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Remembering Auschwitz – Still Relevant

Posted on January 27, 2020 in Ethos, Social, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

75 years ago today – January 27, 1945 – was the Big Reveal …

There were rumors, accusations and suspicions of cruel atrocities against victims behind the German lines during World War II. Nevertheless, there was also a degree of doubt as well. Nazi Germany had deniability … until this day 75 years ago. This is when Soviet troops liberated the Concentration Camp in Auschwitz, Poland:

“The cat was out the bag”.

See a summary and highlights of Auschwitz here:

Title: Auschwitz Concentration Camp
The camp was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp (Stammlager) in Oświęcim; Auschwitz II–Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp built with several gas chambers; Auschwitz III–Monowitz, a labor camp created to staff a factory for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben; and dozens of subcamps.^[3] The camps became a major site of the Nazis’ Final Solution to the Jewish Question.

After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, sparking World War II, the Schutzstaffel (SS) converted Auschwitz I, an army barracks, into a prisoner-of-war camp for Polish political prisoners.^[4] The first inmates, German criminals brought to the camp in May 1940 as functionaries, established the camp’s reputation for sadism. Prisoners were beaten, tortured, and executed for the most trivial reasons. The first gassings—of Soviet and Polish prisoners—took place in block 11 of Auschwitz I around August 1941. Construction of Auschwitz II began the following month, and from 1942 until late 1944 freight trains delivered Jews from all over German-occupied Europe to its gas chambers. Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million died. The death toll includes 960,000 Jews (865,000 of whom were gassed on arrival), 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 other Europeans.^[5] Those not gassed died of starvation, exhaustion, disease, individual executions, or beatings. Others were killed during medical experiments.

At least 802 prisoners tried to escape, 144 successfully, and on 7 October 1944 two Sonderkommando units, consisting of prisoners who staffed the gas chambers, launched an unsuccessful uprising. Only 789 staff (no more than 15 percent) ever stood trial;^[6] several, including camp commandant Rudolf Höss, were executed. The Allies‘ failure to act on early reports of atrocities in the camp by bombing it or its railways remains controversial.

As the Soviet Red Army approached Auschwitz in January 1945, toward the end of the war, the SS sent most of the camp’s population west on a death march to camps inside Germany and Austria. Soviet troops entered the camp on 27 January 1945, a day commemorated since 2005 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the decades after the war, survivors such as Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl, and Elie Wiesel wrote memoirs of their experiences in Auschwitz, and the camp became a dominant symbol of the Holocaust. In 1947 Poland founded the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, and in 1979 it was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Table I – Auschwitz Death Estimates

Nationality/ethnicity
(Source: Franciszek Piper)^[2] Registered deaths
(Auschwitz) Unregistered deaths
(Auschwitz) Total

Jews 95,000 865,000 960,000

Ethnic Poles 64,000 10,000 74,000 (70,000–75,000)

Roma and Sinti 19,000 2,000 21,000

Soviet prisoners of war 12,000 3,000 15,000

Other Europeans:
Soviet citizens (Byelorussians, Russians, Ukrainians),
Czechs, Yugoslavs, French, Germans, Austrians 10,000–15,000 n/a 10,000–15,000

Total deaths in Auschwitz, 1940–1945 200,000–205,000 880,000 1,080,000–1,085,000

Source: Retrieved January 27, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp

This was mankind’s lowest point, the “darkest chapter in human history” … or was it?

“Never Again” became the mantra from this point forward for Holocaust victims and other stakeholders. These ones wanted to present Auschwitz as a Cautionary Tale so that “the world” would Never Again tolerate “man mistreating man” so egregiously.

Never Again lasted “for a minute”!

But “Never Again” has only been empty words. Within the days, weeks, months and years of this atrocity, more atrocities emerged. This is not just my assertion; this is the fact … as chronicled by historians, anthropologists, academicians, journalists and newscasters alike; see the highlights of a sample book on the subject here:

The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History’s 100 Worst Atrocities – a popular history book by Matthew White, an independent scholar and self-described atrocitologist. The book provides a ranking of the hundred worst atrocities of mankind based on the number of deaths.

In the pages of his book, the author, Matthew White, details the 100 Worst Atrocities of Mankind from Antiquity to Modernity. Let’s pick up his ranking from World War II and present the detailed list since those atrocious events. See here-now:

Table II – White’s ranking of atrocities

Rank Event Place Start year End year Death toll

1 World War Two Europe, Asia, Africa 1939 1945 66,000,000

36 Expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe Eastern Europe 1945 1947 2,100,000

88 French Indochina War French Indochina 1945 1954 393,000

70 Partition of India India and Pakistan 1947 1947 500,000

2 Mao Zedong‘s rule China 1949 1976 40,000,000

30 Korean War Korea 1950 1953 3,000,000

30 North Korea North Korea 1948 3,000,000

69 Algerian War of Independence Algeria 1954 1962 525,000

35 Sudanese Civil Wars Sudan, South Sudan 1955 2,600,000

24 Vietnam War Southeast Asia 1959 1975 4,200,000

81 Suharto’s purge Indonesia 1965 1966 400,000

46 Biafran War Nigeria 1966 1970 1,000,000

40 Bengali Genocide Bangladesh 1971 1971 1,500,000

96 Idi Amin‘s rule Uganda 1971 1979 300,000

37 Mengistu Haile‘s rule Ethiopia 1974 1991 2,000,000

91 Postwar Vietnam Vietnam 1975 1992 365,000

39 Democratic Kampuchea Cambodia 1975 1979 1,670,000

55 Mozambican Civil War Mozambique 1975 1992 800,000

70 Angolan Civil War Angola 1975 1994 500,000

70 Ugandan Bush War Uganda 1979 1986 500,000

40 Soviet–Afghan War Afghanistan 1979 1992 1,500,000

96 Saddam Hussein‘s peacetime rule Iraq 1979 2003 300,000

61 Iran–Iraq War Persian Gulf 1980 1988 700,000

94 Sanctions against Iraq Iraq 1990 2003 350,000

70 Anarchy in Somalia Somalia 1991 500,000

53 Rwandan genocide Rwanda 1994 1994 937,000

27 Second Congo War Central Africa 1998 2002 3,800,000

Source: Retrieved January 27, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Big_Book_of_Horrible_Things#White’s_ranking_of_atrocities

Rank	Event	Place	Start year	End year	Death toll
1	World War Two	Europe, Asia, Africa	1939	1945	66,000,000
36	Expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe	Eastern Europe	1945	1947	2,100,000
88	French Indochina War	French Indochina	1945	1954	393,000
70	Partition of India	India and Pakistan	1947	1947	500,000
2	Mao Zedong‘s rule	China	1949	1976	40,000,000
30	Korean War	Korea	1950	1953	3,000,000
30	North Korea	North Korea	1948		3,000,000
69	Algerian War of Independence	Algeria	1954	1962	525,000
35	Sudanese Civil Wars	Sudan, South Sudan	1955		2,600,000
24	Vietnam War	Southeast Asia	1959	1975	4,200,000
81	Suharto’s purge	Indonesia	1965	1966	400,000
46	Biafran War	Nigeria	1966	1970	1,000,000
40	Bengali Genocide	Bangladesh	1971	1971	1,500,000
96	Idi Amin‘s rule	Uganda	1971	1979	300,000
37	Mengistu Haile‘s rule	Ethiopia	1974	1991	2,000,000
91	Postwar Vietnam	Vietnam	1975	1992	365,000
39	Democratic Kampuchea	Cambodia	1975	1979	1,670,000
55	Mozambican Civil War	Mozambique	1975	1992	800,000
70	Angolan Civil War	Angola	1975	1994	500,000
70	Ugandan Bush War	Uganda	1979	1986	500,000
40	Soviet–Afghan War	Afghanistan	1979	1992	1,500,000
96	Saddam Hussein‘s peacetime rule	Iraq	1979	2003	300,000
61	Iran–Iraq War	Persian Gulf	1980	1988	700,000
94	Sanctions against Iraq	Iraq	1990	2003	350,000
70	Anarchy in Somalia	Somalia	1991		500,000
53	Rwandan genocide	Rwanda	1994	1994	937,000
27	Second Congo War	Central Africa	1998	2002	3,800,000

This is the lesson for us today. This is the relevance of Auschwitz 75 years later. This aligns with the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. It asserts (Page 23) that “history teaches that with the emergence of new economic engines, ‘bad actors’ will also emerge thereafter to exploit the opportunities, with good, bad and evil intent. A Bible verse declares: ‘What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun’” – Ecclesiastes 1:9 New International Version.

This is why we must always be On Guard for slight movements towards societal dysfunctions, tyranny and Failed-State status; this is when atrocities occur. Again, this is the lesson from Auschwitz by the victims of Auschwitz who still survive today; see this depiction in this VIDEO here from CBS News:

VIDEO – Holocaust survivor opens up about Auschwitz – https://www.cbsnews.com/video/holocaust-survivor-visits-auschwitz-for-first-time-since-camps-liberation/

Posted January 27, 2020 – Monday marks 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, the largest Nazi death camp. Around 200 Holocaust survivors are expected to be honored guests at a place where they were once sent to die. Mark Phillips spoke with a 91-year-old survivor who hasn’t talked about what happened to him in the camp until now.

The Go Lean book, serving as a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), asserts that in addition to economic empowerments, the stewards for a new Caribbean must also optimize the security apparatus in the region to ensure public safety and justice standards for all stakeholders: citizens, visitors and trading partners.

How do we go about empowering the economics and security engines? Throughout the 370 pages of the Go Lean book, the details are provided as turn-by-turn directions on how to mitigate against Failed-State encroachment. There is an Index Number that reflect Failed-State eventuality. The book defines this Index and the related eco-system, as follows (Page 134) :

The Bottom Line on the Failed States Index

The Failed States Index (Appendix F on Page 271) is an annual ranking of 177 nations based on their levels of stability and capacity. The Index is compiled by the Fund for Peace Institute, an independent, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) non-profit research and educational organization, based in Washington DC, that works to prevent violent conflict and promote sustainable security.

As a leader in the conflict assessment and early warning field, the Fund for Peace focuses on the problems of weak and failing states. The strength of the Failed States Index is its ability to distill millions of pieces of information into a form that is relevant as well as easily digestible and informative, as an indicator code. Each Indicator is rated on a 1 to 10 scale with 1 (low) being the most stable and 10 (high) being the most at-risk of collapse and violence. Think of it as trying to bring down a fever, with high being dangerous, low being acceptable. An obvious example, consider Somalia, the state’s complete inability to provide public services for its citizens would warrant a score of 10 for the Public Service indicator. Conversely, Sweden’s extensive provision of health, education & other public services would produce a 1 or 2 for that indicator. – Fund For Peace®

This Go Lean roadmap includes the new community ethos (attitudes and values) that must be adopted; plus the executions of new strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to elevate the region’s security and justice institutions. In fact, this actual advocacy in the Go Lean book contains specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 134, entitled:

10 Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market Confederation Treaty This will allow for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby creating an economic zone to protect the interest of the participant trading partner-member-states. The GDP of the region will amount to $800 Billion (circa 2010). In addition, the treaty calls for a collective security agreement of the member states so as to ensure homeland security and assuage against systemic threats. The CU will ensure that law-and-order persist during times of distress. When a member state declares a State of Emergency, due to natural disaster or civil unrest, this triggers an automatic CU response – this is equivalent to the governmental dialing 911.
2	Image and Defamation When a country’s primary foreign currency generator is tourism/hospitality, just the perception of a weak or failing state could be devastating. The index is a number that can rise and fall, like a credit score, so any upward movement in the index triggers the negative perception. The pressures are not only internal; there may be external entities that can have a defaming effect: credit rating, country risk, threat assessment, K-n-R (Kidnap and Ransom) insurance rates. The CU will manage the image of the region’s member-states against defamation and work to promote a better image.
3	Local Government and the Social Contract
4	Law Enforcement Oversight
5	Military and Political Monitoring
6	Crime/Homeland Intelligence
7	Minority and Human Rights The CU will protect the minority and human rights for the region’s population; this includes ethnic mixes of African, European, Amerindian, and Asian heritage; 4 languages, various religions, and 5 colonial legacies. The CU strategizes this diversity as an asset, rather than a source of contention, to be exploited as cultural exchanges in music, festivals, events, and food services. This will have a positive effect on tourism (foreign & domestic) and media initiatives.
8	Election Outsourcing
9	War Against Poverty
10	Big Data The CU will embrace an e-Government and e-Delivery model. There will be a lot of data to collect and analyze. In addition, the CU Commerce Department will function as a regional OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development), accumulating and measuring economic metrics and statistical analysis. Any decline in Failed-State indices will be detected, and managed in both a predictive and reactionary manner.

We never want to spiral down to the level of Auschwitz, so we must monitor early and often. The Go Lean movement addressed the subject of monitoring for the encroachment of Failed-State status on many occasions. See this sample of many previous blog-commentaries here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15039	Failed-State “Venezuela” – ‘On the Menu’ in California
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13974	The Spoken and Unspoken on Haiti’s Failed-State
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13391	After Maria, Failed-State Indicators: Destruction & Defection for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12996	After Irma, Failed State Indicators: Destruction and Defection
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12274	State of the Union – Spanish Caribbean Failing
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12098	Inaction on Venezuela: A Recipe for Failed-State Status
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5818	Greece: From Bad to Worse

“Never Again” has only been empty words in the modern world; but let’s do better here at home.

In truth, when people are victimized, they want the world to Never Forget; but when people are villainous, they want the world to Not Remember. The former European Jews repatriated to a homeland in Palestine and proceeded to bully, oppress and suppress their neighbors there, the Palestinian people. The drama of Israel and Palestine is complicated and difficult to solve; the solutions are out-of scope for this Caribbean focus. We simply wanted to study history and apply the lessons learned in the effort to reform our society.

Yes, we can … do better in protecting our citizen and ensuring “justice for all”. This is heavy-lifting, yes, but it is conceivable, believable and achievable.

We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap … to do the heavy-lifting and elevating Caribbean society and making the homeland a better place to live, work 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):

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

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

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

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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Disaster, History, Model, Power

Happy Chinese New Year

Posted on January 25, 2020 in Economics, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Happy New Year …

No, not the January 1^st thing, but rather the January 25^th thing – the Chinese New Year.

This is a Big Deal in China and among the Chinese Diaspora – Sinophone – throughout the world. There is great importance to this observation. See this VIDEO and encyclopedic reference here:

VIDEO – Everything you need to know about the Chinese New Year – https://youtu.be/3I-R5S3czyw

TRT World
Posted January 24, 2020 – Here’s everything you need to know about the Chinese New Year – how it’s celebrated, it’s history, and what the animals represent.

#Chinese New Year #Spring Festival #metalrat

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Category: News & Politics

————————————

Title: Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year^[a], also referred to as Lunar New Year, is the Chinese festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional Chinese calendar. The festival is usually referred to as the Spring Festival in mainland China,^[b] and is one of several Lunar New Years in Asia. Observances traditionally take place from the evening preceding the first day of the year to the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the year. The first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February.^[2] In 2020, the first day of the Chinese New Year will be on Saturday, 25 January, initiating the Year of the Rat.

Chinese New Year is a major holiday in China, and has strongly influenced Lunar new year celebrations of China’s neighbouring cultures, including the Korean New Year (seol), the Tết of Vietnam, and the Losar of Tibet.^[3] It is also celebrated worldwide in regions and countries with significant Overseas Chinese or Sinophone populations, including Singapore,^[4]Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar,^[5]Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines,^[6] and Mauritius,^[7] as well as many in North America and Europe.^[8][9][10]

Chinese New Year is associated with several myths and customs. The festival was traditionally a time to honour deities as well as ancestors.^[11] Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the New Year vary widely,^[12] and the evening preceding Chinese New Year’s Day is frequently regarded as an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly clean their house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for incoming good luck. Another custom is the decoration of windows and doors with red paper-cuts and couplets. Popular themes among these paper-cuts and couplets include that of good fortune or happiness, wealth, and longevity. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes. For the northern regions of China, dumplings are featured prominently in meals celebrating the festival. It often serves as the first meal of the year either at midnight or as breakfast of the first day.
…
Festivities
New Year’s Eve
The biggest event of any Chinese New Year’s Eve is the annual reunion dinner. Dishes consisting of special meats are served at the tables, as a main course for the dinner and offering for the New Year. This meal is comparable to Thanksgiving dinner in the U.S. and remotely similar to Christmas dinner in other countries with a high percentage of Christians.

In northern China, it is customary to make jiaozi, or dumplings, after dinner to eat around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape resembles a Chinese sycee. In contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a glutinous new year cake (niangao) and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days. Niángāo [Pinyin] literally means “new year cake” with a homophonous meaning of “increasingly prosperous year in year out”.^[44]

After dinner, some families go to local temples hours before the new year begins to pray for a prosperous new year by lighting the first incense of the year; however in modern practice, many households hold parties and even hold a countdown to the new year. Traditionally, firecrackers were lit to scare away evil spirits with the household doors sealed, not to be reopened until the new morning in a ritual called “opening the door of fortune” (开财门; 開財門; kāicáimén).^[45]

Beginning in 1982, the CCTV New Year’s Gala is broadcast in China four hours before the start of the New Year and lasts until the succeeding early morning. Watching it has gradually become a tradition in China. A tradition of going to bed late on New Year’s Eve, or even keeping awake the whole night and morning, known as shousui (守岁), is still practised as it is thought to add on to one’s parents’ longevity.

First day
The first day is for the welcoming of the deities of the heavens and earth, officially beginning at midnight. It is a traditional practice to light fireworks, burn bamboo sticks and firecrackers and to make as much of a din as possible to chase off the evil spirits as encapsulated by nian of which the term Guo Nian was derived. Many Buddhists abstain from meat consumption on the first day because it is believed to ensure longevity for them. Some consider lighting fires and using knives to be bad luck on New Year’s Day, so all food to be consumed is cooked the days before. On this day, it is considered bad luck to use the broom, as good fortune is not to be “swept away” symbolically.

Most importantly, the first day of Chinese New Year is a time to honor one’s elders and families visit the oldest and most senior members of their extended families, usually their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.

For Buddhists, the first day is also the designated holy day of Maitreya Bodhisattva (better known as the more familiar Budai Luohan), the Buddha-to-be. People also abstain from killing animals.

Some families may invite a lion dance troupe as a symbolic ritual to usher in the Chinese New Year as well as to evict bad spirits from the premises. Members of the family who are married also give red envelopes containing cash known as lai see (Cantonese dialect) or angpow (Hokkien, Chaozhou, and Fujian dialects), or hongbao (Mandarin), a form of blessings and to suppress the aging and challenges associated with the coming year, to junior members of the family, mostly children and teenagers. Business managers also give bonuses through red packets to employees for good luck, smooth-sailing, good health and wealth.

While fireworks and firecrackers are traditionally very popular, some regions have banned them due to concerns over fire hazards. For this reason, various city governments (e.g., Kowloon, Beijing, Shanghai for a number of years) issued bans over fireworks and firecrackers in certain precincts of the city. As a substitute, large-scale fireworks display have been launched by governments in such city-states as Hong Kong and Singapore. However, it is a tradition that the indigenous peoples of the walled villages of New Territories, Hong Kong are permitted to light firecrackers and launch fireworks in a limited scale.

Source: Retrieved January 25, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

What’s the Big Deal? Well, for starters, this relates to the 1.4 Billion people in China. That’s a market size that is bigger than North America and the European Union … combined. Consider the encyclopedic details in the Appendix below.

You see it, right? You do see why this is important; 1.5 Billion people (out of 7.7 Billion) in a world where Size Matters (as related in this previous blog-commentary from August 26, 2016):

For Hollywood – a metonym for the film-television-video industry – any access to large markets is a win-win.

Enter China…

… this country has 1.3 billion people. That’s a lot of “eye-balls”. This country, considering its history, used to be closed to western commerce and movie distributions. Now, its open … and advancing. Those 1.3 billion pairs of eye-balls are presenting a lot of opportunities and now starting to wield power.

For the Caribbean, this is a necessary discussion for the planners and stewards of a new Caribbean; this requires a consideration of the economic engines for our communities. This is the assertion of the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean – that size matters when it comes to marketing your “Export Products & Services”. For us in the Caribbean, our primary export is tourism – we sell travel experiences to consumers around the world. – we must consider the 20-percent of the population that features Sinophone culture.

We must curry their favor!

So Happy New Year to our Sinophone friends and family.

Yes, we have Sinophone family members in the Caribbean. In a previous blog-commentary, it was detailed how Chinese immigrants were “recruited” to come and impact the Caribbean eco-system. Consider this excerpt:

10 Things We Want from China and 10 Things We Do Not Want
Like it or not, the Caribbean is in competition with the rest of the world – and we are losing! …

Now we must consider other countries … that compete with us and are doing MUCH BETTER jobs of contending in this competitive environment. We must consider China and India:

China … went from “zero to hero”, emerging as an economic Super Power in short order. We can look, listen and learn from the Chinese eco-system; their mainland (the Peoples Republic of China), the special territories of Hong Kong and Taiwan (the Republic of China). We can lend-a-hand in reforming and transforming our own Caribbean region – as China has had to do – and we can eventually lead a reboot and turn-around of Caribbean society; again as China has done. …

While Caribbean people are not fleeing their homeland to relocate to China. there is a Diaspora issue associated with Caribbean-China relations: Indentured Servitude. At the end of the era of Caribbean slavery (1830’s to 1840’s), the plantation system required a replacement labor source; many Chinese nationals were thusly “recruited” as Indentured Servants to the region – British, French and Spanish lands – see here:

There were two main waves of Chinese migration to the Caribbean region. The first wave of Chinese consisted of indentured labourers who were brought to the Caribbean predominantly Trinidad, British Guiana and Cuba, to work on sugar plantations during the post-Emancipation period. The second wave was comprised of free voluntary migrants, consisting of either small groups (usually relatives) to British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad from the 1890’s to the 1940’s. In fact the most modern Caribbean Chinese are descended from this second group. – Caribbean-Atlas.com

Derivatives of the 18,000-plus Chinese immigrants are still here in the Caribbean today. These descendants have grown in numbers and power (economic and political) in the region. They are part of the fabric of our society. They are home in the Caribbean; and we are at home with them

So we need to embrace the Sinophone world, here and abroad – we must “curry their favor”. The liberal view is to value what they value and honor what they honor, while the conservative view is to NOT disrespect this people-culture and allow them to co-exist, survive and thrive. Doing so extends hospitality to these people and incentivizes them to trade with us – come visit as tourists – and impact our economic prospects.

This is the same thing we said about India and the Indophone Diaspora, in a previous blog-commentary from October 2017:

Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Respecting Diwali
A “Pluralistic Democracy” … means a society where the many different ethnic groups (and religions) have respect, equal rights, equal privileges and equal protections under the law; where there are no superior rights to any majority and no special deprivations to any minority. The expectation is for anyone person to be treated like everyone else. …

We fail so miserably in respecting non-standard traditions. The truth of the matter is that while religious toleration appears to be high in the Caribbean, this is really only true of European-styled Christian faiths. Other non-White religious traditions (let’s consider Hindu) are often ignored or even ridiculed in open Caribbean society, despite the large number of adherents. Of the 30 member-states to comprise the Caribbean Single Market, 3 of them have a large Indian-Hindu ethnicity. As a result, in these communities, though lowly promoted, one of the biggest annual celebrations for those communities is Diwali or Divali

… While Diwali is a religious celebration, many aspects of this culture spills-over to general society; see the detailed plans of a previous year (2009) in Appendix A below. This celebration, in many ways, is similar to Christmas spilling-over to non-Christian people in Christian countries. So the festivities carry a heavy civic-cultural “feel” as opposed to religious Hindu adherence. Plus, these values here are positive community ethos that any stewards in any society would want to promote: “the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, and hope over despair”.

What about the argument that this Chinese (and Indian) toleration – like celebrating the Chinese New Year – is not Christian?

Don’t get it twisted!

Christmas – the western equivalent to the Chinese New Year tradition – is not Christian either, consider – Four reasons Christmas is not Christian:

1. Dec. 25 is the wrong day, and it’s celebrated for the wrong god. Dec. 25 is associated with many pagan birth myths—not Christ’s birth.
2. Most Christmas traditions come from pagan religions, not the Bible.
3. There is no Santa Claus. Parents shouldn’t lie to their children.
4. Christians should keep the holy days that Jesus kept, not holidays that originated in paganism.

. Source: January 25, 2020 from: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/god/blog/four-reasons-christmas-is-not-christian/

The movement behind the Go Lean book have always advocated this community ethos:

Live and let live.

Plus, we need to embrace China right now. They are one of the few groups of Direct Foreign Investors that have been showing interest in the Caribbean communities. We need all the help we can get to reform and transform our society. The heavy-lifting gets a little easier with a little help from our friends. Consider these previous blog-commentaries related to China’s investments in our region:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18301	After Hurricane Dorian, Rebuilding Partners: China Versus America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16192	In Defense of Trade – China Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8799	History of China Trade: Too Big to Ignore
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8813	Why China will soon be Hollywood’s largest market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8815	China’s Organ Transplantation: Facts and Fiction
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8817	Chinese Mobile Games Apps: The new Playground
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8819	South China Seas: Exclusive Economic Zones??
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8823	China’s WeChat: Model for Caribbean Social Media
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6231	China’s Caribbean Playbook: America’s Script

What about the argument that China is a Communist state and advocates for communism?

We have addressed this issue before – June 20, 2019:

‘Free Market’ Versus … China – Two Systems at Play
China is on the verge of overtaking the US as the Number 1 Single Market economy in the world…

Wait, isn’t China a communist state?

Hasn’t communism failed to deliver on its promises to elevate societies that abide by its principles?

Yes, and yes …

But China demonstrates that there is a difference between principles and practices. China abides by communist principles, but their practice is more aligned with Free Market concepts, especially with their doubling-down in trade, World Trade.

Do we truly consider Hong Kong as a communist state? Far from it; yet it is China; it is part of the “One country, two systems” practice.

All in all, we have nothing to fear from China – not their culture, religion, politics nor their military power. We should simply embrace them for trade in a give-and-take relationship. We must export to China as well; we need Chinese tourism.

We have to make changes, on our end, to make this Chinese tourism viable. We have to work harder to “live and let live”:

“Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come”.

This is the charter of the Go Lean roadmap; we urge all stakeholders to lean-in to the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to elevate our society. This is worth all the effort for us to do. This is how we 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 & 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 – Reference: Sinophone

Chinese-speaking world or Sinophone or sinophone is a neologism that fundamentally means “Chinese-speaking”, typically referring to a person who speaks at least one variety of Chinese. Academic writers use Sinophone “Chinese-speaking regions” in two ambiguous meanings: either specifically “Chinese-speaking areas where it is a minority language, excluding China and Taiwan” or generally “Chinese-speaking areas, including where it is an official language”. Many authors use the collocation Sinophone world to mean the regions of Chinese diaspora outside of Greater China, and some for the entire Chinese-speaking world. Mandarin Chinese is the most commonly spoken language today, with over one billion people, approximately 20% of the world population, speaking it. …

Statistics (for populations outside of China and Taiwan)

Region	Speakers	Percentage	Year	Reference
Anguilla	7	0.06%	2001	^[1]
Australia	877,654	3.8%	2016	^{[1][note 1]}
Austria	9,960	0.1%	2001	^[1]
Belize	2,600	0.8%	2010	^[1]
Cambodia	6,530	0.05%	2008	^[1]
Canada	1,290,095	3.7%	2016	^[1]
Cyprus	1,218	0.1%	2011	^[1]
Falkland Islands	1	0.03%	2006	^[1]
Finland	12,407	0.23%	2018	^[1]
Hong Kong	6,264,700	88.9%	2016	^{[1][note 2]}
Lithuania	64	0.002%	2011	^[1]
Macao	411,482	97.0%	2001	^[1]
Marshall Islands	79	0.2%	1999	^[1]
Mauritius	2,258	0.2%	2011	^[1]
Nepal	242	0.0009%	2011	^[1]
Northern Mariana Islands	14,862	23.4%	2000	^[1]
Palau	331	1.8%	2005	^[1]
Philippines	6,032	0.4%	2000	^[1]
Romania	2,039	0.01%	2011	^[1]
Russia	70,722	0.05%	2010	^[1]
Singapore	1,791,216	57.7%	2010	^{[1][note 3]}
South Africa	8,533	0.02%	1996	^[1]
Thailand	111,866	0.2%	2010	^[1]
Timor Leste	511	0.07%	2004	^[1]
United Kingdom	162,698	0.3%	2011	^[1]
United States	3,268,546	1.0%	2017	^[2]

Source: Retrieved January 25, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinophone

———————

In demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living, and was estimated to have reached 7.7 billion people as of April 2019.^[2]

Source: Retrieved January 25, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

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2019: A ‘Year of Living Dangerously’

Posted on December 31, 2019 in Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Time flies when you’re having fun.
Time goes very slowly when you’re in danger every moment.

No matter how we look at it, the Year 2019 moved slow – it was a long year. There is even a scientific definition for this:

Chronostasis … from Greek chrónos, “time” and stásis, “standing”
When time appears to stop or move in slow motion.

As the Year 2019 ends, many are concluding – and yes, we are among those concluding, we the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean – that this “time did not fly”; it dragged along slowly; “Chronostasis” indeed during this “year of living dangerously”; (see Appendix Reference below).

This conclusion about 2019 was not just our viewpoint alone; others have declared the same, from many different viewpoints; see here in this list:

WTH is going on? The 10 worst things Trump did in 2019
URL: https://www.aei.org/multimedia/wth-is-going-on-the-10-worst-things-trump-did-in-2019/

Dave Barry’s Year in Review: 2019 was an ‘eventful’ — bad — year
URL: https://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article238523668.html

Bad weather means bad year for potato harvest
URL: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/dec/25/bad-weather-means-bad-year-for-potato-harvest/

2019 year in review: It’s been a bad year for…
URL: https://www.marketingweek.com/marketing-year-review-bad-year-2019/

2019 Review (Nairobi, Kenya): Bad year for the big shots
URL: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001354536/2019-review-bad-year-for-the-big-shots

Someone else concluded that 2019 was a long year. It was Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter Alicia Keys. She served as the Guest Host for the December 9 edition of the “Late Late Show with James Corden”. There she proceeded to recap the year’s “Highs and Lows” … using music. See that excellent performance in the VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Alicia Keys Recaps 2019 w/ Her Piano – https://youtu.be/UhC93-BJUxo

The Late Late Show with James Corden
Posted December 9, 2019 – Late Late Show guest host Alicia Keys takes a seat at the desk and has a secret: she’s had it modified specifically for her. After revealing the keys underneath, she takes a few moments to recap a wild 2019. From Starbucks cups in “Game of Thrones” to the Ukraine impeachment inquiry, Alicia gets the audience involved in a grand break down of the year. …

Category: Entertainment

Now 2019 is finally over, and this year has been a manifestation of “Chronostasis”.

From a Caribbean perspective, this year was truly eventful, a “year of living dangerously”; remember all of these bad episodes (listed from the most recent to the oldest):

Trump Experiment Implodes – Concluded Impeachment impacts Caribbean member-states

Louder Drum Beat for Legal Marijuana – Charging towards Chaos

Travel to Dominican Republic Take a Hit – Unexplained Tourists Deaths

Hurricane Dorian – Exposes Defective Regionalism – Many hate Bahamians; Bahamians hate Haitians

Nassau’s 2019 Self-Made Energy Crisis – Black-outs, Brown-outs and Load-shedding

Cruise Line Amusement Parks Opens – Shifting Experience Away from Port Cities

Puerto Rico learns its relationship status with America – Unwanted Step-Child; Governor Resigns

From Caribbean Legacy to the White House – Kamala Harris run for Presidency Falters

Cuba’s Progress: Yes, New Constitution – But still clinging to Communism

Cruise Line Bad-Mouthing Caribbean Port – Nassau set-up as a “Fall Guy”

It is now time to move on, time to focus on 2020; see this urging from a previous Go Lean blog-commentary:

2020: Where Vision is Perfected
2020 is not just a reference to [perfect] vision; it is also the next year on our calendar. This intersection allows us to use the actuality of 2020 to perfect our vision for Caribbean planning. Perfecting our vision to 20/20 would mean executing better on the 3 C’s – conceiving, communicating and compelling – the plans, strategies, tactics and implementations.

We are already pursuing these activities! While we are planning for the new year – 2020 – we have already published this Go Lean book and distributed it widely in the Caribbean region for the quest of forging change-correction in the Caribbean vision. We have also promoted the book aggressively by publishing related blog-commentaries.

We have planned the plan; now it’s time to work the plan – the Way Forward – so as to reform and transform our Caribbean communities. This is heavy-lifting, yes, but our success is conceivable, believable and achievable.

Where does it start?

Everybody, repeat this – “talk it; walk it”:

“It starts with me”!

Let’s get busy … let’s have fun … let time fly by.

Let’s lean-in to the Way Forward, this Go Lean roadmap, and truly make our region, each of the 30 Caribbean member-states, a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.

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 Reference: The term ‘The Year of Living Dangerously’ refers to a novel (1978) and movie (1982) of the same name.

Source: Wikipedia.

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A Gathering of ‘Old Men’ – 1972 Dolphins ENCORE

Posted on December 23, 2019 in Ethos, Industries, Social

For the first time, this is an ENCORE of a previous ENCORE of a blog-commentary by the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean.

We must have really been moved!
Indeed we were …

The remnant of the 1972 Miami Dolphins was on the field at the local Hardrock Stadium on Sunday December 22, 2019 – this was the home finale of the 2019 Miami Dolphins Football Season. The halftime show was a reunion of that perfect team from 1972.

What a moving feeling for a life-long Miami Dolphins fan (and current season-ticket holder): Me!

Title: Dolphins To Honor 1972 Team As Greatest Team In NFL History Against Bengals
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The Miami Dolphins will honor their 1972 Perfect Season team as part of ‘NFL 100 Greatest’ in a special halftime ceremony against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Dec. 22 at Hard Rock Stadium. The team was named the greatest team in the 100-year history of the NFL on Nov. 15.

“It’s always special to be around the guys who came together to accomplish what no other team in the 100-year history of the NFL has ever done – the perfect season,” said Hall of Fame Head Coach Don Shula. “It’s only fitting as the League closes out this milestone season that the 1972 Dolphins are officially recognized with an honor that we always knew was true – that they are the greatest team in NFL history.”
Source: Posted December 19, 2019; retrieved December 23, 2019 from: https://www.miamidolphins.com/news/dolphins-to-honor-1972-team-as-greatest-team-in-nfl-history-against-bengals

This is my photo from the event – this Gathering of ‘Old Men’!

It is only apropos to Encore the previous blog-commentary (May 16, 2017) on this subject; which itself was an Encore of a previous blog-commentary (from August 31, 2015). See here-now:

————-

Miami, Florida – If you’re a fan of American football (NFL or the National Football League) then you know how impactful it is to go undefeated from the beginning to the end of the season, playoffs included. Only one team has done it … ever: the 1972 Miami Dolphins. The 50 players on that team became heroes to every football-loving kid anywhere near the broadcast waves of Miami.

There was a time when these guys were my heroes.

But “time and unforeseen occurrences befall us all” – The Bible (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

There is a connection between Miami and the Caribbean; the city has become much more than a shopping destination; it has redefined itself as the financial, political and sports capital of the Caribbean and Latin America.

So this news is shocking to receive, as the Miami Herald newspaper reports that many of the players on the 1972 Dolphins team now suffer from CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy).

Say it ain’t so …

It seemed like this CTE disease was so far-off; an affliction on people “over there” … somewhere. But to hit the 1972 Dolphins players means that this disease has come home…to our local heroes.

🙁

See the story here in this recent Miami Herald article:

Title: Football’s toll: At least eight members of 1972 Dolphins affected by cognitive impairment

They called him Captain Crunch, and the name was fitting. Mike Kolen packed a punch.

Now, 45 years after the Dolphins’ No-Name Defense ran through the 1972 season undefeated, Kolen and his perfect teammates are tied together again. But instead of celebration, there’s heartache.

South Florida’s most legendary team has become a cautionary tale, a poignant symbol of the concussion saga that threatens the future of America’s favorite sport.

“Within the last month or so, I’ve been diagnosed with the initial stages of Alzheimer’s,” Kolen, a starting linebacker on Miami’s two Super Bowl-winning teams, told the Miami Herald.

And was football the cause?

“I think that’s about the only way I’d have cognitive issues,” replied Kolen, 69, who has no family history of dementia.

Kolen’s story is not unique for Miami’s most historic team.

Earlier this week, Sports Illustrated detailed how Kolen’s better-known 1972 teammates Nick Buoniconti and Jim Kiick have both deteriorated mentally in the past few years.

After quarterback Earl Morrall’s death in 2014, an autopsy revealed he had Stage 4 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease more commonly known as CTE that researchers have linked to football.

Bill Stanfill, the Dolphins’ first sack king, suffered from dementia and Parkinson’s disease when he died last fall at age 69.

Three others from that famed roster — cornerback Lloyd Mumphord, defensive back Tim Foley and running back Hubert Ginn — have quietly dealt with cognitive impairment in recent years, teammates tell the Herald.

That makes at least eight members of a roster of roughly 50 men who have experienced loss of acuity. And that figure includes only those who keep in regular contact with the organization; several do not.

Roughly a quarter of the ’72 team has passed away, including five from cancer. Manny Fernandez, a defensive lineman who was the star of Super Bowl VII, has had eight surgeries on his back alone. Center Jim Langer, 68, said his “legs are bad and my knees are shot” after six operations.

…

Even the NFL acknowledges – see VIDEO below – that there is a link between football-related head trauma and neurological diseases like CTE after denying any such connection for years. …

Continue reading the full article here; (it is lengthy):

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nfl/miami-dolphins/article150311157.html retrieved 05-11-2017.

———

VIDEO – NFL acknowledges link between football and brain disease CTE – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4503362/Seven-members-72-Dolphins-suffered-brain-injuries.html#v-6189767714419658422

Relating Miami to the Caribbean makes this story relatable to the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean. One purpose of this movement is to engage business models so that Caribbean communities can better take advantage of the economic benefits of sports. There are few expressions of professional sports in the Caribbean now – there is no eco-system for collegiate athletics at all. Due to the territorial status and the border proximity, there are 3 member-states with organized American Football league play in the Caribbean: Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and the Bahamas.

With the advantages of professional sports (money from ticket sales & broadcast rights, pride, athletic fitness, etc.), come disadvantages as well. CTE, as one, is only now begrudgingly been accepted as a direct consequence of the often times brutal game of American Football.

This was the warning from this previous blog-commentary that marked the release of the movie “Concussion”, chronicling the David-versus-Goliath-like advocacy of the Pathology Doctor who “blew the whistle” on the systemic “willful” ignorance and Crony-Capitalistic abuse in the NFL. This excerpt highlights some main points from that blog:

Yes, movies help us to glean a better view of ourselves … and our failings; and many times, show us a way-forward.

These descriptors actually describe the latest production from Hollywood icon Will Smith (the former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). This movie, the film “Concussion”, in the following news article, relates the real life drama of one man, Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born medical doctor – a pathologist – who prepared autopsies of former players that suffered from football-related concussions. He did not buckle under the acute pressure to maintain the status quo, and now, he is celebrated for forging change in his adopted homeland. This one man made a difference. (The NFL is now credited for a Concussion awareness and prevention protocol so advanced that other levels of the sport – college, high schools and Youth – are being urged to emulate).

Beyond the excerpt, see the entire blog-commentary from August 31, 2015 on the movie ‘Concussion‘ and the dreaded CTE disease being encored here:

—————-

ENCORE – Go Lean Commentary – ‘Concussions’ – The Movie; The Cause

“Are you ready for some football?” – Promotional song by Hank Williams, Jr. for Monday Night Football on ABC & ESPN networks for 22 years (1989 – 2011). See Appendix Below.

This iconic song (see Appendix) and catch-phrase is reflective of exactly how popular the National Football League (NFL) is in the US:

“They own an entire day of the week”.

So says the new movie ‘Concussions’, starring Will Smith, referring to the media domination of NFL Football on Sundays during the Autumn season. The movie’s script is along a line that resonates well in Hollywood’s Academy Award balloting: “David versus Goliath”; “a small man speaking truth to power”.

In the case of the NFL, it is not just about power, it is about money, prestige and protecting the status quo; the NFL is responsible for the livelihood of so many people. The book Go Lean … Caribbean recognized the importance of the NFL in the American lexicon of “live, work and play”; it featured a case study (Page 32) of the NFL and it’s collective bargaining successes (and failures) in 2011. An excerpt from the book is quoted as follows:

Football is big business in the US, $9 billion in revenue, and more than a business; emotions – civic pride, rivalries, and fanaticism – run high on both sides.

Previous Go Lean commentaries presents the socio-economic realities of much of the American football eco-system. Consider a sample here:

Socio-Economic Impact Analysis of [Football] Sports Stadiums

Watch the Super Bowl … Commercials

Levi’s® NFL Stadium: A Team Effort

Sports Role Model – College Football – Playing For Pride … And More

Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network

Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean – Model of NCAA

10 Things We Want from the US: #10 – Sports Professionalism

10 Things We Don’t Want from the US: #10 – ‘Win At All Costs’ Ethos

While football plays a big role in American life, so do movies. Their role is more unique; they are able to change society. In a previous blog / commentary regarding Caribbean Diaspora member and Hollywood great, Sidney Poitier, it was declared that …

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

Yes, movies help us to glean a better view of ourselves … and our failings; and many times, show us a way-forward.

These descriptors actually describe the latest production from Hollywood icon Will Smith (the former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). This movie, the film “Concussion”, in the following news article, relates the real life drama of one man, Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born medical doctor – a pathologist – who prepared autopsies of former players that suffered from football-related concussions. He did not buckle under the acute pressure to maintain the status quo, and now, he is celebrated for forging change in his adopted homeland. This one man made a difference. (The NFL is now credited for a Concussion awareness and prevention protocol so advanced that other levels of the sport – college, high schools and Youth – are being urged to emulate).

See news article here on the release of the movie:

Title: ‘Concussion’: 5 Take-a-ways From Will Smith’s New Film

Will Smith, 46, is definitely going to get a ton of Oscar buzz portraying Dr. Bennet Omalu in the new film “Concussion.” NFL columnist Peter King of Sports Illustrated got an exclusive first peek at the trailer and it has been widely shared on social media since. And it’s very chilling.

Here are five take-aways and background you need to know before checking out the clip:

1 – It’s Based on a True Story

Omalu is the forensic pathologist and neuropathologist who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy in football players who got hit in the head over and over again, according to the Washington Post.

In the clip, he says repetitive “head trauma chokes the brain.”

Omalu was one of the founding members of the Brain Injury Research Institute in 2002. He conducted the autopsy of Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, played by David Morse in the film, which led to this discovery.

2 – Smith’s Version of Omalu’s Accent Is Spot On

Omalu is from Nigeria and Smith has been known to transform completely for a role. He was nominated for an Oscar for 2011’s “Ali,” playing the legendary Muhammad Ali.

For comparison, here’s Omalu’s PBS interview from 2013.

3 – Smith Is a Reluctant Hero

“If you don’t speak for them, who will,” Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who plays Prema Mutiso in the film, tells Smith’s character.

He admits he idolized America growing up and “was the wrong person to have discovered this.”

4 – Alec Baldwin and Luke Wilson

“Concussion” brought in some heavyweights for this movie. Baldwin plays Dr. Julian Bailes, who advises Omalu, and Wilson, who will reportedly play NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, according to IMDB. There’s no official word on this. He’s seen at a podium in the trailer, but doesn’t speak.

5 – “Tell the Truth”

Smith captures Omalu’s passion to have the truth told about this injury and disease.

“I was afraid of letting Mike [Webster] down. I was afraid. I don’t know. I was afraid I was going to fail,” Omalu told PBS a couple years back.

———-

VIDEO Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3322364/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Will Smith stars in the incredible true David vs. Goliath story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, the brilliant forensic neuropathologist who made the first discovery of CTE, a football-related brain trauma, in a pro player.

The subject of concussions is serious – life and death. Just a few weeks ago (August 8), an NFL Hall-of-Fame inductee was honored for his play on the field during his 20-year professional career, but his family, his daughter in particular, is the one that made his acceptance / induction speech. He had died, in 2012; he committed suicide after apparently suffering from a brain disorder – chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a type of chronic brain damage that has also been found in other deceased former NFL players^[4] – sustained from his years of brutal head contacts in organized football in high school, college and in his NFL career. This player was Junior Seau.

Why would there be a need for “David versus Goliath”; “a small man speaking truth to power”? Is not the actuality of an acclaimed football player committing suicide in this manner – he shot himself in the chest so as to preserve his brain for research – telling enough to drive home the message for reform?

No. Hardly. As previously discussed, there is too much money at stake.

These stakes bring out the Crony-capitalism in American society.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean (and subsequent blog/commentaries) relates many examples of cronyism in the American eco-system. There is a lot of money at stake. Those who want to preserve the status quo or not invest in the required mitigations to remediate concussions will fight back against any Advocate promoting the Greater Good. The profit motive is powerful. There are doubters and those who want to spurn doubt. “Concussions in Football” is not the first issue these “actors” have promoted doubt on. The efforts to downplay concussion alarmists are from a familiar playbook, used previously by Climate Change deniers, Big Tobacco, Toxic Waste, Acid Rain, and other dangerous chemicals.

This Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). Sports are integral to the Go Lean/CU roadmap. While sports can be good and promote positives in society, even economically, the safety issues must be addressed upfront. This is a matter of community security. Thusly, the prime directives of the CU are described as:

Optimize the economic engines of the Caribbean to elevate the regional economy to grow to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs, including sports-related industries with a projection of 21,000 direct jobs at Fairgrounds and sports enterprises.
Establish a security apparatus to protect the people and economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these economic and security engines.

The CU/Go Lean sports mission is to harness the individual abilities of athletes to not just elevate their performance, but also to harness the economic impact for their communities. So modern sports endeavors cannot be analyzed without considering the impact on “dollars and cents” for stakeholders. This is a fact and should never be ignored. There is therefore the need to carefully assess and be on guard for crony-capitalistic influences entering the decision-making of sports stakeholders. The Go Lean book posits that with the emergence of new economic engines, “bad actors” will also emerge thereafter to exploit the opportunities, with good, bad and evil intent”. These points were pronounced early in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12 &14):

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

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 interests 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.

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

The Go Lean book envisions the CU – a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean chartered to do the heavy-lifting of empowering and elevating the Caribbean economy – as the landlord of many sports facilities (within the Self-Governing Entities design), and the regulator for inter-state sport federations. The book details the economic principles and community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to optimize sports enterprises in the Caribbean:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices / Incentives	Page 21
Economic Principles – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Economic Principles – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Whistleblower Protection	Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Light-Up the Dark Places	Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – “Crap” Happens	Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness – Mitigate Suicide Threats	Page 36
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederating 30 Member-States into a Single Market	Page 45
Strategy – Vision – Foster Local Economic Engines for Basic Needs	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Prepare for Natural Disasters	Page 45
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Strategy – Agents of Change – Climate Change	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Health Department – Disease Management	Page 86
Implementation – Assemble Regional Organs into a Single Market Economy	Page 96
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities – Sports Stadia	Page 105
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up – Unified Command & Control	Page 103
Implementation – Industrial Policy for CU Self Governing Entities	Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Deliver – Project Management/Accountabilities	Page 109
Anatomy of Advocacies – Examples of Individuals Who Made Impact	Page 122
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Emergency Management – Trauma Arts & Sciences	Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues	Page 234

The Go Lean book and accompanying blogs declare that the Caribbean needs to learn lessons from other communities, especially when big money is involved in pursuits like sports. These activities should be beneficial to health, not detrimental. So the admonition is to be “on guard” against the “cronies”; they will always try to sacrifice public policy – the Greater Good – for private gain: profit.

Let’s do better. Yes, the Caribbean can be better than the American experiences.

The design of Self-Governing Entities allow for greater protections from Crony-Capitalistic abuses. While this roadmap is committed to availing the economic opportunities of sports and accompanying infrastructure, as demonstrated in the foregoing movie trailer, sport teams and owners can be plutocratic “animals” in their greed. We must learn to mitigate plutocratic abuses. While an optimized eco-system is good, there is always the need for an Advocate, one person to step up, blow the whistle and transform society. The Go Lean roadmap encourages these role models.

Bravo Dr. Bennet Omalu. Thank you for this example … and for being a role model for all of the Caribbean.

RIP Junior Seau.

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

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

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

——-

Appendix VIDEO: Hank Williams Jr. – Are You Ready for Some Football – https://youtu.be/dKPZEMu7Mno

Uploaded on May 28, 2011 – Official Music Video

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Christian Journal Urges: ‘Remove Trump’

Posted on December 20, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Even a broken clock is right “twice a day”.

We have frequently criticized Christian religious leaders for failing to live up to their claim, namesake or any moral high-ground; see samples here:

European Reckoning – Christianity’s Indictment
Caribbean Unity? Religion’s Role: False Friend
Vatican Need for Reform – Finally Manifested
Repenting, Forgiving and Reconciling the Past
Truth & Reconciliation: The Pope Sanctioned the Slave Trade in 1491
.
… and we hereby re-affirm that we have been correct in these assessments.

But this time, “they” – Christian religious leaders – seem to have gotten it right, in their judgement that the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, should be removed from office. See this excerpt statement here and the full story in the Appendix below:

… a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.

So we applaud this religious journal, Christianity Today, for getting it right, and showing the courage to say it!

Truth be told, they will get “a lot of flak for this” – they are getting it now – see this News VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Christianity Today editor responds to Trump’s attack – https://youtu.be/ioCDIiaaifE

CNN
A leading Christian magazine founded by late evangelist Billy Graham published an op-ed calling for President Donald Trump to be removed from office and urging evangelicals not to support him. The magazine’s editor-in-chief Mark Galli joins CNN. #CNN #News

Category: News & Politics

Welcome Mr. Galli, to the assessment that we provided on Donald Trump’s presidency from the first year of his administration (2017). We identified and qualified the lack of any Christian moral high-ground then. Look again, at this list of moral failings and leadership mis-steps from that year – as reported in this previous blog-commentary summarizing 2017 (in chronological order – from January to December, 2017):

Religious Intolerance – Ban on 6 Muslim countries

Fostering Discord – California wants out!

Collaboration Flaws – Disinterest in Others (Non-Americans)

Disparaging Messaging to Tourists/Visitors

Rejection of Evidence – Climate Change Denial – Paris Accords Withdrawal

Climate of Hate – White Supremacists / Disdain of Immigrants

America First – Prioritization as World Leader downplayed.

Selective Law-and-Order Enforcement

Claim to Ignorance on Natural Disasters – Who Knew?

Disdain of Female Empowerment

Hurricane Response and Competence – Puerto Rico versus Texas

Societal Defects of Gun Culture

Aversion to Trade Agreements

Compassion Exhaustion – Ending ‘Temporary Protection Status’ to Haitian Refugees

Sexual Harassment Complicity

Take from the Poor; Give to the Rich – Trump’s Tax Reform law

Obviously, this is an American drama, and we – the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – represent a Caribbean perspective. But this is still relevant to us, as we observe-and-report on the American eco-system due to:

The large number of Diaspora living there
Number 1 destination for our students matriculating abroad
Number 1 Trading Partner
American Hegemony in terms of economic, military and media dominance
Many Caribbean people long for the opportunity to migrate to the US. These are the “Push and Pull” factors that we must contend. Hopefully now, the truth of American Defects at the top of their leadership will lower the “Pull” factors a little.

We can do better here in our Caribbean home. We do not want to be like America, we want to be better.

The Go Lean book does not just complain about American Defects, but also prescribes a Way Forward for us in the Caribbean:

Way Forward – an action, plan etc. that seems a good idea because it is likely to lead to success;
Source: Retrieved December 22, 2016 from: http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/a-the-way-forward

The Go Lean movement (book and accompanying blogs) does not look to President Donald Trump to lead for the Caribbean; we look to lead ourselves.

For the Caribbean, we must succeed in our Way Forward – so as to dissuade our own people from abandoning their Caribbean homelands and fleeing to places like the United States. No society is perfect; but we can do better than having a leader that is …

… a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.

Yes, we can …

We have submitted details on the Caribbean Way Forward in many previous blog-commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18392	Learning and Committing to ‘Refuse to Lose’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17693	Way Forward: ‘Free Market’ & Cooperatives – Simple Solution
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17358	Way Forward is a Marshall Plan – A Lesson in History
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17284	Way Forward: “Whatever it takes” – Life Imitating Art
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17282	Way Forward: Territory Realities Need for Interdependence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17280	Way Forward: Strategy for Energy – ‘Trade’ Winds
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17267	Way Forward: Strategy for Justice: Special Prosecutors et al
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17250	Way Forward: Caribbean Media Strategy & Deliveries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17232	Way Forward: Jamaica – The need to reconcile the Past
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17135	Way Forward: Series targeting Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and Bahamas
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16848	‘Two Pies’ for a New Caribbean – Federal vs Member-State
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13251	Way Forward: Funding Caribbean Risk
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13105	Way Forward for Haiti

Yes, we can succeed in being Better Than America; but it is not easy; it involves some heavy-lifting. We are ready for that work.

Let’s get busy…

Let’s lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap, our Way Forward, then truly we can make our region better places to live, work and play. 🙂

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.

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 ccidence 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: Trump Should Be Removed from Office
Sub-title: It’s time to say what we said 20 years ago when a president’s character was revealed for what it was.
By: Mark Galli
In our founding documents, Billy Graham explains that Christianity Today will help evangelical Christians interpret the news in a manner that reflects their faith. The impeachment of Donald Trump is a significant event in the story of our republic. It requires comment.

The typical CT approach is to stay above the fray and allow Christians with different political convictions to make their arguments in the public square, to encourage all to pursue justice according to their convictions and treat their political opposition as charitably as possible. We want CT to be a place that welcomes Christians from across the political spectrum, and reminds everyone that politics is not the end and purpose of our being. We take pride in the fact, for instance, that politics does not dominate our homepage.

That said, we do feel it necessary from time to time to make our own opinions on political matters clear—always, as Graham encouraged us, doing so with both conviction and love. We love and pray for our president, as we love and pray for leaders (as well as ordinary citizens) on both sides of the political aisle.

Let’s grant this to the president: The Democrats have had it out for him from day one, and therefore nearly everything they do is under a cloud of partisan suspicion. This has led many to suspect not only motives but facts in these recent impeachment hearings. And, no, Mr. Trump did not have a serious opportunity to offer his side of the story in the House hearings on impeachment.

But the facts in this instance are unambiguous: The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.

The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.

Trump’s evangelical supporters have pointed to his Supreme Court nominees, his defense of religious liberty, and his stewardship of the economy, among other things, as achievements that justify their support of the president. We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear, in a way the Mueller investigation did not, that President Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath. The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see. This damages the institution of the presidency, damages the reputation of our country, and damages both the spirit and the future of our people. None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character.

This concern for the character of our national leader is not new in CT. In 1998, we wrote this:

The President’s failure to tell the truth—even when cornered—rips at the fabric of the nation. This is not a private affair. For above all, social intercourse is built on a presumption of trust: trust that the milk your grocer sells you is wholesome and pure; trust that the money you put in your bank can be taken out of the bank; trust that your babysitter, firefighters, clergy, and ambulance drivers will all do their best. And while politicians are notorious for breaking campaign promises, while in office they have a fundamental obligation to uphold our trust in them and to live by the law.

And this:

Unsavory dealings and immoral acts by the President and those close to him have rendered this administration morally unable to lead.

Unfortunately, the words that we applied to Mr. Clinton 20 years ago apply almost perfectly to our current president. Whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote next election—that is a matter of prudential judgment. That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.

To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated and, with the same straight face, say that the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t really matter in the end?

We have reserved judgment on Mr. Trump for years now. Some have criticized us for our reserve. But when it comes to condemning the behavior of another, patient charity must come first. So we have done our best to give evangelical Trump supporters their due, to try to understand their point of view, to see the prudential nature of so many political decisions they have made regarding Mr. Trump. To use an old cliché, it’s time to call a spade a spade, to say that no matter how many hands we win in this political poker game, we are playing with a stacked deck of gross immorality and ethical incompetence. And just when we think it’s time to push all our chips to the center of the table, that’s when the whole game will come crashing down. It will crash down on the reputation of evangelical religion and on the world’s understanding of the gospel. And it will come crashing down on a nation of men and women whose welfare is also our concern.

Mark Galli is editor in chief of Christianity Today.

Source: Posted December 19, 2019; retrieved December 20, 2019 from: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/trump-should-be-removed-from-office.html

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Marijuana in Detroit – Chaos on Chaos

Posted on December 17, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Social

Go Lean Caribbean

Recreational Marijuana use became legal in the US State of Michigan on December 1, 2019.

Ouch! This brings so much chaos to the fore!

We have spent a lot of time observing-and-reporting on the metropolitan area of Detroit and the State of Michigan in general. Now, we come back here to observe-and-report on this new change: legalization of recreational Marijuana use – the nearby City of Ann Arbor is in fact the first to launch this new allowance. It turns out that we are not the only ones observing-and-reporting; other stakeholders in the State are doing the same as well; see here:

There were plenty of people around the state who had Ann Arbor envy, with news reports of hundreds of people lined up to buy adult-use marijuana.

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 summary is highlighted in this “Feature News” article here which relates to the adoption of Recreational Marijuana on top of the existing Medical Marijuana eco-system:

Title: Michigan’s new pot industry has some green with envy — though there are still kinks to work out
By: Larry Gabriel

Higher Ground readers know that Detroit City Council opted out of adult-use marijuana until at least Jan. 31. Councilman James Tate told Metro Times said that it was because Council was working to put together a good social equity program. Social equity is called for in the law that legalized marijuana in order to promote participation in the business from communities disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition. Tate didn’t talk about any proposed details of that program.

“I believe the city’s dilemma is more available space — the restrictions on what can be and where it can be,” says Joe White, director of Detroit NORML. “They need to expand the available space.”

When Council adopted zoning ordinances for where there could be a provisioning center, the result was almost nowhere. Now much of the available space has been taken by medical marijuana provisioning centers. There are no social-equity provisions in the medical marijuana law, and any marijuana arrests from the past disqualified one from getting a provisioning center license. On top of that, the state is only taking adult-use marijuana applications from already established medical marijuana provisioning centers.

That leaves the social equity Detroiters out in the cold as far as retail storefronts. Licenses for micro-businesses will be available, but where will they go? According to city zoning as it stands, nowhere within 1,000 feet of a school, church, daycare center or park. That’s in addition to some other rules about industrial and main street areas.

“If there are only 100 chickens available and 75 are sold, what the hell are we going to do?” says White. “If they’re going to do the right thing, they’re going to have to open up more available space.”

That’s got to be complicated. It took a long, long time to come up with the medical marijuana zoning rules we have now. It involved protests, petitions, an election, and lawsuits as provisioning centers fought it out with city officials. I remember sitting at a City Planning Commission meeting one time and asking the city employee who had just done an informational presentation if we were going to have to go through this again when we get recreational marijuana. He said yes.

If he was right, then buckle up for another roller-coaster ride of a process. Hopefully, this time around Council has a better handle on how to get this done. According to Tate, Council has already got past issues with the conservative church crowd. However, it looks like they’ll have to undo a bit of what they did before in order to open this up for more Detroiters.

Pending legislation to expunge the records of some folks with marijuana convictions opens up opportunities that weren’t available when this legalization thing started. Generally, these are the folks with experience in the marijuana business, and the social-equity provisions give them some advantages for legal re-entry into the business. And this isn’t just about Detroit; there are 41 Michigan social-equity communities listed on the MRA website.

Ann Arbor envy
There were plenty of people around the state who had Ann Arbor envy in their hearts, with news reports of hundreds of people lined up to buy adult-use marijuana when sales began last week. That envy was high among provisioning center owners who have been struggling to get by financially. Those retail outlets collected a reported $221,000 in marijuana sales on Dec. 1. There literally were not enough hours in the day to sell marijuana to all the people who wanted to buy some on the historic first day of sales.

Watching coverage of Ann Arbor’s festive opening day, River Rouge-based Herbology Cannabis Co. owner Tarek Jawad felt hopeful. “I can’t wait to be a part of it,” he said.

Jawad says that he’s been pre-approved for an adult-use license at one of his locations and expects to have one any day now. He admits that, financially, things have been “tight for the most part” for the past couple of years, so the bump of adult-use sales will make a difference.

Anqunette Sarfoh, co-owner of BotaniQ provisioning center in Detroit, had an emotional response. “I was so jealous,” she says. “It would have been cool to be a part of history, but if it’s going to be anywhere, it should be in Ann Arbor. And how poetic to have John Sinclair buying joints 50 years after he was busted for [having] them. You can’t make that stuff up.”

The way that Opening Day was decided and announced probably caught some provisioning centers off guard. The prevailing wisdom was that the first day of sales would be in 2020, but the Marijuana Regulatory Agency surprised most of us with the Dec. 1 decision just a few weeks before it happened. Even if state regulators had been able to get licenses out, the retailers didn’t have much time to prepare.

“We weren’t really focused on the recreational, so it didn’t concern us,” says Amy Jackson, a receptionist at The Reef in Detroit. “It’s kind of disappointing, but we couldn’t be ready by December 1.”

Another irony
Just to be clear: Because he doesn’t have a state license to do so, John Sinclair could still be busted for selling joints today. This license thing is kind of weird because that’s kind of how prohibition started, with the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. It didn’t make marijuana illegal, but it imposed serious taxes ($1 per ounce in 1937) and required anyone selling marijuana to acquire a federal tax stamp. It also required anyone paying the tax to “register his name or style and his place or places of business with the collector of the district in which such place or places of business are located.” One had to tell the government what you had, how much you had, and where you got it.

The Marijuana Tax Act was later replaced in 1971 by the Controlled Substances Act. However, it’s kind of funny that taxation was used to make marijuana illegal. Now taxation is a big part of the drive to legalize marijuana. Stuff just keeps coming back around dressed up all different.

By the way, that $1 per ounce tax in 1937 is equal to about $18 in today’s money. For comparison, a top-shelf medical flower such as GMO costs $380 per ounce at The Reef in Detroit. The 6 percent state sales tax on that brings the total price to $402.80. That’s a total of $22.80 in taxes, more than the rate that was set by the Marihuana Tax Act. Every provisioning center or retail store will charge the state sales tax.

It’s a new era for marijuana in Michigan. Sign up for our weekly weed newsletter, delivered every Tuesday at 4:20 p.m.

——–

Related:

Michigan’s recreational pot dispensaries ring up $1.6M in sales in first 8 days

Recreational pot prices are high in Michigan’s legal market

Source: Posted Detroit’s Metro Times December 11, 2019; retrieved December 16, 2019 from: https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/michigans-new-pot-industry-has-some-green-with-envy-though-there-are-still-kinks-to-work-out/Content?oid=23318366

In our observation and reporting, chaos goes hand-in-hand with Detroit – and the surrounding areas – under normal circumstances; see the following list of previous blog-commentaries from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean; this is before the heightened, intensified and exacerbated effects of adult-use / recreational marijuana:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18566	JPMorganChase valiant efforts to save Detroit
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14825	May Day! May Day! Detroit Needs Help With Jobs!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10140	Lessons Learned: Detroit demolishes thousands of abandoned structures
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7789	An Ode to Detroit – Good Luck on Trade!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7601	Beware of Vulture Capitalists – Lesson from Detroit
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7268	Detroit giving schools their ‘Worst Shot’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7235	Flint, Michigan – A Cautionary Tale on Infrastructure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6965	Secrecy, corruption and ‘conflicts of interest’ pervade state governments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4476	De-icing Detroit’s Winter Roads: Impetuous & Short Term
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3713	NEXUS Model: Facilitating Detroit-Windsor Cross-Border Commerce
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3326	M-1 Rail: Finally, Alternative Motion in the Motor City
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3311	Detroit finally exited their historic bankruptcy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3164	Michigan Unemployment – Then and Now

The Caribbean member-states model the Detroit Metro area in so many aspects: economic chaos, security deficiencies, abandonment and municipal dysfunction. This sad reality – managing a Failed-State or a Failed-City – was actualized in our tour of Detroit. It is hard to reboot, recover and turn-around such a society. Now, their community stewards have to throw in the prospects of a liberal drug culture, this heightens, intensifies and exacerbates the challenge even more. See this recent study that was published about Marijuana usage and Psychosis:

VIDEO – Marijuana use and psychosis, new study associates usage with health risks – https://youtu.be/BIE-Lbz2PbQ

Published on Mar 25, 2019 – Weed use is taking off as more states move to legalize it. Despite the buzz over marijuana, there are some severe health risks linked with frequent use.

Category: News & Politics

Yet, this is the reality that many people in the Caribbean seem to want to invite, as we have previously reported how many advocates in local Caribbean communities seem to want to legalized – or de-criminalized – Marijuana use for adults, here as well. See these previous submissions here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16938	Jamaican-American (Pot-Smoker) Kamala Harris Runs for US Presidency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14836	Counter-culture: Pushing for Change in Marijuana Acceptance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14480	Managing Mental Health in the Caribbean – Marijuana Use Intensity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13882	Managing this ‘Change’ in California for Recreational Marijuana
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12703	Lessons from Colorado: Legalized Marijuana – Heavy-lifting!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9646	The Emergence of ‘Big Pot’ in America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1386	Marijuana in Jamaica – Puff Peace

The eco-system around Marijuana use is not purely an economic equation; it also addresses security concerns, medical needs, and the Mental Health eco-system.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean (Page 36), posits that the Mental Health eco-system in the Caribbean region must be improved and elevated to better facilitate the needs of the people in our communities, for our normal everyday circumstances – for the pursuit of happiness. Further, it is the assertion that no one member-state in the Caribbean is equipped to handle the Mental Health challenges when a liberal Marijuana policy is added – albeit for adult use.

Ouch!

Ouch again, when we add the touristic elements! (Imagine visitors coming just to consume Marijuana).

In truth, we are not currently ready for this.

As related above, the Mental Health eco-system must be optimized to address the needs of all the people all the time; no one is spared from Mental Health challenges; consider these everyday realities:

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

Caribbean stewards have to do some heavy-lifting to address the Mental Health needs of our society. No one should invite more chaos to an already chaotic situation; this is what a legal Marijuana eco-system brings: Chaos.

The Go Lean book provides a roadmap for Caribbean stakeholders to do better; it details 370-pages of turn-by-turn directions to better optimize the societal engines of economics, security and governance. First, we must come together and confederate, then we can organize, consolidate, streamline and empower the relevant agencies so as to better deliver on the implied Social Contract …

… 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.

All segments of the population need support with their Mental Health concerns; we strongly urge the governing stakeholders to slow down with any social evolution regarding Marijuana; we must get our house in order first; we must empower our economic engines, and our security apparatus, and our governing models, and our Mental Health deliveries.

Only then can our homeland be a better place to live, work and play. We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. 🙂

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.

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

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.

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Better Than … the ‘Bill of Rights’ – Seventh & Eighth Amendments

Posted on November 26, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

We presented a thesis, that despite the public branding of America being the “Greatest” country, we can do better in a new Caribbean. We presented the argument that the American Bill of Rights may not be the masterpiece as people want to believe:

It’s First Amendment does not allow for mitigation of the Fake News phenomenon;
the Second Amendment does not allow for common sense gun control;
the Fourth & Fifth Amendments allows for so many exclusions that they undermine any quest for justice.

Now we make the assessments on the Seventh and Eighth Amendments of the US Constitution. These provide the legal premise of …

Seventh Amendment – Guarantees jury trials in federal civil cases
Eighth Amendment – Restricts against excessive bail and cruel-and-unusual punishments

Surely, these constitutional provisions allow the United States to be a more Perfect Union? Undeniably, No! In fact, these constitutional mandates have resulted in a more unequaled society. As we examine the actuality of America’s criminal justice system, we concur with the critics and scholars, that the legal deficiencies are acute; see these headlines here:

“Increasingly, bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless to guilt” – VIDEO below.

“War against Poor people” – Criticism of America in previous VIDEO.

These headlines are true because of the painful reality that there are two standards of justice in America:

One for poor people and one for rich people. – See the previous blog-commentaries in Appendix A below.

What is worse: there’s nothing “we” can do about it, as Caribbean people. There is little that American can do about it either. This is the continuation – 5 of 6 – of the November 2019 series from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. This series supports the thesis that we, in the Caribbean, can be Better Than America, in words (law) and in action. As related in a previous submission, the American Bill of Rights was designed to be embedded in the country’s legal foundation in such a way so as to prevent subsequent majorities from violating the rights of minorities. This sounds “good on paper”, but it made it near-impossible to change the Constitution. So when deficiencies emerge just through societal evolution, the country’s criminal justice laws have not kept pace; now there is a blatantly unequal, unjust system of law-and-order.

This introduction allows us to define these subsets of the Bill of Rights, the Seventh and Eighth Amendments of the US Constitution, as follows:

Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.^[93]

The Seventh Amendment guarantees jury trials in federal civil cases that deal with claims of more than twenty dollars. It also prohibits judges from overruling findings of fact by juries in federal civil trials.

Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.^[93]

The Eighth Amendment forbids the imposition of excessive bails or fines, though it leaves the term “excessive” open to interpretation.^[112] The most frequently litigated clause of the amendment is the last, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.^[113][114] This clause was only occasionally applied by the Supreme Court prior to the 1970s, generally in cases dealing with means of execution. In Furman v. Georgia (1972), some members of the Court found capital punishment itself in violation of the amendment, arguing that the clause could reflect “evolving standards of decency” as public opinion changed; others found certain practices in capital trials to be unacceptably arbitrary, resulting in a majority decision that effectively halted executions in the United States for several years.^[115] Executions resumed following Gregg v. Georgia (1976), which found capital punishment to be constitutional if the jury was directed by concrete sentencing guidelines.^[115] The Court has also found that some poor prison conditions constitute cruel and unusual punishment, as in Estelle v. Gamble (1976) and Brown v. Plata (2011).^[113]
Source: Retrieved November 26, 2019 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights

Note: Rich people are able to hire jury consultants to “stack the deck” in their favor to ensure victory. It’s an art and a science! (See more on this subject here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_consulting).

The US currently boast a criminal justice system with Cash Bail that imperils the poor. So when a suspect is accused of a crime and does not have the money for bail, they have to stay in jail until their trial. Since they are detained, this actuality is in fact a “cruel and unusual” punishment; especially when they have been innocent all the while. Many times the offences are small and the amount of time away from their normal routines (jobs and family obligations) disrupt their lives severely. See how this has been depicted in this embedded VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Bail: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) – https://youtu.be/IS5mwymTIJU

LastWeekTonight
Published Jun 7, 2015 – John Oliver explains why America’s bail system is better for the Reality TV industry than it is for the justice system.

Connect with Last Week Tonight online…

Subscribe to the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost happens: www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight

Find Last Week Tonight on Facebook like your mom would: http://Facebook.com/LastWeekTonight

Follow us on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news: http://Twitter.com/LastWeekTonight

Visit our official site for all that other stuff at once: http://www.hbo.com/lastweektonight

Category: Film & Animation

Despite the humorous portrayals, this is no laughing matter. Many lives are ruined because of the injustice of the Cash Bail system. America is punishing poor people for being … poor.

This is not our conclusion alone.

There are advocates that are trying to reform and transform this broken eco-system. Kudos to them. There are also organizations that are trying to help the most vulnerable of the victims of this legal dysfunction. These “Do Gooders” should be recognized, honored, promoted and emulated. See the news story of one such group in Atlanta, Georgia in Appendix B below.

(Click here to read the full article).

We too can do good and do better in our Caribbean homeland; we have no Bill of Rights impeding our need for progress. We have always maintained that we can more easily reform our homeland than to fix American society. We have no excuse not to change and improve our communities.

This is the quest of the Go Lean movement to reform and transform Caribbean society. The revelation of the ugly details of American jurisprudence is the purpose of this November 2019 blog series. The full catalog of this series on the Bill of Rights is detailed as follows:

Better than the Bill of Rights: First Amendment – We can do better
Better than the Bill of Rights: Second Amendment – No slavery legacy
Better than the Bill of Rights: Third & Fourth Amendments – Remember, Justice First
Better than the Bill of Rights: Fifth & Sixth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Seventh & Eighth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Ninth & Tenth Amendments

As this series refers to the need for a comprehensive roadmap for elevating the societal engines – economics, security and governance – of the 30 Caribbean member-states, this entry focuses more on the need for a roadmap to help poor people in our Caribbean society. While poverty must not be criminalized, we must also not be satisfied to just stop on criminal justice issues; we must make strenuous effort to forge a society where poverty can be mitigated and its “captors liberated”. Our goal is for the Caribbean homeland to be a place where people can prosper where they are planted. If we fail on the prospering side, then people will be inclined to just abandon their homeland. (This is a Push and a Pull issue).

Oops too late!

We already have an atrocious societal abandonment rate – some reports reflect 70 percent of the professional classes have already left from the independent countries. It is even worse still in dependent territories – 50 percent of everyone!

The Go Lean book provides 370 pages of roadmap posits that economic optimizations must be coupled with security provisions; we cannot have one without the other. This is a Big Idea for the Caribbean to reform and transform its economic and security engines; this requires adopting new community ethos (attitudes and values), plus the executions of new strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to empower poor people to elevate their circumstances. In the end, the goal is to find success in the journey to Middle Class. This is the actual title of one advocacy in the Go Lean book. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 222, entitled:

10 Battles in the War on Poverty

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market Confederation Treaty 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 the European Union, the CU will seek to streamline economic engines so as to increase jobs, standards of living and opportunities – increasing GDP. The CU will work to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play for all socio-economic classes.
2	Minimize Political Bureaucracy
3	Welfare versus “Work-fare” Many economists have argued that the US “War Against Poverty” – Welfare first – policies, actually had a negative impact on the economy because of their interventionist nature. This school of thought is that the best way to fight poverty is not through government spending but through economic growth, thus “Work-fare” is a better solution. In 1996 the US implemented a Welfare-to-Work program that had almost immediate results – welfare and poverty rates both declined during the late-1990s, leading many commentators to declare that the legislation was a success. The CU takes a similar stance: lead with jobs!
4	Entrepreneurial Values
5	Repatriation of Time, Talent and Treasuries
6	Family Planning Third World countries usually have higher birth rates than Developed countries. While not discouraging individual rights, the CU will facilitate better education, women’s health resources and access to prenatal healthcare.
7	Education Goals in Balance
8	Proactive about Healthcare Realities
9	Aging Population The CU will facilitate for the Caribbean Region to be the world’s best address for senior citizens. This will send the invitation to retirees (Caribbean Diaspora and foreign) to welcome their participation and contributions to CU society. The increase in the pool of participants and beneficiaries will extended added benefits to domestic seniors.
10	Raise Retirement Age

Yes, we can do better in the Caribbean homeland. We are hereby determined and committed to battling poverty in the 30 member-states. The Go Lean roadmap presents the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to do “whatever it takes” to lower the Push and Pull factors that cause people to abandon their communities. It is conceivable, believable and achievable to succeed.

Competing with America is not an option; the very continuation of our Caribbean culture depends on our ability to compete better. Lowering Push and Pull factors, at times, involve just messaging the people on the truth of the American experience.

So yes, we can be Better Than America; we can do better than the Bill of Rights (with its concern for tyranny). We can be more just, and more equal in our public safety mechanisms and the dispensation of justice; and do it without allowing tyranny. We urge all Caribbean stakeholders – citizens and government leaders alike – to lean-in to this roadmap to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.

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 ccidence 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 A – Observing and Reporting on America’s Criminal Injustice

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement over the years that highlighted the inequality in the American Justice System – clearly “justice is blind, deaf and dumb”, as there is a Great Divide in this country for Black vs White and Rich vs Poor. See a sample list here of those previous submissions:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18421	Introducing Formal Reconciliations: Forging Justice After the Fact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18321	Unequal Justice: Lessons from the American Sheriffs Eco-System
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18100	Cop-on-Black Shootings in America’s DNA/Slavery Legacy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17667	Is the US a ‘Just’ Society? Hardly! – Notice how the Rich is treated
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17267	Lessons learned for Justice: The need for Special Prosecutors
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16668	Justice and Economics – Both needed to forge change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14413	Learning from the History of Lynching: ‘Hurt People Hurt People’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14087	Pharma Injustice: Opioids & the FDA – ‘Fox guarding the Henhouse’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13826	Taking from the Poor to Give to the Rich
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13664	High Profile Sexual Harassment Accusers – Hard to get Justice
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13081	America’s Race Relations – Spot-on for Protest
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10654	Immigration Realities in the US – Better to Stay Home
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10532	Learning from Good and Bad Stereotypes: Japanese Internments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5527	American Defects: Racism – Is It Over?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5238	Prisoners for Profit – Mostly Black-and-Brown Victimized
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8724	US versus Marcus Garvey: An Obvious Case of Racial Injustice
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1143	Easy on White Collar Crimes & Health-care Fraud = $272 Billion/year
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=546	Book Review: ‘The Divide’ – American Injustice … Age of Wealth Gap

—————–

Appendix B – New Birth bails nonviolent offenders out of jail for fresh start
By: Shelia Poole, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

New Birth Missionary Baptist Church has raised $120,000 to provide bail for first-time, nonviolent offenders in four Georgia counties.

The “Bail Out” program was designed to give men and women a second chance, beginning Easter weekend. [Pastor Jamal] Bryant will share details of the initiative during a press conference at 2 p.m. Saturday at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, 6400 Woodrow Rd. in Stonecrest.

He is expected to joined by rapper and actor Clifford “T.I.” Harris, VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop” personality Scrapp DeLeon and representatives from local sheriffs’ offices.

The program targets DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett and Rockdale counties. It will also help with job readiness.

It began as a $40,000 local challenge within the New Birth congregation and quickly grew to $120,000 and a larger metro movement.

“I looked at what was happening in the prison pipeline and realized that the church voice had been muted on the issue of prison reform,” said Bryant, the megachurch’s senior pastor. “I realized that we needed to be part of what was taking place.”

And what better time, he noted, than during the observance of Easter, when Christians celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ which some churches refer to as “Resurrection Sunday.”
Source: Posted April 19, 2019; retrieved November 26, 2019 from: https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/pastor-jamal-bryant-scrapp-deleon-join-forces-help-nonviolent-offenders-get-new-start/0R1JARRBpUSBhW1nBMe1pN/

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Better Than … the ‘Bill of Rights’ – ‘Third & Fourth Amendments’: Justice First

Posted on November 24, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Providing the stewardship for a federal government is hard work, with a lot of heavy-lifting tasks and responsibilities. No short cuts!

So many times, governmental institutions – think security forces – abuse their position/strength and exploit the rights and property of ordinary citizens. Good governance mandates that we be On Guard for such abuses. When strong individuals abuse weaker ones in society, we call it bullying. When governmental institutions do it, we call it:

Tyranny

The subject of tyranny was front-and-center in the debates during the Constitutional Conventions in the 1780’s, at the dawn of the United States of America. Today’s Caribbean stakeholders can benefit greatly from studying this American History and gleaning the wisdom afforded. Most importantly, we can stand on the shoulders of those American Founding Fathers and reach even greater heights. We get to do this exercise now without the flawed orthodoxy of those days: no racial and gender discrimination – notice the reference to Founding Fathers and not Founding Mothers.

This introduction allows us to define the Third and Fourth Amendments of the US Constitution – subsets of the Bill of Rights.

Third Amendment to the United States Constitution
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.^[93]

Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.^[93]

Constitutional scholars refer to these two amendments as Anti-Tyranny provisions. Imagine the tyranny of armed soldiers commandeering houses and work places, demanding access to and hospitality on a private citizen’s property. Also imagine the tyranny of security personnel (armed checkpoints or police forces) invading private spaces without probable cause. (See Appendix C VIDEO below for a fuller definition). This is why this commentary considers these two amendments in tandem.

Planners for a new Caribbean governance must consider these Constitutional provisions from the onset (accession) of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This is the charter of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean, to present a roadmap for the introduction of the CU and to spell out the details for the confederation treaty – and subsequent Constitution. The CU/Go Lean roadmap presents these 3 goals:

Optimize of the economic engines;
Establish a security apparatus and justice institutions to serve and protect the people and resultant economic engines;
Improve Caribbean governance with the deployment of this federal authority and streamlining the member-state administrations.

There are so many opportunities for abuse.

The Third Amendment is straightforward and rarely comes under dispute – requiring Supreme Court interpretations. There is an opportunity for the new Caribbean to be better. In contrast, the Caribbean reality can sustain a No Quatering provision.

The Fourth Amendment however has been a constant source of challenges and interpretation expansions. See a legal reference here:

The Fourth Amendment guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. It was adopted as a response to the abuse of the writ of assistance, which is a type of general search warrant, in the American Revolution. Search and seizure (including arrest) must be limited in scope according to specific information supplied to the issuing court, usually by a law enforcement officer who has sworn by it. The amendment is the basis for the exclusionary rule, which mandates that evidence obtained illegally cannot be introduced into a criminal trial.^[107] The amendment’s interpretation has varied over time; its protections expanded under left-leaning courts such as that headed by Earl Warren and contracted under right-leaning courts such as that of William Rehnquist.^[108]

As for this Fourth Amendment comparison, there is the opportunity to prioritize justice over law-and-order in regards to the “Exclusionary Rules”. Consider the reality of unlawful “search and seizures”, where the evidence is then disqualified. This may lead to miscarriages of justice, where guilty parties continue unabated and innocent victims never get their just relief. Such a system, as is the case in the US, is truly broken, and encourages extra-judicial retaliations, which exacerbates criminal activity in society; think street justice.

We can do better! (See more on the impact of the Fourth Amendment on the modern challenges of Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT) activities in Appendix D).

We can allow for sanctions and retributions against security forces/justice institutions for procedural violations while still pursuing justice. This approach works in civil proceeding, international peace-keeping and political cases (think impeachment); so there could be some “Solomonic” approach in criminal proceedings – especially when no death penalty is attached. (Ancient Israel King Solomon threatened death to a child in order to ascertain the true identity of the real mother – this proved to be indisputable wisdom).

Other countries have such a system. In fact only the US, and a few other countries, have absolute “Exclusionary Rules”. As is evidenced in Appendices A & B, many other countries try to adapt a case-by-case approach where the probative value of evidence can still be factored in when considering judgment, in the interest of justice. It is obvious that there are no perfect lines between Criminal Proceedings, Exclusionary Rules and Justice. (Life is not black-and-white; there are many shades of grey).

This is the continuation – 3 of 6 – of the November 2019 series from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. Since we publish a series of teaching commentaries every month – as a supplement to the 2013 book – this series examines the thesis that we, in the Caribbean, can be Better Than America, in words (law) and in action. As we analyze the American Bill of Rights and the Third & Fourth Amendments, we realize that tyranny must always be monitored and mitigated in any society concerned with justice. The full catalog of this series is detailed as follows:

Better than the Bill of Rights: First Amendment – We can do better
Better than the Bill of Rights: Second Amendment – No slavery legacy
Better than the Bill of Rights: Third & Fourth Amendments – Remember, Justice First
Better than the Bill of Rights: Fifth & Sixth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Seventh & Eighth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Ninth & Tenth Amendments

As this series refers to the need for a comprehensive roadmap for elevating the societal engines – economics, security and governance – of the 30 Caribbean member-states. This effort must include the justice institutions. People are more inclined to abandon their homeland if there are no justice assurances; privacy is rarely a determination. This is why we must consider the actuality of American jurisprudence in our competitive assessment. Especially considering modern challenges of Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT).

The Go Lean book provides 370 pages of roadmap details on the security and justice mandates to elevate our society; this includes the community ethos (attitudes and values) that we need to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to better secure the Caribbean homeland. The roadmap stresses that in addition to economic reforms, we must equally reform/transform our security-justice eco-systems. Consider this excerpt on security principles from Page 23:

Book Excerpt: c. Security Principles

… This roadmap for Caribbean integration declares that peace, security and public safety is tantamount to economic prosperity. This is why an advocacy for the Greater Good must be championed as a community ethos. A prime precept is that it is “better to know than to not know” – this implies that privacy is secondary to security. A secondary precept is that bad things will happen to good people and so the community needs to be prepared to contend with the risks that can imperil the homeland.

c-1. Privacy versus Public Protection
The institutions and agencies of the CU must respect the privacy of Caribbean residents in their homes, vehicles and offices. But when a person goes out into the public, there cannot be any expectation of privacy, it is then the community ethos that public protection is paramount to individual privacy rights. Therefore the community will work with law enforcement agencies to identify, warn and report any terroristic threats or suspicious activities.

Imagine a suicide bomber attending Carnival and detonating a bomb and killing hundreds. Far-fetched? Yet incidences like this are not uncommon, not just in failed-states like Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine, but also recently in the UK, Spain and in Boston USA during their annual marathon in April 2013. Would such an event happen in some CU member-state? We hope not. But hope alone cannot be our only defense; we must prepare, plan, monitor and mitigate – we must police our communities. We have a number of population groups that have been cited as high risk: Muslim fundamentalists, Black Nationalists, White Supremacists, and especially narco-terrorists/gang participants. This roadmap therefore posits that intelligence gathering must commence at the outset of this federation, and public protection must “trump” personal privacy.

c-2. Whistleblower Protection
The CU must allow for anonymous reporting of potential threats. If a report (whistleblower) is harassed as a result, the community must come to his/her aid and protection. For starters, the CU will offer toll free numbers and mobile-apps and web-interfaces to allow anonymous reporting of suspicious activities.

“If you see something, say something”.

c-3. Witness Security & Protection
Beyond initial reporting, the CU will allow for Witness Security (WitSec) and Protection so that there will be no bad consequences for doing the right thing. Since most of the “homeland” are islands, there are not a lot of places whistleblowers and eye-witnesses can go to seek refuge. Therefore, all communities in the region must come together to provide a joint solution. This responsibility, WitSec, therefore becomes an exclusive federal (a la “Federation”) deliverable.

c-4. Anti-Bullying and Mitigation
The CU security pact must defend against regional threats, including domestic terrorism. This includes gangs and their junior counterparts, bullies. The community must accept that young ones will go astray, so Juvenile Justice programs should be centered on the goal to rehabilitate them into good citizens, before it’s too late. So community messaging (life-coaching and school-mentoring programs) must be part of the campaign for anti-bullying and mitigations.
Source: Book Go Lean…Caribbean Page 23

To do better than our American counterpart would mean doing “whatever it takes” to ensure justice in our society. This is among the mandates of the Social Contract, “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”.

Remember Edward Snowden? See summary here:

Title: NSA records all phone calls in the Bahamas, according to Snowden
According to the below [a] news article, the US National Security Agency is gathering and analyzing mobile phone calls on Bahamians talking to Bahamians. This article raises so many questions for a Caribbean consideration:

Is this OK with the political/social leaders of the Bahamas?

Is this OK with the people of the Bahamas?

Why is this effort exerted by the US and not the Bahamas?

Could the local obstacle be the costs of the ICT investment?

Is there any value to this intelligence gathering? Have crimes and terroristic attacks been mitigated?

The book Go Lean…Caribbean identifies that intelligence gathering & analysis can be advantageous for the security of the member-states in the Caribbean region. Whatever your politics, you want a measure of peace-and-security in the region. Based on the foregoing article, there is some value to a cross-border, regional intelligence/security apparatus.

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement that highlighted the need and provisions for optimizing justice institutions in the region; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18371	Unequal Justice: Student Loans Could Dictate Justice
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18351	Unequal Justice: Envy and the Seven Deadly Sins
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18337	Unequal Justice: Bullying Magnified to Disrupt Commerce
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18321	Unequal Justice: Sheriffs and the need for ‘soft’ Tyrannicide
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17267	Way Forward – For Justice: Special Prosecutors
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16668	Justice and Economics – Need to Optimize Bankruptcies
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5238	#ManifestJustice Activism – Optimizing Prisoners for Profit
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2684	Role Model for Justice – The Pinkertons

In the opening submission of this series, it was articulated how the American Bill of Rights was designed to be embedded in the country’s legal foundation in 1791 so that subsequent majorities could not readily violate the rights of minorities. This is a good premise … on paper. But the reality is that the legal foundation is equally hard to reform even if it is discovered to be harmful for the overall society in subsequent years, decades and centuries. Think:

First Amendment protections for Fake News or …
Second Amendment protections for Assault Weapons.

Fixing America is not so easy; many people echo the feeling of “God-damned Bill of Rights“; think of the passions of the young people at the “March For Our Lives” in March 2018.

We can do better here at home in the Caribbean – where the American Bill of Rights do not apply – We have no excuse!

Yes, we can be Better Than America; we can do better than the Bill of Rights. This is a tall order and Big Deal for the stewards of a new Caribbean. But this Big Deal is still conceivable, believable and achievable with a coordinated regional effort – “many hands make a big job, small”. This is how we can make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.

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 A – Comparative analysis of exclusionary rules in the United States, England, France, Germany, and Italy

By: Yue Ma
Policing: An International Journal – ISSN: 1363-951X
Publication Date: 1 September 1999
Abstract
The exclusionary rule remains one of the most controversial doctrines in America’s constitutionalized criminal procedure. Jurists and commentators criticize the American exclusionary rule as a rule unique to American jurisprudence. Though American jurists and commentators’ criticism focuses on the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule, the criticism of the American exclusionary rule with reference to practices in foreign countries serves to create and maintain the misconception that the United States is the only country that has the exclusionary rule. The belief that the exclusionary rule exists only in the United States is far from accurate. This article examines the historical development and the current status of exclusionary rules in the United States, England, France, Germany, and Italy. Attentions are especially devoted to analyzing the characteristics of the American exclusionary rule with reference to exclusionary rules in other countries.

Source: Ma, Y. (1999), “Comparative analysis of exclusionary rules in the United States, England, France, Germany, and Italy”, Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 280-303. https://doi.org/10.1108/13639519910285053

—————–

Appendix B – The Exclusionary Rule: A Comparative Analysis

Source: Shellie Labell (2014). Leonard Birdsong Legal Blog Site; Published January 28, 2014 retrieved from: http://birdsongslaw.com/2014/01/28/comparative-approach-exclusionary-rule/

—————–

APPENDIX C VIDEO – Search and Seizure: Crash Course Government and Politics #27 – https://youtu.be/_4O1OlGyTuU

CrashCourse
Published Aug 15, 2015 – This week Craig talks about police searches and seizures. Now, the fourth amendment says that you have the right to be protected against “unreasonable searches and seizures” but what exactly does this mean? Well, it’s complicated. The police often need warrants issued with proof of probable cause, but this isn’t always the case – such as when you’re pulled over for a moving violation. We’ll finish up with the limitations of these protections and discuss one group of people in particular that aren’t protected equally – students.

Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios

Support is provided by Voqal: http://www.voqal.org

All attributed images are licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…

Category: Education

—————–

APPENDIX D VIDEO – Beyond Search & Seizure | Jeffrey Rosen | TEDxPhiladelphia – https://youtu.be/iV4q4nRPyoY

TEDx Talks

Published Feb 9, 2016 – Ubiquitous surveillance is threatening American values of privacy and equal justice in ways the founders of the Constitution never could’ve imagined when they penned the Fourth Amendment that protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures. In this spellbinding talk, Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, describes how the use of public surveillance systems, brain scans, DNA collection and consumer profiling calls for new translations of the amendment so that it protects privacies in the 21st century that the Constitution’s framers took for granted in the 18th. Recognizing that ubiquitous surveillance is akin to the general warrants that sparked the American Revolution, we must all demand zones of immunity that protect privacy and equality in the digital age.

Jeffrey Rosen is president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a museum and civic-education headquarters dedicated to non-partisan Constitutional discussion and debate. Well-versed in American freedoms and rights, he is a law professor at George Washington University and a contributing editor to The Atlantic, and has been referred to as “the nation’s most widely read and influential legal commentator.” Among many other works, he is the author of The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America, and co-editor of Constitution 3.0: Freedom and Technological Change.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Category: Nonprofits & Activism

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Civil Rights, History, Model, Power, Security

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Better Than … the ‘Bill of Rights’ – Second Amendment: No Slavery Legacy

Posted on November 23, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

We – the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean, a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) – said we were going to break-down the BIG FAT LIE and ascertain the truth of the “masterpiece” of the American Bill of Rights. Here we go:

The “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave” with its laissez-fare attitudes towards gun ownership and stockpiling of lethal weapons is not a positive attribute.

It is Bad … for America, and the its role-modeling for the rest of the world.

“Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter”. This was the clear warning from a previous blog-commentary from June 23, 2018:

Title: ‘Time to Go’ – Mandatory Guns: “Say it Ain’t So”
For our American counterparts, this [statement] is apropos: “Live by the Gun; Die by the Gun”.

Consider the recent school shootings and mass shootings, is there any doubt to the fulfillment of these words: America and guns go hand in hand.

Here’s proof! [There is] this town in Georgia [that] tried to mandate that every home own a gun. …

Say it Ain’t So! Is this the life that Caribbean people want? It should not be!

Yet, we are losing so many of our people to this eventuality. Our people leave due to “Push and Pull” reasons. “Push” refers to the societal defects in the Caribbean that moves people to want to get way; and “pull” factors refer to the impressions and perceptions that America is better. Surely a mandatory gun culture is not better!

The purpose of this commentary is to relate two strong points of contention:

We need to dissuade the high emigration rates of Caribbean citizens to the American homeland.

We need to encourage the Caribbean Diaspora to repatriate back to their ancestral homeland.

… Despite all the efforts to change this disposition, America’s consistency with guns continue, even now to the point that some communities want to mandate that every household have a gun. This is not the case in the Caribbean … if only, we can “prosper where planted” there.

Yes, we can!

… underlying the Second Amendment (of the US Constitution) is the white supremacy defect. This ignominious Second Amendment is a product of the previous Slave Culture, as one original motivation in 1791 was to suppress insurrection, allegedly including slave revolts ^[60][61][62]. A previous blog-commentary entitled 10 Things We Want from the US and 10 Things We Don’t Want from the US detailed this rationale:

The “right to bear arms” has a personal application beyond the country’s entitlement to maintain a militia. This “right” has been interpreted in a manner in which any normal “man” can get possession of guns and other armament. This proliferation of guns in society results in the highest rate of gun violence in the world, even an unconscionable rate of school shootings.The Go Lean roadmap purports that this status has also caused discord – a gross abuse and availability of illegal guns – in bordering communities of Mexico, and Caribbean states of the Bahamas, and the DR. This propels our gun-related crime.

The US still has some societal defects – racism and Crony-Capitalism for example – that are so imbrued that they are tied to the country’s DNA. This is why the Go Lean movement posits that it is easier to effect change at home in the Caribbean, than in the foreign country of the US.

The Bill of Rights sounds so altruistic, but when we break it down, we find that it was perpetuating some of darkest motives of the human experience: like Slavery and the African experience in the New World.

The US Constitution made this possible – how else could a small number of slave masters dominate a large population of slaves on a plantation – it permitted it; normalized it and glorified it. Surely any fruit from such a rotten tree must itself be:

Rotten.

Do you still think that US Constitution and/or Bill of Rights is a masterpiece?

This is the continuation – 2 of 6 – of the November 2019 series from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. Each month, we publish a series of teaching commentaries – as a supplement to the 2013 book. This month, we are examining the thesis that we, in the Caribbean, can be Better Than America, in words (law) and in action. As we analyze the American Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment, we realize that any jurisprudence without a motivation to maintain an evil institution like slavery already stands above the flaws of the US Constitution. The Judeo-Christion origins of the US Constitution belies the teachings of its founder – Jesus Christ – who taught that institutions must be built on solid moral foundations. This was clearly absent in the US historicity. The full catalog of this series is detailed as follows:

Better than the Bill of Rights: First Amendment
Better than the Bill of Rights: Second Amendment
Better than the Bill of Rights: Third & Fourth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Fifth & Sixth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Seventh & Eighth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Ninth & Tenth Amendments

As this series refers to the need for a comprehensive roadmap for elevating the societal engines – economics, security and governance – of the 30 Caribbean member-states, we are reminded that we can easily implement common-sense gun-controls and restrict the availability of lethal weapons and our citizens access to them. We can do better than America’s experiences – we do not have the Slavery legacy to protect. We can codify our own Constitutional provisions with better than this faulty language:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.^[93]

To do better than our American counterpart would encompass doing “whatever it takes” to keep our people safe; to monitor and mitigate against any and all perceived threats, foreign or domestic. We need common sense gun regulations. This is the epitome of the Social Contract, “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”.

The Go Lean book provides 370 pages of roadmap details on the security and justice mandates to elevate our society; this includes the community ethos (attitudes and values) that we need to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to better secure the Caribbean homeland. Yes, the roadmap details “how” our region’s reboot can reform and transform the societal engines to provide better protections and gun control. This is the actual title of one advocacy in the Go Lean book. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 179, entitled:

10 Ways to Improve Gun Control

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market The [CU] treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby creating an economic zone to promote and protect the interest of the member-states. In addition, the treaty calls for a collective security pact to ensure homeland security and assuage against systemic threats. The CU will elevate and consolidate the registration, gun-permitting process to regional oversight. The goal is to apply learned-lessons from the US example. For Third World countries, as most of the CU apply, undisciplined gun use affect the Failed-State indicator: Criminalization / De-Legitimization of the State. The CU’s mandate is to manage the image and reality of Failed-States.
2	Background Checks It’s a best practice to restrain certain aspects of the population access to guns (felons, defendants on bail, targets of restraining orders). This includes gun purchasing and ownership. So the CU Gun Registration regulation (within CariPol) will enforce strict background checks for ALL purchases: retail, wholesale and private-party. This regulation will also be post-reactive in the event a CU resident becomes a subject of legal/police action so as to suspend their gun rights.
3	Ballistics Testing The CU will extend gun registration/regulation beyond our American neighbors. To facilitate subsequent investigation of gun crimes, every registered gun must complete ballistic tests and the results must be on (computer) file at CariPol.
4	Mental Illness Data It is a public safety best practice to restrict gun ownership to anyone with documented mental illness. Again, the CU will extend the regulation beyond the American model and include mental health treatments and psychotropic prescriptions.
5	Intelligence Gathering and Big Data Analysis
6	United States (FBI / ATF) Coordination
7	Private Security Bodyguards
8	Private First Responders / Bounty Hunters
9	Gun Buybacks The CU will maintain a constant program for anonymous gun “buybacks”. These endeavors will be funded with CU funds and coordinated with not-for-profit foundations. The acquired guns will all be registered, for serial numbers and ballistic testing results, and then destroyed; unless needed for legal prosecutions.
10	Public Relations / Anti-Bullying Campaign

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement that highlighted the eco-system of common sense gun control and regulations; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15658	Sad: Caribbean Diaspora Tragedy with the American Gun Culture
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14556	Observing the Change … with Guns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14114	School Shootings ‘R’ Us – 11 in 23 Days
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13213	‘Pulled’ – Despite American Guns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13126	“Must Love Dogs” – Providing K9 Solutions for Better Gun Security
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12400	Accede the Caribbean Arrest Treaty
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11332	Boston Bombing Anniversary – Learning Lessons
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9072	Model: Shots-Fired Monitoring – Securing the Homeland

Many Caribbean people have fled their homeland seeking refuge in the “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”; some of them have lost their life as a tragic consequence.

Rest in Peace: Botham Jean
Rest in Peace: Helena Ramsay

This reasoning is why the Go Lean movement have repeatedly urged Caribbean people to Stay Home and/or Return Home. Our motivation is logical, practical and methodical; (also see Appendix VIDEO below as it relates the currency of “Guns and Race” in America still):

We can more effectively effect change here in the homeland, than trying to reform or transform a foreign destination … that was specifically designed for the suppression of Black-and-Brown people.

Yes, we can be Better Than America by building up our Caribbean homeland. It is conceivable, believable and achievable that we can make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.

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 – Reassessing the Same Old Debate on Gun Control: The Daily Show – https://youtu.be/U0UUrMmoPME

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Published on Oct 9, 2017 – In the aftermath of a mass shooting in Las Vegas, Neal Brennan explains why the debate over gun control in the U.S. needs to change.

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah airs weeknights at 11/10c on Comedy Central.

Category: Comedy
License: Standard YouTube License

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History, Power, Security

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UPDATE: The Most Powerful Woman in the World

Posted on October 25, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Social

Update – Go Lean Commentary

There are many female political leaders; think Prime Ministers, Presidents and of course Monarchs, i.e. Queen Elizabeth II.

Who, among them, wields the most power? Neither!

[Introducing] ”The most powerful woman in the world: Christine Lagarde” – 60 Minutes October 20, 2019 story.

The correct answer is Christine Lagarde, the former Minister of Finance (2007–2011) for France, who then led the International Monetary Fund for 8 years (2011–2019) and who now will assume the role of President of the European Central Bank (ECB) starting November 1, 2019. See this related news article here:

Title – What to expect from ECB’s new President Christine Lagarde?
By: Giles Coghlan
On November the first Christine Lagarde will take over the Presidency of the European Central Bank. She inherits an ECB in 2019 in a very similar position to Mario Draghi had in 2011 which is a climate of global uncertainty and political instability. Draghi started his time at the ECB vowing to do ‘whatever it takes’. His last hurrah last month can be summarised as him being willing to stick the course for ‘as long as it takes’ in terms of using easier policy to support the economy. He also looked outside of the bank for Fiscal policy stimulus as a necessary future assistance.

So what will Lagarde do? Current expectations are that she will carry on where Draghi left off. Bloomberg reported that in terms of Governing Council politics she will have an ally with Germany’s nomination of Isabel Schnable. Schnable is an academic economist with a track record of defending monetary stimulus against attacks from fellow Germans. With her on the council Lagarde will have an ally making her job much easier in leading the ECB.

So, in a nutshell, expectations are for more of the same from Lagarde as we had from Draghi.

Source: Posted by Bloomberg.com October 25, 2019 from: https://www.forexlive.com/news/!/what-to-expect-from-ecbs-new-president-christina-lagarde-20191025

Christine Lagarde’s authority is not a vesting of political power; she has only been appointed to these roles, due to her core competence with monetary policies and controls, but yet she has exceeded the terms of all of those who appointed her.

Madame Lagarde wields economic power …

… this could be more impactful than anything political or military. The IMF holds a treasure chess of $1 Trillion and her new jobs as President of the ECB puts her in charge of the 2nd largest money supply in the world. See this depicted in the VIDEO here, based on the TV News Magazine 60 Minutes:

VIDEO – Christine Lagarde on the global economy: We are all in this together – https://cbsn.ws/35LGjmC

Published on October 20, 2019 – As she leaves her position as head of the International Monetary Fund to run the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde tells John Dickerson about the possible signs of a global recession.

Christine Lagarde has been discussed before in a Go Lean commentary. See this previous blog-commentary from January 17, 2019:

… the overt favoritism of economic bailouts toward White Westerners was exposed and commiserated. This reflects the need for reconciliation. For the Caribbean, considering our European history, presence and future, we need to participate in this reconciliation. See this article here addressing the flawed favoritism of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), (the intergovernmental financial institution composed of 189 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world”). It appears that the ‘International’ in the brand IMF has not been as global as they claimed.

… the lacerating verdict of the IMF’s top watchdog on the fund’s tangled political role in the eurozone debt crisis, the most damaging episode in the history of the Bretton Woods institutions.

It describes a “culture of complacency”, prone to “superficial and mechanistic” analysis, and traces a shocking breakdown in the governance of the IMF, leaving it unclear who is ultimately in charge of this extremely powerful organisation.

The report by the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) goes above the head of the managing director, Christine Lagarde. It answers solely to the board of executive directors, and those from Asia and Latin America are clearly incensed at the way European Union insiders used the fund to rescue their own rich currency union and banking system.

The European Central Bank has also been discussed in many Go Lean commentaries before. See this list of sample previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13744	Failure to Launch – Economics: The Quest for a ‘Single Currency’ ECB and the Eurosystem to take care of the “Euro” currency; their roles and tasks to monitor-manage inflation and price stability.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3858	ECB unveils 1 trillion Euro stimulus program This commentary reports on the Stimulus move by the European Central Bank (ECB) to mitigate falling aggregate demand in their regional economy. It explains that economic news from Europe is germane for Caribbean consideration as that region is our largest trading partner after North America; plus the Dutch and French Caribbean member-states are directly impacted. Lastly, the Go Lean roadmap is modeled after the structures of the EU and the ECB.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833	One currency, divergent economies Europe has the safety net of the economies-of-scale of 508 million people and a GDP of $15 Trillion in 28 member-states in the EU; (the Eurozone subset is 18 states, 333 million people and $13.1 Trillion GDP). The US has 50 states and 320 million people. Shocks and dips can therefore be absorbed and leveraged across the entire region. The EU is still the #1 economy in the world; the US is #2. The Go Lean roadmap calls for the establishment of the allied Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) to manage the monetary affairs of this region. The book describes the breath-and-width of the CCB, modeled in many ways after the ECB.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=360	How to Create Money from Thin Air The system of Central Bank Reserves and the commercial banks facilitating deposits and loans in a continuous cycle, allows money to be “created from thin air”. The Caribbean Central Bank is modeled after the European Union and the European Central Bank (ECB). The CCB leaders will be schooled in the arts and sciences of monetary affairs by the ECB.

A discussion of Christine Lagarde is more than just a discussion of monetary policy; no, it is also a consideration of “Women in Power”. As detailed in a previous blog-commentary by the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean, “there is no doubt that more and more women need to be engaged in societal leadership” – men have often ruled with disregard for the needs of women – so there should be more female participation in economic policy-making and optimization. For this, Christine Lagarde is a role model. That previous blog-commentary stated:

The Go Lean movement advocates for more women in position of authority and decision-making in the new Caribbean. Why is this necessary?

Simple: With 50% of the population, there is the need for 50% of the representation; (this is the target). …
Among the crises that the region contends with is human flight, the brain drain or abandonment of the highly educated citizenry. Why do they leave? For “push-and-pull” reasons!

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

We want that better life right here in the Caribbean. We want skilled, empowered professional women to feel welcome and to be invited to execute their core-competence right here in our homeland. That previous blog-commentary continues:

Consider the example of Rwanda. … This country has endured a lot (Genocide in the 1990’s between Hutu and Tutsi tribes). Now, despite being a poorer African country, they have healed a lot of social issues. They now have many women in policy-making roles; and they have transformed their society and now feature a great turn-around story.

Change has come to the Caribbean. As the Go Lean roadmap depicts, there is the need to foster more collaboration and optimization in the region’s economic and governing eco-system. This must include all ready, willing and able-minded stakeholders, men or women.

Let’s get started! Let get more able-minded people in economic, fiscal and monetary governance. Let’s lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap and make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work 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) and the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
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.

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

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

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

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Nationality/ethnicity (Source: Franciszek Piper)^[2]	Registered deaths (Auschwitz)	Unregistered deaths (Auschwitz)	Total
Jews	95,000	865,000	960,000
Ethnic Poles	64,000	10,000	74,000 (70,000–75,000)
Roma and Sinti	19,000	2,000	21,000
Soviet prisoners of war	12,000	3,000	15,000
Other Europeans: Soviet citizens (Byelorussians, Russians, Ukrainians), Czechs, Yugoslavs, French, Germans, Austrians	10,000–15,000	n/a	10,000–15,000
Total deaths in Auschwitz, 1940–1945	200,000–205,000	880,000	1,080,000–1,085,000