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Decision 2020 – The Winner: Cannabis

Posted on November 17, 2020 in Ethos, Government, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

The 2020 US General Election is over – finally! And the winner is:

Cannabis

Voter approval for Marijuana decriminalization or legalization was on the ballot in a number of states. In almost every case: Cannabis (or Marijuana) won.

Ouch!

While this is not the case in most Caribbean countries, the fact that the giant United States of America has changed their views towards Cannabis – both legally and morally – will most definitely have an effect on us in our region. The American hegemony rules … in both trade and tourism. The enormity of the American impact can be visualized with this puzzle:

Where does an 800 Gorilla sit? Anywhere he wants.

There were a lot of BIG ISSUES in the Decision 2020 campaigns, but this one should not skip our attention, as the legalization of recreational marijuana can have major upheavals on society. In a previous blog-commentary – observing and reporting on the legalization of Cannabis in the US State of Michigan on December 1, 2019 – by the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean, a direct correlation was made to chaos in society; see this excerpt:

Marijuana in Detroit – Chaos on Chaos – December 17, 2019
It turns out that the Marijuana eco-system brings chaos. If the community is already chaotic, then that disposition is heightened, intensified and exacerbated.

This commentary is an analysis of the Decision 2020 issues. It is a continuation of the monthly Teaching Series from the Go Lean movement for November 2020. Every month, a Teaching Series addresses issues germane to Caribbean life and culture. This one is not about the presidential candidates for Decision 2020, but rather this “Hot Button” issue of Cannabis.

We have previously covered issues about the presidential race in 5 blog-commentaries for October 2020, plus three subsequent ones in November – this is the fourth. All of these entries are relevant for Decision 2020 as they relate to the impact of the Caribbean on America’s politics … and the impact (and lessons) of America’s politics on the Caribbean. See the full catalog of this multi-part, multi-month Decision 2020 Teaching Series here as follows:

Decision 2020: Puerto Rico claps back at Trump
Decision 2020: Haiti’s Agenda 2016 ==> 2020 – Trump never cared
Decision 2020: Latino Gender Gap – More Toxic Masculinity
Decision 2020: More Immigration or Less
Decision 2020: What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela
——– After the Vote:
Decision 2020: Hasta La Vista Mr. Trump
Decision 2020: Voices From the ‘Peanut Gallery’
Decision 2020: It is what it is; ‘we are who we are’
Decision 2020: The Winner: Cannabis

The take-away from all of these considerations is that American politics and social engineering have a bearing on our Caribbean eco-system; their domestic policy affects moral issues like recreational drugs will impact our Foreign Policy, trade practices and touristic hospitality. We wish American Cannabis policy and Decision 2020, was just their business, but “No, we are affected; just like we are down wind from a pot-smoking crowd”; we will be affected. So this is our business too!

Welcome to heavy-lifting…

See how this Cannabis victory was portrayed in the news media production here:

Title: ‘A tipping point’: Psychedelics, Cannabis win big across the country on election night
Sub-title: “People are realizing it’s not just about getting high,” said Avis Bulbulyan, CEO of SIVA Enterprises. “This is a tipping point for drug policy absent any federal reform.”
By: Alicia Victoria Lozano

As the nation awaits a final result from the presidential election, a clear winner emerged Tuesday: drugs.

Measures to legalize cannabis and decriminalize other drugs won major victories this week as five states — Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana and Mississippi — legalized some form of marijuana use and Oregon became the first state to make possession of small amounts of harder drugs, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, violations not punishable by jail time.

Voters in Oregon and Washington, D.C., also approved measures to allow for the therapeutic use of psychedelic mushrooms, which are already being prescribed to help some terminally ill patients in Canada cope with pain and end-of-life anxiety.

“People are realizing it’s not just about getting high,” said Avis Bulbulyan, CEO of SIVA Enterprises, a cannabis business development and solutions firm based in Glendale, California, near Los Angeles. “This is a tipping point for drug policy absent any federal reform.”

On Tuesday, South Dakota became the first state whose voters approved both recreational and medical cannabis in the same election. Medicinal marijuana also was made legal in Mississippi. Meanwhile, New Jersey, Montana and Arizona all legalized recreational cannabis.

“Despite this public consensus, elected officials have far too often remained unresponsive to the legalization issue,” Erik Altieri, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, said in a statement.

NORML has lobbied for the end of marijuana prohibitions since it was founded in 1970.

“These results once again illustrate that support for legalization extends across geographic and demographic lines,” Altieri said. “The success of these initiatives proves definitively that marijuana legalization is not exclusively a ‘blue’ state issue, but an issue that is supported by a majority of all Americans — regardless of party politics.”

Just 10 years ago, recreational cannabis was illegal in all 50 states, but that started to change in 2012, when Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational use. At the time, California, which has one of the biggest and oldest marijuana markets in the country, allowed only medicinal use of cannabis.

A domino effect followed, with several more states venturing into the medicinal markets, including Pennsylvania in 2016 and New York in 2014. Now, 15 states, two territories and Washington, D.C., have legalized marijuana for recreational use, while 34 states and two territories allow medical marijuana.

“It’s fantastic to see this cannabis sweep,” said Stuart Titus, CEO of Medical Marijuana Inc., a hemp products company based in San Diego. “There is a tremendous momentum building. I think we’re right on the precipice of changing federal policy with so many states coming online.”

Despite the ballot initiatives, marijuana and other drugs remain illegal at the federal level. The Drug Enforcement Administration continues to classify cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug akin to LSD, heroin and ecstasy.

In New Jersey, some advocates for cannabis legalization worry that the state ballot measure remains too murky and would not tackle social justice concerns surrounding the so-called war on drugs.

The question posed to voters appears simple at first glance: “Do you approve amending the Constitution to legalize a controlled form of marijuana called ‘cannabis’?”

While the majority of voters said yes, the language would not necessarily decriminalize all adult-use cannabis. Instead, it would make only “a controlled form” of the plant legal, said Chris Goldstein, a regional organizer for NORML.

“New Jersey voters sent a message to the Legislature — they want prohibition to end,” he said. “They want people to stop getting arrested.”

The Legislature will now have to pass another measure to set up the new cannabis marketplace. Whether that will reduce marijuana arrests and convictions remains to be seen, Goldstein said.

Meanwhile, Arizona’s measure allows people convicted of certain cannabis crimes to seek expungement of their records. Arizona voters narrowly defeated a legal pot proposal in 2016.

Cannabis was not the only drug on the ballot.

In Oregon, voters approved Measure 110 to allow a person found in possession of small amounts of hard drugs to avoid jail time by paying a $100 fine or attending an addiction recovery center. The centers would be funded through tax revenue collected from the state’s legal cannabis program.

Separately, Oregon voters passed measures to decriminalize psychedelic drugs, as did voters in Washington, D.C.

In Washington, D.C., Initiative 81 will lower the enforcement priority for “entheogenic plants and fungi,” or psychedelic mushrooms and mescaline-containing cacti. The ballot measure would not legalize psychedelics in the nation’s capital.

Oregon, however, became the first state to legalize psilocybin, also called magic mushrooms.

Measure 109 calls for the manufacture and therapeutic use of psilocybin to treat patients with mental health disorders. Some research suggests that psilocybin, when ingested in small doses under supervised settings, can ease stress and induce feelings of happiness.

In one recent study, patients who were given a single dose of the psychedelic drug to ease depression and anxiety still felt its positive effects years later. The patients were given small amounts of psilocybin in 2016 to look at whether it could ease cancer-related anxiety and depression. Eighty percent of the patients said their symptoms faded.

“What is permanent is that I don’t have anxiety about cancer. Not only about my cancer returning, but how I viewed my reoccurrence when it did happen,” Dinah Bazer, who was diagnosed in March with a type of rare gastrointestinal cancer, said at the time.

Source: Posted November 4, 2020; retrieved November 20, 2020 from: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/tipping-point-psychedelics-cannabis-win-big-across-country-election-night-n1246469

———-

Title: MAP – See the States where Marijuana is legal
Sub-title: Nationwide, 15 states, two territories and Washington, D.C., have legalized marijuana for recreational use, while 34 states and two territories allow medical marijuana.
By: Jiachuan Wu and Daniella Silva

Voters in New Jersey, Arizona, Montana and South Dakota approved ballot measures Tuesday that would legalize recreational marijuana. Mississippi approved the use of medical marijuana for people with debilitating conditions.

Nationwide, 15 states, two territories and Washington, D.C., have legalized marijuana for recreational use, while 34 states and two more territories allow medical marijuana.

See which states allow marijuana for medical and/or recreational use.

Source: Posted and retrieved November 4, 2020 from: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/map-see-if-marijuana-legal-your-state-n938426?icid=related

Do you see the slippery slope? Not only Cannabis, but other psychedelic drugs as well? See Appendix VIDEO below.

This is a familiar theme – the emergence of medical-then-recreational marijuana in mainstream society – for the Go Lean movement; we have repeatedly blogged on this subject; consider this sample of previous submissions:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18737	Marijuana in Detroit – Chaos on Chaos
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14836	Counter-culture: Pushing for Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14480	Managing Mental Health in the Caribbean – Marijuana Use Intensity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13882	Managing ‘Change’ in California
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12703	Lessons from Colorado: Legalized Marijuana – Heavy-lifting!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1386	Marijuana in Jamaica – Puff Peace

As related previously, the ecosystem around Marijuana use is not purely an economic equation; it also addresses security concerns and Public Health issues:

There will be Winners and Losers.

Marijuana or Cannabis is a drug! Plain and simple! People will get addicted and society must deal with addiction as a Mental Health reality.

Overall, the position of the Go Lean movement is:

“We are not ready … for the chaos of recreational marijuana. We had better get ready now because this change is coming soon”.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean (Page 36), posits that the Mental Health eco-system in the region must get ready. We must reboot, empower and elevate our Mental Health facilitations. The chore of doing this is too big for any one Caribbean member-state alone. We need help!

The help we need in the Caribbean is not an American consideration. The candidates for Decision 2020 have no positions on the Caribbean Mental Health facilitations; this is on us … alone.

Mental Health affects everyone; everybody is involved. No one is spared from Mental Health challenges; consider these everyday Mental Health realities:

Bereavement
Post-Partum Depression (for new mothers)
Post Trauma Stress Disorder
Drug Abuse and Alcohol Counseling
Suicide Prevention

The Mental Health ecosystem must be optimized to address the needs of all the people all the time. This is part of the standard offering of local governance. This is the actuality of the Social Contract on the societal engines of economics, security and governance. This Social Contract means …

… 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.

Caribbean stewards – government and community leaders alike – have just a little time to get ready for more societal Chaos brought on by recreational marijuana; (and possibly other recreational drugs – see Appendix VIDEO).

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Of no, wait! that’s not an option either.

Change – good and bad – is coming!

If you can’t stand the heat … get out of the kitchen and allow cooks and kitchen stewards who can stand the heat.

This is the new reality. We must deliver on our societal deliverables.

Change brings Chaos.
Chaos brings change.

7 years ago, the Go Lean book was presented to the Caribbean region as a roadmap to get ready for unavoidable Agents of Change. The roadmap is ready.

We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap to reform and transform the regional economic engines, security apparatus (including Public Health facilitations), and our regional governance. This is how we will make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work, heal and play. 🙂

About the Book
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 & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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.

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

Who We Are
The movement behind the Go Lean book – a non-partisan, apolitical, religiously-neutral Community Development Foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines – 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):

ix. Whereas the realities of healthcare and an aging population cannot be ignored and cannot be afforded without some advanced mitigation, the Federation must arrange for health plans to consolidate premiums of both healthy and sickly people across the wider base of the entire Caribbean population. The mitigation should extend further to disease management, wellness, mental health, obesity and smoking cessation programs. The Federation must proactively anticipate the demand and supply of organ transplantation as developing countries are often exploited by richer neighbors for illicit organ trade.

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.

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

————–

Appendix VIDEO – California could decriminalize psychedelic drugs – https://youtu.be/cUqVH_IinwQ

ABC10
State [Senator] Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said he plans to introduce a bill decriminalizing possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms and other psychedelics.

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Model, Transform

Decision 2020 – It is what it is; ‘we are who we are’

Posted on November 14, 2020 in Ethos, Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

We thought there would be a Great Reckoning!
It didn’t happen…

What happened America? We thought you would “clap back” at Donald Trump. We waited… you didn’t!

The four (4) years of the Trump Administration was a “circus and he proved to be a clown”; there was one infraction after another; consider just this short sample:

Trump’s a Clown, but the GOP’s a Circus

So finally the country got the opportunity to voice their discontent of Trump’s character and policies, with the 2020 General Election; we were waiting … and waiting.

Boink! Splatt!
It didn’t happen.

The election results are in and the headlines on America has emerged:

It is what it is; ‘we are who we are’.

The summary of the election analysis is that Americans didn’t change during the 4 years of Donald Trump:

“They doubled-down!” The Deep Blue states remained Blue; the Deep Red states remained Red.

The challenge of the election was not whether people would change their minds or opinions, but rather “would they show up to vote”. See this theme as presented in this news analysis/article by NBC News:

Title: In battleground states, few counties flipped even when states did
Sub-title: Turnout was up in 99 percent of the counties in battleground states, while 97 percent voted the same way they voted in 2016.
By: Kanwal Syed, Elliott Ramos, Ellie Frymire and Naitian Zhou

Voter turnout rose sharply during last week’s election in battleground states across the country.

Nearly every county in the 13 major battleground states had more voter turnout than in the 2016 election, according to an analysis of NBC News election results. Of those thousand-plus counties, only 12 had lower turnouts than in the last election, as of the latest results.

While Joe Biden was able to flip four of the 13 states from President Donald Trump and win three more states than Hillary Clinton won in 2016, the picture remains largely unchanged within the states themselves.

Out of 1,118 counties in battleground states, only 37 flipped, or 3.3 percent, which meant control of the states rested largely on parties’ turning out votes within counties they had won before.

Michigan
More than 70 percent of Michigan voters turned out, an increase of almost 10 percentage points over 2016. The state, part of the so-called blue wall, went to Biden after having flipped for Trump in 2016.

Jake Berlin, a first-time voter from Oakland County, teetered on the fence about his decision this year all the way up until he reached his polling place.

“I felt I could be tipping the scale one way or another and felt like I had a good amount of power,” Berlin said. “That was exciting.”

Berlin did not vote in 2016. He said he had a change of heart because of Michigan’s role as a swing state.

“You’ve kind of got to make sure your voice is heard, otherwise it’s just going to be everyone else’s voice heard,” he said.

Berlin said he voted for Trump. His county went for Biden.

Florida
Florida, a decisive state in many presidential elections, had a turnout of 64 percent, up from 57 percent in 2016.

A precinct within the University of Central Florida in Orange County even exceeded 100 percent voter turnout, which The New York Times attributed to a few voters who switched their addresses on Election Day and moved into the area.

Danaë Rivera-Marasco, a spokesperson for the Orange County Elections Commission, said the commission worked closely with the UCF student government association to encourage young voters to vote.

“It’s great to see young engagement and that they took responsibility,” Rivera-Marasco said. “We haven’t seen anything like that in past elections.”

Arizona
Arizona was one of the states with the greatest increases in voter turnout, up by 10 percentage points from 2016. Only four counties went to Clinton in 2016, and according to the latest results five have gone to Biden.

This year, 300,000 more Democratic voters turned out in Maricopa County than in 2016, flipping it to Biden, who holds a lead over Trump in the state. The region, which includes Phoenix, is the state’s most populous county.

North Carolina
Turnout in North Carolina, another such swing state, rose by 7 percentage points over 2016. Scotland County is one of three counties in the state to have flipped this year, having voted for Clinton in 2016 and switching to Trump this year.

Dell Parker, elections director of the Scotland County Board of Elections, said that even with the popularity of mail-in and absentee ballots, the board expected a larger outcome on Election Day.

“We had heard a lot of people talking about the election, so we kind of prepared for a big turnout,” Parker said. “We were actually a little disappointed that more people did not come.”

The state’s final vote count is expected Tuesday.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/graphic-battleground-state-turnout-2020-election-n1247337?icid=election_nav posted November 13, 2020; retrieved November 14, 2020.

Did you notice this summary excerpt?

Out of 1,118 counties in battleground states, only 37 flipped, or 3.3 percent, which meant control of the states rested largely on parties’ turning out votes within counties they had won before.

America has not changed! The 2020 Decision for the President of the United States (POTUS) has not led to any reformation or transformation – it is what it was. American has doubled-down on being America.

This is a Cautionary Tale for Caribbean people, in the homeland and in the Diaspora. Many Caribbean people look to the US as a “city on the hill”, a role model for advanced democracies.

Yet the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean has always maintained that America should not be considered as some land of refuge for Caribbean people – the grass is not necessarily greener on the American side. America should not be the destination. Rather than fleeing in search of refuge, we need to do the work to reform and transform our communities:

2017 Review – Mr. Trump shows the ‘Wrong Way’ – December 21, 2017
Surely, fleeing to the US must be likened to “jumping out of the frying pan into the fire”. Remember, this country was not built for the Caribbean’s Black-and-Brown. They continue to experience racial discriminations, despite a recent Black President. …

Surely, it is the conclusion of most people that 2017 has proven that America is not working for Caribbean priorities …

… they are not even working for their own priorities, as the country under Trump seems more and more divided with the President only supported by 33 percent of the people, the other 67% are outraged … i.e. the majority of the population are middle class, yet yesterday’s passage of the Tax Reform bill only benefits the rich.

Proudly, we say that for our societal elevation efforts, the quest of the Go Lean … Caribbean movement: we do not want to be America, we want to be better.

————

Better than America? Yes, We Can! – June 20, 2015
… building a multi-cultural society is not easy. The book Go Lean … Caribbean describes the challenge as heavy-lifting. America has failed at this challenge, hands-down. In previous blog- commentaries, many defects of American life were detailed, (including the propensity for Crony-Capitalism). See the list of defects here: Housing, education, job hunting, prisons, drug crime prosecutions, and racial profiling.

But despite this list and the reality of this subject, America tries …

This is an important consideration for the planners of Caribbean empowerment. The Caribbean, a region where unfortunately, we have NOT … tried.

The social science of Anthropology teaches that communities have two choices when confronted with endangering crises: fight or flight. The unfortunate reality is that we have chosen the option of flight; (we have no ethos for fighting for our homeland). …

We can apply these models and lessons from these [other] societies to obtain success. This vision is conceivable, believable and achievable!

Yes we can … make the Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play.

The election is over: Joe Biden defeated the incumbent Donald Trump at the November 3^rd polling. He won, not by changing the hearts and minds of undecided people, but rather doubling-down on his base to get their electoral support; (Trump did likewise; this time with an even greater turnout than 2016). The people in this country are still entrenched in their ideologies. So now the question becomes: “Can Joe Biden bridge the huge divide between Blue and Red in America?” See this portrayal in this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – US Election 2020: Can Joe Biden heal America’s political divisions? – https://youtu.be/uEGDigc2kU8

Sky News
Posted November 7, 2020 – Joe Biden is set to become US president – but with the country in political gridlock, the Democratic former VP may have a tough task ahead.

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The election is over but still, the analysis continues.

This commentary is such an analysis; it is a continuation of the monthly Teaching Series from the Go Lean movement on Decision 2020. The Teaching Series always addresses issues germane to Caribbean life and culture. This one is no different. We presented 5 entries in October 2020, plus two subsequent ones in November – this is the third. All of these entries are relevant for Decision 2020 as they relate to the impact of the Caribbean on America’s politics … and the impact and lessons of America’s politics on the Caribbean. See the full catalog of this multi-part, multi-month Decision 2020 Teaching Series here as follows:

Decision 2020: Puerto Rico claps back at Trump
Decision 2020: Haiti’s Agenda 2016 ==> 2020 – Trump never cared
Decision 2020: Latino Gender Gap – More Toxic Masculinity
Decision 2020: More Immigration or Less
Decision 2020: What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela
——– After the Vote:
Decision 2020: Hasta La Vista Mr. Trump
Decision 2020: Voices From the ‘Peanut Gallery’
Decision 2020: It is what it is; ‘we are who we are’

The take-away from all of these considerations is that American politics have a bearing on our Caribbean ecosystem; their domestic policy affects our Foreign Policy. It would be nice to just mind our own business; but whether we have a vote or not in Decision 2020, we are affected. It is our business too and so, we must use our voices.

This actuality of Foreign Policy have a bearing on our interaction with other countries as well; think French Departments, Netherlands Antilles, British Overseas Territories.

This is a familiar theme – our Foreign Policy and disposition with the rest of the world – for the Go Lean movement; we have repeatedly blogged on this subject; consider this sample of previous submissions:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19570	The EU as a Role Model: Not when ‘Push’ comes to ‘Shove’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19521	BHAG – Outreach to the World: Doing it as a Profit Center – Why Not?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19494	BHAG – One Voice: Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Stance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19203	Empowering Immigrants for a Brain Gain: Yes we can!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17878	Profiting from the Supply-side of the Migration Crisis
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14954	Overseas Workers – Not the Panacea
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13642	Africa: Past, Present and Future of Caribbean Relations
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13233	Caribbean proposes new US-Caribbean trade initiative
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8799	Lessons from China – Too Big To Ignore
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6231	China’s Caribbean Playbook: America’s Script
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4240	Immigration Policy Exacerbates Worker Productivity Crisis
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3662	Migrant flow into US from Caribbean spikes

America is what it is … they may not learn or apply any lessons from the failed Trump experiment. 🙁

From a Caribbean perspective, it is not our homeland, it is their homeland. They are not changing for us; we cannot make them change. We can only change ourselves, individually and collectively. If we were to change (reform and transform) then maybe our people would not need to flee in the first place … as they have done in the past, so many times in the past.

That would be a good change. Donald Trump cannot do it for us; neither can Joe Biden. We must do “it” ourselves.

Let’s get busy with doing the changes, doing the heavy-lifting to reform and transform our society. We can and should work to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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.

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

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Diaspora, Foreign Policy, Transform

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Decision 2020 – Voices From the ‘Peanut Gallery’

Posted on November 13, 2020 in Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Shut Up … all of you in the Peanut Gallery.

This is how this expression is often used, as the Peanut Gallery is a derisive dismissal of people thought to be inconsequential. Yep, in many people’s opinion, this is the disposition of the people and places of the Caribbean region. See more of the definition here:

A peanut gallery was, in the days of Vaudeville, a nickname for the cheapest and ostensibly rowdiest seats in the theater, the occupants of which were often known to heckle the performers. – Source: Wikipedia

Back in the old Vaudeville days, the section of seats way in the back, (aka, the cheap seats), where typically your rowdy, rude, hecklers sat, was known as the Peanut Gallery. Maybe these patrons were annoyed that they couldn’t see the performers or the stage well. Maybe they were envious of those who could afford front row, orchestra seats, or maybe they were just rude, judgy folks whose ignorance allowed them to take pot shots at people trying to do their best. Whatever the reason, the Peanut Gallery patrons had a reputation for being critical and rude. – Source: Retrieved November 13, 2020 from: https://www.awenestyofautism.com/blog/no-comments-from-the-peanut-gallery

The American hegemony is influx, they are undergoing their 2020 General Election and the decisioning for the President of the United States (POTUS). Only American citizens in the homeland – 50 states including Alaska and Hawaii – get to cast votes in this election. But other people have voices and opinions. In fact, residents of the two American territories in the Caribbean – Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands – only get to voice their preferences by voting for party candidates during the primaries. Despite no November 3rd General Election vote, the opinions of people in these US Territories may still have some audience, considering that high emigration rate for citizens of these islands. Their family and friends, who have since fled the islands, may still submit to Caribbean influences in their voting patterns.

This is also true of the non-American territories; these countries also feature a high societal abandonment rate. Many previous citizens now reside in the Diaspora; many in the USA.

This was the assertion in the recent blog series for October 2020, plus a subsequent one in November; that the Caribbean eco-system is affected and relevant for Decision 2020. This was the theme of the traditional Teaching Series for the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. The Teaching Series always addresses issues germane to Caribbean life and culture.

The full catalog of this 5-part Decision 2020 Teaching Series were as follows:

Decision 2020: Puerto Rico claps back at Trump
Decision 2020: Haiti’s Agenda 2016 ==> 2020 – Trump never cared
Decision 2020: Latino Gender Gap – More Toxic Masculinity
Decision 2020: More Immigration or Less
Decision 2020: What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela
——–
Decision 2020: Hasta La Vista Mr. Trump
Decision 2020: Voices From the ‘Peanut Gallery’

The election is over – on November 3rd, Joe Biden defeated the incumbent Donald Trump – but still, the analysis continues.

The 2020 campaign for POTUS generated a lot of attention – and passion – in the full Caribbean region. But Caribbean people may find themselves as nothing more than “voices from the Peanut Gallery”. The same as in the Vaudevillian theaters, the Peanut Gallery in this case have a reputation for being critical and sometimes even rude in their analysis of American politics.

Caribbean people have published opinions as to which candidate they would prefer, or who would be better in the White House from their perspective.

Without a vote, these comments, criticism and support present themselves only as “voices from the Peanut Gallery”; as hecklers only; see the comedy portrayal of Peanut Gallery hecklers “Statler & Waldorf” in the Appendix VIDEO. See an actual opinion article here, that emerged from the Bahamas, by a creditable Economist and former Cabinet Member:

Title: Smith: Outcome of US election has implications on The Bahamas’ survival
Sub-title: Leading economist says Bahamians better served with US administration which approaches COVID “more seriously”

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Former Minister of State for Finance James Smith indicated yesterday that the US presidential election set for tomorrow has wide-sweeping implications for The Bahamas’ economic survival amid the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the former minister, the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic leaves “much to be desired”.

“Generally speaking, it is in Bahamians’ interest to have an administration that would take this thing more seriously, clear it up for the United States and hence for us,” Smith told Eyewitness News.

He underscored the different approaches to the coronavirus pandemic between US President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, and the proposed plans of former US Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate for US president.

For example, while Trump has been opposed to making mask-wearing mandatory, Biden has called for a national mask mandate.

Health experts, who project a “dark winter” with the virus, have pointed to growing evidence that wearing face masks reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19.

The candidates have also taken different approaches to the campaign amid the pandemic, with Biden instituting social distancing measures and limiting attendees, while Trump has allowed large crowds to attend rallies.

The virus has killed more than 230,000 people in the US and more than 9 million Americans have contracted the virus.

“This election I think has another dimension to it because our main industry is tourism, which is dependent on the administration’s view of containing the pandemic in a sense that unless the US president can control, [the US] will continue to have a very depressed economy, meaning high unemployment, people not working, and people running down savings,” he said.

“When that happens, they’re unable to travel.”

Smith, a leading economist and former governor of the Central Bank of The Bahamas, continued: “The longer it takes them to get their pandemic under control the longer we have to wait to be able to successfully open our tourism economy, and we obviously depend on them for 80 percent of the tourists.”

Smith said in the past there was a belief that The Bahamas stood a better chance in the past with Republican administrations, which would not lockstep with the OECD’s policies and “tend to be not as hard with our financial services as democrats”.

But Smith said The Bahamas’ once robust financial services sector has contracted in half following a decade-long siege by the OECD.

Reflecting on the Obama administration, the economist said the former president was in lockstep with the international financial services watchdog and its KYC (Know Your Customer) AML/CTF compliance regime.

“Even though Bahamians would tend to generally favor the Democrats because of the multi-diversity of the party and etc. and of course the African Americas generally supportive of the Democrats that would have been our political choice, but we always felt the Republic administration were usually more favorable on the economic impact on The Bahamas,” he said.

“But with the course of this pandemic, I am thinking that the critical consideration for both the US and us is basically controlling or severely mitigating the impact of the pandemic.

“And as you know the current administration is almost pretending that it does not exist.”

He added: “Indeed it could be argued that if they had taken it more seriously, the US and world leaders, who have some of the best scientists in the world — and if they had kept along with the WHO — the entire globe could have been further advanced in dealing with the pandemic, which would have helped us as well because we are always able to get direct assistance from the United States in matters like this.”

In July, Trump announced the US withdrawal from WHO, declaring the organization had failed its mandate and “declined to adopt urgently needed reforms, starting with demonstrating its independence from the Chinese Communist Party”.

The US has continued to cut ties with the organization, which is expected to conclude in July 2021.

The economy has traditionally been a major issue in US presidential elections.

This time around, much of the debate has centered around the pandemic and the government’s handling of the health crisis.

The impact of the pandemic on today’s election, ranging from voter turnout to whether it will be a key point on which voters will base their choice, remains to be seen.

During a Foreign Press Center virtual tour of the US election hosted by the US Department of State, Quinnipiac University Poll Director and Vice President Dr Dough Schwartz noted that despite an impeachment of the president, racial justice protests, the pandemic and a contentious Supreme Court nomination, the US presidential race has remained “very stable”.

“The economy is usually a major issue in U.S. Presidential elections. This time around, I would add the COVID-19 pandemic being a major issue in the election. Simply because it affects people so directly in their daily lives and has had a big impact on the economy. That is something that is affecting the U.S. election.”

In the polls, Biden has led Trump nationally and in numerous key battleground states.

Source: https://ewnews.com/smith-outcome-of-us-election-has-implications-on-the-bahamas-survivability posted November 2, 2020; retrieved November 3, 2020.

So in this editorial-article, the protagonist recommended the POTUS selection of Joe Biden from a pandemic protection perspective, but Donald Trump from a laissez-fare Offshore Banking regulation perspective.

What a pickle to be in?!

This is why the Go Lean roadmap has lamented the “parasite” status of all Caribbean member-states, not just the Bahamas. We are squeezed between “a rock and a hard place“. The threat of the COVID-19 Pandemic is a Clear-and-Present Danger; there must be remediation and mitigation in our communities. On the other hand, the jobs and economic output from the entire Offshore Banking industry should not be sacrificed.

A parasite disposition is a viable threat to our societal well-being. We are just “voices from the Peanut Gallery”. Instead, we need to be protégés of the American hegemony, not parasites. We need self-determination! This is a familiar theme – transforming from parasite to protégé – for the Go Lean movement; we have repeatedly blogged on this subject; consider this sample of previous submissions:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20567	Toxic Environment – Time for the Caribbean to Grow Up and Be Great
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19835	American Leadership: “Leader of the Free World”?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19568	Big Hairy Audacious Goal – Need ‘Big Brother’ for Pandemics
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12949	Parasite Model: Charity Management – Grow Up Already!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7601	Parasite Model: Beware of Debt Slavery and Vulture Capitalists
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5818	Parasite Model: Greece: From Bad to Worse
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4551	Parasite Model: US Territories – Between a ‘rock and a hard place’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4360	Parasite Model: Dreading the ‘Caribbean Basin Security Initiative’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2435	Being a Protégé: Korea – A Dream for Latin America / Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2338	Being a Protégé: How Best to Welcome the Dreaded ‘Plutocracy’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1965	Being a Protégé: America’s Navy – 100 Percent – Model for Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1596	Being a Protégé: How to ‘Prosper Where You Are Planted’

Transforming from parasites to protégés – what a challenge?! But it is conceivable, believable and achievable.

There is an opportunity for us to deploy strategies, tactics and implementations. There have been Best Practices employed by others. Look at China, as depicted in a previous blog-commentary:

‘Free Market’ Versus … China – Two Systems at Play
… This is “two systems at play”. This Hong Kong/Macau reality is the most pointed Lesson from China for a new Caribbean. We can employ the Two Systems-One Country approach so as to introduce Self-Governing Entities with their “own governmental system, legal, economic and financial affairs, including trade relations with foreign countries”.

There is wisdom to this strategy. China elevated itself from poverty to prosperity for 1.3 Billion people in just 40 years. Well done.

China accomplished their transformation with “one hand tied behind their back” due to their embrace of Communism. It should be easier if we lead with Free Market principles. This is what we have learned from the better examples in American history.

The Go Lean movement posits that America will always pursue America’s best interest. So being a parasite of their ecosystem is not beneficial to us. Being a protégé means that we must develop (transform) our own ecosystem, so as to benefit ourselves.

Let’s get busy in doing the heavy-lifting to reform and transform our society … to be protégés and not parasites of the American hegemony. We do not want to only be considered the Peanut Gallery. We want our voice to be heard … and respected.

These cannot just be empty words. We really have to do the work, the heavy-lifting, to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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.

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

——————

VIDEO – Statler & Waldorf Heckle James Corden’s Monologue – https://youtu.be/g6fsATxzh_g

The Late Late Show with James Corden
Published Jun 26, 2020 – James Corden is excited to try new technology that brings a virtual audience into his garage, and unfortunately for him he finds out his first audience is none other than Statler & Waldorf from “The Muppets.” And James learns quickly that you should be careful what you wish for.

More Late Late Show:

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Instagram: http://bit.ly/latelategram

Watch The Late Late Show with James Corden weeknights at 12:35 AM ET/11:35 PM CT. Only on CBS.

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Decision 2020 – ‘Hasta La Vista’ Trump

Posted on November 12, 2020 in Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Live your life in such a way that the entire planet doesn’t dance in the street when you lose your job.

The General Election for the President of the United States (POTUS) is now over. Yippee!! People, all over the world were dancing in the streets to celebrate … Donald Trump’s defeat, more so than Joe Biden’s victory.

So many people had been anxious that Donald Trump would be re-elected and continue his “reign of terror” for another 4 years. But now that the election results are in; it is official that its “Hasta La Vista Mr. Trump”. See this reported in this excerpt from USA Today the daily newspaper:

Opinion: People are pouring out in the streets, cheering Biden, Harris and democracy
… the last four years have been total chaos, as President Trump and his divisive rhetoric and politics have exposed deep divisions that exist in our country. As the vote counts continue to roll in, several things are becoming clear. First, more people than ever voted in this historical election. Totals continue to rise, but as of now almost 75 million people have cast ballots for Biden, while 70 million people voted for the sitting President. Second, Biden has gotten more votes than any another presidential candidate, including Barack Obama in 2008. While that margin is close, Biden is entering the White House with a clear mandate. Still, as vote totals indicate, we’re a deeply divided country, and that will not go away anytime soon.

Source: https://ftw.usatoday.com/2020/11/biden-harris-democracy-cheering-in-the-streets retrieved November 7, 2020.

This was the plan for the last year. 12 months ago, there were 28 candidates vying for the nomination for POTUS for the Democratic Party. That number whittled down to just a precious few; then the pandemic happened and the Trump dysfunction manifested as being mortally dangerous – see Appendix VIDEO – 230,000 Americans and rising – have since died due to mis-management of the pandemic. The remaining candidates all “stepped aside” to allow a Unity Candidate, Joe Biden, to more easily defeat Trump.

Mission Accomplished:

Hasta La Vista Mr. Trump.

Every month, the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean presents a Teaching Series on issues germane to Caribbean life and culture. For this past month, October 2020, the theme of the Teaching Series was on the influence and input that the Caribbean Diaspora have with their voices and votes in the American General Election.

The full catalog of that 5-part Decision 2020 Teaching Series were as follows:

Decision 2020: Puerto Rico claps back at Trump
Decision 2020: Haiti’s Agenda 2016 ==> 2020 – Trump never cared
Decision 2020: Latino Gender Gap – More Toxic Masculinity
Decision 2020: More Immigration or Less
Decision 2020: What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela
——–
Decision 2020: Hasta La Vista Mr. Trump

This recent election was November 3, 2020; now we are able to analyze and evaluate the results; we are also able to …

Celebrate!

As related many times previously, Donald Trump was Bad for the Caribbean; see this chronological sample of excerpts from previous commentaries:

Trump’s Vision of the Caribbean: Yawn – March 17, 2017
The new American President, Donald Trump, has announced, proclaimed and repeated that he is “for America First”. Yet the rest of the world seems to be surprised when he promotes policies that ignores, disregards and denigrates foreign people and countries. …

1: Cuts to fighting drug trafficking …
2: [Cuts to] the Inter-American Foundation …
3: [Cuts to] the U.S. Trade and Development Agency …
4: The Overseas Private Investment Corporation … its budget of $83 million has been swiped away.
5: The Global Climate Change Initiative … has been wiped away.
6: [Cuts of US $70 million to] the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund. …
7: [50 percent] Cuts To The State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs.

——–

2017 Review – Mr. Trump shows the ‘Wrong Way’ – December 21, 2017
While this year 2017 has been a cliffhanger, it has … the new President – Donald Trump – proved the “perfect example of what NOT to do” to elevate society – economics, security and governing engines. Yet, this is the country that so many Caribbean people have fled to. We can learn a lot from America’s accomplishments, and even more from their failures. [See 17 blatant and egregious Trump actions].

——–

The Spoken and Unspoken on Haiti – January 16, 2018
Donald J. Trump – called Haiti a “shit-hole” country while negotiating the details for an immigration reform bill with his political opponents. …
For people to say something like the above about a Caribbean country shows that truly, they have no regard for that country. Take away their words and study their actions (i.e. policies) and we see a consistent trend – spoken or unspoken – that there is really no regard for Haiti – and other Caribbean member-states.

——–

2019: A ‘Year of Living Dangerously’ – December 31, 2019
From a Caribbean perspective, this year was truly eventful, a “year of living dangerously”; remember all of these bad episodes (10 listed from the most recent to the oldest):
#1 Trump Experiment Implodes – Concluded Impeachment impacts Caribbean member-states

——–

Good Leadership: Example – “Leader of the Free World”? – May 30, 2020
Donald Trump is not to be credited as the “Leader of the Free World”. He has not provided a good example of Good Leadership. He is not ready, willing nor able. This is not our opinion alone; [but that of the whole world].

It is good to see the sunsetting of this Trump administration, policies and hopefully influence:

Hasta La Vista Mr. Trump. Goodbye. Good Luck. And Good Riddance!

The foregoing USA Today quoted article stated this factoid of America and Americans: “as vote totals indicate, we’re a deeply divided country”. This is a troubling fact! In our opinion, the toxicity, chaos and dysfunctions of Donald Trump and his administration is so egregious that all “Men of Goodwill” should have been anxious to rid themselves of this “circus”, and yet the opposite happened – even more people voted for Trump this time than in 2016:

2016 – For Trump: 63 million. Against Trump: 66 million
2020 – For Trump: 71 million. Against Trump: 75 million .

(In 2016, Trump lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College with a 304 / 227 margin).

America is far from being a perfect society. Even less perfect for Caribbean stakeholders. Societal defects abound …

Despite all the above evidences, many more American still voted for Donald Trump. Even Latinos (Cubans, Nicaraguans, Colombians, Puerto Ricans and Venezuelans); even more so distressing, so many more Caribbean Hispanics doubled down and voted for Trump. See that story here:

Title: Trump saw gains among Florida Puerto Ricans. They say Democrats ‘don’t hear us’
Less than a month before Election Day, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez stood in front of a mural in Miami commemorating the victims of Hurricane Maria and recalled the pleas of a man he met in the Puerto Rican city of Ponce after the 2017 storm devastated the island of over 3 million.

“Mr. President,” repeated Perez, “Boricuas son Americanos.”

Maria, which struck as a Category 4 monster of a hurricane, led to widely held expectations that it would reshape Florida’s political destiny by fueling a mass exodus, mostly to Central Florida, of hundreds of thousands of left-leaning Puerto Ricans disgusted with President Donald Trump’s response to the storm — an effort symbolized by Trump tossing paper towels to stranded victims of the storm.

Perez’s recollection — a storm victim reminding him that “Puerto Ricans are Americans” — was part of Democrats’ outreach in Wynwood, a part of Miami once considered a Boricua enclave. But the effort proved to be too late for many Puerto Ricans. Instead of gaining support among Puerto Ricans, Democrats lost ground. Four years after winning Florida by 113,000 votes, Trump won it again on Nov. 3 by triple that amount.

Much of the Florida focus in the wake of the election has been on Trump’s stunning improvement with Hispanic voters in Miami-Dade County. But according to a Miami Herald analysis of Hispanic-majority voting precincts in Orange and Osceola counties, two Central Florida counties with the largest Puerto Rican communities in the state, Trump also made unexpected gains in a community where he is broadly disliked.

And in one of the few Hispanic electorates in Florida where messages against socialism are not particularly effective, Trump’s gains raise questions about Democrats’ ability to connect with voters believed crucial to their chances of winning statewide elections in the future.

“The paper towel throwing and the hurricane were not the lens through which Puerto Ricans were looking at the election,” said Latino-focused research firm Equis Research co-founder Carlos Odio, noting the potential consequences for Democrats if they can’t connect with a community expected to help the party compete in the nation’s biggest battleground state. “Going forward, it opens up a lot of questions of what the Democratic coalition is going to look like.”

While President-elect Joe Biden largely won high support among Florida Puerto Ricans, reaching up to an estimated 68%, according to an exit poll by Edison Research, Trump improved his numbers in a community that Democrats have largely seen as crucial to win the state of Florida. Trump received as much as 39% of votes in some heavily Hispanic Orange County precincts, according to the Herald’s analysis. Overall, according to Odio’s own estimates, Trump received about 32% support from Puerto Ricans in Central Florida, about an 11-point gain since 2016.

Trump’s numbers even surpassed the number of Puerto Ricans who in Florida’s 2018 U.S. Senate race supported Republican Rick Scott. Odio said Scott received about 29% of the Puerto Rican vote after visiting the island seven times after Maria, ahead of his election. In that election, those numbers were enough to help Scott edge a win over former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in a razor-thin election that went to a recount.

The lack of Democratic gains in this growing electorate of independent voters underscored the theory of some Florida Puerto Ricans that Democrats had reached a ceiling with their anti-Trump message and failed to appeal to Puerto Ricans who were more worried about how to pay their bills and losing small businesses as a result of the pandemic.

See the rest of the article here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article247106087.html retrieved November 12, 2020.

Yes, Donald Trump needed to be repudiated by America, and yet on November 3rd, 5 million more people than in 2016 voted for him. That is not a repudiation, that is a concurrence!

Maybe the problem is not the player; maybe the problem is the game!

The United States of America is not home for Caribbean people; especially evident with the many Black-and-Brown emigrants suffering injustices. Rather than emigrating, what is needed is nation-building. Rather than fixing America, Caribbean people need to reform and transform all of the Caribbean homeland. This has been the theme of our advocacy before Donald Trump, and now will continue after him. See how this theme – fixing home to dissuade emigration and encouraging repatriation – has been detailed in so many previous Go Lean commentaries; consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19203	Brain Drain – Brain Gain: Yes we can!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19134	The Truth About the Diaspora – Not the Panacea – Last of 7-part Series
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17667	Is the US a ‘Just’ Society? Hardly!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16864	Cuba’s Progress: New Constitution with some ‘Free Market’ Guarantees
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16532	Reckoning the Truth of Emigration – Settlers -vs- Immigrants
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16395	The Caribbean – A People or A Place?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15126	‘Time to Go’ – Last of an 11-Part Series of “Why We Should Repatriate”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14746	Calls for Repatriation Strategy to reverse Abandonment
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13213	‘Pulled’ – Despite American Guns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10629	Stay Home! – First of a 3-Part Series of “Why Stay in the Homeland”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7412	The Road to Reforming, Transforming and Restoring Cuba

The Go Lean movement posits that America will always pursue the American best interest. This may not always be – and rarely is – the Caribbean’s best interest. So we must do the heavy-lifting ourselves for our own society and not look to the American hegemony to do it for us. Those 4 years of Trump-ism taught us that America is for Americans. We must do our work, for our own interest.

It is what it is, but let’s not get it twisted. America is the only remaining Super Power; they are the “800-pound gorilla” in the Western Hemisphere. So, good, bad or indifferent, their Chief Executive continues to be the “Leader of the Free World”.

This is why people were dancing in the streets with the “firing” of the malevolent Trump.

The take-way from this 5-part October Teaching Series – and now this 6th entry – is that elections have consequences. We need to do more than just wish and pray. We need to advocate and vocalize our agenda in the American mainland and also in the Caribbean homeland. The heavy-lifting to reform and transform our society must be engaged.

Let’s get busy.. this Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to reform and transform our society. All stakeholders are urged to lean-in to this viable roadmap. This is the Way Forward. This is how we can make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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.

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

—————-

Appendix VIDEO – Trump vs the Mailman | Cartoon Rap Battle – https://youtu.be/vw-1E2vcXBQ

Rhyme Combinator
subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/pantless… #stories

LYRICS:
————-
TRUMP Sorry we’re gonna need that
MAILMAN Wait, our ELECTION’S gonna need these. Up to half of Americans are voting by mail
TRUMP Not my fault.
MAILMAN It kind of is.
TRUMP It was China!!
MAILMAN but look how fast they recuperated Now we need vote by mail to fix a problem you created: this pandemic – and mail in voting is saving lives
TRUMP All the real patriots will wait in line Less boxes, less fraud, that’s why I planned the removals
MAILMAN You’re pushing the envelope Donnie, that doesn’t get my stamp of approval You know you can’t win so you made us your scapegoat
TRUMP No – I hate’ fraud – no fake news, no fake votes
MAILMAN Thru depression and world wars, always deliver was the policy Even in a pandemic we’ll stand committed to democracy
TRUMP But someone could die and vote two times after/
MAILMAN You wanna defund mailmen – I thought blue lives matter?
TRUMP I only want to count the good votes!
MAILMAN we do too! But you don’t get to choose the voters, the voters choose you! you cheated on taxes, your wife, your SAT’s are in question But let’s get this straight – you cant cheat the election For 150 years we’ve been picking up the votes So when you lose, I’ll be there to deliver the results Speaking of…
TRUMP Positive?
————-
CREDITS
————-
Created by: Rhyme Combinator, 6 Point Harness, Loogaroo
Executive Producer: Reid Hoffman
Producers: Beau Lewis, Ian Alas
Director: Beau Lewis
Vocal Directors: Illmac, Frak Writers: Illmac, Frak, Pass
Music: Will Randolph V, Chase Moore
Mix/master: Nafets
Animation: 6 Point Harness, Loogaroo
———
CAST
———
Donald Trump: Jonathan Kite
Mailman: Pass

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Decision 2020 – What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela

Posted on October 30, 2020 in Ethos, Government, Locations, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Wanna get elected in the Unites States?

Here is good advice in terms of political strategy:

Distance yourself from Cuba and/or Venezuela.

Any affinity to their extreme socialism is a death sentence for political success in the US. This is the experience in the 2020 Presidential Race and just recently in the California gubernatorial race (2018).

2020 – See here this news VIDEO story for this current race for Decision 2020 for the President of the United States (POTUS):

VIDEO – The Threat of Socialism Is Dividing Miami Cubans Ahead of the Election – https://youtu.be/oKI3B_W-xO0

VICE News
Posted Aug 21, 2020 – VICE News visits Miami to see how Trump is weaponizing Socialism to win over some Latinos.

Subscribe to VICE News here: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE-News

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2018 – See here, this excerpt from 2018 California Race:

“Venezuela” – ‘On the Menu’ in California – June 7, 2018

Featured article quotation: “Gavin Newsom wants to turn this State into Venezuela” …

… the aggressive tone of this accusation has generated a lot of excitement among conservatives. Here’s the background: Gavin Newsom is the Democratic Party’s nominee for Governor of California – the General Election will be November 6, 2018 – he is currently the Lieutenant Governor and also the former Mayor of San Francisco. He is a liberal icon in a liberal State.

Yet the one criticism that is sticking to candidate Newsom by Republican Party candidate John Cox is the fearful pattern of Venezuela.

Yes, Venezuela is “On the Menu” in California. But wait, that should be our ‘vantage point’ in the Caribbean!

… this was the theme of a previous blog-commentary from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. Venezuela is in our neighborhood – with a long coastline on the Caribbean Sea – dysfunctions there spillover to our Caribbean member-states.

So what are we to do for Cuba and Venezuela?

This is the goal of the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean, to reform the Caribbean member-states. This includes Cuba; Venezuela, not so much.

What’s next for Cuba … and Venezuela?

How do we fix Cuba? How will voting in the US General Election affect this quest?

This is the completion of the monthly Teaching Series from the movement behind the Go Lean book. This Teaching Series addresses issues germane to Caribbean life and culture; this is entry 5-of-5 for October 2020, closing out the thesis that many people from Caribbean member-states now have a voice in the American General Election for November 3. As related in the foregoing VIDEO, many Cuban-Americans do have a voice and a vote in the America’s policy debates. But these one are only concerned about one (1) issue – the only issue that matters to them: “Anti-Socialism”.

This, their sole issue started as Anti-Communism or Anti-Castro, but now that the Castros are gone (Fidel – dead; Raul – retired), the issue remains as just “Anti-Socialism”. (This is what aligns Cuban-Americans with Venezuelan-Americans as they are both protesting the dysfunctional socialism in their homelands).

So from a Caribbean perspective, Cubans differ from the rest of the Caribbean in their policy disputes:

So while Puerto Ricans are anxious to “clap back” at Mr. Trump for his “long train of abuses” towards their island, Cubans are mute.
While Haitians are anxious to voice their displeasure of the President labeling their island as a “Shithole” country, Cubans are mute.
While Latinos or Hispanics in general are disgusted of the Toxic Masculinity exhibited by the POTUS, Cubans are mute.
While Caribbean people are looking for More Liberal Immigration policies, Cubans are mute.

There is no unity or collaboration among the Caribbean Diaspora in the US. This is sad, because together, if such a collectivity was ever possible, the grouping of the Caribbean Diaspora could be an impactful voting bloc. They would have even more relevance in American campaigns due to the fact that their numbers are so strong – upwards of 22 million people, 7 percent of the US population. This is enough to have influence in any political race. This is the overall theme for this Decision 2020 blog-commentary Teaching Series; see the full catalog here:

Decision 2020: Puerto Rico claps back at Trump
Decision 2020: Haiti’s Agenda 2016 ==> 2020 – Trump never cared
Decision 2020: Latino Gender Gap – More Toxic Masculinity
Decision 2020: More Immigration or Less
Decision 2020: What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela

Socialism continues in Cuba and Venezuela both. The revolutions in those countries have stalled. This has been the case for many years, decades and even generations. Perhaps more is needed than just influencing American Foreign Policy towards these countries; perhaps there is the need to impact domestic policy from inside the country. This is the approach of the Go Lean roadmap in regards to Cuba.

Yes, this is what is next for Cuba. (Venezuela is out-of-scope for the Go Lean roadmap). Cuba should be invited to join the regional integration movement, initially the Caribbean Community (CariCom) and then confederate with the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU).

The Go Lean presented this plan, an entire roadmap in effect for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic CU Trade Federation. Among the many strategies, tactics and implementations is one advocacy, specifically for Cuba, entitled: “10 Ways to Re-boot Cuba“. Consider these highlights, headlines and excerpts from that advocacy on Page 236:

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* – Ratify treaty for the CU.** 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 Cuba and the entire region for all trade and security issues. This helps to assuage the political adversity expected from Anti-Castro [and Anti-Socialists] groups.
2	Political Neutrality of the Union Cuba is the only Communist-led state in the CU region. Other states have multiple party systems: left-leaning or right-leaning governments; many have more than 2 parties. The CU is officially neutral! The election of the popular leaders of each country is up to that country. The Election functionality of member-states can be outsourced to the CU as the organization structure will provide the systems, processes and personnel to facilitate smooth and fair election.
3	US Trade Embargo By-Pass The US embargo against Cuba is an economic, and financial embargo imposed in October 1960. It was designed to punish Cuba to dissuade communism and the nationalization of private property during the revolution. To date, there are judgments of up to $6 billion worth of claims against the Cuban government. Despite this US action, the rest of the Caribbean, Canada and Europe do trade with Cuba, with no repercussions in their relationship with the US. It is expected that after Fidel and Raul Castro, there will be greater liberalization of trade and diplomacy with the US.
4	Marshall Plan for Cuba
5	Leap Frog Philosophy There is no need to move Cuba’s 1950’s technology baseline to the 1960’s, then the 1970’s, and so on; rather, the vision is to leap-frog Cuba to where technology is going. This includes advance urban planning concepts like electrified light-rail, prefab house, alternative energies and e-delivery of governmental services and payment systems.
6	Repatriation and Reconciliation of the Cuban Diaspora The goal will be to extend the “Welcome Mat” to people that may have left Cuba over the decades and want to return. The repatriation the CU advocates is for the Diaspora’s time, talents and treasuries. The CU will incentivize “ex-patriots” to at least have vacation homes on the island. The CU will provide the “re-patriots” with special status to assuage any victimization. Cuba’s repatriation is expected to differ from the other CU nations. After the Castro Brothers, there will be the expectation of reparation and reconciliation. In addition, the CU will convene a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to bring resolution to many issues from the revolution, Castro Brothers, previous coup attempts and the Bautista dictatorship – there will be the expectation of reparation. (South Africa had a successful reconciliation after Apartheid).
7	Access to Capital Markets
8	Optimization of Agricultural Exports
9	National Historic Places
10	World Heritage Sites

The truth of the matter is, Caribbean people are not doing enough for our own neighborhood. We cannot just expect America to do the heavy-lifting to reform and transform our homeland. We must act … united and together. Yes, Decision 2020 allows us to analyze the motivations and sensibilities of not just the American eco-system, but also that of the regional Caribbean.

We need regionalism; we need a confederacy … that includes Cuba. This exact theme has been detailed in many previous Go Lean commentaries; consider this list of samples here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20072	Rise from the Ashes – Political Revolutions: Calling ‘Balls & Strikes’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17686	‘Free Market’ Versus … Communism – Lessons from History
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17371	Marshall Plan – Cuba: An Imminent need for ‘Free Market’ Emergence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16864	Cuba’s Progress: New Constitution with some ‘Free Market’ Guarantees
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14732	‘Red Letter Day’ for Cuba – Raul Castro Retires
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7412	The Road to Restoring Cuba: Normalization of Travel, Mail, Internet, etc.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3455	Restoration of Diplomatic Relations Between Cuba and the USA
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3354	CariCom Chairman calls for an end to US embargo on Cuba
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2330	‘Raul Castro reforms not enough’, Cuba’s in-country bishops declare
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1609	Cuba’s Parliament mulls economy and some ‘Free Market’ changes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=436	Cuba Approves New “Law on Foreign Investment” – a Start for Progress

The Go Lean movement posits that Cuba will soon transform away from its communistic leanings. In the last 10 years, they had been steadily moving in the direction of a Free Market system – their biggest “speed bump on this road” to freedom had been the 4 years of the Donald Trump administration. But still we can be confident that “Cuba sera Libre”!

The status quo for the Caribbean is deficient and defective. The status quo for Cuba is even more deficient and defective. This same assessment requires some of the same solutions. We – 30 member-states – all need each other.

The take-way from this 5-part October Teaching Series – now that it’s complete – is that elections have consequences but they do not substitute for the hard-work that needs to be done. The widely popular expression is true: “many hands make heavy loads lighter”; this is true, the heavy loads are still heavy, it is just that the leverage across more hands (people) makes the burden lighter.

America will not solve the Caribbean problems for us. No, the Caribbean must mitigate and remediate our problems ourselves. This is how we can make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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Decision 2020 – More Immigration or Less

Posted on October 28, 2020 in Ethos, Government, Locations, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

In 2016, many Caribbean people – i.e. Jamaicans – wanted the Democratic Party candidate, Hillary Clinton, to win the Presidency, hoping for a More Liberal Immigration policy.

That didn’t happen!

The Republican Party’s candidate, Donald Trump, won and he brought in an agenda of Anti-Immigration, both legal and illegal scenarios.

Perhaps, that selfish Caribbean expectation was wrong in other ways too. See an excerpt here from a previous Go Lean commentary:

Courting Caribbean Votes – ‘Jamericans’ – October 9, 2016
The term [‘Jamerican’] is defined as the Jamaican – American sub-culture that now thrives in many American urban communities; think Brooklyn’s Flatbush in New York City, or Kingston Hill in the Broward County (Florida) community of Lauderhill. These communities feature a thriving Jamaican Diaspora with empowered business leaders, elected politicians and cultural expressions. [A] previous blog … concluded with the analogy of a “genie leaving a bottle”, that there is no returning. Now we see the ‘Jamericans’ doubling-down on this legacy, even trying to influence US federal elections for more liberal immigration policies – to bring in more Jamaicans and grow the Jamerican population even more.

Most of the Jamaican Diaspora in the US – 61 percent – are American citizens; their tactic has always been to “naturalize” as soon as possible so that they can sponsor other family members. The number of the Jamaican Diaspora was estimated at 706,000 – an amazing statistic considering that the population in the Jamaican homeland is just 2.8 million (in 2010).

So many members of the Caribbean Diaspora living in the US are eligible to vote on November 8, 2016.

Who will they vote for? Who should they vote for?

What if the criterion for the vote is benevolence to Caribbean causes?

Hands-down, without a doubt, the Jamerican population – and other Caribbean groups (587K Haitians, 879K Dominicans & 500K Other*) – lean towards the Democratic Party – “they are with her: Hillary Clinton”. In fact, as prominent Jamerican personalities emerged in support of the opposing candidate, Donald Trump, they have received scorn and ridicule.

Donald Trump won in 2016 …

So many ‘Jamericans’, Jamaicans and Caribbean people in general had to endure 4 years of Trump’s anti-immigration policies.

Now for 2020, what will it be: “More Immigration or Less” by the 2 competing candidates vying for the presidential race?

From the beginning of his presidential political career, Donald Trump named, blamed and shamed America’s past federal administrations for their liberal immigration policies. He pulled the “welcome mat” to both legal and illegal immigrants. Just consider the experiences of those persons with H-1B Visas; as related in this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Trump expanding immigration restrictions, suspending H-1B and other visas – https://youtu.be/8uOOkDEfjqg

CBS News
Posted June 22, 2020 – The Trump administration on Monday announced it will suspend certain visas that allow foreigners to move to the U.S. temporarily to work, saying the broad restrictions will ease the economic impact of the coronavirus. CBS News’ Skyler Henry joins CBSN’s Elaine Quijano with the latest.

Trump is on record as wanting to double-down on his current immigration policy – Less Liberal – for his second term. Remember his “Build The Wall” chant!

How about the other candidate: Joe Biden? What is his intent and vision on immigration? See here from his own campaign website:

Title: THE Biden Plan for Securing Our Values as a Nation of Immigrants
It is a moral failing and a national shame when a father and his baby daughter drown seeking our shores. When children are locked away in overcrowded detention centers and the government seeks to keep them there indefinitely. When our government argues in court against giving those children toothbrushes and soap. When President Trump uses family separation as a weapon against desperate mothers, fathers, and children seeking safety and a better life. When he threatens massive raids that would break up families who have been in this country for years and targets people at sensitive locations like hospitals and schools. When children die while in custody due to lack of adequate care.

Trump has waged an unrelenting assault on our values and our history as a nation of immigrants.

It’s wrong, and it stops when Joe Biden is elected president.

Unless your ancestors were native to these shores, or forcibly enslaved and brought here as part of our original sin as a nation, most Americans can trace their family history back to a choice – a choice to leave behind everything that was familiar in search of new opportunities and a new life. Joe Biden understands that is an irrefutable source of our strength. Generations of immigrants have come to this country with little more than the clothes on their backs, the hope in their heart, and a desire to claim their own piece of the American Dream. It’s the reason we have constantly been able to renew ourselves, to grow better and stronger as a nation, and to meet new challenges. Immigration is essential to who we are as a nation, our core values, and our aspirations for our future. Under a Biden Administration, we will never turn our backs on who we are or that which makes us uniquely and proudly American. The United States deserves an immigration policy that reflects our highest values as a nation.

Today, our immigration system is under greater stress as a direct result of Trump’s misguided policies, even as he has failed to invest in smarter border technology that would improve our cargo screening.

His obsession with building a wall does nothing to address security challenges while costing taxpayers billions of dollars. Most contraband comes in through our legal ports of entry. It’s estimated that nearly half of the undocumented people living in the U.S. today have overstayed a visa, not crossed a border illegally. Families fleeing the violence in Central America are voluntarily presenting themselves to border patrol officials. And the real threats to our security–drug cartels and human traffickers–can more easily evade enforcement efforts because Trump has misallocated resources into bullying legitimate asylum seekers. Trump fundamentally misunderstands how to keep America safe because he cares more about governing through fear and division than common sense solutions.

Trump’s policies are also bad for our economy. For generations, immigrants have fortified our most valuable competitive advantage – our spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. Research suggests that “the total annual contribution of foreign-born workers is roughly $2 trillion.” Key sectors of the U.S. economy, from agriculture to technology, rely on immigration. Working-age immigrants keep our economy growing, our communities thriving, and country moving forward.

The challenges we face will not be solved by a constitutionally dubious “national emergency” to build a wall, by separating families, or by denying asylum to people fleeing persecution and violence. Addressing the Trump-created humanitarian crisis at our border, bringing our nation together, reasserting our core values, and reforming our immigration system will require real leadership and real solutions. Biden is prepared on day one to deliver both.

As president, Biden will forcefully pursue policies that safeguard our security, provide a fair and just system that helps to grow and enhance our economy, and secure our cherished values. He will:

Take urgent action to undo Trump’s damage and reclaim America’s values

Modernize America’s immigration system

Welcome immigrants in our communities

Reassert America’s commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees

Tackle the root causes of irregular migration

Implement effective border screening

Source: Retrieved October 28, 2020 from: https://joebiden.com/immigration/#

So Joe Biden proposes a More Liberal Immigration policy. But still, choosing the immigration policy of Joe Biden versus Donald Trump is not a discussion of “what is best for the Caribbean?” The answer is neither!

The choice of Joe Biden versus Donald Trump is one of the “lesser of the evils”.

Why? When people abandon their homeland and emigrate to another country, “some prospects” may get better for them, but most assuredly, things worsen for the homeland they leave behind – there will be no return on the historic investments into these now-departed people.

Alas, the “some better prospects” maybe more elusive as well. The movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean has consistently portrayed how the “grass is not necessarily greener on the other side”. Consider the excerpts from these 2 recent blog-commentaries (in reverse chronological order):

European Reckoning – Settlers -vs- Immigrants – January 19, 2019
… We can get close but never quite catch up. One realizes that this is the same with immigrating to the United States. Despite being a Nation of Immigrants (NOI), new ones can never catch up with the Settlers. Consider the historicity of this distinction in the Appendix article below; composed by a “conservative” lawyer and published by the American Conservative Organization. (Conservatives are in contrast to liberals; while all conservatives are not racists, all racists are conservatives).

Yes, under the law (de jure), there is no difference between a First Generation American citizen and a Third Generation (or more) American citizen, but in reality (de facto) American society never really considers “you” as an Immigrant to be a full American.

Listen up you Black-and-Brown people of the Caribbean, yearning to emigrate to the US. You will never be a settler. Accepting this reality may dampen the “Welcome Sign” to those who aspire for an American life.

———–

Stay Home! Immigration Realities in the US – March 2, 2017
When conditions are dysfunctional at home, people leave … period. …

This is not good for a family nor for a community. The truth of the matter is that communities need their populations to grow, not recede. So any human flight incidences would create havoc on the functionality of societal engines: economics, security and governance.

This is our status in the Caribbean, but it is not just an incident, not a trickle; it is a flood. The people are beating down the doors to get out of their Caribbean homeland, to seek refuge in places like the US, Canada and Western Europe. We have a sad state of affairs for our Caribbean eco-system so we are suffering from a bad record of societal abandonment –averaging a 70 percent brain drain rate. The reasons why people leave have been identified as “push and pull”.

… The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean has consistently related that the United States of America functions as a Great Society but it has two societal defects: Institutional Racism and Crony-Capitalism. These societal defects can easily create a ‘Climate of Hate‘ that causes people to haze and blame-game the immigrant community.

In a previous blog-commentary, it was conveyed that America treats immigrants unappreciatedly – they are inflicted with a “long train of abuses”. The long-term Americans start towards the immigrants with hate and then eventually tolerate. After some decades they may then integrate with the immigrant community. But only after generations do they appreciate and celebrate the minority group. Think of the American experience of the Chinese, Italians, Jewish and Cuban populations.

This is also the reality of the Caribbean Black-and-Brown that has emigrated to the US, while they can more easily survive, the quest to thrive is more perplexing. They have to live in this environment filled with these societal defects.

… This commentary is one of the missions of the book Go Lean…Caribbean, to lower the “pull” attraction of life in the US. This is not being done with “smoke and mirrors” but rather this is just the truth. This is part 2 of 3 in a series on “Why Caribbean people need to Stay Home“, positing that the “grass is not greener on the other side”.

The truth of the matter is that immigrants are better able to survive in America – there is an abundance of minimum wage jobs – but to thrive is more of a challenge; consider the experiences in the foregoing news article. It would seem better for Caribbean people to work to remediate the problems in their homeland, rather than work to become immigrants in the US. But this is no easy task; and despite being necessary, it is hereby defined as heavy-lifting.

This is the continuation of the monthly Teaching Series from the movement behind the Go Lean book. These Teaching Series address issues germane to Caribbean life and culture; this is entry 4-of-5, continuing the thesis that many people from Caribbean member-states now have a voice in the American General Election for November 3; but our voice may at times pursue an agenda that is negative for a Caribbean escalation goal. We really should not look for a liberal US immigration policy as the panacea for Caribbean ills.

As related above, many of our Caribbean Diaspora do have a voice and a vote in this policy debate. These ones are relevant in America’s Decision 2020 due to the fact that our numbers in America are strong – upwards of 22 million people, 7 percent of the US population; this is enough to have relevance in any political race. (But we need to not forget the needs of the Caribbean ancestral homeland).

American citizens of Caribbean heritage should pursue the Greater Good in America and back in the Caribbean homeland. Consider here, how the role of Caribbean people is factored in for this theme of Decision 2020; see here the full catalog for this month’s Teaching Series:

Decision 2020: Puerto Rico claps back at Trump
Decision 2020: Haiti’s Agenda 2016 ==> 2020 – Trump never cared
Decision 2020: Latino Gender Gap – More Toxic Masculinity
Decision 2020: More Immigration or Less
Decision 2020: What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela

Yes, Decision 2020 allows us to analyze the motivations and sensibilities of not just the American eco-system, but also the Caribbean’s motivations for their future.

Frankly, we need to keep our people at home!

We need to engage our own plan to elevate our society so that our people are less inclined to leave in the first place. The Go Lean roadmap provides such a plan. Its a plan that is conceivable, believable and achievable for making the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play.

We urged everyone – every stakeholder: government and citizens alike – to lean-in to this roadmap.

Yes, we can … look at our Caribbean homeland as home, rather than looking for some foreign destination. 🙂

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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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.

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.

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

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Decision 2020 – Latino Gender Gap – More Toxic Masculinity

Posted on October 27, 2020 in Ethos, Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

“… When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us [them]. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” – Donald Trump Announcement of running for President June 16, 2015 – Source: WashingtonPost

From the beginning of his presidential political career, Donald Trump named, blamed and shamed Mexicans and by extension all Latinos (sometimes referred to as Hispanics or Chicanos). From this moment, Trump was strongly opposed by many Latinos for his entire presidential tenure. See here, from the previous blog-commentary on Celebrity Chef Jose Andrés:

Andrés planned to open a restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, in 2016. After Donald Trump made disparaging comments about Mexicans in June 2015, Andrés withdrew from the contract with the Trump Organization, which then sued him.^[13] Andrés counter-sued, and the parties reached a settlement in April 2017.^[14] Andrés remains an outspoken critic of Trump.^[15][16]

A Latinos for Trump rally in Miami on Sunday October 18, 2020. Mario Cruz/EPA, via Shutterstock

“Trump was strongly opposed by many Latinos“, except for some men …

While there has been a consistent disgust towards Donald Trump, due to his Latin bashing, why has there been an exception among these men?

Blame it on Latin Machismo – Toxic Masculinity! See the rationale in the related Appendix VIDEO below … and in this New York Times article here:

Title: The Latino gender gap
It’s not just the public polls. Recent private polls conducted by political campaigns are filled with bad news for President Trump. He is doing eight to 10 percentage points worse in many congressional districts than he did in 2016, Dave Wasserman of The Cook Political Report writes.

His struggles have jeopardized the Republicans’ Senate majority and will probably lead to further Democratic gains in the House. “It would be a pleasant surprise if we only lost 10 House seats,” one Republican member of Congress told The Cook Political Report.

But there is one exception, and it will be familiar to regular readers of this newsletter: Trump and other Republicans don’t seem to be doing worse among Latino voters than in 2016. Nationwide, Republicans are still winning about one-third of the Latino vote, polls show.

As a result, Trump still has a good chance to win both Florida and Texas. Similarly, Senator John Cornyn of Texas continues to lead narrowly in his own re-election race, and House Republicans could hold onto districts in California, Florida and Texas.

Why is Trump holding steady with Latinos? There is no one answer, partly because Latinos are such a diverse group (many of whom also identify as white). But an important part of the explanation appears to involve gender.

Recent Times polls of battleground states show that the gender gap among Latino voters — 26 percentage points — is significantly larger than it is among Black, white or Asian voters:

Among Latina women, Biden leads Trump by a whopping 34 percentage points (59 percent to 25 percent). Among Latino men, Biden’s lead is only eight points (47 percent to 39 percent). These patterns are similar across both Latino college graduates and those without a degree.

Stephanie Valencia, the president of Equis Research, which focuses on Latino voters, told us that its polls suggest that Latino men may have even moved slightly toward Trump this year. If so, they are the only large demographic group to do so.

In effect, gender seems to be outweighing ethnicity for some Latino men.

Race may get more attention, but gender also plays a huge and growing role in politics: The gender gap, which was virtually zero in the 1960s and ’70s, could reach a record high this year. The trend — men moving to the right and women to the left — is occurring in other high-income democracies as well, for a complicated mix of reasons, as Eric Levitz explains in New York magazine.

My colleague Jennifer Medina recently wrote an eye-opening story called “The Macho Appeal of Donald Trump,” focused on Latino men. The whole story is worth reading, but here is a key passage:

… what has alienated so many older, female and suburban voters is a key part of Mr. Trump’s appeal to these men, interviews with dozens of Mexican-American men supporting Mr. Trump shows: To them, the macho allure of Mr. Trump is undeniable. He is forceful, wealthy and, most important, unapologetic. In a world where at any moment someone might be attacked for saying the wrong thing, he says the wrong thing all the time and does not bother with self-flagellation.

The story was set in Arizona — a state that could decide the election.

Source: New York Times – posted October 22, 2020; retrieved October 27, 2020 from: https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2

Did you get that?

… what has alienated so many older, female and suburban voters is a key part of Mr. Trump’s appeal to these men, interviews with dozens of Mexican-American men supporting Mr. Trump shows: To them, the macho allure of Mr. Trump is undeniable. He is forceful, wealthy and, most important, unapologetic.

It is not just Mexican-American men alone; the same attributes are common for all Latin males. This is not good! (We have this actuality with Hispanic men in Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico).

This is the complaint that has emerged from Latin America and the Caribbean by so many women. The Toxic Masculinity is so thick, it can be cut with a knife. We addressed this actuality just recently; notice this excerpt:

Toxic Environment ==> Toxic Masculinity – October 2, 2020
We find that in certain societies, the “man code” has penetrated all aspects of society, not just prisons; think “locker room talk”, “Blue Codes” for conduct among law enforcement officials or bonding among soldiers in foxholes or trench-warfare ; there is even a “code of silence” among gang members or organized crime figures.

Toxic Masculinity is just one more way that Toxic Environments have affected the “community quest” to live, work and play in the Caribbean. Needless to say, community stewards cannot allow Toxic Masculinity to dominate society; think bullying, domestic violence, sexual harassment in the workplace. It is unfortunate but true, “bad actors” will always seek to exploit any weakness for their own selfish gain. So we must be prepared to curb the toxicity and promote a positive community ethos instead.

This is sad that our Dirty Laundry in the Latin America and Caribbean region is being exposed to the world. It is our Bad Community Ethos that should be named, blamed and shamed.

So many of our Latin men love the personage of Donald Trump, even though it is obvious that he does not love “them/us” back!

That is pathetic; we must do better.

This is the continuation of the monthly Teaching Series from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. These Teaching Series address issues germane to Caribbean life and culture; this is entry 3-of-5, continuing the thesis that many people from Caribbean member-states have a voice in the American General Election for November 3; but our voice may not be all that positive, as many of our people – who subscribe to the Latin male machismo ethos – are doubling-down on our negative community ethos. It is hard for us to vent about the disgust towards the words and actions (or inactions) of the Trump Administration these last 4 years when we are taking comfort in the same negative vibes.

Our Caribbean Diaspora is relevant in America’s Decision 2020 due to the fact that our numbers are strong – upwards of 22 million people, 7 percent of the US population; this is enough to have relevance in a political race. But we need to think, feel, say and act properly.

American citizens of Caribbean heritage should be pursuing the Greater Good right now; people are watching and listening; they are noticing the disregard for the threats affecting our regional homeland and they expect us to demand change, not validate the Status Quo. Consider here, how this thesis is cataloged in the Teaching Series this month:

Decision 2020: Puerto Rico claps back at Trump
Decision 2020: Haiti’s Agenda 2016 ==> 2020 – Trump never cared
Decision 2020: Latino Gender Gap – More Toxic Masculinity
Decision 2020: More Immigration or Less
Decision 2020: What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela

Yes, Decision 2020 allows us to analyze the motivations and sensibilities of not just the American eco-system, but also the Caribbean’s heart.

The problems of Toxic Masculinity and/or Latin Machismo has been addressed and detailed in many previous commentaries; see this chronological sample here:

Bahamas Study: 58% Of Boys Agree to Female ‘Discipline’ – October 21, 2014
Many times people flee the region to mitigate abusive situations; even more troubling, as victims they may have encountered an attitude of complacency and indifference among public safety authorities. The following article [Study] posits that this attitude is deeply entrenched in society, even among the next (younger) generation:

FIFTY-eight per cent of high school boys and 37 per cent of high school girls participating in a recent academic survey believe men should discipline their female partners, according to a new College of the Bahamas study. …

Change has now come to the Caribbean. As the foregoing article [Study] depicts the problem of domestic violence is tied to a community ethos. This ‘negative’ ethos must be uprooted and replaced with a new, progressive spirit, starting at the adolescent level, when attitudes are pliable and sensitive to strategic messaging.

———–

Helping Black Caribbean Men & Boys – Hurt People Hurt People – March 3, 2018

Black men and boys” …

… this is a special group in the population of the New World, the Americas. This group has been victims and villains. To the point that academicians and clinicians alike can conclude that “hurt people hurt people”.

Societal defects within this group are higher than normal, compared to other populations groups. This includes violence, delinquencies, incarceration, repression and hopelessness. …

The New World experience for people of African descent is one of struggle; but our people have made a lot of progress over the last 2 centuries especially; that means we have “ruffled a lot of feathers” along the way. Caribbean music icon Bob Marley worded it perfectly in a song that was released posthumously: “Buffalo Soldier”. The lyrics say:

Fighting on arrival; fighting for survival.

That fight though, was not always successful.

The experience of the Black men and boys in the New World is that these ones have often been hurt. Consider just the US experience with Lynchings … where “a total of 4,733 persons had died by lynching since 1882”; (Black men and boys were almost always the victims, with a few sprinkling of women here and there).

There is no excusing, rationalizing or minimizing this injustice. This “hurt” was state-action, state-sponsored and extra-judicial via mob-violence. (Other countries in the Americas also had lynchings, not just the Southern States of the US).

With this above introduction, is there any wonder that the crime rate is higher for Black men and boys than any other sub-group in the population? This is the accepted premise that “hurt people hurt people”.

This fact causes breach in society. How do “we” repair this breach in societal dynamics? …

The Go Lean book presents 370 pages of instructions for how to reform and transform the Caribbean member-states. It stresses the key community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to shepherd a better society.

———–

Bad Ethos on Home Violence – December 23, 2018

People do tend to be a product of their environment and their early molding. Most times the discipline and attitudes learned at home forms the adult character that people become.

This is good … and bad! …

This concept refers to the “ethos” (a Greek word meaning “character” that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals); we see that it is not just a personal attribute but also refer to a community characteristic. Thus the word community ethos. …

“Charity begins at home”.

Everyone knows that and assumes that. The good actions you exert towards others – strangers – is an exercise that starts at home, towards family. This is also true in the reverse: the bad actions you exert towards strangers, tend to stem from the practice to malevolent behavior towards family. Thusly, domestic violence do connect to violent crimes, think rape.

This is not just some academic thesis; this is real life and real bad, in Jamaica right now. See these two supporting news stories:

Domestic Abuse – 15 percent of women experience violence – see Appendix A below.

Tourist Rapes – A Black-eye for hospitality towards foreigners – see Appendix B below.

… 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. Domestic violence and rape tend to victimize women. So the Go Lean book specifically – on Page 226 – presented an advocacy to help women; featuring this title: 10 Ways to Empower Women.

———-

Unequal Justice: Bullying Magnified to Disrupt Commerce – September 28, 2019
Analogies abound … as to why it is important to “nip bullying in the bud”. If we do nothing – or not enough – then conditions of Unequal Justice go from “bad to worse”. The bad actor can emerge from terrorizing a family, to a neighborhood, to a community, to a nation, to a region, to a hemisphere, to the whole world. Think: Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Soviet Russia, British Empire, Napoleonic France, Spanish Inquisition, and more …

Unchecked, bad actors in the community become tyrants – they can even affect the local economic engine.
…
In this series commentary, reference is made to the fact that Tourism, as the Number 1 economic driver in the region, is vulnerable to Bad Actors disrupting peaceful hospitality trade – we must protect our societal engines from tyrants, bullies and terrorists. So there is always the need to ensure justice institutions are optimized in the region; visitors will refuse to come and enjoy our hospitality if there are active threats or perceived instabilities. (At the same time, residents flee to foreign shores in search of refuge). So the need for justice in the Caribbean tourism deliveries transcends borders, politics, class and race.

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump presented himself as a tyrant, bully, yet he won in 2016 thanks to many Hispanic men. They doubled-downed on Toxic Masculinity!

This is not “putting our best foot forward”. We can/must do better than Trump, better than Toxic Masculinity.

In the aforementioned previous blog-commentary, we asked:

How can we remediate and mitigate Toxic Masculinity? For one thing, we must start early. Then we must not settle for the bad orthodoxy of “boys will be boys”. It has been proven again and again that bad instincts can be corrected and weeded out of society. Yes, the solution is: reform and transform.

We must strive to do better in our homeland, otherwise our people will continue to flee in search of refuge. Toxic Masculinity exist in our society, we must work to dislodge it, message against it, coach it out of our young people and foster positive values and ethos in its place.

We definitely do not want to export our Toxic Masculinity to foreign lands, nor assimilate other people’s toxicity. We must recognize bad and filter it out of society.

Yes, we can …

Now, let’s abandon the toxic and work to make the Caribbean – our part of the world – a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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.

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

—————–

Appendix VIDEO – Trump’s “Macho Man” Image Working? – https://youtu.be/kOfnbd5Er7w

The View
Posted October 15, 2020 – A ‘New York Times’ report pointed out that despite a majority of Latino voters favoring Democrats, Hispanic men remain a stable part of Pres. Trump’s base due to his “macho allure” – Ana Navarro weighs in.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/2Ybi4tM
MORE FROM ‘THE VIEW’: Full episodes: http://abcn.ws/2tl10qh
Twitter: http://twitter.com/theview
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Instagram: http://instagram.com/theviewabc

——-

Related: VIDEO – President Trump’s dance moves [to the song “YMCA” by the Village People] go viral – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9X3nUmDJuY

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Decision 2020 – Haitian Agenda 2016 ==> 2020

Posted on October 26, 2020 in Ethos, Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Fool me once, shame of you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Haitians in the Diaspora (Miami) were fooled by the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump in 2016.

He asserted that he cared …

He did not!

Almost immediately after his inauguration he started disrespecting Haitians and undermining their progress. See this actuality in the reporting of this news article here:

Title: Trump And Haitians: He Said He’d Be Their Champ. Many Now Feel Like Chumps.
Sub-title: Donald Trump won a surprising number of Haitian-American votes in 2016. But since then he’s burned a lot of bridges to Little Haiti. Will it burn him next week?

AUDIO Podcast:
https://soundcloud.com/wlrn/645-am-trump-and-haitians-he-said-hed-be-their-champ-many-now-feel-like-chumps

WLRN

————
By: Tim Padgett
In September 2016, then Republican presidential candidate came to Miami’s Little Haiti and made an unexpected pitch to Haitian-American voters, who have historically backed Democrats.

“I’m running to represent Haitian-Americans,” Trump told a supportive crowd at the Little Haiti Cultural Center. “I really want to be your greatest champion, and I will be your champion.”

And it worked. Surprisingly, an estimated fifth of Haitian voters in Florida, and many elsewhere in the U.S., cast ballots for Trump.

But it didn’t take long for President Trump to start burning his bridges with Haitians.

Less than a year after he took office, Haitians were protesting in front of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach. They were angry that he’d moved to end the Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, that had been given to Haitians in the U.S. after Haiti’s catastrophic 2010 earthquake; that he’d accelerated deportations of Haitians — and that he’d called Haiti a “shithole” country.

“It hurt. It was a visceral hurt,” says Pierre Imbert, one of the Haitian-Americans who voted for Trump — and now regrets it.

“President Trump unfortunately has been horrible to Haitians.”

Imbert, who was born in Haiti and lives in Aventura, is a founding director of the Ayiti Community Trust, an NGO based in North Miami that promotes development in Haiti.

He’s a registered independent and — despite the anti-immigrant and race-baiting rhetoric that drenched Trump’s 2016 campaign — he voted for Trump hoping he’d change decades of failed U.S. policy in Haiti.

Failure, Imbert adds, that was especially frustrating after the earthquake, when U.S.-led reconstruction projects seemed to ignore regular Haitians like his relatives there.

“Close family members put together, in Haiti, a supermarket serving an area that was deprived and then folded because small and mid-size business enterprises couldn’t get the assistance that they needed,” Imbert recalls.

“It made it more difficult to nourish hope. And Trump presented himself as a viable alternative, a champion of Haiti causes.”

I voted for Trump in great defiance of my friends, my colleagues and family expectations. And I have had four years to pay for it.- Pierre Imbert

But Imbert says Trump’s disdainful neglect of Haiti since then has only helped to worsen its poverty and political chaos. Trump’s vulgar remark about Haiti was the low point — a betrayal that hurt more, Imbert says, because he’d gone out on a personal limb to support Trump.

“It was in great defiance of my friends, my colleagues and family expectations,” he says. “And I have had four years to pay for it.”

Imbert says this time he’ll vote for Trump’s Democratic opponent, Joe Biden. And that’s also a change from 2016. That year many Haitians, even if they didn’t support Trump, stayed home not to vote for Hillary Clinton.

CLINTON BACKLASH
Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, were particularly unpopular with the Haitian-American community. Their nonprofit Clinton Foundation was widely criticized for its work in post-earthquake Haiti.

The Clintons deny any wrongdoing, but Haitians felt there was a lack of transparency and accountability involving the spending of billions of dollars the international community pledged for Haiti’s reconstruction. And many, fairly or not, associated the Clintons with the U.S. and international mishandling of Haiti aid and crises like a cholera epidemic.

“There was a feeling of exploitation,” says Gilbert Saint-Jean, a Haitian-American scientist in Miami who works with the Haitian-American Voter Empowerment Coalition (HAVE).

“2016 represented a burgeoning movement within the Haitian-American community to hold their elected representatives accountable,” he says. “That backlash against the Clintons was a manifestation of that.”

Saint-Jean says it also reflected frustration that Washington rarely consults the Haitian diaspora.

“To have Donald Trump, a major U.S. presidential candidate, actually come visit the community was of significance.”

So Biden made a point of visiting Little Haiti himself this month — Trump, who is much less welcome in Little Haiti these days, has not visited during this campaign.

Haitian diaspora groups also sent Biden a letter this month laying out the issues they want him to address if he wins, such as TPS.

“I believe Biden has shown more support for Latin America and the Caribbean, and for Haiti too,” says Imbert. “But if we learned any lesson from 2016, it’s that we have to leverage our growing voter strength and hold whomever we support accountable.”

Even if far fewer Haitians are expected to vote for Trump this time, the Haitian expat who helped organize his visit here in 2016 has no regrets.

“We are facing two parties, Democrat and Republican, who don’t see us Haitians as allies,” says Ringo Cayard, a government lobbyist in North Miami.

Like many Haitians these days, Cayard feels if Haitians avoid becoming a monolithic bloc and instead split their vote, neither party will take them for granted or ignore them.

“We cannot put all our eggs in one basket,” he insists

Some Haitians do still plan to put their votes in Trump’s basket next week. WLRN reached out to at least half a dozen of them; but unlike four years ago, when Haitian-American Trump voters were usually vocal about their preference, none wanted to talk this time — including a Palm Beach Haitian expat who runs a Facebook page called “Haiti for Trump.”

In 2016 — when Trump won Florida by little more than 100,000 votes — his boost in the Haitian community might have helped put him over the top. In 2020, the apparent drop in enthusiasm could hurt Trump in a Florida race that looks to be as close — if not closer.

Related: Biden Senior Adviser Says Economic Plan Targets Left- and Right-Leaning Haitian Voters

Source: https://www.wlrn.org/2020-10-26/trump-and-haitians-he-said-hed-be-their-champ-many-now-feel-like-chumps posted and retrieved October 26, 2020.

Did the Haitian Diaspora, Caribbean emigrants from a majority Black country, really need the 4 years of the Trump Administration to know that Donald Trump would fool them?

No, his years as president were not his first act of foolery towards Black populations. He had previously disrespected, assaulted and insulted the Black community. He said and showed who he truly was … from before.

“From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” – The Bible Luke 6:45

See “Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2011″ in the Appendix below.

Every month, the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean presents a Teaching Series to address issues germane to Caribbean life and culture. For this month of October 2020, we are looking at the US General Election of November 3. It is amazing that we in the Caribbean are relevant in America’s Decision 2020. This is because our numbers are strong – upwards of 22 million people, 7 percent of the US population; this is enough to have relevance in a political race.

This is entry 2-of-5, continuing the thesis that the Caribbean member-states finally get to voice their disgust for actions (or inactions) of the last 4 years. Caribbean people have more to say; people are listening now. Consider here, the full catalog of the series this month:

Decision 2020: Puerto Rico claps back at Trump
Decision 2020: Haiti’s Agenda 2016 ==> 2020 – Trump never cared
Decision 2020: Latino Gender Gap – More ‘Toxic Masculinity’
Decision 2020: More Immigration or Less
Decision 2020: What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela

Decision 2020 allows us to analyze the motivations and sensibilities of the Caribbean heart.

What is the Haitian Agenda for 2020? What is the Haitian Diaspora Agenda?

It should be the same as every other Caribbean member-state:

To make the homeland a better place to live, work and play.

But hoping for some Foreign Man in Washington – Trump or Biden – to do it for us is a fallacy. The heavy-lifting for change must be accomplished “for us by us“.

So yes, now is the time to vote Trump out, but then we need to engage a sound roadmap to make real change in Haiti and the other 29 Caribbean member-states.

How?

This is the key question … and possible answers has been detailed in previous commentaries; see this chronological sample here:

Fixing Haiti – Can the Diaspora be the Answer? – September 30, 2017
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. …

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 [articles]; 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”. …

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. …

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. …

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.

———–

Haiti – Beauty ‘Only a Mother Can Love’ – January 10, 2018
While this country [Haiti] has some beautiful terrain, poverty and mis-management has sullied a lot of its natural beauty. In some places, Haiti is a land where “only a mother can love”.

Yet still, many mothers have stepped in, stepped up and are showing love to this land!

May we all be inspired by their examples. …

The movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean … double-downs on the homeland; it advocates for the Caribbean Diaspora – like the above “Sheroes” – to return to their communities and for in-country residents to not leave in the first place. While no society is perfect anywhere in the world, the Go Lean book posits that the Caribbean is easier to reform and transform. Plus the inherent beauty of the islands, coastal states, cultures and hospitality makes the heavy-lifting to transform our community worth all the effort and sacrifice.

There is no doubt that Haiti has seen a lot of dysfunction; the country flirts with Failed-State status. But change is afoot!

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. One advocacy is the deployment of Self-Governing Entities – industrial sites though physically located in a member-state, like Haiti, actually administered by agencies of the CU Federation (Page 105). Another advocacy is the “Reboot of Haiti”. The book posits that solutions for the Caribbean must first come from the Caribbean. Therefore, the roadmap calls for a Caribbean-styled Marshall Plan. …

A big concern for Haiti is the lack of jobs – [one] article cited a 60 percent poverty/unemployment rate. The Go Lean roadmap seeks to assuage this economic challenge by the facilitation of formal jobs and informal gigs, especially on the Self-Governing Entity job sites. Welcome to the Gig Economy …

A gig economy is an environment in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements. The trend toward a gig economy has begun. A study by financial systems company, Intuit, predicted that by 2020, 40 percent of American workers would be independent contractors.

We can ride this trend in the Caribbean as well. Haiti would be perfectly suited.

———–

The Spoken and Unspoken on Haiti – January 16, 2018
Donald J. Trump called Haiti a “shit-hole” country while negotiating the details for an immigration reform bill with his political opponents.

This declaration spewed controversy and disgust in the US … and abroad; even here in the Caribbean. …

For people to say something like the above about a Caribbean country shows that truly, they have no regard for that country. Take away their words and study their actions (i.e. policies) and we see a consistent trend – spoken or unspoken – that there is really no regard for Haiti – and other Caribbean member-states.

The movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean have said a lot about Haiti. We have told the truth, and the truth is not pretty.

Haiti is effectively a Failed-State.

Yet, still we make this statements in love – not hate; not bias; not prejudice nor blatant racism. We have also followed-up from “talking this talk” to “walking the walk” and have presented an Action Plan, a Way Forward for reforming and transforming Haiti.

———-

Marshall Plan – Haiti: Past time for Mitigation – May 12, 2019

Europe endured a lot of dysfunction during the 20th Century; think World War I and World War II. Let’s face it, these European countries did NOT deserve any kindness or help (such as the $13 Billion in the Marshall Plan) that were eventually given to them after WWII; it was a kindness and an investment from the US to the Europeans. It was Grace!

…

All of this time, and before, the Caribbean country of Haiti languished. They were past the time that they needed Grace and help; but such deliveries were fleeting. …

This is the assertion by the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – and the whole world knows it – that due to Haiti’s Black-and-Brown population demographic, their country was ignored or maybe even further abused. …

Will someone walk-up to Haiti and give them $13 Billion (or $91 Billion in today’s dollars) to reboot, recover and turn-around the prior 2 centuries of dysfunction?

Probably, not!

(What’s really sad, is people walk-up to further exploit and abuse Haiti and Haitians).

It will be up to the Caribbean to solve the Caribbean’s problems. We do have more than one Failed-State; think Cuba; and we have many other member-states, just a few notches behind Cuba & Haiti on the Failed-State indices. So we must execute strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to effect the needed reboot, recovery and turn-around.

Yes, we can succeed, the same as post-World War II Europe succeeded with the 4-year execution of their Marshall Plan. Yes, we can!

Haiti is already a member-state in the Caribbean Community (CariCom). So they have already embraced the concept of regional interdependence. What’s missing now is the leveraging of the Single Market, adding “teeth to the prospect” of a unified neighborhood with “Trade & Security” initiatives.

———

Trump won in 2016 thanks to the Haitian Diaspora vote. They were fooled!

Now, let’s abandon WRONG politics and work only for real political change in the Caribbean region.

To reform the Caribbean,we do need politics and politicians: Top Down change is a requirement – referring to Public Leaders, Private Sector Leaders, & Public-Private Partnerships. Within this roadmap, we do plan to have a presence and our own advocacy in Washington (Go Lean book Page 117):

[Trade Mission] Office in Washington
This Washington-DC office will facilitate the interaction with the US federal government and its different agencies in the nation’s capital. There is also the need to lobby: the elected Congressmen representing the US territories (Puerto Rico & Virgin Islands) and the many NGOs based in Washington. The CU mission to facilitate repatriation with their US earned entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, etc.) will take some tense negotiations and acute coordination.

The CU will also petition the US applicable departments (Defense, State) for grants/aid to facilitate military acquisitions.

But Bottoms-Up change is essential too. This refers to the aggregation of people, organizations and institutions demanding reform and transformations – building momentum.

This is the purpose of this roadmap, commentary, and the Go Lean movement in general: to do the heavy-lifting to finally:

Become a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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.

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

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.

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

————-

Appendix – Title: Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to [2011] 2020
Sub-title: Trump has repeatedly claimed he’s “the least racist person.” His history suggests otherwise.
By: German Lopez

If you ask President Donald Trump, he isn’t racist. To the contrary, he’s repeatedly said that he’s “the least racist person that you’ve ever encountered.”

Trump’s actual record, however, tells a very different story.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly made explicitly racist and otherwise bigoted remarks, from calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists, to proposing a ban on all Muslims entering the US, to suggesting a judge should recuse himself from a case solely because of the judge’s Mexican heritage.

The trend has continued into his presidency. From stereotyping a Black reporter to pandering to white supremacists after they held a violent rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, to making a joke about the Trail of Tears, Trump hasn’t stopped with racist acts after his 2016 election.

Most recently, Trump has called the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus the “Chinese virus” and “kung flu” — racist terms that tap into the kind of xenophobia that he latched onto during his 2016 presidential campaign; Trump’s own adviser, Kellyanne Conway, previously called “kung flu” a “highly offensive” term. And Trump insinuated that Sen. Kamala Harris, who’s Black, “doesn’t meet the requirements” to run for vice president — a repeat of the birther conspiracy theory that he perpetuated about former President Barack Obama.

This is nothing new for Trump. In fact, the very first time Trump appeared in the pages of the New York Times, back in the 1970s, was when the US Department of Justice sued him for racial discrimination. Since then, he has repeatedly appeared in newspaper pages across the world as he inspired more similar controversies.

This long history is important. It would be one thing if Trump misspoke one or two times. But when you take all of his actions and comments together, a clear pattern emerges — one that suggests that bigotry is not just political opportunism on Trump’s part but a real element of his personality, character, and career.

Trump has a long history of racist controversies

Here’s a breakdown of Trump’s history, taken largely from Dara Lind’s list for Vox and an op-ed by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times:

1973: The US Department of Justice — under the Nixon administration, out of all administrations — sued the Trump Management Corporation for violating the Fair Housing Act. Federal officials found evidence that Trump had refused to rent to Black tenants and lied to Black applicants about whether apartments were available, among other accusations. Trump said the federal government was trying to get him to rent to welfare recipients. In the aftermath, he signed an agreement in 1975 agreeing not to discriminate to renters of color without admitting to previous discrimination.
1980s: Kip Brown, a former employee at Trump’s Castle, accused another one of Trump’s businesses of discrimination. “When Donald and Ivana came to the casino, the bosses would order all the black people off the floor,” Brown said. “It was the eighties, I was a teenager, but I remember it: They put us all in the back.”
1989: In a controversial case that’s been characterized as a modern-day lynching, four Black teenagers and one Latino teenager — the “Central Park Five” — were accused of attacking and raping a jogger in New York City. Trump immediately took charge in the case, running an ad in local papers demanding, “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” The teens’ convictions were later vacated after they spent seven to 13 years in prison, and the city paid $41 million in a settlement to the teens. But Trump in October 2016 said he still believes they’re guilty, despite the DNA evidence to the contrary.
1991: A book by John O’Donnell, former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, quoted Trump’s criticism of a Black accountant: “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. … I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.” Trump later said in a 1997 Playboy interview that “the stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true.”
1992: The Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino had to pay a $200,000 fine because it transferred Black and women dealers off tables to accommodate a big-time gambler’s prejudices.
1993: In congressional testimony, Trump said that some Native American reservations operating casinos shouldn’t be allowed because “they don’t look like Indians to me.”
2000: In opposition to a casino proposed by the St. Regis Mohawk tribe, which he saw as a financial threat to his casinos in Atlantic City, Trump secretly ran a series of ads suggesting the tribe had a “record of criminal activity [that] is well documented.”
2004: In season two of The Apprentice, Trump fired Kevin Allen, a Black contestant, for being overeducated. “You’re an unbelievably talented guy in terms of education, and you haven’t done anything,” Trump said on the show. “At some point you have to say, ‘That’s enough.’”
2005: Trump publicly pitched what was essentially The Apprentice: White People vs. Black People. He said he “wasn’t particularly happy” with the most recent season of his show, so he was considering “an idea that is fairly controversial — creating a team of successful African Americans versus a team of successful whites. Whether people like that idea or not, it is somewhat reflective of our very vicious world.”
2010: In 2010, there was a huge national controversy over the “Ground Zero Mosque” — a proposal to build a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan, near the site of the 9/11 attacks. Trump opposed the project, calling it “insensitive,” and offered to buy out one of the investors in the project. On The Late Show With David Letterman, Trump argued, referring to Muslims, “Well, somebody’s blowing us up. Somebody’s blowing up buildings, and somebody’s doing lots of bad stuff.”
2011: Trump played a big role in pushing false rumors that Obama — the country’s first Black president — was not born in the US. He claimed to send investigators to Hawaii to look into Obama’s birth certificate. Obama later released his birth certificate, calling Trump a “carnival barker.” The research has found a strong correlation between birtherism, as the conspiracy theory is called, and racism. But Trump has reportedly continued pushing this conspiracy theory in private.
2011: While Trump suggested that Obama wasn’t born in the US, he also argued that maybe Obama wasn’t a good enough student to have gotten into Columbia or Harvard Law School, and demanded Obama release his university transcripts. Trump claimed, “I heard he was a terrible student. Terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?”

For many people, none of these incidents, individually, may be damning: One of these alone might suggest that Trump is simply a bad speaker and perhaps racially insensitive (“politically incorrect,” as he would put it), but not overtly racist.

But when you put all these events together, a clear pattern emerges. At the very least, Trump has a history of playing into people’s racism to bolster himself — and that likely says something about him, too.

And, of course, there’s everything that’s happened through and since his presidential campaign.

See the full article here for many more evidence of Trump’s blatant racism: https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history posted August 13, 2020; retrieved October 26, 2020.
———
RELATED:
No, Trump hasn’t been the best president for Black America since Lincoln
Donald Trump’s history of encouraging hate groups and violence, from 2015 to 2020

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Decision 2020 – Puerto Rico claps back at Trump

Posted on October 20, 2020 in Ethos, Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico have no vote nor voice in the American capital city of Washington, DC. But let them leave and relocate to the US mainland, as is their right as American citizens, and then they can participate fully in the balloting for federal and state elections.

Then, they have a voice …

… they are anxious to make noise with their voice and vote this year, as many Puerto Ricans want to clap back at President Donald Trump … for his long train of abuses towards their homeland. The actuality of this abusive relationship had been detailed in a previous commentary; see this excerpt:

Way Forward – Puerto Rico: Learns its status with America – April 3, 2019

“You love America. But does “she” love you back?”

This is the reality of unrequited love. The people of the island of Puerto Rico love America – they give blood, sweat and tears. But America does not always love the island back. This has always been evident and obvious, but now even more so after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017 and the US Federal Government lackluster response. Puerto Ricans, on the island and in the Diaspora, must accept that they are treated as the “ugly step-child”.

Today, we learn that the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, is now vocalizing that there is a fast approaching limit for gratitude towards Puerto Rico.
…
There is no love for Puerto Rico … within their American eco-system.
…
As related in this previous blog-commentary, Puerto Rico devotes more human capital – and sacrifice – to US military endeavors than any other state or territories per capita.

“Never kill yourself for people who are willing to watch you die.”

This is the analysis by the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. This book has consistently asserted that Puerto Rico, and the rest of the Caribbean, are parasites and need to “Grow Up“, “Manage our own Affairs“, “Take Care of Our Business”. We need to reform and transform … so we need partners in Washington to help us reach these goals.

Who, which candidates for federal offices, are beneficial to this Caribbean Quest?

The choice may be somewhat straight-forward, as Donald Trump had expressed a desire to sell Puerto Rico; see the Appendix VIDEO below.

But Which Candidate Decision is the question for the 2020 General Election, as it was for the 2016 General election; (then it was Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton). In a 2016 blog-commentary leading up to that General Election, the voting trends of Puerto Ricans were identified and analyzed with this excerpt:

Courting Caribbean Votes – Puerto Ricans – October 8, 2016

… it is election season in the United States. There are many members of the Caribbean Diaspora living in the US – some figures project up to 22 million; many of them are eligible to vote on November 8, 2016.

Who will they vote for? Who should they vote for?

What if the criterion for the vote is benevolence to Caribbean causes?

… The Go Lean movement (book and blog-commentaries) asserts that Caribbean stakeholders need to take their own lead for their Caribbean destiny, but it does acknowledge that we have a dependency to the economic, security and governing eco-systems of the American SuperPower. This dependency is derisively called a parasite status, with the US as the host.

This accurately describes Puerto Rico.

Not only is the island of Puerto Rico a parasite of the US, but a near-Failed-State as well. While this has been a consistent theme of the Go Lean movement, it is no secret. Washington and Puerto Rico readily admit to this disposition. In fact this failing condition has driven many Puerto Ricans out of Puerto Rico. This has been within that consistent Go Lean theme, that “push-and-pull” factors drive Caribbean citizens away from their beloved homeland. Greater Orlando has become a new destination.

They are gone from Puerto Rico, but have not forgotten home. This year they are looking to impact their homeland with their vote. They seek to support candidates for federal offices that can help to reform and transform the island.
…
We must do better than our past. We must be an American protégé, rather than just an American parasite.
…
We want to make Puerto Rico and other places in our Caribbean homeland, better places to live, work and play. So we must engage the political process in Washington, DC as they are a major stakeholder for Puerto Rico. The island is bankrupt, it depends on federal bailouts just to execute even the basic functions in the Social Contract. Personally, many residents on the island depend on federal subsidies to survive: benefits like veterans, social security (disability & pension) and welfare. Many Puerto Ricans have understandably abandoned the island – this is both “push” and “pull”.
…
The choice for president should consider these needs.

We need Washington’s help. But the only way to impact Washington is through voting. This is why the Puerto Rican vote – for those in the Diaspora – is being courted. Which presidential candidate best extols the vision and values for a new Caribbean?

Trump won in 2016.

Trump proved toxic for Caribbean eco-systems, including Puerto Rico, during the 4 years of his administration.

Trump disrespected Puerto Rico … repeatedly.

Only now will Puerto Rico get a chance to clap back at Mr. Trump.

This is the main thrust of this news article here:

Title: Puerto Rico, unable to vote, becomes crucial to US election
By: Danica Coto and Adriana Gomez Licon
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The campaigns of President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are rallying people in a place where U.S. citizens cannot cast ballots but have the ear of hundreds of thousands of potential voters in the battleground state of Florida.

The candidates are targeting Puerto Rico in a way never before seen, with the U.S. territory suddenly finding itself in the crosshairs of a high-stakes race even though Puerto Ricans on the island cannot vote in presidential elections despite being U.S. citizens since 1917.

Campaigners know this, but they hope those on the island will push relatives and friends on the U.S. mainland to vote for them in a strategy that capitalizes on the close ties they share.

It’s a novel role that plays off the sentiment that Puerto Ricans in Florida feel they are voting by proxy for those back home left out of U.S. democracy. And a growing number find this role appealing, especially since many on the island are struggling to recover from hurricanes Irma and Maria, a string of strong earthquakes, a deep economic crisis and the pandemic.

“I’m voting for 3 million Puerto Ricans on the island, including my entire family,” said Jerick Mediavilla, who is from the mountain town of Corozal and is voting in a U.S. presidential election for the first time after moving to Orlando four years ago. “Puerto Rico doesn’t have a voice. Our voice is via the United States.”

It’s people like Mediavilla that Democrats and Republicans are trying to target as they court Latinos in Florida, which has the largest population of Puerto Ricans in the U.S., with nearly 1.2 million. Trump won Florida in 2016 and has virtually no path to the White House if he doesn’t do so again. Polls are tight, and as the Trump campaign worries of support slipping among suburban and older voters, Latinos in Florida have become crucial.

Puerto Ricans represent 27% of Hispanics of voting age in Florida, trailing only Cuban-Americans. While it’s unclear how many are Democrats or Republicans, Democrats have widened the gap of Hispanic voters registered for this election over the GOP compared with 2016. The gains were in counties with a high number of Puerto Ricans including Orange County, home to Orlando, and Hillsborough, home to Tampa. Polk County, where the Puerto Rican population has more than doubled since 2013, saw the fastest growth of Latino registered voters, with Democrats registering 21,000 more voters than Republicans. The gap in 2016 was 15,000. But those same counties also have a very high number of voters registered without party affiliation.

“Puerto Ricans will play a very crucial role in this election,” said Yadira Sánchez, co-executive director of Poder Latinx, a U.S.-based non-profit group that aims to mobilize Latino voters.

Election observers, however, note Puerto Ricans have weaker voter turnout rates than other Hispanic groups that favor Republican candidates.

Trump recently secured an endorsement from Puerto Rico’s governor and promised nearly $13 billion in additional aid last month to help the island rebuild from Hurricane Maria. During a recent rally in Florida, Trump declared: “I’m not gonna say the best, but I’m just about the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico. You better vote for me, Puerto Rico.” Many were quick to note that those living on the island don’t have that right.

Meanwhile, Biden granted an exclusive interview to Puerto Rico’s main newspaper that for the first time in its 50 years endorsed a U.S. presidential candidate and asked those in the U.S. mainland to support Biden: “We ask that you, with the great power of your vote, especially in key electoral states, help open the way to the transformation effort that will honor the dignity and promote the progress of every person.”

Biden recently launched digital and print ads on the island with the hashtag “HazloXMi,” or DoItForMe, urging Puerto Ricans to tell their friends and family on the U.S. mainland to participate: “With your vote over there, you help us here.”

“Both campaigns are doing it thinking this will bounce back to Florida,” said Carlos Suárez, a political science professor at the University of Florida.

It’s unclear whether the indirect campaign strategy will work, but Luis Gutiérrez, a former U.S. representative who served 26 years in Congress and now lives in Puerto Rico, called it a smart move.

Puerto Ricans “are always in contact. Why? Because whether you’re one of 3 million on the island or 5 million somewhere else, you’re part of one community,” the Democrat said. “If you are born in Puerto Rico, it will be part of your life until the last day.”

As the election draws near, pressure keeps growing on Puerto Ricans on the island and on the mainland.

A Florida political group recently created a song set to the tune of “Rakatá” by Wisin y Yandel, a renowned Puerto Rican reggaeton duo who first became popular in the early 2000s. The song encourages Puerto Ricans who moved to Florida to use their new voting power and hurl a “chancleta” or flip-flop at Trump to help those living on the island: “He doesn’t care one bit for Boricuas.”

Trump’s campaign has countered with ads highlighting the billions of dollars his administration has pledged to help Puerto Rico recover from Maria, a Category 4 storm that caused an estimated $100 billion in damage and killed an estimated 2,975 people in its aftermath. However, the administration withheld billions of dollars in emergency aid for months, saying it worried about mismanagement and corruption on the island.

Wyneska Méndez, who moved to Miami from Puerto Rico eight years ago, said she would not let fellow Puerto Ricans influence her decision, adding that Trump is the only choice to protect the economy. She especially likes that Trump feels strongly against abortion because of her Christian faith, and she believes Puerto Rico needed to get its affairs in order to receive the same kind of relief offered to U.S. states.

“I don’t let others get in my head,” Méndez said as she waited for a speech by Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday in Miami.

Dozens of Trump supporters who gathered Sunday in Puerto Rico for a rally shared her sentiment, saying the president has sent billions of dollars to help with hurricane reconstruction as they praised his pro-life stance.

Dr. Miriam Ramírez de Ferrer, a former senator and member of Puerto Rico’s pro-statehood party, said that Trump’s personality can be misinterpreted and that she believes he was joking when making comments about the island that critics have found offensive.

“There have been many erroneous messages from certain Puerto Ricans toward Trump, and we don’t want people to think that all Puerto Ricans are the same,” Ramírez said as she pulled down the face mask of a fellow Trump supporter decorated with bald eagles and U.S. flags.

Despite the aid Puerto Rico has received under the Trump administration, Mediavilla and his brother, Omar, who lives in Puerto Rico, remain unswayed.

“It’s a great help, but really, in the end, I see it as a political strategy,” said Omar Mediavilla, adding that he is grateful his brother was motivated by the aftermath of Maria to support Biden. “They’re our voice carrying our complaints … It’s important that Puerto Ricans over there give us this opportunity.”

Some who live on the island remain wary of the campaigning to influence Puerto Ricans on the mainland.

Omar Soto, a production supervisor whose brother lives in Lakeland, Florida, said the strategies are pointless.

“It seems like there’s a tone of despair,” he said, adding that he believes it could backfire. “I think it’s disrespectful. We should have the option to vote for president.” ___

Associated Press writer Danica Coto reported this story in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and AP writer Adriana Gomez Licon reported from Miami.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-race-and-ethnicity-joe-biden-donald-trump-puerto-rico-3018eade64921c72b0ebb1df3f22061e posted October 18, 2020; retrieved October 20, 2020.

Now is the time for Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans to tell Mr. Trump how they really feel about him and his policies toward their island homeland.

Listen to Puerto Rico’s message.

Listen to their messengers. (But, don’t get it twisted; Puerto Rico still has societal defects of its own making to remediate).

Yet still, the Go Lean movement is engaged in this territorial remediation as well, in that, we continue to present the vision that all people who love Puerto Rico should be pursuing:

A better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

Every month, the movement behind the Go Lean book presents a Teaching Series to address issues germane to Caribbean life and culture. For this month of October 2020, we are looking at the US General Election for November 3. It is amazing that we in the Caribbean are relevant in Decision 2020. Previously, it was discussed that the Caribbean Diaspora in the US may amount to as much as 22 million people. This would constitute 7 percent of the US population; this is enough to sway a political race, left or right.

We do indeed have relevance.

This is entry 1-of-5; the first one; it introduces the thesis that the Caribbean member-states finally get to voice their disgust for actions (or inactions) of the last 4 years. Caribbean people have a lot to say; people are listening now. Consider here, the full catalog of the series this month:

Decision 2020: Puerto Rico claps back at Trump
Decision 2020: Haiti’s Agenda 2016 ==> 2020 – Trump never cared
Decision 2020: Latino Gender Gap – More ‘Toxic Masculinity’
Decision 2020: More Immigration or Less
Decision 2020: What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela

A Caribbean voice is important. The Bible reveals that “from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). Decision 2020 allows us to learn what is truly in the heart of Caribbean people.

Brace yourself!

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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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.

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

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

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

—————–

APPENDIX VIDEO – Trump Reportedly Looked To Sell Puerto Rico – https://youtu.be/2AmSovkTic4

HuffPost
Posted July 13, 2020 – Elaine Duke, the former acting head of homeland security, claimed to the New York Times that President Donald Trump looked to “divest” Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria struck the island.

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Remembering History Correctly – Encore

Posted on October 12, 2020 in Ethos, Implementation, Social, Strategy

It is October 12. This is a holiday in many lands. This used to be Columbus Day; but now, as part of Civil Rights Reform, it has been rebranded. It is now called Indigenous Peoples Day in some places, while other places celebrate National Heroes Day.

Why and when did this rebranding happen?

Remembering history correctly, we learn that Christopher Columbus was not a hero for everybody. For many indigenous people – and the subsequent slave populations – Columbus was more of a villain than a hero.

When did this historic reconciliation take place? Recently! Indigenous People Day was instituted in 1992. That seems to be the Red Letter date on most calendars.

This theme of remediating historic reflection to more correctly assess Columbus is very familiar to the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. In fact, there was an October 14, 2019 blog-commentary that asserted Civil Rights Reform, with this title:

Refuse to Lose – Remediating Columbus Day

This remediation in our commemoration is affecting more than just holidays; it has also applied to monuments and statutes as well; many are being taken down.

Some of the heroes commemorated by monuments and statutes have not always been so heroic.

See this portrayed in this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – A monumental reckoning – https://youtu.be/L7Y-AHj9Gu4

CBS Sunday Morning
Posted October 11, 2020 – Since protests erupted over the death of George Floyd, the range of public monuments removed or vandalized has expanded well beyond those honoring the Confederacy. Criticized as racist or oppressive, statues depicting historic figures from Christopher Columbus to George Washington are now getting a second look. Correspondent Mo Rocca reports.

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This news story reveals that previous slaveholders are no longer being venerated for any other great acts or accomplishments. It is an inexcusable, unforgivable standard that “People should not own other people”. This is the actuality in the standards of right versus wrong. Anyone who have not embraced this simple standard should have never been idolized.

This indictment includes George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and almost the full host of America’s Founding Fathers.

Is this runaway political correctness?

Yes, but far overdue!

What we have learned from all the reflection in racial history this past year is that:

If people never reconciled the evils of slavery then by default, they continue to think that “White is Right” and Superior and …

Black Lives do NOT Matter.

This wrong ethos have always needed to be corrected – “Come What May”. This theme was echoed in that previous blog-commentary from Columbus Day 2019; let’s Encore that now, but first let’s list the newer Go Lean commentaries that aligned with the same Civil Rights Reform theme that the “Remediating Columbus Day” entry presented:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20281	Cleaning up the Toxic Use of the N-Word to improve Black Image
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20237	Slavery, the Original Sin for the ‘New World’? No, the Religiosity…
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20203	‘Pluralism is the Goal’ in transforming the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20180	Corporate Reboots to remediate Bad History and Black Image
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20105	Rising from the Ashes – Making sure there is “Love for All”, not just some
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19979	Juneteenth – Finally, the Emancipation of the American Slaves
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19833	Hypocritical Colonial Community Ethos eroded justice standards
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18421	Introducing Formal Reconciliations to correct the past injustices

Here is the Columbus Day 2019 Encore here-now:

=================

Go Lean Commentary – Refuse to Lose – Remediating ‘Columbus Day’

Today is the Monday closest to October 12 – Day of Discovery by Christopher Columbus – so it is a day set aside as a Holiday in many places. But alas, there have been many communities that have remediated their historical appreciation for Christopher Columbus.

His impact was not all good!

This is part of the new attitude – community ethos – about losing. The actuality of Columbus is that while some people won – European Imperialists – many others lost. Those that lost, are stakeholders too in today’s Caribbean. The new attitude about winning-losing is actually a …

Refusal to lose

This community ethos is defined as a commitment by a group or society to the values of quality, success and winning. This corresponds to this formal definition of “community ethos” in the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean (Page 20):

… the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period.

Celebrating Columbus Day is choosing the victories of some people over the losses of others. This is not winning; not win-win. Adapting the ethos to Refuse to Lose is supposed to be different, better; we want the Greater Good to win, not just a fraction of the population.

See, here, the encyclopedic reference on Columbus Day and the efforts to remediate its celebrations:

Reference: Columbus Day
Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus‘s arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492. Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who set sail across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a faster route to the Far East only to land at the New World. His first voyage to the New World on the Spanish ships Santa María, Niña, and La Pinta took approximately three months. Columbus and his crew’s arrival to the New World initiated the Columbian Exchange which introduced the transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, and technology (but also invasive species, including communicable diseases) between the new world and the old.

The landing is celebrated as “Columbus Day” in the United States but the name varies on the international spectrum. In some Latin American countries, October 12 is known as “Día de la Raza” or (Day of the Race). This is the case for Mexico, which inspired Jose Vasconcelos’s book celebrating the Day of the Iberoamerican Race. Some countries such as Spain refer the holiday as “Día de la Hispanidad” and “Fiesta Nacional de España” where it is also the religious festivity of la Virgen del Pilar. Peru celebrates since 2009 the “Day of the original peoples and intercultural dialogue”. Belize and Uruguay celebrate it as Día de las Américas (Day of the Americas). Since Argentina’s former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner officially adopted “Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural” (Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity) November 3, 2010. “Giornata Nazionale di Cristoforo Colombo or Festa Nazionale di Cristoforo Colombo” is the formal name of Italy‘s celebration as well as in Little Italys around the world.^[1][2]
…

Non-observance
The celebration of Columbus Day in the United States began to decline at the end of the 20th century, although many Italian-Americans, and others, continue to champion it.^[31][32] The states of Florida,^[33] Hawaii,^[34][35] Alaska,^[36][37] Vermont,^[38] South Dakota,^[39] New Mexico,^[40] Maine,^[41], Wisconsin, ^[42] and parts of California including, for example, Los Angeles County^[43] do not recognize it and have each replaced it with celebrations of Indigenous People’s Day (in Hawaii, “Discoverers’ Day”, in South Dakota, “Native American Day”^[32]). A lack of recognition or a reduced level of observance for Columbus Day is not always due to concerns about honoring Native Americans. For example, a community of predominantly Scandinavian descent may observe Leif Erikson Day instead.^[44] In the state of Oregon, Columbus Day is not an official holiday.^[45] Columbus Day is not an official holiday in the state of Washington ^[46]

Iowa and Nevada do not celebrate Columbus Day as an official holiday, but the states’ respective governors are “authorized and requested” by statute to proclaim the day each year.^[47] Several states have removed the day as a paid holiday for state government workers, while still maintaining it—either as a day of recognition, or as a legal holiday for other purposes, including California and Texas.^{[48][49][50][51][52]}

The practice of U.S. cities eschewing Columbus Day to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day began in 1992 with Berkeley, California. The list of cities which have followed suit as of 2018 includes Austin, Boise, Cincinnati, Denver, Los Angeles, Mankato, Minnesota, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Seattle, St. Paul, Minnesota, Phoenix, Tacoma, and “dozens of others.”^{[31][53][54][55][49][56][57][58][59][60][61]} Columbus, Ohio has chosen to honor veterans instead of Christopher Columbus, and removed Columbus Day as a city holiday. Various tribal governments in Oklahoma designate the day as Native American Day, or name it after their own tribe.^[62]
…
Source: Retrieved October 12, 2019 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day

This commentary is a continuation of this series on the Refuse to Lose ethos; this is Part 2-of-6. The full series is cataloged as follows:

Refuse to Lose: Lesson from Sports
Refuse to Lose: Remediating ‘Columbus Day’
Refuse to Lose: Introducing Formal Reconciliations
Refuse to Lose: Despite American Expansionism
Refuse to Lose: Canada’s Model of Ascent
Refuse to Lose: Direct Foreign Investors Wind-Downs

This is not the first time this commentary have addressed ‘Columbus Day’. As related in a previous Go Lean commentary, the orthodoxy of the ‘Columbus Day’ celebration is now frown on in many communities. See this quotation:

The human psyche is consistent; when we have been victimized, we want everyone to remember. But, when we have been the perpetrator – the bully – then we want everyone to forget. This applies to individuals and nations alike.

This experience relates to the history of the New World. Upon the discovery of the Americas by the European powers – Christopher Columbus et al – the focus had always been on pursuing economic interests, many times at the expense of innocent victims. (This is why the celebration of Columbus Day is now out of favor). First, there was the pursuit of gold, other precious metals (silver, copper, etc.) and precious stones (emeralds, turquoise, etc.). Later came the exploitation of profitable agricultural opportunities (cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, etc.), though these business models required extensive labor. So the experience in the New World (the Caribbean and North, South & Central America) saw the exploitation of the native indigenous people, and then as many of them died off, their replacements came from the African Slave Trade.

See this comedic VIDEO here that portrays this history and the trending to remediate the holiday – “How is it still a thing?”:

VIDEO – Columbus Day – How Is This Still A Thing: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) – https://youtu.be/eKEwL-10s7E

LastWeekTonight
Posted October 13, 2014 – Christopher Columbus did a lot of stuff that was way more terrible than “sailing the ocean blue,” but we don’t learn about that.

Columbus Day: How is it still a thing?

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This foregoing VIDEO uses humor and punditry to convey a valid point:

Christopher Columbus should not be viewed as a hero of all the people. His legacy has blood stains on the annals of history.

The United States of America had been a majority White (European) country for its entire history. The minority populations finally won its battle for Civil Rights and equal treatment, appealing to the “Better Nature” of its founding principle:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – Declaration of Independence for the United States of America, July 4, 1776.

The end product of the Civil Rights movement is the equal protection under the law for all ethnic groups – majority or minority. After nearly 400 years of European-dominated power-brokers in the US, finally in 2008, the first person of minority heritage was elected to the American presidency – Barack Obama.

Remediating ‘Columbus Day’ is an accomplishment and achievement for the Civil Rights struggle of minority ethnic groups in America. Now the Refuse to Lose mantra must include everyone and not exclude anyone.

The subject of the American Civil Rights movement and momentum – leveling out the inequities – over the history of the New World have been addressed in many previous commentaries; consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18321	Unequal Justice of American Sheriffs and How to Remediate
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18100	Nature or Nurture – Cop-on-Black Shootings in America’s DNA
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17820	‘Pride’ Movement – “Can we all just get along”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16944	Women Empowerment – Accepting Black Women ‘As Is’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16534	European Reckoning – Leveling Christianity’s Bad Influence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15123	Blacks get longer sentences from ‘Republican’ Judges
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14633	Nature or Nurture: Women Have Nurtured Change to Level Society
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14541	One Woman – Viola Desmond – Making a Difference for Canada
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13063	Achieving Gender & Other Equity without the ‘Battle’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12722	How the West Was Won? Thru Pluralism and Ethnic Normalization
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11870	The Journey From ‘Indian Termination Policy’ to Modern Pluralism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9974	Lessons Learned from Pearl Harbor and Civil Rights Remediated
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8038	Transformations: Civil Disobedience … Very Effective
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020	The Advocacy to Rid Sports of Blatant Racism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=546	‘The Divide’ Book Review describing the unequal justice practice
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=209	The Case of Muhammad Ali – Equal Protection Under the Law

The Refuse to Lose mantra now includes everyone in America and should not exclude anyone. This is why ‘Columbus Day’ is “no longer a thing”.

(Most communities do not want to lose the paid-holiday on the books, so they have substituted ‘Columbus Day’ for some other worthy cause).

This is a good model …

May we apply this lesson throughout the Caribbean – this means you Puerto Rico; (they have 2 holidays: October 12 & November 19).

Using Puerto Rico as a microcosm of the rest of the New World, the demographic on that island is a vast majority of Black-and-Brown people. The Taino people and culture that Columbus discovered and encountered on the island is now gone and extinct. Columbus should not be viewed as a hero due to the course of events he set in motion.

The European people – remnant on the island – would elevate Columbus as a winner, while the indigenous people would have to be deemed the losers. This is not Win-Win!

We now need to Refuse to Lose – for every demographic in our society – not just one group at the expense of another.

This is the lesson learned from ‘Columbus Day’.

Let’s all lean-in and foster this Refuse to Lose attitude; this is the right community ethos to elevate our society to be a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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.

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 [negative] communities … . On the other hand, the Federation must also implement the good examples learned from [positive] developments/communities… .

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

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