Locations – Go Lean…Caribbean

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Juneteenth 2021 – Now it’s real – Encore

Posted on June 19, 2021 in Locations, Social

Hooray for progress!

President Biden signed a Bill on Thursday June 17, 2021 to make “Juneteenth” an official Federal holiday; it will be the Law of the Land …

… effective immediately.

We were anticipating this … last year! We planned for it and advocated for the immediate adoption of the Juneteenth tradition to be recognized, accepted and celebrated by all Americans. See here, how relevant this is for the State of California – normally, a non-Slave State in history:

VIDEO – How California history fits into Juneteenth celebrations – https://youtu.be/ae3jZi6hO7M

Sacramento Bee
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration marking the end of slavery in the United States. It was originally celebrated June 19, 1865. Here’s what to know about the event, and where California fits in.

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So, it is only apropos to Encore our blog-commentary from last year (2020). See that post here/now:

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Go Lean Commentary – Happy Juneteenth

Happy Juneteenth!

It’s an American thing, yet you in the Caribbean will still understand, resonate and empathize with this sentiment. This is true, based on the historicity that “Happy Juneteenth” is actually Happy Emancipation Day.

Despite the different legal history, all of the New World have the same social demographic history: same previous reality of an enslaved population of African people.

Most of these New World countries and territories endured abolition of their slavery institutions and have some form of an Emancipation Day to commemorate the “Sea Change”. These dates were identified in a previous commentary from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. See this excerpt here:

Chronology of the abolition of slavery in the Caribbean Basin

	First abolition	Final abolition of slavery	Date of independence
Haiti		1793	1804
Dominican Republic	1801	1822	1844
Costa Rica		1824	1821
El Salvador		1824	1821
Guatemala		1824	1821
Honduras		1824	1821
Mexico		1829	1810
British West Indies Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas Barbados Belize Cayman Islands Dominica Grenada Guyana Virgin Islands Jamaica Montserrat Turks and Caicos Islands Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia St. Vincent and Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago		1833-1838 1833-1834 1833-1838 1833-1838 1833-1838 1833-1838 1833-1838 1833-1838 1833-1838 1833-1838 1833-1838 1833-1838 1833-1838 1833-1838 1833-1838 1833-1834 1833-1838	1981 1973 1966 1978 1974 1962 1979 1979 1962
Nicaragua		1838	1821
Danish Virgin Islands Saint John Saint Thomas Saint Croix		1846-1848 1846-1848 1846-1848
Swedish Antilles Saint Barthelemy		1847
French Antilles Guaealoupe Guiana Martinique Saint Martín (French zone)	1794	1848 1848 1848 1848
Colombia	1814	1851	1810
Panama		1851	1903
Venezuela	1816	1854	1811
Netherlands Antilles Aruba Curacao Bonaire Saba Saint Eustatius Suriname St. Martin (Netherlands zone)		1863 1863 1863 1863 1863 1863 1863	1975
United States		1863-1865	1776
Puerto Rico		1873
Cuba		1880-1886	1898

Source: Retrieved August 28, 2019 from: http://atlas-caraibe.certic.unicaen.fr/en/page-117.html

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Let’s dive deeper in the American experience. So what date actually signified the abolition of slavery in the US? In a different previous commentary, these key dates were presented:

The cruel, inhumane institution of slavery finally ended in the United States … on which date?

January 1, 1863 – with the Emancipation Proclamationby Abraham Lincoln

April 9, 1865 – with the surrender of the Army of the Confederate States of America by General Robert E. Lee

June 19, 1865 – with the Abolition Declaration in Galveston, Texas (Juneteenth)

December 6, 1865 – Ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution

December 12, 1942 – Prohibition against the Peonage Systemby Franklin D. Roosevelt

August 6, 1965 – Signing of the Voters Rights Actby Lyndon Johnson, that finally guaranteed citizenship rights.

January 20, 2009 – Inauguration of Barack Obama, First Black Man as US President

Not Quite yet, considering the Cop-on-Black Shootings on American streets, plus the enforcement of loitering laws against Blacks.

This was not meant to be a multiple choice! But rather, these answers demonstrate the continuous flow of racist oppression that had befallen the African-American experience, despite these identifiable dates ending the practices and legacy of America’s Original Sin.

Doubling-down on the Juneteenth details, let’s consider this encyclopedic reference:

Juneteenth (a portmanteau of June and nineteenth;^[2] also known as Freedom Day,^[3] Jubilee Day,^[4] and Liberation Day^[5]) is an unofficial American holiday and an official Texas state holiday, celebrated annually on the 19th of June in the United States to commemorate Union army general Gordon Granger announcing federal orders in the city of Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, proclaiming that all slaves in Texas were now free.^[6] Although the Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed them almost two and a half years earlier and the American Civil War had largely ended with the defeat of the Confederate States in April, Texas was the most remote of the slave states, with a low presence of Union troops, so enforcement of the proclamation had been slow and inconsistent.^[6]

A common misconception is that this day marks the end of slavery in the United States. Although this day marks the emancipation of all slaves in the Confederacy, the institution of slavery was still legal and existed in the Union border states after June 19, 1865.^[7][8] Slavery in the United States did not officially end until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States on December 6, 1865, which abolished slavery entirely in all of the U.S. states and territories.^[9]

Celebrations date to 1866, at first involving church-centered community gatherings in Texas. It spread across the South and became more commercialized in the 1920s and 1930s, often centering on a food festival. During the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, it was eclipsed by the struggle for postwar civil rights, but grew in popularity again in the 1970s with a focus on African American freedom and arts.^[10] By the 21st century, Juneteenth was celebrated in most major cities across the United States. Activists are campaigning for the United States Congress to recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday. Juneteenth is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in 49 of the 50 U.S. states.

Modern observance is primarily in local celebrations. Traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs such as “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing“, and reading of works by noted African-American writers such as Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou. Celebrations include rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, historical reenactments, and Miss Juneteenth contests. The Mascogos, descendants of Black Seminoles, of Coahuila, Mexico, also celebrate Juneteenth. – Wikipedia, retrieved June 19, 2020.

There is the need to reflect and remember the bad history of slavery and its abolition in the Americas. There is also the need for a few other action verbs, all starting with the letter “R”. Consider:

Reconcile
Repent

There is a lot of work to be done, in the US, throughout the Caribbean Basin, the New World and the whole world for that matter. Racial disharmony has been the world’s most troubling condition since the end of the Middle Ages. This was the consideration in many previous Encore productions. See these excerpts here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18421	Title: Refuse to Lose – Introducing Formal Reconciliations The practice of U.S. cities eschewing Columbus Day – because of the bad history associated with the Spanish Explorer’s atrocities – to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day began in 1992”. [This is a form of] an informal reconciliation; it is time to pursue a formal reconciliation. (We have Indigenous People and oppressed people in the Caribbean too).
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18096	Title: 400 Years of Slavery – Emancipation Day: Hardly ‘Free At Last’ America was forged on the blatant hypocrisy of a legal premise that “All men are created equal”, and yet the African-American population was never treated equally, fairly or justly. In fact, by some analysis, America is still not equal-fair-just for African-Americans. In fact, just naming a street after Martin Luther King creates friction in American communities even today, 56 years after that iconic speech.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18093	Title: 400 Years of Slavery – International Day of Rememberance There is the need to reconcile the UGLY history of Slavery and the Slave Trade. Reconciliation and remembrance are the motives of this series of blog-commentaries …. With a documented start date in America of August 23, 1619, today [(August 23, 2019)] marks 400 years exactly. [So] this August 2019 series focuses on this 400 Year History of Slavery – past, present and future.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6022	Title: Music Role Model ‘Ya Tafari’ – Happy Emancipation Day All of these [Bristish Commenwealth] countries memorialize the abolition of slavery in the British Empire on August 1, 1834 with a National Holiday on the First Monday of August. (This holiday is commonly referred to as August Monday). The focus of this commemoration is not slavery, but rather a celebration of Caribbean culture – accentuating the positive. For those in the Caribbean Diaspora (US, Canada and the United Kingdom), the holiday does not go un-recognized … nor uncelebrated.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5695	Title: Repenting, Forgiving and Reconciling the Past How does a community repent, forgive and reconcile from such a bad legacy? Easier said than done!For starters, do not proceed as if the events never happened. This is the lesson now being learned in modern day Spain …There is a need to reconcile a lot of bad episodes in Caribbean history.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4971	Title: A Lesson in History – Royal Charters: Truth & Consequence An earlier Papal Bull that sealed the fate and would prejudice the African Diaspora for 500 years. The African Slave Trade and institution of “Slavery” was legally predicated on a Papal Bull from Pope Innocent VIII (Giovanni Battista Cybo) in 1491; just months before Christopher Columbus’s historic first voyage.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2222	Title: Sports Role Model – Playing For Pride … And More The calendar of Black America includes several specific holidays. Juneteenth, celebrated every June 19, honors the day the Union Army liberated slaves in Texas following the end of the Civil War. Kwanzaa, beginning on Dec. 26, is a seven-day festival of African heritage. On Dec. 31, which is called watch night, churches hold worship services to commemorate the way their forebears had stayed up all night awaiting the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

We need the New World territories to do a better job of reconciling their bad racial history. This is the issue for America, yes, and for the Caribbean homeland too.

Should America make Juneteenth a National Holiday? See VIDEO here.

VIDEO – Juneteenth recognized by more states, companies as a holiday – https://abcn.ws/2YgZrXO

Posted June 19, 2020 – In the wake of the nationwide outcry over the killing of George Floyd, bipartisan calls have amplified to name Juneteenth — June 19, which commemorates the end of slavery — a federal holiday.

A group of Senate Democrats announced Friday that they would introduce the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, legislation to designate the day, and if passed, would make Juneteenth the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Day was recognized in 1983.

While this is an American issue and outside our scope of the advocacy for Caribbean reformation, we do recommend such a focus for America to finally become a more just and equal society.

Will a Juneteenth commemoration accomplish that? Maybe not, but it’s a good move in the right direction. This country have had to contend with many atrocities to Black-and-Brown people. Just recently there have been a proliferation of protests and civil unrests due to an exhaustion of recent blatant incidences.

If advocates and activists are able to succeed with efforts for formal Juneteenth commemorations, then we recommend that they make festivities about more than just slavery. Rather it should be a celebration of African-American culture – as we attempt to do with our Caribbean Emancipation Celebrations, as related here-in.

But no doubt, all people need to remember, reflect, reconcile and repent for the bad racial history. And while our Caribbean activists may not be able to facilitate these action-verbs in the US, we can-must facilitate them here in the Caribbean.

We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap and to this advocacy to celebrate Juneteenth. This is how we can make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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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!

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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 11 – 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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St Patrick’s Day 2021 – Does It Really Matter? – ENCORE

Posted on March 17, 2021 in Ethos, Locations, Social, Strategy

Does St. Patrick’s Day matter to us here in the Caribbean?

Yes, it does!
Or … Yes it should!

You see, despite the fact this is a cultural and religious celebration – held every 17th day of March – commemorating the foremost patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick’s Day recognition is really a recognition of Irish people.

This is a BIG Deal …

… not just to acknowledge the 6.5 million people on that island, but rather to acknowledge the 80 million people worldwide that herald some form of Irish heritage.

So to Ireland and Irish people the world over, we hereby declare:

We see you!

This was the declaration of a previous blog-commentary from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean. (We even have our own “Ireland of the Antilles”, a moniker for the Eastern Caribbean island of Montserrat). It is only apropos to Encore that previous submission from March 17, 2015 here-now:

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Go Lean Commentary – The ‘Luck of the Irish’ – Past, Present and Future

Today (March 17) is Saint Patrick’s Day. Why do people wear green?

It’s a move of solidarity for Irish people and culture.

This is a big deal considering the real history.

This subject also has relevance for the Caribbean as Saint Patrick’s Day is a public holiday in the British Caribbean Territory of Montserrat, in addition to the Republic of Ireland,^[10] Northern Ireland,^[11] and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. While not a holiday elsewhere, this day is venerated by the Irish Diaspora around the world, especially in Great Britain, Canada, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. See a tribute here from an American job site:

Title: Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Southfield, Michigan – We hope you are showing your Irish spirit by wearing green!

Here are 5 fun facts about St. Patrick’s Day:

1. Of course with St. Patrick’s Day comes the massive appearance of shamrocks. Shamrocks have definitely become a central symbol for this day. In the olden days in Ireland, the shamrock was seen as sacred. The four leaves of the clover represent faith, love, hope, and of course, luck.

2. Good luck finding a four-leaf clover. The odds of finding a four-leafer on your first try are 1 in 10,000.

3. St. Patrick’s Day was traditionally a dry holiday. Irish law between 1903 and 1970 made St. Patrick’s Day a religious holiday for the entire country, which meant pubs were closed for the day. Today, St. Patrick’s Day is arguably one of the largest drinking holidays with an estimated $245 million spent on beer for March 17.

4. Green or Blue? Though green is a very popular color on St. Patrick’s Day, the original color that was very popular and often related back to St. Patrick was not green, but blue. In Irish folklore, green is known as being worn by immortals, and often signified new life and crop growth.

5. The Irish flag. The flag representing Ireland is green, white and orange. The green symbolizes the people of the south, and orange, the people of the north. White represents the peace that brings them together as a nation.

Source: Credit Acceptance Internal Staff Intranet site; retrieved March 17, 2015.

This subject also provides a case study for the Caribbean, as the Irish Diaspora is one of the most pronounced in the world. This is the model of what we, in the Caribbean, do not want to become.

According to information retrieved from Wikipedia, since 1700 between 9 and 10 million people born in Ireland have emigrated, including those that went to Great Britain. This is more than the population of Ireland at its historical peak in the 1830s of 8.5 million. From 1830 to 1914, almost 5 million went to the United States alone.

After 1840, emigration from Ireland became a massive, relentless, and efficiently managed national enterprise.^[1] In 1890 40% of Irish-born people were living abroad. By the 21st century, an estimated 80 million people worldwide claimed some Irish descent; which includes more than 36 million Americans who claim Irish as their primary ethnicity. ^[2]

The city of Chicago, Illinois dyes the river green in tribute for St. Patrick’s Day

The White House in full St. Patrick Day tribute mode

London; on the Thames River

The Diaspora, broadly interpreted, contains all those known to have Irish ancestors, i.e., over 100 million people, which is more than fifteen times the population of the island of Ireland, which was about 6.4 million in 2011.

In July 2014, the Irish Government appointed Jimmy Deenihan as Minister of State for the Diaspora.^[3]

Why this history?

In 1801 Ireland acceded to the United Kingdom (UK).

The Irish Parliament, charged with the heavy burden of directing Ireland’s destiny, was abolished in 1801 in the wake of the Republican United Irishmen Rebellion and Ireland became an integral part of a new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Act of Union. Without the power to direct their own affairs, the island found itself victimized by fate and bad fortune.

The Great Famine of Ireland during the 1840s saw a significant number of people flee from the island to all over the world. Between 1841 and 1851 as a result of death and mass emigration (mainly to Great Britain and North America) Ireland’s population fell by over 2 million. In the western province of Connacht alone, the population fell by almost 30%.

The Go Lean … Caribbean book relates that this is also the current disposition of so many of the Caribbean Diaspora; (10 million abroad compared to 42 million in the region). These ones love their country and culture, but live abroad; they want conditions to be different (better) in their homelands to consider any repatriation. The book details where in Puerto Rico, their on-island population in 2010 was 3,725,789, but Puerto Ricans living abroad in the US mainland was 4,623,716; (Page 303).

In a previous blog/commentary, a review of a book highlighted some strong lessons from Ireland’s past that are illustrative for the Caribbean’s future. The book is by Professor Richard S. Grossman entitled: Wrong: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them. The following excerpt is extracted from the book review by the London School of Economics:

As an example, we can take a closer look at the chapter on the Irish Famine, (1 of the 9 lessons), which took place from 1845-1852. Grossman not only describes what happened, but puts it into the perspective of other famines, starting from the BCE period. In terms of absolute numbers, the Great Hunger in Ireland was not the worst famine recorded but it did tragically lead to the death of twelve per cent of Irish population, forcing many others to emigrate. The author details how the potato – which originated in the Americas – arrived to a fertile Ireland, and that the poorest third of the Irish population consumed up to twelve pounds of potatoes per day (per capita). Only after this introduction the economic policy is mentioned. Grossman compares the responses of two Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom to the famine: Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell. Russell was so committed to the limited government intervention that he refused to buy food for the starving masses in order not to disturb the free formation of prices in the market. Similarly, he refused to increase the scale of public works that would give jobs to Irish workers so as not to disturb the free labour market. The paradox is that when the Great Famine occurred, Ireland was not a poor country. The Famine would not have been so ‘great’ if it were not for the free market ideology followed by the policymakers at that time. As it turns out, leaving things to the invisible hand of market is not always an optimal solution.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a technocratic federal government to administer and optimize the economic/security/governing engines of the 30 member Caribbean states. The quest is to provide a better direct stewardship, applying lessons-learned from case studies like Ireland in the 1800’s.

Ireland has fared better since those dire days of the potato famine, but still its people, the Diaspora, endured a lot of misery, resistance and discrimination in their foreign homes. As reported in this previous commentary, the usual path for new immigrants is one of eventual celebration, but only after a “long train of abuses”: rejection, anger, protest, bargaining, toleration and eventual acceptance. Wearing green today – or any other March 17^th’s – is a statement of acceptance and celebration of the Irish; as a proud heritage for what they have endured and accomplished.

The island of Ireland today is comprised of 2 countries: the independent Republic of Ireland and the territory of Northern Ireland, a member-state in the United Kingdom, with England, Wales and Scotland; (last year Scotland conducted a referendum in consideration of seceding from the UK; the referendum failed).

The Republic of Ireland ranks among the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita.^[11] After joining the European Union, Ireland enacted a series of liberal economic policies that resulted in rapid economic growth. The country achieved considerable prosperity from 1995 to 2007, during which it became known as the Celtic Tiger. This was halted by an unprecedented financial crisis that began in 2008, in conjunction with the concurrent global economic crash.^[12][13] Today, the primary source of tourism to Ireland – a primary economic driver – is from their Diaspora; see VIDEO in the Appendix below.

There are a lot of lessons in this issue for the Caribbean. Ireland did need better societal engines, economic-security-governance; this was accomplished with their assimilation into the EU. If only that option was available in the past.

This is the exact option being proposed now by the Go Lean roadmap, to emulate and model the successes of the European Union with the establishment of the Caribbean Union. It was not independence that brought success to Ireland, but rather interdependence with their neighboring countries “in the same boat”. This is the underlying theme behind the Go Lean movement, to “appoint new guards” to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. This Declaration of Interdependence is pronounced at the outset of the Go Lean book (Pages 11 & 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.

xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores. This repatriation should be effected with the appropriate guards so as not to imperil the lives and securities of the repatriated citizens or the communities they inhabit. The right of repatriation is to be extended to any natural born citizens despite any previous naturalization to foreign sovereignties.

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

xxv. Whereas the legacy of international democracies had been imperiled due to a global financial crisis, the structure of the Federation must allow for financial stability and assurance of the Federation’s institutions. To mandate the economic vibrancy of the region, monetary and fiscal controls and policies must be incorporated as proactive and reactive measures. These measures must address threats against the financial integrity of the Federation and of the member-states.

The Go Lean movement declares solidarity with the culture and the people of Ireland.

We too have endured a lot of misery in our foreign abodes. We would rather prosper where we were planted at home in our homeland, but due to economic, security and governing dysfunctions have had to emigrate.

The Go Lean book details a roadmap with turn-by-turn directions for transforming our homeland. The following is a sample of the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to impact the Caribbean region for this turnaround:

Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederating a Non-Sovereign Union	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Keep the next generation at home	Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy	Page 67
Tactical – Separation of Powers	Page 71
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate to the Caribbean	Page 118
Implementation – Ways to Promote Independence – Interdependence	Page 120
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – A Single Market in the G-20	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Planning – Ways to Better Manage Image – Not as Unwanted Aliens	Page 133
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism	Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora	Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the British Territories	Page 245

The Go Lean book posits (Page 3) that the Caribbean islands are among the greatest addresses in the world. But instead of the world “beating a path” to these doors, the people of the Caribbean have “beat down their doors” to get out; despite the absence of any famine, or war for that matter. This abandonment must stop … now!

May we learned from the history of Ireland in our quest to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. And may we have the luck of the Irish, as conveyed in this Classic Irish Blessing:

May you always have…

Walls for the winds

A roof for the rain

Tea beside the fire

Laughter to cheer you

Those you love near you

And all your heart might desire.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix- VIDEO: Happy St Patrick’s Day from Discover Ireland – https://youtu.be/J680_aKF5zc

Uploaded on Mar 8, 2011 – This short film is an ode to Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day (which means we used a little bit of poetic licence!). Hope you all enjoy it. Happy St Patrick’s day!
http://www.discoverireland.com/

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“Black British” Reality Exposed – Encore

Posted on March 9, 2021 in Ethos, Locations, Social

This has gotten heated…

Q: How dare Black People accuse British institutions of being racists. You can’t be serious?!?
A: Are you serious?! Just walk in our shoes!

This is a fitting summary of the global dialogue the last few days – after the bombshell March 7, 2021 interview on American TV with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle. Yes, they went there and named, blamed and shamed Buckingham Palace of blatant racist thoughts, feelings, words and actions. See this portrayed in this short exchange here – this Twitter excerpt:

VIDEO – Good Morning Britain’s Piers Morgan vs Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamim – https://twitter.com/GMB/status/1368831131764858881

‘You want to deny the Royal Family has any racist undertones or actions simply because you’re in love with the Queen?’

‘What a load of race-baiting nonsense.’

The debate gets very heated between @piersmorgan and @SholaMos1. pic.twitter.com/6XaH6RrDlV

— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 8, 2021

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So Black people in Britain are NOT valued as equal citizens?!?! MMMmmmm?!?!

This assertion seems so familiar!

We had previously discussed the actuality of the Caribbean Diaspora who had fled to Great Britain. These ones had learned the harsh lessons that the “welcome mat” that were extended to their immigration did not include respect, hospitality, warmth nor love. 🙁

It is only apropos to Encore that April 21, 2017 commentary again here-now:

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Go Lean Commentary – ‘Black British’ and ‘Less Than’

Truth be told, a Black person speaking with a British accent gets more respect than a Black person speaking with a Caribbean slang or a ‘Hip-hop’ /‘Jive’ dialect.

It is what it is! Notice this portrayal in the Appendix VIDEO where many Afro-Caribbean citizens in Britain, seem to self-identify more as British than their Caribbean heritage; (POINT 5).

Does this mean that the Black British person is better off on the world stage? Sadly no! The actuality of Blackness still means “Less Than“.

The problem is not the Blackness, but rather Whiteness, the proliferation of White Supremacy … throughout the world.

This is the assertion of the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean, in consideration of reasons why the Diaspora should repatriate back to the Caribbean homeland and why the Caribbean youth should not even depart their homelands in the first place. This thesis was presented in a 9-part series, with these submissions:

All of these prior commentaries related to the disposition of the Caribbean Diaspora in the United States; now we take a look at England, Britain or the United Kingdom. There is a difference … supposedly.

“Britain has done a great job as painting itself as the humanitarian, with the US being the torturer. But that shit ain’t true.” – Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The purpose of this commentary – considering these source materials below – is to relate the following 5 strong points of contention; (these labels are shown throughout this commentary where applicable):

POINT 1 – The world is not fair, equal or just; and if you are of the Black-and-Brown races, the injustice is even more pronounced.
POINT 2 – Charity begins at home! There is a need to reform and transform society wherever you are. No one else will reform your homeland; you must!
POINT 3 – Leaving home, hurts home.
POINT 4 – The children of the Diaspora identify more with their current home, than their parent’s ancestral home.
POINT 5 – When the children do not want to identify with your land of heritage, it is Time to Go, to take them back home.

See this interview here relating Black British reality, with VICE News (UK Desk), the provocative media outlet that exposes the harsh realities of daily life in the Third World and the “First World”; (find more on VICE in Appendix A):

Title: We Spoke to the Activist Behind #BlackLivesMatter About Racism in Britain and America
By: Michael Segalov

… Patrisse Cullors is co-founder of Black Lives Matter — the movement and oft-trending hashtag. Based in LA ([Los Angeles]), she’s been on the front line at uprisings across the US in response to a wave of high-profile deaths of black people in police custody.

[While] on a speaking tour of the UK and Ireland, heading to communities, universities, and holding meetings in Parliament. VICE caught up with Patrisse on the train from Brighton to London in the midst of a hectic schedule. VICE chatted [with her] about how she’s spreading the Black Lives Matter movement across the globe, what’s happening in the States at the moment, and why that’s relevant to the UK.

VICE: Tell us about the origins of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Patrisse Cullors: After George Zimmerman was acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin, back in July 2013, myself and two friends came up with the hashtag. My friend Alicia had written a love letter to folks, saying, “Our Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter.”

I put a hashtag in front—within days people were using it across the world. We’re talking about all black lives; we weren’t just talking about black men dying in the hands of the police. We’re talking about black women, black trans people, black queer people. We want to show that under the current system of white supremacy, anti-blackness has major consequences. Inside the US, and around the world, anti-black racism has global consequences. Black Lives Matter is a call to action—it’s a mantra, a testimony.

How did you end up at the heart of it?
I’ve been organizing since I was 16. I came out as queer, and was kicked out of home. Along with a bunch of other young queer women of color, we raised each other. We also dealt with poverty, being black and brown in the USA, and trying to figure out how to live our daily lives. My brother was incarcerated in LA county jails at 19, and he was almost killed by the sheriffs. They beat him. They tortured him and brutalized him. This was my awakening, seeing how far the state will go, and how they treat our families.

Most disturbing was the lack of support and absolute neglect that my brother and my family faced after he was brutalized. Part of my upbringing was a feeling of rage, but I also knew I could do something about it. With my mentors, and a civil rights organization, I learned my craft over 11 years. I focused on the school-to-prison pipeline [where young people go straight from school into the juvenile criminal justice system], environmental justice, and police violence.
…
You’ve been in the UK for a week, how has it been, and how does the situation here relate to the USA?

In theory the UK has a significant amount of structures to allow for accountability, of law enforcement in particular. That’s the theory. But in the US we don’t really have these structures to allow for accountability. There aren’t really independent investigators; its just very rare for prosecutions for law enforcement. And so, being here, I’ve realized, there are some systems in place that might actually be good for the US. It just seems those systems don’t work.

Then there are the similarities, the ways in which black people are treated—it’s outright racism. From Christopher Alder being brutalized on tape, hearing the officers calling him racist slurs, to the G4S guards who killed Jimmy Mubenga with racist texts on their phones. You have that same hatred, these white supremacist ideologies coming out of both of our countries. And here too, justice is not being served. We have Mike Brown, no justice. We have Eric Garner, no justice. Here we see the same: Mark Duggan, Sean Rigg. The list is vast.

Is this stuff talked about in the States, like how in the UK we’re aware over here about what’s going on in Ferguson?
Here’s the thing, black people in the US don’t know what’s happening here in the UK. I’m well read, well educated, and coming here and learning these stories I’m like, “Why don’t I know about this? Why haven’t we heard?” The US is very insular. The UK has an image of being better, a humane society in which there isn’t the same level of racism. But now I have a very different perspective that I’m going to take home and talk about. Britain has done a great job as painting itself as the humanitarian, with the US being the torturer. But that shit ain’t true.

Here in the UK there’ve been solidarity actions. People shut down the streets in London and Westfield shopping center too. What’s the impact of these things for people on the ground? Do you notice?
Yes, it was noticed. We’ve seen all the work folks are doing on the ground. From here, where you guys shut down Westfield, to Spain and Brazil. In Israel, African refugees are using the Black Lives Matter mantra to talk about law enforcement violence by the Israeli police. We see it, and we’re in awe. We wanted and needed it to go global.

Where is this going? What happens next?
There are 23 Black Lives Matter chapters right now, in the US, Canada, and Ghana. We need to uplift the local struggles across the country, as well as pushing for greater accountability for law enforcement.

We want legislation that will see divestment from law enforcement and investing in poor communities. We want to build a national project linking families who have been impacted by state violence, with a national database that looks at individual law enforcement officers and agencies. We also want to look at how to develop a system of independent investigation. We want to figure out a victim’s bill of rights, to counter the police bill of rights. Until then, we’re gonna shut shit down.
Source: VICE (UK) News; Posted February 2 2015; retrieved April 20, 2017 from: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/patrisse-cullors-interview-michael-segalov-188?utm_source=vicetwitterus

See related VIDEO’s here on Britain’s Black History; (POINT 1 and POINT 4):

That Black British Feeling – Why Black People in the UK are Marching – https://youtu.be/fB2IcH668xo

Black and British: A Forgotten History Part 1 First Encounters; Full BBC Documentary 2016 – https://youtu.be/6WP6qEc2uaM

Black and British: A Forgotten History Part 2 Meaning of Freedom – https://youtu.be/Tjq1X3TZ02U

Black and British: Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners; The Price Of Freedom (2015) – https://youtu.be/kgaJyp8ix4M

For Caribbean people, the world thinks of us as “Less Than”, whether we are in the Caribbean or in the Diaspora in the UK, Europe or North America. We take the “Less Than” brand with us wherever we go. This is a crisis! The movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean seeks to use this crisis, to elevate the Caribbean brand …. globally.

Why is the Caribbean brand perceived as “Less Than”?

Yes, first there is the reality check of being Black-and-Brown in a White world. But also due to our own mis-management of our homeland. It is the greatest address on the planet, and yet our people beat down the doors to get out. Already we have lost 70 percent of our professional classes. So we send this subtle message to the world that “we would foul up the ground wherever we stand”; (POINT 1).

We – the Caribbean region as a collective – must do better; be better! We can reboot, reform and transform from this bad history and bad image; (POINT 2). How?

While easier said than done, this is the comprehensive action plan of the Go Lean book. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU is designed to optimize Caribbean society in the homeland – though there are many benefits to the Diaspora as well – through economic, security and governing optimizations. Therefore the Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance – including empowerments for image promotion – to support these engines.

Reforming or transforming the UK, Britain or England is not within scope of the Go Lean/CU effort, notwithstanding the impact on our Diaspora there. But the subject of “Image” is inseparable from any discussion of elevating the Caribbean brand. So this commentary is on image, the facts and fiction of being a minority in a majority world or being an immigrant to a foreign country. This applies to any consideration of the Caribbean Diaspora in the British Isles, where their numbers have been reported between 4 and 5 percent of the population; (POINT 4). Consider these encyclopedic details:

British African Caribbean (or Afro-Caribbean) people are residents of the United Kingdom who are of West Indian background and whose ancestors were primarily natives or indigenous to Africa. As immigration to the United Kingdom from Africa increased in the 1990s, the term has sometimes been used to include UK residents solely of African origin, or as a term to define all Black British residents, though the phrase “African and Caribbean” has more often been used to cover such a broader grouping. The most common and traditional use of the term African-Caribbean community is in reference to groups of residents’ continuing aspects of Caribbean culture, customs and traditions in the United Kingdom.

A majority of the African-Caribbean population in the UK is of Jamaican origin; other notable representation is from Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Montserrat, Anguilla, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana (which although located on the South American mainland is culturally similar to the Caribbean and was historically considered to be part of the British West Indies), and Belize.

African-Caribbean people are present throughout the United Kingdom with by far the largest concentrations in London and Birmingham.^[1] Significant communities also exist in other population centres, notably Manchester, Bradford, Nottingham, Coventry, Luton, Slough, Leicester, Bristol, Gloucester, Leeds, Huddersfield, Sheffield, Liverpool and Cardiff. In these cities, the community is traditionally associated with a particular area, such as Brixton, Harlesden, Stonebridge, Dalston, Lewisham, Tottenham, Peckham in London, West Bowling and Heaton in Bradford, Chapeltown in Leeds,^[2] St. Pauls in Bristol,^[3] or Handsworth and Aston in Birmingham or Moss Side in Manchester. According to the 2011 census, the largest number of African-Caribbean people are found in Croydon, south London.
Source: Retrieved April 20, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_African-Caribbean_people

There are a number of insights to glean looking at the demographics of the Afro-Caribbean population in the UK. (See Appendix B below). All in all, the Afro-Caribbean populations in the UK prefer to identify themselves more as British than as Caribbean; (POINT 4).

See this portrayal in the Appendix VIDEO below.

Despite the 60 years of futility, our Caribbean people continue to leave, abandoning our homeland; (POINT 3). This is bad; bad for the people and bad for the homeland. Our people “jump from the frying pan to the fire”:

Distress continues …
Oppression persists …
Image: “Less Than”!

This commentary asserts that it is easier for the Black-and-Brown populations in the Caribbean to prosper where planted in the Caribbean, rather than emigrating to foreign countries, like the UK. The reasons for the emigration in the first place have been identified as “push and pull”. “Push” refers to the societal defects in the Caribbean that drive people to move away (POINT 2); and “pull” factors refer to the impressions and perceptions that life abroad, as in England, is better. More details apply regarding these elusive “pull” factors:

The UK is NOT the #1 destination for the English-speaking Caribbean Diaspora, not anymore; that distinction is now towards the US. Today’s trending is for more and more new immigration to the US as opposed to the UK; Canada is Number 2.
While the “pull” factor had been compelling in the past, the decision-making of Caribbean emigrants – looking to flee – now needs a reality check! (POINT 1)
“Pull” is further exacerbated by the “push” factors; all of these continue to imperil Caribbean life; we push our citizens out. Then the resultant effect is a brain drain and even more endangerment to our society: less skilled workers; less entrepreneurs; less law-abiding citizens; less capable public servants – we lose our best and leave the communities with the rest. This creates even more of a crisis; (POINT 2).

The Go Lean roadmap posits that the entire Caribbean is in crisis now (POINT 3); so many of our citizens have fled for refuge in the UK and other countries, but the refuge is a mirage. The “grass is not necessarily greener on the other side”. Life in the UK is not optimized for Caribbean people. It is easier to fix the Caribbean than to fix the British eco-system. For our Diaspora there: it is Time to Go! For our populations in the Caribbean, looking to depart: Stay! Our people can more easily prosper where planted in the Caribbean … with the identified mitigations and remediation here-in.

The Go Lean book posits that Caribbean stakeholders made many flawed decisions in the past, both individually and community-wise; (POINT 2). But now, the Go Lean/CU roadmap is new (and improved). This is a vision of the CU as a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean to do the heavy-lifting of championing better nation-building policies, to reboot the region’s economic-security-governing engines. For one, there is the structure of a separation-of-powers between CU agencies and the individual member-states. So there are “two pies”, so citizens get to benefit from both their member-states’ efforts and that of the CU Trade Federation.

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to reform the society as a whole. This roadmap admits that because the Caribbean is in crisis, this “crisis would be a terrible thing to waste”. As a planning tool, the roadmap commences with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the approach of regional integration (Page 10 – 14) as a viable solution to elevate the regional engines:

Preamble: And while our rights to exercise good governance and promote a more perfect society are the natural assumptions among the powers of the earth, no one other than ourselves can be held accountable for our failure to succeed if we do not try to promote the opportunities that a democratic society fosters.
As the history of our region and the oppression, suppression and repression of its indigenous people is duly documented, there is no one alive who can be held accountable for the prior actions, and so we must put aside the shackles of systems of repression to instead formulate efficient and effective systems to steer our own destiny.

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

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

xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores …

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

The Go Lean book details the community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to impact the eco-systems in the Caribbean region.

The book provides these recommendations in regards to the dynamics of Diaspora living:

Encourage the Caribbean Diaspora to repatriate back to their ancestral homeland – (10 Reasons to Repatriate to the Caribbean – Page 118).
Dissuade the high emigration rates of Caribbean citizens to foreign stories – (10 Ways to Make the Caribbean Better – Page 131).

These subjects (Repatriation and Diaspora) have been frequently commented on in other Go Lean blogs (POINT 4); as sampled here with these entries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11244	‘To Live and Die in L.A.’ or London …
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9485	10 Things We Don’t Want from the UK
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8099	Caribbean Image: ‘Less Than’?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7151	The Caribbean is Looking for Heroes … ‘to Return’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1683	British public sector workers strike over ‘poverty pay’

The book also relates the significance of image/brand management, as with this advocacy: “10 Ways to Better Manage Image” (Page 133):

The Bottom Line on Martin, Malcolm, Mandela, Muhammad and Marley
The majority of the Caribbean population descends from an African ancestry – a legacy of slavery from previous centuries. Despite the differences in nationality, culture and language, the image of the African Diaspora is all linked hand-in-hand. And thus, when Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali and Bob Marley impacted the world with their contributions, the reverberations were felt globally, not just in their homelands. It is hard for one segment of the black world to advance when other segments have a negative global image. This is exemplified with the election of Barack Obama as US President; his election was viewed as an ascent for the entire Black race.

Overall, we must elevate the Caribbean brand. There are active movements now to accentuate the image/brand; consider:

Proclaim ‘International Caribbean Day’

The African Renaissance Monument

Declared “Best in the World”

Accentuate Caribbean Image Tied to the Dreadlocks Hairstyles

Underlying to the Go Lean/CU prime directive of elevating the economics, security and governing engines of the Caribbean, is the desire to make the Caribbean homeland better, to reform and transform our society. If we can do this, we will dissuade the high emigration rate for our young people. But saying that it is “Time to Go“, must mean that we are ready to receive our Caribbean Diaspora from London and other British cities. Are we?

We are not! But this Go Lean roadmap gets us started. This is the intent of the book Go Lean … Caribbean.

The Go Lean/CU roadmap asserts that Britain should not be presented as the panacea for Caribbean ills – we must reform and transform our own society. While Britain or the UK does some things well, that country does not always act justly towards Black-and-Brown people of Caribbean descent; (POINT 5). We must do this ourselves (POINT 2); our region needs the empowerments here-in (jobs, economic growth and brand/image enhancement).

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 is the roadmap to elevate the Caribbean; to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

———–

Appendix A – Vice News

Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media, Inc.‘s current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of “under-reported stories”.^[1] Vice News was created in December 2013 and is based in New York City, though it has bureaus worldwide.

Background
In December 2013, Vice Media expanded its international news division into an independent division dedicated to news exclusively and created Vice News. Vice Media put $50 million into its news division, setting up 34 bureaus worldwide and drawing praise for its in-depth coverage of international news.^[2] Vice News has primarily targeted a younger audience comprised predominantly of millennials, the same audience to which its parent company appeals.^[3]

History
Before Vice News was founded, Vice published news documentaries and news reports from around the world through its YouTube channel alongside other programs. Vice had reported on events such as crime in Venezuela, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, protests in Turkey, the North Korean regime, and the Syrian Civil War through their own YouTube channel and website. After the creation of Vice News as a separate division, its reporting greatly increased with worldwide coverage starting immediately with videos published on YouTube and articles on its website daily.^[5]Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_News

———–

Appendix B – British Afro-Caribbean Demographics

Based on a variety of official sources and extrapolating from figures for England alone, the estimates for the number of people in Britain born in the West Indies grew from 15,000 in 1951, to 172,000 in 1961 and 304,000 in 1971, and then fell slightly to 295,000 in 1981. The estimates for the population of ethnic West Indian in 1981 were between 500,000 and 550,000.^[26]

In the UK Census of 2001, 565,876 people classified themselves in the category ‘Black Caribbean’, amounting to around 1 percent of the total population.^[38] Of the “minority ethnic” population, which amounted to 7.9 percent of the total UK population, Black Caribbean people accounted for 12.2 percent.^[38] In addition, 14.6 percent of the minority ethnic population (equivalent to 1.2 per cent of the total population) identified as mixed race, of whom around one third stated that they were of mixed Black Caribbean and White descent.^[38]

In the latest, the 2011 Census of England and Wales, 594,825 individuals specified their ethnicity as “Caribbean” under the “Black/African/Caribbean/Black British” heading, and 426,715 as “White and Black Caribbean” under the “Mixed/multiple ethnic group” heading.^[35] In Scotland, 3,430 people classified themselves as “Caribbean, Caribbean Scottish or Caribbean British” and 730 as “Other Caribbean or Black” under the broader “Caribbean or Black” heading.^[36] In Northern Ireland, 372 people specified their ethnicity as “Caribbean”.^[37] The published results for the “Mixed” category are not broken down into sub-categories for Scotland and Northern Ireland as they are for England and Wales.^[36][37] The greatest concentration of Black Caribbean people is found in London, where 344,597 residents classified themselves as Black Caribbean in the 2011 Census, accounting for 4.2 per cent of the city’s population.^[35]

The UK Census records respondents’ countries of birth and the 2001 Census recorded 146,401 people born in Jamaica, 21,601 from Barbados, 21,283 from Trinidad and Tobago, 20,872 from Guyana, 9,783 from Grenada, 8,265 from Saint Lucia, 7,983 from Montserrat, 7,091 from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 6,739 from Dominica, 6,519 from Saint Kitts and Nevis, 3,891 from Antigua and Barbuda and 498 from Anguilla.^[39]

Detailed country-of-birth data from the 2011 Census is published separately for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In England and Wales, 160,095 residents reported their country of birth as Jamaica, 22,872 Trinidad and Tobago, 18,672 Barbados, 9,274 Grenada, 9,096 St Lucia, 7,390 St Vincent and the Grenadines, 7,270 Montserrat, 6,359 Dominica, 5,629 St Kitts and Nevis, 3,697 Antigua and Barbuda, 2,355 Cuba, 1,812 The Bahamas and 1,303 Dominican Republic. 8,301 people reported being born elsewhere in the Caribbean, bringing the total Caribbean-born population of England and Wales to 264,125. Of this number, 262,092 were resident in England and 2,033 in Wales.^[40] In Scotland, 2,054 Caribbean-born residents were recorded,^[41] and in Northern Ireland 314.^[42]Guyana is categorised as part of South America in the Census results, which show that 21,417 residents of England and Wales, 350 of Scotland and 56 of Northern Ireland were born in Guyana. Belize is categorised as part of Central America. 1,252 people born in Belize were recorded living in England and Wales, 79 in Scotland and 22 in Northern Ireland.^[41][42][40]Source: Retrieved April 20, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_African-Caribbean_people#Demography

———–

Appendix VIDEO – Do you call yourself Black British? – https://youtu.be/i3dgzdsAZug

Published on Oct 21, 2016

Category: People & Blogs
License: Standard YouTube License

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Mineral Extraction 101 – Lessons from History: Jamaica’s Bauxite

Posted on January 23, 2021 in Economics, Government, Implementation, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

There are so many people in different Caribbean countries wanting their national government to double-down in focus, effort and investment in natural resources rather than tourism. They assert that “we” have more than just sun, sand and sea.

These ones claim that our member-states may be among the riches countries of the world due to our abundance of natural resources.

The truth is:

No, we’re not!

The Caribbean member-states are really just small nations in an archipelago.

There is a finite amount of minerals that can ever be extracted from small islands; beyond the 4 Greater Antilles islands (Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico and Jamaica) and the coastal states (Guyana and Suriname). There is a mature industry for these Raw Materials. The existing Mineral Extraction activities in these country have in turn taught us that this industry may contribute some return to our society, there are a lot of Good, Bad and Ugly lessons for us to learn from the manifestations of this industry. Let’s consider the lessons from one country, Jamaica.

Jamaica is the fifth-largest exporter of bauxite in the world, after Australia, China, Brazil and Guinea. The country also exports limestone, of which it holds large deposits. The government is currently implementing plans to increase its extraction.^[241]

Footnote 241 = “Limestone research finds richest deposits in St Elizabeth, Portland and Trelawny”. Jamaica Observer newspaper. Archived from the original on 21 February 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2019.

This island will soon be celebrating the milestone of 70 years of bauxite mining – they started in 1952. They have earned some money, yes, but they have suffered a lot as well.

Today, the Subject Matter Experts are strongly advising the country to: Diversify … away from mining / Mineral Extraction.

This is submission 2-of-6 for the January 2021 Teaching Series from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean. Every month we engage in this effort to message to Caribbean stakeholders about issues germane to Caribbean life and culture. We want to help reform and transform the Caribbean economic engines.

This commentary is being written in Nassau, Bahamas – one of the member-states that want to diversify away from tourism and explore / exploit more Mineral Extraction. The Jamaican experience is being presented here as a Cautionary Tale.

Just Say “No” … to Mining …
… or if we do it, do it right.

So while the Go Lean movement wants to consider other types of economic activities to the Caribbean landscape, we urgently want Caribbean people to “measure twice before cutting once” when it comes to Mineral Extraction.

This commentary posits that “all that glitters is not gold” when it comes to mining and/or Mineral Extractions. See the full series here as follows:

Mineral Extraction 101 – Raw Materials ==> Finished Goods
Mineral Extraction 101 – Lessons from History: Jamaica’s Bauxite
Mineral Extraction 101 – Industrial Reboot – Modern factories – Small footprints
Mineral Extraction 101 – Commerce of the Seas – Encore
Mineral Extraction 101 – Restoration after Extraction – Cool Sites
Mineral Extraction 101 – Sovereign Wealth Fund – Not the Panacea

There is the need for cautions in any considerations we make regarding Mineral Extractions. As related in the first entry of this 6-part Teaching Series, our goal is to embrace the commerce of Mineral Extraction for the positives, while avoiding the negatives.

Let’s examine this history more fully. See the News Articles PART 1 and PART 2 in the Appendix below, and also this Abstract of a White Paper here, by the same writer:

Research Paper Title: The Jamaican Bauxite Industry: Glimpses Into Its Past, Present, and Future
By: Carlton E. Davis

Abstract

The commercial possibilities of Jamaican bauxite were recognized in 1943 at a time when there was great need for aluminum for the Allied war effort, and when availability was being made difficult by the harassment by German U-boats of Allied bauxite ships plying from the sources of the ore in South America to the North American mainland. For technical reasons, however, it happened that Jamaican bauxite was not required for the war effort.

After the war, because of a number of factors, including the pre-eminence of the geographically-close United States as an economic and military power, and the emergence, at the instigation of the U.S. Government, of three companies (Alcan, Reynolds, and Kaiser), each of which needed its own independent source of bauxite, the Jamaican industry was rapidly developed to the point that the island became the number one world producer in 1957. Growth continued during the economically buoyant 1960s, and at the end of the decade six transnational companies—Alcan, Reynolds, Kaiser, Alcoa, Anaconda, and Revere — were well established, mining and/or processing bauxite in the island.

The industry faced enormous difficulties during most of the 1970s and 1980s as a result, among other things, of the oil price rises in 1973 and 1979, lower economic growth all around, the decline of the United States as a major alumina and aluminum producer and severe competition from new industries in Australia, Guinea, and Brazil where taxes were, by and large, lower.

With the lowering of oil prices since late 1985, a better supply/demand balance in the industry, a weaker U.S. dollar (to which the Jamaican currency is pegged) vis-a-vis other major currencies, and a new taxation regime for the industry with which the companies profess to be happier, the industry is poised to recover some of the ground lost during the troublesome 1970s and 1980s.

Published by: Jamaica Bauxite Institute 1995; retrieved January 23, 2021 from: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-79476-6_42

We have learned a very bitter lesson from the Jamaican experience: there may be no reversing the environmental damage when it comes to Mineral Extractions. Jamaica is now reeling from the environmental damage. See this related story here:

Jamaican Deforestation and Bauxite Mining – the Role of Negotiations for Sustainable Resource Use
Source: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:982889/FULLTEXT01.pdf

The Deforestation threat and environmental damage is real! Explore this issue further by reviewing this VIDEO:

VIDEO – Environmental damage from Mining in Jamaica – https://youtu.be/vJa2ftQwfNY

Posted Jun 11, 2008 – Environmentalists are arguing that the bauxite mining industry in Jamaica is having a devastating impact on the environment and surrounding eco-systems. It is also posing serious health problems for local communities. The sun baked sludge contains heavy metals and other pollutants. Al Jazeera’s Anand Naidoo reports from central Jamaica.

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Jamaica had not always employed best practices when it came to Mineral Extractions. After all of the “harm and foul” of this industry, the economic benefits are only a minuscule US$700 Million, just a small fraction of the national economic output. Jamaica now recognizes all of this drama and is trying to reboot, reform and transform their Mineral Extraction ecosystem; see Appendix C below. This Cautionary Tale provides the rest of the Caribbean with Lessons-learned to help us forge our new economic engines.

Wisdom comes from experience. Experience comes from making mistakes.

The Go Lean movement have asserted that Jamaica has a lot of wisdom to share with the rest of the Caribbean; they have made a lot of mistakes over the years. They have suffered, and continue to suffer harsh consequences. Think of their atrocious societal abandonment rate; one source rates their Brain Drain at 85%. So sad!

This commentary has published many previous discussions about Lessons Learned from Jamaica; consider this sample list of previous blog-commentaries here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17232	Way Forward – Jamaica: Must reconcile the Past
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13040	Jamaican Diaspora – Not the ‘Panacea’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7866	Switching Allegiances: Sprinters move on to represent other countries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5784	Egregious Human Rights Abuses in Jamaica – ‘Say It Ain’t So’!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4840	Jamaican Poll: ‘Bring back the British!’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3694	“Canada” employment programme needed to pump up local economy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2830	Jamaica’s Public Pension Under-funded
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=392	Jamaica to receive World Bank funds to help in crime fight
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=313	What’s Holding Back Jamaica’s Reforms

Learning lessons from Jamaica’s past, means acting in harmony with those lessons. While Jamaica has to reclaim and restore their damaged environment, we can benefit by avoiding the same bad decisioning. We can still have a bright future with a careful embrace of Mineral Extractions.

The Go Lean movement is here to do more in terms of exploring Mineral Extractions in the Caribbean region; we are even here to help Jamaica. The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to foster development, administration and protections for the Mineral Extraction industry and the neighboring communities. For example, there is the strategies of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for the Caribbean Seas and Self-Governing Entities (SGE) on the land. Consider this sample excerpt (headlines and quotations) from Page 195 of the book:

10 Ways to Impact Extractions

1	Lean-in for Caribbean Integration The CU treaty unifies the Caribbean region into one Single Market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby empowering the economic engines in and on behalf of the region, including many public works projects and the emergence of many new industries. The new regional jurisdiction allows for mineral extraction (mines), oil/natural gas exploration in the Exclusive Economic Zone and some federal oversight for domestic mining/drilling/extraction operations, especially where systemic threats or cross-border administration are concerned. One CU mandate is to protect tourism. This is just one of the negative side-effects to be on guard for, see *Appendix ZK (Page 334)* for other concerns.
2	Oil – Mitigation Plan The concept of oil exploration is very strategic for the CU, as there are member-states that are oil producers. With energy prices so high, this is a lucrative endeavor. But there is risk, tied to the reward equation; the CU cannot endure a [2010] Deepwater Horizon-style disaster. Risk management and disaster mitigation plan must therefore be embedded into every drilling permit. The CU will oversee this governance and provide transparent oversight, accountability & reporting.
3	“Rare Earth” Rush – Minerals Priced higher than Gold (Year 2010: $1,000 a pound; $2,200 per kilogram) There is a “rush”/quest to harvest rare earth elements. These include lanthanide elements (15 metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers 57 through 71, from lanthanum through lutetium) for metals that are ferromagnetic, this means their magnetism only appear at low temperatures. Rare earth magnets are made from these compounds and are ideal in many high-tech products. The CU will foster the regional exploration & extraction of these pricey materials.
4	Pipeline Strategy/Tactical Alignment
5	Emergency Response / Trauma Center The CU accedence grants authority for federal jurisdiction on oil exploration/drilling projects. This is due to the environmental concerns, systemic threats & strategic implications for energy security. So CU Emergency (Risk, Disaster & Medical Trauma) Managers will audit and test shutdown, mitigation and emergency procedures annually.
6	Exclusive Economic Zone Oversight / Research and Exploration The CU has direct jurisdiction in the UN-granted Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ); mostly, this is the Caribbean Sea area. The CU will carefully expand exploration in the EEZ and regulate cross-border projects, for regional compliance.
7	State Regulated Mining – Peer Review The CU may not oversee member-state existing extractions, but there will be a reports-filing requirement; this provides Peer Review and Best Practice monitoring. This advocacy would be most applicable for Jamaica’s Bauxite mines, Guyana’s emerald mines and salt extraction in the Bahamas; [and other efforts in other member-states]. The CU will promote SGE’s for future extraction projects.
8	Precious Metals – Exclusive to Caribbean Dollar
9	Treasure Hunting in EEZ – CU must grant Excavation “Permits”
10	Ferries Schedule for Transport to Offshore Rigs

So yes, the Go Lean/CU roadmap calls for fostering Mineral Extractions as an industrial alternative to tourism. We have the natural resources on land and in the seas. We may also have the skills and the passionate work-force to employ. We only need the Good Governance in our stewardship.

We have learned a lot from Jamaica’s past … and present; they had not always employed what we know today to be Best Practices. Let’s now consider only the optimizations of this industry – this is the technocratic Way Forward. Our quest now is to only consider Best Practices for the future for all people in all member-states.

The Caribbean people is now ready to consider industrial diversification away from tourism. We need the empowerment that would come from Mineral Extraction; we need it now and we need it bad!

COVID-19 has demonstrated that tourism-only is not good enough – mono-industrial no more!

We must now diversify; this has always been the Best Practice; even mono-industrial Oil Exporting countries see the need to diversify. This is how we can make the 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!

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 11 – 14):

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 accidence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.

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

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

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

—————-

Appendix A – Title: 60 years of bauxite mining in Jamaica – Part 1
By: Carlton E. Davis, Contributor

ALTHOUGH I have written about the Jamaican bauxite and aluminium industry in three books and numerous articles, I think it is appropriate to repeat some of what I have written to mark the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the commercial mining of the ore.

On June 5, 1952, the first shipment was made by Reynolds Jamaica Mines from its port in Ocho Rios to the parent company’s alumina plant at Hurricane Creek, Arkansas.

The Daily Gleaner ‘jumped the gun’, so to speak, by announcing the impending shipment in the next day or two in its issue of May 28, 1952, with a front page headline: ‘Red Gold Going for the First Time’.

This first shipment was to mark the start of Jamaica’s largest non-service local industry for all but a few of these 60 years.

It was the culmination of a more-than-decade long process of:

(a) Discovery of the existence of large quantities of commercial reserves in the country;

(b) Contemplated use by the allies during the Second World War;

(d) Research and development activities to enable the economic processing of the ore.

Although the famous geologist, Sir Thomas de la Beche noted the existence of the red marly soil in 1827, and, later, another geologist, C. Barrington Browne, wrote of the red ferruginous (iron-containing) earth, no connection was made between these two observations with the earlier discovery of a naturally-occurring aluminous material, near the village of Les Baux, (hence the naming of the aluminous ore ‘bauxite’) Provence, France, by the French chemist, Pierre Berthier, in 1821.

Two pertinent developments in the late part of the 19th century were to make these naturally occurring aluminous materials (even if in Jamaica’s case they were more recognised for their iron content) important.

The first was the almost simultaneous discovery in 1886 (on the much grander scale, not dissimilar to the separate inventions of the calculus by the 17th century titans, Newton and Leibnitz, of the process of ‘winning’ aluminium from its oxide by electrolytic means. These inventions were by an American, Charles Martin Hall (who had some Jamaican connection, by virtue of his father serving as a congregational minister in the parish of St Mary for 10 years and returning to the United States just before his son was born), and the Frenchman, Paul Louis Heroult.

Two inventions

The second was two inventions, one in 1888 and another in 1894, respectively, of a process for extracting alumina from bauxite by the Austrian Chemist, Karl Josef Bayer. And so the technology was named the ‘Bayer’ process after him.

But it was not until about a-half-a-century after these two discoveries that there was an ‘awakening’ of the commercial possibilities of the Jamaican red, marly soil or ferruginous earth.

This awakening had its genesis in the difficulties experienced by a wealthy gentleman farmer and businessman, Sir Alfred D’Costa, who was having difficulty growing Wynne grass (Melinis minutoflora) for his cattle on his lands in St Ann.

As the saying goes, one thing led to another with the determination by the Government of Jamaica’s Agricultural Chemistry Department, supported by chemical analysis overseas, that the soils, while devoid of essential nutrients for plant growth, had relatively high concentrations of aluminium.

As mentioned above, Sir Alfred was not only a gentleman farmer, but a businessman. So, wearing the latter hat, he sought to interest first the British Empire’s companies, Alcan and British Aluminium in the commercial potential of the ore on his land, and when he found that neither company was interested in sprinting on this matter, he turned to the Dutch Company, Billiton, through whose government he had a connection by virtue of being its Honorary Consul in Jamaica.

In the event, the matter became not merely a case of ‘parson christening his pickney first’, but ‘parson christening only his pickney’ as the ‘Empire Company,’ Alcan, was given a monopoly over of the exploration of the ore. But, as we shall see later, the Second World War and its aftermath, were to usher in the era of Pax Americana and see the United States (US) emerge as the predominant power in world affairs.

Aluminium became an important material of war during the First World War and became much more so during the Second World War, particularly with the increasing role of aircraft as a weapon of war.

So, disrupting the supply chain of this material (as well as others of course) whether in the raw or finished state became of strategic significance to the combatants.

This was precisely what the Germans sought to do in the Atlantic in respect of bauxite shipped from British Guiana (now Guyana) and Dutch Guiana (now Suriname),where bauxite had been mined from the early decades of the last century, to the North American mainland.

Destroyed and harassed Allied shipping

The Germans, through their submarines (called U-boats), destroyed and harassed allied shipping in the Atlantic.

The matter was of such concern, that no less a person than the American military supremo himself, General George Marshall, was moved to write the Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet, Admiral Ernest J. King, as follows:

…The losses by submarines off our Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean now threaten our entire war effort … Of the 74 ships allocated to the army by the War Shipping Administration, 17 have already been sunk. Twenty-two per cent of the bauxite fleet has already been destroyed. …We are all aware of the limited number of escort craft available, but has every conceivable means been brought to bear on the situation?

One such means contemplated was shipping bauxite from Jamaica, which was 1,000 miles closer to the North American mainland than the Guianas and would therefore reduce the risk of U-boat destruction or harassment.

However, this option was not pursued, most likely because of the ‘turning of the tide’ of the war in favour of the allies, and the difficulty of economically processing the Jamaican ore with the then-known ‘American’ Bayer technology.

Two notable developments led to the emergence of two US companies, Reynolds Metals and Kaiser Aluminium, to join Alcan in developing the Jamaican industry.

Carlton Davis is ambassador and special envoy in the Office of the Prime Minister. Please see Part 2 tomorrow.

Source: Posted June 5, 2012; retrieved January 23, 2021 from: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120605/news/news1.html

—————-

Appendix B – Title: 60 years of Bauxite mining in Jamaica – Part II
By: Cartlon E Davis, Contributor

TWO NOTABLE developments led to the emergence of two US companies, Reynolds Metals and Kaiser Aluminium, to join Alcan in developing the Jamaican industry.

One, was the determination of the US Government and its courts to end Alcoa’s long monopoly of the US aluminium industry. The other, as I indicated earlier, was the emergence of the US as the predominant world military, economic and political power.

All three companies, Alcan, Reynolds and Kaiser, had to develop an appropriate technology to economically refine Jamaican ore into alumina; and this technology proved successful in processing the low monohydrate hematitic ore, which the companies, for the most part mined, for more than three decades.

The biggest player in the world aluminium industry, Alcoa, perhaps, because it was now divested of its relationship with Alcan entered the Jamaican industry in 1959. Thus, Jamaica was to have four of the world’s six largest aluminium companies (the two exceptions were the French firm, Pechiney, and the Swiss, Alusuisse) mining or processing ore in the country.

Thriving industry

The activities of the then- existing companies led to Jamaica, in 1957, replacing Suriname as the world’s number one bauxite producer, a position it held until 1971, when it was replaced by Guinea, (which in turn held the position until it was replaced by Australia in 1978).

Apart from bauxite mining or alumina processing, two of the companies by virtue of the large acreages of land [came] under their control; their genuine interest in farming; and their ability to make money, became two of the biggest agricultural operations in the country. Reynolds, mainly in beef cattle (mainly Santa Gertrudis) and Alcan (mixed beef, dairy and crops).

While for the most part, the relationship between the companies, on the one hand, and the Government and the community on the other, were quite cordial, there were tensions at times.

In respect of the Government, there were issues such as: (a) royalty negotiations in 1950; (b) royalty and income tax negotiations in 1957; (c) the bauxite levy negotiations in 1974; and (d) lease arrangements for the JAMALCO plant after Alcoa had closed the plant in 1985.

With the communities there have been issues over land use and environmental impacts.

But overall, the industry has had had a major positive impact on the development of Jamaica, as a whole and not least of all, towns or villages surrounding their operations, such as Mandeville, Manchester; Santa Cruz and Junction St Elizabeth; Brown’s Town, St Ann; May Pen, Clarendon and Ewarton, St Catherine.

All three of the founding companies have since left Jamaica: Reynolds, in 1984; Alcan, in 2001; and Kaiser in 2004. The parent companies did not long survive at any rate as the strong individual companies they once were: Reynolds Metals, did not long exist as an individual company as it was ‘absorbed’ in the Alcoa family in 2000; Alcan was acquired Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian Company in 2007; and Kaiser Aluminium is now a greatly-reduced company concentrating on relatively small downstream activities of smelting and fabrication.

Economy blasts companies

These founding companies of the Jamaican industry were eventually succeeded by the Swiss-based trading company, Glencore, which bought Alcan’s operations in Jamaica and held them as an individual entity for a few years before selling them into the now – world number one aluminium company (using certain indicators) UC RUSAL (now 70 per cent owner of alumina capacity in Jamaica): and in terms of the bauxite exporting operation, the new York City-based Apollo Global Management LLC-owned Noranda.

Of the legendary aluminium companies, only Alcoa remains in Jamaica; and one of the purposes of the meeting in New York between that company’s top officials and the prime minister of Jamaica was to try to keep its interest in the country alive.

The ‘Great Recession’; but, in particular the skyrocketing of the price of oil since the beginning of the latter part of the last decade, has shaken the Jamaican industry to the core leaving two plants representing half of the island’s alumina capacity of 4.4 million tonnes per annum idled since early 2009; and the remaining two (including the hitherto, world top-ranking, JAMALCO), barely holding on.

Yet (and perhaps this is a measure of the narrow base of the Jamaican economy) the industry still remains Jamaica’s largest non-service one, by some distance, and the number one gross merchandise earner, for the country, in the amount of over US$700 million per annum.

Our recent meetings in New York with Alcoa, and two other major players in the local industry have encouraged us to believe (to paraphrase Mark Twain) that ‘the news of the industry’s demise may be exaggerated’; and that (to paraphrase an even greater writer, John Milton) ‘All is not lost’.

This results from: (a) more open-mindedness in regard to the choice of fuel to replace oil and the willingness of the Government to work closely with the industry to effect the transformation; (b) a renewed determination by the administration to update the estimates of reserves to enable at least three of the four plants to operate for 30 years at expanded capacities; and, (c) advances (at any rate by a prominent company) to process the difficult high goethite and high phosphorus ores, indicate that the industry may be poised for resurgence.

Will the industry be around for another 60 years? I personally doubt so, having regard to competition for land, ore quality considerations and the reality of ‘environmental activism’.

For me, a half of that period (30 years) will suffice as this will, among other things, give the country more than enough time to diversify its economic base.

Carlton E Davis is ambassador and special envoy in the Office of the Prime Minister.

Source: Posted June 6, 2012; retrieved January 23, 2021 from: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120606/news/news1.html

—————-

Appendix C – Title: Jamaica’s Bauxite mining is turning around: Approximately 20.82 million tonnes exported 2017-19

The island country Jamaica’s bauxite and alumina industry is retaking its place on the world stage and investors are showing a positive trend to explore Jamaica’s bauxite mines.

Bauxite mining is considered as the star performer of Jamaica’s economy.

The latest example of Jamaican mining is the progress of JAMALCO, a company focused on bauxite mining and alumina production that is a joint venture between global commodities trader Noble Group, which owns 55%, and Clarendon Alumina Production, which holds the other 45 % and is publicly owned.

Noranda Bauxite shipped an estimated 3.8 million wet metric tons from its bauxite operation at St. Ann, Jamaica last year, and it expects to be able to continue to ship similarly-sized amounts well into the next decade.

The country’s mining is turning around and the export of 20.82 million tonnes bauxite during 2017-19 has been accounted for. The bauxite mining for 2020 is projected at 6.70 million tonnes, when added to the previous year’s figure it reflects 27.52 million tonnes.

In the year 2017, the bauxite importation was recorded at 6.73 million tonnes and in 2018 it was spotted at 7.14 million tonnes. A growth of 6.09% has been measured.

Again in 2019, the bauxite export stood at 6.95 million tonnes, though recorded a slight downfall of 2.67%. The year 2020 has been projected with a positive trend of 6.70 million tonnes, again a growth of 3.5% from the previous year.

Source: Posted February 4, 2020; retrieved January 23, 2021 from: https://www.alcircle.com/news/jamaicas-bauxite-mining-is-turning-around-approximately-20-82-million-tonnes-exported-2017-19-50994

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Butch Stewart – A Full Caribbean Life, RIP

Posted on January 5, 2021 in Ethos, Industries, Locations, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Gordon “Butch” Stewart has died. 🙁

This is a sad day for his family and all of the Caribbean. He was a renowned entrepreneur for the regional travel industry, a hotelier – think Sandals, Beaches and others; see Appendix VIDEO – and the one-time owner of the airline Air Jamaica, now branded “Caribbean Airlines”. (The airline was sold back to the Jamaican Government in 2004.^[16])

See this published obituary from a local Caribbean media outlet (Bahamas):

Title: ‘Entrepreneur, statesman, dreamer’: Sandals founder Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart dies at 79
By: Ava Turnquest
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Jamaican hotelier and business mogul Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart died in hospital yesterday.

Stewart, the founder of Sandals Resorts International, ATL Group, and The Jamaica Observer, died at 79.

His death was confirmed in an internal memorandum issued to managers of the Sandals group by his son, Sandals deputy chairman Adam Stewart.

Adam Stewart acknowledged the death seemed unbelievable, noting his father chose to keep a very recent health diagnosis private.

He said his father will be missed forever.

“The Hon. Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart OJ, a distinction he was so proud of, was a gifted entrepreneur,” Stewart said.

“He was a marketing genius and talented showman, but those who knew him best recognized that he was a dreamer who could dream bigger and better than anyone. It was often said: “the best thing for people around him to do is be dream catchers.”

Stewart continued: “That’s why he always credited his success to the incredible team around him, why he listened intently when it came to creating innovative things that would excite and delight our guests, and why it is so important that I remind you today of all days, that we will all continue to be his dream catchers.

“Together, we have all been part of something bigger than ourselves, led by a man who believed in us and who gave us opportunities to learn, grow and the tools to make dreams real.”

Stewart said: “For him and because of him ̧ we will continue to dream big and deliver on his certainty that true luxury is always best enjoyed by the sea. My Dad lived a big life – husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather entrepreneur, statesman, dreamer.”

“A singular personality and an unstoppable force who revelled in defying the odds, exceeding expectations and whose passion for his family was matched only by the people and possibility of the Caribbean, for whom he was a fierce champion.

“There will never be another quite like him and we will miss him forever,” he added.

Source: Posted and retrieved January 5, 2021 from: https://ewnews.com/entrepreneur-statesman-dreamer-sandals-founder-gordon-butch-stewart-dies-at-79.

Butch Stewart definitely had an impact on the Caribbean ecosystem. As of 2012, Stewart’s businesses employed more than 10,000 people in the Caribbean across various industries including hospitality, restaurant, automotive, retail, and media.^[9]

Butch Stewart labored to promote, provide and protect Caribbean interest all over the world. He proved to be a fine role model for the Caribbean youth to emulate. In fact, his profile was featured in the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean – on Page 189 – this publication serves as a roadmap for rebooting the Caribbean societal engines of economics, security and governance. See that published profile in the Appendix below.

We can look back at Butch Stewart’s life and see how to prosper where planted.

His easy pace, infectious warmth and trademark striped shirt, belied the prowess and acute business acumen responsible for his estimated billion-dollar, privately-owned Jamaican-based empire that includes 24 Caribbean properties, Appliance Traders, ATL Automotive, ATL Autobahn and the Observer media company.

All told, Stewart spearheaded two dozen diverse companies that collectively represent the largest private sector group in Jamaica, the country’s biggest foreign exchange earner and its largest non-government employer. – Source: Retrieved January 5, 2021 from: https://www.breakingtravelnews.com/focus/article/breaking-travel-news-investigates-gordon-butch-stewart/

With Sir Richard Branson

He was a mover-and-a-shaker; we need many more Caribbean people – in the homeland and the Diaspora – to follow in those footsteps. This is even a Biblical precept; see here:

Remember those who led you … and considering the result of their way of life, imitate their faith. – The Bible: Hebrews 13:7 New American Standard Bible

The globe is mourning his passing, not as a Global Citizen, but rather as a Caribbean “Man of Distinction”. That labeling “Man of Distinction” is not our wording alone, but the array of organizations that honored him during his life. See this sample here:

Honours and awards
Stewart received several accolades and awards including Jamaica’s highest national distinctions: Order of Jamaica, and Commander of the Order of Distinction.^[29] He received honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from the University of the West Indies (2001) and from the University of Technology, Jamaica (2009). He also received an honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree from Johnson & Wales University in 2011.^[30]

In 1992, Stewart was presented with the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Humanitarian Award from the Jamaica–America Society.^[29] Ernst & Young voted him Master Entrepreneur of the decade of the 90s. Stewart was a Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary International‘s highest award. At the 2000 World Travel Awards, he was voted “Travel Man of the Millennium” for his work in promoting Caribbean tourism. In 2011, The Caribbean American Foundation presented Stewart with the Golden Eagle Humanitarian Award in recognition of his philanthropic contributions to education and entrepreneurship in the Caribbean. In 2014 Stewart was honored with the Most Innovative All-Inclusive Resort Executive by the Travalliance Travvy Awards, Hotelier of the Year at the Cacique Award held by the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation and the Invest Caribbean Now Leadership Award presented at its global summit.^[31]

Stewart was a recipient of Caribbean World Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in Jamaica,^[32] and was referred to as one of Jamaica’s most-admired businessmen by Kamal King, President of Cambridge College and Community Services Jamaica, in an address to graduating students.^[33][34]

He earned Lifetime Achievement Awards from The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences, Travel Weekly and Globe Travel Awards.^[35] – Source: Wikipedia.

This commentary is NOT in the business of doing one obituary after another. But we do identify, qualify and analyze the life and legacy of people who have had a major impact on Caribbean life and image. While we cannot bring back the dead, no one can, we can benefit by studying their words and actions. We can imitate their faith. This is a familiar theme in previous commentaries that we have published that have been dubbed obituaries. See this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=21038	David Dinkins – Former Mayor of NYC and hero to Caribbean Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19180	RIP Katherine Johnson – STEM Forerunner & Rocket Scientist
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10114	Caribbean Roots: Actress Esther Rolle from TV Show ‘Good Times’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10015	E. R. Braithwaite, Author of ‘To Sir, With Love’ – RIP
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8165	Role Model Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight – RIP
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2726	Caribbean Role Model – Oscar De La Renta – RIP

Butch Stewart was a Jamaican, not American, Canadian or UK citizen. He was a Caribbean man that lived a full Caribbean life.

There is a familiar Meme – picture or phrase that a lot of people share with each other – in the Bahamas:

This actuality depicts our quest for the Caribbean: to optimize the societal engines so that we can all spend our days in the homeland, cradle to grave, with not sacrifice as to the quality of life. To accomplish this, we need some help, thusly, we introduced the concept of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to do the heavy-lifting for executing strategies, tactics and implementations that would elevate the entire Caribbean region.

For those people in the Caribbean homeland, we entreat you: Stay Home, help is on the way.
For those in the Diaspora, we urge you to come in from the cold. Your homeland awaits you.

Take your rest Gordon “Butch” Stewart; you have lived a full Caribbean life and you have shown us how to “prosper where we are planted” here in the Caribbean. RIP …

Yes, we can all prosper in the homeland. Let’s get busy and do the work, the heavy-lifting, to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙁

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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

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

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

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

—————-

Excerpt: Anecdote # 18 – Caribbean Industrialist: Gordon “Butch” Stewart (Go Lean book Page 189)

Title: How I Did It: Butch Stewart of Sandals Resorts | Inc.com
By: Stephanie Clifford – (excerpt from) INC. Magazine – April 1, 2008
Gordon “Butch” Stewart’s voice is deep and slow, and he speaks with melodic phrasing, suggesting the sun-soaked climate of his native Jamaica, where he started Sandals Resorts, in 1981. Today (2008), Stewart owns and runs 20 resorts under the Sandals umbrella, including the original Sandals all-inclusive, couples-only resorts, the Beaches resorts for families, and four boutique hotels. Stewart serves as company chairman, while his son Adam, 27, is now the CEO. The resorts are sprawling, with flourishes like multicolored pagodas, swim-up bars, and poolside Greek temples. One resort boasts 100 separate swimming pools. From its small beginnings, Sandals, based in Montego Bay, has grown into a multibillion-dollar company.

I got a job at a trading company and was in charge of the appliance department. After five years, I was able to save over $3,000. [Starting in 1968, I realized that] Fedders air conditioners were not represented in Jamaica. I bought an airplane ticket and I headed to Edison, New Jersey. I met with the president’s nephew. We really hit it off. He said to the finance people, “Look, he’s paying cash for the first shipment, so there’s nothing to lose; give him a chance.”

I rented an old doctor’s office in Jamaica, a secondhand car, and a secondhand pickup. I was able to buy 27 room air conditioners. Before they arrived, I had them sold. I would install them in half a day, and so we made our money out of making people happy. Today, that company, ATL Group, is also in the office equipment business, we are the distributor for Honda motorcars, and we have a newspaper called The Jamaica Observer.

Jamaica had gone through a period of upheaval in the ’70s. It was a time of radical socialism, and the economy went to tatters. But we survived, and in 1980 we had a new government. We were so enthusiastic. I ended up buying two hotels. They were all in shambles. If I had known what I was doing, I would never have bought those hotels. The amount of Pandora’s boxes that were in there! We had to find out how to market and how to cook the food, and the kind of décor and rooms people wanted. That was 1981.

We set about trying to provide more than people expected. I was in Italy and I saw this hair dryer in the bedroom. I found out the manufacturer, and we were the first hotel to have hair dryers in the Caribbean. It’s not a big deal today, but in 1983, it was. We did our first swim-up pool bar in 1984. We were the first in the Caribbean to do it. When we were putting in our first hot tub, the people in the hotel association said, “Butch, take it easy, man, you don’t need to waste your money that way.” While they were talking, I was building a second and a third in different parts of the property, because I realized people like different locations to soak in the tub.

Everybody thought we’d be out of business the first month because the hotel is very close to the airport. We came up with the idea of everyone waving to the people that were leaving in the plane, and kissing the one you love when a plane flies by. I don’t think we had five complaints after that. Then the Concorde started flying to Jamaica once a week, and it made more noise than any airplane I’ve ever heard. The buildings shook. So we turned all the beach lounges to face the airport, and that magnificent airplane would get up right in front of everybody on the beach. Guests would come rushing in: “Has the Concorde taken off yet?” We made a promotion out of it.

The first two years, we lost more money than I ever dreamt possible. We realized that we didn’t have enough bedrooms. We only had 100 rooms, so I went in and built more rooms, and that same hotel now is 251 bedrooms.

In 1986, we were able to buy another hotel, Sandals Royal Caribbean it’s called today. And we’ve been able to build more. One is Sandals Grande Riviera Beach & Villa Resort, in the area where I grew up; in fact, the piano bar is built right where my grandmother’s home was. Sandals Negril ended up being the most successful hotel that the Caribbean has ever had. We opened it in November 1988. It opened full, and it has been full ever since.

Beaches came straight out of guests saying to me, “Butch, we have been here 15 times, 20 times. But now we have kids; we need a place that we can take the whole family.” So that’s how Beaches evolved, starting in 1997. We never realized that you needed to do so much to keep the entire family happy. Kids get bored if you don’t have organized things for them to do. The smartest thing I ever did was to make my second-youngest son, Adam, chairman of the youth committee to come up with creative ideas to make the younger people happy. We have water slides, swimming bars for kids — so it’s only juice and nonalcoholic drinks — and we have a little disco that converts into a movie theater.

We have spent $370 million over the past three years modernizing, redecorating, and expanding. Women — I mean, I hope I’m not saying something wrong — but women just want bigger and better-quality bathrooms every year. They want bathrooms that are like palaces, that have Jacuzzis in them, separate showers, bidets, twin basins, and now they want those big overhead showers, also soaking tubs. And our job is to please those requests.

…

I’ve never had any doubts about the business. I run on gut instinct to a large extent, but at the same time I never make a major decision without bouncing it off of a circle of people that I work with. Right now, we have an organization that has everybody in it. You want lawyers; we have them. Engineers; we have them. Accountants; we have them. Marketing people; we have them. People that understand how to cook the best food in the world; we have them.

Source: Retrieved November 2013 from: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080401/how-i-did-it-butch-stewart-sandals-resorts.html

—————-

Appendix VIDEO – The BEST SANDALS Resorts-The Pros & Cons of Each … – https://youtu.be/M39FJAHUlBk

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I hope you have a wonderful, blessed day. I will see you in my next video! – Vanessa

Sandals has many incredible resorts, but we’re going to give you the Pros AND Cons of our favorites, and which one we picked and enjoyed on our Honeymoon! – Vanessa

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Long Train of Abuses: Dutch Hypocrisy – Liberal Amsterdam vs Conservative Antilles

Posted on December 12, 2020 in Ethos, Locations, Social

Go Lean Commentary

There continues to be a Long Train of Abuses in the Caribbean countries. There are 30 member-states – all with European legacies – some independent countries and some dependent territories, but the assessment is the same:

We have many societal defects; we do not always treat our neighbors as neighborly as we should; at times we have been toxic and hostile towards certain minority groups and we have chased many people away, causing them to flee for refuge abroad.

We need to reform and transform Human Rights protections in our homeland. If only we can be more like the countries our emigrants seek refuge in! Destinations like the US, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union. If only we can be more liberal – live and let live – compared to our conservative or intolerant nature. Why the difference?

The European Union (EU), in its short history, has been very good for regulating Human Rights through out the EU member-states and the whole world for that matter. In fact, after the actuality of World War I and World War II being fought within Europe and by opposing European factions, the EU was recognized as the new dampening force that held the 27 member-states together in peaceful harmony. For this grandiose accomplishment, they were awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. The 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean relates (Page 130):

Nobel Peace Prize
The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the EU “for over six decades having contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe” by unanimous decision of the committee in Norway.

That page in the book goes on to relate another benefit of the EU, the day-to-day enforcement of Human Rights:

Human Rights Declaration
Values like human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, and the rule of law and respect for human rights have been embedded in the EU treaties right from the start.

There are Caribbean territories that are actually members of the European Union … kinda. That would be the French Antillean islands (Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Bartholomew and St. Martin) and the Netherlands Antilles (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten). The Netherlands Antilles have gone through some upheavals, with integration and secession events. At this moment, the 6 islands have the status of either constituent states within the Kingdom of the Netherlands or direct parts of the Netherlands proper, governed by the capitol in Amsterdam as “special municipalities”. At this juncture the Netherlands Antilles have this status in the EU, according to Wikipedia:

Status in the European Union
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a member of the European Union. However, Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten have the status of overseas countries and territories (OCTs) and are not part of the EU. Nevertheless, only one type of citizenship exists within the Kingdom (Dutch), and all Dutch citizens are EU citizens (including those in the OCTs).

All of this history helps to explain why there is a difference in the European Netherlands versus the Caribbean ( Antillean) Netherlands. Why the difference?

For one, religiosity is a driving force for the Community Ethos of Caribbean society. “Community Ethos”, that is defined as a noun, as:

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

This is a continuation of the monthly Teaching Series from the movement behind the Go Lean book on the Long Train of Abuses that have molded our people and our society. We do indeed have societal defects that were embedded in our colonial past but didn’t evolve as our Host Colonizers (i.e. The Netherlands, Holland or Amsterdam) evolved. We are stuck in time …

We are partying like its 1869 …

Remember the bad religious orthodoxy that was discussed in the previous entries in this blog series; how these “hatreds” were embedded in national edicts (Law-and-Order) over the centuries: Slavery, Colonialism , Patriarchy / Gender Rights, White Supremacy, Buggery / LGBT Rights, Child Abuse.

This monthly Go Lean Teaching Series always presents issues that are germane to Caribbean life and culture and how to address them. For this month of December 2020, we are looking at the Long Train of Abuses that have pushed our people away from the homeland. This is entry 5-of-6; which illustrates that embedded intolerance in Caribbean society has had the bad consequences of chasing good people away from the Antillean Netherlands to go to the European Netherlands. This is the “Dutch” all around; yet the clear assessment of toxicity and dysfunction in the tropical islands is a clear contrast to the progressive liberalism in the European homeland. We feature a Long Train of Abuses that we have to endure, while Amsterdam features a laissez-faire attitude that has been more inviting and appealing.

The full catalog of the series this month is as follows:

Long Train of Abuses: Enough Already – Colonialism Be Gone!
Long Train of Abuses: Overseas Masters – Cannot See Overseas
Long Train of Abuses: Religious Leadership in Politics – Reconciling Trump
Long Train of Abuses: Religious Character in Society – Human Rights
Long Train of Abuses: Dutch Hypocrisy – Liberal Amsterdam vs Conservative Antilles
Long Train of Abuses: Puerto Rico – “Take the Heat” or “Get out of the Kitchen”

The Netherlands Antilles is in crisis; they continue to suffer from a Long Train of Abuses … they cannot hold on to their young people or any of their highly educated citizens – Brain Drain. People are fleeing to … the European Netherlands – rated as one of the best places to live, work and play.

See this previous Go Lean commentary on Aruba, the biggest Dutch Caribbean community. Consider this excerpt:

The State of Aruba’s Economy – February 19, 2015
The largest of the Dutch Caribbean is Aruba.

Aruba called for secession from the Netherlands Antilles from as early as the 1930s, becoming a separate state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1986. After many other organizational developments, by 2010, Aruba is dispositioned as one of the four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with the Netherlands (European homeland), Curaçao and Sint Maarten.

What is the status of Aruba today?

How has it fared as an autonomous state?

The Go Lean book posits that Aruba is in crisis; (along with the rest of the Caribbean). This is also the assessment by the International Monetary Fund, as related in this news article:

By: The Caribbean Journal staff

Aruba’s economy is “recovering gradually” from a “severe double-dip recession,” according to the International Monetary Fund, which recently concluded its 2015 Article IV Mission to the Dutch Caribbean island.

The recession was [exacerbated] by a pair of factors: the global financial crisis and the shutdown of the oil refinery in Aruba. …

Aruba fails to keep its young people at home. In fact, the anecdotal experience (one story after another) is that young people abandon this island as soon as they finish high school; many never to return again, except for occasional visits. (Aruban natives – plus all Netherland Antilles states – have Dutch citizenship, sharing the same Dutch passport as the Kingdom of the Netherlands).
…
As for the Dutch Caribbean territories, even though they are no longer considered colonies, but rather constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, they are effectively just welfare states dependent on Amsterdam; and a feeder for low-cost labor in Holland. They are inconsequential within the Dutch sphere of influence. There are parasites not protégés!

We must do better!

On the other hand, there is Amsterdam, the capital and principal city for the Kingdom of the Netherlands; see Appendices.

Amsterdam is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands with a population of 872,680^[12] within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban area^[5] and 2,480,394 in the metropolitan area.^[9] Found within the province of North Holland,^[13][14] Amsterdam is colloquially referred to as the “Venice of the North“, attributed by the large number of canals which form a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Amsterdam was founded at the Amstel, that was dammed to control flooding, and the city’s name derives from the Amstel dam.^[15] Originating as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world during the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, and became the leading centre for finance and trade.^[16] In the 19th and 20th centuries, the city expanded and many new neighbourhoods and suburbs were planned and built.

Amsterdam’s main attractions include its historic canals, the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Hermitage Amsterdam, the Concertgebouw, the Anne Frank House, the Scheepvaartmuseum, the Amsterdam Museum, the Heineken Experience, the Royal Palace of Amsterdam, Natura Artis Magistra, Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam, NEMO, the red-light district and many cannabis coffee shops. It drew more than 5 million international visitors in 2014.^[17] The city is also well known for its nightlife and festival activity; with several of its nightclubs (Melkweg, Paradiso) among the world’s most famous. Primarily known for its artistic heritage, elaborate canal system and narrow houses with gabled façades; well-preserved legacies of the city’s 17th-century Golden Age. These characteristics are arguably responsible for attracting millions of Amsterdam’s visitors annually. Cycling is key to the city’s character, and there are numerous bike paths.

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is considered the oldest “modern” securities market stock exchange in the world. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered an alpha world city by the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) study group. The city is also the cultural capital of the Netherlands.^[18] Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters in the city, including: the Philips conglomerate, AkzoNobel, Booking.com, TomTom, and ING.^[19] Moreover, many of the world’s largest companies are based in Amsterdam or have established their European headquarters in the city, such as leading technology companies Uber, Netflix and Tesla.^[20] In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)^[21] and 12th globally on quality of living for environment and infrastructure by Mercer.^[22] The city was ranked 4th place globally as top tech hub in the Savills Tech Cities 2019 report (2nd in Europe),^[23] and 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009.^[24] The Port of Amsterdam is the fifth largest in Europe.^[25] The KLM hub and Amsterdam’s main airport: Schiphol, is the Netherlands’ busiest airport as well as the third busiest in Europe and 11th busiest airport in the world.^[26] The Dutch capital is considered one of the most multicultural cities in the world, with at least 177 nationalities represented.^[27]

…

Diversity and immigration
Amsterdam experienced an influx of religions and cultures after the Second World War. With 180 different nationalities,^[138] Amsterdam is home to one of the widest varieties of nationalities of any city in the world.^[139] The proportion of the population of immigrant origin in the city proper is about 50%^[140] and 88% of the population are Dutch citizens.^[141]

Amsterdam has been one of the municipalities in the Netherlands which provided immigrants with extensive and free Dutch-language courses, which have benefited many immigrants.^[142]

Economy – Tourism
Amsterdam is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, receiving more than 5.34 million international visitors annually, this is excluding the 16 million day-trippers visiting the city every year.^[171] The number of visitors has been growing steadily over the past decade. This can be attributed to an increasing number of European visitors. Two-thirds of the hotels are located in the city’s centre.^[172] Hotels with 4 or 5 stars contribute 42% of the total beds available and 41% of the overnight stays in Amsterdam. The room occupation rate was 85% in 2017, up from 78% in 2006.^[173][174] The majority of tourists (74%) originate from Europe. The largest group of non-European visitors come from the United States, accounting for 14% of the total.^[174] Certain years have a theme in Amsterdam to attract extra tourists.
…
Source: Retrieved December 12, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam

Why such a sharp difference between the actuality of Aruba and that of Amsterdam?

Aruba appears in crisis; Amsterdam is thriving – one of the best cities in the world.
People cannot wait to get out of one, while people are striving (lining up, begging & petitioning) to get in to the other.

So exactly what is the difference? Heart.

The Go Lean book associates the “heart” with Community Ethos, defined above. The fact is that no one, individual or community can forge change without first changing the hear of community ethos. This was vividly explained in the same Page 10 of the Go Lean book. See this excerpt:

Change is not easy …

Just ask anyone attempting to quit smoking. Not only are there physiological challenges, but psychological ones as well, to the extent that it can be stated with no uncertainty that “change begins in the head”. In psycho-therapy the approach to forge change for an individual is defined as “starting in the head (thoughts, visions), penetrating the heart (feelings, motivations) and then finally manifesting in the hands (actions). This same body analogy is what is purported in this book for how the Caribbean is to embrace change – following this systematic flow:

Head Plans, models and constitutions

Heart Community Ethos

Hands Actions, Reboots, and Turn-arounds

What is the community ethos of Amsterdam … that allows them to strive despite internal and external challenges?

Liberalism – a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law.^[1][2][3] Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but they generally support free markets, free trade, limited government, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), capitalism, democracy, secularism, gender equality, racial equality, internationalism, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]}

Liberalism in the Netherlands started as an anti-monarchical effort spearheaded by the Dutch statesman Thorbecke, who almost single-handedly wrote the 1848 Constitution of the Netherlands that turned the country into a constitutional monarchy.

In contemporary politics, there are both left and right-wing parties that refer to themselves as “liberal“, with the former more often espousing social liberalism and the latter more often espousing classical liberalism. A common characteristic of these parties that they are nominally irreligious, in contrast to the traditionally dominant and still popular Christian democracy.^[1]

That is it!

Liberalism or “live and let live”. (Note: This commentary is not advocating for free-for-all sex or drugs).

Amsterdam is known for its liberal views toward social issues (recreational drugs, prostitution, same-sex marriage and euthanasia) while the Caribbean member-states are known for its dogmatic, judgmental and intolerant society. Yet we wonder why people are fleeing one place and seeking refuge in the other. There is no need to wonder.

Notice that one of the attributes of Amsterdam liberalism is their tendency towards being irreligious. That refers to:

The absence, indifference to, or rejection of religion.^[1]

Considering the full theme of this blog-commentary series, we see that religious indifference is the challenge. It was religious expansion – Christianity Christendom – that motivated the exploration, conquest and colonization of the New World, and apparently that initial indoctrination never subsided. That Christian Community Ethos that was embedded then was dogmatic, judgmental and intolerant, thusly uninviting, where as the irreligious attribute was/is indifference.

So we ask these questions to those of you in the Netherlands Antilles, and by extension, to all of the Caribbean:

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Do you want to be successful and progressive and prosperous like Amsterdam?
Do you want to compete with Amsterdam to provide those with a choice the option to prosper here where they are planted?
Or do you want to continue with the status quo and continue to watch the decline in your society?

To even approach the position of answering these questions, our Caribbean member-states must be prepared to work together – in a more perfect union – to foster a better homeland. We must serve and protect. Human Rights should only be the floor; we must be prepared to build upon a strong foundation and reach great heights. Reform and transform …

We have addressed this theme before.

This Go Lean movement has previously detailed many related issues and advocacies for reforming and transforming the Caribbean member-states; consider this sample of previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20573	Remembering and Remediating Our History – The Need to Reform
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20567	Transforming our Toxic Environments to Make the Caribbean Great
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20561	Embracing ‘Diversity & Inclusion’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20292	Advocating for Empathy – How? Conscientizing on VIDEO
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20072	Rise from the Ashes – We now know Liberalism is Better than Fascism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19833	The Need to Reform – Hypocrisy cancels out Law-and-Order
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19572	Master Class – How to reform and transform the Economy & Society
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19051	Forging Change – By Building Momentum
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11224	‘Loose Lips Sink Ships’ – Fanatical Theologians Undermine Progress
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10513	Transforming ‘Money’ Countrywide – A Model for the new Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7991	Transformations: Caribbean Postal Union – Delivering the Future
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5695	Reforming, Repenting, Forgiving and Reconciling the Past

If we know where the destination is and we have the urgent need to get there, why wait and waste time proceeding there?

The European Netherlands have always been ahead of us in the Caribbean, but eventually everyone else catches up. Consider the example of universal suffrage: One Man / One Woman / One Vote.

The US reached that destination in 1920 (with racial caveats that weren’t corrected until the Voting Rights Act of 1964):

The British granted that right in 1918.
Many Caribbean member-states waited and wasted valuable time, capital and people and didn’t reach the same destination until 1961.
When did the Netherlands grant this right? 1919; yet they did not allow the same right to their Caribbean colonies until 1949.

Surely, we do not still wonder why the Caribbean territories of the Netherlands – and other colonial legacies – linger influx when it comes to progress and development compared to their First World counterparts?

The Long Train of Abuses ... continues to ride.

Why wait and endure more unnecessary misery? The answer is a progressive liberalism that the European colonial host already enjoy – live and let live; think Amsterdam. This goal is within view; we should reach out and grab it. The Bible provides the guidance to:

⁹ Strip off the old personality^b with its practices, ¹⁰ and clothe yourselves with the new personality^c , which through* accurate knowledge is being made new according to the image of the One who created it.- Colossians 3:9, 10 NWT

We know what the “garment of truth” looks like.

We hereby urge all stakeholders – in the Caribbean and the Diaspora or decision-makers in the Host Countries – to lean-in to this Way Forward for societal progress in the Caribbean; this is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap. This is our plan to make our regional 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!

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):

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

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.

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 VIDEO – What’s the deal with Amsterdam’s “liberal culture”? – https://vimeo.com/189429665

What’s the deal with Amsterdam’s “liberal culture”? from Eric Maddox on Vimeo.

Posted October 29, 2016 – In September 2016 students in Amsterdam and Beirut shared a Virtual Dinner together, discussed politics, the refugee crisis, Amsterdam’s reputation as a live-and-let-live city, and the delicate coexistence of different groups and ideologies in Lebanon. At the end of the discussion each group asked their partners on the other end of the virtual table a question to take to the streets of their communities an pose to everyday people.

This film presents the results of the Amsterdam team’s effort to address the question given to them from Lebanon. It is the 3rd of the three short films (2 from Lebanon and one from Amsterdam) completed by our teams in both countries. The project was sponsored by The Embassy of The Netherlands in Lebanon, and completed in collaboration with Unite Lebanon Youth Project.

This film focusses on Amsterdam. Our co-participants in The Netherlands walked around the city asking people of all backgrounds, a question that had been given to us by our co-participants in Lebanon:

“What does Amsterdam’s liberal culture mean to you?”

The Virtual Dinner Guest Project is a production of Open Roads Media, an Amsterdam based nonprofit with a global focus on putting the media narrative in the hands of the people and transforming conflict through direct engagement and creative collaboration that educates a global audience:

openroadsmedia.org/

You can also follow our progress and our snapshots, for this and previous projects, on social media:

Facebook: Open Roads Media
Twitter: @VirtualDinner
Instagram: Virtual Dinner

————————–

Appendix B VIDEO – Amsterdam, the Liberal City – https://youtu.be/R5mFxBkMorQ

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

See related VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Ufm1GP77bL4

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Long Train of Abuses: Religious Character in Society – Human Rights

Posted on December 10, 2020 in Ethos, Locations, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

This is a continuation of the monthly Teaching Series from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean on the Long Train of Abuses that have molded our people and our society. We have a lot of defects that is obvious for all to see, within the region or from an external global view. After 525 years, our societal character is cemented; we have the greatest address on the planet and an abundance of hospitality, but we have many societal flaws that dominate.

People can see it and/or feel it without actually being here.

Did you know?

“Customers can hear a smile through the phone.” – Contact Center Experts

This is true because it is hard to fake sincerity; despite the senses, proof of a good/bad heart comes through. The actuality of a good/bad heart has been evident through out Caribbean history. The moral sense of right-wrong, good-bad and right-wrong for the Caribbean has been based on the Judeo-Christian standard. As related in the last blog-commentary in this series, the premise was established that Caribbean society was molded with a Christian expansion motivation; make that Christendom.

How do we know it is Christendom, instead of Christianity?

By the character fruitage of our society. That same Judeo-Christian standard, the Bible, clearly defines how to assess:

… love one another; just as I have loved you. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.”— John 13:34, 35 NWT

We have failed, far too often, to show love to our neighbors.

Many times, we have even fostered a Climate of Hate, especially for people different from the majority of the population in power. Thusly, many people in our society have had to endure a Long Train of Abuses. This is what was related in a previous blog-commentary from June 14, 2016:

Climate of Hate
Our Caribbean society, far too often, promotes a “climate of hate”. Consider these three examples:

Haitian Immigrants– Many Caribbean countries express vitriol towards Haitian migrants.

LGBT– Still clinging to the archaic “Buggery” laws, many countries persecute gays in their society as degenerates.

Equality-seeking Women– Just last week, a referendum failed in the Bahamas 3 to 1.

The Caribbean member-states, collectively and individually, need to curb its “climate of hate” and to pay more than the usual attention to the lessons from …

This discussion is important because our failures to exhibit a Christian character – or any religious influence – has led to a lot of societal defects – Human Rights abuses – and eventual societal abandonment. See here, as related in a different previous commentary from July 2, 2015 entitled “Buggery in Jamaica – ‘Say It Ain’t So’!”:

… this defect – LGBT Intolerance – was listed among the blatant Human Rights abuses in the region.

This is an important consideration for the planners of Caribbean empowerment. The Caribbean, a region where unfortunately, we have NOT … tried to be as tolerant as may be required, expected and just plain moral.

We must do better!

The book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts that Caribbean society’s prosperity has been hindered with a high abandonment rate – reported at 70% for educated classes region-wide, but an even higher 85% in Jamaica [some countries]. The primary mission of the Go Lean book is to “battle” against the “push-and-pull” factors that draw so many of our Caribbean citizens away from their homelands to go to more progressive countries.

The Go Lean book campaigns to lower the “push” factors!

The purpose of the Go Lean book is to fix the Caribbean; to be better. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to pursue the quest to elevate the Caribbean region through empowerments in economics, security and governance. It is the assertion that Caribbean citizens can stay home and effect change in their homelands more effectively than going to some foreign countries to find opportunities for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The book therefore asserts that the region can turn-around from failing assessments by applying best-practices, and forging new societal institutions to impact the Greater Good for all the Caribbean.

Rather than promote “peace and love” or even Human Rights, the Christian communities have exacerbated a Climate of Hate.

A Long Train of Abuses, ouch!

Research shows that the men most likely to abuse their wives are evangelical Christians who attend church sporadically. Church leaders in Australia say they abhor abuse of any kind. But advocates say the church is not just failing to sufficiently address domestic violence, it is both enabling and concealing it.

Remember the bad religious orthodoxy that was discussed in the last entry in this blog series; how these ‘hatreds’ were embedded in national edicts (Law-and-Order) over the centuries, decades and years: Slavery, Colonialism , Patriarchy / Gender Rights, White Supremacy, Buggery / LGBT Rights, Child Abuse.

Long Train of Abuses: Enough Already – Colonialism Be Gone!
Long Train of Abuses: Overseas Masters – Cannot See Overseas
Long Train of Abuses: Religious Leadership in Government – Reconciling Trump
Long Train of Abuses: Religious Character in Society – Human Rights
Long Train of Abuses: Dutch Hypocrisy – Liberal Amsterdam vs Conservative Antilles
Long Train of Abuses: Puerto Rico – “Take the Heat” or “Get out of the Kitchen”

All the defects identified and qualified here are reflective of Human Rights abuses.

Human Rights deficiencies despite the Christian premise. Wow! This is because it is not Christianity at work in the Caribbean; it is Christendom. So we need greater protections than just a copy of the Bible in everyone’s “night stand”. We need to reboot and end this Long Train of Abuses, now!

How?

The Go Lean book, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), an apolitical, religiously-neutral, economic-focused technocracy. The Go Lean book presents an action plan to better foster the Greater Good – “the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong” (Page 37). In addition, the book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics and implementations to execute so as to transform the Caribbean’s stance on Human Rights. In one specific advocacy (Page 220), there are action items for the heavy-lifting work that needs to be done. See here for summaries, excerpts and highlights from this Chapter entitled “10 Ways to Protect Human Rights“:

1	Lean-in for Caribbean Integration 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. The CU will assume the primary coordination for the region’s economy and the requisite security to protect the resultant economic engines. While the CU is an economic initiative, there is a mission to monitor/mitigate Fail State Indices, and Human Rights violations constitute a Failed State Indicator.
2	Watchful World A CU mission is to monitor the image of the Caribbean to the rest of the world. Not only will the world be watching the activities in the region, but the “story” being told will be directed to depict a positive behind-the-scenes view, that the region is the best place to live-work-play.
3	Caribbean [Persons] with Disabilities
4	Women & Youth The CU will allow for empowerment and protections of women & children, orphans & widows, in compliance with Judeo-Christian precepts, Human Rights requirements, & natural instincts. These efforts will include the special needs for young girls, adult women and senior women.
5	LGBT Toleration It is no longer acceptable to deny natural rights or Human Rights to those with alternate sexual orientation. In fact, qualifications for current EU grants depend on compliance of this requirement, (not granting rights for same-sex marriage), allowing this class to live free of discrimination, hazing, bullying and abuse. These rules are codified under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This provides a right to respect for one’s “private and family life, his home and his correspondence” ^[248]. The CU federal oversight is mandatory as these clauses clash with pro-Christian values.
6	Reconciliations
7	Future Focus
8	Justice Focus
9	Tourist Omnipresence
10	Long-Form Journalism

Human Rights versus Christian Character?

It seems like such a “joke” that this advocacy is even necessary – but the need is great. Where is the Christian love? What a reproach to God that such behavior have brought a Climate of Hate in the name of God. Actually, this apostasy is exactly what the Bible prophesied for these times – the Last Days. See here:

You will be chased out of the synagogues. And the time will come when people will kill you and think they are doing God a favor. – John 16:2 Contemporary English Version

The Long Train of Abuses is predictable, but not good.

Other societies have done better; they have done the heavy-lifting for everyone – majority and minority – to prosper where planted in their homeland. We can, and must do it too; or watch our citizens – and those that love them – flee to those better lands. These better lands has formulated Human Rights standards and conventions and expect all “Men/Women of Goodwill” to comply.

One such convention is CEDAW or the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women”. See the full details in Appendix A below. (Also see Appendix B VIDEO as it relates the subject of gender-based violence being endured in the Caribbean region and around the world during this COVID-19 pandemic). Notice that one of the few countries that have not ratified CEDAW is the “Holy See” or the Vatican.

Holy See
The jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, known as the pope, which includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome with universal ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the worldwide Catholic Church, as well as a sovereign entity of international law, governing the Vatican City. – Wikipedia

The Holy See being tolerant of a Long Train of Abuses is indicative of Christendom and not Christianity.

The Caribbean member-states must foster a better homeland that protects all of its residents and promotes prosperity, despite whatever the Churches are doing or not doing. What’s more, we must hold religious organizations accountable for their actions and violations of Human Rights standards and modern justice requirements.

This Go Lean movement has previously detailed many related issues and advocacies for Human Rights mandates in our region; consider this sample of previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20561	How to mitigate Human Rights Abuses? Build on ‘Diversity & Inclusion’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20559	Toxic Environment – Homophobia: Hate not Fear
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20557	Toxic Environment – It Infects Everything – Think “Cross” burnings
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19002	Remembering Auschwitz – Still Relevant considering modern atrocities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15580	Caribbean Unity? Religion’s Role: False Friend
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14482	International Women’s Day – Protecting Rural Women
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11224	‘Loose Lips Sink Ships’ – Fanatical Theologians Undermine Tourism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10216	Waging a Successful War on Orthodoxy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9766	Rwanda’s Catholic bishops apologize for genocide
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6718	A Lesson in History Before the Civil War: Compromising Human Rights
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5695	Repenting, Forgiving and Reconciling the Past
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4971	A Lesson in Church History – Royal Charters: Truth & Consequence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=341	US slams Caribbean human rights practices

Human Rights, the concept and the practice has been fleeting here in the Caribbean, not just among the governmental leaders but the citizenry as well. Leaders have not protected Human Rights for all and the citizenry have not demanded it … among the majorities – vocal outcries may be limited to minority groups only.

Enough already! It is time to think of the Greater Good for all people not just the most populous; from one aspect or another, anyone and everyone may be considered a minority.

There needs to be a force for moral good for all, but that has not come from the religious influences in the region, so it must come from the State (or Federal Government) instead, despite a formal Separation of Church and State.

This is not just a Christian indictment. We saw the same issue in India with the Hindu population (also a Caribbean minority):

Transforming Hindus versus Women – What it means for us?
“Women of menstruating age were forbidden to pray at the temple until the [Indian] Supreme Court lifted the ban in September [2018]. The ban was informal for many years but became law in 1972.

Some devotees have filed a petition saying the court decision revoking the ban was an affront to the celibate deity Ayyappa. …”

The concept is simple for “States“, while they must allow for Freedom of Religion, they cannot allow religious intimidation of their citizens. No More!

This is an issue of Orthodoxy and it is not only a concern in India. Even here in the Caribbean we have to make progress. Clearly we understand the oppression, suppression and repression experienced in India prohibiting women to pray in the Temple, and so there is the acceptance that it is right for that State to act against continued abuse. There has always been a need for States to legislate morality in society over the years.

Based on the foregoing, Hindus suffer the same abuse record as Christianity and Islam towards women. Bad religious orthodoxies seem to always exist when matters of faith are involved, so the State must regulate the behavior of Churches to ensure no violation of basic Human Rights.

We must do better; we must pursue the Greater Good … always.

We hereby urge all stakeholders – the faithful and the faithless – to lean-in to this Way Forward – a formal separation of Church and State – for societal progress; this is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap. This is our plan to make our regional 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!

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):

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

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.

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 – Title: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international treaty adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly. Described as an international bill of rights for women, it was instituted on 3 September 1981 and has been ratified by 189 states.^[1] Over fifty countries that have ratified the Convention have done so subject to certain declarations, reservations, and objections, including 38 countries who rejected the enforcement article 29, which addresses means of settlement for disputes concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention.^[2] Australia’s declaration noted the limitations on central government power resulting from its federal constitutional system. The United States and Palau have signed, but not ratified the treaty. The Holy See, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, and Tonga are not signatories to CEDAW. …

See the full details at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Elimination_of_All_Forms_of_Discrimination_Against_Women ; retrieved December 9, 2020.

—————–

Appendix B VIDEO – St. Lucia: #CaribbeanYouthAgainstCovid19 and #YouthAgainstCovid19 – Jasmyn Joseph – https://youtu.be/FsDU7P1o_RM

UNFPA Caribbean
Due to #COVID19, the health and safety of women and girls has been compromised. Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by this pandemic. In this last episode of the #youthagainstcovid19 campaign Jasmyn Joseph talks about the ways this pandemic has been affecting women and girls around the world and the actions we as a community can take to promote #genderequality during covid-19.

Share this video, so other youth can get informed and take action against gender inequality during covid19!

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Civil Rights, Gender, Jamaica, Model, Power

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Long Train of Abuses: Overseas Masters – Cannot See Overseas

Posted on December 7, 2020 in Ethos, Government, Locations, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

What is the weather right now in Amsterdam, London, Paris and/or Washington DC?

Do you know? Does it even matter?

Chances are, the people in those cities also do not think of the specificities of our weather in the Caribbean. They might think it is warm in the winter and hot in the summer, but they may not understand the flooding-drought cycles, the humidity or the pervasive threat of tropical cyclones: Hurricanes.

They do not know … and may not care.

This is the alarming dangers of having Overseas Masters; they may not appreciate the need or landscape for local efficiencies in our daily stewardship. They may not care about the details and thusly, may not even allow the audience for us to enunciate the challenges of our problems or the solutions. They may even veto regulations and measures on our end that are best practices because they might violate some political “day-dream” on their end.

The concern may be trivial … or it may be life-or-death. This issue is just another scenario where there is a Long Train of Abuse for colonial pawns … compared to their imperial-host counterparts.

Here is an example of trivial:

Imagine this scenario …

… a Group Purchasing Agreement for Coast Guard boats is vetoed because a different manufacturer offers a better discount on their boats and snow removal equipment all bundled together.

This is our reality in the Caribbean. The need for us to deploy the best local governing strategy, tactic and implementation have never been greater, yet our hands may be tied for our own self-determination.

Now for an example approaching life-or-death. See this story below from Martinique in the French Caribbean. This is the grave matter of environmental poisoning, with a chemical not allowed in Metropolitan France but tolerated in the French Antilles. Grasp the summary from this excerpt:

“… the issue is how overseas territories get treated; there’s contempt, distance, condescension, lack of respect.”

Say it ain’t so!

See the full news article here, as published by the BBC:

Title: The Caribbean islands poisoned by a carcinogenic pesticide
By: Tim Whewell, BBC News, Martinique

“First we were enslaved. Then we were poisoned.” That’s how many on Martinique see the history of their French Caribbean island that, to tourists, means sun, rum, and palm-fringed beaches. Slavery was abolished in 1848. But today the islanders are victims again – of a toxic pesticide called chlordecone that’s poisoned the soil and water and been linked to unusually high rates of prostate cancer.

“They never told us it was dangerous,” Ambroise Bertin says. “So people were working, because they wanted the money. We didn’t have any instructions about what was, and wasn’t, good. That’s why a lot of people are poisoned.” He’s talking about chlordecone, a chemical in the form of a white powder that plantation workers were told to put under banana trees, to protect them from insects.

Ambroise did that job for many years. Later, he got prostate cancer, a disease that is commoner on Martinique and its sister French island of Guadeloupe than anywhere else in the world. And scientists blame chlordecone, a persistent organic pollutant related to DDT. It was authorised for use in the French West Indies long after its harmful effects became widely known.

“They used to tell us: don’t eat or drink anything while you’re putting it down,” Ambroise, now 70, remembers. But that’s the only clue he and other workers in Martinique’s banana plantations in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s had about the possible danger. Few if any were told to wear gloves or masks. Now, many have suffered cancer and other illnesses.

Chlordecone is an endocrine disrupter, meaning it can affect hormonal systems.

One of the world’s leading experts on the chemical, Prof Luc Multigner, of Rennes University in France, says epidemiological studies have shown increased risk of premature births and increased risk of adverse brain development in children at the exposure levels people in Martinique and Guadeloupe face through contaminated food consumption.

He also says: “There is enough toxicological and experimental data to conclude that chlordecone is carcinogenic.”

Following a detailed study Prof Multigner and colleagues conducted on Guadeloupe in 2010, he estimates chlordecone is responsible for about 5-10% of prostate cancer cases in the French West Indies, amounting to between 50 to 100 new cases per year, out of a population of 800,000.

Listen now online to Martinique: The poisoning of paradise

You can also download the Crossing Continents podcast

Chlordecone stays in the soil for decades, possibly for centuries. So more than 20 years after the chemical ceased to be used, much of the land on Martinique cannot be used for growing vegetables, even though bananas and other fruit on trees are safe.

Rivers and coastal waters are also contaminated, which means many fishermen cannot work. And 92% of Martinicans have traces of chlordecone in their blood.

“You try to have a healthy kind of life. So maybe you will limit the effects of the poison. But you are not sure,” says historian Valy Edmond-Mariette, aged 31. “My friends and I were asking ourselves: do we really want children? Because if we give them breast milk, maybe they will have chlordecone in their blood. And I think nobody should be asking themselves this kind of question, because it’s awful.”

Production of chlordecone was stopped in the United States – where it was marketed as Kepone – as far back as 1975, after workers at a factory producing it in Virginia complained of uncontrollable shaking, blurred vision and sexual problems. In 1979, the World Health Organization classed the pesticide as potentially carcinogenic.

But in 1981 the French authorities authorised chlordecone for use in banana plantations in the French West Indies – and even though it was finally banned in 1990, growers lobbied for – and got – permission to carry on using stocks until 1993.

That’s why – for many Martinicans – chlordecone stirs up painful historical memories. “A lot of people talk about chlordecone like a new kind of slavery,” says Valy, whose own ancestors were enslaved. For two centuries, until 1848, Martinique was a colony that depended on the production of sugar by enslaved people. And in the late 20th Century, some of the big banana growers who used chlordecone were the direct descendants of those slave-owning sugar exporters, part of a small white minority known as the békés.

“Those are still the same group of people who have uncontested domination of the land,” says Guilaine Sabine, activist in a grassroots organisation called Zero Chlordecone Zero Poison. As well as campaigning for free blood tests for everyone on the island, members of the group have taken part in a new wave of protests over the last year aiming to draw attention to businesses that activists say have profited from the production and use of toxic pesticides. The demonstrations have been small, and some protesters have been convicted of violence against the police. But they reflect wider anger over the slow pace of France’s response to the chlordecone catastrophe.

It was only in 2018 – after more than 10 years of campaigning by French Caribbean politicians – that President Emmanuel Macron accepted the state’s responsibility for what he called “an environmental scandal”. He said France had suffered “collective blindness” over the issue. A law to create a compensation fund for agricultural workers has now been passed. But payouts haven’t started yet.

Martinique is an integral part of France, but one of the island’s MPs, Serge Letchimy, says it would never have taken the state so many years to react if there had been pollution on the same scale in Brittany, for example, or elsewhere in European France. “The issue is how overseas territories get treated. There’s contempt, distance, condescension, lack of respect.”

Prof Multigner says the original documents of the official body that authorised use of the pesticide in 1981 have disappeared for unknown reasons, hampering attempts to investigate how the decision was taken.

But the state’s representative on Martinique, Prefect Stanislas Cazelles, insists there was no discrimination against the islanders.

“The Republic is on the side of the oppressed, of the weakest here, just as in the European part of France,” he says.

The state is working to find ways to decontaminate the land – some scientists think chlordecone can potentially be biodegraded quite quickly – and ensure there is no trace of the pesticide in the food chain. And the prefect hopes the independent commission that will judge compensation claims will generally rule in favour of former farm workers who say they are victims of the pesticide.

Ambroise, who worked with chlordecone for so many years, had an operation to remove his cancer in 2015. But he still suffers from thyroid disease and other problems that may be connected to chlordecone’s known effects on the hormonal system.

Meanwhile the historian, Valy, had blood cancer when she was just 25. Her doctor does not think it was due to chlordecone. But Valy says no-one can be sure.

Worrying about the effects of the pesticide, she says, can be exhausting. “But in the end, you can’t control everything. You have to admit that to some extent, you’re poisoned, so you just deal with it.” 😐

Source: Posted November 20, 2020; Retrieved December 6, 2020 from: https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-54992051?fbclid=IwAR06kJWJa0snsL2On46rTiCpNKfxOFEhyF_G3uiyXKUk9Lpsp9hVMZjl60Q

This is not theoretical; this is the Long Train of Abuses we have had to endure here in the Caribbean.

This is the continuation of the monthly Teaching Series from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book presents issues that are germane to Caribbean life and culture and how to address them: problems and solutions. For this month of December 2020, we are looking at the Long Train of Abuses that could-would-should move our people to change, to reform and transform. This is entry 2-of-6; this one asserts that a system of Overseas Masters is inherently flawed as a strategy for governance in a local community – “they” cannot see overseas.

Too many things can go wrong.
Too many things have gone wrong.

These “gone wrong’ considerations are among the lessons for this Teaching Series this month. See the full catalog of the series this month:

Long Train of Abuses: Enough Already – Colonialism Be Gone!
Long Train of Abuses: Overseas Masters – Cannot See Overseas
Long Train of Abuses: Religious Leadership in Government – Reconciling Trump
Long Train of Abuses: Religious Character in Society – Human Rights
Long Train of Abuses: Dutch Hypocrisy – Liberal Amsterdam vs Conservative Antilles
Long Train of Abuses: Puerto Rico – “Take the Heat” or “Get out of the Kitchen”

This submission looks specifically at an example in the French Antilles. But the foregoing example of French mis-management is just another case of “For Export Only”-labeled products. For stakeholders in the host country, their overseas territory is far enough to be considered for “exports”. This is why the Caribbean region must no longer endure these Long Train of Abuses.

The Go Lean book, serving as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), asserts that Caribbean stakeholders must instantiate the technocratic security and governing apparatus to deliver in the Caribbean for the people of the Caribbean; for us by us. Our motivation is economic as well. Imagine our “trade” prospects.

In the foregoing news story, the threat on locally-grown produce was exposed because of the contaminating agents still in the soil in Martinique. Imagine a neighboring Caribbean island – i.e. Dominica – consuming fresh produce from Martinique. This is why any effort for a Caribbean Single Market must be coupled with a Security-Public-Safety apparatus as well.

Enough already! We do not want to be just an Export or Foreign Market. No, we want to be considered neighbors; we must protect each other.

We have addressed this theme before. Consider this sample of previous blog-commentaries that highlighted the roles and responsibilities to foster regional trade and regional harmony:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19570	European Role Model: Not when ‘Push’ comes to ‘Shove’ Under normal conditions, the EU boast Free Movement of people and universal protections of civil rights in every jurisdiction. But, now something has broken that European tranquility, the COVID-19 pandemic.The end-result may be closed borders, banned exports of critical supplies and withholding of humanitarian aid. That is “me first” nationalism, instead of the best-practice of interdependence.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18834	A Lesson in History: Free Trade Agreement of the Americas Free Trade would allow for all 30 member-states to have a tariff-free trading environment. We need to consider this at least to fulfill our Food Security needs.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17282	Way Forward – For Independence: Territory Realities A roadmap for a “bigger organization” tied to the geographical neighborhood, as opposed to the colonial legacy with “overseas masters” up to 8,000 miles away.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15567	Caribbean Unity? Need French Antilles There must be a regional integration that will integrate the entire region. Yes, this effort posits that any integration without the French territories is like building a skyscraper on a shaky foundation. What a skyscraper really needs is: Bedrock, Baby! The Caribbean Union needs all French territories.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10554	Welcoming the French in Formal Integration Efforts The islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy want to do more with their tropical neighbors; they want to confederate, collaborate and convene on different issues related to community development and nation-building. The rest of the Caribbean should embrace this invitation.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10043	Caribbean Integration Plan for Greater Prosperity Greater prosperity can be had in the Caribbean only by embracing regional integration. A new model of interdependence and regional integration is far better than the status quo. Like the African proverb says:”If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”.

“For export only” …

… just this label seems to be the catalyst for investigating the possibility of abuse. See this related story in this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – For Export Only – Pesticides (1981) – https://youtu.be/CPFLPGL_Lrg

Concord Media
Posted August 6, 2015 – Available to buy at: http://www.concordmedia.org.uk/produc… or buy or rent and watch now on: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/forexporto…

The export of pesticides banned in the West, to third world countries, and the disastrous effects of this policy.

Made in 1981 this film reflects the cultural attitudes of the country and language of the time it was made. The issues raised are timeless. The film quality may not be to modern standards.

Distributed by Concord Media
Website: http://concordmedia.org.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ConcordMedia
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ConcordMedia59
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/concordmedia/vod_pages

In general, it is no longer acceptable for “imperial countries” to still own colonies – the inherent threats were manifested in World War I and World War II. In the post WWII reconciliations, it was frown upon to perpetuate colonial ecosystems. To navigate around such a Eliminate Colonies mandate, the Republic of France simply declared their Caribbean territories as a member-sub-state of France, an Overseas Department.

These initiatives proved to just be empty gestures …

So now, while “on paper” these 4 Caribbean islands (and French Guiana too) are supposed to be part of First World France, it is irrefutable that France treats them simply as Third World territories. For example, as depicted in the foregoing news story of shipping and tolerating dangerous chemicals that had previously been banned in Metropolitan France. 🙁

This is a continuation of the Long Train of Abuses.

So this is our urging for all Caribbean member-states of French heritage; (plus British, Dutch and American):

Get out … now!

We hereby urge all stakeholders to lean-in to an alternative, a better Way Forward, this Go Lean roadmap. This is our plan to make our regional homeland a better place to live, work and play.

Yes, we can. Yes, we must! 🙂

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!

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):

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

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, including piracy and other forms of terrorism, can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

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

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

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Decision 2020 – What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela

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

Go Lean Commentary

Wanna get elected in the Unites States?

Here is good advice in terms of political strategy:

Distance yourself from Cuba and/or Venezuela.

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

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

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

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

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

Check out VICE News for more: http://vicenews.com

Follow VICE News here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicenews
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicenews
Tumblr: http://vicenews.tumblr.com/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/vicenews

More videos from the VICE network: https://www.fb.com/vicevideo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So what are we to do for Cuba and Venezuela?

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

What’s next for Cuba … and Venezuela?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* – Ratify treaty for the CU.** This regional re-boot will allow for the unification of the region into one market, thereby creating a single economy of 30 member-states, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion. Following the model of European integration, the CU will be the representative and negotiating body for Cuba and the entire region for all trade and security issues. This helps to assuage the political adversity expected from Anti-Castro [and Anti-Socialists] groups.
2	Political Neutrality of the Union Cuba is the only Communist-led state in the CU region. Other states have multiple party systems: left-leaning or right-leaning governments; many have more than 2 parties. The CU is officially neutral! The election of the popular leaders of each country is up to that country. The Election functionality of member-states can be outsourced to the CU as the organization structure will provide the systems, processes and personnel to facilitate smooth and fair election.
3	US Trade Embargo By-Pass The US embargo against Cuba is an economic, and financial embargo imposed in October 1960. It was designed to punish Cuba to dissuade communism and the nationalization of private property during the revolution. To date, there are judgments of up to $6 billion worth of claims against the Cuban government. Despite this US action, the rest of the Caribbean, Canada and Europe do trade with Cuba, with no repercussions in their relationship with the US. It is expected that after Fidel and Raul Castro, there will be greater liberalization of trade and diplomacy with the US.
4	Marshall Plan for Cuba
5	Leap Frog Philosophy There is no need to move Cuba’s 1950’s technology baseline to the 1960’s, then the 1970’s, and so on; rather, the vision is to leap-frog Cuba to where technology is going. This includes advance urban planning concepts like electrified light-rail, prefab house, alternative energies and e-delivery of governmental services and payment systems.
6	Repatriation and Reconciliation of the Cuban Diaspora The goal will be to extend the “Welcome Mat” to people that may have left Cuba over the decades and want to return. The repatriation the CU advocates is for the Diaspora’s time, talents and treasuries. The CU will incentivize “ex-patriots” to at least have vacation homes on the island. The CU will provide the “re-patriots” with special status to assuage any victimization. Cuba’s repatriation is expected to differ from the other CU nations. After the Castro Brothers, there will be the expectation of reparation and reconciliation. In addition, the CU will convene a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to bring resolution to many issues from the revolution, Castro Brothers, previous coup attempts and the Bautista dictatorship – there will be the expectation of reparation. (South Africa had a successful reconciliation after Apartheid).
7	Access to Capital Markets
8	Optimization of Agricultural Exports
9	National Historic Places
10	World Heritage Sites

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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

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

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

xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores. This repatriation should be effected with the appropriate guards so as not to imperil the lives and securities of the repatriated citizens or the communities they inhabit. The right of repatriation is to be extended to any natural born citizens despite any previous naturalization to foreign sovereignties.

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

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

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

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Decision 2020 – More Immigration or Less

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

Go Lean Commentary

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

That didn’t happen!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Donald Trump won in 2016 …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Modernize America’s immigration system

Welcome immigrants in our communities

Reassert America’s commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees

Tackle the root causes of irregular migration

Implement effective border screening

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

———–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Frankly, we need to keep our people at home!

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

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

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

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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

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

xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores. This repatriation should be effected with the appropriate guards so as not to imperil the lives and securities of the repatriated citizens or the communities they inhabit. The right of repatriation is to be extended to any natural born citizens despite any previous naturalization to foreign sovereignties.

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

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

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

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