Category: Social

Fixing Haiti – Can the Diaspora be the Answer?

Posted on September 30, 2017 in Government, Locations, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Make no mistake; Haiti needs all the help it can get. At this moment, there are many initiatives hoping to impact this country:

CU Blog - Haitian Diaspora - Not the Panacea - Photo 1Despite all of these efforts, Haiti continues to be the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. They boast bad dysfunction!

Many people may argue – and they would be correct – that the reformation and transformation of Haiti should come from Haiti and Haitians first.

Do what you have always done; get what you have always got.

But can Haiti’s Diaspora be their “panacea” – the cure-all for all its societal ills?

Haiti’s problems have been too tumultuous for Haitians on the island to assuage on their own. Consider the news article in  Appendix A below; as a poor country with a far-flung Diaspora, there is some hope for Diaspora financing. So the people within this community continue to hope that their panacea – solution, cure-all for their ills – may come from their Diaspora.

Here we go again. We have seen how one Caribbean country after another put their hope and faith in their young people that they send off to the “mainland”. This precept was communicated brilliantly in the Broadway musical “Hamilton“ with this featured Hip-Hop song What’s Your Name? Alexander Hamilton; consider these lyrics:

When the word got around, they said “this kid is insane, man”
Took up a collection just to send “him” to the mainland
“Get your education, don’t forget from whence you came”
And the world gonna know your name …
———-
VIDEO – Lin-Manuel Miranda Performs at the White House Poetry Jam – https://youtu.be/WNFf7nMIGnE

The Obama White House
Published on Nov 2, 2009 – Writer and star of the Broadway musical In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda performs “The Hamilton Mixtape” at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word on May 12, 2009. Accompanied by Alex Lacamoire. (public domain)

This song/VIDEO is relevant to this discussion. Alexander Hamilton was born and raised among the Caribbean islands of Nevis and St. Croix; then he emigrated to colonial New York and became a “Founding Father” of the United States of America, along-side George Washington et al. But one legacy of Hamilton is that he never returned his attention to the Caribbean.

When will “our” Caribbean people learn? A trip (relocation) from the Caribbean to the mainland, tends to be One-Way.

In many of the Caribbean homelands, there is such a high societal abandonment rate that the population of the citizenry is approaching a distribution where half of the citizens live in the homeland and the other half live abroad – in the Diaspora. When this is not the case – as in Haiti – then a majority of the educated population have fled. One report presents that abandonment rate of 70 percent.

As related in a previous blog-commentary, those who live in the Diaspora know “both sides of the coin”, as most of them have lived in the ancestral lands at one point. But the other half, those who still live in the homeland may have never lived abroad.

They do not know what they do not know!

Being a visitor to some North American or European city is different than being a resident, as visitors do not have the interactions of applying for jobs, housing, government benefits, paying taxes, co-existing with neighbors, etc.. These ones in the homeland may naturally assume that the “grass is greener on the other side”. Here’s the truth:

    It is not! (The grass in the northern cities may not even be green at all; it may be covered with autumn foliage or snow).

The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean has been consistent in urging the governments of the Caribbean member-states to NOT put their hope and faith in their Diaspora to look back to their homelands and be the panacea that their societies need. There is preponderance for one government administrations after another to pursue this strategy. This movement has been consistent in this theme. Just recently we published commentaries on this Caribbean pre-occupation, with these entries relating these homelands:

The premise for the criticism of this Diaspora strategy is that these ones have fled the region for a reason; they have been “pushed” or “pulled” away from their homeland. They would be less inclined to invest back in their country; and the historicity is that they have not! All of these previous commentaries relate this basic message about catering to the Diaspora:

The subtle message to the Caribbean population is that they need to leave their homeland, go get success and then please remember to invest in us afterwards.

… It is so unfortunate that the people in the Caribbean are beating down the doors to get out of their Caribbean homeland, to seek refuge in these places like the US, Canada and Western Europe. And yet it seems like the Chief Executive of this Caribbean country is encouraging more of it – there is a similar sentiment in the rest of the Caribbean member-states. As a result, we have such a sad state of affairs for our Caribbean eco-system as we are suffering from a bad record of societal abandonment.

Yes, the problem of this Diaspora-outreach strategy is that it double-downs on the failure of why the Diaspora left in the first place. When we look at Haiti and see the many failures of that country, we realize that the Haitians on the island and the Haitians in the Diaspora cannot, single-handedly or collectively, solve the problems on that homeland. No, something bigger and better is needed.

Enter the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This is presented as the organizational solution for Haiti; this is the panacea. We need people to stay in their Caribbean homelands, not flee. We need them to prosper where planted. Governments cannot expect to derive revenues from the emigrated Diaspora; this is equivalent to demanding alimony after a divorce. This is unrealistic and impractical as a government policy. There needs to be a better system of governance.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic CU, for the elevation of Caribbean societal engines – economic, security and governance for all member-states. The book asserts that the region must work to hold on to its populations – especially the professional classes – not see them leave for foreign shores. To accomplish this objective, this CU/Go Lean roadmap presents 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 ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies. Improved governance allows for better revenue options for member-states; in fact there are the options for Two Pies – revenues for the federal government – see Appendix B – and revenues for the member-states.

The Go Lean book – and many previous blog-commentary – asserts that while conditions may be bad for Caribbean (i.e. Haitian) residents in their homeland, Black-and-Brown immigrants to other countries often have to contend with less than welcoming conditions in those countries. It is only with the second generation that prosperity is achieved, but by then, the children of the Caribbean Diaspora is not considered Caribbean anymore; they assume their residential citizenship. (Previously we related how Afro-Caribbean people in the UK preferred to be identified as “Black British“).

It would be better for Haitian people, and people of all the Caribbean for that matter, to work to remediate the problems in their homeland, rather than emigrate and become aliens in a foreign land. But there is no doubt that such work would be heavy-lifting; it requires a reboot of the entire Haitian eco-system. The Go Lean roadmap calls for a technocratic reboot, to do things differently.

This roadmap is not for the Diaspora to come to the rescue, but rather a Caribbean confederacy, constituted by all 30 member-states. This position leverages the Caribbean as a Single Market (42 million people); it asserts that this is better than catering to the Diaspora of just one country; (Haiti’s Diaspora is estimated at 1 million). This is the panacea that the Caribbean needs to assuage its defects and dysfunction. Plus, it also includes the Diaspora, but of all the Caribbean nations combined – estimated at 10 to 25 million. This is a plan for interdependence! This was the motivation for the CU/Go Lean roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13) of the book:

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.

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.

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.

The goal of the Go Lean roadmap is for Caribbean people to prosper where planted; the book therefore provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot Haiti (and the rest of the Caribbean). One advocacy for a Way Forward is the plan to optimize government revenues collections (Page 172): 10 Revenues Sources for Caribbean Administration; see Appendix B below.

In addition, there is a specific plan in the roadmap to impact Haiti. Consider the Chapter excerpts and headlines here from this sample on Page 238 entitled: 10 Ways to Reboot Haiti. But first, understand the concept of the Marshall Plan:

The Bottom Line on the Marshall Plan
By the end of World War II much of Europe was devastated. The Marshall Plan, (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP), named after the then Secretary of State and retired general George Marshall, was the American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of the war. During the four years (1948 – 1952) that the plan was operational, US $13 billion in economic and technical assistance was given to help the recovery of the European countries. The plan looked to the future, and did not focus on the destruction caused by the war. Much more important were efforts to modernize European industrial and business practices using high-efficiency American models, reduce artificial trade barriers, and instill a sense of hope and self-reliance.By 1952 as the funding ended, the economy of every participant state had surpassed pre-war levels; for all Marshall Plan recipients, output in 1951 was at least 35% higher than in 1938. Over the next two decades, Western Europe enjoyed unprecedented growth and prosperity. Generally, economists agree that the Marshall Plan was one of the first elements of European integration, as it erased trade barriers and set up institutions to coordinate the economy on a continental level – that is, it stimulated the total political reconstruction of Western Europe. Today, the European Union, the latest successor of the integration effort, is the world largest integrated economy.

CU Blog - A Lesson in History - Haiti 1804 - Photo 3

10 Ways to Reboot Haiti

1

 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
This regional re-boot will allow for the unification of the region into one market, thereby creating a single economy of 30 member-states, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion. Following the model of  European integration, the CU will be the representative and negotiating body for Haiti and the entire region for all trade and security issues.

2

 Marshall Plan for Haiti
Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. But what they have is impassioned human capital as opposed to financial capital or valuable minerals. The CU is a total economic reboot for this country, one that involves developing internally and not thru emigration. To reboot Haiti will require a mini-Marshall Plan. The infrastructure, for the most part, is archaic compared to modern societies. The engines of the CU will enable a rapid upgrade of the infra-structure and some “low hanging fruit” for returns on the investment.

3

 Leap Frog Philosophy
There is no need to move Haiti’s technology infrastructure baseline from the 1960’s, then to the 1970’s, and so on. Rather, the CU’s vision is to move Haiti to where technology is going, not coming from. This includes advanced urban planning concepts like electrified light-rail, prefab house constructions, alternative energies and e-delivery of governmental services and payment systems.

4

 Repatriation and Reconciliation of the Haitian Diaspora
The goal will be to extend the “Welcome Mat” to people that may have left Haiti over the decades and want to return. The return the CU advocates is for the Diaspora’s time, talents and treasuries. In terms of time, the encouragement will be to have ex-patriots at least have a vacation home on the island. The CU will provide the re-patriots with special status to assuage any victimization. In addition, the CU will convene a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to bring resolution to many issues from previous coup d’état, coup attempts and the Duvalier dictatorship days.

5

 Access to Capital Markets
Rebooting Haiti will require access to capital. The CU capital markets will allow for municipal and corporate financial options. The Caribbean Central Bank will manage Haiti’s monetary affairs with the global currency of Caribbean dollars.

6

 National Historic Places

7

 World Heritage Sites

8

 Labor, Immigration and Movement of People
The recovery plan for Haiti would discourage the emigration of the population. Haiti has a population base (10 million) that can imperil other islands if too many Haitians relocate within the Caribbean. As a result, the CU will expend the resources and facilitate the campaign to dissuade relocation for the first 10 years of the ascension of the CU. During these first 10 years, Haitians visiting other CU member states, with Visa’s, will careful monitoring to ensure compliance.

9

 Educational Mandates
Whereas the CU educational facilitation is satisfied at the secondary level, there will be a greater need for Adult Education in Haiti. Because of the decades of poverty, illiteracy is more dire in Haiti than in other CU state. There will be no age limitation for the educational opportunities. The macro-economic principle is “every year of education raises a country’s GDP”; this will allow for easy pickings of the economic “low hanging fruit”.

10

 Language Neutrality of the Union

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean promoters that have detailed Haiti’s historicity and the Way-Forward – the best hope for a new eco-system for Haiti. See a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10336 A Lesson in History: Haiti’s Reasonable Doubt
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8767 A Lesson in History – Haiti 1804
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8508 Support sought for kids left behind by UN troops in Haiti
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7896 Lesson Learned from Haiti’s Disaster: The Logistics of Relief
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5462 Charity Dysfunction: The Red Cross’ $500 Million In Haiti Relief
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3473 Way Forward: Expansion of CaracolIndustrial Park

In summary, growing Haiti’s Diaspora is bad for Haiti and bad for their Diaspora. Haiti needs more revenue sources and the Go Lean roadmap details the Way-Forward for state finances. Any official policy to extract revenue from people who have fled a homeland is a flawed policy. There is no divorce clause in the citizenship arrangement. There can be no expectations of any kind of “alimony payments” from expatriates.

It is better to have citizens in the homeland. They can help to build up the country and they can be taxed.

So any policy that double-downs on the Diaspora, double-downs on failure. We should never want people to have to leave then hope they remember us so that our communities can have some chance of success. No, we want and need opportunities for success right at home. We need to be able to prosper where planted.

We strongly urge everyone to lean-in to this roadmap to make our homeland – Haiti et al – a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

————

Appendix A Title: Haiti denies reports of plans to tax returning nationals

Government minister says reports are false

Haiti has denied reports that it intends to impose a tax on nationals returning to the country.

On Tuesday, Minister of Haitians Living Abroad (MHAVE), Stéphanie Auguste, told reporters there was no truth to the reports circulating in the diaspora that all Haitians abroad would be required to pay US$86 and a flat-rate income tax of 10,000 gourdes.

Auguste also dismissed suggestions that the new fiscal measures were included in the draft budget for 2017-2018.

Speaking in the presence of Economy and Finance Minister, Jude Alix Patrick, Auguste said “there is no question of paying $86  on arrival in Haiti, neither to the Consulates nor to the Embassies of Haiti for the request of a public service.

“The question of the income tax does not refer particularly to the diaspora, it concerns all Haitian or any national of other countries undertaking transactions in Haiti that involve income, importing goods, selling land, buying / selling a vehicle, or claiming the issuance of a passport…”

The authorities said that citizens whose annual income is less than 60,000 gourdes are not subjected to the payment of the tax.

However, they said it is necessary to present the certificate of filing of final declaration to conclude certain transactions.

They warned that any citizen not in a position to present it, at the time of a transaction or a public service which requires this document, will have to pay the lump sum of 10,000 gourdes, as provided for in the draft budget for 2017-2018.

“It would, therefore, be in the interest of citizens to make their final tax return annually at the prescribed time,” the minister said.

Source: Posted August 31, 2017 and retrieved September 28, 2017 from: https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/news/caribbean-news/haiti-news/haiti-denies-reports-plans-tax-returning-nationals/

————

Appendix B Title: 10 Revenue Sources … for Caribbean Administration

1.   CU Services and Infrastructural Returns – Think toll roads, tunnels and bridges

2.   e-Payment Settlements

3.   e-Government Services

4.   Property Tax Surcharges

5.   Income / Sales Tax Add-Ons

6.   Industry Licensing

7.   Regional Services i.e. Radio Spectrum Auctions

8.   Prison Industrial Complex

9.   Natural Disaster Insurance Fund

10. Capital Markets for Treasury Bonds

Source: Book: Go Lean … Caribbean Page 172

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ENCORE: America’s Race Relations – Spot-on for Protest

Posted on September 26, 2017 in Implementation, Social, Strategy

The protest action of “Kneeling during the National Anthem” has become huge.

CU Blog - ENCORE - Spot on for Protest - Photo 1

See the full news article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/sports/football/cowboys-cardinals-anthem-protest.html?mcubz=3

This issue was also huge this day last year – with the below blog-commentary – when NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began this protest. What is different now? A lot! Starting with the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. He seems to want to take America backwards by asserting that NFL players who take a knee should be fired.

CU Blog - ENCORE - Spot on for Protest - Photo 2 CU Blog - ENCORE - Spot on for Protest - Photo 3

Well, now whole teams are taking the knee and the league is universally blasting the President.

The President? This is the Leader of the Free World?

This commentary asserted then on September 26, 2016 and is presented here as an ENCORE now, “It is Time To Go! America is not home for Caribbean people”. See here:

——–

Go Lean Commentary – Time To Go – Spot-on for Protest

Here’s an interesting little-known tidbit about Abraham Lincoln – the liberator and emancipator of the American slaves:

Initially, he felt that the freed slaves needed to leave America. He felt that they would never be treated as equals in the land that had previously held them as slaves for 250 years. He advocated for places like the Caribbean (Haiti & British colonies), Central America (Belize & Panama), South America (Guyana) or Africa (Liberia).
Source Book: Colonization After Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement.
CU Blog - A Lesson in History - Before the Civil War - Human Right Not Compromise - Photo 3

Now, 150 years later, perhaps his thinking was “spot-on”.

These 150 years since the formal emancipation has seen a continuous suppression, repression and oppression of the Black race in America. Could they have had a better disposition in the Caribbean, with its Black majority rule?

This commentary asserts that it is easier for the Black-and-Brown populations in the Caribbean to prosper where planted in the Caribbean, rather than emigrating to foreign countries, like the United States.

We agree with Abraham Lincoln’s gut instinct; he was “spot on”.

This point aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean, which states that while the blatant racist attitudes and actions may now be considered politically incorrect, the foundations of institutional racism in the US have become even more entrenched. The book supports the notion that the Caribbean can be an even better place to live for the Caribbean’s Black-and-Brown populations, once we make the homeland a better place to live, work and play.

There is the need to optimize the economic, security and governing engines in the Caribbean region. This commentary is 1 of 3 from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean, in consideration of the rhymes-and-reasons to repatriate back to the Caribbean homeland. The other commentaries detailed in this series are as follows:

  1.   Time to Go – Spot-on for Protest
  2.   Time to Go – No respect for our Hair
  3.   Time to Go – Logic of Senior Emigration

All of these commentaries relate to the Caribbean image and disposition as a majority Black region. No racial supremacy is advocated in this book nor by this movement. The motivation is simply for the Greater Good. This is defined as …

“the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.” – Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832).

The Go Lean book and movement serves as a roadmap for the introduction of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU is set to optimize Caribbean society through economic empowerment, yes, but there are security and governing dynamics as well. Therefore 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 ensure public safety, justice assurances and protect the economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean roadmap posits that the Caribbean region is in crisis now, and so many are quick to flee for refuge in foreign countries. But the “grass is not necessarily greener on the other side”; life in the US, for example, is definitely not optimized for the Caribbean’s Black-and-Brown. It is “spot-on” that there is need for protest, anguish and outright fear for the interactions of Black men and the American police/law enforcement establishment.

The Go Lean book asserts that every community has bad actors. The Caribbean has bad actors; and the US has bad actors. But because of the obvious need for reform and to transform the region, it may be easier to effect change at home, than in the foreign country of the US.

Besides, many (non-Black) people in the US, don’t even think they need to change anything. They think there is no problem – everything is fine – notwithstanding the proliferation of Cop-On-Black killings. See a related news article here regarding legendary NFL Head Coach Mike Ditka; (despite these developments, Mr. Ditka continues to be honored and esteemed in the Caribbean):

Title: Mike Ditka to Colin Kaepernick: ‘Get the hell out’ if you don’t like America
By: Bryan Armen Graham
Sub-title: Mike Ditka spared no criticism of Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protest.

cu-blog-time-to-go-spot-on-for-protest-photo-1

Hall of Fame coach Mike Ditka has leveled blistering criticism at Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel during the national anthem, saying he has “no respect” for the San Francisco 49ers quarterback whose protest has sparked a national discussion over racial injustice, inspired dozens of NFL players to follow suit and landed him on the cover of Time magazine.

“I think it’s a problem, anybody who disrespects this country and the flag,” the longtime NFL coach said in a radio interview on KRLD-FM in Dallas. “If they don’t like the country, if they don’t like our flag, get the hell out. That’s what I think.

“I have no respect for Colin Kaepernick. He probably has no respect for me, that’s his choice. My choice is that I like this country, I respect our flag, and I don’t see all the atrocities going on in this country that people say are going on.

“I see opportunities if people want to look for opportunity. Now if they don’t want to look for them, then you can find problems with anything, but this is the land of opportunity because you can be anything you want to be if you work. Now if you don’t work, that’s a different problem.”

The 76-year-old Ditka, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988, is one of two people in NFL history to win a league title as a player, an assistant coach and a head coach. He graduated from local hero to Chicago icon during an 11-year coaching stint with the Bears that included the team’s only Super Bowl win during the 1985 season, then retired permanently after a failed comeback with the New Orleans Saints in 1999.

A well-known conservative, Ditka publicly flirted with running against Democratic candidate Barack Obama, then a state senator, for the open seat in the US Senate vacated by Illinois senator Peter Fitzgerald in 2004. No one then could have imagined how the election would ultimately propel Obama to the presidency in four years’ time.

“Biggest mistake I’ve ever made,” he told the Dickinson Press in 2013. “Not that I would have won, but I probably would have and he wouldn’t be in the White House.”

In March, Ditka called Obama “the worst president we’ve ever had”.

“Barack Obama is a fine man,” he added. “He’s pleasant, he’d be great to play golf with. He’s not a leader.”
Source: The Guardian Daily Newspaper Online Site; Posted September 23, 2016; retrieved September 25, 2016:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/sep/23/mike-ditka-colin-kaepernick-get-the-hell-out-anthem-protest
cu-blog-time-to-go-spot-on-for-protest-photo-2

Photograph: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

The protagonist in this drama is NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick; he has started a protest against the treatment of African-Americans in the US. He asserts that too many unarmed Black Men has died, as of recent, by the hands of White Police Officers. While others share this view, including the African-American President of the US Barack Obama, Mr. Kaepernick is voicing his protest by refusing to stand during the singing of the national anthem at the start of his NFL football games. This protest has fostered a lot of attention … and discord to this issue.

The underlying injustice of Cop-on-Black killings is acute. There is a need for community outrage; it is “spot-on” that anyone would protest. Kudos to Colin Kaepernick! Since he started his protest stance on August 26, 2016, at least 15 more “Black men have been killed by law enforcement officers” as of September 20, 2016; (but there has been 2 more highly publicized killings since this posting: Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma).

The foregoing article gives the instruction for people to leave who do not agree with the American status quo. But can they really? Could the liberated slaves in Lincoln’s day leave for elsewhere? How about the countless cries over the centuries and decades for Black American Nationalism; (as in Marcus Garvey)? Was there an alternative homeland for their consideration? This reminds us of the movie dialogue from the 1982 movie An Officer and a Gentlemen. Remember this exchange:

Foley: You can forget it! You’re out!

Mayo: Don’t you do it! Don’t! You… I got nowhere else to go! I got nowhere else to g… I got nothin’ else.

Seriously, for the majority of Black America, they have no where else to go. The Caribbean Diaspora who represent 1 in 11 Blacks in the US, on the other hand, have the option of repatriating home.

We welcome them! We declare that it is “Time to Go“. We are hereby preparing for their return – fixing our defects – monitoring our “bad actors”.

We have to consider that police officers can also be “bad actors”. The book contends that the Caribbean must better prepare for bad actors, that we will see more of them. With the plan for economic success, comes the eventuality of even more bad actors, just as a result of economic success. 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 of criminology and penology to assuage continuous threats against public safety. The Federation must allow for facilitations of detention for [domestic and foreign] convicted felons of federal crimes, and should over-build prisons to house trustees from other jurisdictions.

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 and justice assurance is a comprehensive endeavor, that will encapsulate the needs of all Caribbean stakeholders: governments, institutions and residents.

An important mission of the Go Lean roadmap is to dissuade the high emigration rates of Caribbean citizens to the American homeland. Secondly, there is a mission to encourage the repatriation of the Caribbean Diaspora back to their ancestral homeland.

This means being conscious of why people flee – “push” and “pull” reasons – and monitoring the societal engines to ensure improvement – optimization. (“Push” refers to the societal defects in the Caribbean that moves people to want to get way; and “pull” factors refer to the impressions and perceptions that America is better).

An increased perception that “one would be shoot by a White police officer” should lower the “pull” factor. We would think …
See VIDEO here:

VIDEO – I Am Afraid I Will Be Killed By Police – https://youtu.be/9DD64urEx28

Published on Jul 7, 2016 by Kevin OnStage. See more from this commentator here:
http://kevonstage.com/store
http://kevonstage.com/booking

The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to better optimize our Caribbean life (economic and security concerns):

Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Consequences of Choices Lie in Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Whistleblower Protection Page 23
Community Ethos – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation Page 23
Community Ethos – Minority Equalization Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments 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 – CU Federal Agencies -vs- Member-states 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 – Reasons to Repatriate Page 118
Planning – Big Ideas – Regional Single Market Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Planning – Ways to Better Manage the Caribbean Image Page 133
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Leadership Page 171
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Reduce Crime Page 178
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering/Analysis Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters – Many flee after disasters Page 184
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights Page 220
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living Page 234
Advocacy – Ways to Impact US Territories Page 244

This subject of “push and pull” has been frequently blogged on in other Go Lean commentaries; as sampled here with these entries relating American “pull” factors:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8431 Bahamas Issued US Travel Advisory Citing Police Violence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8202 Respect for Minorities: Lessons Learned from American Dysfunction
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8200 Respect for Minorities: Climate of Hate
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8099 Caribbean Image: ‘Less Than’?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7221 Street naming for Martin Luther King unveils the real America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7204 ‘The Covenant with Black America’ – Ten Years Later
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6189 A Lesson in History – Hurricane ‘Katrina’ exposed a “Climate of Hate”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5733 Better than America? Yes, We Can!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5527 American Defects: Racism – Is It Over?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5333 Racial Legacies: Cause and Effect
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020 Also a European Sports Problem
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=546 American Model: Book Review – ‘The Divide’ – … Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=341 Hypocritical US slams Caribbean human rights practices
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273 10 Things We Don’t Want from the US: Racism against minorities

Underlying to the Go Lean/CU prime directive of elevating the economics, security and governing engines of the Caribbean, is the desire to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play. We know “bad actors” will emerge – even as law enforcement officers – so we need to be “on guard”.

We want proactive and reactive mitigations for abuse of power. We want to ensure our Caribbean communities are safe for our stakeholders (residents and visitors). We entreat the American forces to work towards remediating their own defects. But fixing the US is not within our scope; fixing the Caribbean is our only mission.

Saying that it is “Time to Go“, must mean that we are ready to receive our oft-scattered Caribbean Diaspora. Are we ready, now?

Frankly, no …

… but were are ready, willing and able to start the change process, to reform and transform. This was the intent of the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The book contends that the Caribbean must prepare for the return of all of our people, back to these shores. This means people in a good disposition and bad (sick, aged, unemployed, destitute, imprisoned, etc.). This point is pronounced early in the book with the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 & 13) that claims:

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

xviii. Whereas all citizens in the Federation member-states may not have the same physical abilities, reasonable accommodations must be made so that individuals with physical and mental disabilities can still access public and governmental services so as to foster a satisfactory pursuit of life’s liberties and opportunities for happiness.

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.

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 like tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

The book details the needed security provisions that need to be put in place to optimize Caribbean life. See this quotation here (Page 118):

“New Guards” for Public Safety
The CU implements the anti-crime measures and provides special protections for classes of repatriates and retirees. Crimes against these special classes are marshaled by the CU, superseding local police. Since the CU will also install a penal system, with probation and parole, the region can institute prisoner exchange programs and in-source detention for foreign governments, especially for detainees of Caribbean heritage.

This subject of improving the conditions for successful Caribbean repatriation has been blogged in previous Go Lean commentaries; as sampled here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5304 Mitigating the Eventual Abuse of Power
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5002 Managing a ‘Clear and Present Danger’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4360 Dreading the American: ‘CaribbeanBasin Security Initiative’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4308 911 – Emergency Response: System in Crisis

The Go Lean roadmap was composed with the community ethos of the Greater Good foremost; for all peoples – Black, Brown, White, Yellow, Red. We advocate for a color-blind society …

… and justice for all.

This is an American concept … in words only. In practice, America has always fallen short in its delivery of justice and opportunities for its Black-and-Brown populations. There is so much that America does right, that we want to model; there is so much that America does poorly, that we want to mitigate. The “grass is not greener on the other side”. Effort is needed anywhere, everywhere, to improve society. But for the Black-and-Brown of the Caribbean, more success from less effort can be expected in the Caribbean than in the US; the underlying foundation of racism in America may be just too hard to unseat.

All Caribbean stakeholders are hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean/CU roadmap to elevate the Caribbean; to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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Gender Equity without a ‘Battle of the Sexes’

Posted on September 22, 2017 in Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

CU Blog - Gender Equity without a 'Battle of the Sexes' - Photo 1A lot of societal reforms – human and civil rights – only come about as a result of advocates fighting for change.

Some battles are so important that they must be fought, even if the proponents were to lose. These proponents must not tire in these battles; but they must accept that change will only come as a result of a struggle.

This commentary has previously asserted that despite the fact that his advocacy was 150 years ago, African-American Abolitionist Frederick Douglass is a role model for the Caribbean today; he is quoted as saying:

“Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

So “change is gonna come“; it would be wiser for opponents to just concede that fact. This is a lesson for the Caribbean to learn from military strategies: if combatants know that the end result of a fight would be imminent defeat, they should not fight; rather they should just concede and negotiate favorable terms of surrender.

Let’s consider gender equality …

… there have actually been real ‘Battles of the Sexes’, where the end results have benefited women – to the victor goes the spoils. Consider these American experiences:

  • World War I waged between 1918 and 1918, bringing monumental change to society. Women pressed hard in this era and secured the right to vote, starting in 1920, but most women’s careers still only revolved around the home and family.
  • World War II waged between 1939 and 1945 bringing even more changes to society; as men went off to war, many jobs were assumed by women. After this war, they did not relinquish those advances. More opportunities were forged in the industrial and educational arena.
  • Title IX, the 1972 landmark federal gender legislation that emerged after the 1960’s Civil Rights era force educational institutions that receive federal monies to mandate equal opportunities for women. The law states (in part) that:
      “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Ah, the 1970’s; in addition, there was another ‘Battle of the Sexes’ that dominated American consciousness. This was the media spectacle of the tennis match featuring female star – and Wimbledon Champion – Billie Jean King versus male star – and Wimbledon Champion – Bobby Riggs. This is a big week for the memories of that 1973 ‘Battle of the Sexes’ tennis match as a new movie is being released on Friday (September 29, 2017) to chronicle the drama of those events. See this Profile VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Billie Jean King’s victories, on and off the court – https://youtu.be/MgcfWTGcnNY

“If you’re old enough to remember it, in 1973, you probably watched it: Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs — man vs. woman — a spectacle that captivated the nation.
More than 30,000 attended the match held in the Houston Astrodome. …”

Lee Cowan catches up with the tennis legend and advocate for gender equality, whose 1973 exhibition match against Bobby Riggs was promoted as the “Battle of the Sexes” (and is now dramatized in a new movie starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell).

See the full transcript of the VIDEO here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/billie-jean-king-battle-of-the-sexes/

Billie Jean King, Bobby RiggsAlso see the Movie Trailer in the Appendix below.

As related in the movie, this 1973 event in Houston, Texas USA sparked a global conversation on gender equality, spurring on the feminist movement. As the USA goes, so does the rest of the world … eventually. The American Hegemony – the political, economic, or military predominance or control of one state over others – is real for its impact on Caribbean life. Each one of these advances in Women’s Rights in the US had a parallel effect on Caribbean member-states … eventually. In a previous Go Lean commentary, the Caribbean’s journey in Gender Equality was detailed and presented as a needed advocacy to reform and transform our society.

Yes, in the Caribbean, we can have Gender Equity without a ‘Battle of the Sexes’. Notice, we want equity, more so than equality! We recognize that there is and will always be differences between men and women – think maternity. Each gender have different needs, the solution is not the “same” for everyone, but rather the relevant empowerments, so that everyone can “be all they can be”.

CU Blog - Gender Equity without a 'Battle of the Sexes' - Photo 3Since the Caribbean needs … all the help we can get, we need more women in government, local administration and regional stewardship. That previous blog-commentary related …

… this is not just a case for feminism. The issues relate to policy-making participation and optimization, more than they relate to feminism. This story is being brought into focus in a consideration of the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the societal elevation in the region. This roadmap calls for a fuller participation from women as stakeholders. …

With 50% of the population, there is the need for 50% of the representation; (this is the target). …

Among the crises that the region contends with is human flight, the brain drain or abandonment of the highly educated citizenry. Why do they leave? For “push-and-pull” reasons!

“Push” refers to deficient conditions at home that makes people want to flee. “Pull” refers to better conditions abroad that appeals to Caribbean residents. They want that better life.

[So] an underlying mission of the CU is to dissuade this human flight.

The title ‘Battle of the Sexes’ refers to a movie, yes, but an advocacy as well. (Any discussion about Billie Jean King must also consider her advocacy for LGBT rights; we need those empowerments in the Caribbean too; we need our local opposition to concede – without a battle – that they cannot win in abusing others). This is why we need movies; as an art form, they can be a powerful source of messaging to impress new theories, doctrines and practices on the masses of people. This is what is meant by “life imitating art”. In a previous blog-commentary regarding Caribbean Diaspora member and Hollywood great, Sidney Poitier, it was declared that …

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

This is the assertion of the book Go Lean … Caribbean, that different artistic endeavors can be used for effective messaging to forge change – elevate the community – in the Caribbean’s societal engines. The book – available to download for free –presents the prime directives of the Go Lean roadmap:

The Caribbean region needs to include more women in leadership roles in business, government and all security institutions. We need to do this without a Battle.

You Caribbean men, just concede:

We need the full participation of all able-bodied women for the successful outworking of our communities.

This theme was pronounced early in the Go Lean book with this Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 14), with these opening 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.

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.

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 …

The subject of fostering gender equity, equal access and equal protections for women have been directly addressed and further elaborated upon in previous blog/commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12035 Lean-in for ‘Wonder Woman Day’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8306 Women Get Ready for New Lean-In Campaign
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8155 Bahamas Referendum Outcome: Impact on the ‘Brain Drain’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7490 Push Factor: Interpersonal Violence / Domestic
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6937 Women in Politics – Yes, They Can!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6836 Role Model – #FatGirlsCan – Empowering Women
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6434 ‘Good Hair’ and the Strong Black Woman
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6422 Getting More Women Interested in Science/Technology Careers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2709 Caribbean Study: 58% Of Boys Agree to Female ‘Discipline’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2201 Students developing nail polish to detect date rape drugs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=809 Muslim officials condemn abductions of Nigerian girls
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=695 Help for Abused Women Depicts Societal Defects

The Go Lean book posits that every woman has a right to work towards making her community a better place to live, work and play. This should be the default thinking, without a battle … especially here in the Caribbean where we need their participation. So the book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to help women to impact the homeland.

This quest to elevate our regional society requires heavy-lifting! It is a battle. But this quest, this goal is conceivable, believable and achievable. With the right commitment of time, talent and treasuries from women – and the men that support them – we can succeed in making the Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

———

Appendix VIDEO – Battle of the Sexes I Official Trailer – https://youtu.be/o5ykcuAS1F4

The electrifying 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) was billed as THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES and became one of the most watched televised sports events of all time. The match caught the zeitgeist and sparked a global conversation on gender equality, spurring on the feminist movement. Trapped in the media glare, King and Riggs were on opposite sides of a binary argument, but off-court each was fighting more personal and complex battles. With a supportive husband urging her to fight the Establishment for equal pay, the fiercely private King was also struggling to come to terms with her own sexuality, while Riggs gambled his legacy and reputation in a bid to relive the glories of his past. Together, Billie and Bobby served up a cultural spectacle that resonated far beyond the tennis courts and animated the discussions between men and women in bedrooms and boardrooms around the world.

Visit THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES on our WEBSITE: www.battleofthesexes-movie.com

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https://www.instagram.com/battleofthe… #BattleoftheSexes

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Jamaican Diaspora – Not the ‘Panacea’

Posted on September 20, 2017 in Government, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Here we go again. Will “they” ever learn? CU Blog - Jamaican Diaspora - Not the Panacea - Photo 0

Due to the high societal abandonment rate in the Caribbean homeland, the population of the citizenry of the individual member-states is approaching a distribution where half of the citizens live in the homeland and the other half live abroad – in the Diaspora.

Those who live in the Diaspora, know “both sides of the coin”, as most of them have lived in the ancestral lands at one point. But the other half, those who still live in the homeland may have never lived abroad.

They do not know what they do not know!

Oh, they may have visited! But being a visitor to some North American or European city is different than being a resident, as visitors do not have the interactions of applying for jobs, housing, government benefits, paying taxes, co-existing with neighbors, etc.. These ones in the homeland may naturally assume that the “grass is greener on the other side”. Here’s the truth:

It is not! (The grass in the northern cities may not even be green at all; it may be covered with autumn foliage or snow).

So as observers-and-reporters of Caribbean people, culture and eco-system in both the homeland and the Diaspora, “we” – the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – have noticed how consecutive government administrations seem to empathize with the strategy of making outreach to their Diaspora; see article in Appendix A. They put a lot of stock (investment) into this strategy and the results are always consistent:

There is no pay-off! Even now, after 50 years of emigration, the positive impact of the Diaspora is still elusive.

Hoping for the Diaspora to be the panacea of Caribbean ills – “Diaspora Bug” – has proven to be a fallacy, time and again. Notice in the referenced article that the World Bank organization reportedly stated that $500 million in investments had come to this one country from their Diaspora, but the researcher seems to want to inflate the impact, projecting a “pie-in-the-sky” figure of $12.8 billion.

Enough already people!

The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean has been consistent in this theme. Just this year alone, we have commented on these flawed efforts, in:

The criticism has been leveled against all these Caribbean member-states hoping that their Diaspora – those who had fled, being “pushed” or “pulled” away from their homeland –  would invest back in their country. The problem is that this Diaspora-outreach strategy double-downs on the failure of why the Diaspora left in the first place. Both previous commentaries relate:

The subtle message to the Caribbean population is that they need to leave their homeland, go get success and then please remember to invest in us afterwards.

… It is so unfortunate that the people in the Caribbean are beating down the doors to get out of their Caribbean homeland, to seek refuge in these places like the US, Canada and Western Europe. And yet it seems like the Chief Executive of this Caribbean country is encouraging more of it – there is a similar sentiment in the rest of the Caribbean member-states. As a result, we have such a sad state of affairs for our Caribbean eco-system as we are suffering from a bad record of societal abandonment.

The country du jour – for this commentary – is Jamaica; see the related article in Appendix C below.

They have got this “Diaspora Bug” real bad. They have been “plowing these fields” for a while; they have structured an organized Diaspora Conference since 2004 and they sow and sow; still hoping for some reaping. See the full news article in Appendix A below relating the “Jamaica 55 Diaspora 2017 Conference” that was held in Kingston July 23-26, 2017.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. The book asserts that the region must work to hold onto its populations – especially the professional classes – not see them leave for foreign shores. To accomplish this objective, this CU/Go Lean roadmap presents 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 ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The Go Lean book asserts that while conditions may be bad for Caribbean (i.e. Jamaican) residents in their homeland, many minority immigrants to other countries (think Black-and-Brown in America) have to contend with less than welcoming conditions there. In fact, economic and sociology researchers have published that first generation immigrants (especially noteworthy for those from Latin America and the Caribbean) normally under-perform all other segments of society in their new countries. It is only with the second generation that prosperity is achieved, but by then, their progeny no longer identifies with the ancestral home. Think: Jamaican-Americans identifying more with America than with Jamaica.

Consider further the American experience. The movement behind the Go Lean book has consistently related that the United States of America functions as a Great Society but it has two societal defects:

These societal defects can easily create a ‘Climate of Hate‘ that causes people to haze and blame-game the immigrant community.

There are similar anecdotes in Canada, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, France and other Western European countries. While immigrants are better able to survive in these advanced democracies – there is an abundance of minimum wage jobs – to thrive is more of a challenge. It would seem better for Caribbean people to work to remediate the problems in their homeland, rather than work to become immigrants, aliens in a foreign land. But this is no easy task; this is hereby defined as heavy-lifting.

The Go Lean roadmap calls for a reboot!

Do what you have always done; get what you’ve always got.

The Go Lean roadmap presents a different approach; it posits that leveraging a Caribbean Single Market (42 million people) is better than catering to the Diaspora of just one country; (Jamaica’s Diaspora has a size of 3 million). This roadmap is presented as the panacea of Caribbean ills; and it still includes the Diaspora, but for all the Caribbean nations combined – estimated at 10 to 25 million. This plan calls for an interdependence of the Caribbean eco-system. This was the motivation for the CU/Go Lean roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13) of the book:

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.

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.

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.

The goal of the Go Lean roadmap is for Caribbean people to prosper where planted; the book therefore provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to lower the “push and pull” factors that drives people to leave their homes in the first place. What are these factors:

“Push” refers to people who feel compelled to leave, to seek refuge in a foreign land. “Refuge” is an appropriate word; because of societal defects, many from the Caribbean must leave as refugees – think LGBT, Disability, Domestic-abuse, Medically-challenged – for their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

“Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life in the foreign destinations; many times our people are emigrating for economics solely.

The landscapes and waterscapes of the Caribbean make-up the best addresses on the planet. No one wants to leave to get away from the physical paradise; see the VIDEO in Appendix B below. But they do leave … to get away from our deficient and defective societal engines:

No economic prospects; no security assurances; no governing efficiency.

One mission of the Go Lean roadmap is to lower these “push and pull” factors.

Yes, we can.

Another mission is to invite the Diaspora to repatriate to the region, to come back home. This could be attractive prospect once the needed remediation is in place.

See how these missions has been communicated in other blog-commentaries, with this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11314 Forging Change: Home Addiction
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9648 ‘Time to Go’ – Public Schools for Black-and-Brown
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8155 Gender Equality Referendum Outcome: Impact on the ‘Brain Drain’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7769 Being Lean on “Push & Pull”: Asking the Question ‘Why’ 5 Times

In summary, growing the Diaspora is bad for the Diaspora and bad for the Caribbean. Any official policy that double-downs on the Diaspora, double-downs on failure. We do not want an official strategy of requiring people to leave and kindly remember us so that our communities can be successful; no, we want to be successful anyway, to prosper right here at home. We strongly urge everyone to lean-in to this roadmap to make our homeland – Jamaica et al – a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

NOTE: This writer has mixed Jamaican heritage.

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

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

———-

Appendix A Title: Jamaica still in dark over Diaspora’s huge potential

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica has no precise understanding of its diaspora’s massive potential, although emerging evidence indicates nationals living overseas are making a far greater contribution to the Caribbean nation’s welfare than previously believed.

Preliminary findings from a study, conducted by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) and revealed at last month’s “Jamaica 55 Diaspora 2017 Conference” here, showed the country relies heavily on contributions from an estimated three million nationals living in places like the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.

CU Blog - Jamaican Diaspora - Not the Panacea - Photo 1According to research officer Shanike Smart, CAPRI’s study, sponsored by Jamaica National, was aimed at taking the guess work out of the diaspora’s influence, which would then lead to a better grasp of its value and enhance the relationship with Jamaica.

“We wanted to find out how significant are their (diaspora’s) contributions, because we think this can advance the conversation,” Smart explained following her conference presentation.

So far, she has already dismantled some long-held perceptions. For example, the diaspora’s contribution has mainly been identified with remittances. Jamaica benefits greatly from money sent from overseas – an estimated $2.2 billion a year. But that may be just the tip of the diaspora’s clout,.

“It turned out to be much more than that,” Smart said.

IGNORANCE

Diaspora investments in Jamaica also make up a huge chunk of benefits for the island as well. The World Bank reportedly stated that $500 million in investments had come to Jamaica. That figure, may be more like $12.8 billion.

Also gone underestimated has been the contributions in several other areas, including export of goods and services from Jamaica to the diaspora.

“I speak about companies launching businesses overseas, not thinking that maybe it’s the diaspora, not understanding that without (the diaspora) they might not been able to even prosper in that environment,” Smart explained.

The educational and professional qualifications of Jamaicans overseas have been downplayed as well, a reason many in the diaspora believe causes them to be overlooked for jobs in the island.

Diaspora tourists, are also now being viewed differently. According to statistics gathered by Smart, the Jamaica Tourist Board believes diaspora visitors’ spending accounts for four percent of general expenditure. She thinks it’s much higher.

“I estimated that it was seven percent of the expenditure,” Smart said. “(It’s) $180 something million U.S. dollars that they’re spending overall.”

MISLED

It comes down to misinformation, Smart explained, which may or not be deliberate.

“Normally in the literature, we’re finding that the diaspora tourist tends to spend less (in Jamaica) than a foreign national. However, they stay longer,” she said. “… When we’re looking at the numbers we’re saying this is suggesting otherwise, and then I was saying ‘can this be true?’

“I saw that the Jamaican tourist was almost spending more than, in a lot of cases was spending more than what the estimate was for the foreign national.”

The misunderstanding has been blamed on several factors, including lack of information, reluctance to seek it, unwillingness to provide it on request and preference to rely on old myths. Some Jamaicans deliberately hesitate to reveal information.

“A lot of people think that’s just our culture,” said Smart, who led CAPRI’s research team, “but I’m not sure what the reason is. And, again, even to this day we’re having some pushback.”

NO IDEA

In 2004 Jamaica held its first Diaspora Conference. But few had a full idea of the diaspora’s actual impact. Thirteen years, and a planned average of one conference every two years, later not much has changed.

However, through CAPRI’s early findings, a different picture is emerging. The study, which began about two months ago and is expected to have more concrete data by next month, has shown startling information.

Currently, the diaspora is estimated to contribute 23 percent of Jamaica’s gross domestic product (GDP). Smart suspects the potential is closer to 35 percent. However, she argued, more digging is needed to confirm her suspicions and guide future policy on the diaspora.

“We need research to back that up before we even start making any move,” she said.

What’s evident is the diaspora is offering much more than its been credited for and poised to make an even larger impact.

“When I look at the gap, when we look at what we’re currently doing and what the potential gap that’s left, it was 12 percent of GDP, over a billion (U.S.) dollars,” said Smart.

“I think it highlights how significant the diaspora is for Jamaica, which is currently under appreciated because the numbers aren’t existing,” she added.

It should be enough incentive for Jamaica to embrace its diaspora more tightly.

“It is also showing that it is an opportunity to show the diaspora and for persons to now recognize the diaspora, which should bring them onboard,” said Smart.

“And if they do come onboard some more, I mean, it’s unimaginable the value that will present.”

Related story: Jamaica lauds Diaspora’s input, but some lament slow progress

Source: Caribbean Today South Florida Magazine – Vol. 28 No. 9 (August) – Retrieved September 19, 2017 from: http://www.caribbeantoday.com/caribbean-news/latest-news/item/26432-jamaica-still-in-dark-over-diaspora-s-huge-potential.html

———-

Appendix B VIDEO – Jamaica Farewell | Jamaican Kids Song | World Rhymes – https://youtu.be/nFfs0ryiFy4

Published on May 30, 2013 – World Rhymes

Lyrics:
Down the way where the nights are gay
And the sun shines daily on the mountain top
I took a trip on a sailing ship
And when I reached Jamaica I made a stop

But I’m sad to say I’m on my way
Won’t be back for many a day
My heart is down, my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town

Sounds of laughter everywhere
And the dancing girls swaying to and fro
I must declare my heart is there
Though I’ve been from Maine to Mexico

But I’m sad to say I’m on my way
Won’t be back for many a day
My heart is down, my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town

Down at the market you can hear
Ladies cry out while on their heads they bear
`Akey’ rice, salt fish are nice
And the rum is fine any time of year

But I’m sad to say I’m on my way
Won’t be back for many a day
My heart is down, my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town

Down the way where the nights are gay
And the sun shines daily on the mountain top
I took a trip on a sailing ship
And when I reached Jamaica I made a stop

But I’m sad to say I’m on my way
Won’t be back for many a day
My heart is down, my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town

Sad to say I’m on my way
Won’t be back for many a day
My heart is down, my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town

  • Category: Education
  • License: Standard YouTube License

———-

Appendix C – Over 80 Percent of Young Jamaicans Want to Leave the Island

Many young Jamaicans are ready to leave their country to pursue better educational and job opportunities. In fact, they would leave Jamaica for any destination other than Afghanistan. According to a 2016 survey commissioned by Respect Jamaica and the local office of UNICEF, 81 percent of Jamaica’s youth between 14 and 40 years of age would leave the country immediately if they could. …

Continue reading at Jamaica.com site: http://jamaicans.com/young-jamaicans-want-leave-island/#ixzz4tDq4LzUt

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After Irma, Failed State Indicators: Destruction and Defection

Posted on September 18, 2017 in Government, Implementation, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

CU Blog - After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a 'Ghost Town' - Photo 3What happens after a community is devastated by a catastrophic hurricane?

Many things; mostly all bad:

This is not just theoretical; this is the current disposition in the Caribbean after the recent Category 5 Hurricane Irma. These descriptors are all indicative of a Failed State status. This is a familiar theme for this movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – (and the subsequent blog-commentaries). The book opens (Page 3) with this introduction to the subject of failure in the Caribbean:

Failure is just too familiar. Already we have member-states …  on the verge of a Failed-State status… . These states are not contending with the challenges of modern life: changing weather patterns, ever-pervasive technology, and the “flat world” of globalization. To reverse the fortunes of these failing states, and guide others in the opposite direction to a destination of prosperity, the Caribbean must re-boot the regional economy and systems of commerce.

CU Blog - After Irma, Failed-State Indicator - Death or Diaspora - Photo 1Hurricanes are tied to failure and Failed-State Indicators. The consequences of hurricanes are more than just natural, there is also the preponderance for people to leave their homelands afterwards – to defect. See a related story (article & VIDEO) in the Appendix below in which a family sought asylum in Canada for refuge from their devastated community.

In Failed-State formal-speak, the Go Lean book (Page 271) details 2 indicators or indices: Mounting Demographic Pressures (DP) and Massive Movement of Refugees (REF). These downward movements are indicators of Failed-State status – a bad report on the Fail-State index is simply a reflection of a miserable existence in society:

  • Mounting Demographic Pressures
    Pressures on the population such as disease and natural disasters make it difficult for the government to protect its citizens or demonstrate a lack of capacity or will. This indicator include pressures and measures related to:
    Natural Disaster, Disease, Environment, Pollution, Food Scarcity, Malnutrition, Water Scarcity, Population Growth, Youth or Age Bulge, and Mortality
  • Massive Movement of Refugees or IDPs
    Forced uprooting of large communities as a result of random or targeted violence and/or repression, causing food shortages, disease, lack of clean water, land competition, and turmoil that can spiral into larger humanitarian and security problems, both within and between countries. This indicator refers to refugees leaving or entering a country. This indicator include pressures and measures related to:
    Displacement, Refugee Camps, IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) Camps, Disease Related to Displacement, Refugees per capita, and IDPs per capita.

This commentary completes the 4-part series on the Aftermath of Hurricane Irma. There are a lot of mitigation and remediation efforts that can be done to lessen the impact of this and future storms. There are lessons that we must consider; there are reforms we must make; there are problems we must solve. The full list of the 4 entries of this series are detailed as follows:

  1. Aftermath of Hurricane Irma – America Should Scrap the ‘Jones Act’
  2. Aftermath of Hurricane Irma – Barbuda Becomes a ‘Ghost Town’
  3. Aftermath of Hurricane Irma – The Science of Power Restoration
  4. Aftermath of Hurricane Irma – Failed State Indicators: Destruction and Defection

Despite the manifested threats of Climate Change-fueled hurricanes, we must engage the heavy-lifting to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. Otherwise people flee the oppression, repression and suppression of being “home”.

In a previous blog-commentary about 19th Century Slavery Abolition icon Frederick Douglass, it revealed his theme when he went to the British island of Ireland to commiserate with that people on their oppression-repression-suppression plight. He asserted …

… that if an oppressed population didn’t find refuge, the only outcome would be Death or Diaspora.

The Diaspora prophecy happened, then in Ireland and today, especially here in the Caribbean! (In a previous blog, it was revealed that after 1840, emigration from Ireland became a massive, relentless, and efficiently managed national enterprise. In 1890 40% of Irish-born people were living abroad. By the 21st century, an estimated 80 million people worldwide claimed some Irish descent; which includes more than 36 million Americans who claim Irish as their primary ethnicity).

Caribbean citizens are also pruned to emigrate … to foreign shores (North America and Europe) seeking refuge. In a previous blog-commentary it was asserted that the US – the homeland  for Frederick Douglass – has experienced accelerated immigration in recent years. Published rates of societal abandonment among the college educated classes have reported an average of 70 percent in most member-states, with some countries (i.e. Guyana) tallying up to 89 percent. For this reason, there is solidarity for the Diaspora of Ireland and the Diaspora of the Caribbean.

The publishers of the Go Lean book are also steadfast and committed to one cause: arresting the societal abandonment of Caribbean communities. This would lessen the future Diaspora. This would be good!

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has 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 ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines. This security pact encompasses an emergency planning/response apparatus to deal with the reality of natural disasters. Otherwise, the affected population becomes refugees and the member-state moves towards Failed-State status. The CU mandate is to protect against any Failed-State encroachments.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

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.

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society, to reverse the trending to Failed-State status. Consider the Chapter excerpts and headlines from this sample on Page 134 entitled:

10 Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices

1

 Lean-in for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation
This will allow for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby creating an economic zone to protect the interest of the participant trading partner-member-states. The GDP of the region will amount to $800 Billion (circa 2010). In addition, the treaty calls for a collective security agreement of the member states so as to ensure homeland security and assuage against systemic threats. The CU will ensure that law-and-order persist during times of distress. When a member state declares a State of Emergency, due to natural disaster or civil unrest, this triggers an automatic CU response – this is equivalent to the governmental dialing 911.

2

 Image and Defamation
When a country’s primary foreign currency generator is tourism/hospitality, just the perception of a weak or failing state could be devastating. The index is a number that can rise and fall, like a credit score, so any upward movement in the index triggers the negative perception. The pressures are not only internal; there may be external entities that can have a defaming effect: credit rating, country risk, threat assessment, K-n-R (Kidnap and Ransom) insurance rates. The CU will manage the image of the region’s member-states against defamation and work to promote a better image.

3

 Local Government and the Social Contract
The Social Contract is the concept that individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of their remaining rights (natural and legal). People therefore expect their government (national or municipal) to provide public safety, health, education and other services. The CU will facilitate overhead services for local governments and access to financial markets to fund capital infrastructure investments. The member-states will therefore have more accountability and reporting to CU institutions.

4

 Law Enforcement Oversight
The CU will maintain jurisdiction for economic crimes and regional threats. Plus, the CU will collaborate and facilitate local law enforcement with grants of equipment and training to better fulfill their roles. Lastly, the regional security treaty will grant the CU the audit and compliance responsibility for “use of force” investigations and internal affairs.

5

 Military and Political Monitoring
The CU will carefully monitor the activities of the military units (Army, Navy and Coast Guard) – this accountability will be the by-product of increased CU funding. The CU will assume the Judge Advocate General role for military justice affairs. For cross border engagements, the National armed forces will be marshaled by the CU’s Commander-in-Chief.

6

 Crime/Homeland Intelligence
The CU will install advanced systems, processes, and personnel for intelligence gathering and analysis to assist public safety institutions. This includes terrestrial and satellite surveillance systems, phone eavesdropping, data mining and predictive modeling. The findings will be used to mitigate risks and threats (gangs, anarchy, and organized crime).

7

 Minority and Human Rights 

8

 Election Outsourcing

9

 War Against Poverty
As a Trade Federation charged with facilitating the economic engines for the region, the CU operations will have positive effect on jobs and growing the local economies. The CU has a complete battle plan for the War on Poverty.

10

 Big Data
The CU will embrace an e-Government and e-Delivery model. There will be a lot of data to collect and analyze. In addition, the CU Commerce Department will function as a regional OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development), accumulating and measuring economic metrics and statistical analysis. Any decline in Failed-State indices will be detected, and managed in both a predictive and reactionary manner.

The Caribbean must foster a better disaster preparation and response apparatus. We cannot just count on the kindness of strangers. America – the Super Power in our region – is busy … with it’s own hurricane aftermath. Our Way Forward must come from our own making. Otherwise, our people will just leave. People abandon the Caribbean homeland after every storm, not because of the severity of storms but the encroachments towards Failed-States status.

Failed-States = oppression, suppression and repression of the citizens of a country. This rule was true in the days of Frederick Douglass and it is true today:

If an oppressed people don’t find relief and refuge, the only outcome would be Death or Diaspora.

We must do better here in the Caribbean; we must make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

———-

Appendix – Title: Family arrives in Ontario after fleeing Hurricane Irma

CU Blog - After Irma, Failed-State Indicator - Death or Diaspora - Photo 2

A family has abandoned their home in the Bahamas, and spent their life savings to escape the threat of Hurricane Irma.

Desiree Johnson and her two sons fled without a plan. They say they know they made an impulsive decision, but felt they had no other choice. The Johnsons arrived at PearsonInternationalAirport around 10:30 p.m. on Thursday.

“I didn’t sleep at all, I paced the floor, I walked, I tried to call. It was not a good feeling”, Johnson told CTV Barrie.

The family of three doesn’t have any relatives or friends in Toronto, but they say they know Canada is a country with a caring reputation.  They don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but they have already reached out to several community agencies looking for help.

Irma’s pounding of the southern Bahamas also brings back terrifying memories of a previous storm.

“It was very scary, we were out for about 2 months – no water, no lights, some places no food”, Johnson recalls. Her 35-year-old son, Jevon Johnson, says he found the meaning of terror during Hurricane Matthew.

The family is now planning on asking the federal government to remain in Canada. Johnson says she wants an opportunity for two of her three sons to start a new life. Her third son was left behind in Bahamas, as the family didn’t have enough money to escape all together.

Source: CTV News Posted September 8, 2017 from: http://barrie.ctvnews.ca/family-arrives-in-ontario-after-fleeing-hurricane-irma-1.3581810

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VIDEO – Bahamian Family Flee to Canada Seeking Refuge from Hurricane Irma – https://youtu.be/g25cywl7V-w

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After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a ‘Ghost Town’

Posted on September 16, 2017 in Government, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

CU Blog - After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a 'Ghost Town' - Photo 1a

The Caribbean is in crisis today; we have just been devastated by Hurricane Irma; it has wreaked catastrophic havoc in certain islands, of which Barbuda is most notable. This is an official declaration; the Prime Minister of the country of Antigua and Barbuda has identified  90 percent of the structures on the island of Barbuda as uninhabitable and can now only be razed; see story in Appendix A below. See the news VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Barbuda, Destroyed By Hurricane Irma, Faces Jose Next | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC – https://youtu.be/2ewVgVDSuKg

Published on Sep 8, 2017 – MSNBC
Michael Joseph, Red Cross president for Antigua and Barbuda, talks with Rachel Maddow about the utter devastation of the island of Barbuda by Hurricane Irma with Hurricane Jose just a day away. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis of daily headlines, insightful political commentary and informed perspectives. Reaching more than 95 million households worldwide, MSNBC offers a full schedule of live news coverage, political opinions and award-winning documentary programming — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Connect with MSNBC Online Visit msnbc.com: http://on.msnbc.com/Readmsnbc Find MSNBC on Facebook: http://on.msnbc.com/Likemsnbc Follow MSNBC on Twitter: http://on.msnbc.com/Followmsnbc Follow MSNBC on Google+: http://on.msnbc.com/Plusmsnbc Follow MSNBC on Instagram: http://on.msnbc.com/Instamsnbc Follow MSNBC on Tumblr: http://on.msnbc.com/LeanWithmsnbc Barbuda, Destroyed By Hurricane Irma, Faces Jose Next | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

(Other impacted locales include Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Anguilla, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Florida).

Barbuda is a cautionary tale because it fulfills the forecast (prophecy) of this previous commentary, that if left unchecked, Caribbean crises get worse, completely dysfunctional, at the precipice of Failed-State status and communities emerge as …

Ghost Towns

A ghost town is an abandoned village, town or city, usually one which contains substantial visible remains. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters. …

    “Things will always work themselves out” – Popular fallacy.

There is no guarantee of our survival. Communities and societies do fail; success is not assured; the work must be done, we must “sow if we want to reap”. …

How else would one explain why citizens from the most beautiful addresses on the planet are “breaking down the doors” to get out, either through legal means or illegal ones?

The book Go Lean … Caribbean stresses reboots, reorganizations and general turn-around of failing economic engines in favor of winning formulas. The book quotes a noted American Economist Paul Romer with this famous quotation:

    “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste”.

CU Blog - After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a 'Ghost Town' - Photo 1b

CU Blog - After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a 'Ghost Town' - Photo 1c

The movement behind the Go Lean book have often raised the subject of Ghost Towns. Just last month (August 22), this commentary was published:

Lessons from Colorado: Black Ghost Towns – “Booker T. turning in his grave”

So the future is not guaranteed for any Caribbean community. While our people may survive, our culture may not! We may have to supplant ourselves to some foreign destination. We may have to “take our talents to South Beach” … or South New York… or South Toronto, etc..

Prophecy: If we migrate to a foreign country, our grandchildren born there will NOT be identified as Caribbean.

So Ghost Towns have occurred and could happen in the Caribbean … again.

This commentary continues the 4-part series on the Aftermath of Hurricane Irma. This storm was devastating to the Atlantic tropical region, the Caribbean and US State of Florida. There are a lot of mitigation and remediation efforts that can be done to lessen the impact of storms. There are lessons that we must consider; there are reforms we must make; there are problems we must solve. The full list of the 4 entries of this series are detailed as follows:

  1. Aftermath of Hurricane Irma – America Should Scrap the ‘Jones Act’
  2. Aftermath of Hurricane Irma – Barbuda Becomes a ‘Ghost Town’
  3. Aftermath of Hurricane Irma – The Science of Power Restoration
  4. Aftermath of Hurricane Irma – Failed State Indicators: Destruction and Defection

We want to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. This is the quest of the book Go Lean … Caribbean – available to download for free – which serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). Despite the threats of Climate Change, the CU is structured to turn-around failing Caribbean communities; it is proffered to provide economic, security and governance solutions for all 30 member Caribbean states. This mandate is detailed early on in the book’s Declaration of Interdependence, as follows (Page 11 – 13):

i. Whereas the earth’s climate has undeniably changed resulting in more severe tropical weather storms, it is necessary to prepare to insure the safety and security of life, property and systems of commerce in our geographical region. As nature recognizes no borders in the target of its destruction, we also must set aside border considerations in the preparation and response to these weather challenges.

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.

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.

The Go Lean book posits that failing Caribbean communities can be rescued, butt if “we do what we have always done, we get what we always got”. Therefore Caribbean communities must adopt different community ethos, plus the executions of key – and different – strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to reform and transform.

There is a Way Forward!

Consider this News Article in Appendix B relating the Prime Minister’s fundamental change in property laws for Barbuda:

Ownership is prohibited on the island of Barbuda; all lands in Barbuda are vested in the Crown on behalf of the people on the sister island. … “Whatever land they are occupying now, rather than having a license to occupy, we are saying that we will give … freehold ownership”.

Why should people invest in property they do not own?

Duh! This is such a basic societal factor; it is illogical that the government had not implemented this reform before.

In order to avoid the pitfalls and eventuality of “Ghost Towns”, the Go Lean book describes the heavy-lifting that all the community stakeholders must engage. These efforts are described as 3 prime directives:

Heavy-lifting and leverage!!!

Yes, since natural disasters – hurricanes, earthquakes and even volcanoes – are an inevitability in the Caribbean, we can better insure and assure the continuity of our communities’ societal engines, by spreading the risk across the wider region, not just one member-state. For relief-recovery-rebuilding communities like Barbuda after disasters, the goal is to spread the burden or heavy-lifting across the 30 member-states.

If there is a load you have to bear
That you can’t carry
I’m right up the road
I’ll share your load
If you just call me
Song: Lean On Me by Bill Withers – Go Lean Book (Page 5)

In summary, ghost towns could abound more and more if we continue with the status quo. Let’s not … continue with the more-of-the-same approach.

Let’s commit to this pledge to foster change in our region; we must reform and transform our societal engines. Everyone is hereby urged to lean-in to this CU/Go Lean roadmap to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

———-

Appendix A – Title: PM: 90 Percent of Barbuda ‘Destroyed’ by Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma has done catastrophic damage to “90 percent of Barbuda,” according to Gaston Browne, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, after it barreled past the island nation and through the Caribbean on Wednesday. An official from the country’s Office of Disaster Services told ABC News said there was “widespread damage” across the island, which is home to 1,600 people. Authorities in St. Martin said 95 percent of the French part of the island was destroyed, with one local official saying the storm caused an “enormous catastrophe.” Irma made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds above 185 mph, and is expected to hit Florida on Saturday night.

Source: The Daily Beast Online Newswire posted September 7, 2017 from: http://www.thedailybeast.com/hurricane-irma-destroys-90-percent-of-barbuda

CU Blog - After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a 'Ghost Town' - Photo 3

CU Blog - After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a 'Ghost Town' - Photo 6

CU Blog - After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a 'Ghost Town' - Photo 5

CU Blog - After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a 'Ghost Town' - Photo 4

———-

Appendix B – Title: Barbudans to get title ownerships of lands they occupy

Antigua Observer – Barbudans will get the opportunity to own the lands they previously occupied as the island seeks to rebuild following the devastation caused by the passage of Hurricane Irma last week.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne made the disclosure yesterday during a special sitting of Parliament.

He said Barbudans would be given a crown grant of one dollar to obtain legal ownership of the lands on the 62-square mile island.

Currently, land ownership is prohibited on the island of Barbuda; all lands in Barbuda are vested in the crown on behalf of the people on the sister island.

The Land Department under the Barbuda Council is the main governing body.

“Whatever land they are occupying now, rather than having a license to occupy, we are saying that we will give you freehold ownership,” Browne said, noting that residents of the sister island are elated over the idea.

“When you give a Barbudan a freehold, they can go into the bank, they can borrow monies, they can get a mortgage, they can build. They can get a loan for student purposes, to do businesses, it is a form of empowerment,” Browne said.

The nation’s leader also suggested that protective mechanisms could be instituted to prevent Barbudans from transferring the freehold ownership without the approval of the Barbuda Council.

Browne told Parliamentarians in the Lower House that it is untenable for Barbuda to be exclusively dependent on Antigua.

According to Browne, it was never the intent of the central government to take full responsibility for the payment of salaries and wages and other expenses on the sister island.

He said the intention was for Barbuda to be able to generate some level of revenue while Antigua would provide a subsidy.

“It has become a dependent relationship. Now I know that the Barbudans are proud people and they don’t want to be coming, cap in hand, to Antigua begging for a salary cheque on a weekly or monthly basis when they can generate their income,” the PM concluded.

Over 1,000 people on Barbuda had to be evacuated from the island last week after the country’s leader described the situation as “uninhabitable” following the hurricane that has also been blamed for the death of a two-year old child.

The PM said the sister island could not progress until the land tenure question is settled, adding that no country can move forward without a proper rights system.

He said consultations would be held with the people of Barbuda on the way forward.

Meanwhile, the government has announced a tentative agreement with the United Arab Emirates to assist with the installation of 800-megawatt solar power  facility on Barbuda, as well as a medical health system.

Prime Minister Browne also said that he had instructed his bank to transfer EC$100,000  from his savings to a fund for the rehabilitation of the island.

Other Antigua & Barbuda Labour Party members have also pledged to dip into their pockets to fund the rebuilding effort.

PM Browne said that he expects other residents and businesses to step up to the plate.

Source: Posted September 12, 2017; retrieved September 16, 2017 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2017/09/12/barbudans-get-title-ownerships-lands-occupy

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ENCORE on Charity Management: Grow Up Already!

Posted on September 13, 2017 in Ethos, Government, Social, Strategy

One year later, have we grown up anymore in that time?

Unfortunately, no!

There is still the need to Grow Up and manage our own affairs. This was detailed in a comprehensive commentary exactly one year ago today. Let’s Encore it here-now:

————————————————–

Go Lean Commentary – Charity Management: Grow Up Already!

cu-blog-charity-management-grow-up-already-photo-7“Don’t be a stock on the shelf” – Bob Marley: Pimpers Paradise – Album: Uprising – 1980.

What does the lyrics of this song mean? (See VIDEO here). The analysis is that it is poetic and prophetic. The song has a personal indictment and a community indictment. The lyrics directly address a young girl who stumbles into a party lifestyle; being victimized by abusers or “pimps”. The warning is that she would be considered nothing more than a commodity – to be counted on for illicit profits – rather than a real human with hopes and dreams. As for the community indictment, this submission on SongMeanings.com conveys an insightful point:

General Comment
I’ve always had the impression that this song is about Jamaica, Bob’s mother-country, and its contradictions, described through the technique of personification. If this were the case, most of the girl’s attributes and actions would refer to the whole community of Jamaicans and not to a single person, as it first appears. What makes this song so beautiful is the sadness, tenderness and pride of Marley’s lyrics and voice, as he describes his people’s use and abuse of drugs, its innate tendency to smile, have fun and carry on in spite of the poverty, violence and harshness which characterizes life in that country, and above all its vulnerability to the lies, deception and empty promises of politicians and elites in general, a vulnerability which forces most people into a lifelong submission and which gives this song its title.
By: dettawalker on April 19, 2015

There is a vulnerability to lies, deception and empty promises in the Caribbean. Other people have raised money under the guise of helping our region, but then only kept the monies for themselves … mostly. There is the need for philanthropy, charitable donations and community development, but we need to take the lead for this ourselves, rather than the potential of being victimized by others.

This is not a theory; this is a fact! Remember the $500 million raised by the American Red Cross to benefit Haiti after the 2010 Earthquake; the money mostly disappeared with little manifestation in Haiti. 🙁

Perhaps this is a by-product of the attitude of depending on “other peoples money”; this is so familiar in the Caribbean. For the past 50 years of Caribbean integration movements (West Indies Federation, Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and Caribbean Community or CariCom), the focus had been on soliciting aid – begging – from the richer North American and European nations.

Today, our message to Caribbean stakeholders is: Grow Up Already!

Truly, at what point is it expected that we would mature and take care of our own responsibilities?

Answer: Now! Half-pass now!

This point was eloquently conveyed in a previous blog-commentary, where it related how Caribbean member-states use “development funds” (International Aid) for budgetary support for the governments to fulfill their responsibilities in the Social Contract. As a reminder, this implied Social Contract refers to the arrangement where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights. This contract authorizes the State to raise revenues from taxes and fees, but “one cannot get blood from a stone”. The 30 Caribbean member-states are mostly all Third World countries; they hover near the poverty line.

Yet still, the book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts it is high-time for this region to grow up and adapt best-practices to elevate our society. We can improve all societal engines: economics, security and governance. This theme is weaved throughout the Go Lean book which serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This Go Lean/CU roadmap has the vision of elevating Caribbean society by optimizing these engines. Observe the prime directives as published in the book:

  • 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 engines and mitigate internal and external “bad actors”.
  • Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the CU federal government and the member-states.

The Bible states …

… “anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!” – Matthew 11:15; New Living Translation.

This does not mean that gleaning the wisdom of the fallacy of other people taking the lead for our development will eliminate our poverty. No; we are still a region of Third Word countries; that same Bible translation continues that “you will always have the poor among you” –  Matthew 26:11. We simply need to take the lead ourselves of soliciting aid, collecting the aid and managing the distribution of that aid and the resultant accountability. This is no “rocket science”; in fact, it is no science at all. It is mostly an art, and there are competent role models who perform these functions well; we only need to adapt their best-practices.

Consider this company Brewco Marketing; they consider themselves “the marketing vehicle for America’s most trusted brands”. This is a fitting analysis as this company currently conducts marketing campaigns to raise money to benefit impoverished people in several Caribbean countries, the Dominican Republic for example.

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cu-blog-charity-management-grow-up-already-photo-6Brewco Marketing Group – see Appendix VIDEO below – is a leading experiential marketing company specializing in strategy, design, in-house fabrication, activation and program management. They provide these marketing services for other companies: for-profit corporations and not-for-profit charities. One such client is Compassion International, a Christian child sponsorship organization dedicated to the long-term development of children living in poverty around the world. They are headquartered in the US city of Colorado Springs, Colorado; but they function in 26 countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Haiti, Kenya, India and the Dominican Republic. According to the Wikipedia page on this charity, (retrieved September 12, 2016), this organization provides aid to more than 1,700,000 children.

Bravo Compassion International! See an example here of the type of faith-based advocacy Compassion International is conducting in our Caribbean region; in this case, the Dominican Republic: http://changetour.compassion.com/experience-dominican-republic/    

But, consider that Compassion International outsources to a for-profit marketing firm – Brewco – to solicit funding. What is Brewco’s motivation? Simple: Profit.

While not impugning any bad motives to Brewco or Compassion International, this commentary asserts for self-sufficiency, that “charity begins at home”. This is a basic prerequisite for a mature society.

This consideration aligns with the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies of the book Go Lean…Caribbean. The declaration is that the Caribbean must be front-and-center in providing for our own solutions. The alternative of someone else taking the lead for our solution, despite how altruistic the motives, seems to be lacking…every time! Consider this encyclopedia detail on criticism of “Child Sponsorship” charities:

Critics have argued that child sponsorship could alienate the relatively privileged sponsored children from their peers and may perpetuate harmful stereotypes about third-world citizens being helpless. They also claim that child sponsorship causes cultural confusion and unrealistic aspirations on the part of the recipient, and that child sponsorship is expensive to administer.[8][9] This latter problem has led some charities to offer information about a “typical” child to sponsors rather than one specifically supported by the sponsor. In some cases charities have been caught sending forged updates from deceased children.[10]

The Effective Altruism community – social movement that applies evidence and reason to determining the most effective ways to improve the world – generally opposes child sponsorship as a type of donor illusion. Givewell – American non-profit charity evaluator – describes sponsorship thusly:[11]

  • Illusion: through an organization such as “Save the Children“, your money supports a specific child.
  • Reality: as “Save the Children” now discloses: “Your sponsorship contributions are not given directly to a child. Instead, your contributions are pooled with those of other sponsors to provide community-based programming for all eligible children in the area.”

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sponsorship retrieved September 12, 2016

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This – reality of Big Charity – is just another example of Crony-Capitalism. See the running inventory list of all the Crony-Capitalism models that proliferate in the US, here at https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5529.

Considering this reality, we exclaim to the Caribbean: Grow up already!

The Go Lean book declares (Page 115) that:

“Haiti [in particular and the Caribbean in general] – should not be a perennial beggar; the Caribbean should not be perennial beggars, but we do need capital/money, especially to get started”.

The Go Lean movement (book and blogs) posits that the Caribbean must not be vulnerable to these American Crony-Capitalistic forces.

We do not need some external entity fleecing the public in our name – under the guise of charities but retain vast majorities of the funding as administrative costs – executive salary and bonuses – rather than the intended benefactors.

The Caribbean must do better!

The book Go Lean…Caribbean pursues the quest to elevate the Caribbean region through economic, security and governing empowerments. This includes oversight and guidance for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) in the region. The Go Lean/CU roadmap provides for better stewardship for the Caribbean homeland; and it describes NGO’s as additional Caribbean stakeholders. Governance to this vital area is part of the maturity our region must show; it is not about independence, but rather it conveys the community ethos of interdependence. This point was pronounced early in the Go Lean book, in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 & 14) with these acknowledgements and 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.

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 [other] communities.

This is the quest of CU/Go Lean roadmap: to provide new guards for a more competent Caribbean administration … by governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations. Under this roadmap, NGO’s would be promoted, audited and overseen by CU administrators. The CU would be legally authorized as “deputies” of the member-state governments.

The Go Lean book stresses key community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to turn-around the eco-systems of Caribbean governance. These points are detailed in the book as follows:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Intelligence Gathering Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – “Crap” Happens Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing – Emergency Response Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate all 30 member-states/ 4 languages into a Single Market Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Prepare for the eventuality of natural disasters Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Climate Change Page 57
Tactical – Ways to Foster a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Growing the Economy – Post WW II European Marshall Plan/Recovery Model Page 68
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – CU Federal Government versus Member-State Governance Page 71
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Treasury Department – Shared Property Recording Systems Page 74
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – State Department – Liaison/Oversight for NGO’s Page 80
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Interior Department – Housing & Urban Authority Page 83
Implementation – Assemble All Regionally-focus Organizations of All Caribbean Communities Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid Page 115
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Cuba & Haiti Marshall Plans Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices – Governance and the Social Contract Page 134
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Housing – Optimizing Property Registration Process Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters – Enhanced local response and recovery Page 184
Advocacy – Ways to Develop a Pre-Fab Housing Industry – One solution ideal for Slums Page 207
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Dominican Republic Page 237
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Haiti Page 238

These subjects – Charity Management, Philanthropy and International Aid – have been a source of consistent concern for the Go Lean movement. Consider the details from these previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8243 Facebook Founder’s Philanthropy Project Makes First Major Investment
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7989 ‘Getting over’ with ‘free money’ for societal transformations
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7896 The Logistics of Disaster Relief
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6129 Innovative Partnership Aids Farm Workers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3432 OECS diplomat has dire warning for Caribbean countries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1763 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Philanthropy Efforts

So the Caribbean experience with Charity Management in the past and at present is not ideal. How do we apply this insight to impact our future executions?

The primary strategy for improving Charity Management is to keep the administration local; this includes the fund development and the decision-making.

Looking at the great models and samples from Compassion International and Brewco Marketing, can we deploy mobile trailers and immersive exhibits? Can we deploy smart phone apps or tablets with walk-along narration to convey the desperate need for international aid in the Caribbean? Can we foster an eco-system with monthly billing, credit card transactions, or text-message billing?

Yes, we can …

… and this is the “grown up” thing to do, after being burned so often by outsiders.

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. – 1 Corinthians 13:11 – New Living Translation

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to empower and elevate Caribbean societal engines. We have a lot to do, the Go Lean book describes it as heavy-lifting. We see the American Crony-Capitalism in action. We do not want to follow their lead. We want to learn from their good and bad examples and models. (It is out-of-scope for the Go Lean movement to fix America). We simply want to fix our Caribbean society to be more self-reliant, both proactively and reactively.

Our quest is simple, a regional effort to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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Appendix VIDEO – Brewco Marketing Group – https://vimeo.com/101107626

The company’s offerings: from long-term experiential brand strategy to overall program execution and management. Engaging audiences where they work, live and play.

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Appendix VIDEO – Interactive Tour Immerses Visitors Into Daily Life in a Foreign Country – http://vimeo.com/73958461

Preview of The Compassion Experience from The Compassion Experience on Vimeo.

Retrieved September 12, 2016 – A self-guided tour will immerse visitors in the lives of the children. Through the use of an iPod, a headset and over 1,700 square feet of interactive space, visitors will see the children’s homes, walk through schools and markets, and hear life-changing stories of hope—all from the perspective of a child whose life began in poverty. This free event is appropriate for all ages and is an excellent opportunity for anyone who has never had the chance to travel outside the U.S. to get a small glimpse of what life can be like in developing countries. See more at http://changetour.compassion.com/

 

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Caribbean Island Honors Joseph Marcell

Posted on September 7, 2017 in Ethos, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – and accompanying blog-commentaries – asserts that movies, music, theater, TV shows and other forms of the arts can greatly impact society; in addition to the entertainment value, there is also image and impression.

People can change their views and perceptions; prejudices can be overridden. There is the media; there is the message and there are the models: people who elevate to ‘role model’ status by their excellent deliveries and contributions. All of this in a barrage of message frequency – think: a weekly TV show – can dilute false precepts.

Caribbean = ‘Less Than‘? Hardly!

THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFULThis language adequately describes the artist Joseph Marcell. We all know him as the actor that played “Geoffrey” on the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1990’s. He is in the news again, as he is being honored by his birth country, the Caribbean island of St. Lucia; see this news article here:

Title: Saint Lucia honours Joseph Marcell
Press Release:–(Thursday, 07 September 2017) (TORONTO, ON) – The Saint Lucia Tourism Authority and the Consulate General of Saint Lucia, in partnership with CaribbeanTales International Film Festival honors Joseph Marcell (best known for his role as “Geoffrey” in Fresh Prince of Belair).

Marcell is in Toronto attending the 12th annual CaribbeanTales International Film Festival for the world premiere of a brand-new TV series, BATTLEDREAM CHRONICLES on September 6th at The Royal Cinema with an encore screening on September 7th at the Cineplex Cinemas, Scarborough.

On September 7th Marcell will appear as a guest on the hit TV Show – The Social. He will be talking to the hosts about what he’s been up to since the Fresh Prince, his Saint Lucia connection and love for theatre.

Saint Lucian nationals will have a unique opportunity to meet with Marcell at an exclusive VIP reception in Toronto from 12:30 – 2:30pm on September 8th, 2017. The Consulate General of Saint Lucia in Toronto, co-hosts of the event, will honor Marcell for his contributions to the arts worldwide.

The VIP reception will feature a travel presentation by the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority with product updates from Sunwing Vacations and Royalton Saint Lucia. Autograph signing will take place following the reception.

Source: Retrieved September 7, 3017 from https://stluciatimes.com/2017/09/07/saint-lucia-honours-joseph-marcell

Joseph Marcell is familiar to this commentary. He was among the many Caribbean-bred cast-members of the Fresh Prince show that was featured in the blog submission from February 25, 2017. That blog, encored below, portrayed how the Caribbean image was accentuated by those artists.

The purpose of the Go Lean movement, described as the prime directive, is the optimization of the Caribbean societal engines: economics, security and governance. A secondary directive is clearly an accentuation of the Caribbean image. For that quest, we honor Joseph Marcell …

… we are so proud!

See the original February 25, 2017 blog-commentary here:

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Commentary Tile: Caribbean Roots: Cast of ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’

For the generation born between 1980 and 2000 – Millennials – this TV show is an icon of their generation:

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

It was a situation comedy (sit-com) with laughter, hip-hop music, urban cool lifestyle, family values and thought-provoking drama. This show was formative for all demographics of this generation – White and the Black-and-Brown –  but most people do not realize that a large number of the cast members had Caribbean roots.

We are so proud!

CU Blog - Caribbean Roots - Cast of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - Photo 1

CU Blog - Caribbean Roots - Cast of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - Photo 3

The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean recognizes the significance of this art-form: sit-com television. On a consistent basis, audiences tuned into this show for entertainment and walked away with enlightenment as well – average ratings were 13 – 14 million viewers. They were constantly exposed to an affluent African-American household with an intact family structure: father, mother, and compliant children navigating a changing world. That was a different perspective – see Image Awards details in the Appendix below – compared to the realities of Black America and the pervasive media portrayals.

The show was not a docu-drama of “Black versus White America”, though many times, plotlines covered these dynamics. In general the storylines addressed teenage angst, but many plotlines addressed the family’s affluence versus working class families; this exposes a familiar rift in the Black community with passionate advocates for a Talented Tenth versus a ‘Power to the People’ contingent. See these encyclopedic details and VIDEO of the show here:

Title: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

CU Blog - Caribbean Roots - Cast of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - Photo 0The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is an American sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 10, 1990, to May 20, 1996. The show stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who is sent to move in with his wealthy aunt and uncle in their Bel Air mansion after getting into a fight on a local basketball court. In the series, his lifestyle often clashes with the lifestyle of his relatives in Bel Air. The series ran for six seasons and aired 148 episodes.[1][2]

Starring Cast

 Will Smith as Will “The Fresh Prince” Smith
James Avery as Philip Banks
Janet Hubert-Whitten as Vivian Banks (1st)
Alfonso Ribeiro as Carlton Banks
Karyn Parsons as Hilary Banks
Tatyana M. Ali as Ashley Banks
Joseph Marcell as Geoffrey The Butler
Daphne Maxwell Reid as Vivian Banks (2nd)
Ross Bagley as Nicholas “Nicky” Banks (Seasons 5 & 6 only)

Development
In December 1989, NBC approached Will Smith, a popular rapper during the late 1980s.[3] The pilot episode began taping on May 1, 1990.[4] Season 1 aired in July 1990 and ended in March 1991. The series finale was taped on Thursday, March 21, 1996.[5][6]

The theme song was written and performed by Smith under his rap stage name, The Fresh Prince. The music was composed by QDIII (Quincy Jones III), who is credited with Smith at the end of each episode.

The music often used to bridge scenes together during the show is based on a similar chord structure. The full version of the theme song was used unedited in the first three episodes. The full length version, which is 2:52, was included on Will Smith’s Greatest Hits album and attributed to him only, as well as DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince in 1998. A 3:23 version was released in the Netherlands in 1992, reaching #3 on the charts.

In the second season, the kitchen and living room sets were rebuilt much larger with a more contemporary style (as opposed to the much more formal style of the first season), and were connected directly by an archway, allowing scenes to be shot continuously between the sets.

Plot
The theme song and opening sequence set the premise of the show. Will Smith is a street-smart teenager, born and raised in West Philadelphia. While playing basketball, Will misses a shot and the ball hits a group of people, causing a confrontation that frightens his mother, who sends him to live with his aunt and uncle in the town of Bel Air, Los Angeles.

He flies from Philadelphia to Los Angeles on a one-way ticket in first class. He then whistles for a taxi that has dice in the reflection screen and the word “FRESH” on its vanity plates. Will’s working class background ends up clashing in various humorous ways with the upper class, “bourgeois” world of the Banks family – Will’s uncle Phil and aunt Vivian and their children, Will’s cousins Hilary, Carlton, and Ashley.
Source: Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia – Retrieved February 24, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fresh_Prince_of_Bel-Air

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VIDEO – The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air Theme Song – https://youtu.be/1nCqRmx3Dnw

Published on Feb 3, 2013 – This was obviously the first episode.

The reference to The Fresh Prince refers to the hip-hop rapper Will Smith; the show revolved around him.

The Go Lean book identifies that music – even hip-hop – and the arts can greatly impact society; in addition to the entertainment value, there is also image and impression. People can override many false precepts with excellent deliveries and contributions from great role models.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This CU strives to advance Caribbean image and culture in the region and throughout the world, with these 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance.

This roadmap recognizes that a prerequisite for advancing society is a change in the Caribbean “community ethos”;  (the underlying attitude/spirit/sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices). Early in the book, the contributions that culture (music, television, film, theater and dance) can make is pronounced as an ethos for the entire region to embrace, (opening Declaration of Interdependence – DOI – Pages 15) with this statement:

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

The Go Lean/CU asserts that change has now come to the Caribbean, collectively and for each of the 30 member-states. The people, institutions and governance of the region are all urged to “lean-in” to this roadmap for change. We know it is important to highlight the positive contributions of Caribbean people, even their descendants and legacies.

The great role models being considered here are the many cast members of this iconic TV show – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – who had Caribbean roots. We learn lessons from these great role models: lessons that are good, bad and ugly.

The cast members for consideration are:

  • Alfonso Ribeiro as Carlton Banks
    This American-born actor has displayed many talents, beginning his career at the age of eight but securing his first TV sit-com on the series Silver Spoons at the age of 13; he is also accomplished as a television director, dancer, and show host. He was born in New York City to Trinidadian parents Michael and Joy Ribeiro (née De Leon) of Portuguese, Spanish and Afro-Trinidadian descent from Trinidad and Tobago. His mother was the daughter of Trinidadian Calypsonian the Roaring Lion, Rafael de Leon.[2][3]
  • Tatyana M. Ali as Ashley Banks
    This artist has excelled in her roles as an actress, model and R&B singer. She was born in New York to a mother of Afro-Panamanian[2][3] heritage and a father who is Indo-Trinidadian.[3] She began her acting career at the young age of six, starting as a regular child performer on Sesame Street starting in 1985. She has not stopped working in the entertainment industry, featuring acting and singing roles right up to the present day.
  • Joseph Marcell as Geoffrey The Butler
    This Saint Lucian-born British actor moved to the United Kingdom at the age of nine, grew up in South London, and still lives in that metropolitan area. He studied theatre and science at college, then took courses in speech and dance. As a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he appeared in productions of Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He has also appeared often on British television and in feature films.[2]

These artists have placed their signatures on the entertainment world – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air show delivered 148 episodes – notwithstanding their Caribbean heritage. This is among the ‘Good‘ lessons.

What is ‘Bad and Ugly‘ is how they have excelled in their crafts in the US and the UK as opposed to their ancestral homelands. Their parents left the islands for greater opportunities 50 – 70 years ago and despite the passage of time we still do not have any manifestations that would have allowed their artistic expressions in the Caribbean region.

What is sad is that most of the Caribbean Diaspora left their beloved homelands with some aspirations of returning some day. This is depicted in the Go Lean book with this quotation (Page 118):

The Bottom Line for the Caribbean Diaspora
The Caribbean is the best address in the world. However for over 50 years many Caribbean citizens left their island homes to find greater opportunity in foreign lands: USA, Canada and Europe. Though the “man was taken out of the island, the island was never taken out of the man”, and as such many of the Diaspora live in pockets with other Caribbean expatriates in their foreign homelands (i.e. Flatbush in Brooklyn, New York, USA). What’s more, their children, legacies, are still raised and bred with Caribbean values and culture. Many left initially with the intention of returning someday, but life, loves and livelihoods got in the way of a successful return. Worse, many tried to return and found that they were targets of crime and terrorism, mandating that they abandon all hopes and dreams of a successful repatriation. The CU therefore must allow for the repatriation of peoples of the Diaspora, in all classes of society, “the good, the bad and the ugly”.

We salute these artists from the TV show ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’. Great job; great performances and great portrayals. We accept that these artists are great Americans and Britons; they may never be grouped with Caribbean artists.

This is our loss.

May we do better with our next generation. We can and have done some good in the past; Caribbean people have impacted the art world (music and culture) right from their Caribbean homeland. Consider Caribbean musical icon, Bob Marley; he set a pathway for success for other generations of talented, inspirational and influential artists to follow. More artists of Caribbean heritage are sure to emerge to “impact the world” with their artistry. The planners for a new more opportunistic Caribbean – the Go Lean movement – are preparing for it, as specified in the same DOI – Page 13:

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

The foregoing three artists should be proud of their executions; we are proud of their heritage and thusly have an affinity for their works. We acknowledge those ones from our past who left their Caribbean homelands for better opportunities in the world of entertainment and we know that there are “new” artists who are just waiting to be fostered throughout the Caribbean member-states. We salute these ones as our future, and pledge to do better. The following list details the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster future entertainment options in the Caribbean:

Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius – All Artists Page 27
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness Page 36
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Caribbean Vision Page 45
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Patents & Copyrights Page 78
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Culture Administration Page 81
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media Page 111
Advocacy – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts Page 230
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Music Page 231

These foregoing artists – all good people in their own rite – have been impactful for their communities:

  • Alfonso Ribeiro has been front-and-center in charitable endeavors, exerting much time and resources in helping with children’s medical needs through his Shriners Hospital association.
  • Tatyana Ali has been very active politically, campaigning for “hope and change” with Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008.[10][11] In 2012, she continued showing her support for the re-election campaign and other Democratic Party causes.[12]
  • Joseph Marcell devotes a lot of time, talent and treasuries to educational causes within the theater community.
    CU Blog - Caribbean Roots - Cast of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - Photo 2

These examples continue the theme of the impact of good role models in their community. We need, want and deserve more of this in the Caribbean. This thought has been presented many times in this commentary; consider these previous Go Lean blogs that identified other role models, from many cultures, with these submissions:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10114 Esther Rolle – Caribbean Roots
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9948 Sammy Davis, Jr. – Caribbean Roots
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8724 Remembering Marcus Garvey: A Role Model; Still Relevant Today
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8619 Clive Campbell – Jamaican Innovation for Hip Hop
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8495 NBA Greatness and Caribbean Roots: Tim Duncan Retires
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8328 YouTube Role Model with Caribbean Roots: ‘Tipsy Bartender’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7682 Frederick Douglass: Role Model for a Single Cause
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6593 Dr. Mobley – Role Model as a Business School Dean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2726 Caribbean Role Model – Oscar De La Renta – RIP
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2297 The Black Contrast: Booker T Washington versus W.E.B. Du Bois
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1037 Role Model and Humanities Advocate – Maya Angelou – R.I.P.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=866 Caribbean Musical Icon and Role Model: Bob Marley

The world is a better place, arts-wise, because of Caribbean contributions. Thank you to all past, present and future artists.

Just one more thing: Let’s make these contributions at home, from home; let’s prosper where we are planted.

This helps us to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

————–

Appendix Title: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air‘s NAACP Image Awards

Outstanding Comedy Series

Nominated

 1997
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Won

 Alfonso Ribeiro 1996
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Nominated

 Will Smith 1997
Outstanding Youth Actor/Actress

Won

 Tatyana M. Ali 1997
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Nominated

 Janet Hubert-Whitten 1991
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Nominated

 Nia Long 1996
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Nominated

 Daphne Maxwell Reid 1996
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Bahamian Diaspora: Not the ‘Panacea’

Posted on September 4, 2017 in Government, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

We wish the best to the new Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Dr. Hubert A. Minnis, whose government came to power on May 10, 2017. He was thrust into power by a mandate of the Bahamian people; their demand for a change.

CU Blog - Understand the Market, Plan the ... - Photo 2But we take issue with Dr. Minnis looking to the Bahamian Diaspora as the panacea, the “cure-all” for that change; it is a flawed strategy. There is no “there” there. See the news article of his remarks to the Bahamian Diaspora in Atlanta in the Appendix below.

This has been a consistent theme from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The criticism has been leveled against every Caribbean member-state hoping that their Diaspora – those who had fled, being “pushed” or “pulled” away from their homeland –  would invest back in their country. This strategy double-downs on the failure of why the Diaspora left in the first place. A previous commentary explained:

The subtle message to the Caribbean population is that they need to leave their homeland, go get success and then please remember to invest in us afterwards.

… It is so unfortunate that the people in the Caribbean are beating down the doors to get out of their Caribbean homeland, to seek refuge in these places like the US, Canada and Western Europe. And yet it seems like the Chief Executive of this Caribbean country is encouraging more of it – there is a similar sentiment in the rest of the Caribbean member-states. As a result, we have such a sad state of affairs for our Caribbean eco-system as we are suffering from a bad record of societal abandonment.

See the Appendix VIDEO where the functionality of the Diaspora is discussed as a Caribbean standard.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. The book asserts that the region must work to hold on its populations – especially the professional classes – not see them leave for foreign shores. To accomplish this objective, this CU/Go Lean roadmap presents 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 ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The book aligns with the Prime Minister (PM) of the Bahamas in its desire to reform and transform Caribbean communities and attract more Direct Foreign Investors. While the PM’s scope is only the 320,000 population of the Bahamas, the CU/Go Lean roadmap targets all 30 member-states and their 42 million people. That different scope requires different strategies. By doing a better job of leveraging the size of the whole regional market, a lot of new solutions – size does matter – come to the fore; consider one example:

Media products would have an enlarged market size of 42 million in-country and the 20 million Diaspora.

Catering to the full size of a Caribbean Single Market is better than catering to the Diaspora of one particular country; this can reform and transform all Caribbean societal engines.

Yes, there is a panacea of Caribbean ills; but it is not the Diaspora alone; it is an interdependence of the Caribbean member-states; (including in-country populations and regional Diasporas). This was an early motivation for the CU/Go Lean roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13) of the book:

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.

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.

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.

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the regional collective of Caribbean society.

There is a place for the Diaspora, but it must be the collective Diaspora. Economies-of-scale and regional leverage applies there too, as the total Caribbean Diaspora as been estimated at 10 to 20 million people. Why so vast a range in the count?

That is the problem with Diasporas. Their loyalty – and that of their progeny – shifts to their residential country. See how this thesis has been developed in other blog-commentaries with this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11420 ‘Black British’ avoiding the Caribbean ‘Less Than’ Label
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10820 Miami: Dominican’s ‘Home Away from Home’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10657 Stay Home! Outreach to the Diaspora – Doubling-down on Failure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10494 Ending the American Military Draft – Sent a ‘Welcome Sign’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9219 ‘Time to Go’ – When Progeny No Longer Identifies Culture
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7866 Switching Allegiances: Athletes representing other countries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2547 Miami’s Success versus Caribbean Failure

As related in these submissions, growing the Diaspora is bad for the Diaspora and bad for the Caribbean. The Diaspora should not be viewed as the panacea for Caribbean ills. No, the quest must be to make the homeland a better place to live, work and play so that our citizens do not leave – prosper where planted – and join the Diaspora in the first place. 🙂

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

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

————

Appendix: Bahamian Diaspora to be mobilized, says Minnis

CU Blog - Bahamian Diaspora - Not the Panacea - Photo 1ATLANTA, Georgia – Prime Minister, Dr. Hubert A. Minnis on Saturday encouraged the international Bahamian Diaspora to “consider new investment opportunities in The Bahamas” in areas ranging from tourism, to aquaculture, to the maritime sector.”

Minnis said the Bahamian Diaspora is a “major talent and investment pool that The Bahamas must tap into”.

The prime minister said his administration intends to help create a global network of Bahamians to help boost national development and to create a 21st century Bahamas.

“I invite my fellow Bahamians overseas, those of you of Bahamian heritage, and friends of The Bahamas, to consider new investment opportunities in The Bahamas in areas ranging from tourism, to aquaculture, to the maritime sector,” Minnis said.

“The Bahamas has a highly favorable investment regime. We are cutting the red tape and too often long waiting times for international investment projects to be vetted and approved.

“Like other countries that have successfully done so, my government will cultivate and utilize the energy of the Bahamian Diaspora,” Dr. Minnis said. “Working with our foreign missions, we will create a database of Bahamians overseas who the country may tap into as potential investors and consultants.

“For example, if there is not a domestic Bahamian consultant available in a given area, the priority will be to locate a Bahamian overseas, instead of first using a non-Bahamian consultant.”

Prime Minister Minnis said his administration is also giving consideration to the establishment of an overseas council of the Bahamian Diaspora, that will utilize social media and a dedicated website to help to produce a database and platform for communication of Bahamians overseas.

The prime minister said such a council could also promote investment and job opportunities for Bahamians wishing to return to and/or work in The Bahamas.

“The council may also promote ways that Bahamians overseas can network and help with educational and community-minded projects that will benefit The Bahamas, especially young Bahamians,” Minnis said.

Addressing a cocktail reception for Bahamians living in Atlanta and “friends of the Bahamian Diaspora”, Minnis said the government of The Bahamas has undertaken a program of long-term, economic growth in order to reduce unemployment and to move the Bahamian economy onto a more sustainable path since coming to office on May 10, 2017.

Minnis told attendees that his administration is also dedicated to stabilizing public finances, reforming government and addressing official corruption.

The program of reform and transformation, Minnis said, includes new thinking about the role of government “as we create new and innovative partnerships for national development”.

Minnis also invited those in attendance to consider lending their talents and resources in areas such as youth development and community service.

“God has blessed The Bahamas with many gifts. As a people we have always been blessed with an abundance of talent way beyond our relatively small population. This includes the Bahamian Diaspora,” Minnis added.

Source: Posted and retrieved September 4, 2017 from: http://www.thenassauguardian.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75958&Itemid=2

———–

Appendix VIDEO – CBNS101: Caribbean Diaspora – https://youtu.be/bnizsn7pdW0


Published on Apr 19, 2013 – Courtman, Sandra. Beyond the blood, the beach & the banana: new perspectives in Caribbean studies. Kingston: Ian Randle, 2004. Print. 

Harney, Stefano. Nationalism and identity: culture and the imagination in a Caribbean diaspora. Kingston [Jamaica: University of the West Indies ;, 1996. Print. 


Mohammed, Jennifer. Caribbean Studies: Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) : for self-study and distance learning. S.l.: [Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC)], 2004.

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Lessons from Colorado: Black Ghost Towns – “Booker T. turning in his grave”

Posted on August 22, 2017 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

CU Blog - Lessons from Colorado - Black Ghost Towns - Photo 0This precept is straight-forward, natural and moral:

Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. – The Bible – Galatians 6:7

Or stated otherwise:

If you sow wheat, you will reap wheat … during the harvest.

Barring any extra-natural intervention, a roadmap that is based on this natural law should indeed experience success. And yet, Booker T. Washington – one of the most influential African-American leaders in the history of the country – is probably “turning in his grave”, when considering the actuality of so many Black townships that were formed in his wake.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean makes an important point about the African experience in the US; it is one of deferred gratification, not to expect an immediate return, result and consequence; the reap-what-you-sow mantra had been irrelevant.

There is a Lesson in History that Caribbean communities must consider. One commentator, activist and comedian summarized it as the “home court advantage”:

The world is mourning the passing of this comedian, Dick Gregory at age 84 (October 12, 1932 – August 19, 2017). Among the many accomplishments in his full life was this one declaration – quoted in a previous Go Lean commentary – on November 27, 1963 when President Lyndon Johnson announced at a Joint-Session of Congress that he would continue with the recently assassinated John Kennedy’s Civil Rights agenda:

“Twenty million American Negroes unpacked”.

He thereby acknowledged that until that moment – in the 1960’s – the United States of America was really not home for the minority African-American populations. No, White America had the “home-court advantage”.

This “home-court advantage” is in contrast with the straight-forward, natural and moral precept … mentioned at the outset. That precept was vocalized by Booker T. Washington. He advocated an economic empowerment plan to “prosper where planted”. This was sound, if not for the actuality of White Supremacy in early 20th Century America.

The details of Booker T.’s advocacy was fully detailed in a previous Go Lean blog-commentary:

A Lesson in History – Booker T versus Du Bois

Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois … were [both] very important in the history of civil rights for African-Americans. They both wanted the same elevation of their community – [the “Way Forward”] – in American society, but they both had different strategies, tactics and implementations.

CU Blog - A Lesson in History - Booker T versus DuBois - Photo Combined

Washington’s biggest legacy is the Tuskegee University (Tuskegee Institute in his day). Du Bois’s legacy stems from his co-founding the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

The conclusion … is that the journey for full citizenship for African-Americans took 100 years from the time of the Washington / Du Bois chasm. No matter the detailed approach, 100 years is still 100 years.

From the point of view of the Caribbean and the publishers of Go Lean…Caribbean, we side with both civil rights leaders in aspirations, but lean towards Booker T. Washington in strategies. Underlying to Mr. Washington’s advocacy, was for the Black Man to remain in the South, find a way to reconcile with his White neighbors and to prosper where he was planted.

…

The point from a Caribbean perspective is “the more things change, the more they remain the same”. We have problems in the Caribbean to contend with, many of which we are failing miserably. But our biggest crisis stems from the fact that so many of our citizens have fled their Caribbean homelands for foreign (including American) shores.

The purpose of this commentary is not to fix America, it is to fix the Caribbean. But the push-and-pull factors are too strong coming from the US. We must lower the glimmering light, the “pull factors”, that so many Caribbean residents perceive of the “Welcome” sign hanging at American ports-of-entry. A consideration of this commentary helps us to understand the DNA of American society: un-reconciled race relations in which Black-and-Brown are still not respected.

The logical conclusion: stay home in the Caribbean and work toward improving the homeland. The US should not be the panacea of Caribbean hopes and dreams.

Booker T. Washington advocated this strategy: prosper where you’re planted.

After 100 years, and despite an African-American President, we must say to Mr. Booker T. Washington: We concur!

The history and legacy of one of the Booker T’s inspired Black townships – Dearfield, Colorado – is commemorated in the Black American West Museum and Heritage Center in Denver, Colorado. This historicity – see encyclopedic details here – is one of the lessons learned from developments in Denver and the State of Colorado. This is the theme of this series of commentaries on lessons that have been learned by Caribbean stakeholders visiting, observing and reporting on this US State of Colorado.

Reference – Dearfield, Colorado

CU Blog - Lessons from Colorado - Black Ghost Towns - Photo 1

Dearfield is a “ghost town” and a historically black majority settlement in Weld County, Colorado, United States. It is 30 miles (48 km) east of Greeley. The town was formed by Oliver T. Jackson who desired to create a colony for African Americans; [he was inspired by the ideals set forth in Booker T. Washington’s book “Up from Slavery”; see Appendix below]. In 1910, Jackson, a successful businessman from Boulder, filed on the homestead that later became the town and began to advertise for “colonists.” The name Dearfield was suggested by one of the town’s citizens, Dr. J.H.P. Westbrook who was from Denver. The word dear was chosen as the foundation for the town’s name due to the precious value of the land and community to the town’s settlers.[2]

The first settlers of Dearfield had great difficulty farming the surrounding pasture and endured several harsh seasons. However, by 1921, 700 people lived in Dearfield. The town’s net worth was appraised at $1,075,000. After several prosperous years, the Great Depression arrived and the town’s agricultural success significantly declined. Settlers began to leave Dearfield in order to find better opportunities. By 1940, the town population had decreased to 12, only 2% of the town’s 1921 population. Jackson desperately attempted to spur interest in the town, even offering it for sale. However, there was little interest in Dearfield. Jackson died on February 18, 1948.

CU Blog - Lessons from Colorado - Black Ghost Towns - Photo 2

CU Blog - Lessons from Colorado - Black Ghost Towns - Photo 2b

CU Blog - Lessons from Colorado - Black Ghost Towns - Photo 2c

A few deserted buildings remain in Dearfield: a gas station, a diner, and the founder’s home. In 1998, the Black American West Museum in Denver began to make attempts to preserve the town’s site. It is a Colorado Registered Historic Landmark. A 2010 monument next to one of the remaining buildings contains information about the history of the site.

A 2001 state historical marker [3] at U.S. Route 85 mile marker 264 near Evans, Colorado, includes a panel with the history of Dearfield.
Source: Retrieved August 20, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dearfield,_Colorado

There were other Black townships as well; consider: Allensworth, California, Boley, Oklahoma, and Nicodemus, Kansas.

What befell these towns?

Agents of Change

This is a strong point of contention in the Go Lean book (Page 45). It asserts that the modern world does NOT stand-still; change is ever-present. The Agents of Change that befell the Black townships of that era were mostly:

  • Geo-political – An early round of globalization where focus, investments and jobs  shifted away from the farms to the factories in the cities.
  • Technology – Agricultural science and methods changed; i.e. fertilizers, seeds, etc.
  • Climate Change – In the early 1930’s, a pervasive drought afflicted the High Plains of the Mid-West United States, creating the Dust Bowl; this was exacerbated by bad farming practices, that cause the disaster to linger longer than best-practices dictated.
    CU Blog - Lessons from Colorado - Black Ghost Towns - Photo 3
  • Racism and White Supremacy could have been considered among these Agents of Change, though this societal defect remained unresolved and un-reconciled in American society, no matter the location, North-South or Urban-Rural. Whenever Black townships made progress, malicious acts from the White Majority curtailed any advances. See here:
    VIDEO – How Black Communities Were Destroyed | Sincere History – https://youtu.be/jRZ6o0W_pHI
    Published on Dec 21, 2015 – A hundred years ago, in communities across the U.S., white residents forced thousands of black families to flee their homes. Even a century later, these towns remain almost entirely white. BANISHED tells the story of three of these communities and their black descendants, who return to learn their shocking histories.”
    Reason TV: Urban Renewal – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWGws…
    For more, go to http://sincereignorance.com/2014/08/0…
    Sincere Ignorance Social Media
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sincereignor…
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/sincereignorant

In the Caribbean, we have so much in common and so much in contrast with this community of Dearfield, and the other towns who suffered the same Ghost Town fate. For starters, we have our own Ghost Towns. We also have Agents of Change (Globalization, Technology, Climate Change and the Aging Diaspora) to contend with. So we have to build-up our Caribbean homeland so that our people can “prosper where planted”. But we do have a home-court advantage that Dearfield et al never enjoyed; we have a majority Black population.

This commentary completes the 5-part series on the subject of Lessons from Colorado. There are so many lessons that we have considered from this land-locked US State; good ones and bad ones. In fact, the full list of 5 entries are detailed as follows:

  1. Lessons from Colorado – Common Sense of Eco-Tourism
  2. Lessons from Colorado – Legalized Marijuana: Heavy-lifting!
  3. Lessons from Colorado – How the West Was Won
  4. Lessons from Colorado – Water Management Art and Science
  5. Lessons from Colorado – Black Ghost Towns

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

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy and create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance – including best practices in town planning and agricultture – to support these engines.

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to forge this change in the region for a reboot of the Caribbean societal engines: economy, security and governance. This roadmap is presented as a planning tool, pronouncing this point early in the Declaration of Interdependence with these statements: (Pages 12 – 13):

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.

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

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.

The Go Lean book calls for the elevation of Caribbean society, to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize all the societal engines so as to make the 30 member-states of the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.  Thank you Colorado for these lessons from your past, present and future on how we can better shepherd our society.

Your land is a great place to visit, but it is not our home. But still, you have shown us that nation-building is heavy-lifting and that we need good role models to follow.

There have been other Go Lean blog-commentaries that presented good role models for nation-building, especially in the light of societal defects; see this sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12369 Happy Canada Day 150 to a Pluralistic Democracy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11386 Building Better Cities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10513 Transforming ‘Money’ Countrywide
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6563 Lessons from Iceland – Model of Recovery

If we do not learn from history, we are forced to repeat it.

This also applies to other people’s history. There are so many lessons that the Caribbean can learn from other communities: best practices and bad practices. Let’s pay more than the usual attention to these lessons.

We need all the help we can get. The bad old days of Caribbean dysfunction must end. We must work to do better, to be better.

These lands are our home! (Unlike our African-American brothers and sisters of olden times, we have the home-court advantage):

This is my island in the sun
Where my people have toiled since time begun
I may sail on many a sea
Her shores will always be home to me

Song: Island in the Sun by Harry Belafonte

Yes, we can! We can make our homelands better places to live, work and play. 🙂

… and RIP Dick Gregory.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

———–

Book Review: Up from Slavery 

CU Blog - Lessons from Colorado - Black Ghost Towns - Photo 4Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of Booker T. Washington sharing his personal experience of having to work to rise up from the position of a slave child during the Civil War, to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton Institute, to his work establishing vocational schools—most notably the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama—to help black people and other disadvantaged minorities learn useful, marketable skills and work to pull themselves, as a race, up by the bootstraps. He reflects on the generosity of both teachers and philanthropists who helped in educating blacks and Native Americans. He describes his efforts to instill manners, breeding, health and a feeling of dignity to students. His educational philosophy stresses combining academic subjects with learning a trade (something which is reminiscent of the educational theories of John Ruskin). Washington explained that the integration of practical subjects is partly designed to reassure the white community as to the usefulness of educating black people.

This book was first released as a serialized work in 1900 through The Outlook, a Christian newspaper of New York. This work was serialized because this meant that during the writing process, Washington was able to hear critiques and requests from his audience and could more easily adapt his paper to his diverse audience.[1]

Washington was a controversial figure in his own lifetime, and W. E. B. Du Bois, among others, criticized some of his views. The book was, however, a best-seller, and remained the most popular African American autobiography until that of Malcolm X.[2] In 1998, the Modern Librarylisted the book at No. 3 on its list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the 20th century, and in 1999 it was also listed by the conservative Intercollegiate Review as one of the “50 Best Books of the Twentieth Century”.[3]

Plot summary

Up from Slavery chronicles more than forty years of Washington’s life: from slave to schoolmaster to the face of southern race relations. In this text, Washington climbs the social ladder through hard, manual labor, a decent education, and relationships with great people. Throughout the text, he stresses the importance of education for the black population as a reasonable tactic to ease race relations in the South (particularly in the context of Reconstruction).

Source: Retrieved August 21, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_from_Slavery

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