Locations – Page 6 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Category: Locations

Leading with Money Matters – Follow the Jobs

Posted on February 15, 2018 in Economics, Government, Locations, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

When people say it’s the principle and not the money, chances are: it’s the money. – Murphy’s Law on Money

Yes, there are more important things in life than money, but without money, those important things fall by the wayside, or never get pursued.

This is the nature of man. Psychologist Abraham Maslow addressed this subject in a comprehensive way. He established a “Hierarchy of Needs” that accurately depicted this fact that basic needs (food, clothing, shelter, safety, etc.) will always be the first priority. Efforts in pursuit of higher-level needs – art, beauty, esteem, etc. – will only be engaged once those basic needs are satiated.

This premise is not in doubt, especially in times of peace. (Yes, the sword/gun is most persuasive, but not lasting).

So considering the 3 societal engines of a community – economics, security and governance – it is so much easier to lead and get people to voluntarily comply – to lean-in – through economic means rather than by any security or governing directives.

For the vast majority of the world’s population, money plays a huge part in their decision-making. So this new movement to shepherd the Caribbean – group behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – accepts that the best way to get regional buy-in is to lead with Money Matters.

This commentary is the first of a 5-part series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of Money Matters for leading the Caribbean down a different path from their status quo. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

Leading with Money Matters: Follow the Jobs
Leading with Money Matters: Competing for New Industries
Leading with Money Matters: Almighty Dollar
Leading with Money Matters: As Goes Housing, Goes the Market
Leading with Money Matters: Lottery Hopes and Dreams

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can persuade the region’s stakeholders to follow this empowerment roadmap. It is logical to conclude that people will “follow the money”. This conforms with the Go Lean quest to reform and transform the economic engines of the Caribbean member-states so that they can be better places to live, work and play. We have to “dangle money in front of our subjects”. Then, only then, will we get their attention. This is sad, but true!

The Go Lean book – available to download for free – declares that Caribbean society must change; the economic engines must be rebooted, and optimized, otherwise our society will simply not survive, not on the current trajectory.

If people are money motivated – and they are – then economic incentives should work. This point is presented in the Go Lean book (Page 21), quoting proven economic principles:

People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways:
Incentives are actions, awards, or rewards that determine the choices people make. Incentives can be positive or negative. When incentives change, people change their behaviors in predictable ways.
Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices and Incentives:
People cooperate and govern their actions through both written and unwritten rules that determine methods of allocating scarce These rules determine what is produced, how it is produced, and for whom it is produced. As the rules change, so do individual choices, incentives, and behavior.

Any attempt to empower Caribbean economics must start with a focus on jobs. Frankly, there are not enough jobs in the region, for any one of the 30 countries.

Due to this deficiency, people will respond to the availability or the absence of jobs. This is a fact today and was a fact for hundreds of years:

“Go West, Young Man” …

… is a phrase often credited to the American author and newspaper editor Horace Greeley concerning America’s expansion westward, related to the then-popular concept of Manifest Destiny. … Greeley later used the quote in his own editorial in 1865. Greeley favored westward expansion. – Source

In the mid 19th Century (1800’s), the US was expanding beyond the original 13 colonies into the Western parts of the continent:

Louisiana Purchase in 1804
Settling the War of 1812 with the compromise for the Northwest Territories (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin)
Texas Annexation in 1832
Annexation of Oregon Territory in 1846
New Mexico-California Acquisition in 1848

As the East Coast experienced economic stagnation, the sage advice was to “Go West” to seek jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities (like mining for precious metals: gold, silver, etc.).

This same advice is being followed in the Caribbean … today.

The region is in the throes of economic stagnation and people are leaving to “Go West”, many to the US, to find jobs. Our Caribbean people are being both “Pushed” and “Pulled”:

“Push” refers to people who feel compelled to leave to find jobs, or better jobs; they seek refuge in this foreign land. “Refuge” is an appropriate word; because of economic defects in the homeland, people find that they must leave.
“Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life abroad; our people are emigrating for strong economics reasons; even many low level jobs in the foreign lands are more prosperous than professional ones at home.

The Number One employer in many Caribbean countries is the government, the Public Service; think Teachers, Nurses, government clerks, etc.. But even if people are able to get these jobs, the compensation is normally too small …

This is the true experience! Well trained, professionals, are inclined to flee due to the deficient pay. Notice this experience in this news article here:

Title: Pay up! – Educate Jamaica says $250,000 monthly salary needed to keep mathematics and science teachers in classroom
By: Gleaner Contributor Andre Poyser

Education Think Tank, Educate Jamaica, has estimated that it will take a minimum monthly salary of $250,000 to stem the flow of mathematics and science teachers leaving the classroom.

Data from the Ministry of Education indicate that 494 mathematics and science teachers exited the public education system in 2015.

According to the Think Tank, “24 to 36 months from now will see the biggest exodus of mathematics and science teachers from Jamaican classrooms”.

This exodus, it says, can only be halted by offering these teachers a monthly salary of $250,000.

A trained teacher at the entry level earns approximately $90,000 after tax.

“Only a salary of J$250,000 each month (after tax) will tempt these teachers to stay or tempt Jamaicans to return from these overseas countries to take up back their jobs. The other option will be for Jamaica to recruit teachers from Asian, South American and African countries such as Nigeria and Ghana to fill the gap being left,” the Think Tank said in an article on its website.

Explaining how he arrived at this figure, Ainsworth Darby, Chief Executive of Educate Jamaica, said he compared the salaries of teachers in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Darby also argued that a proposal to offer scholarships to attract more students to train as mathematics and science teachers should be complemented by offering more pay to these teachers.

WRONG DECISION
News reports have indicated that education minister Ronald Thwaites has backed down from a controversial differentiated-payment proposal for math and science teachers.

Darby however, believes this was a wrong decision that should be revisited. He also argued that the recruitment measure announced by Thwaites will not be enough to effectively fill the gap of mathematics and science teachers leaving the system.

Thwaites has said the proposal to pay math and science teachers more than their colleagues will not be dismissed.

However, he said the ministry hopes that the recruitment measure will help to replace the more than 500 math and science teachers who have left local classrooms within the last 12 months.

Source: Retrieved from The Jamaica Gleaner Daily Newspaper – January 27, 2016 from: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20160127/pay-educate-jamaica-says-250000-monthly-salary-needed-keep-mathematics-and

Wait, what?!?!

The dollar amounts discussed in this foregoing article refer to Jamaican Dollars. The exchange rate at this time 1 US Dollar to 80 Jamaican Dollars ($J) or 1 J$ equals 0.0080 US$. So the reference to “a trained teacher at the entry level [that] earns approximately $90,000 after tax” is actually referring to:

J$90,000 = US $720

The recommended salary of J$250,000 equals US$2,000.

On the other hand, in the US, entry level jobs at Fast Food restaurant chain, McDonalds, is now starting in excess of US$9 per hour OR J$1,125. So a monthly salary, assuming 40-hour work weeks, would be J$180,000 (US$9 X 40 X 4 or $1,440).

Wow, that McDonalds minimum pay of $9/hr-plus … is more than Jamaica’s Public Service professionals. (The experience is similar in other countries).

This matter is all relative. While Caribbean member-states are complaining about “too low” wages for their Public Service employees, US workers are complaining about “too low” wages in the US. According to the foregoing, we are not competing in the Caribbean; we appear to not even me trying to compete.

Whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap! – The Bible; Galatians 6:7

The disposition of the Caribbean economic landscape is dire.

If we want to reform and transform – we do – the stakeholder must effect change, some how. This is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap. We want to make Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play.

How?

The book 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 plan is simple, create Two Pies for regional economics. In a previous Go Lean commentary, it related:

In order to reboot the societal engines there must be these Two Pies. The CU Trade Federation is designed to lead, fund and facilitate regional empowerment plans. But the plan is NOT for the individual member-states to write checks to the CU so as to share one state’s treasuries with another state. Rather, the CU Trade Federation creates its own funding – from regionalized services – and then encumbers the funds for each member-state to deliver the economic, security and governing mandates. This is analogized as Two Pies:

One ‘pie‘ to represent the existing budgets of the member-states and how they distribute their government funding between government services (education, healthcare, etc.), security measures (Police, Coast Guards)

One ‘pie‘ to represent the CU funding from exclusive activities (Spectrum Auctions, Lottery, Exploration Rights, Licenses, Foreign-Aid, etc.).

For the CU pie, the strategy, tactic and implementation is for competitive salaries (compensation and benefits) for Federal Public Servants (Page 173). Plus, the CU roadmap deputizes the member-state governments for a lot of their functionality – i.e. Post Office – so that will lighten the load for the existing government payroll even further. Lastly, the CU automation and lean practices will optimize overall government delivery: do more with less.

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

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

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.

xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of … frozen foods … impacting the region with more jobs.

In total, 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.

So what should the planners for a new Caribbean regime do next? Or do first, since the CU Trade Federation is not currently in force?

Lead with Money Matters.

Money is not the only option, but it is the best, most efficient and effective choice. Consider the other options of security or governance:

Show up to reform a community’s security apparatus or governance and you must convene (the stakeholders), collaborate, consensus-build and compromise. That is not easy! But try to reform economics by showing up with a boatload of money and boatload of jobs; people will line-up around the corner to comply, capitulate and consume those jobs.

Boom! Economic reform is easier!

The evidence shows that our Caribbean citizens have been abandoning their Caribbean communities and those government Public Service jobs to flee to foreign shores, looking for work, like those American minimum wage jobs.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
(See the Appendix & VIDEO below).

We can and must do better. We must create job options here at home. This has been a familiar theme for previous Go Lean commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14191	Where the Jobs Are – The Option of ‘Gigs’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13420	Where the Jobs Are – Lessons from Whaling Gigs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13184	Where the Jobs Are – Industrial Reboot; A Series
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9751	Where the Jobs Are – Animation and Game Design
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6089	Where the Jobs Are – Futility of Minimum Wage
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2857	Where the Jobs Are – Entrepreneurism in Junk
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2126	Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2025	Where the Jobs Are – Attitudes & Images of the Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2003	Where the Jobs Are – One Scenario: Ship-breaking

In summary, forging change in the Caribbean will mean doing better at job creation. Plain and simple!

There is a plan, here and now, to execute such a charter. This plan is conceivable, believable and achievable. But it is heavy-lifting too.

So let’s get busy …

… in the hard work of optimizing our society. Let’s lean-in to this plan to lead with Money Matters and make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. We urge every Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap. 🙂

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

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

——————

Appendix Title: McDonald’s Joins Trend in Raising Pay

Sub-title: Pay will be at least $1 per hour more than minimum wage—franchisees excluded

By: Annie Gasparro and Eric Morath

McDonald’s Corp. plans to raise wages by more than 10% for workers at U.S. restaurants it operates—fresh evidence of the rising wage pressure in the American labor market.

Starting July 1, McDonald’s will pay at least $1 an hour more than the local minimum wage for employees at the roughly 1,500 restaurants it owns in the U.S.

The move follows similar efforts by other U.S. employers including WalMart Stores …

Read the full article here:

Source – Posted Wall Street Journal April 1, 2015; retrieved February 15, 2018 from: https://www.wsj.com/articles/mcdonalds-to-raise-hourly-pay-for-90-000-workers-1427916364

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VIDEO – McDonalds Will Pay at Least $1 per Hour More than Minimum Wage – http://www.wsj.com/video/mcdonald-to-raise-hourly-pay-by-10/CC71E017-D357-4AF1-A71F-7381C5BF0232.html

McDonald’s will raise the pay for 90,000 workers by 10%, or $1 over the minimum wage, by July. WSJ’s Annie Gasparro reports.

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Jamaica, Jobs, Transform

Enjoy Carnival and Be Safe!

Posted on February 11, 2018 in Economics, Government, Implementation, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

It’s Carnival time … in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). The streets of Port-of-Spain will be jumping, jiving, jamming, bumping, grinding and all the other festive adjectives.

Enjoy you people … and be safe too!

As the planners for a new Caribbean, we do not have to tell you how to enjoy – that is your legacy – but we do need to guide you on security and safety – it turns out that there are active foreign threats and domestic inadequacies.

Yes, the Caribbean legacy is one of “being lax”. So we need T&T to pay more than the usual attention; and we need to convey to the whole world that Caribbean events can be safe and secure.

“Active foreign threats” …

… that is industry-speak for terrorism warnings.

Indeed, the “War on Terror” is real; there has been countless attacks since the World Trade Center Terrorist Attack in New York City on September 11, 2001. This war is still waging, though its some 17 years later, and it is not limited to the United States alone. Canada, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain and others have all reported terrorist attacks. The Caribbean has been spared thus far …

… but according to some reports, that streak is about to end.

Let’s hope this story here in the British tabloid The Sun – see Appendix below – is more hype than news, but can we truly ignore it?

Title # 1: Terror threat raised for Trinidad and Tobago Carnival

(The Sun) – British tourists in the Caribbean have been warned an ISIS terror attack is “very likely” during carnival celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Foreign Office warned to avoid crowded places after cops discovered a suspected plot to target the Mardi Gras festivities on Monday and Tuesday.

In a dramatic late-night announcement, the Foreign Office said: “The Trinidad and Tobago authorities have arrested some individuals who planned to carry out attacks against Carnival on February 12 and 13.”

Officials added: “An attack is still possible. The Trinidad and Tobago government is increasing security measures for the Carnival.

“Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Trinidad and Tobago.

“Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in crowded spaces and places visited by foreigners. You should remain vigilant and avoid crowded places and large gatherings.”

Around 30,000 Britons a year visit the country. Some have family links to Trinidad but most are tourists heading to Tobago, which has direct flights from London on BA and Virgin.

Surprisingly, the island nation of just 1.3million has the highest ISIS recruitment rate of any country in the Western hemisphere.

Around 125 people are feared to have travelled to fight in Syria and Iraq, and they pose a severe threat when they return home. Authorities are also wary of home-grown terrorists radicalised in the country.

The Foreign Office travel advice update warned: “There’s a threat from individuals who may have been inspired by terrorist groups, including Daesh and al Qaeda, to carry out so-called ‘lone actor’ attacks targeting public events or places.”

The crowded streets during carnival would be a soft target for an ISIS-inspired bomb or truck attack.

Last year Trinidad jihadi Shane Crawford, who goes by the nom-de guerre Abu Sa’d at-Trinidadi, featured in the group’s propaganda magazine.

The sniper called on ISIS supporters back home to “attack the interests of the Crusader coalition”, including embassies, businesses and civilians.

He said: “Follow the example of the lions in France and Belgium, the example of the blessed couple in California, and the examples of the knights in Orlando and Nice.

“You have the ability to terrify the disbelievers in their own homes and make their streets run with their blood.”

Trinidad and Tobago, the southernmost nation in the Caribbean, is ethnically diverse with many people of African and Indian heritage as well as Chinese, European and Arab minorities.

Around 5 per cent of the population are Muslim, according to the 2011 census.

A small radical group known as Jamaat al-Muslimeen (“Community of Muslims”) launched a coup attempt in 1990, led by a convert named Yasin Abu Bakr who is now an imam on Trinidad and hosts a weekly radio show.

Last night it emerged the remaining two Brit members of the “Beatles” beheading gang led by Jihadi John had been captured in Syria.

Last month we revealed the world’s tourist terror hot spots at “high risk” of attacks.

Source: St. Lucia Times quoting the UK’s The SUN; posted February 9, 2018; retrieved February 10, 2018 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2018/02/09/terror-threat-raised-trinidad-tobago-carnival/

Related Story:
https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/caribbean-breaking-news-featured/terrorist-threats-tt-carnival/

Carnival is a BIG Deal in Trinidad and other Caribbean countries. Just the thought of active threats can discourage travel to and consumption of related events. Our regional tourism would be in jeopardy!

So we – the Caribbean member-states individually and collectively – must not disregard any security threats or risks. Any news headline that features the words “ISIS” and “Caribbean” is a scandalous combination! This thesis was elaborated on by the promoters of the book Go Lean … Caribbean, in a previous blog-commentary describing an ISIS terrorism-threat in the region.

No one wants to be accused of ignoring terrorism. Yet, as reported in another previous blog-commentary, the US and many other advanced democracy countries, are very alarmed of the Caribbean member-states and their bad practices for regional security. The troubling evidence include these inadequacies:

Indiscriminant Citizen By Investment Programs
Indiscriminant Offshore Banking practices
Facilitating Tax Avoidance and Lawless Corporate Behavior
Disregard for Intellectual Property rights and Information Security

The foregoing all draw reference to the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available for free download – as it details the quest to reform and transform Caribbean society, The book is a how-to guide and roadmap for elevating the region’s societal engines for (1.) economics, (2.) security and (3.) governance. Strategies, tactics and implementations for a successful ‘War on Terrorism’ have been a consistent theme of this book and subsequent blog-commentaries.

But people can be terrorized by domestic or local bad actors as well. Carnival has had the bad practice of people – mostly men – being too jovial, solicitous and harassing to women participants on the streets of Port-of-Spain. This too can be terrifying …

This issue is finally being addressed this year by the T&T Police. See one news story here, reported by a Miami, Florida newspaper:

Title # 2: This Caribbean Carnival won’t allow you to twerk —unless you ask permission first
By: Jacqueline Charles

Attention all Carnival revelers and masqueraders attending the Caribbean’s biggest bacchanal: Non-consensual grinding, the provocative hip-gyrating, free-for-all that’s known in Caribbean parlance as “wining,” can get you slapped with an assault charge.

Trinidad and Tobago, the two-island country that’s considered the birthplace of the modern-day Pre-Lenten Caribbean Carnival, is telling all attendees that before you back it up on someone, ask permission. And the same goes for twerking, when the street party kicks off Monday and Tuesday in Port-of-Spain.

The ask-permission edict from the police comes after years of protests by Trinidadian women who want to be free to dance without having to worry at Carnival, the annual cultural event that draws everyone from tourists to costumed diplomats two days before Ash Wednesday.

Last year, one of the biggest hits in the lead-up to Carnival was the song “Leave Me Alone” by Calypso Rose, about a woman trying to dance in the streets free of harassment. The lyrics — “Boy, don’t touch me” — made the song a feminist anthem and inspired hundreds of gyrating women to wear “Leave Me Alone” and “Leave She Alone” T-shirts during last year’s Carnival.

Like the song, the new consent rule is part of a Caribbean-wide push by women to have more say over their bodies, said Gabrielle Hosein, the head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad.

“What you’re getting is an argument that has been made by tens of thousands of women over three or more decades in the Caribbean, long before the me-too movement addressing sexual harassment,” Hosein said. “Women have a right to be sexual and feminine in public without that happening on terms set by male aggression.”

And what’s happening in Trinidad is more radical than the me-too movement, she said. It’s women, who often dress in racy costumes during the revelry, saying they have a right to express sexual freedom without fear of sexual violence.

The concern over sexual harassment during Carnival isn’t only in Trinidad. In 2016, 22-year-old college student Tiarah Poyau was fatally shot in Brooklyn during the J’Ouvert street party before the West Indian Day Parade after telling a man to stop rubbing against her and dancing provocatively close. Police later arrested 20-year-old Reginald Moise. [See VIDEO below of Carnival in Greater Miami.]

Hosein commended the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service for warning last month that those who “thief a wine” — or hip-grind on a person without consent — during the raucous street party can be charged with assault, based on a law prohibiting physical touching without consent.

“This is a struggle that is finally recognized not only in law, which it was before, but explicitly in the language of the police in what is an extremely progressive position and statement the police service has taken,” she said.

Soca artists, whose performances are designed to provoke hip-grinding and gyrating, are divided about the controversial rule.

But when one well-known singer, soca king Machel Montano, objected and told fans at a concert that no consent was needed to wine, the public backlash forced a quick turnaround.

“Once you get consent, take a wine and have a time,” Montano told the Trinidad Express in a written statement.

Source: Miami Herald’s America Column – Posted Februay 8, 2018; retrieved February 11, 2018 from: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article199040889.html

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VIDEO – Carnival color: Miami-Dade and Broward celebrate – http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/article38770695.html

Carnival lovers and revelers geared up for one of the most anticipated cultural Caribbean traditions, Miami Broward Carnival on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015 at the Miami-Dade County Fairgrounds. VIDEO Credit: Carl Juste

Say it ain’t so?

Only now in 2018, will the T&T Police start to treat an assault like an assault.

This – lax security – is why there is the need for a new Caribbean stewardship. This recognition is part-and-parcel to the Go Lean movement’s effort to optimize the societal engines – including homeland security – of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region. This priority on homeland security was pronounced early in the Go Lean book with the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12) that claims:

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

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

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

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

The Caribbean appointing these “new guards” will include many strategies, tactics and implementations considered “best-practices” for improved public safety and the ‘War Against Terror’. The book Go Lean … Caribbean presents its 370 pages as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to elevate the region’s societal engines of economics, security and governance. With a brand name like Trade Federation, obviously the primary focus is on economics – so promoting the image of safe Caribbean festivals is paramount – but the book also asserts (Page 23) that peace, security and public safety must be coupled with an economic empowerments. The book continues that “bad things will [always] happen to good people” and so the community needs to be prepared to contend with the risks that can imperil the homeland. The Go Lean book therefore promotes these 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion GDP and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a homeland security apparatus to ensure public safety and to protect the resultant economic engines of the Caribbean
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these above engines.

The Go Lean book details the series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to improve public protections: interpersonal violence, crime mitigation efforts, and even wage a successful ‘War on Terrorism’. This charter includes all proactive and reactive public safety/security measures in the Caribbean region. There have been many previous blog-commentaries that have elaborated on policing and governing empowerments for the region’s homeland security needs. Consider this sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13746	Failure to Launch – Security: Caribbean Basin Security Dreams
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13126	The Requirement for Better Security: Must Love Dogs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11054	Managing the ‘Strong versus the Weak’ – Mitigating Bullying
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10566	Funding the Caribbean Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9974	Lessons Learned from Pearl Harbor
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9072	Securing the Homeland – On the Ground
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9070	Securing the Homeland – From the Seas
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9068	Securing the Homeland – From the Air
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7345	ISIS in the Caribbean?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6720	A Lesson in History – During the Civil War: Fighting for Our Own Cause
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6103	Sum of All Fears – ‘On Guard’ Against Deadly Threats
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5002	Managing a ‘Clear and Present Danger’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4809	America’s Model of Monitoring for Terroristic Activities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4360	Dreading the ‘Caribbean Basin Security Initiative’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1554	Status of Forces Agreement = Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1076	Trinidad Muslims travel to Venezuela for Jihadist training
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=809	Muslim officials condemn abductions of Nigerian girls
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=535	Remembering and learning from Boston for Festival Security

An effort to provide better public safety and homeland security solutions in the Caribbean should be welcomed by all stakeholders. The effort to project the image of Safe Caribbean is a pressing need. We do not need to undermine our economic engines with lax security measures or attitudes.

It is past time to do better!

It is past time for a new Caribbean stewardship. One that must foster good security habits … and ‘war against a lax attitude’ – the world is watching!

Now is the time to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. Now is the time to better secure our homeland: monitor for threats, gather intelligence, investigate incidences, police communities, arm a defense apparatus and prepare for the worst. Now is time now to grow up and secure our economic engines.

All Caribbean stakeholders are therefore urged to lean-in to this roadmap, to this conceivable, believable and achievable plan to make the Caribbean a better, safer place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

———-

Appendix – The Sun Tabloid Newspaper

The Sun is a tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Since The Sun on Sunday was launched in February 2012, the paper has been a seven-day operation. As a broadsheet, it was founded in 1964 as a successor to the Daily Herald; it became a tabloid in 1969 after it was purchased by its current owners.^[6] It is published by the News Group Newspapers division of News UK, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp.^[7][8]

The Sun has the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the United Kingdom,^[7] but in late 2013 slipped to second largest Saturday newspaper behind the Daily Mail.^[9] It had an average daily circulation of 2.2 million copies in March 2014.^[7] Between July and December 2013 the paper had an average daily readership of approximately 5.5 million, with approximately 31% of those falling into the ABC1 demographic and 68% in the C2DE demographic. Approximately 41% of readers are women and 59% are men.^[7] The Sun has been involved in many controversies in its history …

Source: Retrieved February 10, 2018 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sun_(United_Kingdom)

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Security, Transform, Trinidad

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EU Assists Barbados in Renewable Energy Self-Sufficiency

Posted on January 17, 2018 in Government, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

The dream of transforming to 100% renewable energy in the Caribbean can be realized. There is hope for this reality.

If only we can get the people behind it.

Our people …

So far other people are doing it for us. Thank you, European Union (EU), for talking the talk for us, and opening your wallets and walking the walk.

If only now we can step-in, step-up and step out ourselves … to do a better job of delivering basic needs, including energy.

This is the actuality of the latest developments taking place in the Caribbean. See this story here of a Green Energy initiative in Barbados:

Title: EU Assists Barbados in renewable Energy Self-Sufficiency

PRESS RELEASE – Barbados has received 1.12 million Euros (BBD$2.7M) from the European Union towards the advancement of energy self-sufficiency from renewable resources. This is the first payment of a total contribution of 3 million Euros. This activity is in line with the country’s commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of reducing its total and per capita greenhouse gas emissions.

A major objective of the EU’s support is the engagement of the private sector in renewable energy power generation and should result in consumers making increasing use of energy efficiency measures during the 36 month duration of the programme and after.

Some of the guidelines which will be used for performance assessment of the programme include the introduction of a favourable licence regime for independent power producers with generation systems larger than 1 megawatt, by March 2019. Another requirement is that by 2019 at least 30 megawatt of renewable energy will be installed by public and private entities. In addition, it is expected that there will be the establishment and implementation of a renewable energy roadmap according to defined milestones.

EU Ambassador Daniela Tramacere said: “This is another effort by the EU to assist Barbados in transforming its economy which is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, which result in annual drain on its foreign reserves.”

The Barbados government is also expected to adopt and implement energy sector reform measures that are expected to prepare the country for the transition towards renewable energy and energy efficiency on the basis of the national energy policy.
Source: St Lucia Times Daily Newspaper; posted 01/05/2018; retrieved 01/12/2018 from:
https://stluciatimes.com/2018/01/05/eu-assists-barbados-renewable-energy-self-sufficiency/

This is the reality of Caribbean life. We have deliverables that must be delivered and yet we do not. We wait for other people to deliver for us. Time to Grow Up, you people of the Caribbean! It’s time to put on your “Big Boy pants and walk like a man”!

This is the call of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of all Caribbean society – for all 30 member-. The book explains that the Caribbean is in crisis, people are fleeing day-in and day-out. Their people are “pushed and pulled” to other lands that do a better job of managing basic needs. Energy costs in the Caribbean are among the highest in the world. Therefore the CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million 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.

Notwithstanding, Barbados is doing more for regional integration and problem-solving …

… the [CARICOM] Secretary-General lauded the significant role Barbados continues to play in the Community with its Prime Minister having responsibility for the regional flagship initiative, the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). – Report

The technology, systems and processes are available right now for Caribbean communities to fulfill the dream of a society consuming renewable energy sources 100%.

We must work harder ourselves to fulfill this dream here in our region. Doing so is win-win as it accomplishes 2 important objectives: environmental (no fossil fuels) and economic (affording conveniences of modern life):

Solar – The sun always shines in the Caribbean and its free.
Wind – The wind always blows in the Caribbean – i.e. Trade Winds – and its free.
Tidal – The tides always rise and fall in the Caribbean and its free – see Appendix VIDEO below.

No doubt, these renewable options bring many benefits in arresting “Climate Change” – there is no scientific doubt that burning fossil fuels contribute to greenhouse houses. (The only doubt is political , not scientific). The Caribbean is in peril because of the actuality of greenhouse gases, think hurricane activities. Consider these recent blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13391	After Maria: Destruction and Defection for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12996	After Irma, Failed State Indicators: Destruction and Defection
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12977	After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a ‘Ghost Town’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12879	Remembering Harvey, Disaster Preparation: ‘Rinse and Repeat’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12856	Remembering Harvey, Hurricane Flooding – ‘Who Knew?’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9334	Hurricane Categories – The Science
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6189	A Lesson in History – ‘Katrina’ is helping today’s crises
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2119	Cooling Effect – Oceans and the Climate
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1817	Caribbean grapples with intense new cycles of flooding & drought

In addition to science (meteorology), there are economic benefits as well. These too cannot be ignored. There is the example of the US City of Burlington, Vermont where they saved over $20 million in a few years by migrating to renewable energy sources. This meant their local households have not experienced energy costs increases since before the year 2009.

With economics, comes the consideration of “standard of care”. There is a reality to living in the Caribbean heat where air-conditioning is essential otherwise life is unbearable – think: Hotter than July’ – yet most people are not able to afford the excessive costs of this modern comfort.

So the environmental and economic issues must be the primary focus for any Green Energy consideration! The Go Lean book initiates with the pronouncement that our region is in crisis and struggling with these issues. The pressing needs are pronounced early in the book in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 11), with these opening statements:

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

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. …

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.

Combating Climate Change should be important for Caribbean stakeholders. Deploying more efficient and cost-effective power generation options should also be of paramount importance in this region. But the motivation behind the Go Lean book is even bigger still; it is to elevate all of Caribbean society – above and beyond just combating Climate Change or just lowering costs.

With the unmistakable benefits of Green Energy systems, it should not matter who leads, Caribbean stakeholders or the EU, as long as the Caribbean region proceeds down this path. Well, according to the foregoing news article, the EU has stepped up. We now need all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this focused effort.

The Caribbean is struggling with the costs and reality of energy. The Go Lean book related (Page 100) in 2013 that this region pays one of the highest rates in the world; averaging US$0.35 /kWh. The book, in presenting more optimized solutions, posits that the average energy costs can come down to US$0.088/kWh with just a better mix of fossil-fuels and renewables.

Other communities are doing this – lower energy costs due to 100% renewable energy – now, as the model of City of Burlington, Vermont referred to previously. If this city can get to 100% renewables, despite harsh winters for 3 months every year, imagine how much more so the Caribbean communities with their near-365 days of sunshine. Even some European communities are successful at this quest. This is en vogue right now, despite the different geographies and climates.

The Caribbean energy needs are undeniable. The effects of fossil-fueled-driven Climate Change are also undeniable. The need to lower the costs of living in the Caribbean is therefore undeniable as well. The Caribbean region must therefore move forward – we do not have the luxury of standing still – alternative energy options are now vast and available. There is simply the need for the commitment. The Go Lean roadmap portrays that we must engage these alternatives if we want to make this region a better homeland to live, work and play.

The Go Lean book opened (Page 3) with the job description for the CU technocracy to make better provisions for the region’s basic needs: food, clothing, shelter and energy. There is the need now to fully embrace renewable energy options, maybe even for 100%. There are even grants – i.e. from the EU – to pursue this course of action.

We have no further excuse!

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean – the people, businesses, institutions and governments – to lean-in for the optimizations and opportunities of Green Energy options; and to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap.

The vision of 100% renewable energy is now more than just a dream. 🙂

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

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

———–

Appendix VIDEO – Tidal Power 101 – https://youtu.be/VkTRcTyDSyk

Student Energy

Published on May 17, 2015 – Tidal power converts the energy from the natural rise and fall of the tides into electricity. Learn more about Tidal Power and all types of energy at www.studentenergy.org

Category: Education
License: Standard YouTube License

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Barbados, EU, Green Energy, Transform

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The Spoken and Unspoken on Haiti

Posted on January 16, 2018 in Ethos, Locations, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

The US President said what?!

He – Donald J. Trump – called Haiti a “shit-hole” country while negotiating the details for an immigration reform bill with his political opponents.

This declaration spewed controversy and disgust in the US … and abroad; even here in the Caribbean. See VIDEO’s here:

VIDEO 1 – The U.S.’s complicated relationship with a country Trump called a ‘shithole – http://wapo.st/2ATEOSZ

According to the Washington Post, this is how ignorant you have to be to call Haiti a ‘shithole’.

President Trump’s defenders don’t know anything about Haiti’s history — or the United States’s. See the full article here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/01/12/this-is-how-ignorant-you-have-to-be-to-call-haiti-a-shithole/?utm_term=.f82e10bad3d8

———-

VIDEO 2 – CNN and Fox News hosts react to Trump’s ‘shithole’ remark – https://youtu.be/NrynNeqx48I

Published on Jan 12, 2018 – President Trump referred to African nations and Haiti as “shithole” countries on Jan. 11. Here’s how hosts on CNN and Fox News reacted. Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube: http://bit.ly/2qiJ4dy

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Category: News & Politics

License: Standard YouTube License

See commentary from the Caribbean Intelligentsia here posted on the regional site Caribbean News Now:

Commentary: President Trump’s ‘shithole’ comments unfortunately deserve follow up

By: Youri A Kemp

In a bi-partisan meeting with Democrat and Republican lawmakers on immigration and particularly on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) portion of the immigration reform package, in an unprecedented show of extreme ignorance and crassness, the president of the USA, Donald Trump, referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as “shitholes”.

No further comment [is] necessary, but I will comment anyway. I will because the overt stupidity of such a statement, particularly a statement made in the presence of Democrat and Republican lawmakers, shows how “off the rails” and “loose with his mouth” President Trump is.

For me personally, I cry foul on such comments. As everyone should. The president, or any world leader, should not be using such language in the open and especially not disparaging other countries, no matter how he or the grouping may feel about the issue.
…

See the full commentary here: http://wp.caribbeannewsnow.com/2018/01/12/commentary-president-trumps-shithole-comments-unfortunately-deserve-follow/#comment-1747

Source: Caribbean New Noe e-Zine; posted January 12, 2018; retrieved January 16, 2018

No wait, it wasn’t “shit-hole” that he said, it was “shit-house”.

No wait, maybe he didn’t say these at all!

Just what is spoken and what is unspoken about the disposition of Haiti in the minds of American leaders?

The Bible says:

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

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

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

Haiti is effectively a Failed-State.

Yet, still we make this statements in love – not hate; not bias; not prejudice nor blatant racism. We have also followed-up from “talking this talk” to “walking the walk” and have presented an Action Plan, a Way Forward for reforming and transforming Haiti. We have been doing this all along – since the start of these commentaries. See the previous submissions here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13916	Haiti – Beauty ‘Only a Mother Can Love’ Many women sacrifice to help Haiti create jobs and elevate their society. The Go Lean roadmap presents a model for Self-Governing Entities as a job-creating engine.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13105	Fixing Haiti – Can the Diaspora be the Answer? Any plan that encourages people to leave their homeland and try to remember it later when they find success, double-downs on failure. We need solutions that encourage our people to prosper where planted in the homeland, like Haiti.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10336	A Lesson in History: Haiti’s Reasonable Doubt There is the little-known history of an American occupation in Haiti in 1915. This suppressed, oppressed and repressed this island-nation further. Haiti needs to accept that America is not always its friend.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8767	A Lesson in History: Haiti 1804 Haiti has the proud legacy of being the first successful Slave Rebellion to liberate its people and start the effort of nation-building. Though Haiti became a Republic, they paid a steep price for the brazen acts of 1804.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8508	Support sought for kids left behind by UN troops in Haiti. The UN’s efforts to help Haiti was a good intention, but there were many bad consequences. Rather than the UN, Haiti needs its neighbors to help.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7896	The Logistics of Disaster Relief When Caribbean communities suffer from disasters – earthquakes and hurricanes – we need technocratic efficiency to manage the relief and response. The past track record is truly sad.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5695	Repenting, Forgiving and Reconciling the Past Haiti has been on the “wrong-side” of so many atrocities, there must be a reconciliation focus to have peace with neighbors, going forward.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5462	In Search Of The Red Cross’ $500 Million In Haiti Relief. The 2010 earthquake devastation brought-in a lot of money that somehow never made it to Haiti. This proves that Caribbean people need the maturity to manage charities ourselves.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5333	France – Haiti Legacy: Cause and Effect – Still matters today. As finally the President of France made a proclamation of acknowledgement that the Republic of Haiti has endured a long legacy of paying a debt (in blood and finances) for the natural right of freedom.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3662	Migrant flow into US from Caribbean spikes. Haitians take to the dangerous seas in desperation to flee their homeland.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3473	Haiti to Receive $70 Million Grant to Expand Caracol Industrial Park. This is a model for Self-Governing Entities that the Go Lean roadmap stresses.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2907	Local Miami Haitian leaders protest Bahamian immigration policy. Bad treatment of Haitians is not just limited to Americans; other Caribbean countries (the Bahamas in this case) are guilty of unfair treatment. The Go Lean strategy is to elevate the entire region, not one country over another.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2547	Miami’s Success versus Caribbean Failure Miami is thriving now, mostly due to the contributions of the Caribbean Diaspora.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1773	Miami’s Caribbean Marketplace Re-opens. The City of Miami now celebrates their Haitian community as opposed to the initial ridicule and rejection. This appears to be standard arc – rejection => toleration => acceptance => celebration – for all new immigrants.

All of this messaging comprise the Way Forward as prescribed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

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

The book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit of Caribbean people doing the work themselves for the Caribbean. This Way Forward 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 [own] public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. …

xii. 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.

We must do this ourselves – as a confederation, a brotherhood – rather than waiting for other people to lead us or love us. Because frankly …

They don’t!

So let’s get busy in the hard-work and heavy-lifting to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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Haiti, History, Power

[Top]

Haiti – Beauty ‘Only a Mother Can Love’

Posted on January 10, 2018 in Locations, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

The Caribbean is among the most beautiful addresses on the planet.

Consider the tropical islands, coastal beaches, waterscapes, flora, fauna, etc.

This is true among most of the Caribbean member-states in the region …

… Haiti, not included! (Just yet! Stay tuned!)

While this country has some beautiful terrain, poverty and mis-management has sullied a lot of its natural beauty. In some places, Haiti is a land where “only a mother can love”.

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

May we all be inspired by their examples. Consider the news story in this article here:

Title: These Haitian women were doing great in U.S. — and then returned to aid quake-hit nation

Croix-Des-Bouquets, Haiti — Regine Theodat had just passed the bar exam and at 25 years old was beginning a promising, if predictable, career in U.S. corporate law. She went to work, to spin class, home and to bed.

“Wake up and repeat,” she recalled. “I was very much a corporate lawyer — very strait-laced; not very adventurous.”

Then on Jan. 12, 2010, a magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, killing hundreds of thousands of people. And the child of immigrants who left Haiti for greater opportunities did something shocking. She traded her comfortable life in Boston for the chaos of the poorest country in the Americas.

Aid groups and volunteers from around the world also poured into Haiti. Most have left. But eight years later, Theodat is still here.

She is among a small army, most of them women, who returned to Haiti and started businesses. Theodat makes food and cocktails. Another woman supplies castor oil beauty products to North American stores, including Whole Foods. Some of the others sell fruit smoothies, jewelry and chocolate.

More Haitians may soon be returning from the U.S., but not voluntarily. The Trump administration announced in November that “temporary protected status” for 59,000 Haitians will end in 2019. Many will have limited opportunities back home. VIDEO

What’s more, remittances make up almost a third of Haiti’s GDP, so for each person deported, several local people suffer. For those with education, drive and money, however, moving back is a chance to create jobs and help change practices that many believe perpetuate poverty.

Family members thought Theodat was insane for going back to a country they’d left in the 1980s.

“They said, ‘She’ll be back. The first demonstration that happens, she’ll be back. The first rocks she sees thrown, she’ll be back,’” she said. She has indeed seen a lot, but she has stayed.

Theodat spent her first year running a human rights clinic, until she found out that Haitians really wanted something else. “People kept asking me for jobs,” she said.

So she teamed up with two collaborators from her human right work, including a man she later married. They launched MyaBèl, a restaurant and cocktail bar in Croix-des-Bouquets, the hometown of Theodat’s family located northeast of Port-au-Prince.

Then they started bottling drinks and sauces in a middle-class house on a dirt side street and began a farm to supply fresh ingredients.

MyaBèl now sells products at more than a dozen Haitian supermarkets and boutiques. It employs 18 people and works with 65 farmers. This year, Theodat was nominated for an entrepreneur of the year award.

Jezila Brunis, 37, a single mother of three, makes minimum wage, about $5.50 a day, in the workshop. She’s able to send her children to school, and she likes the process of washing and chopping ingredients, feeding them into mixers and cooking them on a stove-top. “I’m always learning new things,” she said.

Even paying the minimum is a challenge because other costs — generators, fuel, imports and wear-and-tear on vehicles — are extremely high, Theodat said. Hiring and managing people is difficult because so few held jobs before, and they often fail to do basics, such as keeping kitchen doors closed, getting to work on time and finishing tasks quickly. Five out of the restaurant’s original six employees lost their jobs.

Most Haitians subsist in part on farms or work informally, so unemployment is hard to measure. But the World Bank says almost 60% of Haiti’s 11 million people live in poverty. In May, the insurance company FM Global rated Haiti the worst place to do business among 130 countries it studied.

Theodat came face-to-face with endemic corruption the first time she went to pay taxes. She was told she needed to pay someone to speed up the process. “I refused,” she said. “And then I just sat there until I was able to do it the way I was supposed to do it.” She did the same with immigration and customs.

Some of the émigrés couldn’t cut it. “They came, they tried, Haiti pummeled them, and they left,” said Isabelle Clérié, who came home to work with local entrepreneurs after studying anthropology in the U.S. “Some were able to stick it out, and through some truly big challenges.”

“One of the most valuable exports from Haiti is our brains,” she said. “It’s been really great to see these people come back.”

Unlike Theodat, Corinne Joachim Sanon long planned to start a business in Haiti. She grew up in Port-au-Prince, graduated from high school at 16 and headed to the University of Michigan to study industrial engineering. She was in Wharton’s business program when the earthquake struck, destroying her family home and killing her grandmother.

She launched Askanya, Haiti’s first bean-to-bar chocolate company, in her grandmother’s childhood home in Ouanaminthe, a town on the border with the Dominican Republic. The company works with cacao and sugar cooperatives representing more than 3,000 growers and employs 10 people full time.

One of them is Jocelyne Diomètre, 34, who had been a maid in the Dominican Republic and hated the hassle of crossing the border every day. At Askanya, she is working in her own country for the first time.

Askanya sells bars at scores of locations across Haiti and the U.S. Boosted by recognition at festivals in Seattle and Paris, Joachim Sanon is looking to expand production and double its number of growers.

MyaBèl is also growing, clearing and planting more than 30 acres of idle land. It is planning to hire local people to make machines for the workshop. Theodat said the company must increase production to meet local demand and then start exporting to the U.S., creating more jobs.

Theodat and Joachim Sanon know that returning émigrés can’t end poverty in Haiti. “I don’t think I’m going to go to bed and wake up and Haiti is going to be totally different,” Theodat said.

Refusing to take part in corruption might result in incremental change. Theodat also believes the more collaborative style of émigrés has been rubbing off on their local counterparts.

Joachim Sanon is encouraged that a Haitian company is now competing with Askanya by selling high-end chocolate bars. “Sometimes you want to see someone else succeed first before you try to put your toe in the water,” she said.

“It’s definitely changing the image of Haiti,” she said. “It creates a momentum.”

—–
Contributing: Michel Joseph.

This story was produced in association with Round Earth Media, which trains and supports young journalists around the world.

Source: USA Today – Posted December 22, 2017; retrieved January 9, 2017 from:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/22/these-haitian-women-were-doing-great-u-s-and-then-returned-aid-quake-hit-nation/938639001/

Related: Trump administration to send Haiti earthquake victims home in 2019 – See Appendix VIDEO below.

This commentary is about Haiti’s community re-development, jobs, image and pride. Plus the “Sheroes” who are transforming the country!

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

There is no doubt that Haiti has seen a lot of dysfunction; the country flirts with Failed-State status. But change is afoot – see A Supplication for Haiti in the Appendix below – here comes that change: “New Guards”. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – New Guards for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs. One strategy is to deploy industrial campuses, work-yards and job-sites as Self-Governing Entities (SGE’s).
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines, especially on the SGE’s.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies. This allows for Self-Governing Entities independent of Haiti’s local government. Yippee!!!

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. One advocacy is the deployment of Self-Governing Entities – industrial sites though physically located in a member-state, like Haiti, actually administered by agencies of the CU Federation (Page 105). Another advocacy is the Reboot of Haiti. The book posits that solutions for the Caribbean must first come from the Caribbean. Therefore, the roadmap calls for a Caribbean-styled Marshall Plan. (A similar advocacy is provided for Cuba). See this definition here, from Page 238:

The Bottom Line on the Marshall Plan

By the end of World War II much of Europe was devastated. The Marshall Plan, (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP), named after the then Secretary of State and retired general George Marshall, was the American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of the war. During the four years (1948 – 1952) that the plan was operational, US $13 billion in economic and technical assistance was given to help the recovery of the European countries. The plan looked to the future, and did not focus on the destruction caused by the war.

Much more important were efforts to modernize European industrial and business practices using high-efficiency American models, reduce artificial trade barriers, and instill a sense of hope and self-reliance. By 1952 as the funding ended, the economy of every participant state had surpassed pre-war levels; for all Marshall Plan recipients, output in 1951 was at least 35% higher than in 1938. Over the next two decades, Western Europe enjoyed unprecedented growth and prosperity. Generally, economists agree that the Marshall Plan was one of the first elements of European integration, as it erased trade barriers and set up institutions to coordinate the economy on a continental level—that is, it stimulated the total political reconstruction of Western Europe.

Today, the European Union, the latest successor of the integration effort, is the world largest integrated economy.

Consider too some specific plans, excerpts and headlines for the objective of engaging the Marshall Plan concept for Haiti; this too is found in the book on Page 238, entitled:

10 Ways to Reboot Haiti

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market This regional re-boot will allow for the unification of the region into one market, thereby creating a single economy of 30 member-states, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion. Following the model of European integration, the CU will be the representative and negotiating body for Haiti and the entire region for all trade and security issues.
2	Marshall Plan for Haiti Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. But what they have is impassioned human capital as opposed to financial capital or valuable minerals. The CU is a total economic reboot for this country, one that involves developing internally and not thru emigration. To reboot Haiti will require a mini-Marshall Plan. The infrastructure, for the most part, is archaic compared to modern societies. The engines of the CU will enable a rapid upgrade of the infra-structure and some “low hanging fruit” for returns on the investment.
3	Leap Frog Philosophy There is no need to move Haiti’s technology infrastructure baseline from the 1960’s, then to the 1970’s, and so on. Rather, the CU’s vision is to move Haiti to where technology is going, not coming from. This includes advanced urban planning concepts like electrified light-rail, prefab house constructions, alternative energies and e-delivery of governmental services and payment systems.
4	Repatriation and Reconciliation of the Haitian Diaspora
5	Access to Capital Markets
6	National Historic Places
7	World Heritage Sites
8	Labor, Immigration and Movement of People The recovery plan for Haiti would discourage the emigration of the population. Haiti has a population base (10 million) that can imperil other islands if too many Haitians relocate within the Caribbean. As a result, the CU will expend the resources and facilitate the campaign to dissuade relocation for the first 10 years of the ascension of the CU [Treaty]. During these first 10 years, Haitians visiting other CU member states, with Visa’s, with careful monitoring to ensure compliance.
9	Educational Mandates Whereas the CU educational facilitation is satisfied at the secondary level, there will be a greater need for Adult Education in Haiti. Because of the decades of poverty, illiteracy is more dire in Haiti than in other CU state. There will be no age limitation for the educational opportunities. The macro-economic principle is “every year of education raises a country’s GDP”; this will allow for easy pickings of the economic “low hanging fruit”.
10	Language Neutrality of the Union … French and Creole

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

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

We can ride this trend in the Caribbean as well. Haiti would be perfectly suited. Consider here, how the Go Lean movement identified many opportunities and expressions of the Gig Economy in these previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13420	Lessons on Gigs from the History of Whaling Expedition
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8262	UberEverything in Africa – Model of Gigs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6129	Lessons Learned from US Migrant Farm Workers on Seasonal Gigs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4145	Gigs for Eco-Tourism and World Heritage Sites
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2857	Gig Economy Model – Entrepreneurism in Junk
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2571	AirBnB Gig Economy Options Materializing
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2003	Ship-breaking – One Job/Gig Scenario
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1364	Uber Gigs Backlash Shows the Community Impact

Jobs in the Gig Economy are counted in the Go Lean roadmap as these are direct jobs; there is also the reality of indirect jobs – unrelated service and attendant functions – at a 3.75 multiplier rate would add even more to the job-creation effort.

According to the foregoing news article, there are many women in Haiti that have given a full measure to impact their communities and foster new jobs and economic activities. Such good news! How blessed they are:

The Lord gives the word; the women who announce the good news are a great host – English Standard Version

We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap to make the homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

————

Appendix – Poem: A Supplication for Haiti!

Here’s my supplication for my brothers and sisters of Haiti:

Do not beg people to love you.
If you are successful in your begging,
it will not be love that you get, it will be pity!

Do you want to be pitied … as an individual?

Do you want to be pitied as a community; do you want to be pitied as a country?

This is most apropos on the heels of America ending her charity towards you – below. Yet, do not beg!

You do not want to be pitied by the world. You want to be honored by the world … for showing your proud heritage, as the progenitor of freedom for the New World.

Show them your pride. Show them your dignity.

————

Appendix VIDEO – US Ending Temporary Permits for Haitians – https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2017/11/21/u.s.-ending-temporary-permits-haitians/107896498/

AP Nov. 21, 2017 – The Trump administration said Monday it is ending a temporary residency permit program that has allowed almost 60,000 citizens from Haiti to live and work in the United States since a 2010. Haitian advocates quickly criticized the decision.

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Baha Mar: Doubling-down on Failure

Posted on January 2, 2018 in Economics, Industries, Locations, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

“We told you it wouldn’t work.” – Previous Go Lean commentary.

Update: It hasn’t worked!

The Baha Mar Resort, Casino and Convention Center in Cable Beach, Nassau, Bahamas is now fully open – see Appendix VIDEO – and frankly empty! (See Photos below). This is the peak winter tourism season. This weather reality creates a seasonal demand for tropical resorts. Plus the excitement of a new property always generates a “buzz” … normally.

And yet, Baha Mar, thus far has been underwhelming! (There is hope for a better disposition in the future).

The Baha Mar project has been a source of contention for many years; one drama after another: dispute during construction, missed opening, bankruptcy filing, official wine-down, changed ownership, eventual opening, litigation among the originators.

See the latest breaking news in this Baha Mar drama in the news article here:

Title: Bahamas Developer Claims Huge Chinese Fraud at $3.9 Billion Resort
By: Bob Van Voris

China Construction America Inc. was accused in a lawsuit of ripping off the original developer of the long-delayed $3.9 billion Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas by submitting fraudulent bills and collecting undeserved fees.

BML Properties Ltd., led by wealthy Bahamas businessman Sarkis Izmirlian, sued CCA Tuesday claiming the state-owned Chinese contractor pulled off a “massive fraud” to enrich itself at BML’s expense, leading to the collapse of the project in 2015. Delays in the construction of the biggest and most expensive resort to be built in the Caribbean have been a drag on the Bahamian economy in recent years.

BML claims that CCA submitted hundreds of millions of dollars in fake bills, understaffed the project and used it as a training ground for inexperienced workers. CCA knew it wouldn’t be able to meet the planned December 2014 deadline to open the resort but created the appearance that it would, in order to remain on the project and collect undeserved fees, BML claims. BML is seeking at least $2.25 billion in damages.

CCA didn’t respond to phone messages and an email seeking comment on the suit.

BML filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware in 2015. A U.S. bankruptcy judge dismissed the case in favor of a Bahamian court.

Baha Mar, which opened in April, is now owned by Hong Kong-based, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd. The development features more than 2,300 rooms, 40 restaurants and lounges, a convention center, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, shopping and the biggest casino in the Caribbean, according to Baha Mar’s website.

BML outlined its claims in a 259-page complaint filed in state court in Manhattan.

The case is BML Properties Ltd. v. China Construction America Inc., 657550/2017, New York State Supreme Court, New York County (Manhattan).

Source: Bloomberg Business News Source – Posted December 26, 2017; retrieved December 30, 2017 from: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-26/baha-mar-developer-claims-to-be-victim-of-massive-china-fraud

All of this drama for a business model designed for … failure.

The Baha Mar Resort on Cable Beach features casino gambling and golf, two amenities that are failing more and more.

Casino
In a previous commentary, the business disposition of casino gambling was explored:

Increasingly in the casino/gaming industries, the money is not there. …

Despite the fact that the “house” always wins, the number of gamblers have declined! It is what it is!

87% of Baby-Boomers gamble when visiting Las Vegas

78% of Generation X-ers gamble when visiting Las Vegas

63% of Millenials gamble when visiting Las Vegas

Golf
In a previous commentary, the business disposition of the sport of golf was explored:

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

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

These (above) are among the key phrases from the narration of … [an] HBO Real Sports documentary story …

This topic of the Baha Mar Resort is very important in the consideration of Caribbean economics, as casino gambling and golf has often been associated with Caribbean tourism.

The foregoing news article about Baha Mar aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean, which calls for the elevation of Caribbean economics. This book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to better manage economic opportunities in the full Caribbean region. This is a Big Deal for the Go Lean roadmap to foster the diversification of the regional economy. Frankly, a $3.9 Billion investment should be able to generate better returns (job creation) than the Baha Mar fiasco has demonstrated. This hope for better tourism and economic diversification was identified early in the Go Lean book (Pages 11 – 14) in the following pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence:

iv. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass is in a tropical region, the flora and fauna allows for an inherent beauty that is enviable to peoples near and far, the structures must be strenuously guarded to protect and promote sustainable systems of commerce paramount to this reality.

vi. Whereas the finite nature of the landmass of our lands limits the populations and markets of commerce, by extending the bonds of brotherhood to our geographic neighbors allows for extended opportunities and better execution of the kinetics of our economies through trade. This regional focus must foster and promote diverse economic stimuli.

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.

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

The Go Lean book posits that there is a need to re-boot and optimize the engines of commerce so as to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. The tourism product, the mainstay of Caribbean economy, used to depend on certain amenities (i.e. Casinos and Golf) that have now come under attack by the social and demographic changes. It so appears that the future for Caribbean economics cannot lazily depend on factors like “sun, sand, surf and smiles”, no, there must be intelligent business models.

This is a changed world and changed marketplace. Likewise, our economic engines must change to keep pace … and get ahead!

The Go Lean book presents a Way Forward.

Way Forward
The Go Lean/CU roadmap seeks to elevate all of Caribbean society to remain competitive and consequential in the future. This is the heavy-lifting of shepherding a progressive region of 42 million people, 10 million Diaspora, 80 million tourists, and 4 language groups across 30 member-states. The CU’s charter is to effectuate progress in this region with these 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and marshal against economic crimes.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these above engines, including a separation-of-powers between CU federal administrations and local member-states.

The Way Forward / Go Lean roadmap includes the quest to create the jobs for the near-future. There is the plan to monitor, manage, and plan for new jobs. The roadmap provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

As a region, we have failed to keep pace of change. As related in that previous blog-commentary …

… our society is now in desperate need of reform and to reboot to insulate from many demographic changes. On the one hand, we must diversify our economy and avail other high job-multiplier industries, away from tourism, but on the other hand, we must double-down in the tourism product, as the economic principles of “supply and demand” just cannot be ignored. (During the winter months, our Caribbean destinations are the “best addresses on the planet”.)

The Go Lean/CU roadmap calls for fostering industrial developments to aid economic diversification and to aid tourism. This includes incorporating best practices and quality assurances to deliver the “best experience in the world” for our visitors and trading partners.

This commentary has previously related details of the changing macro-economic factors in the world and how despite the dynamic conditions, jobs can be created. The following are samples of previous Go Lean blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13700	Increasing Tourism Market Share
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13420	A Lesson in Whaling History – Expeditions for Shipyard Jobs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13184	A Series on Industrial Reboots
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12668	Common Sense of Eco-Tourism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8590	Build It and They Will Come – Politics of Infrastructure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7977	Transformations: Perfecting Our Core Competence – i.e. Tourism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6341	Doing Better with Tourism Stewardship
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6089	Need Better Jobs Than ‘Minimum Wage’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4037	How to Train Your ‘Dragons’ or Direct Foreign Investors
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2857	Where the Jobs Are – Example: Entrepreneurism in Junk
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2126	Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2003	Where the Jobs Are – One Scenario (Ship-breaking)

So this commentary advocates not doubling-down on bad trends that just “soak up” investments and produce very little return. We must be better and do better. We need to double-down on improving our tourism products and diversifying our economy away from tourism.

Yes, we can! We can do the heavy-lifting (hard-work and smart-work) to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

———–

Appendix VIDEO – Baha Mar: The Las Vegas of the Caribbean – https://youtu.be/T7lGljlr01M

Caribbean Journal

Published on Aug 6, 2017 – The long-awaited Baha Mar resort project is finally here, and Caribbean Journal got an exclusive first look. So what’s it like? Well, it’s a unique, impressive project: a Las Vegas in the heart of the Caribbean.

Category: Travel & Events
License: Standard YouTube License

Music: “Consortium of Cold Cool” by Craig Riley Listen ad-free with YouTube Red

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Bahamas, Jobs, Model, Tourism

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Miami’s Caribbean Marketplace Revisited – ENCORE

Posted on December 8, 2017 in Locations, Social

It’s time to celebrate all things Miami – during Miami Art Week 2017 – so that includes all the Caribbean Diaspora that adds to the fabric of this international metropolis and makes it a Magic City.

Spanish, Haitian, Indian Jamaican, Black/White Cuban or Asian … – Lyrics from song “Welcome to Miami” by Rapper Will Smith; featured in the VIDEO below.

Just look at this place now; in all of its glory!

This is the perfect time to encore this following – original blog-commentary – from July 20, 2014 when the Miami Caribbean Marketplace was re-opened in Little Haiti:

—————

Go Lean Commentary – Miami’s Caribbean Marketplace Re-opens

Make no mistake: having a warm welcome in a City of Refuge is not as good as being safe and secure at home. Yet, when conditions mandate that one take flight, a warm welcome is greatly appreciated.

According to the foregoing article, the City of Miami now extends a warm welcome … to the Caribbean Diaspora. While Miami profits from this embrace, the benefits for the Caribbean are not so great.

This is the American Immigrant experience, one of eventual celebration, but only after a “long train of abuses”: rejection, anger, protest, bargaining, toleration and eventual acceptance. The experience in Miami today is one of celebration.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean champions the cause of retaining Caribbean citizens in the Caribbean, even inviting the Diaspora back to their homelands. So the idea of celebrating a cultural contribution at a center in a foreign land is a paradox. Yes, we want the positive image, but no, we do not want to encourage more assimilation in the foreign land.

However, the book declares: It is what it is!

The 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 in the homeland of the region’s 30 member-states. The CU strives to elevate Caribbean image at home and abroad. There are many empowerments in the roadmap for the far-flung Diaspora to improve the interaction with the Caribbean community. So the cultural center in the foregoing article is germane to the Go Lean discussion.

The entire article is listed as follows:

Sub-title: The Caribbean Marketplace has become a cultural icon in the Little Haiti community and re-opens with much fanfare….

By: Fabiola Fleuranvil | Noire Miami

The long awaited re-opening of the Caribbean Marketplace (CMP) is back as a cultural marker in the vibrant Little Haiti community. For years, the venue has been a strong figure along Little Haiti’s main corridor and has been easily identified by its bright colors and vibrant activity of vendors as well as Haitian and Caribbean culture. After undergoing a lengthy renovation to transform this cultural gem into a community staple for unique arts and crafts, Caribbean culture, special events, and community events, the highly anticipated reopening positions the Caribbean Marketplace as a vibrant addition to the Little Haiti Cultural Center next door and the burgeoning arts and culture spirit in Little Haiti.

The re-establishment of this Marketplace is a collaborative effort of the City of Miami in partnership with the Miami-Dade Department of Cultural Affairs, the Little Haiti Cultural Complex (LHCC), the Northeast Second Avenue Partnership (NE2P) and District 5 Commissioner Keon Hardemon.

The 9,500-square-foot space includes a refreshment and concession area, gift shops, arts and crafts, retail vendors and space available for private events. The renovations reflect the beautiful diversity of the Caribbean. Low rates, technical and marketing assistance will be provided to all vendors. It is anticipated that new businesses will be created in this cultural hub, resulting in employment opportunities for the local community.

Physical Address for the Caribbean Marketplace: 5925 NE 2nd Ave, Miami (Besides the Little Haiti Cultural Center) Hours: Thursday – Sunday, 11AM – 11PM
Miami Herald Daily Newspaper (Retrieved 07-16-2014) –
http://www.miami.com/little-haiti039s-caribbean-marketplace-reopens-article

The Miami community is doing even more to embrace the exile populations in its metropolis, (including jurisdictions up to West Palm Beach). They have declared an entire month (June) for celebrating Caribbean communities; the term “month” is a loose definition, it starts in the Spring and forwards deep into the Summer. The following is a sample of events planned for this year (2014).

Caribbean-American Heritage “Month” events around South Florida:

3rd Annual Colors of the Caribbean

Saturday, June 14, 4PM – 11PM – Hollywood Arts Park – Hollywood Blvd & US1

What do you get when you blend the diverse, authentic ingredients of the Caribbean? You get a Caribbean inspired day of food, arts and culture, entertainment and irie vibes. Colors of the Caribbean features: Junkanoo procession, Moko Jumbies (Stilt walkers), Steelpan music, and live performances by Wayne Wonder (Jamaica), Midnite (Virgin Islands), Kevin Lyttle (St Vincent), Harmoniq (Haiti), music by DJ Majestic (DC/Trinidad & Tobago), and more.

AllSpice: Flavors of the Caribbean

Friday, June 20, 6PM – 10PM – Borland Center, 4885PGABlvd,Palm BeachGardens

The Caribbean Democratic Club of Palm Beach County presents a Taste of the Caribbean in celebration of Caribbean American Month.

Caribbean Style Week

June 23-29 – Westfield Mall Broward, 8000 West Broward Blvd, Plantation

The Caribbean American Heritage Foundation hosts a week-long showcase featuring both popular and upcoming Caribbean fashion designers and brands. Fashion pieces will be available for purchase during the fashion expo.

Caribbean Heritage Month Travel Experience/Travel Expo

June 28-29 – Westfield Mall Broward, 8000 West Broward Blvd, Plantation

The Caribbean Travel Expo celebrates and promotes each individual as a destination for your next vacation. The expo experience will also showcase live music, cultural performances, and special surprise giveaways over the weekend.

Caribbean: Crossroads of the World Exhibit

April 18 – Aug 17 – PerezArt MuseumMiami (PAMM), 1103 Biscayne Blvd, Miami

Highlighting over two centuries of rarely seen works — from paintings and sculptures to prints, photographs, installations, films, and videos — dating from the Haitian Revolution to the present, this exhibition advances our understanding of the Caribbean and its artistic heritage and contemporary practices.
http://www.miami.com/caribbean-american-heritage-month-events-around-south-florida-article)

The Go Lean…Caribbean clearly recognizes the historicity of Cuban and Afro-Caribbean (Haitian, Jamaican, Dominican, Bahamian, etc) exiles in Miami. They went through the “long train of abuses”. But today, their communities dominate the culture of South Florida, resulting in a distinctive character that has made Miami unique as a travel/tourist destination; see VIDEO below. The expression “take my talents to South Beach” now resonates in American society.

This commentary previously featured subjects related to the Caribbean Diaspora in South Florida. The following here is a sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1433	Caribbean loses more than 70 percent of tertiary educated to brain drain
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1148	Sports Bubble – Franchise values in basketball
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=689	eMerge conference aims to jump-start Miami tech hub
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=235	Tourism’s changing profile

At the outset, the Go Lean roadmap recognizes the value and significance of Cuban and Haitian exile communities in the pantheon of Caribbean life. Any serious push for Caribbean integration must consider Diaspora communities, like the Cuban/Haitian exiles in Miami. This intent was pronounced early in the book with these statements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 & 13):

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.

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.

It was commonly accepted that Cuban exiles and other Caribbean Diaspora were sitting, waiting in Miami for change in their homelands; then they would return to claim their earned positions of respect. Along the way, the Survive-then-Thrive strategy was supplanted with a new Thrive-in-America strategy – credited to the next generation’s assimilation of the American Dream and the long duration of Caribbean dysfunctions, i.e. the Castros still reign after 55 years. Miami subsequently emerged as the trading post for the Caribbean and all of Latin America. The Caribbean is now hereby urged to lean-in to the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to finally re-boot Caribbean society; as detailed in the book Go Lean … Caribbean sampled here:

Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices & Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth	Page 21
Community Ethos – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation	Page 23
Community Ethos – Minority Equalization	Page 24
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations	Page 34
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategic – Vision – Integrating Region in to a Single Market	Page 45
Strategic – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocrary	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – State Department – Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Federal Courts – Truth & Reconciliation Commissions	Page 90
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Foreign Policy Initiatives at Start-up	Page 102
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Trade Mission Objectives	Page 117
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate	Page 118
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization	Page 119
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Cuba/Haiti	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora	Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts	Page 230
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Music	Page 231
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Cuba	Page 236
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Haiti	Page 238

The foregoing article addresses the story of the Caribbean Marketplace facility to promote Caribbean culture in the South Florida market, and even provide some economic benefits (trade, job, import/export options). The Go Lean book focuses on these economic issues to the N^th degree, and also addresses the important issues regarding Caribbean societal elevation: music, sports, art, education, repatriation and heritage. This cultural center in the foregoing article aligns with the Go Lean roadmap.

Just like Miami grew, and prospered so much over the last 50 years, with help from our people, the Caribbean can also be a better place to live, work and play. This is a new day for the Caribbean!

It’s time now for change; not just change for change sake, but the elevations that were identified, qualified and proposed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. It’s time to lean-in. Then we can move from celebrating the Diaspora in a foreign land to celebrating their return to the Caribbean, the best address in the world.

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

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

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Economics of ‘South Beach’

Posted on December 6, 2017 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

The US has an economy; the 30 Caribbean member-states have economies. The US does it better!

For example, the entire Caribbean region enjoys 80 million visitors a year; (though this figure includes 12 million cruise passengers visiting multiple Caribbean destinations on one cruise); just the US city of Orlando has one destination – Walt Disney World – that enjoys 57 million visitors-a-year alone. Further down the list of high traffic resort cities is the destination of Miami Beach, Florida; each year Miami Beach hotels host over 35% of the ten (10) million tourists who visit Greater Miami.

Yes, the US cities do tourism better than our Caribbean counterparts; and their economies are more diversified.

If only we, in the Caribbean, could be more like … the American city of Miami (Beach).

It is a fitting comparison:

Global City in the tropical zone – a snowbird haven-refuge from cold northern cities.
Home away from home for many Caribbean people.
Primary economic engine of tourism (leisure and medical), travel (air and cruises), financial services and trade. See Miami’s largest employers in the Appendix below.

The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean seeks to reboot the economic engines of the Caribbean member-states – so we can perform better. The book studies models and lessons from other communities (cities and countries): i.e. New York City (Page 137), Detroit (Page 140) and Omaha (Page 138). In fact, this movement had previously detailed how the Greater Miami metropolitan area has become so successful a community mainly because of the failures of Caribbean communities. Rather than the entire metropolitan area of Greater Miami, we are hereby exploring just the economic landscape of Miami Beach, and more exactly the neighborhood of South Beach. This commentary, however, relates that there are lessons from ‘South Beach’ and all of Greater Miami that we can apply in the Caribbean.

Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County…. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915.^[7] The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which separates “the Beach” from the City of Miami. The neighborhood of South Beach, comprising the southernmost 2.5 square miles of Miami Beach, along with downtown Miami and the Port of Miami, collectively form the commercial center of South Florida^[8] [(Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area)]. As of the [latest] 2010 census, Miami Beach had a total population of 87,779.^[9] It has been one of America’s pre-eminent beach resorts since the early 20th century. – Wikipedia.

South Beach is a classic beach resort town – see the Wikipedia definition here – except that there are two de facto seasons: good (Summer and Early Autumn) and great (Late Autumn, Winter and Spring):

A resort town, often called a resort city or resort destination, is an urban area where tourism or vacationing is the primary component of the local culture and economy. A typical resort town has one or more actual resorts in the surrounding area. Sometimes the term resort town is used simply for a locale popular among tourists. The term can also refer to either an incorporated or unincorporated contiguous area where the ratio of transient rooms, measured in bed units, is greater than 60% of the permanent population.^[1]

Generally, tourism is the main export in a resort town economy, with most residents of the area working in the tourism or resort industry. Shops and luxury boutiques selling locally themed souvenirs, motels, and unique restaurants often proliferate the downtown areas of a resort town.

Resort Town Economy
If the resorts or tourist attractions are seasonal in nature, resort towns typically experience an on-season where the town is bustling with tourists and workers, and an off-season where the town is populated only by a small amount of local year-round residents.

In addition, resort towns are often popular with wealthy retirees and people wishing to purchase vacation homes, which typically drives up property values and the cost of living in the region. Sometimes, resort towns can become boomtowns due to the quick development of retirement and vacation-based residences.^[3]

However, most of the employment available in resort towns is typically low paying and it can be difficult for workers to afford to live the area in which they are employed.^[4] Many resort towns have spawned nearby bedroom communities where the majority of the resort workforce lives.

Resorts towns sometimes struggle with problems regarding sustainable growth, due to the seasonal nature of the economy, the dependence on a single industry, and the difficulties in retaining a stable workforce.^[5] …

Economic impact of tourism
Local residents are generally receptive of the economic impacts of tourism. Resort towns tend to enjoy lower unemployment rates, improved infrastructure, more advanced telecommunication and transportation capabilities, and higher standards of living and greater income in relation to those who live outside this area.^[6] Increased economic activity in resort towns can also have positive effects on the country’s overall economic growth and development. In addition, business generated by resort towns have been credited with supporting the local economy through times of national market failure and depression, as in the case of San Marcos, California during the cotton market bust in the early 1920s and Great Depression of 1929.^[2]

Click Photo to Expand – Lots of communities charge supplemental taxes for community revenues

Tourism, more exactly Resort Tourism, is the Number One economic driver in the Caribbean. Yet, our region has so many societal defects. We must do a better job at our primary job. What can we learn from Greater Miami, Miami Beach and South Beach?

This small peninsula of South Beach is Hot, Hot, Hot … as a party and tourist destination, thereby creating a scarcity of real estate. The dining, night-clubbing, shopping and entertainment options in this District are in high demand, all year long. Not all patrons to this District stay at area hotels, as many are locals in addition to the constant flow of visitors. Most night clubs, and even some restaurant-bars, apply a Cover Charge, typically $20 per person. These patrons should also expect to pay $40 just for valet parking, and similarly above-average prices for self-parking. Hotel rates are consistently above average, even during the off-season (consider $300 per night). During the peak-season, rates are traditionally in excess of $500. Hotel guests with rental cars face the same $40 per night parking charges.

The party continues every night until 5am; (one of the latest alcohol-serving policies in the nation). Just like any other community, Miami Beach has to contend with Agents of Change. There is a conservative movement to dampen the hot nightlife in South Beach. These proponents raised the issue as a public referendum on November 7, 2017 with a measure, to limit liquor sales to 2am. This direct democratic action failed at a 64% to 35% ratio. The economic forces of South Beach won again!

These economic realities transcend many dimensions of Miami Beach life; consider governance. The City collects an add-on to the state’s usual Sales Tax revenues. What add-ons?

Transient Lodging Rental Taxes for Short Term Rentals Summary Chart

3% Convention Development Tax 2% Tourist Development Tax 1% Sports Franchise Tax

Food & Beverage Tax Summary Chart

2% Tourist Development Surtax 1% Homeless and Spouse Abuse Tax

Source: Retrieved December 5, 2017 from: http://www.miamidade.gov/taxcollector/tourist-taxes.asp

See this sample/example here of a typical night out at a local South Beach restaurant recently:

This movement, behind the Go Lean book, seeks to reform and transform the economic engines of Caribbean society by being technocratic in applying best practices from the field of Economics. South Beach and Miami Beach offers a lot of lessons: good, bad and ugly.

One bad lesson is the practice of guaranteed gratuity. In a previous blog-commentary, this policy was ridiculed as unbecoming as a community ethos; it fosters a spirit of entitlement. In fact, the practice is well-chronicled in the field of Economics as “rent-seeking”; consider this sample:

This is distinguished in economic theory as separate from profit-seeking, in which entities seek to extract value by engaging in mutually beneficial transactions.^[6] While profit-seeking fosters the creation of wealth, rent-seeking is the use of social institutions such as the power of government to redistribute wealth among different groups without creating any new wealth.^[7]

Note: For the restaurant receipt in the above-photo, the credit card bill, still contained a line item for additional tip, even though 20-percent was already added as a gratuity-service charge.

There it is: rent-seeking.

(Rent-seeking practices are quite common in the Caribbean; even codified as law in some places).

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU is designed to be a technocratic intergovernmental entity that shepherds economic growth for the Caribbean region. The goal is to reboot and optimize the region’s economic, security and governing engines. The Go Lean/CU roadmap employs wise strategies, like the “Separation-of-Powers between CU federal agencies and Caribbean member-state governments”; so the limitations of national laws in a member-state would not override the CU. The CU‘s technocratic practices would directly apply to the installation of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) and Self-Governing Entities (SGE); these operate in controlled bordered territories like campuses, industrial parks, research labs, industrial plants and Entertainment Zones.

Notice the presence here of one such zone, already existing in Jamaica.

Title: Jamaica’s first entertainment zone named

Jamaica’s Entertainment Minister Olivia “Babsy” Grange, has named Fort Rocky in Port Royal as Jamaica’s first entertainment zone.

The minister made the announcement at the recent launch of Carnival in Jamaica 2018.

Drives cultural and economic value
Minister Grange said the new entertainment zone has been endorsed by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), along with the Town and Country Planning Authority.

“We are working with (NEPA) and the Ministry’s agencies, including the National Heritage Trust, to ensure that our cultural sites are preserved and utilized in a manner that drives cultural and economic value to us as a nation,” she noted.

Historical value
Entertainment zones like Fort Rocky are areas in which any legal entertainment and sports activity can be staged any time of day or night unhindered, as long as the organizers are mindful of the historical value of such sites.

While fueling the entertainment industry, these entertainment zones are expected to neutralize the problem of noise nuisance.

The Entertainment and Culture Minister has also called on private business operators to take advantage of the opportunity to use these zones. She provided information that two other entertainment zones will be declared outside of the Corporate Area in the near future.

Source: Retrieved December 6, 2017 from: https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/news/caribbean-news/jamaica-entertainment-zone/

The Go Lean/CU roadmap will optimize this strategy for deployment of Self-Governing Entities throughout the region.

Imagine restaurant-bars-nightclubs open until 5am.

This is the Economics of ‘South Beach’ … and a good learned-lesson.

Miami’s South Beach is a hot night-spot right now. What emboldens its success is the embrace of Caribbean culture. Think:

The concept of Miami Sound … is Caribbean musical fusion.

The name Miami Sound Machine also refers to the Grammy Award winning musical group led by Cuban-Americans Gloria and Emelio Estefan. They are also proprietors of one of the biggest night clubs on South Beach: Mango’s. See the VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Mangos Tropical Cafe in South Beach, Miami [4K] – https://youtu.be/D1TcBkaRyL4

Published on Nov 30, 2016 – A glimpse inside Mango’s Tropical Café in South Beach, Miami. Watch in 4K resolution.

Category:

EntertainmentLicense: Standard YouTube License

Miami is Hot, Hot, Hot ordinarily.

Then in the winter peak-season, it is Hotter still …

… and then for Art Basel – the annual Arts in Miami pageant peaking this year December 6 to 11 – it is the Hottest destination in the country. See more here:

Title: It’s not only rich people who should care about Art Basel. Here’s why.

When flocks of serious — and seriously loaded — art gatherers descend on South Florida for the annual Art Basel in Miami Beach pageant, they’re coming to snag some of the best contemporary work money can buy from the 268 galleries from across the globe conveniently gathered at the city’s convention center.

But that’s not the sole reason they make their way to Miami Beach and Miami.

Many also come to see art they cannot buy — the increasingly rich side feast served up by the cities’ expanding range of museums and private art collections that are open to all.

Yes, there’s the warm weather, the nice hotels and restaurants (staffed by local workers) — not to mention the two dozen satellite fairs and myriad events that make up the annual December frenzy known as Miami Art Week. …

See the full story here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article187161868.html

Source: Miami Herald posted December 2, 2017; retrieved December 6, 2017.

Caribbean people have done it in Miami; we can also do it in the Caribbean. This is the vision of a new Caribbean; a better place to live, work and play right here at home, without having to flee the region.

In total, the Go Lean/CU roadmap will employ strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:

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 assurances and protect the region’s economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean book presents a 370-page roadmap on how to optimize the economic engines … and how to avoid bad practices, like rent-seeking. The book stresses key community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to transform and turn-around the eco-systems of Caribbean society. These points are detailed in the book as follows:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate all 30 member-states/ 4 languages into a Single Market	Page 45
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – CU Federal Government versus Member-State Governance	Page 71
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change – Award exploratory rights in exclusive territories	Page 101
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)	Page 104
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities (SGE)	Page 105
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #3: Proactive Anti-crime Measures	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade	Page 128
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy – Protect Property Rights	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism	Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events	Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street	Page 201

To accomplish this goal of elevating Caribbean society, we must learn lessons from far-away places and nearby lands (like Miami), foster good economic habits … and abandon bad ones. This is how to grow the economy: create jobs; create businesses; retain people; foster new opportunities, learn from past mistakes and accomplishments.

All Caribbean stakeholders – residents, Diaspora and visitors – are urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap for change … and empowerment. This plan, though a Big Idea, is conceivable, believable and achievable. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

—————–

Appendix – Miami Top Employers

According to Miami’s Beacon Council – the local Economic Development agency – the top private employers in 2014 in Miami-Dade were:^[64]

#	Employer	# of employees
1	University of Miami and Health System	12,818
2	Baptist Health South Florida	11,353
3	American Airlines	11,031
4	Carnival Cruise Lines	3,500
5	Miami Children’s Hospital	3,500
6	Mount Sinai Medical Center	3,321
7	Florida Power and Light Co.	3,011
8	Royal Caribbean International	2,989
9	Wells Fargo	2,050
10	Bank of America	2,000

According to Miami’s Beacon Council, the top Government employers in 2014 in Miami-Dade were:^[64]

#	Employer	# of employees
1	Miami-Dade County Public Schools	33,477
2	Miami-Dade County	25,502
3	Federal Government	19,200
4	Florida State Government	17,100
5	Jackson Health System	9,800

Source: Retrieved December 5, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami-Dade_County,_Florida#Economy

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Jerk Festival Time – GraceKennedy’s Outreach to the Diaspora – ENCORE

Posted on November 7, 2017 in Economics, Industries, Locations, Social

The word “Jerk” has a number of definitions; its is a noun, a verb, an adjective and an adverb. But it is more commonly accepted as …

… Jamaican.

So there is no doubt that a reference to a “Jerk” Festival is a Jamaican cultural festival. This is definitely the case this weekend – November 12, 2017 – as this event takes place in the heart of the Jamaican Diaspora in Broward County, Florida.

This event is sponsored by the Jamaican transnational company GraceKennedy. This is a BIG Deal for this BIG Jamaican enterprise. See the profile of GraceKennedy in the ENCORE below (from September 7, 2016) … and the VIDEO of the 2017 Jerk Festival here:

VIDEO – NBC6: Taste the Caribbean at the Jamaican Jerk Festival – https://www.nbcmiami.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Taste-the-Caribbean-at-the-Jamaican-Jerk-Festival_Miami-455626233.html

——–

Go Lean Commentary – GraceKennedy: Profile of a Caribbean Transnational Corporation

The accusation is that the Caribbean – as a region, a people, and a culture – features a parasite status rather than the preferred protégé status. This would mean we only glean the economic activity left over from the other “host” countries; we would also consume the offerings and trends of these more advanced economy countries, rather than dictate our own trends.

This accusation … is mostly true!

But alas, there is a spark of hope in our Caribbean region. There are a number of corporate entities that do dictate trends in the region and throughout the world. The book Go Lean…Caribbean addressed this trend and identified one such company, Jamaica-based ATL Group, the owners of Sandals/Beaches Resorts, an Office Equipment business, Honda automobile dealerships and the media company behind The Jamaica Observer newspaper. But now, we consider another one, this time we focus on the transnational corporation, GraceKennedy Group of Companies who operate in the food and financial sectors.

But first, we must consider the definition of transnationalism:

Transnationalism as an economic process involves the global reorganization of the production process, in which various stages of the production of any product can occur in various countries, typically with the aim of minimizing costs. Economic transnationalism, commonly known as Globalization, was spurred in the latter half of the 20th century by the development of the internet and wireless communication, as well as the reduction in global transportation costs caused by containerization. Multinational corporations could be seen as a form of transnationalism, in that they seek to minimize costs, and hence maximize profits, by organizing their operations in the most efficient means possible irrespective of political boundaries.

A multinational corporation is an organization that owns or controls production of goods or services in one or more countries other than their home country.^[2]

What Drives Transnationalism?
Some argue that the main driver of transnationalism has been the development of technologies that have made transportation and communication more accessible and affordable, thus dramatically changing the relationship between people and places. It is now possible for immigrants to maintain closer and more frequent contact with their home societies than ever before. However, the integration of international migrations to the demographic future of many developed countries is another important driver for transnationalism. Beyond simply filling a demand for low-wage workers, migration also fills the demographic gaps created by declining natural populations in most industrialized countries. Today, migration accounts for 3/5 of population growth on western countries as a whole. And this trend shows no sign of slowing down. Moreover, global political transformations and new international legal regimes have weakened the state as the only legitimate source of rights. Decolonization, coupled with the fall of communism and the ascendance of human rights, have forced states to take account of persons qua persons, rather than persons qua citizens.

Immigrant Transnational Activities – When immigrants engage in transnational activities, they create “social fields” that link their original country with their new country or countries of residence. These social fields are the product of a series of interconnected and overlapping economic, political, and socio-cultural activities. As for economic transnational activities, these include business investments in home countries and monetary remittances from source countries. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) estimates that in 2006 immigrants living in developed countries sent home the equivalent of $300 billion in remittances, an amount more than double the level of international aid. This intense influx of resources may mean that for some nations development prospects become inextricably linked- if not dependent upon – the economic activities of their respective Diasporas.
Source: Retrieved September 5, 2016 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnationalism

The GraceKennedy Group of Companies, started in 1922, is based in Kingston, Jamaica, but they are one of the Caribbean “largest and most dynamic corporate entities” in the region. Though they are based in Jamaica, they generate a lot of their global revenue – from food services and financial services – from the rest of the globe. They depend on globalization – economic transnationalism – in order to be an ongoing concern. Their marketing slogan is “Jamaican born; global bound”. They own 60 subsidiaries – see partial list in the Appendix below – and affiliated companies across the Caribbean, Africa, UK, North and Central America; they are a model of a transnational corporation. See VIDEO here:

VIDEO – GraceKennedy at 90 – https://youtu.be/okDBEAdC6LY

Jamaica Gleaner

Published on Feb 10, 2012 – Jamaican conglomerate Grace Kennedy is celebrating 90 years of existence. The Gleaner recently toured its Harbour Street corporate office and learnt what drives the company’s success.

The history of this company traces a parallel arch of change in the Caribbean region for the 20th Century:

Regional Change Dynamics	Year	Company Dynamic Changes
European Colonialism	1922	Company formed to facilitate importation / local distribution
Decolonization	1952	Nation-building rather than mother-country dependence
Emigration from Homeland / Diaspora	1959	Export Caribbean home products to the world
Embrace of regionalism	1962	Incorporating in other Caribbean member-states
Shift to Service Economy	1990	Financial Services focus on Remittance

GraceKennedy has expanded and diversified over the years,^[2] changing from a privately owned enterprise to a public company listed on the stock exchanges of Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.

The company does not only appeal to the Jamaican community (domestic or Diaspora) or not only to the Anglo-speaking Caribbean; they also strategize for the Hispanic communities. In that vein, as reported in the foregoing VIDEO, in 2014 GraceKennedy acquired La Fe Foods Inc., a top Hispanic consumer foods company – especially dominant in the frozen food category – in the US.

This transnational corporation aligns with the vision for societal elevation in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. These two visions actually parallel:

GraceKennedy – To be a Global Consumer Group delivering long term consumer and shareholder value, through brand building and innovative solutions in food and financial services, provided by highly skilled and motivated people.
Go Lean – To integrate and unify the Caribbean region into a Single Market Economy, enabling the homeland to be the best address on the planet, inviting our young people to participate in the effort to make our home the best place to live, work and play in the future. – Page 45.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This is a call for confederating, collaborating and convening the 30 member-states of the region – despite the language or colonial legacy – into a Single Market; and for one federal governmental entity to optimize the economic, security and governing endeavors. This would also mean optimization of the food supply and financial services landscape. The Go Lean/CU roadmap creates the atmosphere for many more transnational corporations – homegrown and foreign – to emerge and thrive. This is part-and-parcel of the prime directives (3) of the CU/Go Lean roadmap:

Optimization of the economic engines – facilitating the growth in corporate citizens – in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these economic engines, reflecting a separation-of-powers between CU agencies and member-state governments.

The CU seeks to facilitate better mastery of the advanced fields of economics by incentivizing, incubating and fostering entrepreneurial efforts, small-to-medium-businesses (SMB) and large multi-national corporations. This is how to create new jobs; jobs are not created by governments, but yet, the governmental administrations can implement the right climate to spur industrial and corporate growth. The job-creation solutions for the Caribbean, are not so much dependent on a specific government, but rather good corporate guidance.

A goal of the Go Lean/CU roadmap is to attract more transnational corporations, to establish a footprint in the Caribbean. How? Why? Why will they come to the Caribbean under the Go Lean/CU regime when they will not come now under the status quo? One answer is the structure of Self-Governing Entities (SGE), and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). SGE refers to dedicated, bordered grounds that are ideal for corporate campuses, research laboratories, industrial bases (like shipyards, factory plants). The SGE structure will require a hybrid governance involving the CU federal agencies and local administrators influence– at the start-up.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts that SGE’s and the EEZ can be strategic, tactical and operationally efficient for elevating Caribbean society – creating jobs. These points are pronounced early in the book with this Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 thru 14), with these statements:

v. Whereas the natural formation of our landmass and coastlines entail a large portion of waterscapes, the reality of management of our interior calls for extended oversight of the waterways between the islands. The internationally accepted 12-mile limits for national borders must be extended by International Tribunals to encompass the areas in between islands. The individual states must maintain their 12-mile borders while the sovereignty of this expanded area, the Exclusive Economic Zone, must be vested in the accedence of this Federation.

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

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

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

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

Though there is a need for more jobs, there is a legitimate fear to inviting more corporations. There are real-life experiences and stories of abuse in mono-industrial communities – Company Towns. Abuse by the “super-rich” is implied in the old adage: “golden rule is he who has the gold makes the rule”. But the Go Lean roadmap is designed to mitigate abuses of plutocracies. This is the advantage of the SGE structure; it allows for better promotion, oversight, and governance for transnational corporate expressions. These SGE’s would be regulated solely by the technocratic CU; there would be features like advanced monitoring (intelligence gathering) and embedded protections for whistleblowers.

The Go Lean roadmap identifies 40,000 new direct jobs tied to SGE’s; plus more tied to industrial activities directly related to the business activities that aligns with GraceKennedy business model, such as 30,000 new direct jobs in the food supply industries and 2,000 direct jobs in the frozen foods industry. These job-creation empowerments will impact every aspect of Caribbean life throughout the Caribbean.

The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster industrial developments and SGE’s. The following list applies:

Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth	Page 21
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 32
Strategy – Vision – Confederate to form a Single Market	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Build and foster local economic engines	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Exploit the benefits and opportunities of globalization	Page 46
Strategy – Mission – Keep the next generation at home	Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Commerce Department – Interstate Commerce Administration	Page 79
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of Agriculture	Page 88
Anecdote – “Lean” in Government	Page 93
Implementation – Foreign Policy Initiatives at Start-up	Page 102
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the EEZ	Page 104
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities	Page 105
Advocacy – 10 Big Ideas – Single Market Leverage	Page 127
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Interstate Commerce	Page 129
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Food Consumption – Export: Help Find Foreign Markets	Page 156
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives – Common for Agricultural Structures	Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Natural Resources – Optimization of Pastoral Lands	Page 183
Anecdote # 18 – Caribbean Industrialist: Sandals’ Butch Stewart	Page 189
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations	Page 199
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street – Expansion of local Securities markets	Page 200
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street	Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Develop a Frozen Foods Industry	Page 208
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Fisheries – Canaries & Refrigerated Warehouse Cooperatives	Page 210
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora	Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Rural Living – SGE Strategic Locations	Page 235
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Jamaica	Page 239

This commentary asserts that industrial development is hard-work. It is difficult now to get Direct Foreign Investors to consider individual Caribbean member-states, but with this new approach of a regional Single Market, a leveraged Caribbean – 42 million people – can be more attractive, appealing and inviting. Despite the appeal, executing this Go Lean/CU roadmap will still be hard; the book describes the effort as heavy-lifting.

Many of these heavy-lifting issues have been previously identified and detailed in prior Go Lean blog-commentaries. See this sample list:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8379	The Need for Technocratic Regulation of the SGE’s
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5921	Socio-Economic Change: Impact Analysis of SGE’s
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4037	How to Train Your ‘Dragon’ – Direct Foreign Investors
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3473	Haiti’s Example of Success with an SGE: CaracolIndustrial Park
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2750	Disney World – Role Model for Self-Governing Entities

This Go Lean movement, fostering a new Caribbean business climate, hereby applauds the corporate stakeholders at the GraceKennedy Group of Companies. We invite them to partner with us to make the Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play. But there is the need for a cautionary warning to them: the change that is coming has “plus & minus” ramifications for their business model.

There are aspects of the Go Lean roadmap that will not be good for some of GraceKennedy’s business model, remittances in particular. (While a GraceKennedy subsidiary is the regional partner representing Western Union in the Caribbean, the Go Lean book – Page 270 – introduces new electronic payment schemes that will lessen the need to pay for money transfers). It is clearly apparent in the Go Lean book, that change is not always good; sometimes it brings unintentional consequences. So if we know change is happening, it is best to get ahead of it. This point was stated poignantly at Page 252:

Opportunities abound; even if there is only little commerce to exploit now, there is opportunity enough in the preparation for the coming change. So act now! Get moving to that place, the “corner” of preparation and opportunity.

With the execution of this Go Lean roadmap, the Caribbean region sends a message to the business world: Change is afoot. There will be new partnerships and collaborations for corporate stakeholders. A message is sent to the Caribbean people as well: there are solutions to these complex problems befalling our society. Whereas the Caribbean may have been a parasite before, now we can function in the role of a protégé.

Like all parasites, their healthy disposition depends on a healthy disposition of the hosts. The Caribbean has been in crisis; therefore the parasitic people have fled – the Caribbean’s “brain drain” and Diaspora has grown as a result – not good. The successful execution of this roadmap will affect this disposition as well. We will and must do better! Optimizing the economic, security and governing engines in the region will lower the abandonment rate. This will also constitute change – good change – for the region.

The Caribbean homeland will then be a better place to compete globally and present more favorable options for our youth to stay home in the region.

Now is the time for all Caribbean stakeholders – corporate citizens included – to lean-in for the optimizations and empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This roadmap is conceivable, believable and achievable. 🙂

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

—————–

Appendix – List of Subsidiaries: GraceKennedy Group of Companies

Banking and Financial services
- First Global Bank Limited
- First Global Financial Services Limited
- FG Funds Management (Cayman) Limited
- First Global Trinidad & Tobago Limited (formerly One1 Financial Limited)
- Signia Financial Group Incorporated

Remittances
- GraceKennedy Remittance Services Limited
- GraceKennedy Remittance Services (United States) Incorporated
- GraceKennedy Remittance Services (Trinidad & Tobago) Limited
- GraceKennedy Remittance Services (Guyana) Limited

Insurance Life and General
- Allied Insurance Brokers Limited
- EC Global Insurance Company Limited
- First Global Insurance Brokers Limited
- Jamaica International Insurance Company Limited
- Trident Insurance Company Limited

Manufacturing, retail and distribution
- Dairy Industries (Jamaica) Limited
- Grace Foods and Services Company
- GraceKennedy (Belize) Limited
- Grace Food Processors Limited
- Grace Food Processors (Canning) Limited
- GraceKennedy (United States) Incorporated
- Grace Foods International Limited
- National Processors Division
- World Brands Services Limited
- Hi-Lo Food Stores (Jamaica) Limited
- GK Foods (United Kingdom) Limited
- GraceKennedy (Ontario) Incorporated
- Hardware & Lumber Limited

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Grenada Diaspora – Not the Panacea

Posted on November 3, 2017 in Government, Locations, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Who you gonna call?

This question can be asked throughout the Caribbean. There is an emergency, a threat to life and property, who do you call? The answer should be the Police.

But who would the Police call when they have a problem?

It is hoped that there would be some regional entity that steps in, steps up and helps out.

There is such a need!

This was the scenario in Grenada, just recently. They had a security need above and beyond the local provisioning, and the Royal Grenada Police Force turned to the Grenada Diaspora.

This is perplexing! Let’s examine this further. See the full news article here:

Title: NYPD officers with Caribbean roots reach out to aid the region

(NY Daily) The NYPD-RGPF Officers’ Association — a group of NYPD officers with roots in Grenada — is bringing new meaning to the phrase “long arm of the law” by reaching out to help Grenada law enforcement officials and aiding other causes in the region.

This month, the association collected much-needed relief supplies — including food, soap and shoes — for survivors of Hurricane Maria on storm-ravaged Dominica. Association members were scheduled to gather in Brooklyn yesterday to pack donated supplies bound for Dominica.

The NYPD-RGPF association was founded in the wake of tragedy and its members are, professionally and personally, well suited to respond to crisis.

According to NYPD-RGPF spokesman Michael Bascombe, the association — which uses the Royal Grenada Police Force acronym RGPF in its name — was founded after RGPF Corporal Daniel Edgar was fatally shot in the line of duty in Grenada in April 2016.

Through fund-raising efforts and personal financial support from NYPD officers, the association’s first act was a financial contribution to Edgar’s family — and donating 100 bullet-proof vests, helmets, traffic enforcement equipment and other gear to the Grenada Police Force in September.

The association has started discussions with the RGPF on possible future partnerships, he said.

Source: Posted October 30, 2017; retrieved November 2, 2017 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2017/10/30/nypd-officers-caribbean-roots-reach-aid-region

Make no mistake; Grenada needs all the help it can get. All of these Caribbean member-states need whatever help they can get. The region is reeling from the near total devastation from Category 5 storms: Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Irma; Dominica is in disarray! Barbuda is wiped out and declared a Ghost Town as a result. These places must relieve, restore, recover and rebuild.

Who they gonna call?

The urging here is to NOT look to the Diaspora as some panacea, cure-all solution. This is definitely what is happening in Grenada, as this foregoing news article related:

The NYPD-RGPF association was founded in the wake of tragedy and its members are, professionally and personally, well suited to respond to crisis.

This is a troubling point here: we cannot look to people who have left here to turn around and fix what is broken here. They – the Diaspora – are gone! Yet, this is the preponderance for governments (and citizenry alike) to pursue this strategy in the region. Just recently we published commentaries on this Caribbean pre-occupation, with these entries relating these homelands:

Dominica – October 18, 2017 – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13288
Haiti – September 30, 2017 – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13105
Jamaica – September 20, 2017 – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13040
Bahamas – September 4, 2017 – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12911
St. Lucia – March 3, 2017 – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10657

The premise for the criticism of this Diaspora strategy is that the ones that have fled the region have done so for a reason; they have been “pushed” or “pulled” away from their homeland. They may still love their “past” country, but can only do so much from abroad. Plus, history documents that they are less inclined to invest back in their country; they are burdened with the concerns of today and the future, that it is illogical to think that they are concerned about their yesterdays. Thusly, all efforts to outreach the Diaspora are usually futile. All of these prior commentaries relate this basic truth about catering to the Diaspora:

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

… It is so unfortunate that the people in the Caribbean are beating down the doors to get out of their Caribbean homeland, to seek refuge in these places like the US, Canada and Western Europe. … As a result, we have such a sad state of affairs for our Caribbean eco-system as we are suffering from a bad record of societal abandonment.

Thank you, all Diaspora members that have looked back and lent a hand, but the heavy-lifting of reforming and transforming our society must really come from the people who are in the homeland and in the region. For starters, we must try to dissuade people from leaving in the first place and help them to prosper where planted. The record shows that those who do leave, tends to be the ones that we can least afford to lose. These include the professional classes and highly educated ones; one report presents an abandonment rate of 70 percent of the college-educated populations.

Picture a family with limited food supply, serving dinner and “making extra plates” for family members who have left or passed. This would be illogical. We need to be more pragmatic and work a different strategy to assuage our crisis. We need a strategy that embraces those who are still here, not those that “used to be”.

So the problem of a Diaspora-outreach strategy is that it double-downs on the failure of why the Diaspora left in the first place. We need to employ new strategies for the underlying failures. When we look at our Caribbean homeland and see the many failures, we realize that the people on some islands – like Grenada – and the people in their Diaspora cannot solve the problems in the homeland … alone. No, something bigger and better is needed.

We need a Way Forward. This is where and why we have introduced that something BIGGER … and better …

… enter the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This is presented as the organizational solution for the economic, security and governing needs of all 30 Caribbean member-states, including Grenada; this is the panacea the region needs.

The foregoing article addressed security issues and law-and-order. The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic CU, for the elevation of Caribbean societal engines – including economic, security and governance for all member-states. The book asserts that the region can do better with security solutions. We can make our region better and safer to live, work and play. But the requirement is that we must work together – in a formal regional integration – to establish the economy-of-scale to employ the many strategies, tactics and implementation to remediate and mitigate crime in the homeland.

In fact, the CU/Go Lean roadmap presents these 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs. There are limited economic opportunities in Grenada today, but a regional reboot can create a new industrial landscape with long-sought job and entrepreneurial opportunities.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines. This includes many anti-crime measures, plus the proactive and reactive empowerments to better relieve, restore, recover and rebuild from hurricanes.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including regional integration with a separation-of-powers between each state and CU

The goal of the Go Lean roadmap is for Caribbean people to prosper where planted; the book therefore provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot the region’s societal engines, for Grenada and other member-states. One advocacy for a Way Forward is the plan to optimize community policing (Page 178); see the headlines and excerpts from that page here:

10 Ways to Remediate and Mitigate Crime

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market This will allow for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby creating an economic zone to promote and protect the interest of the member-states. (The GDP of the region will amount to $800 Billion according to 2010 figures). In addition, the treaty calls for a collective security agreement of the Caribbean nations so as to implement provisions to serve and protect the citizenry against systemic threats. The CU’s law enforcement agencies will enforce, investigate and prosecute economic crimes, including Racketeering, and Organized Crime Enterprises (RECO), plus any cross border gang activity. In addition, the CU will also provide funding, grants, training, technical consultancy, and support services for member-states law enforcement, including crime labs.
2	Deploy the Caribbean Police (CariPol) The CU Treaty will compel local police to have accountability and respect for the jurisdiction of the Caribbean Police. CariPol will be modeled after Interpol and the US FBI, with Inspectors for investigations and Marshalls for protection and interdiction. When the local Police call for escalation, CariPol responds. CariPol also “polices” the Police, with audit and compliance oversight for “use of force” reviews and Internal Affairs. The appeal to engage CariPol does not have to come from local police, but rather any constitutional institution (i.e. state governments, courts, or legislative bodies).
3	Regional Security Intelligence Bureau The CU law enforcement apparatus will deploy sophisticated intelligence gathering and analysis systems, processes and personnel. This includes terrestrial and satellite surveillance (CATV, ankle monitoring) systems, eavesdropping, data mining and predictive modeling. Local and regional Police institutions would have access to these findings and results. The CU’s intelligence agency will also monitor police actions for public integrity assurance (corruption threats).
4	Prison Industrial Complex
5	Equip local police with advanced technologies The CU will provide grants to equip local police with advanced technologies, including video (dashboard cameras) and audio transmission, GPS tracking, and mobile computing systems to optimize community policing. The advanced systems also include anklet monitoring systems for non-violent offenders and suspects out on bail.
6	Witness Protection
7	Enable the Private Industry of First Responders and Bounty Hunters
8	Hate Crime Qualifiers
9	Youth Crime Awareness and Prevention
10	Death Penalty Reform

Bullet Proof vests are necessary equipment for community policing. The foregoing news article, and VIDEO in the Appendix below, related that the Diaspora group, the NYPD-RGPF, “donated 100 bullet-proof vests, helmets, traffic enforcement equipment and other gear to the Grenada Police Force in September”. Frankly, this is a local government responsibility. The fact that there is the need for this gift in Grenada is reflective of the security deficiencies in that country and in the region. If the community stakeholders cannot protect their own Peace Officers, how much more so can they protect the citizenry. See this sage commentary:

Intentionally murdering a police officer is an especially heinous crime. When the agents of the state who protect the public are themselves targeted, it is a threat to public order and an attack on the authority of the state. Such crimes ought to be penalized more harshly throughout the entire country. – National Review Magazine.

The Caribbean has mourned the death of a Police Office in Grenada. The Caribbean is not the only region that have experienced violent crime … against law enforcement officers and other citizens. In fact, in the US, the rate of death from gun violence far exceeds all other advanced democracy countries. Yet, our Caribbean Diaspora – from New York City – has stepped in to help Grenada.

Thank you …

… but we are urged to lower our expectations of gifts and investments from the Diaspora in general.

The Go Lean book – and many previous blog-commentaries – asserts that while conditions may be bad for Caribbean residents (i.e. Grenadian) in their homeland, Black-and-Brown immigrants to far-away countries (think: North America and Western Europe; think New York City) often have to contend with less than welcoming conditions in those countries. It is only with the Second Generation that prosperity is achieved, but by then, the children of the Caribbean Diaspora are not considered “Caribbean” anymore; they assume their residential citizenship.

When Caribbean people in general, and Grenadians in particular, emigrate and become aliens in a foreign land, life is not necessarily better in those countries. As related in these prior blog-commentaries, those who live in the Diaspora know “both sides of the coin”, as most of them have lived in the ancestral lands at one point. But on the other half, those who still live in the homeland may have never lived abroad.

They do not know what they do not know!

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

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

So it is the summation of this commentary and all the related ones with the theme “Diaspora – Not the Panacea” that it is better for Grenadian people, and people of all the Caribbean for that matter, to work to remediate and mitigate the risks of Failed-State status in their homeland. But many people may argue – and they would be correct – that the reformation and transformation of Caribbean communities should come from Caribbean people first. Yet with such a high societal abandonment rate, the population of many Caribbean member-states – as in Grenada – is approaching a distribution where more citizens live abroad – in the Diaspora than on the island. See the additional data references here:

Grenada, like many of the Caribbean islands is subject to a large amount of migration, with a large number of young people wanting to leave the island to seek life elsewhere. With estimated 107,317 people living in Grenada, estimates and census data suggest that there are at least that number of Grenadian-born people in other parts of the Caribbean (such as Barbados and Trinidad) and at least that number again in First World countries. Popular migration points for Grenadians further north include New York City, Toronto, the United Kingdom (in particular, London and Yorkshire; see Grenadians in the UK) and sometimes Montreal, or as far south as Australia. This means that probably [ONLY] around a third of those born in Grenada still live there.- Wikipedia.

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

x. Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices of criminology and penology to assuage continuous threats against public safety. The Federation must allow for facilitations of detention for convicted felons of federal crimes, and should over-build prisons to house trustees from other jurisdictions.

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.

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.

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean promoters that have detailed the functionalities of the CU‘s security measures as part of the Way-Forward – the best hope for a new eco-system for Grenada, and the whole Caribbean. See a sample list here of recent submissions:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13138	Industrial Reboot for Better Security – Prisons 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13126	The Requirement for Better Policing/Security – ‘Must Love Dogs’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12400	Strong Urging to Accede the Caribbean Arrest Treaty
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11244	Gun and Violent Deaths More Common in USA Than Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10566	Funding the Caribbean Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9072	Securing the Homeland – A Series
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7485	A Lesson in the History of Interpersonal Violence – Street Crimes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2684	Role Model for Justice – The Pinkertons
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=392	World Bank Funds Caribbean Country to Help in Crime Fight

Confederating a regional response is by all means the best-practice for Grenada and other Caribbean security threats. Good results are evident from the limited multilateral efforts that have been exerted thus far. In fact, the current Caribbean Community – CARICOM – includes this regional anti-crime organization IMPACS. The formal name is actually CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security.

See the “Fact Sheet” in the Appendix below.

This IMPACS organization tries …

… but trying alone is not enough. There is the need for solutions: hardware (tools, equipment and devices) and software (techniques, best-practices, training and systems).

In summary, regional integration: Good; societal abandonment: Bad!

Any country growing their Diaspora is bad for that country and bad for the Diaspora members. Grenada – and every other country – needs its sons and daughters right now; actually this island needs “all hands on deck” for the Way-Forward. Any official policy to encourage emigration and living-working-abroad – on a permanent basis – is a flawed policy. Rather, it is better to have our citizens in the homeland. They can better help to better protect the community.

So any policy that double-downs on the Diaspora is actually doubling-down on failure. We should never want people to have to leave then hope they remember us in our times of distress. No, we want and need them here at home at all times: good, bad and “ugly”.

We strongly urge every stakeholder of Grenada and all of the Caribbean to lean-in to this roadmap to make our homeland, Grenada and the remaining of the 30 member-states, better/safer places to live, work and play. 🙂

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

———-

Appendix VIDEO – RGPF Receives Safety Gear From NYPD – https://youtu.be/QBB3mMP802s

Grenada Broadcasting Network

Published on Sep 8, 2017 – Police officers have been given a security boost.

Approximately one hundred bullet proof vests and other items were handed over, from Grenadian officers of the New York Police Department.

Category: News & Politics
License: Standard YouTube License

———-

Appendix – IMPACS Fact Sheet

The Agency is the nerve centre of the Region’s new multilateral Crime and Security management architecture, specifically designed to administer a collective response to the Crime and Security priorities of Member States. Under the directives of, and with reporting responsibility to the Council of Ministers of National Security and Law Enforcement. IMPACS core functions include -:

The implementation of actions agreed by the Council relating to crime and security;
The development and implementation of projects in furtherance of the Agency’s objectives;
The initiation and development of proposals for consideration and determination by the Council;
Advising the Council on appropriate regional responses to Crime and Security arrangements on the basis of research and analysis;
The execution of regional projects relating to matters of crime and security;
Providing a clearing house for relevant information in matters relating to crime and security;
Mobilizing resources in support of the regional Crime and Security agenda and negotiation of technical assistance;
Contributing to the development and implementation of strategies for effective representation of CARICOM on a regional and international level on matters relating to crime and security;
The dissemination of information to Contracting Parties with respect to evolving regional and international trends in crime and security;
The collaboration and co-ordination with national and international crime prevention and control agencies to determine trends, methodologies and strategies for crime prevention and enhancing security for the Community; and
Developing, in collaboration with the CARICOM Secretariat, roles, functions and Rules of Procedure for such Committees as may be established in furtherance of the regional Crime and Security agenda.

Source: Retrieved November 3, 2017 from: http://www.caricom.org/about-caricom/who-we-are/institutions1/caricom-implementing-agency-for-crime-and-security-impacs

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