New Jersey state Senate urged Congress to examine the “organizational structure” of the agency, which runs the region’s bridges, tunnels, airports and much else. Others called for more drastic measures.

“I’ve started hearing people say that it’s time to break the Port up,” said Carol Kellermann, president of the Citizens Budget Commission.

A breakup might sound like fair comeuppance for the Port Authority, a massive government body that’s now seen as a jobs bank for Gov. Chris Christie’s friends. Carving up the agency into its New York and New Jersey parts would certainly simplify the chain of command in an unwieldy organization that effectively has two chief executives and a board that reports to two governors, who each have veto power over decisions. Even a consulting firm hired by the authority described management two years ago as “dysfunctional.”

“It could be simpler and cleaner if you separated the different parts of the Port into individual agencies,” said Stephen Berger, a former Port Authority executive director. “It would also be insane.”

PANYNJ 3Dismantling the agency is not a new idea. The idea was first broached in the 1940s and most recently in 1996, when Mayor Rudolph Giuliani unveiled a plan to merge PATH into the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, sell the World Trade Center, fold the Port Authority police into the city’s Police Department and create a new agency called the New York Airport Authority that would have been in charge of rebuilding the city’s airports.

Mr. Giuliani, who didn’t return a call seeking comment, argued at the time that the Port Authority was riddled with inefficiencies and mismanagement. The idea went nowhere.

The agency endures for a simple reason: The economics of a breakup don’t work. Many of the authority’s operations lose substantial sums and couldn’t survive without hefty subsidies from other parts of the organization.

PATH, for instance, devoured $2.3 billion in cash between 2007 and 2011. The harbor ports and midtown bus terminal chewed up $755 million and $537 million, respectively, during the same period. Rebuilding the WorldTradeCenter has cost the agency about $8 billion in the past decade.

Cash Cows

Yet even amid these gushers of red ink, the Port Authority in 2012 managed to generate $1.1 billion in net income on $4 billion in revenue. That gain was all thanks to the huge toll and fee revenue coming from the region’s three major airports and the George Washington  Bridge. Those four hubs generated about $5 billion in operating cash between 2007 and 2011.”One of the most powerful things about the Port is how it moves revenues from one place to another,” Mr. Berger said.

PANYNJ 2The Port Authority’s diverse revenue streams also mean it can borrow more cheaply than the airports or bridges could on their own. That’s an important consideration because the agency has $20 billion in debt obligations and is expected to borrow another $8 billion over the next four years to pay for such projects as completing the World Trade Center, building a new central terminal at LaGuardia Airport and raising the Bayonne Bridge so larger ships going to and coming from the Panama Canal can dock here.

“The Port is different from just about any city or state in that they can go to the market and raise whatever capital they need whenever they want,” said Matt Fabian, a managing director at independent debt-research firm Municipal Market Advisors. “The management team is seen by investors as very sophisticated.”

“Sophisticated” might not be the word preferred by most people to describe the management team behind the Fort Lee traffic jam engineered by aides of Mr. Christie, but interference from elected leaders and their lackeys isn’t new at the agency.

Jameson Doig, a professor of government at DartmouthCollege, dates the first example to 1927, six years after the Port Authority’s creation. That’s when the governor of New Jersey demanded—and won—the right to veto agency decisions because he wanted to help a company get a contract installing wire cables on the GeorgeWashingtonBridge.

Political Interference

Mr. Doig said many of the Port Authority’s current problems stem from an agreement made in 1995, when Gov. George Pataki appointed an investment banker with no experience in transportation to the executive director job. After New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman objected, the leaders compromised by creating a new deputy executive director position to be filled by the New Jersey side. The executive director and the deputy share the same box on the authority’s organizational chart, and the deputy can’t be fired by the executive director.

At the time, the move was applauded as a sensible division of power, but “that’s when you started seeing the management problems that are blindingly obvious today,” said Mr. Doig, author of a book about the agency called Empire on the Hudson.

He added that Port Authority management suffered further when Mr. Christie rewarded up to 60 political backers with jobs for them or their family members after he was elected in 2010. In the past, governors have appointed no more than five supporters to Port Authority jobs.

“The first thing you change with the Port is eliminate those patronage appointees and put in people who are strong and independent,” Mr. Doig said. “And get rid of that deputy executive director job.”

At least for now, that job is vacant. Bill Baroni, one of the masterminds behind the Fort Lee traffic jam, resigned last month.

See Revenue/Profit Appendix below.

Crains New York Business News Online Site (Posted 01-19-2014; retrieved 08/18/2014) –http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140119/POLITICS/301199988/breaking-up-the-port-authority-is-hard-to-do#

The foregoing article was a published news item; this generated feedback and commentary. As follows is a valid and relevant comment by a regular citizen identified as Roger. His comments are “spot on“, as follows:

Roger wrote on 01/19/14 at 6:44 AM:

Breaking up the Port brings the region back to the bad old days of NY-NJ rivalry and stalemate that necessitated the creation of the bi-state Authority in the first place in 1921.  The Port Authority for most of its history was an incredibly effective, highly professional and often visionary agency of development of the region’s essential trade and transportation infrastructure.  This it did reasonably free of political interference and cronyism, especially considering the political cultures of the two state parents.  Its great fault was a dearth of public accountability and transparency, in response to which the Governors have steadily sought greater oversight which morphed into outright control, ending in the current miasma of political patronage that now afflicts the Port Authority.  What is needed is a new regime of state oversight that provides broad policy direction but keeps hands-off to let the agency do what it once was permitted – as intended – to do so well.

This subject of regional administration is important in the consideration of Caribbean elevation. How do we learn from the successes and failures of PANYNJ and ensure that we do our multi-state compact right. (The CU is a confederation of 30 member-states). Some previous Go Lean blogs, highlighted here in the following samples, showed how the application of the Go Lean roadmap is designed to benefit the region, and glean insights, intelligence and wisdom from other models/examples:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=888 Book Review: ‘Citizenville – Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=829 Trucks and Trains Play Well Together
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=798 Lessons Learned from the American Airlines merger
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=353 Book   Review: ‘Wrong – Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn…’

The people and institutions of the Caribbean must lean-in to the initiatives spelled out in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. Similar to the PANYNJ, there is no need for CU member-states to fund the CU Trade Federation, just the opposite, the CU will generate revenues to remit back to each member-state. This commission involves duplicating a lot of the functions that PANYNJ conduct now, but we must do it better (efficiently and effectively). This point is clearly defined in (Page 12) of the Declaration of Interdependence, with these statements:

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.

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

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

Enacting a multi-state compact, and the related governance, is “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap. Implementing the CU with a heightened regulatory framework compared to PANYNJ as depicted in the foregoing news article, allows the transparency and checks-and-balances that stakeholders deserve, but not to undermine the fundamentals of a technocracy – we must be able to deliver first and foremost on our obligations, irrespective of political maneuvering. The CU emergence would therefore provide the foundation so that the regional society can be elevated, economically and governmentally.

The Go Lean book details samples in this series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster progress in regional administration:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – Voluntary Trade Creates   Wealth Page 21
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederating 30   Member-States Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Growing the Region’s Economy to   $800 Billion Page 67
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Legislative   Oversight Page 72
Anecdote – “Lean” in Government Page 93
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the   EEZ Page 104
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Implementation – Ways   to Re-boot an Existing Port Authority Page 112
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade Page 128
Planning – Lessons from New York City Page 137
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Revenue Sources … for Regional Administration Page 172
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation Page 205
Appendix – Enacting Interstate Compacts Page 278

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey set out to manage the common waterways (and related trade) of the Hudson River as it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. That was the initiation; it has since over-reached, but still for the providential benefit of the people of States of New York and New Jersey. As a parallel, the Caribbean Union Trade Federation sets out to manage the common waterscapes of the Caribbean Sea, with the built-in “over-reach” mandate from the beginning – the focus is not just limited to port activities. In fact the Go Lean roadmap details 144 different mission/advocacies.

This, the CU, is not for political gain, or to accumulate power and wealth for a few. No, the purpose, planning and execution of the CU is for the Greater Good. In fact, a lot of the executions for the CU is neutral/agnostic of politics. While politicians may have influence on budgets and policies, as a technocracy the Federation is required to just deliver – think postal mail (“neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”).

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the elevations described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The benefits are too alluring, a better place to live, work and play.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

—————————————————————————–

APPENDIX – PANYNJ Revenues / Profits

TOTAL AVIATION: +$2.5 BILLION

Airport

Profit

JFK

+$990 million

LaGuardia

+$273 million

Newark

+$1.3 million

Teterboro, Stewart, heliports

-$65 million

TOTAL BRIDGE AND TUNNEL: -$537 MILLION*

Bridge/Tunnel

Profit

GW Bridge

+$1.3 billion

Lincoln Tunnel

+167 million

Holland Tunnel

+$141 million

Port Authority Bus Terminal

-$479 million

PATH

-$2.3 billion

TOTAL PORT COMMERCE: -$755 MILLION*

Port

Profit

Port Newark

-$317 million

Port Jersey

-$184 million

Howland Hook

-$160 million

Brooklyn Marine   Terminal

-$27 million

TOTAL WORLD TRADE CENTER: -$3.1 BILLION

GRAND TOTAL: -$2.5 BILLION

The total shows the authority doesn’t generate enough from tolls, fees and grants to cover its costs. It borrows to cover the shortfall.

*Total includes other entities not listed here.

Source: Phase II report to the special committee of Port Authority’s board, prepared by consulting firm Navigant in September 2012.

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MetroCard – Model for the Caribbean Dollar

Posted on August 20, 2014 in Economics, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

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

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

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

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

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

The Caribbean needs this increase in development capital/liquidity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MetroCard is truly a model for the Caribbean … Dollar.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix – Reference Source:

MetroCard – New   York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Payment System

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

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

History

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

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

Date

Daily

Weekly

Monthly
04May2003

$2

$21

$70
27Feb2005

$2

$24

$76
02Mar2008

$2

$25

$81
28Jun2009

$2.25

$27

$89
30Dec2010

$2.25

$29

$104
19Dec2012

$2.50

$30

$104

Technology

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

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

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

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

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

Transfers

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

One free transfer from:

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

Card type – consideration – Pay-Per-Ride MetroCards

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

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

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

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

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

Purchase options

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

Subway Station Booths

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

MetroCard Vending Machines

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

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

Neighborhood MetroCard Merchants

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

Future

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

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

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

Bad Actors: Fraud and Scams

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

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

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

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

CU Blog - MetroCard - Model for CCB - Photo 3The introduction of MetroCards did eliminate one class of criminals. When the NYC subway still used tokens, token suckers would steal tokens by jamming turnstile coin slots, waiting for unsuspecting passengers to deposit tokens (only to discover that the turnstile did not work), then returning to suck out the token. The retirement of tokens in 2003 put the token suckers out of commission.

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

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Caribbean Jobs – Attitudes & Images of the Diaspora

Posted on August 17, 2014 in Economics, Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

“Make fun of our work ethic. I dare you. I double dare you.”

The experience of new Caribbean Diaspora members is that their work ethic is appreciated by employers. So if an employer has a tie in decision-making to fill a job with Caribbean candidate or an African American candidate, the Caribbean prospects wins out. [a]

CU Blog - Caribbean Jobs - Attitudes - Images of the Diaspora - Photo 1The foregoing VIDEO/TV show from the 1990’s was a production by African Americans (Wayans brothers of Keenen, Damon, Kim, Shawn and others) for an African American audience. They laughed at Caribbean immigrants in Urban America. This is a population that have no basis to berate others. They have suffered since the 2008 Great Recession with a 21% unemployment rate [b]; even worse among Black youth where the unemployment rate is 49% [c].

This following video harmonizes with the book Go Lean…Caribbean which posits that Caribbean image should be monitored and guarded against defamation and disparaging stereotypes. While the VIDEO/TV show was produced in 1990, this Go Lean effort is recent, composed November 2013. The negative image aside, the following VIDEO is funny:

The sketch comedy television show In Living Color debuted on FOX-TV in September 1990. This skit emerged in Season 1 Episode 7 depicting a hardworking West Indian family (Father, Mother, Son and Daughter) all with multiple jobs.

 

The underlying issue in this consideration is jobs.  There is the need for more jobs – in the US urban communities and in the Caribbean. But there are more issues in consideration of this book. A compelling mission of the Go Lean book is to lower the “push and pull” factors that lead many to abandon the Caribbean homeland for American shores. The book posits that the region must create jobs so that its citizens do not have to leave to become aliens in a foreign land, to be ridiculed for their accents, hairstyles (dreadlocks) and work ethic. This goal is detailed in the Go Lean book as it serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). So the CU would be set to optimize Caribbean society, starting with economic empowerment. In fact, the Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

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

The Go Lean roadmap calls for many changes and empowerments. One such example is the infrastructure of Self-Governing Entities (SGE), to allow for industrial developments in a controlled environment. There is so much that can be accomplished with the right climate, entrepreneurial spirit, access to capital and willing work force.

There are so many other defects of Caribbean life that need to be addressed. We do not want to be the “laughing stock” of the developed world. We want to be recognized as protégés, not parasites! This point is pronounced early in the book with the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12) with many statements that demonstrate the need to remediate Caribbean communities and enhance the Caribbean world-wide image:

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.

xx.      Whereas the results of our decades of migration created a vibrant Diaspora in foreign lands, the Federation must organize interactions with this population into structured markets. Thus allowing foreign consumption of domestic products, services and media, which is a positive trade impact. These economic activities must not be exploited by others’ profiteering but rather harnessed by Federation resources for efficient repatriations.

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.

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.

xxvi.      Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, pre-fabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries like tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

CU Blog - Caribbean Jobs - Attitudes - Images of the Diaspora - Photo 2It is the strong urging of every Caribbean empowerment plan to minimize the size of the Diaspora. We would prefer to keep our people and our educated work force “home” in the homeland. But it is what it is. Wishing alone will not accomplish this goal – there must be real solutions. This is the purpose of the Go Lean…Caribbean roadmap: to compose, communicate and compel solutions back in the Caribbean homeland. How, what, when? The Go Lean book also details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to impact the region, member-states, cities and communities economic prospects:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
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 – Ways to Impact Research & Development Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Mission – Facilitate Job-Creating Industries Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – High Multiplier Industries Page 70
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Self-Governing Entities Page 80
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate to the Caribbean Page 118
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Planning – Ways to Better Manage Caribbean Image Page 133
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Emergency Management Processes and Systems Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora Page 217
Appendix – Job Multipliers Page 259

With some measure of success, we should be able to reduce the size of the Diaspora, repatriating many to return to the homeland. Even more so, we should reduce the “push and pull” factors that lead many to abandon the region in the first place. We want North America (and Europe) laughing with us, not at us!

Other subjects related to job empowerments (and job losses) for the region have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentary, as sampled here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2003 Where the Jobs Are – One Scenario for Creating Caribbean Jobs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698 STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1683 British public sector workers (Afro-Caribbeans) strike over ‘poverty pay’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1596 Book Review: ‘Prosper Where You Are Planted’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1433 Caribbean loses more than 70 percent of tertiary educated to brain drain
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1256 Traditional 4-year Colleges – Terrible Investment for Region and Jobs
http://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=857   Caribbean Image: Dreadlocks
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=398 Self-employment on the rise in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273 10 Things We Don’t Want from the US – Discrimination of New Immigrations

CU Blog - Caribbean Jobs - Attitudes - Images of the Diaspora - Photo 3The purpose of this roadmap is to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play. Comedy falls under the “Play” category. With all the emphasis on jobs, work ethic, image and opportunities, there is room for fun too, or better stated: funny. This dialogue from the skit in the foregoing VIDEO is just plain funny:

Father: “What happened to that boy you were dating with those 100 jobs?”
Daughter: “Him dead now”
Father/Mother: “What?! That means there are 100 jobs open”.
Father: “Where’s my newspaper?”

If only we were not the “butt” of the joke!

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

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Appendix – Cited References

a. Posted September 26, 2012; retrieved August 17, 2014 from:
http://m.ibtimes.com/caribbean-americans-invisible-minority-seeking-identity-affirmation-795709

b. Posted August 6, 2013; retrieved August 17, 2014 from: http://newsone.com/2662081/black-unemployment-rate-2/

c. Posted November 2013; retrieved August 17, 2014 from: http://www.laprogressive.com/african-american-teen-unemployment/

 

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Where the Jobs Are – One Scenario: Ship-breaking

Posted on August 14, 2014 in Ethos, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Here is how the human psyche is wired:

We yawn at creation, yet wow at destruction.

With that accepted fact, comes the realization that there is a business model in destruction. Jobs can be created in the art and science of destruction (demolition, recycling and turn-arounds).

This is where the next round of new jobs are to be found …

… so says the book Go Lean…Caribbean which calls for the elevation of Caribbean economics. The book assesses the challenges of the tourism product in the Caribbean region, especially since 2008, where the influx of American tourists has slowed, due to economic realities in their homeland: the middle class is shrinking, the poor is expanding, and the One Percent is growing in affluence, influence and power.

It is what it is! According to recent blog commentaries, certain amenities of the tourism product, the mainstay of Caribbean economy, have now come under attack by social change: Golf and Casino Gambling.

So with the regional tourism business models being based on American middle class prosperity, these harsh realities have now come to fruition. The book therefore posits that there is a need to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize the engines of commerce so as to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. And thus, this new focus on “destruction”, and the accompanying jobs.

Consider these two news articles that describe a business model in which opportunities exist and fulfilling those needs create jobs:

Title #1: International Shipbreaking Limited Wins Contract for Dismantle Constellation – June 13, 2014

Shipbreaking - Photo 4The [US] Navy competitively awarded a contract to International Shipbreaking Limited [a] of Brownsville, Texas, for the towing, dismantling and recycling of conventionally powered aircraft carriers stricken from service, June 13, 2014. Under the contract, the company will be paid $3 million for the dismantling and recycling of the decommissioned aircraft carrier Constellation (CV 64). The price reflects the net price proposed by International Shipbreaking, which considered the estimated proceeds from the sale of the scrap metal to be generated from dismantling. The Navy continues to own the ship during the dismantling process. The contractor takes ownership of the scrap metal as it is produced and sells the scrap to offset its costs of operations.

This is the third of three contracts for conventional aircraft carrier dismantling. All Star Metals of Brownsville was awarded the first contract Oct. 22, 2013, which included the towing and dismantling of ex-USS Forrestal (AVT 59). ESCO Marine of Brownsville was awarded the second contract May 8, 2014, for the scrapping of ex-USS Saratoga (CV 60). After the initial award of one carrier to each successful offeror, the Navy has the capability of scrapping additional conventionally-powered aircraft carriers over a five-year period under delivery orders competed between the three contractors.

Shipbreaking - Photo 4 NEWInternational Shipbreaking will now develop its final tow plan for the Navy’s approval for the tow of Constellation from its current berth at Naval Base Kitsap, Washington, to the company’s facility in Brownsville. The ship is expected to depart Kitsap this summer. Navy civilian personnel will be on site full time to monitor the contractor’s performance during dismantling of the ship.

Constellation was the second Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier to be built. She was laid down Sept. 14, 1957, at New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn, New York, and was the last U. S. aircraft carrier to be built at a yard outside of Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. The ship was commissioned Oct. 27, 1961. After nearly 42 years of commissioned service, Constellation was decommissioned at the NavalAirStationNorthIsland in San Diego Aug. 6, 2003. In September 2003, she was towed to the inactive ship maintenance facility in Bremerton to await its eventual disposal.
**************
Title #2: Muddy Waters – Are U.S. shipping companies still sending their clunkers to the toxic scrap yards of South Asia?

By: Jacob Baynham – Cincinnati, Ohio-based writer

When the 30-year-old cargo ship MV Anders cruised out of Norfolk, Va., at 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 26, it may have been sailing through one of the largest loopholes in U.S. maritime regulations.

CU Blog - Where the Jobs Are - One Scenario - Photo 1Three weeks earlier, the Anders was a U.S.-flagged vessel called the MV Pfc. James Anderson Jr., named for a young Marine who saved his platoon members’ lives by falling on a Viet Cong grenade. It had hauled cargo for the U.S. Navy for more than two decades and was now retiring. The ship’s new owners, Star Maritime Corp., had renamed it the Anders, painted over the excess letters on the hull, and raised the flag of its new registry—the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. The Anders left Virginia empty.

Its 29-year-old sister ship, the MVBonny (formerly the MV 1st Lt. Alex Bonnyman), followed two days later under the same flag and ownership. The Coast Guard listed the ships’ next port of call as Santos, Brazil. But environmental groups, trade journals, and industry watchdogs claim the ultimate destination for these aging vessels will be the Dickensian scrap yards of Bangladesh.

The Anders and the Bonny served in the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command for 24 years. Stationed at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, they delivered military cargo during both Iraq wars, as well as Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. But the Navy never actually owned the ships. They chartered them from Wilmington Trust, which sold them to Star Maritime earlier this summer. When Star Maritime renamed the ships and submitted an application to reflag them under St. Kitts and Nevis registration, environmental groups recognized the telltale signs of vessels about to be scrapped and cried foul.

The Basel Action Network, a Seattle-based environmental group leading the campaign to stop the export of old ships for scrap, monitors old vessels in U.S. waters and alerts the EPA when their owners attempt to recycle them overseas. There are several reliable warning signs. First, a ship is sold to an obscure company (which U.S. ship-breakers call a “Last Voyage Inc.”), which is sometimes a subsidiary of a larger company active in the scrapping business. Then it is renamed and registered under another nation’s flag before sailing to South Asia.

“It’s outrageous that these ships were allowed to sail,” says Colby Self, director of BAN’s Green Ship Recycling campaign. “In a sense, they were government vessels.” But once the ships’ contracts had expired, all legal responsibilities lay with their owners.

Most of the world’s old ships are sent to die on the shores of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Vessels are beached there at high tide and cut into pieces by teams of poorly paid migrant workers. Heavy equipment and cranes are inoperable on the sand, so workers dismantle the ships by removing large portions, which drop to the beach. They use fire torches to cut through steel hulls—even those of old oil tankers. Dozens of workers die each year from explosions, falling steel, and disease. As for the asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), tributyltin (TBT), and other toxic materials onboard the old ships, much of it washes out to sea. (PCBs and TBT are persistent organic pollutants that work their way up the marine food chain and damage the nervous systems of large mammals.)

If the Anders and Bonny are headed to Bangladesh, they won’t be alone. South Asia’s ship-breaking yards are experiencing an ironic boom in the middle of the global recession. Ship owners faced with shrinking cargo volumes are culling their fleets by scrapping old vessels rather than paying for them to sit empty. South Asia’s yards, which take advantage of cheap labor, scant regulations, and high regional demand for steel, will buy a vessel for twice the price a U.S. ship-breaker could offer. In Bangladesh, ships like the Anders and Bonny (which are two-and-a-half football fields long and weigh more than 23,000 tons) are worth at least $7 million apiece.

In 1998, the Clinton administration slapped a moratorium on scrapping U.S.-flagged vessels overseas after the Baltimore Sun ran a Pulitzer Prize-winning string of stories about the conditions of the South Asian scrap yards. But ship owners have dozens of so-called “flags of convenience” at their disposal to circumvent the ban. Most of these flags belong to small, poor countries with little maritime oversight—places like St. Kitts and Nevis.

Ship owners submit their reflagging requests to the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD), which considers whether the ships would be needed for national security in the event of war. For old vessels, this is seldom the case. MARAD began alerting the EPA of old ships attempting to reflag after the SS Oceanic, a former Norwegian Cruise Liner, slipped out of San Francisco last year with almost 500 tons of asbestos and PCBs onboard.

The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 prohibits the export of PCBs, asbestos, and lead-based paint—materials often used in the paint, cabling, and gaskets of older ships because of their fire-retardant qualities. If the EPA suspects a vessel applying for reflagging contains hazardous materials, it can order that vessel to be tested. But because ships are not required to inventory these materials, and the EPA has limited time and resources to devote to every old ship, environmentalists contend that each year many vessels slip through the cracks.

In the case of the Bonny and Anders, EPA spokesman David Sternberg says, “Based on the available information, the EPA has no sufficient reason to contain these ships.” Sternberg adds that the EPA received a letter from the new owners insisting the vessels will be used in trade and will not be scrapped.

This seems unlikely to Kevin McCabe, founder of International Shipbreaking Ltd. in Texas. He says buying two cargo ships at the end of their life spans for their utilitarian purposes alone would “belie the economics of the market today.” McCabe is convinced that the Bonny and Anders will be scrapped in Asia. And he doesn’t think they’re clean, either. “I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that there are PCBs on those ships,” he says. “No question about it.” The EPA would be singing a different tune if the ships were to be dismantled at his Brownsville recycling facility, he adds. “When we scrap a ship, we must assume it has hazardous material onboard until we can prove otherwise.”

Colby Self of BAN says he’s disappointed that the Obama administration could so easily let these ships slip away. “[The EPA] made a calculated decision based on their low-risk assessment, and they let them go,” he says. Under the Bush administration, the EPA was very diligent in following up on BAN’s warnings, he says.

But Self isn’t giving up hope that the ships can be stopped before they wash up on South Asian shores. “We will be warning Bangladesh to bar the entry of these renegade vessels,” he says. “This story is far from over.”

The above two articles depict “two sides of the same coin”: what happens when ship-breaking is done right, and done wrong.

The book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) with the charter to facilitate jobs in the region. We want to explore all the strong benefits of the shipbuilding (including ship-breaking) industry, by doing it right – more safety precautions than Bangladesh and lower labor costs than Brownsville-Texas. This aligns with the CU charter; as defined by these 3 prime directives:

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

Early in the Go Lean book, the responsibility to create jobs was identified as an important function for the CU with this pronouncement in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 14):

xxvi.  Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, prefabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

CU Blog - Where the Jobs Are - One Scenario - Photo 3According to the foregoing articles, ship-breaking activities in Third World countries, like Bangladesh, pose harm to the environment, workers and remaining systems of commerce. But when executed correctly, as in Brownsville-Texas, ship-breaking can be all positive. There are benefits in applying the appropriate best practices in handling hazardous materials. The tons of toxic waste (asbestos) can be properly managed and disposed of, with the proper eco-system surrounding the industry. The CU will facilitate the eco-system, especially with the Self-Governing Entities (SGE) concept for shipyards. This is covered in the Go Lean book under the auspices of “turn-around” industries, a federally regulated/promoted activity.

The Go Lean book also details the principle of job multipliers, how certain industries are better than others for generating multiple indirect jobs down the line for each direct job on a company’s payroll. The shipbuilding industry has a job-multiplier rate of 3.0. According to a report by the University of Strathclyde’s Fraser of Allander Institute in Scotland, a local reduction-in-force of 800 jobs at Govan & Scotstoun Shipyards will result in total job losses across Scotland of around 2,400 jobs, including those at the shipyards. (Source: http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/clyde-shipyard-cuts-may-lead-to-2-400-job-losses-1-3179593).

The Go Lean… Caribbean book details the creation of 15,000 direct jobs for the shipbuilding industry in the Caribbean region. Once the job multiplier is applied, the economic impact is that of 45,000 jobs.

How would the Caribbean advance from 0 to 45,000 jobs in the course of the 5-year roadmap? By adoption of empowering community ethos, plus the execution of key strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies. The following is a sample:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Around and Recycling and Demolition Industries Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Mission – Facilitate a Shipbuilding Industry Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – High Multiplier Industries Page 70
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Self-Governing Entities Page 80
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
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 Emergency Management Processes and Systems Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Develop/Grow a Ship-Building Industry Page 209
Appendix – Job Multipliers Page 259

The CU will foster industrial developments in support of tourism and as an alternative to tourism. Shipbuilding / ship-breaking is a prime-and-ready endeavor. The number one ingredient in the recipe for success in this industry is access to waterways, harbors and ports. The second most important ingredient is the willingness of the people to engage.

After the new pitfalls of tourism’s changing dynamics, the Caribbean people should now be ready for this industrial challenge of ship-breaking.

The Caribbean is arguable the best address on the planet, but a lot of infrastructure is missing; infrastructure like jobs. While this (Go Lean roadmap and accompanying blogs) is the start, the end of this roadmap is a clearly defined destination: a better place to live, work and play.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix a:

Company Overview: International Shipbreaking Limited LLC

International Shipbreaking Limited LLC provides dismantling and recycling services for maritime vessels and equipment. It offers various ferrous products, such as plate and structural steel, re-roll plate, cast iron, sheet metal, and scrap products; and non-ferrous products, including aluminum, brass, copper, cupro-nickel, lead, and non-ferrous scrap products. The company provides reusable equipment, such as propulsion systems, generators and engines, anchors, chains, and windlasses, as well as film projection machines, x-ray equipment, washing machines, kitchen galley tools, beds, lockers, gun racks, lighting fixtures, chairs, tables, and desks. It also offers artificial reefing.

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Casinos Changing/Failing Business Model

Posted on August 14, 2014 in Industries, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Change has come to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Change has come to the world of casino gambling. For the US, there used to be a casino monopoly west of the Mississippi in Las Vegas, and another monopoly east of the Mississippi in Atlantic City.

No More!

Casinos have since popped up in many states (Pennsylvania, Florida, Connecticut, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, etc) all over the country, plus on many federally-legislated Indian Reservations. Additionally, there is the eco-system of casino riverboats and cruise ships leaving major US ports.

Now, the casino hot spots of Las Vegas and Atlantic City have to compete for their customers, and many times, they lose, as depicted in the foregoing news article, which reports that 2 casinos are closing in Atlantic City next month September.

“Who moved my cheese?”

Title: The Atlantic City’s Revel Casino to Close in September
Atlantic City, NJ – Aug 12, 2014, 3:42 PM ET
By: Wayne Parry, Associated Press

CU Blog - Atlantic City's Revel Casino to Close in September - Photo 1When it opened just over two years ago, many people hoped Revel would save Atlantic   City’s struggling casino industry, which has been bleeding money and jobs for years.

But now the $2.4 billion resort that was widely seen as the last, best chance for Atlantic City’s gambling market is shutting down, unable to find a buyer for even pennies on the dollar.

In addition to putting 3,100 people out of jobs and hurting state and local budgets, Revel’s demise shows just how cutthroat the East Coast casino market has become, and how difficult it is for even the newest and nicest gambling halls to survive in an oversaturated market.

Revel Entertainment said the casino and its 1,399 hotel rooms will close on Sept. 10, never having turned a profit.

“We regret the impact this decision has on our Revel employees who have worked so hard to maximize the potential of the property,” Revel said in a statement Tuesday. “We thank them for their professionalism and dedication; however we are faced with several unavoidable circumstances.

“Despite the effort to improve the financial performance of Revel, it has not proven to be enough to put the property on a stable financial footing,” the company wrote.

Revel’s most recent Chapter 11 filing listed assets of $486.9 million and liabilities of $476.1 million.

The company said its situation was compounded by a “considerable non-controllable expense structure” that financially burdened the property. It said it had no choice but “an orderly wind-down of the business at this time.”

Revel said it still hopes to find a buyer through the bankruptcy process. But it acknowledged that if that happened, it would be after the facility had already shut down.

Matthew Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, called the closing “enormously disappointing,” but held out hope for a future sale.

“I sincerely hope that possibility materializes, especially for the employees who face the loss of their jobs,” he said.

Israel Posner, who runs a tourism and gambling study institute at RichardStocktonCollege, said he expects Revel to sell as a non-casino building.

“I still believe Revel will sell, for pennies on the dollar, to someone who will figure out that it is the most modern, beautiful structure that’s going to be built for generations to come,” he said.

The casino was due to be sold at a bankruptcy court auction last week, but that was postponed to allow casino officials to study bids that were received. After Revel’s board met on Monday, the decision was made to shutter the glittering glass-covered casino at the north end of the Boardwalk.

Revel opened in April 2012 as the first new casino in Atlantic City since the Borgata opened nine years earlier, and carried great hopes for many that it would be the catalyst to jolt what had been the nation’s second-largest gambling market back to life. Atlantic City has since slipped to third place behind Nevada and Pennsylvania, whose casinos touched off the New Jersey resort town’s revenue and employment plunge in 2007.

Since 2006, when the first Pennsylvania casino opened, Atlantic City’s casino revenue has fallen from $5.2 billion to $2.86 billion last year.

So far this year, the Atlantic Club closed in January, bought at a bankruptcy auction by the parent companies of Tropicana and Caesars and shuttered in the name of reducing competition. Caesars Entertainment will close the Showboat on Aug. 31, also to reduce the competition in Atlantic City, where it currently owns 4 of the 11 casinos. And TrumpPlaza is due to close Sept. 16.

CU Blog - Atlantic City's Revel Casino to Close in September - Photo 2Revel has ranked near the bottom of Atlantic City’s casinos in terms of the amount of money won from gamblers since the day it opened.

Its original owners envisioned it as a luxury resort that just happened to have a casino, and eschewed many staples of casino culture, including a buffet and bus trips for day-trippers. But that strategy — as well as the only overall smoking ban in Atlantic City — turned off customers, and Revel filed for bankruptcy in 2013, a little over a year after opening.

That led to new ownership and a “Gamblers Wanted” promotional campaign to emphasize the company’s new emphasis on its casino.

But despite some improvement, Revel’s finances never recovered enough, and it filed for bankruptcy a second time in June.
Associated Press News Source (Retrieved August 12, 2014) – http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/atlantic-citys-revel-casino-close-september-24943242

 

CU Blog - Atlantic City's Revel Casino to Close in September - Photo 3

This article aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean, which calls for the elevation of Caribbean economics. The same challenges being experienced in Atlantic City are also affecting Caribbean casino resorts, especially since 2008. For example, the practice of Caribbean casino “junkets” is dead or dying [a].

The book posits that there is a need to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize the engines of commerce so as to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. The tourism product, the mainstay of Caribbean economy, was accustomed to depending on certain amenities that have now come under attack by social change. Whereas golf was a popular day pastime for resort guests, and casino gambling was popular at night, both activities are experiencing decline and implosion in their individual industries. (See this previous blog commentary regarding the Future of Golf). The supply and demand of gambling/gaming options have equally encountered rapid evolutionary change, from lottery tickets, BINGO parlors, online poker,  area pari-mutuels (horse/dog racing, Jai-Alai) and Off-Track Betting.

If only there was an alternate roadmap to elevate Caribbean society without depending on the “games people play” to remain constant. Wait, there is! The book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) with the charter to effectuate change in the region with these 3 prime directives:

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

Early in the book, the responsibility to monitor, manage, and mitigate the risks and threats of job killing developments, (such as the reporting in the foregoing news article), were identified as an important function for the CU with this pronouncement in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 14):

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

Many Caribbean tourism resort properties depend on casino gaming. The issue of declining growth or failing business models is an important discussion in the execution of this roadmap. This commentary previously related details of the changing macro-economic factors affecting the region’s economic engines. The following are samples of earlier Go Lean blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1943 The Future of Golf; Vital for Tourism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=841 Declining Economic Trends – Having Less Babies is Bad for the Economy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=782 Open/Review the Time Capsule: The Great Recession of 2008
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=709 Econometric Analysis – Student debt holds back many would-be home buyers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=356 Book Review: ‘How Numbers Rule the World’ – How Demographic Studies Dictate Policies
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=242 The Erosion of the Middle Class
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=235 Tourism’s changing profile

According to the foregoing article, the closing of this one property, the Revel, will directly impact 3,100 jobs. This article failed to mention however the effect on the local market with in-direct jobs. The Go Lean book details the principle of job multipliers, how certain industries are better than others for generating multiple indirect jobs down the line for each direct job on a company’s payroll. (The automotive manufacturing industry was a choice selection with a job-multiplier rate of 11.0 – Page 260)

The Caribbean must contend with many of these same issues as the city leaders of Atlantic City must now deal with. The State of New Jersey is one of the most prosperous in the US, so there’s the chance that many displaced workers can be absorbed into the regional economy. The Caribbean does not have this option – our situation is more dire, especially on self-contained islands. Our society is in desperate need of reform/reboot to insulate many of the macro-economic downward trends that are pending. On the one hand, we must double down on the tourism product. On the other hand, we must diversify our economy and avail other high job-multiplier industries, like automotive manufacturing. The Go Lean… Caribbean book details the community ethos to adopt to diversify our economy and proactively mitigate the dire effects of the changed demographic 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 – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos   – Return on Investments (ROI) Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to 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 the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Integrate Region in a Single Market Page 45
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy Page 67
Tactical – Separation of Powers Page 71
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Develop the Auto Industry Page 206
Advocacy – Ways to Help the Middle Class Page 223
Appendix – Job Multipliers Page 259

The CU will foster industrial developments to aid tourism, incorporate best practices and quality assurances to deliver the best hospitality in the world. But there is room for service improvement and enhancement of the regional tourism product.

This roadmap is not advocating the abandonment of casino gambling, though the practice is considered a vice. Rather, the community ethos being promoted is one of open competition and fostering world class deliveries in information technologies. The book posits that the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) is a great equalizer between large countries and smaller states. To reinforce this point, remember that Japan is far from being the largest population base in the world (only 126 million), yet they are the #3 economy worldwide. Size does not matter…as much, intelligent strategy and efficient delivery matters more.

This Japanese model is fully defined in the Go Lean roadmap, detailing their growth strategies (Page 69) and starting with this Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 14) statement, identified here:

xxxiii.  Whereas lessons can be learned and applied from the study of the recent history of other societies, the Federation must formalize statutes and organizational dimensions to avoid the pitfalls of [certain] communities… On the other hand, the Federation must also implement the good examples learned from developments/communities like … Japan.

The Caribbean can be a better place to live, work and play, perhaps even the best address on the planet.

Download the book Go Lean…Caribbean now!

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Appendix a:

Smart Gaming Magazine Article: INSIDE LOOK AT CASINO JUNKETS
By Henry Tamburin

Casino Junkets began in the mid-50’s as a way to entice players to Las Vegas to gamble. Junket programs in those days were pretty straightforward. Casino operators would hire junket reps to fill a plane with qualified gamblers. These players would get free airfare, free hotel accommodations, free meals, free shows (and just about anything else they wanted) in exchange for their commitment to gamble a specific number of hours per day at an explicit average bet size. The casinos of course were gambling that the players would lose more than their out of pocket expenses for bringing, housing and feeding them.

That was the past. To get a fresh look at how junkets operate in 2005 and what benefits they provide players, I interviewed junket rep Sandy Crammer, owner of S&S Casino Tours, and Jeffrey Hoss, Director of National Casino Marketing, for Harrah’s. What I learned about junkets might surprise you (it did me).

So let’s begin by defining what exactly does a Junket rep do?

Jeffrey Hoss: First off, in the Harrah’s organization we refer to our third party reps as Independent Agents rather than Junket Reps. Independent Agents send us customers (i.e. players) and in return they get a commission based on a player’s theoretical. We have about 185 Independent Agents representing 47 states and 5 international countries that have a specific territory that they can market and promote our properties to their customers. In total our Independent Agents have scheduled about 300,000 customer trips annually to Harrah’s properties.

Let me ask Sandy how she got started in this business.

Sandy Crammer: Before I started my own company, I ran a junket office as in-house employee for many years and I decided it was something I liked and wanted to try on my own. So my husband, Scott, and I started our own business and thankfully, Harrah’s decided to take a shot with us four years ago to represent them. We have three employees in our company and currently we are one of the top 5 Independent Agent producers for Harrah’s.
(Source: http://www.smartgaming.com/Articles/gambling_tips_inside_look_casino_junket.html)

 

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America’s Navy – 100 Percent – Model for Caribbean

Posted on August 12, 2014 in Government, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

“Can’t we all just get along”. – Rodney King 1993

If only life could be that simple. Unfortunately, we do not “just all get along”. There is often conflict in the world and if we do not do something positive to aid in this process, then chaos results.

This subsequent VIDEO harmonizes with the book Go Lean…Caribbean which posits that “bad actors” will always emerge in times of economic prosperity to exploit opportunities, with bad or evil intent (Page 23).

It is what it is!

VIDEO – Always defending, always on watch, protecting our freedoms whenever and wherever they are needed. America’s Navy – A Global Force For Good – https://youtu.be/TiQODFm3IFg

This commercial/VIDEO speaks of the “call to serve”; this is extremely important that someone “answers that call”; and be On Guard to protect the homeland and home seas. In an alternate commercial/VIDEO, it magnified how the US Navy also boasted these 4 percentage numbers:

70% – of the Earth covered by water
80% – of all people that live near the water
90% – of trade that travels by water
100% – percentage of time to be On The Watch and On Guard

(For the Caribbean, all of these above metrics are near 100%).

The US Navy does ensure the Greater Good in a lot of situations. For example, the Navy ensures secure passage of oil tankers through such threatening places as the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz. The threat? For one, Iran has mined the Strait of Hormus (through which a majority of the world’s oil passes) and has threatened to blockade it, but its the US Navy preventing such action.

This US Navy consideration is relevant for the Caribbean to consider; not only for the fact that two Caribbean member-states, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, commits human capital to the American Armed Forces, but also because there is a parallel need for a powerful naval “force for good” in the region. The overriding theme of the foregoing VIDEO is that “freedom is not free” and that security forces must be put in place to ensure security. The security forces for the Caribbean must therefore be from … the Caribbean. We do not want to be parasites, but rather protégés of the US Navy, and those of other territorial powers: British, Dutch, France.

CU Blog - America's Navy - 100 Percent - Model for Caribbean - Photo 3

CU Blog - America's Navy - 100 Percent - Model for Caribbean - Photo 4

CU Blog - America's Navy - 100 Percent - Model for Caribbean - Photo 1

CU Blog - America's Navy - 100 Percent - Model for Caribbean - Photo 2

The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that the region must prepare its own security apparatus for its own security needs. So the request is that all Caribbean member-states authorize a regional naval force to execute the security scope on the sovereign waters and territories in the region and for the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Caribbean Sea. This would be part and parcel of a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed with the 30 Caribbean member-states. The security goal is for public safety! This goal is detailed in the Go Lean book as it serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). So the CU would be set to optimize Caribbean society through economic empowerment, and the aligning security dynamics. 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.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

Security/Defense policy for the Caribbean must be vastly different than that of the US Navy. There is no quest for world peace, or domination. Though we must be on guard against military intrusions like terrorism and piracy, we mostly have to contend with threats that may imperil the region’s economic engines, like tourism and fisheries. This includes man-made and natural concerns like narco-terrorism, enterprise corruption (human trafficking), oil/chemical spills, hurricanes, and earthquakes/tsunamis. For this purpose, the Go Lean roadmap calls for the establishment of the Caribbean Navy. While the US Coast Guard has a scope and agenda for all the US waterscapes/waterways, the CU Navy focus will only be the Caribbean, so the US Coast Guard will be able to shift its attention and resources else where.

So if there is the US Navy and the US Coast Guard already, why is their also a need for the Caribbean Navy? Simple! The US Navy and US Coast Guard report to American authorities. The CU Navy, on the other hand, will report to a Caribbean Commander-in-Chief and be held accountable to the Caribbean people. This point is pronounced early in the book with the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12) that claims:

x.   Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices … to assuage continuous threats against public safety.

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

The Caribbean appointing “new guards”, or a security pact to ensure public safety is not so new an endeavor, as there are prior instances of this type of engagement in the region. There is an existing security pact, Regional Security System (RSS), for 5 Eastern Caribbean countries; but they have no ships – or any other naval/aviation resources for that matter. In effect, this RSS security pact would “bring a knife to a gun figh'”. The Go Lean roadmap however calls for a permanent professional Navy with the necessary Air Force, ground/Marine troops, intelligence gathering & analysis agency, and unified command-and-control for efficient coordination – even for all visiting allies. This CU Homeland Security Force would get its legal authorization from the Status of Forces Agreement instituted within the CU treaty enhancements.

Drones - Weather

CU Blog - America's Navy - 100 Percent - Model for Caribbean - Photo 5

CU Blog - America's Navy - 100 Percent - Model for Caribbean - Photo 7

CU Blog - America's Navy - 100 Percent - Model for Caribbean - Photo 6

This Status of Forces Agreement would be “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap. The Go Lean book also details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to provide increased public safety & security in the Caribbean region:

Economic Principle – Consequences of Choices Lie in Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Privacy –vs- Public Protection Page 23
Community Ethos – Intelligence Gathering Page 23
Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens Page 23
Community Ethos – Minority Equalization Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations Page 34
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing 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 – Homeland Security Page 75
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Implementation – Start-up Foreign Policy Initiatives Page 102
Implementation – Start-up Security Initiatives Page 103
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Page 104
Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid Page 115
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices Page 134
Planning – Lessons Learned from the West Indies (WI) Federation – WI Regiment Page 135
Planning – Lessons from East Germany Page 139
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Leadership Page 171
Advocacy – Ways to Impact   Justice Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Reduce Crime Page 178
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Gun Control Page 179
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Terrorism Page 181
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering/Analysis Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters Page 184
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Extractions Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Fisheries Page 210
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights Page 220
Appendix – Analysis/Chapters of the Book The Art of War Page 327

Other subjects related to security empowerments for the region have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentary, as sampled here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1554 Status of Forces Agreement = Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1531 A Lesson in History: 100 Years Ago – World War I
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1487 Here come the Drones … and the Concerns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1076 Trinidad Muslims travel to Venezuela for jihadist training
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=960 NSA records all phone calls in Bahamas, according to Snowden
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=809 Muslim officials condemn abductions of Nigerian girls
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=789 America’s War on the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=392 Jamaica to receive World Bank funds to help in crime fight
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=341 US slams Caribbean human rights practices
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273 10 Things We Want from the US and 10 Things We Don’t Want …

Bad actors will always emerge…

Accepting this premise means preparing the necessary counter-measures. The model of the American Navy gives the Caribbean a template of how, what, when and why. We must stand-up and be counted in the defense and security of our own homeland.

Protégés, not parasites!

This security is necessary to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play. The stakeholders of the region need these assurances. The stakeholders? 42 million residents, 10 million itinerant Diaspora, and 80 million tourists, (with 10 million on cruise ships). All of these stakeholders deserve someone, some force, watching and dedicated to the Caribbean … 100 percent.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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The Future of Golf; Vital for Tourism

Posted on August 12, 2014 in Ethos, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

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 to live, work and play.  “The games people play” therefore have relevance for our consideration. Golf is one of those games. But golf is more than just a game, it is an eco-system; but this eco-system is in peril.

“The financial bubble burst and the Tiger bubble burst as well”.
“Even as the economy recovered, golf is still in a nose dive”.
“Your house is on fire”.

These (above) are among the key phrases from the narration of the following HBO Real Sports documentary story:

Host Bryant Gumbel speaks with industry leaders, including Jack Nicklaus, the most accomplished golfer of all time, and executive Mark King about the state of the sport and what innovations should be embraced.

Full Length VIDEO:

YouTube Online Video Site (Published July 23, 2014; Retrieved August 9, 2014) –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFEYC4Z44v0

This subject is pivotal in the roadmap for elevation of the Caribbean economy, which maintains that tourism will continue to be the primary economic driver in the region for the foreseeable future. The game of “golf” plays a significant role in the business model of tourist resorts. The publisher of the book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that understanding the macro-economic patterns of the game/sport of golf is critical in the roadmap to grow the region’s GDP and creating jobs (2.2 million new jobs projected).

Also important in this discussion is the functionality of economic planning.

According to the foregoing VIDEO, there are major issues in the eco-system of golf. There are 4 major events during the year: The Masters, US Open, British Open and the PGA Championship. The viewership numbers for all 4 events have been declining in the last 7 years, since 2007, the eve of the Great Recession. Stakeholders in this industry cannot ignore this downward trend. For many, this discussion is not just about their past-time, but rather their livelihoods.

For the Caribbean perspective, the subject of golf encapsulates the activities of live, work and play. (Some of the most prime residential properties are on or overlooking golf courses).

Change is constant. Change can be lateral, forward and backwards too. Empires rise and fall, past-time activities change; new sports come into fashion, while others fade into obsolescence. (In the US, boxing is on the decline while Mixed Martial Arts are on the rise).

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

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

Early in the book, the benefit of the “business of sports for community empowerment” is pronounced in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 13 & 14), with these opening statements:

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

xxxi.  Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism – modeling the Olympics.

CU Blog - The Future of Golf; Vital for Tourism - Photo 1The Caribbean tourism resort properties depend on golf amenities. Many times too, golf courses are built as municipal establishments, so as to benefit citizens through the Parks & Recreation infrastructure. The issues of sufficient returns on the public investments in golf is an important discussion in the execution of this roadmap.

This commentary previously related details of the changing macro-economic factors (like demographics) that affect the region’s economic engines. The following are samples of earlier Go Lean blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1715 Lebronomy – Economic Impact of One Superstar on a Sport/Team’s Viability
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1148 Sports Business and Sports Bubbles – Franchise values in basketball
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=841 Declining Economic Trends – Having Less Babies is Bad for the Economy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=782 Open/Review the Time Capsule: The Great Recession of 2008
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=709 Econometric Analysis – Student debt holds back many would-be home buyers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=498 Book Review: ‘The Sports Gene’ – Identifying and Fostering Sports Genius Abilities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=356 Book Review: ‘How Numbers Rule the World’ – How Demographic Studies Dictate Policies
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=318 Empowering Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273 10 Things We Want from the US and 10 Things We Don’t Want from the US – # 2: Tourists
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=254 Air Transport Industry Changes – Air Antilles Launches St. Maarten Service
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=242 The Erosion of the Middle Class
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=235 Tourism’s changing profile

According to the foregoing VIDEO, the opulence of golf has not fared well in today’s real economy. The game costs too much, and takes too much time. There is a real chance that this sport will die off with older generations, unless reform can be incorporated to attract and retain younger generations to the sport. Many revisions have been tried – as depicted in the video – there is no tolerating the status quo.

The Caribbean must do the same. Our societies are also in need of reform/reboot to attract and retain the youth to consider their future in their Caribbean homelands. The homelands have been losing at this … badly. There are validated reports of over 70% of the college educated population fleeing the region (https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1433); this constitutes an undeniable brain drain. The Go Lean… Caribbean book details the community ethos to adopt to proactively mitigate the dire effects of 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 – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI) Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius Page 27
Community Ethos – Impact Research & Development Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Integrate Region in a Single Market Page 45
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Trade and Globalization Page 70
Separation of Powers – Sports and Culture Administration Page 81
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the One Percent Page 224
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports Page 229

The CU will foster industrial developments to aid and abet tourism. This is not planning for 1995, but rather 2015. The assumptions of the past, simply no longer apply today. It is what it is!

CU Blog - The Future of Golf; Vital for Tourism - Photo 2“Earlier this year, at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Mark King, the CEO of the company TaylorMade Golf announced the launch of Hack Golf, a TaylorMade-sponsored initiative that is, at heart, a worldwide call for fresh ideas. Over the next five years, operating in alliance with the Professional Golf Association (PGA) of America, King plans to pump $5 million of his company’s money into what amounts to a global brainstorm session. This constitutes a concerted effort to seek solutions to a demographic problem.” – (http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/hack-golf-aims-grow-game-taylormade-sponsored-brainstorm-session)

Golf may have a future.

The 2014 PGA Championship was won by Rory McIlroy, a 25 year old golf “phenom”. After Tiger Woods, this sports needs all the young stars they can get a hold off. If only they can attract young viewers.

For the Caribbean, this issue is bigger than just the game of golf; this is life – Caribbean life. We must have a better future, inclusive of all of our young people. How? With the concerted effort as detailed in the 5 year Go Lean roadmap, this region can and will be a better place to live, work and play.

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

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